The Waiting room (E1 – E3)

E3: The Waiting Room

Baron dragged against his bonds, as he pulled at them they did give a little but he had to admit that the woman had tied it dexterously. She gave him a sweet smile from her perch on the high stool, from where he sat she looked like a goddess of revenge and retribution with her hair flowing behind her like that.

“Joan, you do not want to do this,” he said, his voice sounded so weak in his ears that he winced.

“I have to. You went too far” she said. Then she dropped slowly from the stool. “We wouldn’t have had to be here if you didn’t get skittish.”

“I had reason to be skittish. I found five men dead in a refrigerator beneath your shed!” Baron protested.

“You shouldn’t have been in that shed. I put things in place so any normal man wouldn’t want to be in a place like that” Joan said, running a hand through her hair, she looked tired.

“That picture I saw on the first day was fake, wasn’t it? The rats that appeared suddenly. The Bobby trap that tripped me. The t…”

“Stop! The old woman in the picture was a grocery seller that used to come around before she died. I bought the rats in town when I realized you were snooping around the shed. The bobby traps were to discourage you,” Joan said.

“Why are you telling me this?” Baron asked

“Why were you not discouraged? What kind of store clerk isn’t scared of the unknown?” Joan asked, walking towards him. She put her hand on his chin and made him face her.

“An adventurous clerk?” Baron asked lamely.

“Liar!” She roared. Then she kissed him long and hard, rubbing a hand on his crotch. Baron gasped in hunger for her. His treacherous body would betray him and she knew it. She licked across his lips and stood up.

“Anyhow, I will find out the truth about you soon enough,” she said and let her dress fall.

Melody

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The last block came off easily enough and Melody dusted the dirt from her hand. The hole was just big enough for her to pass through so she took off her blonde wig and the bulky purple robe she had to wear as Krishna’s favorite. Her head passed through easily enough, but it was her shoulders and hips that really gave her trouble. She popped out of the hole finally and began to crawl through the undergrowth.

She had only just passed the crest of trees when she began to hear voices and laughter. She dived behind a tree and watched as the hikers came towards her. They were three men and one woman at the party. They all wore khaki trousers and colorful T-shirts. The woman was beautiful with flaming red hair and the men were tall and broad. Melody would have spent hours gaping at them if she had more time. She had spent three years locked underground but she wasn’t too blind to not notice freedom when she saw it.

She stepped out from the line of trees and all three of them halted. Both men pulled out their guns and faced it to her. Melody raised her hands up in surrender. She tried to speak but she couldn’t, the tears were choking her. The woman walked slowly towards her and Melody struggled to regain her composure in vain. When the woman reached her, she began to bawl loudly.

“Oh dear,” the woman said “poor child!” The men lowered their guns and watched Melody cry her eyes out.

Baron

Baron moaned loudly, he could not deny that amongst the women he had lain within his life, even the ones he had slept with the urgency of war and death hanging on his shoulders, Joan was by far the best of them. He also had to admit that this process of hers; have mad sex with the man before you kill him was quite an interesting one. Those men must have thought she wouldn’t kill them after getting off. Had any of them found out about the bodies as he had? Or had they just been having doubts about a woman living alone in an “inn” miles away from the major town?

Eleanor writhed and again he had to fight the urge to reach over and touch her. It would only hasten his death and so he stopped himself. The little knife in her left pocket would have been undetectable to anyone else but he was a soldier. He could almost sense weapons and this one wasn’t even much of a weapon. He was waiting for her to make a move. She jerked and the bonds scraped against his hands, she was getting close. Hell, he was getting close too.

White light flashed before Baron’s eyes as he came. Joan cried out in pleasure and he waited for her to recover. As her hand went to the small band in her thighs where the knife lay. Baron threw his head back and head-butted her. She fell like a sack of potatoes at his feet. He should have killed her for all her crimes, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

Painstakingly, he fought against his bonds and finally loosened them. Outside, the sun shone happily and Baron felt a surge of anger at it. He jumped into his van and started it. With a last glance at the inn where he had spent three years of finding himself, he revved up the engine of his van and took off, speeding towards his past.

Melody

Melody dropped slowly into her room. Her fall so nimble it hardly made a sound. It took her eyes some adjusting to the darkness before she noticed the figure in black standing at the door. Melody opened her mouth to scream and the figure raised both hands in surrender.

“Daisy?” She asked.

“It’s me. Jesus! You were going to really scream, you foolish girl!” Daisy snapped.

“I’m sorry. Seeing you there scared me,” Melody said. She felt Daisy’s eyes on her face but she didn’t look up to meet her eyes. On her way there she had decided that she wouldn’t tell the other girl about the hikers. She didn’t want to give her any false hope or discourage her from the work she was already doing in her bid to save them both from this ghastly place.

“I finally found your father,” She said.

“What?!” Melody felt a surge of excitement that almost made her cry again “where is he?” She asked.

“In an Inn in a town in Illinois,” Daisy said

“His exact location,” Melody said in wonder and fear.

“Yes, these people are even more dangerous than we thought. Even if we run away, it wouldn’t take them much time to find us and then we will be well and truly dead.” Daisy said.

“What do you suggest we do?” Melody asked.

“We write a letter to your father and beg him to bring some of his military friends to come to save us.”

“How do we send the letter?” Melody asked, gesturing with her hands to indicate that they were both underground.

“I’ll have another go at their computers,” Daisy said, there was fear in her eyes. So much fear, Melody watched as she blinked it away.

“Promise me you’ll be careful and you’ll come back,” Melody said, reaching for her.

“I will return,” Daisy said as she handed Melody the pencil and a piece of paper.

“I will be waiting for you, right here in this room” Melody promised.

***

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5:30pm and Daisy had still not returned. Melody dressed up and put makeup on slowly. The handcuffs slipped onto her hands like familiar friends. Her hands were shaking in fear so she held them behind her. What could have happened to Daisy? Was she safe in her room? Melody was sure she wasn’t being tortured in the dungeons because she could not hear any screams. She was still standing in front of the mirror, staring at her pale face and wild eyes when the bell for dinner rang.

Melody made her way quickly down the hallway. There were guards at every “checkpoint” and they all searched her. Taking liberties in groping her breasts and cupping her ass. Melody knew they all wanted to sleep with her and that only Krishna’s word not to touch his favorite kept them from ripping her apart. She pushed the dining room door gently and entered the brightly lit room, surreptitiously looking around for Daisy. No Daisy.

Melody genuflected in front of Krishna and bared her chest so he could suckle her. When he was done, she nodded to all the eleven other girls seated at the table before she went to find her own seat. Dinner was rare steak, finely chopped and marinated. Melody was almost tempted to ask what the occasion was, they rarely ever had such a meal.

“I am sure we all know Daisy, the beer, as I fondly called her” Krishna’s loud voice rang through the room when everyone had dropped their forks. Melody’s eyes widened but she tried to control herself.

“I caught her snooping in my computers” Krishna continued, all the girls including Melody gasped. The Indian man they called Master stared at their faces for further reactions. When he found none he continued.

“She was a favorite of mine and quite admirably daring. So I thought, what better way to honor her than to share her among my other women?” He stared at the disgust in all their faces as they discovered what they had all eaten. Then he burst into maniacal laughter. Melody screamed as some of the other girls began to retch.

Krishna fixed a hateful eye on her as she continued to scream out the horror she felt. Then he beat his fist on the table and all the plates rattled with the force of his anger. Guards poured in from the corridor, their hands firmly on their barbed wire whips.

“Take her away!!!” Krishna bellowed. The guards fell on Melody, one of them headbutting her with so much force that she blacked out.

Baron

The house looked almost unchanged, but the grounds? Those showed evidence that she had discarded him from her heart completely. His old shed was gone, the old swing set and all the junk he and his little girl used to hide under were gone. The house stood bare and threatening from his vantage point across the road. One of its windows was open and it’s blue curtain flapped sadly in the wind.

“Wait up. I’m coming!” A woman’s voice called from inside the house. Baron was standing with his back to the door when she opened it. He turned and his nose was assaulted with the familiar smell of incense. She had always loved incense. Generous of her to leave that aspect of their lives unchanged huh?

Baron stared at Eleanor standing there in a blue sundress. But for the frown lines on her face, the many years of their separation barely showed on her.

“Baron,” she said breathlessly. Her eyes traveled across his body and Baron could see the lust burning in her eyes. That same look he had foolishly thought was love. He was beginning to feel disgusted at the woman.

“Come on in,” she offered. Baron almost laughed at that. It was his house, of course, he had a right to be inside it.

“Where is my daughter?” He asked when he had seated himself on the couch.

Eleanor twisted her hands nervously. She couldn’t meet his eyes.

Melody

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The bright light was keeping her from going to rest. Melody wanted to scream at the people yelling around her to put it off so she could sleep. Her brain was muddled and her body, she couldn’t feel any part of her body.

“Melody, can you hear me,” a man’s voice asked. It was her dad. Melody opened her mouth to ask him if he had gotten her letter. She couldn’t open her eyes.

“Daddy. The letter…” she managed to say.

“She’s asking about her father,” the male voice said.

“We already sent a letter to him at the inn. He should be on his way,” a female voice said. Melody smiled when she heard that her father was on his way. She opened her eyes and saw people looking down at her. Her father was on his way. She wanted to wait so she could see him but she was just so tired. She closed her eyes and slept.

Baron

“What do you mean she ran into the streets?” Baron asked. He was trying very hard to control himself.

“She killed a man and ran away. Of course, the police didn’t believe it was her who did it. I had to go to jail for nine years!” Eleanor said, looking affronted. Baron stared at her in wonder.

“You never made any effort to look for her,” he said quietly. Eleanor looked away.

“Can’t have a psycho killer of a daughter staying too close could I? I was in danger too! Don’t you care about me?” She asked. She got up and was walking towards him. Baron pushed her away when she tried to touch him. The woman was even a worse monster than he remembered. He was just about to stride out the door when the phone rang. Baron walked over to pick it up, ignoring Eleanor’s protests.

“Hello. Is this Ms. Eleanor?” The voice asked.

“No. This is Baron. Her husband,” Baron said as an afterthought. The word tasting like bile in his mouth.

“Oh! That is great! Your daughter Melody…”

Baron didn’t wait for the person to finish talking. He copied the number down so he could find the address and flew out of the house.

His van pulled up in front of the hospital with a screech of tires. He got out and began to run towards the operating room. The security officer posted at the door refused to let him in so Baron was left pacing the hallway and sitting on the uncomfortable chair in that uncomfortable room just waiting for the doctor to come out and tell him his daughter was okay.

As he waited, he thought about his lovely little girl and all she must have gone through in the hand of those monsters. The police officer who called him had said she and her friend had bravely tried to send him a letter, even though they knew their lives were on the line. Baron almost wept with pride at the thought of the noble heart of the child he hadn’t been given a chance to raise.

The door opened and Baron spun so fast on his feet he had to hold the wall for balance, the doctor was a black short man with round spectacles. He looked mournful and Baron had to resist the urge to walk over to him, shake him and demand to know what was going on in there with his daughter.

“Mr. Baron?” The doctor asked.

“Yes, that’s him “

“I am doctor Ayomide,” the doctor said, stretching out his hand for a handshake. Baron ignored it.

“How is my daughter?” He asked.

The doctor retrieved his hand “I’m sorry Mr. Baron” he said. The words began swimming in Baron’s head over and over again. He was still staring at the doctor’s face when he collapsed. Before he hit the floor, he vaguely wondered at how easy the man’s expression changed from sorrow to shock.

***

Beep beep beep.

The beeping was what woke Baron up from his peaceful slumber. He had been dreaming of flowers and sunlight, his little girl running through a field of white flowers and laughing in that pretty voice of hers. She was as beautiful as he remembered and Baron tried to apologize many times only to be shut up by one of her pudgy hands. He was still agonizing when he woke up.

A hand reached over his line of vision to halt the progress of the tears running down the side of his face. Baron looked up and saw a young woman sitting in front of him. She was battered and bruised. Every part of her body seemed to be covered by some sort of bruise and even though Baron didn’t know who she was, he felt like crying. What sort of person would do this to another?

As if sensing his thoughts, the young woman smiled at him. Then she dipped her hand in her pocket and brought out a key holder. Baron’s mind was instantly bombarded with images; him sitting on the couch with his little girl in his arms saying, “You are the key to my heart”. He tucking his little girl to sleep every night. Him playing hide and seek around the grounds with his four-year-old daughter.

“I missed you too daddy,” the young woman said, resting her head on his abdomen. Baron choked on his tears.