Blood red love
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Charlie had lost all concept of time. She had no idea how long it had been since she had been
grabbed. Judging by the bruises the seatbelt had left, she guessed a day or two. The lack of windows and sunlight in her cell. She had no way of knowing the passing of time. Once, Loyd had come with water and a can with heated beans with a plastic spoon. After looking around in her cell, she discovered a compost toilet in a corner which beat a bucket, but she had
wished for some privacy. At first, Charlie had hesitated to drink the water and eat the beans. She was afraid they had been tampered with somehow. But in the end, there was no other
way for her to get water to drink. After pondering it for a while, she decided to take a sip of
water, carefully letting it sit in the mouth for a while to see if she felt any tingling z on the tongue or strange taste. Nothing happened, so she swallowed and waited for a while. She didn’t feel different. She did the same with half a spoon of beans. When that didn’t affect her
either, she ate the, now cold beans and drank some of the water. She didn’t know when she
would get more. Then there wasn’t much for her to do. To kill time and keep busy, Charlie
started to examine the right wall. She let her fingers glide over the stone, inspected every crack and strange formation. Places like these had secret passageways, right? Maybe she would get lucky and find one Millard wasn’t aware of. When she heard footsteps coming towards her, she got back on the bed. Loyd came walking. He had a new bottle of water and a
can of mystery with him. He stopped outside the bars, placed the bottle and can on the floor,
and then frowned.
“Is something wrong?” Charlie asked. There was something charming and adorable about him that made her relax a little. That was probably stupid, but it was what it was. He looked at her and then at the empty can and water bottle with a little water still remaining. Charlie had placed them on the table. “Do you want to take them with you?” she asked. He looked at her and nodded. “Okay then.” Millard had obviously been drilling in to him that he shouldn’t speak to her. Charlie got up from the bed, drank the last water and took the can and the bottle and placed it on the floor by the iron bars, just like he had done with the new food and water. The giant man stood looking at her. She collected the new bottle and can and moved back. “Thank you for the food and water,” she told him. He was still looking at her and just nodded. Still looking at her, he quickly snatched the empty bottle and can up and walked away. Charlie couldn’t help but chuckle. Whatever Millard had told Loyd about her, he was now scared of her. It made Charlie feel a little better about the situation. She sniffed the
canned food and guessed it was some sort of chilli. Charlie shrugged and slowly started to eat it. She quickly found she missed Vidar’s cooking. She missed all things Vidar. But she had been truly spoilt by him cooking for her every day. She thought back to her life before him. It
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wasn’t long ago, but she couldn’t imagine living off half decent meals, fast food and the occasional fantastic meal made by either Tyson or Lilly. She had to stop thinking about it, or she would risk to spiral down into self pity. Once the food had been eaten, she forced herself to get up and continue her investigation of the wall.
Charlie had covered most of the first wall and had started on the second one when she once again heard footsteps. Again, she sat down on the bed and waited. This time it was Millard. He smiled at her.
“Evening, Charlie. You look a lot better,” he said.
“Millard. I guess that is what happens when you stop drugging your captives.” Charlie could have kicked herself, her mouth should be on a leash.
“That was a necessity. I have my ways, but even I need to clear customs. It’s annoying, but I thought it would be better if you didn’t fuss while we were in the middle of it,” he told her. Charlie was stunned for a moment. Customs? That meant they were outside the US, right? Where had he taken her? Or was that just his way of confusing her?
“What are you planning to do with me? Am I to remain in this dungeon until I die of old age?” she asked him. He chuckled, and Charlie felt an urge to go over and kick him in the shins through the bars.
“No. This is just a temporary accommodation for you. Until you realise you belong with me. When you do, we will make sure nothing stands in our way. You will live by my side.” Charlie didn’t know what to say to that. How did you have a conversation with crazy? Not even her stepmother had been this delusional, and that was saying something. Millard didn’t need an answer, it seemed. He started talking to her about his strict father that had always been set to raise him in a traditional way and how much Millard hated him for it. He was pacing back and forth outside her cell. Charlie didn’t say anything, not even humming to let him know she was listening. But she was. Not because she cared, but because she tried to sift through the endless self pity party to find something worth remembering. After a while, he stopped and looked at her. “You are a really good listener,” he told her.
“Thanks?” she said.
“I need to leave. Important business, you know. But I will be back so we can continue our
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talk. I’ll make sure Loyd feeds you. He is harmless, don’t be afraid of him,” he then said and left without waiting for an answer. Charlie felt drained and thought she could just as well get
some sleep. She didn’t think Millard would be back soon. When she crawled underneath the
blanket that had been provided to her, she tried to not think about the dampness in the air or how lonely she felt.
Time moved on, Charlie spent her days exploring every inch of her cell. Millard came by on a semi–regular interval and talked to her. He called it talking with her. But she spent most of the time silent and let him talk. If she had learnt one thing, it was that Millard was the most self–centred person she had met. Combine that with his inferiority complex and she would listen for what felt like hours about how everyone around him was idiots who didn’t respect. him. How no one understood him, how people were afraid of him and tried to sabotage him. He never took ownership of anything. It was slowly driving her mad having to listen to his rants. The only other living being she saw was Loyd. He still wasn’t speaking to her. Millard refused to tell her how much time had passed since she had been in the cell. Charlie would. guess about a week, but she knew it could be both less and more. She was sitting, trying to figure out how she would figure out what day it was, when she heard Loyd coming. It hadn’t taken her long to learn to distinguish between the footsteps. She got up and placed the empty water bottle and can by the bars. She had only had reheated canned food since she had. arrived. At least they fed her. She sat down on the bed and saw Loyd walked up to them. He placed the new can of food and bottle of water by the bars and took the old one.
“Loyd, I know you can’t talk to me, but can I ask you a question? You can just nod or shake your head. Would that be okay?” she asked. The big man had frozen and was now looking at her like he was in pain. He tried to figure out if it would be okay. Finally, he nodded, and Charlie felt relieved. “Oh, thank you. You see, I just want to know if it’s my birthday today. If it is, I would like to celebrate it, you know. Just make things a little more fun. So is today the twenty–fifth of August?” she asked. She had chosen the date exactly a week after her abduction. Her birthday wasn’t until spring, but she would bet a sob story would soften the gentle giant in front of her. His face lit up with a child–like smile.
“No, miss Charlie. It’s still two days left until your birthday,” he told her. This was more than she had hoped for. He spoke to her.
“Oh, thank you, thank you, Loyd. Could you tell me on that day? It’s hard to know when one day starts and ends down here,” she told him. He enthusiastically nodded.
“I will, miss. Should I tell the boss to throw you a party?” he asked.
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if you said happy birthday to me.”
“I promise I will.” He looked happy as he walked away, and Charlie felt relieved. It hadn’t been that long and now she would get a notification on a specific date. She could use that to see how many times a day she was fed and how often Millard came to see her. She could use
that to create a kind of clock for herself.
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