Chapter 17

Ryan heard the laughter again.

This time, it came from behind him, and he turned to find the source.

He saw movement, but the endless sea of bars blocked his view. All the other residents were still lying prone on the floors of their cages, asleep. Was it still a cage if it didn’t have a roof? Yes, thought Ryan. He still felt caged, even with the extra feeling of space.

A flash of blue ran across the room a short distance away, taking him by surprise. He hadn’t been looking in quite the right direction, as the movement wasn’t from the same bearing as the laugh. He tried to follow it, and it was only when the rows aligned, like a barcode for captivity, that he saw any details.

A blue dress.

Bare feet.

Fair skin.

Long blonde hair, flowing freely as she ran.

“Hey” Ryan called.

The girl paused, but didn’t answer. She ran on, weaving in and out of the cages, clearly having fun. Was she playing hide and seek with an as yet unseen companion? She’d obviously heard him shout out, so why didn’t she respond?

“Hello?” he shouted, momentarily forgetting the price of breaking the rules. “Come over here!”

Again, the girl stopped running, then restarted. Frustrated, Ryan sighed and gripped the bars.

“Hey you, girl! Come here! Please! I just want to talk!”

The slight figure stopped running again and turned to face Ryan’s direction. He could see she was smiling from the flash of teeth but, given the angle and the obstructions in between, he couldn’t discern any features. He was becoming frustrated. If only he could get out and reach her.

He looked up to see if, with the cell having no roof, he might be able to climb over the top of the bars. They were tall, twice as tall as him and, with the smoothness of the rods, he’d be unable to gain purchase. So that was out.

The door? No, it was securely locked. He knew that without the need to try it. He’d heard the mechanism move into place when Jarvis closed it.

Fuck it! What the hell was he supposed to do?

Knowing it was futile, he gripped the bars and pulled them apart.

Did they move? Even slightly? Was it his imagination? Was it…?

No. They weren’t shifting at all, obviously. Ryan would have expected, given they weren’t fixed in place at the top, there’s be some, albeit minimal, movement. There wasn’t. Still, he pulled harder and yet harder. He was grunting through gritted teeth, and the muscles in his arms were straining. It was no good, and finally, he collapsed against the bars.

And slipped through.

He stumbled forwards a few steps, the transfer from inside to outside unexpected. When he steadied himself, he looked around, taking in his sudden freedom. Freedom was a strong word, considering he was out of his cage but still inside the building, with nothing to show where or who he was, but he mentally used it, anyway. He felt open, as if the vastness of the room had entered his body and was spreading it into the space.

He drew himself back in, inhaling the immensity and swallowing it back down. Shaking himself from his torso down to his extremities, he gathered his thoughts and looked around for the girl. She was gone.

No!

Was she?

He spun around, desperately seeking her out and, at first, was convinced she’d disappeared. If she had, what would he do? His only thought had been of her. Now what? Could he get back in…?

Ah! There!

The blue of the dress was vivid and seemed to reflect on every surface around it. Once he saw her, Ryan couldn’t understand how he could have missed her at all. She was dancing, spinning in circles with her arms out and her dress flaring. Every so often, there would be a little skip before the spinning resumed.

It was both enchanting and infuriating.

“Hey!” Ryan yelled, the anger in his voice not hidden.

The girl ignored him and continued to dance, so Ryan stormed towards her, trying not to appear like a petulant child, but unable to not entirely feel like one. When he reached her, she began to dance around him, without acknowledging there was an actual person there.

“For fuck’s sake, will you STOP?“

She did, halting right in front of him. Her arms were still wide and her legs positioned mid twirl. Even her dress gave the impression of being mid-flow. His instruction to stop looked to have done just that – pressed pause on her pirouette, waiting for whoever had the remote to press the Play button.

“Aren’t you going to say anything? Who are you?”

And play.

The girl laughed loudly, and the sound sent shivers through Ryan’s body, as if someone had colloquially walked over his grave.

Oh, was he dead? Was this Heaven or Hell or somewhere in between?

And she was gone again. He tried to grab for her, but she was too fast, and her bare feet slipped her from his grasp and through the other cages.

“FUCK!”

Shit! Shut the hell up! You can’t make sounds in here, or they’ll come for you! He knew that. Why wasn’t he being careful? Why was no one else warning him?

And, where were They? Why hadn’t they already appeared?

Before he could produce an answer, he heard, then saw, the other prisoners moving as they woke from their sleep. Perhaps he should have been quieter, but no. Let them awaken! It was about time they all met each other. With the darkness banished, they could interact. They could stand together in their lack of memory, if they all suffered as he did.

And they could fight.

When Ryan looked ahead again, the girl was standing close to him. He stepped back involuntarily, but moved quickly back into place, not wanting to appear afraid of a child.

“Don’t do that,” he said. She was smiling, and the grin widened. “Who are you?”

“It’s not safe,” the girl said. She was still smiling, but her voice held dread tightly like a child’s teddy bear, close to her heart.

Ryan shuddered at her tone, but wasn’t going to let it prevent him from finding something out.

“Enough! You’ve told me that already. Just enough! Who are you? Where are we? Who the fuck am I? Just tell me!”

“But it’s just not safe!“

“I don’t give a shit!”

The girl stamped her foot down and put her hands on her hips.

“Well, you should!” she said, sticking her tongue out at him.

“Why? Why the hell should I? This place doesn’t make any sense, and nor do you.”

“Because, silly, it’s not safe!“

Stamp.

“It’s not safe!”

Stamp.

“It’s not safe!”

Stamp.

“It’s not safe. It’s not safe. Itsnotsafeitsnotsafeitsnotsafe!“

Ryan backed away from the girl. The words had blended into one, and they seemed to be spreading from her, coming from every direction to the point the entire room seemed to be screaming at him that IT WASN’T SAFE! He put his arms up, as if they might have the ability to block out the cacophony, but they only blocked out the sight of her. He didn’t want that. He still needed to see her, and not have her give him the slip once more.

As he moved backwards, he hit the bars of another cage. At first, he didn’t look around, unable to take his eyes off the girl, but then he realised he could hear the words closer than he should have been able to.

He did look, then, and wished he hadn’t. Those in the other cage – cages, in fact, when he looked further – were crying out too, not just staring at him, but pointing too.

“IT’S NOT SAFE!”

Now he was beginning to believe them. The other cells should have been occupied by others. Men and woman. Children, if They were sicker than the average kidnappers. People, at least. But they weren’t.

Every roofless rectangle of vertical bars was occupied by the same person.

The girl.

Ryan turned back to check that she was still standing there, which she was, though now silently pointing, then returned his attention to the room. He had to see if she was absolutely everywhere. Which she was!

“IT’S NOT SAFE!”

They were no longer shouting constantly. Instead, they called out as he looked directly at each of them, falling silent as he turned away. He couldn’t help scanning over them all, and all were identical. The consecutive calls, coming so soon after one another but not at exactly the same time, created a rolling mess of sound. The words were unintelligible and built upon the previous cry so much that he had to cover his ears with his hands. Still, the volume grew, and he squeezed his eyes shut against its onslaught.

Ryan dropped to his knees and doubled over. It was no longer simply loud. It was painful. He moaned through clenched teeth.

“Stop,” he said in a voice lost in the dissonance.

It didn’t stop.

“Stop!” he said with more force, but not nearly enough to stand up to the monster that filled every crevice and corner of the room.

He dropped his hands and opened his eyes.

“STOP!” he cried.

But it had stopped.

And he was back in his cage, and the roof was back in place.

And the girl, all the girls, had gone.