6.

When all is said and done ... how cavalier it is of the male ego ... to come all this way to fuck and then just fall asleep? There is not a whole lot of romance in that, though I could understand it too. Our actions took a toll. My actions have a toll, a cost, don't they? Sure, just lying there is a recovery from our actions, it's kinda nice. Still, shouldn't there be ... more? All those dreams, all the allowances I made.

'What allowances?' I can almost hear Karen ask, but what can she know? Perhaps more than most.

He came to be deathly silent, as for the rest of the cabin ... it was not so silent. There is movement here that is not Troy's or mine. It is not so close to be in this room but is close enough to possibly be within the building itself.

It may be a cabin but by no means is it small. It is a big place, big to match he who brought me here. There are multiple room, but just how many ... I can't say. There was hardly time for a grand tour. Surely not more than four or five. Yeah, there is movement here. I can hear it, a kind of soft banging. I get up and put on some loose clothing. There is a chill I am only now feeling. Can't blame me for only noticing it now, sure recent activity kept such chills away. Even in the presentation of flesh, the chill had been kept away.

It may be odd for a cabin to have two stories, though where we had come to be is on more of an upper level than a second story. Even with this, there is a sense of there being yet another level here too, a basement perhaps. There is that soft knocking again and yeah, they seem to be from somewhere below.

For a second or seven, I am reminded of the second time Troy and I connected had online. We had yet to actually speak to one another and I confided in him through text on a screen, that I was feeling as if I was being watched. He kinda joked, at least I hoped it was a joke, that it was him. He told me I am his new obsession, and he won't rest until I am in his possession.

Poetic? ... well, hopefully not prophetic. And he told me to go look outside my bedroom window. I did, hoping to return to the conversation with a ha ... you got me, but there was someone there, outside both hiding in shadow and out far enough to be a noticeable presence.

I did return to the conversation, wasted little time in asking, 'that's not you, is it?'

'What's not me?' his text asked.

'Outside, there is someone outside.'

'I'm sure there isn't' he responded. 'You're just over-reacting. Sure, even if there is someone outside, it can't be me. We haven't been chatting all so much and I have yet to know where you live.'

That made sense and when I looked again, there was no one outside. Whomever had been there was gone leaving me to think, had what I not really seen what I thought I had seen? Was it just something in my head? I let it pass and forgot all about it until the current circumstance I'm facing came about.

I go in search of I don't know what, inside a place, a location I couldn't confirm to anyone, if such an opportunity could arise. Yeah, I'm within quite a large cabin, though it took a good twenty to twenty-five minutes to get by four by four. I hear a voice. It's a female voice. There may have been just one word, and it is too muffled to be able to make it out. It definitely belongs to someone of my gender and it ain't me. Shit, I told no one of this trip, not even ... how could I? It happened all so quick.

A floorboard creek prompts more sound to arise from somewhere below. I can't help but look behind, wondering as to if any of this has given cause for Troy to wake. I feel fear for a first time, yeah, for a first time since any of this madness began. I see it as madness now, what the hell was I thinking?

Troy steps out from the bedroom and into the hall where I so happen to be, and he does this so suddenly that I can't help but jump and yelp.

'What's got your goat?' he asks with a smile.

I'm not sure if that smile is supposed to be comforting or suggestive as if to tell me he has me now, and not in the way I was fine with not all so long ago. Do I tell him of what I hear, or do I play dumb in the hopes I can make some sort of an escape relatively soon? I tell him I need the loo and he says that it's outside. Of course it is.

Across the walkway and I'd be right there. I know now I am in trouble. There is a lot more here than I know. I'm surprised for a moment that he lets me out, but in all honesty, where could I go? Twenty to twenty-five minutes in a vehicle is multiple hours by foot and that would be if ya knew where you are going.

I use the loo for I know not when I may get to do so again, and it's when I make an exit from this small stone building that I am hit by darkness.

***

Two four-year-old girls play together on a large multi-coloured blanket, both dressed in their Sunday best and appropriately so in more ways than one. Rei, being the ray of hope and light with which she will become known for in years to come is in yellow with a yellow ribbon tied in a bow and tying her blonde hair back.

Alice in her wonderous blue just like the adventurous Alice of storied lore though it will be Rei who will become the more adventurous one, and Alice ... well .... At four years of age, what else would a Sunday bring other than the best of imaginary tea parties. Indeed, an adventure onto itself.

The giggles are infectious as tea is poured into little plastic cups which at all times remain empty. Pretend sugar lumps and milk are stirred in. Jam scones may be had on this day though not quite in this moment so to save the dresses from accidental disaster.

It would be thought safe enough to leave to children to their own tea party devices down the end of a back yard, for what real harm can come from it. Parental supervision is not at a hundred percent though not so far off, and this not so far off is just enough to allow another kind of supervision come round.

Rei's attention is taken by the movement of an almost floating white butterfly, she gives chase, giggling cheerfully. Minutes pass and Rei is asked as to where Alice is. She was about to respond right as she looks back down towards the end of the garden and seeing Alice is not there. She should be there, but she isn't.

Questions are asked and the adults have no answers. Rei ... all she knows is that a shadow was close by. A four-year-old knows not better and has no experience yet to answer more completely. A disappearance on this day would plague her for a long time to come.

***

It's a strange sense of coming to, trapped within your own body. Engulfed within a stupor, and not being able to do anything about it, is a frustration unlike any other. You want help, you need help, but no one is listening, and you're barely capable of asking for it. Music is thumping, those around you attempting to enjoy their own evening and you come across as a pathetic excuse of a person. A stranger calls you a shameless whore, and perhaps this is something you have become. That was never the intention.

You see Karen standing at the bar chatting to some guy or other, only it is not just any guy or other. She is chatting with Troy. He is standing like a hulking brut over her, almost claiming her as his. She may be acting as she would do with anyone else though it looks as if to him, Karen is nothing more than his property. Rei needs to get to Karen, but she can't, her overindulgence has got the better of her and the crowds of clubber are moving, having her fight against the oncoming traffic. There had been no overindulgence, had there? She'll never get to her friend in time. What does he want with her?

He doesn't want anything from Karen, for Rei's mind is playing tricks on her. She's not in any night club and it is she herself who is in danger. The panic and worry of one feeling just as real as the other.

Before this reverie ends, she sees a child playing alone on in the middle of a small clearing on the dance floor. The little girl's dress. It is blue and full of wonder. Rei remembers it well.