War in Love

The room was dark and damp; the only sound was a very faint drip. The girls head started to shift slightly as her thick eyelashes fluttered open to be met only with darkness. She couldn't make out much in front of her and judging from the sounds in the room, or lack thereof, she figured that she was alone. There was a painful pounding in her head but as she started to move her hands up to try and soothe it, she felt a sharp sting in her wrists. Her face scrunched up in pain as she dropped her hands slightly. After the pain subsided a bit, she tried to tug her hands apart once more but the feel of coarse rope against her raw skin stopped her again as pain shot through her arms in protest. A groan escaped her dry lips as the pounding in her head picked up a harsher rhythm.

Rationality struggled past the pain to help her make sense of where she was and how she'd come to be here. The last thing she could remember was the soft drone of music but no other coherent memories came forth.

The distant dripping was somewhat of a comfort, it didn't give her any clues as to where she was but it was a sound at least, sitting in total silence might've made her go insane.

After what seemed like hours, another faint sound joined the constant dripping. It wasn't entirely certain what it was and it started off just barely audible but it was obvious that the noise was approaching because the sound was getting progressively louder over time. The closer the sound got, the more apparent it became that the sound unmistakably belonged to a pair of heels walking on some kind of tile.

When the sound of the heels finally stopped it seemed that they were only about ten feet away from the spot where she was sitting. She attempted to adjust her head in the direction of where she'd heard the footsteps stop but it was behind her so she settled for looking over her left shoulder.

Without warning, a switch was flipped and on came the brightest lights that she'd ever had the misfortune of setting eyes on. Quickly shutting her eyes as tightly as she could, she felt her headache come back even more forcefully than before. The sound of the footsteps moved in almost an arc around her until they were right in front of her. She bowed her head forward as she tried to open her eyes avoiding the light as much as possible using her long auburn hair as sort of a curtain to dim the harshness of the light.

After a few minutes of silence, the girl raised her head to try and see the face of whoever was standing in front of her. Her eyes were finally starting to adjust to the light. As her eyes gained focus on the face, it didn't register as anyone she'd ever seen before. He was quietly and patiently watching her as he rubbed his palms together in a slow and constant motion. The man seemed completely at ease and in no real rush to get anything done.

"Good to see you've finally come to, I was beginning to feel concerned." The smooth and rich voice suddenly broke the silence.

It wasn't until he'd spoken that the girl realized that it had gotten very very quiet, including the dripping noise that had kept her company. She moved her eyes away from his face and glanced around realizing that they were inside of a cave, one that was definitely made on purpose.

The man took a step back and spun on his heel so that his back was to her and blocking her view of whatever he was rifling through. By the sound of clinking and metallic clanking, it was obvious that he was moving tools of some kind around. The sounds of metal, paired with the inability to see what they were, caused the girls heart rate to pick up speed.

When the man finally turned back to face her, he was holding a strange tool, whatever it was didn't seem pleasant in the slightest.

"You seem nervous," the man smiled slightly as he moved closer.

The girl stared at him keeping the straightest face she could manage.

"This little device," he held the instrument up, "is a new addition to my collection. I've never gotten the chance to try it out, well until now of course. To be completely honest with you, I'm not even all that sure what it does, but it looked like so much fun I just had to get it."