The Dark Side of the Moon

Chapter 22: Florence and Tommy

-Florence’s P.O.V-

The warm presence of sun filtered over me as I awoke, creating the illusion that I was safely at home. That was, until I opened my eyes and took in the scene before me. The sun that draped over me was originating from a bare bulb of light, suspended directly above me and brightly illuminating the alarming scene that was assaulting my sight.

Glancing down revealed that I was uncomfortably seated in a hard plastic, straight backed chair that was situated in the middle of the room. Tight ropes tethered my wrists and ankles to the legs of the chair and my skin was beginning to show the rawness that I felt from the rough restraints. Thankfully though, the hemp bag had been removed from my head but that seemed like the only visible improvement in this situation.

The room itself smelled musty and damp, reflecting the state of dishevelment that it was really in. Old wallpaper was in the process of peeling off of the walls, like a sickly green wave falling to the floor. The carpet harboured various stains and an immense amount of dust that had my nose crinkling up slightly, besides the old faded royal red that gave away its age. Below that, the dark panels of wood were in desperate need of repair and oiling, and looked as if they would creak on every footfall. The only window in the room was straight in my line of vision, but the shutters were tightly closed. No sunlight peeked through, and I was oblivious to the time without a trace of light to guide me.

The room was fairly large all in all, with only one entrance in the far right corner, a tall, regal doorway with a panelled wood door standing guard, faintly ajar. Beside the door and also in the left corner of the room stood two, menacing looking men with their hands clasped at their fronts. Each was obviously equipped with a gun of some sort as well as a two-way radio clipped at the hip.

My neck felt as if all the muscles inside had been stretched beyond their limits and it ached unremittingly. I groaned and lolled my head back, accidentally hitting the back of the chair painfully against my skull. The sound alerted both of the men at the front of the room, and they stared at me with shock evident on their faces. One of them kept their eyes trained on me, feeling around at his hip and unclipping the two-way radio. He brought it to his mouth and clicked on a button on the side.

“She’s awake,” was all he said. The radio receiver crackled for a minute, but then it buzzed loudly with the sound of another voice, an angry voice.

“How can she be awake now, we only brought her in less than an hour ago! Are you positive?” the words were hard to make out, but I crinkled my brow as I thought about them.

So they ‘brought me in’ less than an hour ago? That meant that the time was around eleven at night, with the majority of the town fast asleep in their houses. Rescue seemed a slim chance at the moment, and my shred of hope withered at the revelation.

The burly man on the two-way radio mumbled a ‘yes’ into the receiver and nodded several times as the person on the other end gave him orders. The voice sounded harsh and irritated, probably because I wasn’t unconscious as planned.

After he clipped the radio back at his belt, he stiffly walked forward and produced a line of thick cloth from his pocket and pressed it against my mouth. As soon as he touched me I squirmed out of his grasp and screamed as much as I could, but it was to no avail. My chair ended up sideways on the floor, with me locked into it at an awkward angle, unable to move at all. The man leant down and muttered a curse while fastening the cloth around my head in a gag, before hauling my chair up at a straight angle.

Even though these men were heavily built and obviously equipped with an array of weapons, neither of them made any move to harm me. This was surprising; with me being an avid action movie watcher and this went against all of the movies I had watched in that genre. The prisoner was usually tortured or treated cruelly if anything, but unfortunately there was still time for that if they felt the need.