Chapter 4 – A Cold Dark Confusion

In which the lady considers the facts and ponders the meaning.

Lady Lillian Fairfax drifted between light and dark, warmth and cold, laughter and terror.

She was aware on some level that she was lapsing between sleep and wakefulness and that one of the current states she was experiencing was a dream and the other reality. But which? Her head was fuzzy, she didn't have the desire to be bothered trying to focus it, and so drifted off again.

Sometime later, she came to herself sharply. Her mind was clearing and she realised sadly the dream state had passed. As she felt along her body with her hands, she understood what her reality was. Freezing cold, pitch black and quite frankly, terror inducing.

When she tried to open her eyes, she realised that they were already open. Why couldn't she see? Was she blinded somehow? How did she get here? And most alarming, where were her clothes? All these frantic thoughts and questions piled up in her head, which was throbbing painfully with the worst headache ever.

As panic started to rise in her, the throbbing got worse. Lilly realised that giving into the panic wouldn't help either her situation or the pain in her head. Taking a deep breath (air flow – good, air quality – not so much) to calm herself, she began a systematic search of the facts.

Fact 1: She was in some as yet unknown place where it was very cold, smelled musty, and there was no light.

Fact 2: Based on the brief inventory she had made of her body, she was missing her outer clothing and her feet were tied together somehow, but not secured to anything else, and so she could move somewhat.

Fact 3: She was quite sure that she was mostly unharmed, no blood or open wounds from what she could determine, excepting of course the serious headache and the chafing around her ankles from the restraints.

Fact 4: Someone had to have left her here, as she would hardly have chosen to put herself, half naked and tied up, anywhere, least of all in this nasty place.

Fact 5: She still had a fuzzy head, but she thought the last thing she remembered was Ron the driver - who wasn't actually Ron the driver, sticking a needle in her arm.

So...conclusions?

Some person unknown had done something to Ron (she hoped he was alright), drugged her, brought her to this location, taken her clothes (thank god they left her with at least her bra and knickers), basically hobbled her with some kind of restraints (plastic cording perhaps), and then left her here alone in the cold and the dark. For what purpose?

Although once she thought of it, it occurred to her that they might not have left at all. She tried to hear any sounds over the beating of her heart, but she couldn't hear anything. Which could have meant something or nothing at all. But her instinct, her gut feeling, was telling her that she was alone. Comforting, but not really.

She considered calling out, but decided that it would do her no good, as she sensed that there wasn't anyone around to hear her. Feeling around on the hard surface where she lay, a flagstone floor she guessed, Lilly tried to sit up but became terribly giddy, so she thought she might not try that again for a bit. There was a pile of material under half of her body. Not clothing, a blanket, she discovered when she managed to pull it out from under herself. As the blanket came free, there was a slap on the stones by her head. Mentally marking the approximate direction of the sound, she slowly reached her hand over her head and felt gingerly around. Her hand finally brushed against something that rolled slightly. After several tries, she was able to grasp it. Based on the feel and weight of it in her hand, she guessed it was a plastic bottle full of liquid, with the sealed cap still unbroken. More than likely it was a bottle of water.

Adding Fact 6: The person or persons unknown, she did know that at least one of them was a man, had left her the blanket and the water, which indicated a wish to provide some level of comfort. Not that it comforted her much, but she supposed that they didn't have to have left her that much, so it was something anyway.

Who would do this? Why? The panic started to build again, so Lilly mentally took herself in hand once more before she lost what control she had. She had to focus on what she could do and not on what she couldn't.

She had a blanket. Ok. She decided to try sitting up again to get the blanket wrapped around her and under her for a barrier, however slight, between her body and the stone floor. She managed somehow to get the blanket around her without passing out, although she couldn't prevent having to vomit a bit. Most unpleasant, but she managed to keep it off to the side of the blanket. She hoped that the smell would lessen soon, it wasn't helping her nausea. Once she was settled again, after crawling a few feet to the left of the puddle, she realised that thankfully she had kept a hold on the bottle.

Holding the bottle reminded her that she was terribly thirsty, and really wished to wash her mouth out also, which naturally started a debate within her as to if it was safe to drink it or not. Perhaps it was poisoned? Well, the seal was still intact and frankly, she thought if they wanted to kill her, she'd already be dead. She decided to risk it. And the liquid turned out to be exactly what she assumed it to be: clean bottled water. Not artesian, naturally, but good none the less. After taking just a few small sips, she carefully screwed the top back on and placed it between her legs so it couldn't roll away.

Lilly was by this time beginning to feel very fatigued. She curled her body up as much as possible to conserve her body heat. It was so very cold. She was shivering and her teeth had started to chatter, which she found mildly interesting as she had never really been sure that teeth did in fact chatter.

Aware that time was passing, she began to shiver less and less. It was becoming difficult to concentrate. One part of her brain began work on the idea that perhaps she should try to explore the area and see if there was some way to get out, but another part of her brain took notice that she had become markedly languid. Sleepy even. Certainly lethargic.

In the deep recesses of her mind, she knew that to give into this desire to sleep would be her undoing, but it was becoming very difficult to care. Just before she nodded off, she was abruptly brought to her senses.

Sound. Echoing across the floor. The scrape of wood against stone, the creak of rusted metal protesting movement, the dull thud of a shoe on a flagstone floor.

Light. So bright she was forced to close her eyes in pain. She, who had so wished for light in this dark place for so long, now wished it to go away and leave her alone. She held up her hand to block some of the light. There was a click and the brightest of the light went away.

Lilly became aware despite her increasingly confused senses, that there was a vision standing across the room from her. A silhouette was backlit as it filled the doorway. Very tall, the vision seemed to loom over her, movement causing some long garment it wore to sway. Was it a demon come to terrorize her or an angel come to rescue her? Then it spoke and she realised it was both.

"Ah, there you are." There was a pause, and then the voice continued, "Hmm...Interesting. It would appear that you have gotten yourself in a bit of a situation. Good thing I happened to fancy a drive tonight, wouldn't you say?"


AN – Hmm I wonder who that could be... I'll give you another hint: A Tall Dark and Handsome Sociopath, anyone? - RS