Installment 25

I woke up in a room I didn't recognise. It was kind of dim, but not really dark. I always thought kipnap victims were kept in dark rooms, tied to chairs with blindfolds over their eyes. I was in a pretty comfortable room, probably a hotel room, in fact. I opened the curtain but the windows were frosted and didn't seem to open. I walked over to the door and put my ear against it, listening out for my kidnappers, or anyone else. I heard nothing, so I tried the door. Predictably, it was locked. I went round the room looking for other exits or windows. There were none.

I sat down on the bed, trying to think what my next move would be. Everything I'd done since leaving London had been on a whim and with no particular plans in mind. I needed a plan. I racked my brains trying to think of the best way to proceed. There must be some way of getting away from them. I assumed my captors were Janet and Elena, or the unknown being they were supposed to take me to. If I knew for sure who it was, then maybe I could think better. At least I knew Janet and Elena a little.

Ok, best thing would probably be to assume it was them to had me, and try to formulate a plan with that in mind. If it turned out to be someone else, I could rethink, but it seemed most likely it was them. I'd seen them near and I knew they were after me. The police, on the other hand, seemed not to be. Maybe I wasn't even a suspect in Kelly's murder case. Maybe they hadn't even realised she'd been poisoned.

I tried to get comfortable on the bed with little success. The pillows were lumpy and the thin duvet didn't hold off the cold air. There was nothing to read and nothing to do. My planning wasn't going well enough to keep me entertained and my mind kept wandering to imaginings of what was going to happen to me when that door opened. The idea that I would be able to overpower Elena was ridiculous. I figured the same was true of Janet or any other supernatural being who might be holding me hostage. I needed to know what they wanted. I needed more information. The only thing to do was to wait.

***

And so, I waited, for what seemed like hours. I began to feel thirsty, and eventually this feeling became overwhelming, so I drank directly from the tap in the bathroom. After a while longer, I began to feel hungry, so I drank some more, hoping this would satisfy that feeling too. I felt bloated, but my hunger was not satisfied. I curled up on the bed and tried to sleep, but sleep would not come. I was soon bored and frustrated. I knew I should be frightened, but I wasn't. I'd been so ready for it all to be over, and now it wasn't.

[Author's note: for continuity, for the next bit of the story, you need to think back to when they were leaving Ogmore and pretend that the conversation about the pendant went a little differently to how it did. Elena did not pick up the pendant and ask Fi about it; Fi asked Elena about it. This is what happens when you write a story without really thinking about what's going to happen next, but it will be fixed in the editing stage.]

The door opened and Elena walked in. I launched myself off the bed and towards her.
“What the fuck, Elena? You were supposed to be taking me to turn myself in, and now you won't even let me do that. I just want all this to be over. If that means years in prison, I'll deal with that, but I can't deal with all this shit anymore.”
“Fi, shut the fuck up. You're in a lot of danger.”
“Yeah, I worked that out, just turns out that you're the danger, not the protector. Yeah, you'll help me run from the nasty, evil Janet, then turns out you're both trying to do the same thing. So, who are you to deliver me to, Elena? Where is he? Fucking tell me!”
“He's on his way, and he's not happy, so you need to listen to me, and do what I say. There's no need for this to be a bad experience; but you need to co-operate.”
“Who is he and what does he want? Is he like you?”
“Yeah, he's kind of like me, but he's higher up. He's not nice and he won't take any shit from you.”
“Higher up? Like... God or something.”
“Or something.”
“What does he want?”
“He wants the pendant?”
I looked at her for a moment, confused, “The pendant? Is this what all this has been about?”
“Yes and no. Not entirely, but it's part of it. I didn't even know where the pendant was until you showed it to me. It had been lost to my people for many years.”
“But it was just on display in that shop.”
“Not to us.”
“The woman said it belonged to you.”
“That's not entirely true. We're its... keepers.”
“Keepers? But you lost it?”
“Yes. We lost it. Janet and I lost it and we've been left as mortals ever since being given menial tasks as punishment.”
“And that's what I am? A menial task?”
“That's what persuading you to go back to London was, yeah. Menial. Think about it, Fiona, we are the world's protectors. The guardian angels, is how you described us, I think. Do you really think that getting you to go back to London and face up to what you did is all that important in the grand scheme of things? Seriously?”
“Guess not.”
“The pendant, however, is very, very important.”
“Why?”
She looked down, “You wouldn't understand.”
“Wouldn't I? Is it because it gives me special powers? Is it because, when I'm wearing it, I become invisible?”
She looked at me in disbelief for a moment, “For god's sake, Fi, when will you understand, it's not about you?”
“I know... I just... I just meant that I know what it can do.”
“You don't know the half of it, Fi.”
“Look, I don't care about the sodding pendant, Elena. You want it, you can have it. Will you let me go if I give it to you?”
“It's not that simple.”
“Why not?”
“We need to know how it was that you could take it in the first place.”
“The woman in the shop gave it to me.”
“It wasn't hers to give,” she sounded angry.
“No, but you said it was ok.”
“What was I supposed to say? 'Hey look, you've got that thing that's going to turn my life from the shit I've been living in for centuries back to the bliss I used to live in, but I can't see it and I can't take it from you.' The only way to know where it was was to let you keep it and to keep you with me. I couldn't take you back to London and I couldn't let you out of my sight. I needed you to believe you were better off with me until I found a way to get the pendant from you. You don't understand, Fi. I've been living in hell for centuries and you can get me back. I need you.”
“Wait? You can't see it?”
“No.”
“Can other people?”
“Some.”
“And they can't see me when I put it on?”
“No.”
“Can you?”
“No, but I can sense you. Sight is such a minor thing to me. I have other senses. It's hard to explain. It's like trying to explain colours to someone who's been blind since birth.”
“But you can't sense the pendant?”
“No, unfortunately not.”
I reached in my pockets with each hand and pulled the pendant out, holding both hands up in front of me at the same height.
“Which hand?”
“I don't fucking know, Fi. Stop pissing about. He'll be here soon, and you need to answer all his questions honestly and completely, or he'll hurt you.”
“Let me go and I'll give you the pendant.”
“Don't you fucking get it?” she leaned close in to my face and whispered threateningly, “It's not yours to give.”
I stepped back warily and didn't speak for a while. Elena and I seemed to be having a staring match, neither of us moving, or even blinking for a moment, then I looked down and muttered, “Whose is it?”
“It's his,” she said, gesturing at the door.
“Who is he?”
“He's... my boss, I guess. It's complicated.”
“Everything's complicated!”
“Yes.”
“Yes? That's all you have to say?”
“What do you want me to say, Fi? Everything is complicated.”
“I want you to say something that makes sense of all of this; something that makes it all seem ok. I want you to tell me something comforting.”
Elena looked down, “Comforting isn't really my style, hon.”
“Can I have some food?”
“Jesus Christ, Fi, is that all you think about?”
“No, it's a lot of what I think about when I'm stressed, though,” I said, and Elena half-smiled at me.
“I'll see what I can do. Pizza? A large vegetarian for a large vegetarian, right?”
I smiled, feeling the tension lift from the air, “You calling me fat?”
“Yep.”
“Bitch.”
“Yep,” she grinned, “But you already knew that, right?”
“Thanks, Elena.”
“No worries.”
“And maybe a beer or two?”
“I'll see what I can do. Loosen your tongue, maybe.”
“Maybe.”
She left the room and I lay back on the bed awaiting food.