A Strange Love Story: Love In Captivity

Love In Captivity

It was dark. Very dark. I couldn’t open my eyes as I was blindfolded. I did not know where I was but whatever that place was it stank as if something had died there. My hands were tied to a curtain rod of a window which had wooden planes nailed to keep it shut.. My legs were tired of standing for such a long time. I cannot tell how long had it been but it felt like a million years. I couldn’t remember how I ended up here and who did this to me. I couldn’t shout for help either because my mouth was gagged with a dirty rag. I was confused. I was scared for my life. I wanted to get out of there. Help…someone…please, I prayed.

It was the summer of ‘98. I was laying on the sofa watching TV. My parents had gone out to visit my grandparents which I had been against of as I didn’t like to stay home alone, at night. A 19-year-old girl getting scared like that is not a pretty site you know. Suddenly there came a knock on the door. I was startled and pulled my cushion closer to me. The knock came again. I figured that I had to answer it so, I stood up and walked to the door slowly, treading carefully. A shiver ran down my back as I turned the doorknob. I opened the door and found a man standing there with a gun pointing at me. Pop-eyed, I just stood there as he grabbed me by my throat and dragged me outside of the house. He tied my hands behind my back, gagged me and I cannot remember what happened next as he hit me with a bat at the back of my head giving me a concussion.

I heard the sounds of someone approaching in the room. I was blindfolded so I couldn’t see much but I could smell their rancid breath when they came close to me.

“Sleeping beauty has finally woken up I see”, said the man (I could tell by his voice). A fat hand with big fingernails grazed my cheek and I threw my head sideways in utter disgust.

“Woah, sleeping beauty is ready to fight huh? Let’s see what she does when I do this.”, and then a palm connected with my face sending me to the ground except that I was tied up so I couldn’t exactly land on the ground. I felt a little blood coming out of my nose.

“Yo, Nathan, don’t hit her. We have strict orders.”, another voice said.

“Yeah yeah, I know. Master has strictly told everyone not to touch her but…but…I just couldn’t resist hurting her man”, said Nathan.

“Master is coming, clean the blood from her nose you stupid idiot”, said the second man.

Nathan pulled my face upwards by my hair and scrubbed my nose with a rough hand. Soon after, I heard both of them acknowledge some man. A hand grabbed my blindfold and untied it from my face. The blinding light that pierced my eyes was from a lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. That was the single light source in the room because of which the room was rendered pretty dark. I could distinguish the main man from the other two by his outfit. He wore a long coat over his black suit. His deep blue eyes went straight through my soul as he started talking to me. He said, “Tabitha, that is your name right?”, I nodded my agreement.

“Do you know why you have been kidnapped?”, I moved my head side to side to say no.

“Your father and his friends have brought me much harm. He destroyed my house, my family, he killed my daughter, and I, Want Revenge.”

I shivered visibly and started crying. I so wanted to speak and beg for my life. Seeing this he gestured his men to remove my gag. I started speaking immediately, “Please don’t kill me. What have I done to you? My father is the one who hurt you and your family, he should be the one to get punished not me.”

“I sense that you hate your father too, little girl”

“Yes. I hate him. He is a bad man. He is not faithful to his own family. He was never a father figure for me.”, I said with seething rage.

“Calm down. I’m getting an important call. Wait.”

He went a little farther from me to pick up the phone. By sensing his tone I could tell that the news being told to him was devastating. After finishing the call he turned to me and said, “I have to be at my house immediately. My wife is sick, I have to be with her. Boys let her stay here, for now, we’ll deal with her later.”

And this way, in a few seconds, I was the only one left on the room.

The next morning, the main man came into the room with swollen red eyes, haggard face, and sorrow in his soul.

“I have some news for you. Last night when your parents were returning to your house they met with an accident and died on the spot.”, the man said.

“Is that why ‘you’ are crying?”, I asked.

“No,”, he said morosely, “my wife also died last night. I loved her, Tabitha. She was my whole world. Now, I have lost the will to live.”

“Come on, don’t say that. I’m sure you have other things to live for, killing me can be one for instance.”

“No, I don’t think I’ll be able to do that now.”

“Why? Kill me. I have nowhere to go, no reason to live for.”

Hearing this the man shot his eyes towards me in shock.

“Only yesterday you were praying for your life and now this?”

“Even if you let me live, where will I go? All I had were my parents, they are gone now”

“I understand”, the man said and then he looked straight into my eyes. We connected soul to soul there for a moment, making eye contact. All this while talking we got so close to each other that I could easily reach out and kiss him.

And I did.

Only a few seconds had passed and he broke the kiss.

“What was that?”, he asked.

“I don’t – ”, bore I could say anything he kissed me again, this time with passion and it was intense. For the next few minutes, I forgot that I was this man’s captive, that he had me kidnapped from my house, that I was tied up. Only me, he and our kiss remained. When we parted, we both were a little out of breath and we both realized that our world had just turned upside down. I was no longer his captive and he was no longer my killer. This is how I and Mike’s love story began (I asked his name later).

END
The writer of the story “A Strange Love Story: Love In Captivity” is Gitanjali Mishra. Connect with her on Facebook.