It’s a bitterly cold night. My hands are buried deep in my pockets and my scarf is wound tightly around my neck and face. I have my earphones in and some upbeat music playing loudly; very loudly in fact, so that I can lose myself in the beat and pretend that I am somewhere warmer. The one positive aspect of tonight is that it is a Friday, and it is my weekend off. The main downside being that the Man is not coming over. He said he is busy tonight and he will come over tomorrow. I am a little disappointed to have to wait but I am looking forward with great anticipation to a nice hot bath to get the smell of chip fat out of my hair and ensuring that I am at my prettiest for when he arrives the following day.
I am nearing home now and the road is empty. The frost is keeping most people indoors and the few who do brave the elements are hustling past without so much as even a sideways glance. I feel almost invisible in my cocoon of music; the warmth from my many layers adding to the feeling of detachment and dampening my senses.
There is no car outside my door – I will be home alone this evening it appears. I know one housemate is away this weekend, but I wasn’t sure if the other would be around. I approach the door and fumble for my keys, I must be making a racket but I cannot hear over my music. All the lights are off as I open the door, but a waft of warm air hits me, and a sweet smell, like almonds or rotting fruit; sweet, but slightly stale. Maybe N baked before she went out? I step inside and turn to shut the door behind me, reaching for my phone to stop the music as I do. Something feels strange, nothing I can pinpoint, just a feeling of something being off (where is the cat? He usually comes to greet me) – I put it down to my imagination. I pull the buds of my headphones from my ears and backing away from the door I feel something solid behind me. There was nothing solid there a second ago. The sweet scent is stronger.
“Hello”. It is a man’s voice; cold, unnerving and unfamiliar.
There is something against my face, covering my nose and mouth, choking me with its stench. I am being held tight, by what or who I do not know, and I am terrified. Beyond terrified and beyond words. My vision blurs out and fades to dark and the last thing I can hear before I am cloaked in night is the sound of a man’s laugh fading beneath the ever increasing tempo of my own heartbeat.
~
As I waken the room is still dark, and I have no idea where I am. This is surreal. Am I awake; am I still asleep; would I even know? I can hear small movements in the dark, but they still sound muffled and distant. I move my hand to my face to try and create some sense of normality, but I find I cannot move my hand, in fact, I cannot move anything. More of my senses return and I become aware of my nakedness and the dull ache in the pit of my stomach. My heart begins to race once again; the man, where is he? I try to turn my head to look around but my hair is caught up and to move more would rip it out in great chunks. I whimper slightly at the stinging pain.
“Ah, she is awake.” The same disembodied voice echoes out from the darkness. A light appears suddenly, temporarily blinding me, and I feel a weight depress whatever it is I am lay on. As my vision returns I recognise my surroundings, I am in my room, on my bed, but I am strapped down with something that looks a lot like duct tape. A face looms above me; it is him.
“Hello my sweet. Feeling sore?”
I try to speak but there is tape over my mouth also. A feeling of relief sweeps over me, to be replaced by another rush of cold and uncompromising fear…
“So, now you find out if you really know the true me after all. You’d better pray you made the right judgement call, hadn’t you darling?
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