Chapter 2: CHAPTER 0 – PART II

When I finally wake up again, my head hurts a lot less,but there's still a dull ache. Like a crown of tension compressingevery part of my skull at once. At least it's only a little, now. Thesickness is still there too, but it's not dizzying any more, just alot of stomach acid with nothing to do.

"Man, am I hungry."

I rub my eyes. I rub my face a little too to try andmassage the last of the tiredness and nausea away. I blink groggilyinto the darkne... wait! It's not that dark. THERE'S LIGHT OUTSIDE!

I sit up as quick and as cautiously as I can, flickingup the corner of the curtain as I go. Light! A little higher. Morelight! My eyes start to hurt a bit from the brightness. Used to thedark, fresh from sleep, and maybe some left over sensitivity fromwhatever knocked me out, they take a while to adjust. I steal peaksout the little gap I've made above my head. Blinking slowly up at abeaming summer sky. The building is warmer, but I still feel alittle cold. Definitely hungry. I wonder when I'll be fed?

The realisation of that last thoughts cuts right throughmy excitement at not being in pain and the warmth of the daylighttouching my face and fingers. I let my arm go limp and my body slumpsinto the bed. The weight of sadness flooding over me again.

After lying numb for what feels like both hours andmilliseconds, hunger growls and bites at my stomach. I listen withlittle commitment for a guard in the hallway, or the sounds ofsomeone cooking in another room, or anything really. Silence.

Still an emotional void, I let my legs slide from underthe covers. Socked feet press heavily upon the bare floor, and Isemi-cautiously sit up on the side of the bed. And still, there issilence.

I stand.

Nothing.

I step.

Nothing.

I search out creaky floorboards with my toe and avoidthem until I'm at the door.

And still, nothing.

I lightly place the side of my head against the door.The cold hard wood is soothing and I let myself enjoy it just alittle while trying to concentrate on the rest of the buildingbeyond. I tap lightly on the door and clear my throat, but can'tmuster any words for potential kidnappers nearby. No response.

"Err... Excuse me?"is all I can force out, quiet and croaky, and after a while longer,"Hello?"

The soundless structure continues to offer no reply.Emboldened by my hunger and rising curiosity, I try the door handleas gently as I dare. It gives. The mechanism clicks like an explosivebooby trap in a film. It chills me to the bone and I stiffen inplace. I remain in my paralysis for a few long draining moments untilthe muscles in my arm begin to tense up. I take a quick deep breathand slowly pull the door towards me.

Again...

...nothing.

Another door faces me. It's dark form, illuminated bythe small amount of indirect light coming in from behind me, framedin contrast to the pale walls around it. To either side a narrowcorridor stretches out, shadowy and still. There are no windows, justclosed doors, empty walls, and depthless black at each end.

"Hello?"

I take one step into the hall.

A little louder, "HELLO?"

Another step so that I am completely out of my room,hand on the door frame for moral support. An anchor to the known. Ilook up and down the what now appears to be a relatively shorthallway, my eyes having adjusted to the pitch of the enclosed space.

A door at each end, two doors on each wall. I reach ahand out to the door opposite, let go of the frame behind me, andgive the handle a slow turn. It clicks with ease and I push the dooropen with the delicacy of handling tissue paper or crystal. It's asmall storage room with ladders going up into an attic space.

There's a tiny window letting in a pathetic amount oflight, but it shows that the room is neat and tidy, just a littledusty. Not enough to hurt my eyes, so I'm thankful for that. No onehas been here for a while. The built-in shelves are mostly emptyexcept for spare bedding. It has that musty smell of an old linencloset... well, I guess that's what it is, so makes sense. But, isn'tthis more like what you'd find at your Grandma's house, not somekidnappers hideaway?

"Huh?"

I close the door behind me and check the one in-between,at the near end of the hall. It opens centrally onto a big room, withalmost panoramic windows on the three external walls, all curtainedlike mine. Slivers of light have managed to slide in through a coupleof gaps around the edges, but it's mostly a void. I don't feelcomfortable putting myself in such a large open space, so I lock itaway again and check the other three doors. Another western stylesingle room right next to mine, a giant empty expanse at the otherend, and a small landing with more storage and stairs going down make up thethe other three rooms. It's like someone just mirrored the side ofthe house I'd already seen except for the direction of the stairwell.

I think of calling down the stairs, but am still alittle too ill at ease. I retreat back to my room for a minute tocollect myself. "Hmm..."

I decide to open the curtains.

At first, I pull them apart just a crack, but have toavert my eyes, so sit on the bed to give them as long as they need toget used to the light, then sliding one curtain all the way, waitingagain for a bit on the bed before, eventually, fully opening the other too.Once I am finally adjusted to a room full of sunshine, with only theslightest bit of additional tension in my head, I find myself staringout into the canopy of a forest. It's a good few meters away from thewindow, but very dense. The summer sun blazing down from its clearblue sky like none of this is out of the ordinary. There's amanicured lawn below that seems to wrap around the whole house. Headheight white washed walls keep back the encircling trees beyond. Isthis someone's private estate?

Have I already been sold to some old pervert? I freezefor a moment, but the thought is so absurd I actually expel a shortlaugh. It's relieving. After being scared and in pain for hours, it'snice to have a brief moment of, well, comfort. I mean, if someonewas here, they'd have heard me moving about by now anyway, right?

I determine it's best to not make it too obvious thatsomeone is in the house, just in case, so I opt to not open any morecurtains, for now. I let the light into my room, leaving the dooropen, and bask in my new found relief. Realising that my window onlyhas a simple latch keeping it closed, I give it a pull. It sticks fora moment, then gives, sliding open on chunky wooden frames. Thebreeze it lets in is warming, and cooling, and refreshing, andcomforting, all at once. Even the thought of this being a kidnappingstarts to flutter away on it.

Did my parents rent a holiday villa rather than a hotel?We haven't been away since I started middle school, so if they reallysaved for this over a few years, it could actually be possible. Whereare they then? Maybe they took a room on the ground floor, or therecould be a master suite in the attic? They might have just had one ofthe big rooms on this floor and have already gone out for a walk, itis nice outside.

Rather than staying in my room, or messing about withthe others up here, I venture onto the landing with the stairs goingdown.

"Hello?"

I make it down to the half landing, big step, turn inthe stairwell, thing...

"Mom?"

My foot plops onto the ground floor with a lightfearless thud...

"Dad?"

Not...

A...

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Sound.

My gulp of hesitation is cartoonishly audible. I snickerat how childish I'm being. They've totally left me to sleep off thelong trip and my travel meds while they go be embarrassing with eachother in front of the locals.

"Maaaaaaaan~"

I sigh with ever increasing relief. Stretching andscratching and slouching my way from room to room in an overcompensating attempt to make up for how self conscious I now am atall my panic the night before.

This place is super traditional. Like, all wood. Wherethere's not wood, there's that straw plaster stuff. Must really costa lot to keep everything so well maintained. I'm both impressed andcringe a bit at how dorky it is for my parents to choose somewherelike this. I didn't realise they liked historical places so much. Imean, they always encouraged I go on school trips to castles andstuff, and I think we went to a couple of those living historyvillages when I was a kid too... I bet this was my Dad's idea. What anerd!

I shouldn't say that... he's trying to make up for beingat work all the time. He probably thinks I'm still into this kindathing. How can I tell him it was always the costumes and swords andstaged re-enactments of events and battles that I liked, not thereplica buildings or restored ruins. Hell, that I haven't even beeninto this stuff since the middle of middle school, either!

I bumble through the rest of the rooms.

The whole back of the house is one long room, withsliding doors that let you open the walls onto the outside, and arecessed firepit at one end for sitting and eating around. The endsof the house are two smaller rooms. The one next to the stairs is areal simple kitchen. It's basically empty. There's some shelves likethe ones upstairs, a single small window high up on the front wall,and a long stone bench, half the width of the house, with what looks like a built in oven at theend. At first I'd thought it was anearthenware kiln like you'd see in a pottery class or something, butthen I remembered you get this old style of oven at stone baked pizzaplaces, and with the general feel of the house, I guess they're goingwith historical authenticity down here, even though the upstairs felta bit more modern.

The room on the other side of the stairs is the entrywayto the house. Big and wide, with steps down to a double front doorand more storage. Probably for shoes and coats and stuff. It'sactually pretty grand. The last room, basically a mirror to thekitchen on the other end, is locked. Either a secure room forvaluables or where the boiler and utility meters are...

Come to think of it, I haven't seen a light, switch,plug, outlet, radiator, wire, pipe, AC, or any other kind of device,anywhere!

"uuuuuuggggggghhhhhhhh..."

I stomp through to the big room, slide open the doorswith a clatter, slump down on the stoop overlooking the garden, andrealising that I won't have a computer for however many days we'rehere.

"I bet they don'teven have wifi!"

WAIT!

WHERE'S THE BATHROOM?!.

I whirl around the house like a mini-tornado looking forkeys to the locked room, but all I find are bare cupboards and emptydraws.

"God no!"

An unsettling realisation dawns on me. I step down fromthe back of the house. I go along to the right first. I freeze on thecorner. That better not be what I think it is!

There's a shed against the side wall.

Thankfully, there's a pathway around the edge of thehouse, and the areas at the sides are completely flagged with thesame kind of stones. Huh, so the lawn doesn't wrap all the wayaround. Better than getting my socks mucky from walking on the grassat least. I can see that the front looks pebbled like an ornamentalgarden. There's also a well right in the middle of the paving. GuessI'll be the one getting sent out to pump wate... It doesn't even havea hand pump! It's literally a bucket on a rope and a hole in theground. Great. This was definitely Dad's idea, I'm sure of it.

"Tch!" I click mytongue and turn back to the shed. Then that means...

I take a step forward, hold my breath, lift the woodenlatch, and brace myself.

"Oh thankffffuuuugghhh~"

It's a wood shed.

There are logs, an axe, and a bunch of other ye oldegardening tools.

"At least I know howto heat the place now." I shrug with relief, but it's short lived.Still need to find the bathroom, damnit. I trot to the other side ofthe compound. Sure enough... there is it.

Another shed.

I open the door.

It's a latrine.

"What is wrong withyou, Dad?!."

There isn't even a sink or toilet roll.

It's just a wooden hut with a bench you balance your assover so you can poop into a giant hole in the ground.

"I hope you fallin!"

Slamming the door, I spin around and then jump slightly.Something huge and black had loomed out the corner of my eye. I kickmyself for doing so just as quickly. I find what looks like a witch'scauldron over a fire pit. I tentatively wander over and inspect theoddity.

"You've got to bekidding me..."

It's an outdoor bath.

One person at a time can turn themselves into soup. Howthe hell do you regulate the temperature? At least emptying it iseasy. You just open the spout on the side and let gravity do itsthing. I guess it drains down towards the poop pit after that. How doyou fill it though? "Oh!"

By my feet there's a bucket.

"I'm done."

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