You Are Dead

41

Saturday 13 December

Logan stood on a white sandy beach, with the flat blue ocean stretching out beyond. She was in a silky, slinky white dress, and Jamie in a white suit stood by her side, in front of the chaplain. Everyone she loved and cared about stood all around her in the glorious, warm Phuket sunshine.

Jamie kissed her on her cheek. ‘We’ve had our differences but we got through them, didn’t we, my angel?’

She kissed him back and whispered, ‘We have, my darling. You’re the one I want, the only one I’ve ever wanted. I love you so much. You just make me feel so happy, all of the time, forever.’

Then the sky clouded over. Her father looked up and said, ‘It’s about to rain.’

The light was fading. ‘No!’ she said. ‘Please don’t let it! Please stop it!’

Then darkness enveloped her. She woke. Total darkness. She was drenched in perspiration, remembering. Remembering. And began shivering.

The sounds she had heard some while ago. Screams. Terrible screams. She squirmed in terror at the memory. ‘Help me!’ she cried out. ‘Someone please help me!’

She became aware again of the painful burning sensation on her right thigh. Again she tried to move her arms. Then her painfully cramped legs and her throbbing toe.

She hadn’t prayed since her early teens, maybe even before then. But she began praying now, closing her eyes even though it was dark. ‘Please God, help me, please, please, help me.’

Then she lay thinking. What the hell was happening? The man in the car park. Who the hell was he and why was he doing this? She remembered reading about the Stockholm Syndrome. People who bonded with their captors. She had to stifle her fury and bond with this man. Somehow. ‘Hello!’ she called out. ‘Hello!’ She took a deep breath and then, with all her strength, shouted out again.

‘HELLO!’

A few feet away from her, in the darkness, out of her line of vision, not that she could have seen anything, he looked down at his project and smiled. Oh yes, just how I like you. Shout again. Shout as much as you like.

As if obliging him, she did.

Again he smiled. No one will hear you. No one can possibly hear you. No one even knows that where we are exists!