JUST BEFORE MIDNIGHT

Ward produced a tablet, sat it on her tongue and shoved a smelly handkerchief in to her mouth.  Are they keeping me alive? 

At the front door, Ward said, ‘we’ll be back, so don’t try anything smart or both you and Claude will lie side by side with a bullet right through your heads.  I’ll make sure you pay for what you did, and so will Claude. No one makes a fool out of me.’  He switched the light off and slammed the door hard behind him. 

Coldness spread across her chest once his words sunk in.  A bullet right through your head and Claude too.  It took quite a bit of manoeuvring to slide the tablet to the side of her mouth with her tongue.  She was determined not to swallow it.  Focus.  I must focus. She needed to stay calm and focused but it was a struggle to stay awake. 

As she closed her eyes the ugly ones words frightened her.  She tried to block them from her mind.  She felt dirty inside and out.  She tried to concentrate on her breathing.  The cloth that filled her mouth made her feel nauseous. Breathe through the nose, relax. 

In….out…..in…out.  She wasn’t succeeding and her heart rate was quickening once more.  She tried to control it but she couldn’t.  She began to cry in the darkened room and wondered if she would ever see daylight again.  There was no one to help her and she thought she would just bleed to death in that sleazy little unit. She felt ashamed as she thought about her eagerness to make love to the animal on that filthy bed.  She was sure at the time that it was Claude.  She thought it was him touching her, entering her.  What was she thinking? He must have put something in her drink. She began to pray again promising to turn over a new leaf if God spared her.  She thought of her beautiful mother Sandy and pictured her holding her just like she used to.  Her smiling face while she pulled the brush through her long black hair as a child.  Trying to focus on staying awake was becoming difficult and her whole body seemed to ache.  She also had an incredible thirst.  She began to count.

When she woke the traffic was quiet in the street.  She made muffled noises but she never heard a sound from outside.  Her eyelids were heavy and she started to think about how she could possibly escape from this mess she was in.  Right now though, she felt drowsy and was fighting to stay awake and alert. 

She took a few deep breaths and tried to relax, but she found it impossible.  She felt all alone in the dark, silent, dingy room.  Sickness washed over her as she tried to focus.  She felt a cold draught coming from under the door.  The tablet was gone, so she realised that she must have swallowed it.  She found herself moaning from the pain near her temple and the side of her face.  She sensed hardened blood, and her mouth was dry.  From a small slit in the curtain a little stream of early morning light spread across the floor.  She began to pray for her Claude to intervene.  He would be disgusted once he found out what they had done to her.  But was he safe?  Are they lying to me?  Even though she was afraid of what they might do to her when they came back, she needed to stay positive.  Her stomach began to rumble and her throat was dry, but she brushed the thought of food and liquid from her mind.  She knew she had to start thinking of a plan.

Susie didn’t know whether it was night or day as the ugly one came and went. He’d rip the tape from her lips, place a tablet on her tongue, and watch her swallow it down with a glass of water. He went to the safe and took a bundle of cash before slamming the door behind him. She was becoming weaker and she knew that Ward wanted her to die slowly.