Stoking The Fire

Chapter One

Okay, tactical assessment time. Head hurts like a mad bastard? Check. Sitting down? Check. Legs bound to the chair? Check. Hands bound behind back? Check. Possible concussion? No data found. Still clothed? Surprisingly. Maniac pacing the room and muttering to himself? Big check. Very bad idea? Mega check. Would I make the same decision every time? That's a big 10-4, daddy-o.

Taking further sensory stock of my situation, I realize that I can't hear much more than what's going on in the room around me. It's somewhat cool, suggesting a lack of heat to combat the drizzling rain from earlier. No blaze of light to burn through my closed eyelids, so I'm either deep inside the building within a windowless room, or it's still night. Actually, I'm not sure how long I've been out, it could have already been over a day, or daylight has come and gone, at the very least.

I can, however, still smell rain, so I'm inclined to think that it's still the same day, possibly. I can also smell old industrial debris, which lends me to believe I'm in an old storehouse or warehouse of some sort. Lastly, I can smell my captor, a mix of Irish Spring soap, Gain laundry detergent, and Axe body spray that I personally liked to call 'Desperation'. I only knew one person who loved to mix all three together in a diabolical, nose-destroying molotov cocktail, and that person was recent LA transfer CSI Jack Walker.

Rough fingers suddenly grip my chin and jerk my head upright, forcing my eyes to pop open involuntarily in surprise and pain. It does take a few seconds for my vision to unblur and my eyes to focus, but when I do I see that my nasal assessment is correct. I'm locked in here with this CSI until all the truth comes out. I am not looking forward to this at all. Nick, when he finds out eventually... he will be so disappointed in me.

Oh well, it's too late to go back now. What's done is done. I've made my choice, and now I have to live with it. No pun intended. After staring at my face for several heartbeats, he finally releases my chin, then backhands me across the left side of my face. A brief pause, then he does the same to the other side. Great, a matching set.

As I see him wind up for another blow, I just start giggling involuntarily. He looks at me weirdly, with his head tilted to the side a little.

"I'm, I'm sorry, I can't help it. Are you just going to slap me around all night? If that's your idea of torture then I think you need to go back to school, son. A 5 year old could come up with something more inventive without even trying." In response he does it again, hard enough to rock the chair backwards as my head snaps back painfully. The chair doesn't tip over, thank the gods, but the world does go a little grey for a few seconds. When my vision clears, I feel blood trickling down the side of my face. I can also taste it now.

He paces back and forth for a while, then drops down in front of me, arms gripping my thighs as he snarls in my face, wordlessly. His eyes twitch, then he speaks.

"Why'd you do it, hunh? What did you possibly think you could gain from it?" he growls, as he bares his teeth inches from my face. I just stare at him blankly, and he rocks backwards a bit as his eyes narrow. Briefly, a look of epiphany slides across his face and he pulls a knife out of his pocket, before he grabs the neck of my ratty tank and slices the front of it completely open. His triumph turns to confusion, and the knife clatters to the ground as he starts running his hands all over my now-bared torso and back, even feeling over the bra itself before running his hands up and down my legs.

I wisely bite back a retort about him also needing a new way to pick up chicks, since I don't want to visit greyland again anytime soon. It takes me a minute of staring at the lost look on his face before the light bulb goes off in my head, and I start laughing again.

"Are you really looking for a wire? My dude it's 2026, who the fuck still uses wires?"

He jerks away from me and starts pacing around the room again. Finally, he's back in front of my face again.