Jess woke up to the dark, cold room and sat up, briefly forgetting where she was. She stood up and took two steps, feeling something yank on her ankles. She yelped and then remembered she was chained. She also noticed her vocalization sounded sharper and realized her gag was gone. The light in the room clicked on, blinding her briefly. She looked up once the spots cleared and saw Doctor Octavius.
"How goes my ransom?" She signed.
"What?" Otto's face made up for Jess's inability to decipher the sounds he made. She handed herself the notepad with her toes and wrote on it. She gave it to him and he shrugged. He scrawled and handed it back to her.
"I want you to try speaking. At least simple words to start with. If you adapt before they send the money, I might let you keep your new sense." Jess starred at the paper and then looked up at him.
"Me? Hear?" She spoke, her voice airy and high pitched. She wrote back to him. "There are conditions of course."
"Yes." He spoke clearly and nodded.
"No, thank you." Jess forced the words, trying to lower her voice. Instead they came out screechy. Otto pointed to his throat and then to Jess. She looked at him slightly confused, so she handed him the pad.
"Try speaking more from your throat." He gave it to her and then walked out of the room. He returned a few minutes later, looking a touch irritated and holding a camera and tripod. "They don't think I have a hostage. I need to convince them that I do. Just tell them your name and that you are with me. You can add what you think of your treatment, but tell them nothing about being able to hear." The pad was handed back to her as he walked out and returned with a chair. Jess sat herself in it and Otto turned on the camera. She listened to his voice, trying to imagine what he was saying, when he stepped to the side and she looked into the red blinking light, and began to sign.
"My name is Jessica Roarn." She spelled her name slowly. "I am being taken care of by Doctor Octopus. I would like to go home." She set her hands in her lap while he blocked the camera from her view again. When he moved, it was turned off and he took the camera back into the other room. In the relative silence, she heard a strange noise, and felt her stomach protest. She looked around, trying to find Octavius by looking around the corner, but couldn't see him. She sighed and heard her stomach again.
"Hungry!" She tried to shout, but to Otto it sounded more like 'henry'. He e-mailed the video to the news stations and then walked back in, hearing her stomach grumble loudly.
"Hun-gry" He emphasized the 'g' but Jess just shrugged.
"Whatever." She signed back to him as he walked back out. He returned ten minutes later with a TV dinner and a glass of water. "Thank you." She signed and spoke, taking the tray. She sat on the floor and ate heartily while Otto put away the chair. After she finished, she sat back and looked at the empty plate. She found the notepad and then waited for Octavius to return. "Can you turn it off; it's giving me a migraine." He looked at her oddly. "Please?" She spoke, and he walked behind her, and she felt something push on a spot she couldn't reach, between her shoulder blades. The sounds faded away as Otto walked off into the other room. Jess's brain buzzed with the lack of extra stimuli, but it helped sooth her headache. She also felt more secure, knowing what to expect again. Jessica fluffed up the duffle bag and laid her head on it and closed her eyes, in the hopes that when she woke up, the city would have paid her ransom, and she could go back home to a hopefully normal life again.