I must have been lying here for what feels like hours. I hear a noise from behind me. I look up to see a black cat trying to squeeze its way through the small window. It manages to get in with ease, walks up to me purring rubbing its head against my hand as though it’s asking for a smooth. I smooth the cat; it purrs loudly, I strangely feel love for the first time in a while. I feel hope in the company of the cat, deciding that’s what I was going to call it ‘Hope.’ I lay stroking Hope for a long time making me feel relaxed, my mind takes me away from this horrible place. I imagine myself lying on a beach, on sand, listening to the sound of the waves, I feel utopic.
All of a sudden I hear the door unlock loudly, fear strikes me causing me to jump. Hope wakes up, before I know it she’s off up out the window. I look round to see Mike walk in holding his left eye.
‘If you do anything like that again I will have to kill you John, understand?’ I just glare at him in fear not saying a word. He comes over to me with a glass of water and a plate of what seemed to be bread and butter. Feeling hungry and thirsty I eat the bread within a few seconds, followed by the glass of water. It was nice to eat something, I have the shakes for what I can only assume was down to a lack of food or maybe the drugs I'm being force fed.
‘Listen to me John; I'm in a very difficult situation and so are you. We’ve both been put here against our will, if I was to let you go they will kill me and you. I really need you to just trust me ok?’ Again I just stare at him, I don’t say a word, and I don’t understand what he’s trying to tell me, wished he would just spit it out.
‘Why choose me?’ I ask.
‘I was told to bring you here,’ whispering, trying to keep his voice down looking over his shoulder at the door.
‘Who told you to bring me here?’
‘I was hired to follow you from Portsmouth, to bring you here. If I knew all this would happen, I would never have done it, but they threatened me.’
‘Who Mike, who threatened you I just don’t understand?’
‘I can’t tell you that, I just want you to know it’s not my fault, I'm trying to get them to let you go!’ There was a glint in his eyes that told me he was telling the truth, I felt reserved, I didn’t want to let on to him that I was starting to trust him.
‘Listen to me in a few hours I'm going to have to feed you some more of those drugs, it would be a lot more easier for us both if you took them. Trust me, if I was you, I would want to take a thousand of them. I can give you my word, I'm doing my best to get them to let you go, for some reason you’re valuable to them.’
‘Mike, I don’t understand, I'm so confused, I'm in a lot of pain, please get me out of here please,’ I break down again into a sob, he comes over to me, rubbing my shoulder.
‘I’ll be honest with you, I think I owe you that, I don’t think it’s looking good for both of us at the moment. If I could tell you everything I would, but I really can’t.’
‘Are they here?’
‘Yes they’re upstairs.’
‘Can you at least tell me what they want from me?’
‘I can’t, I'm sorry,’ continuously looking over his shoulder.
‘Look I've got to go, remember to take the pills ok I’ll give you extra to ease the pain,’ squeezing my shoulder as if to say he’s on my side, he then exits the room locking the door behind him.
As soon as the door is locked I jump up, feeling shooting pains through the small of my back. I struggle to make my way to the window, but wanted to see if I can see Hope. Unfortunately, I can’t see her, but I can see tree’s everywhere. I pull myself up the window but the gap is too small for me to pull myself through. I jump back down; look around the room to see if I can find anything to help me escape. There’s nothing in here except the mattress and the bucket. Just if I had something to try to dig my way out of the window, I could get out of here and run for my life.
Once again I lie back on the dirty mattress, I sob my heart out thinking about my dad, wishing as hard as I could to be with him right now, fantasizing what he would do to these guys when he finds out what’s happening to me.
Again, hours must have past, it’s now looking dark outside. Which means to my calculations, I have now been missing for two days. Alarm bells must be ringing for mum my and her boyfriend. I feel cold, fear strikes through me again; the mixture of emotions is tiring. I get a dreaded feeling I'm not going to make it out of here alive.
Again the door unlocks, swings open to reveal a masked man. The mask is clown like with purple hair. He’s short with a podgy belly, wearing a black t-shirt and blue jeans. Both his arms are covered in tattoos; they look old and can’t really make out what they are.
Seeing a different man walk into the room is terrifying, my mouth goes dry, I freeze with fear. He doesn’t say anything to me, just hands me eight pills with a glass of water.
‘Where’s Mike?’ completely scared of even opening my mouth.
‘He’s dead, now take these,’ with a London accent walking out of the room locking the door behind him.
I take the pills as suggested by Mike and wait for the sleepiness to kick in. I hope that this time I don’t wake up despite the fact I was trying to fight for my dad.
A few minutes later the drugs kick in and I feel sleepy and weak. My legs twitch frantically and my hands shake. I hear a noise behind me and it’s Hope again rubbing its head against my hand and I try my best to smooth her. I decide that Hope is a female I don’t know why, I don’t even know anything about cats but I can just sense she's a girl. She walks over to my head and presses hers against mine giving me a lovely feeling of comfort. I can hear her purring loudly which is music to my ears that is suddenly broken by the sound of someone coming back into the room.
Now I can’t move and can hear Hope hissing right next to me as though she was protecting me. She jumps and runs off, hopefully out the window to safety. My eyes feel extremely heavy and before I know I can’t keep them open and everything goes quiet. I call out for Hope but can’t even manage to make any noise at all and can see my dad’s face in my mind before going out completely.
***
Chapter 7