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Chapter 6 — Glances
Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.
The fearful are caught as often as the bold.
- Helen Keller
ƸӜ̨Ʒ ƸӜ̨Ʒ
ƸӜ̨Ʒ
My senses tingled as they woke me up from a surprisingly deep slumber as I slowly sensed the hard pressures of the ground beneath me, particularly on my right hip as I laid on my side. I attempted to open my eyes but my eyelids felt heavy, so I decided to keep them closed. I moved my head and almost made myself comfortable from where I laid only to gasp when I felt how stiff my neck muscles were. I let out a groan as I allowed the pain to subside. Was it minutes or were it hours that I had slumbered away in the same position to awaken to strained neck muscles? Whatever the case, the awkward position had definitely kinked up my neck. Finally, I achieved opening my eyes and when I did, I expected to see familiar daylight. Instead of coming upon the white walls of my room and the soft glow of sunlight filtering through my curtains, I saw nothing.
Quite literally as everything was pitched black.
I furrowed my brows — how could that be? It was then when my ears picked up on the sound of water dripping somewhere around me. I whipped my head around and a bit too soon when I felt those sore muscles acting up once again. I held my breath as I waited for a couple of seconds to pass, my ears finally distinguishing the constant water drops was the sound of rain.
Rain?
"Wha–" I abruptly stopped. My throat was parched — I could not say a thing without feeling a strange, prickly sensation in my throat. I tried to moisten my lips but that was a useless act. I tried to swallow what I could and what I managed had been painful. With a sudden realization, I lifted my head and ignored the cries from my pained muscles.
I was running… a man was after me… I-I… no… He was no longer chasing after me. It was someone else, no, something else. Snakes… snakes… I tripped and then…. I woke up in this dark place.
A terrible pain shot through the side of my forehead and instinctively I raised my hand only to abruptly stop halfway. While I could not see anything in the darkness, I could feel something had bound my wrists together. Curiously enough, it should had been something I should had felt when I came to my senses but it went without notice. I was still on my side, partially laid on top of my right arm. I could still freely move about my fingers but it was pointless at this moment. The pain on my forehead did not subside like that of my neck muscles. I could only assume it was the place I, well, literally knocked myself out. As much as I found that situation comedic to warrant a laugh, I unwillingly let out a whimper instead.
I could feel my lips tremble as my breath became shallow. The last thing I had wanted to happen actually happened. I been caught, tied and as much as I wanted to make a sarcastic comment about it — I was thankfully not gagged. It didn't matter, I told myself as I felt my stomach tie itself into a cold knot. The pain on my forehead had become the least of my worries.
I rolled onto my back, my eyes fixated to the dark ceiling or at least what I assumed to be the ceiling. By changing positions, I partially relieved the pressure on my right arm but my relief was short lived when I was soon overtaken by a new strange sensation on my chest. I could not figure whether it was the soreness that lingered after being tackled or something else entirely different. Obviously, it had to be the first option since my chest had not hurt while I was on my side. While my bound wrists rested on my chest, the strange pressure persisted so I awkwardly rested them on my stomach instead. This, turned out to be a bad move. The moment I had placed them on my stomach, a sharp pain rushed up my nerves as if a dozen needles pierced my flesh. Out of instinct, I quickly removed my bound writsts.
Wha-what the hell...?!
I couldn't recall being hit on my stomach and much less stabbed but the effect of bodily harm was there. With nothing at my disposal to view this unexplainable injury, all I could do was rely on my senses, and they informed me I had sustained a new injury while I was unconscious. Where and the How would have to wait as there were more important things at hand — no pun intended.
As I laid there quietly with my wrists resting on my lower abdomen, I listened on to the steady rain. The splitter-splatter of hard raindrops hitting against the roof surrounded me and I was momentarily absorbed by the rhythmic sound it produced. I was startled out of my reverie when a thunderous sound shook around me and no sooner did lighting followed. The brief brightness caused by the flash was enough to take in what surrounded me… which wasn't much.
With the little that I saw, I was clearly in a room — no surprise there, really. The room only had a small open window way up high by the ceiling where the flash of lighting streamed in. Whether it was a room or a shed, I couldn't immediately tell. The briefest of light only offered so much within those milliseconds. I rolled myself to my left and after curling my hand into a fist, I knocked on the floor. Wooden planks. Everything seemed to be made of wood here with the exception of the window. How this knowledge could help, I had no clue. Had I not been tied up on the floor, it would had been impossible to escape through that tiny window and much less reach it — it was far too high.
As my legs were -thankfully- left untied, I used them to slide myself into one of the four walls and let me tell you that was no easy task. Other than hitting the top of my head against one of these walls, my legs were incredibly sore. Still on my back, I tried to figure a way to get myself upright. The only thing that came to mind was doing a sit-up, which should be an easy thing to do, right? Yet my throat desired water and my stomach was in pain. Food was out of the question though very necessary in my case as it equaled energy and that was the one thing I lacked in. Instinctively I knew I wouldn't have the same energy to run away as I did earlier today – or was it yesterday? Why bother? Using all my strength, I pushed myself into a sitting position.
I was out of breath by the time I leaned against the wall. While I acknowledged the lack of energy, it unnerved me tremendously how serious I was out of it. If it had taken a lot from me to sit myself upright against a wall, could you imagine how much I would need to run away from this? To fight off- I let out a trembling sigh. Sure, everything was stacked against me but no, there was still something I could do. What? I had no idea but there was something. There had to be something... I had to get myself to stand instead of sitting here for the bastard to come in and... I felt an all-too familiar sensation building in my chest and in my throat as I sensed my eyes watering at the thought of... "No," I croaked, pushing that dreadful image away.
Unknowingly, I must had bitten the inside of my lip when I tasted something metallic against my tongue.
"I need… something to drink," I uttered in-between pants as I stood awkwardly against the wall. Awkwardly in the sense my legs were feeling ridiculously weak with the possibility of them giving out under my weight. Another flash of lighting momentarily flooded the room and I saw the outline of a door across from where I stood. Still wearing the dreadful cloak, I tentatively took a step forward by placing my weight on my right foot. While not weak, my leg was unsteady and that was not necessarily a good thing. It didn't matter, there was nothing I could really do. I wanted to get to that door. Thankfully the room was empty, so I wouldn't be bumping or tripping in the darkness. The distance from the door to where I stood was not that far – what could even happen between there and here?
Five… six… sev— my legs suddenly gave out without warning and I crashed down onto my knees before I toppled over onto my back. The sequence of falling on my knees was as painful as hitting the back of my head. The pain on my forehead that I had managed to ignore suddenly flared up and I couldn't help but cry out in pain. After I let out a string of obscenities as I awkwardly felt around my forehead with my bound wrists, I suddenly stopped mid-touch when I heard something other than rain.
Sounds.
I'm not sure how I managed to do it, but unlike the first time where it had taken me longer than I wanted, I managed to sit-up in such a short amount of time. My preference would have been to crawl away and hide instead of sitting in the middle of the room as I was now. There was only so much I could do with my bound wrists, plus, the darkness didn't help my case either.
Blindly, I stared ahead where I last saw the door.
Click.
There was nothing I could do, nothing physically possible as I sat there exposed to whatever was coming. If there was anything that I was able to control it would had to be my feelings and if this predator preyed on fear, well, that I would not give.
Oh, so easier said than done! My stomach somehow tied itself into tinier knots, my hands clammy as my fear of the unknown was rearing its ugly head — even my breath I had to control if I didn't want to suffer a blown-out panic attack. As I awkwardly sat in a position that was not comfortable, I tried to move myself around only to end up sitting on top of my legs — thankfully, I did not toppled this time around.
"=======—"
I expected to hear a familiar language, someone who I could at least speak and communicate with — someone who would understand me. The only relief, if you could call it that, was how this voice was way different from the person I had encountered. The voice was not intimidating, in fact, it was soft but I soon pegged that to the fact that he was whispering in the dark. With the door opened as I could hear the soft rain from outside, I expected to see my captor but all I could managed to see was the dark outline of his figure.
"=============="
"Where am I?" I demanded firmly as I could even as my voice was evidently hoarse.
The footsteps that started suddenly stopped, "==========="
I couldn't help but let out an audible sigh. That language again. It was definitely of Asian origin but I couldn't differentiate it. "I don't understand what you're saying, why am I even here?" It was very unlikely I was kidnapped and taken to a different country — I was nowhere near that important to warrant such action.
"============," this soft-spoken individual continued in a nonchalant manner as if nothing was out of the norm with our communication.
"Why the hell do you keep speaking to me as if I know the damn language?!" I screamed, a scream that pierced my parched throat as I cried out again. I swallowed whatever saliva I had to get some relief but it was useless – I had gone without water for nearly three days. A sudden onset of vertigo overcame me. Ugh…..
What happened next could only be described as a blur – well, not technically considering there was no light source to see it happen but the statement still stands. One second I was surrounded by darkness with this unidentifiable person and the next a flash of light blinded me – so bright it was I had to bring up my curled fists to shield my eyes from the sudden assault. With my eyes now firmly closed, I heard someone else speak as they entered the room. This was completely different from the first one but it still belonged to that of a male; his voice was not deep but there was definitely a tone of superiority to it.
I slowly opened my eyes, letting themselves adjust to the room's new light. Instinctively, I searched for the source of it and found it belonged to an oil lamp that hung on a hook close to the door. Was that the thing that flashed so brightly? I could have sworn it had come from a flash grenade, not that I would know the experience.
With a second person now present, the two of them spoke amongst themselves and with more than just curiosity motivating me, I whipped my head to see them. Just as before with the man in the forest, I could not help but stare at what I saw. One - I was far off from being in an Asian country because neither of the two looked remotely Asian despite the language. Two - there was so much to take in…
The second voice, the one who entered minutes ago, belonged to the most normal-looking one out of the two. Well, as close to normal as possible. He wore what appeared to be a paramilitary uniform — dark colors and wearing a dark olive-green vest with plenty of front pockets. Though clothes were normal looking, it was his headgear that stood out. Gray in color, it framed his face. Right over his forehead stood out a type of metal plate with a strange symbol engraved on it. Other than that headgear, he looked normal – granted, I could not see much of his face.
Unlike this second person, the first one – the one who tried to speak with me earlier was definitely different. He could not be any older than I was, and even under the glow of the oil lamp, I could tell he was either very light skinned or pale with dark short hair. Not only was it easy to see that he was slender in physique – thanks to the sight of his midriff – but his clothes were something else. What type of shirt was that anyway? One sleeveless while the other was not and those gloves... I would understand if they were fingerless but this was just... was it a costume? Would make sense with the first person dressed in the getup he was in. Just like the newcomer, he also wore a type of material over his forehead, metal plate and all.
I must have gawked at him longer than normal as he turned to look at me, which was enough of an action for the two of them to stop speaking. I furrowed my eyebrows – I was really not the intimidating type – and turned away from his blank stare. That action alone was clearly not a deterrent as I heard a pair of footsteps approached me; no need to look up to see who it was as his pants alone gave the newcomer away. Standing before me but still far out from my reach, I had a feeling he wanted me to look up – not bothering to do so, I fixed my stare past his legs.
I heard him say something and I couldn't help but rolled my eyes; he spoke once more, longer than the first time but unlike it there was a question to his tone. The other one responded and his voice had not changed much from when we were in the dark. I looked at him and caught him staring, I shot him a frown and looked up towards the newcomer. If there was something movies had taught me, it was this – never show your fear outright despite trembling from within.
"Why do you even bother? Surely you know by now that we can't even understand one another – not that I would want to considering how everything is going." I said with what I hoped was a steady voice despite my hoarseness. I caught the older one exchanging a glance with the other boy – was he confirming something? I felt that he was…
Despite the lack of knowledge of what was to come, I had to prevent whatever it could be. The how, the what I did not kno– "Water," I finally voiced; killing two birds with one stone, this made perfect sense. "I need water." I declared confidently as I stared up at the man. There was something intimidating by the way he just stood there, observing me as I had done with them. I inwardly sighed – there would be no way to express my need by using my vocals, I had to find some other way. Then it dawned on me... Of course! Since my wrists were bound together, all I needed to do was interlock my fingers together and stick out my thumb, which in turn would form them into a strange looking sippy cup. In a slow gesture, I tipped my thumbs towards my lips – the signal couldn't be any clearer.
The newcomer turned away and said something to the other; I turned and caught sight of the first one pulling something from a pouch that I had not seen before. With a flick from his wrist, he threw a container of some sort towards the newcomer who easily caught it in his hand. He said something as he held out the container towards me. Better yet, it appeared to me he was handing this container to me as if I could just reach out and grasp it. He shook its contents; there was no denying it, there was liquid inside. I looked at it then up at him; he shook the container again. I nodded; I'm assuming he was asking if I wanted it.
Tentatively, I outstretched my hands to receive it as he uncapped the bottle before placing it between my hands. I awkwardly held it, hoping it wouldn't tumble and spill its content, but it was then as I held it inches away from my mouth that my instincts took over and I no longer cared if I spilled any of it on me.
I drank it as if there was no tomorrow.
Author's Note:
I can't help but feel as if I'm writing too much about necks and realizing that pillows are REALLY that important! Also, things are happening here — foreshadowing, if you will! But then again, I really don't write something in detail without a reason x)
Now my response from last chapter's question
{What's the most annoying animal you've encountered?}
I want to say humans but also bloodsucking insects. At least with humans, you'll have favorites and entertainment in one form or another but with insects? How the heck do they even help?! Bloodsucking insects will be my answer, blah!
Now for this chapter's question….
[Where is the most uncomfortable place you have ever slept?]
Please don't say "anywhere without a pillow", lmao
Until next time, thanks for reading!
