Saturday, March 29, 2008

Sarah's prompt: "we keep walking"


I push against the window but it won’t budge. Pacing the room I am certain that there must be a way of escape. Surely, somehow, this time, I can escape. I try the door again but clearly it’s locked. The bathroom window is too small and the window in here painted shut.
I go to the desk and start to randomly search through the drawers. Maybe I can find something, anything to work it loose. I hear footsteps in the hall so I shut the drawer as quickly and quietly as possible and then one step and as the door starts to open I’m on the bed.
He comes in and leaves a plate with some overcooked scrambled eggs and toast, and a cup of coffee on the nightstand. Barely looking at me as he puts it down, he turns and walks out, I hear the lock click into place.
I should refuse to eat. The food and the coffee maybe drugged but it feels like I’ve been locked away forever so I eat it. The coffee is terrible but I drink it down as well. I wait, just in case he comes back. The routine is never the same so I can’t really count on it.
I fall asleep, my days and nights have become a jumble and I’ve no idea what day of the week or even what month it is. I don’t even know how long they’ve kept me in this particular location. We move often, always at night, sometimes just down a street and around a corner, other times we drive for hours. There is no rhyme or reason to any of it and I don’t even really know why they are holding me or if they’ve asked for any sort of ransom.
I should have never gotten on the bus. I should not have been traveling alone. I should have left word somewhere with someone when I began to suspect that I was being followed but I didn’t know for certain. I don’t tend to be an alarmist and what would they have said anyway when I said I had a vague feeling I was being followed. Probably thought I was just some silly, stupid American girl.
I knew though, someone had followed me when I took the train from Gatewick Airport. Someone had followed me when I had taken the double decker bus tour through London. Someone had been through my stuff at the hotel. Someone had been walking through Kensington Gardens the night before they kidnapped me. I had heard the footsteps stopping and starting as I walked along in the dark.
I hear a bit of commotion in the hall and then they come in. There are three of them, the tall one explains that we are going out and will walk down the street and round the corner. There is a burgundy van there and I’m to get in quietly.
“I will shoot you if you make me.” He says in a low threatening voice.
We walk outside. It is dusk and there is no one around. We walk down the street and around the corner, But standing next to the van are three young men, laughing and talking and I know that my captors can sense that I’ve grown tired of all of this. So instead of leading me to the van. The tall one puts his arm around me and we keep walking all the way around the block and back into the house. They lock me back in the room and I wait and wonder what would have happened if I had screamed or tried to run.

2 comments:

Kathryn said...

Excellent, Gina! Although I'm a bit worried that your trip over here has left you more traumatised than I originally thought...

trying to write ... said...

lol.... no actually i'd love to come again and see a bit more (hopefully in a little warmer weather)

xoxo
g