Ted and Kat

Chapter 4

My gun was gone.

I knew he took it. Why did I think a locked door would protect me? I almost tore the entire room apart to find it. My bag was still there. But no gun. Great.
When I woke up I couldn't see the sun so I didn't know if I overslept or not. I went to the kitchen and turned on the light, hoping to see him so I could question him. He wasn't there. There was another bowl on the table; it was the same gruel as last night. I ate it, but I stayed in that room all day, thinking that he would have to eventually come out and talk.
I wasn't used to doing nothing, so I grew impatient quickly. I felt myself dozing off, so I stood up and walked around the room. Then I heard it. Footsteps. A soft, shuffling type of walk. He stopped at the doorway of the kitchen , away from the light, because he must have seen me. We stood there in silence for a while.

"Good afternoon."

"You took my gun" I said with the meanest glare I could summon.

"You won't need it."

"Like hell I won't!"

"You and I know you have no ammunition," he calmly explained, "and as long as you're here, no one can hurt you."

"Except you." I pointed out.

"If I wanted to kill you, I would have done so while you slept."

The thought made me shudder, but I tried not to react with him looking at me. There was another pause of silence. He then took a small step away from the kitchen. "If you would like lunch, please step out into the other hallway and close the door."

"Why can't I see you?" I almost screamed.

There was a pause. "You did not question my rules from the beginning. If you want our deal to be upheld, I suggest you continue to agree to it."

"This isn't fair."

A sigh. "What in life is?"

I gave up. I stormed out of the room and did not come back in for lunch.
A sort of routine was created the next few days. I would wake up, eat alone, walk outside, have lunch alone, clean a random room (what else was there to do? I at first revoked the idea but the dust just became too much) and then I would have dinner. Alone.
I knew I should have been accustomed to, even welcomed to, the silence. Silence keeps you safe. It keeps you alive. Our group knew this of course. When moving locations, we kept things to a minimum, using mostly hand gestures until every aspect was checked thoroughly. But we still had moments of laughter, conversations, jokes and discussions. I didn't realize how much of that filled my days.

How did this guy cope with it?

One day, I wanted to more or less organize a room I was very impressed with when I saw it. An entertainment room.
It was located upstairs beside a small half bathroom. The room was bedroom-sized, but the only furniture was desks and shelves. There was a TV along with all sorts of consoles and players. The shelves almost covered all the walls and they were full of movies, music, and a few magazines and books. Whatever wall didn't have a shelf was decorated with classic movie posters.
The old me would've shrieked for joy and would have spent the entire day in this kind of room. All it did now was leave me with a bitter feeling.

"I like it here."

I nearly jumped out of my skin. I almost turned around and screamed at him to not startle me like that, then realized I couldn't. Once my breathing became regular I responded, "Kind of ironic, isn't it, with your rules of having utter silence?"

"Not utter silence. Conversations are surely welcomed. I haven't had one this long in quite some time."

Again, all my questions started bubbling up. "Why did you move to this house? Surely this wasn't your original home. How do you get supplies? Does someone help you? How-how do you live like this?"

Again, silence.

"I don't know your name."

An exasperated sigh came out of me.

"Well, you know my name," he continued, "I almost feel at a disadvantage."

"Disadvantage?!"

I felt rather than see that he was giving me a shoulder shrug.

I threw my hands up. "It's Katherine."

"Oh? A 'C' or a 'K'?"

I did my own shoulder shrug. "K."

"Ok....We now at least know one thing about each other."
He didn't have to say anything for me to know that he left the room.