Wednesday, January 18, 2012

You Kept Me Captivated (Part 4)

  We were definitely in the woods. There was a path leading to somewhere in it, and I was suspecting that Scott was taking me to the deepest part of it. In my mind, he could easily kill me without being heard. That moment, I was trembling. Could this be the end of my life? I was so scared until my tears were soaking my cheeks. And I could see Mum and Dad, Andrew, Annabelle and Marcia in my head. Somehow, I missed them so much and I was scared that I wouldn't have the chance to see them again. I loved them so much. The road was bumpy so I accidentally hit the bruised part of my forehead on the window. It was painful, so I held my head and moaned.
  "Are you okay?" asked Scott.
  "What do you care?" I grunted.
  Ahead, I saw a building, a cabin actually, an abandoned one. I was guessing he was bringing me to the cabin. But what for? The sky has already darken. and I could see the moon already. I guessed he wanted to stay for a night here. Was he crazy? Of course. He stopped his car not far from the cabin. He went out from the car and examined the place. There was a well, and a boat rack and also a sign board which the writing had faded. It must be an old camping site. The cabin was entirely made of strong woods and it had fireplace too.

  Scott returned to the car and opened the door for me. "Here we are," he said to me. And yes, of course, my right hand was still cuffed on the grab handle. I didn't respond to him. I was scared. Maybe this would be the end of me. He would kill me and dumped me into the well like they used to do on TV. Okay, Annette, be positive. "I'm feeling sticky. Don't you?" he asked me. What did he mean by that? He released me from the cuff and warned me "This place is dangerous. Wild animals are wandering in the dark, so running away won't be a wise act," he maybe had a point there. And yet, I was feeling like running away from him right now. Either being killed by him, or the animals. Okay, I was trapped. I had no choice but to follow him.

  He was holding my hand while walking through the bushes and the dark. How could he see in the dark? Suddenly, I heard something, and it wasn't an animal. It was soothing and calming. Waves. Maybe there was a lake ahead of us. And I was right, there was a lake. A huge lake to be exact. It wasn't dark there as the moonlight was so bright and beautiful. It was as if dawn. I saw a boat, roped by the jetty. We were approaching the boat. "You're not going for a swim, are you?" I said in fear. He looked at me and grinned "Better," he said.

  He untied the rope and asked me to get on the boat. "No, no! Of course not! I won't do such a thing!" I yelled at him. He glared at me once more, and I was feeling intimidated by his glare. "I said, get on the boat," he demanded. I had nothing to lose, so I took my first step into the boat, and then I sat down quietly, but terrified. He went on the boat and started rowing. I looked up in the sky, and I saw millions of stars glimmering in the galaxy. Too bad that was my final chance to enjoy such a beautiful panorama. We were now in the middle of the lake, and Scott had stopped rowing. Scott was staring at the stars too and he was amazed by them. I looked at him and he was totally mesmerized by the stars.
  "What do you have in mind?" asked Scott.
  "I don't know," I said. "My family. My best friends. Death, eventually"
  "You think that I'm going to kill you?" said Scott.
  "What else do you want from me then?"
  He silenced and stared at me. I could see that he had loneliness in his eyes. I turned my head away because I didn't like seeing him stared at me. My heart was pumping really fast at the moment. I was feeling so terrified. He kept staring at me, and I felt strange about it. "What are you staring at?" I asked. He didn't reply, but this time he looked into the water. Oh God, what was he going to do?
  "Stand up," he requested while standing up.
  "What?"
  "Stand up. A simple order," he said.
  I was hesitating but I did what he asked me to do. I was balancing myself because the boat was moving and shaking while I was standing up. "Take my hand," offered Scott. I took his hand and tried to balance myself again. And it worked. The boat didn't shake anymore. It was  balanced now. "Okay?" he said. I nodded while looking down. I didn't like him to look at me. "Take off your shoes, now," he ordered again. I didn't feel good about this. I didn't bend over to take off my shoes, instead, I was using my foot to do so. What was he going to do now? He kept on giving weird orders.

  Suddenly, he swung my hand to the left, bringing my body into the water! I was struggling to breathe and to keep myself floating on the surface of the water! I was gasping for air and tried to swim away, but which way should I swim to? He was laughing, and was making fun of me. Did he think that was fun? I almost drowned!
  "Are you having fun?" he asked while giggling.
  "Fun? Fun!? Do you think this is fun!? I almost drowned and you can still have a good laugh about it!?" I yelled at him.
  "I would save you if you were drowning you know?" he said.
  "Please bring me on the boat again. It's freezing in here!"
  "No can't do! I'm planning to join you in there"
  He stripped his singlet off and his jeans, leaving him in a pair of boxer. As soon as he did that, he dived into the lake and swam around. I held on the hull of the boat to keep myself floating and watched Scott swam in the lake. He was a good swimmer. And then he approached me, and suddenly went underneath, leaving me in suspense. There was no sound of him and it made me feel scared. Suddenly, I felt his hands were grabbing my legs and pulled me underwater. The shimmering light helped me to see Scott's face in the water. The scenery under the lake was so beautiful. I could see the weeds, and fishes and the glimmering stones. It was so amazing! Then, Scott pulled me up again to the surface, and both of us were gasping for air.
  "Having a good time now?" said Scott.
  "Yeah... Kind of..." I replied.
  Then, we went back on the boat, and was still panting. He took the paddles and rowed to the bank. As soon as we reached the bank, he picked up his clothes and my shoes. He left the boat untied and watched the boat being taken away by the waves. "Well, that's it for now. Bye bye boat," he said. He offered his hand again. And this time, without any fear or doubt, I grabbed it and we walked back to the cabin.

  He searched in the car for his bag, and he found it, he gave it to me. "There are some clothes I bought earlier this afternoon. Why don't you try it on? Since your clothes are wet now," he said. I took it and searched for clothes in the bag. And there was a long sleeved T-shirt and a tracksuit in it. It wasn't fashionable but at least I had something to wear.
  "This is all your fault you know? If you hadn't thrown me into the water, I wouldn't be this wet," I exclaimed.
  "Stop whining. We had fun back there right? Admit it!"
  "Well... True, but it was still weird. I was swimming with my kidnapper," I replied.
  "So then, we had created history. Now go at the back of the car and change. Promise that I won't look"
  Liar. He would take a peep if he had the chance. But, where else should I change? I went to the back of the car, and changed. Wait a minute. My hand wasn't cuffed and Scott wasn't looking. I thought this would be a right time for me to run away. However, I was scared because of the wandering wild animals. If I'd be more careful, I wouldn't encounter them. "Done?" yelled Scott. "Not yet!" I replied. Okay, this would be the brightest chance for me. Scott was such an idiot. I peeped at him and he was still looking away.

  I ran. I ran as fast as I could into the woods. I was searching for the road which we used to come here. "Hey! Come back!" shouted Scott as soon as he found out that I was running away from him. I ignored him and kept on running away. However, I couldn't find the road. So I just ran without looking back. If he got me again, I would be killed. I was running for five minutes, and I still couldn't find any road. And I was in the middle of the dark and couldn't see anything. So I rested my back on a tree and panted for air. I was tired, but I must kept on going before I got caught again. The woods was pitch dark, and was creepy. I could hear the sound of bats and wolves. I didn't have to worry about it because they sounded from afar.

  Suddenly, there was an entity in front of me. And I knew it was Scott. I was scared that he would kill me on the spot. I was crying because I felt like I was losing hope of living. "Oh Scott, please don't hurt me. I just want to live my life happily and I want to be with my family. Please don't kill me here! I just want to go home," I begged him. He was approaching me and I couldn't stop crying. However, his movement was strange, as if he was crawling or tottering or something, as if he was drunk. And I knew right that instance that that wasn't Scott, right after it stood up gallantly and roared. It was a bear! I couldn't believe my eyes and I was petrified by the roar. My body collapsed on the ground but I didn't fall unconscious. I was still looking at it! It was huge and seemed starving! Oh God, I was actually going to be killed by a bear!

  It was approaching me slowly, step by step and roared again. The roaring made me feel so horrified! Out of the blue, there was a fireball hurled to the bear. No, it wasn't a fireball. It was a torch. It seemed like a fireball because I was in the dark. It was Scott. He waved the torch to cast the bear away from there. However, the bear wasn't in the mood to surrender. It swung it paws to attack Scott, but Scott managed to dodge every single strike from the bear and performed a counter attack by pressing the torch against the bear's skin. The bear moaned in pain but it didn't mean that it had been defeated. It swept Scott's legs and forced him to drop himself on the ground. The bear was standing proudly in front of defeated Scott as if it was saying "I owned you humans". The bear had raised its paw to give Scott the fatal blow on his head. Suddenly, my brain and my body worked by itself. I picked up the torch which Scott accidentally dropped it from the fall and threw it directly on the bear's nose. It was moaning painfully and tried to extinguish the fire from its nose. It ran away afterwards, leaving us unhurt.
  "You saved me!" said Scott.
  "You did the same favor for me too! So we're even!" I replied.
  We walked to the cabin and I regretted for running away, unarmed, in the dark woods. I brought the torch too because Scott asked me to. Scott was mad. I could feel his anger. I was mad too because I couldn't find the way out. "After this, I'll cuff your hand to mine. So you won't run away again," said Scott. I was angry but I was too tired to fight back. So I shut myself up and kept on walking.

  Back at the cabin, he had cuffed my left hand to his right hand. So both of us were stuck together, and I couldn't run away any longer. I threw the torch into the fireplace as soon as Scott had put the kerosene and some firewood in it. The flame engulfed the woods in seconds. And the heat could be felt too. Both of us sat in front of the fireplace while leaning against the wall. I was tired, and so was Scott. He was no longer feeling angry. We could hear the snapping sound of the woods from the fireplace. Both of us didn't talk for a moment there.
  "Scott" I wanted to start a conversation.
  "Hmm?" he moaned.
  "Why are you bringing me here?" I asked with a low voice.
  "...Why are you so interested to know?" he replied.
  "Because you are kidnapping me"
  "I love it here..."
  "Why? What does it have to do with me?"
  "Because I want to share it with you"
  "But why?" I was looking directly into his eyes.
  He didn't answer and he looked away. I was expecting that too. He wasn't talkative. He talked when he wanted to. I gave up and sat quietly while looking at the fireplace. Somehow, the fire amused me.

  "Such a great memory..." suddenly he spoke.
  "I'm sorry?"
  "I'm an orphan. This place made me feel like I had a family," he said.
  "Oh... So you were lonely?"
  He nodded and continued but he didn't look at me. "I lived in an orphanage when I was little, and one day, Sister sent me here during Summer"
  "You have a sister?" I asked him.
  "No. She's my guardian. I called her Sister. She sent me here to meet more friends. I was ten years old back then. It was fun here. I loved my friends and the wardens. They were my family here. We ate together, swam together in the lake, played together, and slept together. For a month and a half Annette, I couldn't be more happier," he moved his head and looked at me. His hazel green eyes were shimmering and I could see my reflection in it. "I learned many things here. To cook, to swim, to paddle the boat, everything. Until one day, all of us had to leave the camp. The session had ended. We cried, yeah... But there was nothing we could do right?"
  "... Yeah... So what happened next?" suddenly I was interested to know more about Scott.
  "We said goodbye and from that day, we'd never seen each other again. We were kids and we had no cell phones or emails. Nothing. I miss them, a lot. That's why I brought you here with me. I want to relive the memories which I had with them here," he said. Once again, he turned his head away.

  I felt his loneliness at that moment. I thought, that was why he had kidnapped me. Not for money or sex. He just wanted to be accompanied. But why he had to do it wrongly? It didn't mean that I was feeling comfortable with him, I was still thinking a way to escape. I felt sorry for him, but at the same time, I was furious because he separated me with my family. I looked at the fire again, trying to calm myself down. I was too tired to be mad. "Scott? You can't do this okay? You can't force me to be with you. If you do it correctly, I'll understand but you're doing it wrongly, and it's against the law!" He didn't move at all. "Scott?" I shook his body slowly. He had fallen into a deep sleep already. I smiled. I had no explanation why did I smile. Suddenly, I just did. "Goodnight, Scott"

                                                            -TO BE CONTINUED-

No comments:

Post a Comment