By Eric L. Freeman Sr.
I.
Somewhere out of the darkness, the sound of dripping water pinging off a metal pipe radiated throughout the quiet room. It fell loudly within the silence sounding more like a repeating tap on a snare drum. It was an almost torturous noise to say the least. Sounds slowly began to erupt from everywhere within the black chamber. The walls groaned as if invisible hands were twisting them. Something quite large and very quick scurried into the deepening shadows.
The world was nothing but shadows. A thick blanket of darkness that coated everything in a damp, cold veil of nothingness. The air in the room was old and stale with a horrible mildewy odor to it. It smelled as if no one had been in there to clean in quite some time. Although there were no visible windows in the small accommodation, there seemed to be a very cold breeze coming from somewhere.
Gradually, the fog began to lift from the room’s lowly occupant as he started to regain consciousness. He let out a series of unintelligible mumbles while he tried ceaselessly to clear the nest of cobwebs from his fractured thoughts.
“…ere…a…,” he muttered to the dark room. He tried to speak again but failed once more to make a coherent sentence. His body felt useless as he attempted to move his head to see if he could catch a glimpse of anything that would help him. However, the only thing his groggy eyesight allowed him to see was the murky darkness that surrounded him. Noises floated to his dreary ears sounding as if they came from another place entirely. He murmured more incoherent gibberish as the gloom slowly began to encompass him again. The man continued to mumble even after he had passed out, none of it made any sense except for one word that came through loud and clear: Jude.
Meanwhile, somewhere behind the now unconscious gent, a shadowy figure slowly closed the room’s only door. A silent chuckle escaping his tightly clenched lips as the latch fell into the jamb.
II.
After quite a bit of time had passed, the world slowly began to swirl back into existence. Many of the sounds from earlier had now ceased to exist leaving only a terrible silence. A stiff gust blew against the walls making them groan violently for several moments until the flare-up passed. Small tufts of dust and gravel fell softly to the floor making a light pitter-patter sound as it landed.
A faint groan erupted from the now semi-conscious young man in the pitch-blackness. He sluggishly tried moving his arms and legs but found that no matter how much he wiggled, he could not move. Reality crashed in on his ever so cluttered mind, he snapped fully awake as he realized what was happening. His arms and legs had been tightly bound and he was left alone in the darkness.
He tried to shout for help but his mouth had the consistency of a desert. The only thing he managed to produce was a soft, raspy, choking sound. Gradually, he worked his bone-dry tongue around the inside of his mouth in an attempt to make some saliva. He tried to swallow with no luck only feeling a huge barren lump in his throat. His second effort produced a slightly more satisfactory response as he felt the huge ball loosen.
“…elp… me,” his voice sounded dusky and quite phlegmy as if he had not had any water for some time. “…some…one…ple…,” he was overcome by a coughing fit that shook his entire body intensely. It went on for a few seconds until finally he was able to catch his breath. His vision blurred briefly causing the silhouetted images that stood out in the darkness double, then treble. After a few moments when he believed he would pass out once more, his head cleared and the shadowy figures steadied leaving him feeling a little bit better.
Time passed slowly and when he was certain of his mind-state, he cautiously took inventory of his current surroundings. In the shadows, everything had the sharp corners of a box or slightly rounded edges like a ball. He tried to lift his hand up to rub his eyes but found it somewhat impossible. His hands were tightly secured to the arms of the chair he currently occupied. The restraints were so tight that the pins and needles sensation slowly crept into his fingertips. Futilely, he began to struggle against his restraints, feeling the binders dig into his flesh sending a fresh wave of pain up his arms. He gave a final strained grunt of effort then gave up when he felt the ropes did not move an inch. It was the same situation around his ankles; however, he did not notice these due to the numbness now coursing through them.
“WHAT THE FUCKS GOING ON?” he shouted giving another fierce tug at his wrists to no avail. “GET ME OUTTA HERE!” He began struggling against his captivity like a wildman causing the seat he was in to tremble. It did not rock so he assumed that it must be bolted to the floor. “HELP, SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP ME!”
“No one can hear you Mr. Parsons,” came an eerily calm voice from behind him. He jumped at the sound and nearly screamed like a scared schoolgirl. He had been fighting with his constraints and screaming that he never noticed the shadowy figure enter the dark room. “I’m afraid it's just you and me, sir,” he continued.
“And who the fuck are you,” Mr. Parsons challenged the stranger who remained directly behind him just out of his peripheral vision. “Why you got me locked up in here, motherfucker?”
The stranger casually made his way around the now enraged Mr. Parsons and stood about five feet in front of him. He never turned on any light so his face remained in the shadows. “Tsk, Tsk, Chester,” chimed the stranger, “now there’s no need for such language. We’re all good friends in here.”
This ignited Chester into a fury. “FUCK YOU AND YOUR FUCKIN’ FRIENDSHIP,” He roared attempting a futile lunge in the general direction of the man in the shadows.
The nameless man did not move an inch. He merely stood his ground and grinned defiantly at Chester. Still grinning, he turned his back to his unwilling captive and reached for a switch in the darkness. A bright light cut through the darkness and beamed directly into Chester’s unprepared eyes. He let out an audible hiss, wincing against the burning pain now raging through his skull. Once he was sure his eyes would not jump from his aching head, he dared to open them to get a look at his captor.
Unfortunately. The only thing he was able to make out of the figure was a silhouette outlined by the brightness of a lamp on the counter behind him. The man turned back around to face Chester who was starting to feel a little woozy. His vision, which had adjusted somewhat to the new illumination, actually began to blur over.
The stranger leaned in towards Chester’s face, which made him cringe slightly. His rage from earlier had deteriorated leaving him feeling terrified and alone. Chester was able to make out a piece of cloth wrapped around the man’s face, possibly a bandana, which blocked any discernable facial features. He blinked his eyes rapidly as if maybe this would make this odd fellow disappear but with no such luck.
Suddenly a large hand gripped Chester’s face, turning his head first to one side then to the other. He could feel the smooth roughness of the man’s mitt as it dug into his cheek roughly pressing the flesh against his teeth. The man’s other hand came out of the darkness and peeled Chester’s right eyelid open allowing him to examine the orb, then, repeated the examination on the left one.
The man seemed to let out a disappointed sigh as he turned back to the counter where he flicked the light switch casting the small room back into total darkness. Tiny dots of remnant light floated in the darkness in front of the hapless captive as they hurried to adjust once more to the shadows. Chester had been able to see little bits and pieces of his current cell. There were several boxes over to his right; some looked to be particularly old as if they had been in this room for a while. There seemed to be a small half-window over the stranger’s left shoulder, however, it appeared as though someone had painted over it.
The darkness slowly began to recede as his eyes adjusted and he was once again able to make out the stranger’s form in the blackness. He was leaning against the counter with his arms crossed over his moderate gut.
“Well,” he sounded dejected, “ looks like you still got a little bit of the sedative in your system, so I guess we’ll just have to hold off on the festivities for a while. Don’t want you to miss out on a single moment of the fun, now do we? “
“Wait, what sedative?” Chester queried. “What the hell are you talking about, man? Who the hell are you?” His fear was starting to reach its boiling point almost turning it back into rage as the man pushed away from the counter and slowly made his way out of the dark chamber.
“Don’t worry, Mr. Parsons,” the man chimed almost joyfully, “I’m not gonna kill you or nothing like that,” he chuckled whole-heartedly as he closed the room’s door. There came the sound of two locks clicking into place, which echoed throughout the room as Chester found himself once more alone in the dark. His head ached, his whole body seemed to be shivering both from the chill of the small room and from the complete realization that he would never see the light of day ever again.
III.
Chester was brought back to reality by the sound of the water heater coming to life with a very loud woomph sound, which caused him to let out a minor scream. His eyes darted around in the blackness, half-expecting to see his captor lurking in the shadows ready to pounce on him. To his relief, and in small part, his dismay, he was by himself. He couldn’t tell whether it was day or night outside so he had no idea of how long he had been asleep. The numbness had left his extremities some time ago leaving only the pain of the cords cutting into his wrist and ankles. He attempted to twist his wrist to make some room, however, he knew it was useless from the get go.
Something fell behind him, which caused him to crane his neck around uncomfortably. There came a scurrying sound as something ran in the shadows. A rat, Chester thought, yet his heart was pounding like a track runner.
After several moments, he thought his little visitor had finally left, until something furry ran over his bare feet. It was incredibly heavy for its size, which made him think of an opossum or raccoon more than rat.
“Holy shit,” he barked. Instinct caused him to kick at the vermin; however, the shackles on his legs halted his movements. There was an audible pop as he tweaked his kneecap. He grimaced as the new pain rushed up his leg. The creature was long gone but his leg now throbbed something fierce. Trouble seemed to be piling up on Chester with every passing second.
Once the pain subsided, he lowered his head and felt the first stings of tears at the corners of his eyes. “WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?” he sobbed towards the ceiling. “What the fuck you want, motherfucker?”
He didn’t expect an answer from the darkness and wasn’t surprised when there wasn’t one. He simply let the tears flow down his cheeks to patter softly onto his jeans as his sobs bounced off the interior walls to fade into the gloom.
