The Silver Plated Earphones

Chapter 4

Astra

I couldn't bring myself to believe how I'd gotten here.

I knew it was something to do with my brother but everything I remembered at that moment seemed like a... weird story... a made-up explanatory dream created by my brain. Fictional, fantasy, a reason for everything that was happening.

My brother, he wouldn't do that. He would never...

My body ached for an explanation, and it wasn't only because my palms were dead numb behind the back of my wooden chair and legs strapped with what seemed like rough fibre rope; I couldn't feel it anyway, how would I know? My lips tasted like blood and the damp odour of mildew and oldness clogged my nostrils, making me cough and splutter. I was either underground or close to it.

I could remember nothing, absolute nada. There were a few flashes behind my shut eyes of a blurred woman, Mother, and then those plagued shiny glittery wires, Callum somewhere in between, then we were in a close spaced van that had made me puke at some point, Callum yelling at the driver to keep going; sweat, stuffy air, itchy blankets... and then I suddenly find myself here, in this dark space, that feeling of not belonging like a dream where you wake up in a place you know you aren't supposed to be. I couldn't tell if I was alone at this point, the air was dense and hard to predict, leaving me disoriented and lost.

I hesitated for a few minutes, hanging my head in thought, and thinking of Callum, the boy I'd always thought I knew, a friend I had always trusted.  What were all those times I'd fallen the in park as a little child and he'd come running to me like a hurricane had carried me away? Those times I'd cried when I was bullied in kindergarten and he'd yelled at the kids for being insensible and uncultured, when I, understanding perfectly well,  was sure my friends couldn't even know that meant; who was that person? Where had he gone? Things had changed so fast in the past few days, my brain comprehended it fine but my heart was having trouble coming to terms with everything.

I tugged at my wrists as hard as I could but the narrow rope dug into my skin, blood oozing over it. I let out a silenced grunt; it was all I could do not to let out a guttural scream.

'Don't bother,' said a soft voice, breaking into my stream of thought.

I started as I suddenly noticed the pale skin of a girl next to me, bound in the same conditions I was. A condensed beam of moonlight struck her face, illuminating features that would have once been very beautiful; bright eyes, a narrow face, thin limbs, but one eye was bruised and her wrists were bloody. Her eyes were soft, gentle and she spoke kindly. There was nothing much I could read out of her; everything about her was marred and torn except for a dark polka dotted mini skirt that was ripped up the sides. I thought she looked slightly familiar for a second, the angle of her bare, cut foot and the scar up her shin, but my memory was strained and it wouldn't strike me. I decided to let it drop.

'I tried,' she continued emotionlessly.  A cloud must have passed over the moon because it closed a dark wall between the two of us; the only picture I held on to now was her shiny eyes. 'I already tried every possible method of escape but all of it in vain.'

I figured, I thought. 'Are there more of you?'

A ray of silver light pierced through again. Her eyes were blank. 'You might want to rephrase that, Astra.'

It only struck me for a second that she knew my name, but what she said was essentially right, I realised. I was a fool.

'Are there more of us.'

She just smiled. A creepy, regretful smile. I figured she wasn't going to tell me. She probably didn't know.

'Are we going to be tortured?'