“Captive”- A short story
It was hard to breathe. She had been dreaming of running up a flight of stairs, up and up, but never reaching the top. Higher and higher she would climb, but each step she took would take her no closer to the light at the highest point of the staircase. Her lungs were now begging for air, but it was difficult to answer the request for some reason.
Janice’s eyes wouldn’t open, no matter how many times she tried to make them do so. They felt sealed shut, almost like there was something preventing them from doing what she wanted.
“Maybe I’m still asleep,” she thought. “Maybe I’m dreaming.” Her head felt heavy and sleep soon washed over her again.
Hours passed and Janice began to slip back into the waking world, this time with somewhat clearer thoughts. Her eyes wouldn’t open, not because of any dream, but because of the sticky thick tape across her eyes. It was still hard to breathe, but it was due to the piece of adhesive firmly fixed across her mouth. She couldn’t remove them thanks to the ropes tied to both her wrists. She was face down on a mattress, her arms stretched out to her sides and tied to some unseen objects, and she had no idea how she had gotten there.
Panic set in. Janice thrashed as hard as she could, but only succeeded in hurting herself. Both her feet were tied as well, firmly secured to the foot of the steel metal frame of the bed. The ropes bit into her flesh as she pulled and pushed and thrashed as best she could, but nothing happened. Tears welled behind the tape and began to burn her eyes, mixing with the glue of the heavy duty tape and irritating the sensitive tissue of her eyelids. Her flesh burned where the bindings cut through the skin, and her eyes stung. Her throat was raw from forcing throaty screams that, although requiring much energy, would most likely have not been very audible thanks to the fact that her mouth was sealed shut. Eventually Janice stopped fighting and simply went limp.
Everything was quiet. There were no noises other than her labored breathing, and Janice found this fact very unsettling . The unknown was far more terrifying than anything you could face head on, she had come to believe. The stillness, the silence that offered no answers was maddening. She spent what felt like an eternity listening for some sound, some clue as to her whereabouts, but nothing came.
Janice began to rack her memory, searching for anything that would explain how she ended up here. She was a prisoner, a captive in some unknown horror chamber, and she had no idea how she ended up here. Everything was cloudy It hurt her head to think too hard, but Janice had no choice. Lying here a helpless victim was not much of an option.
The last memory she had was sitting in history class with Dr. Meyers, taking notes and wishing 2:55 would hurry up and arrive. How many days ago that was Janice had no idea. It was impossible to put things into context laying face down on a musty smelling mattress with your eyes taped shut and your arms stretched out at your side and tied to something off in the distance. The more she tried to fill in the blanks and failed, the more frustration returned and panic threatened to take over once again. Her heart began to pound in her chest, her breath came in gasps through her nose. Everything began to swim in her mind, and Janice almost passed out. She tensed up in fear, which caused the ropes to dig into her flesh once again and the pain sent a jolt to her mind and brought her back to reality. She drew in a slow and steady stream of air and forced herself to relax as best she could. If there was a way out of this she wasn’t going to find it passed out waiting for her captor to return.
She pulled again on the ropes tied to her legs, but gently this time. They were firmly secured, but the bed frame itself was not of the most sturdy construction. The steel feet scraped against the floor, making a sound which sounded like concrete. The echo was hollow and dead, her ears telling her the room was large and lightly furnished. It was most likely a basement, judging from the concrete floor and the smell of mildew and earth that was now registering in her nose. That fact send a new surge of fear, just knowing that she was below ground already; a grave of sorts prepared for her before she was even dead.
Thoughts flew through her head. She could think of nothing other than her plight; no plans came to mind, no ideas for how to save herself from her demise. The longer she lay there the darker her thoughts became until she could think of nothing other than a cold steel knife being dragged across her back and the soft pink flesh parting beneath the blade, pools of blood welling up and spilling down her sides. The tears began to come again, and this time she did not hold them back. The thoughts of torture, the images of ghoulish deeds and hellish screams repeated themselves over and over inside her head. Hours passed, all filled with this mental anguish, until eventually she was broken and her sanity was shattered, her will gone completely. A final sob escaped her, and then she was silent.
At this moment the man sitting beside her stood and smiled. His patience was rewarded, as he knew it would be. The girls he brought down here never last long before they broke; usually twelve hours or so. One had taken twenty-two, which required extraordinary self control on his part, but he never moved, never let a sound escape his lips as he watched her thrash and cry and torture herself inside her mind. The pleasure of watching them fall to pieces far outweighed the discomfort of sitting still.
As the captor took the scissors from the table beside him, Janice heard the movement and realized the man was there. This should have terrified her, but she was far past all that. As far as she was concerned, she was already dead. In her mind, she had been tortured for days.
Unfortunately for her, it was just about to begin.