Chapter 7
Jessie slowly became aware of silence and kept her eyes shut. A dead silence that you only heard when you either have earplugs in or when you were far away from civilization. If she concentrated hard, she could hear wind moving through trees, or the occasional bird. But when she concentrated that hard, she only became more aware of the headache she had. It felt to her like she had a hang-over's hangover.
Jessie mentally searched for any physical but found nothing major. She felt a strange pressure to her waist. Something heavy was on her stomach while something else dug into her back. She turned to her side and felt the pressure move above her hip and the pain underneath her.
She was aware of being on a bed, with a pillow under her head. She moaned at the headache that all her thinking had caused. Her movement had stirred someone who then moved closer. A hand touched her forehead and she fought the instinct to move away from the touch. She was very aware of the person hovering over her. A strong perfume of shampoo and shaving cream burned in her nose.
"You'll be okay," a slightly familiar voice whispered in her ear before planting a kiss on her temple. She recognized the voice but it sounded a little softer, gentler than she remembered. But at that moment it scared her because it was not where she had expected to hear it again. Not that she knew where she was.
The man stood back and walked out. Jessie counted the steps until they faded away. She listened for a few more seconds before opening her eyes.
Jessie was alone in a rather large room. Not a traditional bedroom, but it would suffice. There were no mirrors in the frames and no chair by the desk. The room had no window but two doors. Rather two door-less doorways. One going to a bathroom and one to a large empty room. She looked up and quickly back down from the bright florescent light high above her head.
She looked down to see what was wrong with her waist and lifting her shirt, she saw a thick heavy metal chain tied around her. She followed the chain with her eyes and found a pile of chain on the floor and then the other end going to the wall. Jessie calculated that the chain might just be long enough for her to move freely (if free is the right word) around the room and the bathroom, but she won't be able to reach the other door.
Jessie didn't move again, at fear that the chain's noise might bring her captor back and that it would spark another wave of headaches. But over time, she felt the ache subside. The fog in her head cleared and she became aware of more detail in the room. She noticed how strong the chain was fixed to the wall and how closely the chain was tied around her waist. She saw the sound proof ceiling tiles and how the walls held soundproofing inside them. She saw this through a fist width whole in the wall. The paint on the wall was new, and it just covered a badly done wallpaper removal.
Jessie wanted so badly to think of Reid, and to worry about him worrying but she couldn't spare a too long thought to anything outside the room. Her eyes and mind drank in every detail of the cold room and she processed and saved all the information.
As time passed, Jessie's mind started connecting facts, thoughts and ideas. Devising a plan to get out of there. While, at the back of her mind, she was trying to keep track of time.
When her head was clear and her plan was set, she slipped her hand down the bed and rattled the chain. She smiled when her captor started moving again in the other room. She closed her eyes, pretending to sleep, and waited. He walked in and saw her still asleep. Four hours had passed and she was still out of it. That worried him and he walked to the bed to check her heart and head again.
He laid his hand on her forehead and on her heart and got a shock when she didn't seem to breathe. He tilted his head closer to hear and suddenly Jessie grabbed his neck and twisted. He yelled in surprise and in pain but reacted quickly, pushing her away from him. But all this commotion dragged him onto the bed without footing. Jessie jumped up and out from under him but he grabbed her and pushed her back onto the bed. She struggled with him and felt herself loosing the fight as she had no strength.
Finally, Jessie screamed in agony as something sharp cut into her skin and stopped her struggle violently.
"Look what you made me do!" He said and threw the knife to the far door. His hands were covered in blood as he tried desperately to stop the bleeding. And to Jessie's surprise and horror, he placed his bloody hands in her hair and started kissing her face.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." He kept repeating in whispers. Jessie fought real hard against the blackness that was trying to cloud her again. With a deep sigh, she drifted back into the darkness.
