Then he finished taping me to the pole. When he was done my hands, wrists, arms, chest, waist, knees and ankles were all taped to the beam and I couldn’t move, not even an inch.
He got in my face. “Next time, Ava, if you don’t call off the Indian, I won’t be so nice.”
I made an angry noise in my throat but it was too late, he was gone.
Before he left he closed the door to the coal room and I heard him fix the lock. The door had a padlock on the outside, don’t ask me why, I’d inherited it from the former owners and never removed it but I also never locked it.
Now it was locking me in, even if I was to get loose I’d be locked in my creepy basement in a room completely devoid of light. But I was taped from hands to ankles to a steel pole and I didn’t know if I could get free. I had blood in my mouth, the taste of vomit in my throat and had just been violated in a very-not-nice way, even though I knew it could have been worse, that didn’t help much in the current situation.
Keep your head together, darling, Luke will come back looking for you, Good Ava whispered in my ear.
You’re strong, you’ve been strong through a lot, stay strong, girl, this, too, shall pass, Bad Ava whispered in my other ear.
I’m scared, I told them.
So are we, Good Ava admitted.
But we’ll make it, Bad Ava said. We always do.
* * * * *
For a very long time, I alternately hung there and fought against the tape. Every once in awhile I’d make progress, a little more movement, but it was exhausting and I wasn’t getting very far. So I’d stop and rest and work on trying to get the tape off my mouth by rubbing it against my shoulder.
This worked, I was able to pull off the tape and it hurt, mainly because it also pulled against what I knew now was a tear on my lip. I also managed to get my ankles far looser but couldn’t get my feet free.
Eventually, having exhausted myself, I fell asleep tied to the beam.
I woke up when I heard a noise.
“Basement!” I meant to scream but it came out as a croak.
I tried again. “Basement, basement, basement! I’m in the basement!”
This came out a lot louder.
I heard fast footfalls on the stairs.
“Coal room, at the back, the room with the lock on the door,” I shouted. “There’s pull lights in each room. There’s a padlock. The key’s…”
I stopped shouting because I didn’t know where the key was or even if I had the key.
Then I heard a gunshot.
The door came open and I winced as the light from a flashlight hit my face.
“Jesus f**king Christ,” Lee muttered.
“Thank you, God,” I said.
He moved forward, his hand going to the back of his jeans.
“Hang on, honey,” Lee murmured softly. “I’ll have you free in a second.”
“Hanging on is my only option at this point,” I whispered my joke and it didn’t sound very funny which must have been why Lee didn’t laugh.
He put the flashlight in his armpit and with a pocketknife he cut through the tape, ripping it free. A couple of times I made pain sounds in the back of my throat when he ripped tape off my skin but I did my best to swallow them down. When I was mostly loose, I drooped into him even though I tried not to, but my entire body was numb. He took my weight and kept working at the tape until I was free. When he was done, he straightened. He pulled me fully into his arms, his going tight around me as pins and needles shot through my whole body.
Then to my horror, I started crying.