Disclaimer: see my profile
A/n thanks to you all for your kind reviews and comments. They help to feed Adele, who is very greedy.
His eyes opened to complete darkness. It was a blackness that was as deep as the Marianna's Trench. Had he gone blind in the night? He tried to turn over, to reach for the lamp on the table, but pain lanced through his head and his side. More pain shot through his ribs as he tried to turn back to his original position.
His arms were completely numb and pulled behind him at a very awkward angle. His cheek and the arm of his glasses pushed into something that felt like carpet. He shivered and screamed in pain that burned through his ribs.
His legs were drawn up to his chest, but he could move them. He tried to pull them apart, but they were tied together. He made them straighten and his feet hit something. Was it a wall? Where was he? His head hurt so much that he couldn't think straight.
He tried again to move his arms, and moaned when pins and needles began to invade the awakening flesh as he started to piston his arms up and down. He tried twisting his wrists and then screamed again at the pain.
He moved his legs to the left as far as he could get. There was another obstacle behind him. Was he buried alive somewhere. His heart was already racing, but the memory of reading a thousand Poe nightmares about being buried alive sent the blood slamming through his veins. Adrenaline was making his head feel light.
He kept moving his arms up and down as far as he could. The feeling was nearly back, along with the weakness that accompanied muscles that had been sleeping. He made him arms stop moving and he tried to be still and let the strength return. There was only silence around his ears and with the darkness, his heart kept pounding, allowing no rest.
He had to try to listen and hear something. But only his frantic heartbeat could be heard in his ears along with his breath wheezing in and out of his chest.
He kicked out with both legs and screamed again, except now he heard that the scream was muffled. There was something over his mouth that he hadn't felt before, and the scream was only high and full-bodied in his head. The truth was that the moans and screams were only muffled cries. His legs hit the barrier again and made a kind of metallic thump that was familiar.
He had to get out of this place, wherever it was. It would require thinking though, and his thoughts were racing around too much. Panic was making him feel like throwing up, screaming and crying all at the same time.
Be quiet and think!
That was easier said then done. What if he were coming back?
Who's he?
No, I won't think about that.
Close your eyes!
Why? Its pitch black in here!
Close your eyes and breathe. Think about the book you read last week.
Which one?
You know which one!
He closed his eyes and the text was there as though it was the same day, and the same moment, in the basement apartment he lived in at Cal Tech. He breathed in and could smell the old leather. Another breath showed his fingers how to remember the crispness of the pages, and the smoothness of the paper as his fingers skimmed down each page.
The book was about Houdini and some of his escape artist skills. He could use them. If he was lucky, he could use them. He began again to piston his arms up and down and had to stop when his heart began to race. He'd felt the ropes begin to loosen.
He had to remain calm or this wasn't going to work. The ropes loosened, but not enough to let his hands escape. If he could get his legs up close enough to his head and get his arms through them… He took a breath wincing at the pain in his ribs and lifted his legs. If he could just get his arms under his backside…
The pain was unbearable in his chest and his arms, but he pulled hard, sliding his hand across whatever it was that he lay on. His feet slipped through and he almost cried with relief and pain. Now to get the ropes off his hands. He tried to slip out of them again by rotating his wrists, but he'd been too relaxed when tied up to make Houdini trick work. If he could only see…
He tried to sit up, but banged his head on what was above him. He cried out again, and again, visions of being locked up and buried flew through his brain and made his heart race. Then a sound pushed through his panic.
It was like a clinking noise, like a fork on china. His eyes strained to see through the darkness. His eye sockets felt like they were being pushed through a vegetable strainer at the effort. One arm of his glasses fell off his ear and dragged across his cheek. His hands automatically reached up to push them back.
There was a click and a breath of fresh air rushed in from an opening that pushed bright light in and threw it across his leg. He squinted and in slow motion everything happened at once. He knew where he was and remembered how he'd got there.
The lid to the trunk swung up and the flashlight blinded him. Terror gave him strength and he pushed away with his legs.
The light burned in his eyes and a voice said…
He bolted up from the couch and yelped in pain at the crook in his neck from falling asleep with his head hanging over the arm. His head snapped from one side to the other of the room in confusion. The floor lamp next to the couch was on, but everything else was dark in this room without windows.
His breath heaved in and out of his chest and his stomach was pure acid. It rebelled and he stumbled off the couch to the bathroom. He slipped to the floor in front of the white porcelain toilet and lost what was left of the meal he'd eaten in the last twelve hours.
The taste of the acid and the way it burned his throat made him dry heave again. Tears leaked out of the corners of his eyes. He climbed shakily to his feet and took a good long look in the mirror. His eyes were deeply shadowed as always, but it was the shadows down deep his hazel irises that was the most disturbing to see. There was a hint of desperation he hadn't felt or seen there in months.
He picked up the glass that had sat at the edge of the sink since the first day he'd been here. The cool water from the tap tasted flat, as though someone had removed all of the minerals from it. It didn't take away all the taste of the acid from his mouth, but it helped and his stomach held it down.
He looked at the glass after drinking down the water. He could tell anyone exactly how glass was formed and why you could see through it. He could tell you how the room around him was built and why certain materials had been used instead of others. He could look into the minds of the most horrible, and despicable, men and women on the earth, but he couldn't understand his own mind and dreams.
He went back to the room and looked at the folder on the table. His watch lay on the table next to the folder and he picked it up. It was five in the morning of his fifth day, or was it the fourth day here. His internal clock was getting screwed up with all of this isolation.
He picked up the file and looked at the pictures. They were as bloody and graphic as he'd ever seen and he winced at the reaction he'd had the first time he'd looked at them hours before exhaustion had pulled him into sleep.
The victims were all the same. There were twenty of them scattered through the last ten years. All of them were found in different remote locations. They'd all been university students and they were all geniuses. They had wavy brown hair, glasses, and hazel eyes and were tall and thin. They could all be his brothers. Someone had been beating and carving them to pieces for ten years without getting caught. Someone had been abducting them for ten years without leaving any evidence. That person was still out there.
He picked up the file, held it up to the camera and said very clearly. "I know you're watching me and I know you can hear me. If you want my help, I want something in return."
He turned his back on the camera and went back to the couch. He dropped the file on the table and hid his shaking hands by sitting on them. And he waited…
---
Kevin picked up his phone and called the fist number on his speed dial list. "Yeah… I think you better come down here. The good doctor is getting restless."