Captured and Bound - 2

He shifts the body of the woman to his left side to get a better grip on the door handle, and as soon as he enters the barren, damp room he feels a pang of pity for her. Alas, this is his job and he has to do as he is told, though it’s easier when the body doesn’t have such a soft, pretty face. He places her on the chair placed in the middle of the room and first ties her waist in place. He leaves a little slack so that she has a tiny bit of space to move when she wakes up. Next he chains her wrists to the arms of the chair and while doing so he can’t resist the urge to take her hand and stroke it. At times he wished he didn’t have to do all of this, deep down he’s not a violent person, he was only doing this job for the money and as soon as he had enough saved up he would leave. At least that is what he kept telling himself, but the money just never seemed to add up. After he had tied her down in all the right places he placed her head on her shoulder and with one last longing look he limped out of the ‘dungeon’ as he liked to think of it, and locked the door.

                Dragging his own cozy little chair towards himself, he realized how tired he really was, and when he finally sat down he let out a sigh of relief. He knew she wasn’t going to be conscious anytime soon so he decided a nap would be nice. He made himself comfortable and almost immediately dozed off. It was only when he heard his radio start buzzing did he wake up, the blasted thing always annoyed him. He turned the volume down low so all he could hear was a soft hum. He wondered if she was up yet and got out of his chair to go look through the little peep hole next to the window meant for ventilation. He looked at his electronic wrist watch and noticed that he had slept through the night; the sun was probably just rising outside. Oh, outside, how he missed it so much, he had been stuck patrolling the ‘dungeon’ for three months now. He cursed himself and he realized he had already used his day off for this month and started pining for the April breeze.  He was brought back to the present when he heard a soft groan from the lady inside. He focused his eyes on her and noticed she was finally coming back to her senses. He felt exceptionally bad for her and decided to break one of the small tiny rules; he took his flashlight and shined it through the window. At least she would have some light, if nothing else, he thought to himself.

The man continued watching her for a while but when he’s stomach gave a noticeable jerk he decided it was time to eat. He double checked the lock on the door and taped the flashlight at the window’s ledge. He glanced at her one last time and found that it pained him to see her so miserable. He wondered what someone so beautiful could have done to anger the boss, enough to get her time in the ‘dungeon’. But that was none of his business; he just had to keep guard and make sure the prisoner didn’t escape. Not that any prisoner had ever escaped. The ‘Dungeon’ was nearly 200 feet below ground level with state of the art oxygen supply and a completely natural look; no one could ever tell it was built to look the way it looked.  It was almost as if someone just made a hole in the ground, but in reality it was wired with so many different alarm systems and there were tiny vents blowing in oxygen. They could even control the moisture levels in the air, not to mention the temperature. He was sure there was a lot more he didn’t know about behind the mechanics of the ‘dungeon’ but he couldn’t be bothered to find out, not that anyone would tell him. He wasn’t at the top of the ladder; he was actually one of the bottom rungs. That didn’t bother him at all, as long as he was paid on time and got all the perks they promised him.

As he made his way to the mess, his thoughts made an unexpected leap to his past. He hadn’t thought about his life before working for the boss in a very long time. He was a simple security guard at the mall. He was fresh out of high school, not a cent to his name and living out of his mother’s basement; funny how he eventually landed up in a huge, state of the art, basement.  He remembered his first pay check and running home to give it to his mother who saved it in the ‘new home’ jar. He had never known affluence; his mother was an immigrant from Hungary and was very young when her parents were shot dead right in front of her. All she ever wanted was to move her son away from the unruly neighborhood that took her parents and then went on to take her husband as well. As he approached the mess, he wiped away a tear from his eye, it wouldn’t do well to be seen crying in front of the guys.

He nodded his head and smiled politely as he passed by some of the men closer to the boss, or as he liked to call them ‘suited monkeys’. He got his tray of eats and sat alone, he didn’t feel like wasting time talking to the guys, he wanted to get back to the woman to make sure nothing went wrong, but most of all to see if she was okay. He gulfed down his food, avoiding any kind of eye contact. Within three minutes he was done with everything on the tray. He grabbed his bottle of juice, wiped his face with a napkin and nodded his goodbyes to the guys. It was uncommon for someone to dine and dash, no one got offended if you didn’t sit with them, no one started a fight if you didn’t speak to them. Professional life was so much better than high school, and his job at the mall. He couldn’t believe it has only been 5 years since he had nothing. And now, he has his own house, in a neighborhood his mother approves of, she lives with him and doesn’t have to work anymore. Of course she wishes he would be home more often, but he tells her that soon enough he will be home all the time.

He finally gets back to his post and peeks through to see that she is now fully alert, part of him cheers victoriously that she is awake and the other part is worried about the part that is cheering! He reprimands himself for spending so much time looking at her and scuttles over to settle down in his relaxing chair. He tunes his radio to his favourite station and thanks the boss that the ‘dungeon’ walls are sound proof. He listens to the calming music and realizes he’s left the flashlight on. He glances over and decides to leave it there till night fall, it’s the least he can do for the angel face trapped in the ‘dungeon’.