Never As It Seems

The Puzzle

"Flames?" 

He awakened, but did not open his eyes. His head hurt like he had been run over by a train, and his limbs were aching with a constrained soreness. He quickly found that he could feel ropes wound around his arms, and judging by the way he was sitting he was tied to a chair. 

"Flames, are you awake?" 

The Fuzzy Guy had gotten away. He had almost had him captured - he had been at a total advantage, had had him about to destroy everything he had created- and he had still gotten away. He couldn't think of a word awful enough to describe him, as all the existing ones that popped up in his brain just didn't serve that yellow ball of fuzz justice. 

"Can you hear me? Your hearing didn't get damaged, did it? I hope not." 

He opened his eyes. His surroundings were blurred for a few moments before his vision finally cleared enough to reveal Annmarie standing in front of him, looking worried. 

"Oh, so you are okay. Great. I need to talk to you."  

"There was a room," he said weakly. He squinted, waiting for his eyes to clear completely. "A room... it was kind of hidden away... I went inside the door and the Fuzzy Guy was there and he -" 

"Shh," said Annmarie quickly. She glanced around nervously. "We need to get you out of here. Don't worry, I know about everything." 

He stared wearily at her. "What?" 

She looked around again and moved closer. "I know you're not feeling too well right now, but we really need to get you out of here." 

"Where exactly is 'here'?" 

"A holding cell in the Fuzzy Guy's hotel. Turns out the place is a bit bigger than we had initially thought. We're currently above the penthouse - and things aren't too pretty up here, I must say." 

At that moment he remembered something the Fuzzy Guy had said. "This is not the top level." 

"No, I'm afraid it's not. Completely hidden, too, you can't even access it with the elevators. Now, I need to get you out of these ropes, and fast. We have to get out of here before one of the guards comes back and finds me here." She shivered. 

Flames wiggled around in his ropes and found that they were relatively loose. "I don't think it'll be too hard. They didn't tie them that tight." 

"Good, because this needs to be quick," said Annmarie. She looked around with apprehension once more and quickly crouched behind Flames. "The end of the rope is right here... if I could just..." 

"You're going to untie me all by yourself?" Flames asked.  

"I don't see any other choice. Anyway, I think I'll be fine. I took that one course last summer, remember? The one that taught all sorts of self defense mechanisms and stuff?" 

"I took something similar once," he said. 

"Well, it sure as heck isn't going to come in handy right now. The good news is, I don't think they tied you up that badly. They kind of did a messy job of it, actually. Strange. Wouldn't they want you to be tied up all tightly? And they're probably competent enough to do it right..." 

"Stop theorizing and untie me," said Flames. 

"I'm almost done, gosh. It looks pretty rudimentary. They just tied the rope around you a bunch of times and finished it up in a knot at the end." She laughed. "Worst tying up job I've ever seen!" 

"Ann, you are horrid," he said. "Laughing at the enemy when you should be sympathizing with me." 

"I already did that. And I just think it's funny that, well, they barely tried. Here we are!" She untied the last of the knot and it fell free. "Now I'm going to have to unwrap all this. One of us is going to get real dizzy here."