Sighing in frustration, she turned it off.
She wandered over to the bookshelf and browsed through the contents. A few magazines mostly either about fashion or celeb gossip, a few old National Geographic brochures, some puzzle books, plus some paperback fiction novels aimed mostly at the young-adult market. There was a good choice of DVDs including comedy movies, chick-flicks, boxed-sets of TV series, a few sci-fi movies, James Bond, the Jason Bourne series and so on. Finally there were half a dozen jigsaws, mostly of castles or medieval village scenes. She picked one at random – it had a snowy Neuschwanstein Castle surrounded by forests on the front, 1000 pieces long, which she decided would at least give her something to do. Taking it over to the table, Nina sat in the chair from where she could see the door, opened the box up and tipped out the pieces.
As she was sorting them out a little and finding a few of the edge pieces, her eyes flicked over to the cage below the wooden staircase, and immediately she averted her gaze. That was the one part of her new surroundings she didn’t want to think about just yet.
She spent a couple of hours working on the jigsaw. It was more difficult than she thought and was quite slow going, but she managed to get most of the surrounding frame completed with just a few final pieces to link it up which she hadn’t found yet. She started to grow a little bit bored with it and so decided to find something to read.
Picking up one of the puzzle books, she flicked through it and thought it might be worth a try, but then she realized she needed a pen or pencil which she didn’t have, and so she put it back. Silly of him to leave it if she couldn’t do the puzzles.
Next, she pulled out one of the paperbacks. Some slim book apparently written for the teenage reader, something about dragon-eggs and a curse, which kinda sounded ok, if a little babyish even though technically she wasn’t even a teenager yet, and she lay down on the bed and started to read.
After a half-hour she nodded off and awoke with a start, looking quickly around the basement. Her heart was racing away, and it took her a few seconds for her mind to get up to speed, and only when she was sure she was still alone did her nerves settle again.
Getting to her feet she placed the book down on her pillow for later and was just deciding whether or not to watch a movie to pass the time when she heard footsteps overhead and she tensed up all over again.
Once more the door opened and the man with the hood stomped his way down the stairs. Silently he placed her evening meal on the table, careful not to mess-up the jigsaw – it looked like sandwiches and a can of cola – before gathering up the breakfast tray and laundry bag, and, without a word, went back up the staircase and locked the door. There were more footsteps overhead, followed by the faint bump of another door closing somewhere.
Alone again, Nina ate the food.
Later – early evening she assumed – she watched a couple of movies, but she was distracted and found it hard to concentrate on the plots, which were fairly silly anyway. So she decided to use the bathroom, keeping the door open while she did her business, and then thought she might as well try to sleep. Quickly undressing and putting on a clean set of pyjamas, Nina slipped into bed.
Within five minutes, and much to her surprise, she felt herself start to drift off and wondered vaguely if the man in the hood had maybe crushed up a sleeping pill and mixed it into her sandwich. But before she could ponder this any further, she was asleep.
…to awake on her second morning in the basement room to the clomp-clomp of those footsteps.
Looking at the young girl sitting on her bed, the man felt an overwhelming sense of shame wash over him. He felt terrible for what he was putting her through – she was the total innocent in all of this. But he didn’t regret doing what he’d done, especially to her parents who had both had it coming. Killing them had not pricked his conscience in the slightest, just the opposite in fact. He felt elated at that. But the girl, oh why did he have to put her through this? The poor wretch must be terrified, and she must hate him so much.
But perhaps, over time, that might change.
Once he explained the reasons for having taken her. Surely she would understand, and forgive him for that? Perhaps even agree that it was right and just?
However long that took, he would wait. He could be very patient like that.
He turned to go, before his sense of guilt became too much.
“Please take your mask off.”
Her words jolted him and he froze on the spot.
After a moment he turned back and saw through his visor that she was looking straight back, seemingly no longer fearful of him, which confused him. He could hear his own breath rasping in his ears and a slight dizziness passed through his body.
“I want to see your face Tobias,” she whispered.
Why was she doing this? he asked himself. He was the maniac who had murdered her parents and took her away. She should despise him. She shouldn’t be talking like this, calmly and almost like a friend.
Was she trying to trick him? To make him lower
