Wicked Games (Student/teacher)

Chapter 23

Hayden stared at the flickering lightbulb. The room turned a series of black and whites as the light continued to falter. She counted the number of times the room turned black. "Three hundred and forty two, three hundred and forty three, thee hundred and forty four, three hundred and forty five..." she counted. A chilling shriek snapped her out of her distraction but it soon disappeared. She turned to look at the opposite wall and reattempted her count, "one, two, three, four, five..." Her shoulders and arms had gone numb from their position behind her back. Alex felt it was necessary to chain her wrists when she tried to attack him last time. "Thirty seven, thirty eight, thirty nine..." But before the last number escaped her lips, the lightbulb had finally met its end. "Forty," she whimpered. Hayden wanted to hold onto her stomach or rub her arms to generate heat but she had no way of fighting the cold while she was bound. It seemed as though days had passed since Alex brought the usual tray containing his idea of a sufficient meal: mashed potatoes with a disappointing portion of meat. Hayden ran her fingers over the short chain that connected her wrists to the wall. She estimated the chain was approximately fifty centimetres when she stood. The room was pitch black, the only sound filling the room was her own muffled sobbing. Her skin felt clammy and she desperately wanted to do something about her oily locks. "Swing low," she sang, "sweet chariot." She bit her lip to make sure it was still attached to her body. The cold was becoming unbearable.

"If you get there before I do
Coming for to carry me home
Tell all my friends I'm coming too
Coming for to carry me home"

Her song soon died when she closed her eyes.

A sudden bright light woke Hayden before she turned her face to shield her eyes. "Ah," Alex said as he traipsed around the room in a jubilant manner, "You're awake." A ladder rested beneath the new lightbulb which dangled from the ceiling. Hayden's eyes shifted to the tray  which sat on the other side of the room. "You must be hungry," he pointed out. He brought the tray to her before he sat down in front of her. "Is it night already?" Hayden questioned as she wondered how long she slept. "No," was all he offered. "Then why are you feeding me now? You usually do it at night." Alex offered her a bland look, "Are you trying to show me that you're still monitoring the time? I can still get into your head if you know the time." Hayden shivered. "Why are you feeding me now?" She had to ask silly questions like this to maintain her orientation from within the grey room. She couldn't let her guard down with anything, no matter how trivial since everything Alex did was for a reason. He came around the same time everyday. The one day that he didn't was the day he blindfolded her while she listened to Reed scream. She couldn't afford to let her guard down. "I thought you may need your strength for today's exercise," he said as he forced a spoonful of mashed potatoes into her mouth.

After he cleared the room of all his tools and other objects, he positioned a wooden stool in the middle of the room. All that filled the locked room was Alex, Hayden, the dangling light and the wooden stool. That was torture alone. "Let's play a game," he said as he leaned against the opposite wall. "I'm not playing any of your games," Hayden spat. "Fine," Alex said as he strolled towards the door, "it's Reed's funeral." Hayden caught the threat immediately, "Wait! I will do whatever you say, just don't hurt Reed." The smirk returned to Alex's face as he proceeded to sit upon the stool. "I'm going to ask you a series of questions. If you get them all right I will remove the chains. Get them wrong and, well, you know the answer to that." Hayden knew the answer all too well. An image of Reed's bloodstained shirt forced its way in her imagination. She nodded.

"What is you name?" he asked.

"Hayden Scott."

"Where do you live?"

"Portland."

"What is your favourite colour?"

"Blue." Hayden couldn't think of a reason he would ask such meaningless questions.

"Good. Now I need you to think carefully about the next few questions. Who is your best friend?"

She knew that if she didn't give him the answer he wanted, he would hurt Reed again. "You are."

"Good. The next few shouldn't be too hard then. Who was the one that taught you to drive?"

"You are."

"Who is the one that was there for you when your grandparents died?"

"You are."

"Who was the one that kept your secret and took the blame when you broke Duncan's laptop by mistake?"

"You are."

"I have one last question," he said, "get this one right and the chains come off. Who do you belong to now?"

Hayden couldn't say it. Perhaps if he won, he wouldn't have a reason to keep Reed alive anymore. "No one."

Alex got up and kicked the stool, sending it flying across the room. He marched up to Hayden and grabbed her chin, "You just murdered your little boyfriend. I'll be back tomorrow." Alex released her from his grip and stormed out of the room. "No!" Hayden yelled until her throat felt as if it may burst. Tears flooded her pale cheeks, blurring her vision.

The following day, Alex entered with a duffel bag in his hand. The keys clicked in the door as he locked it. He set the bag on the floor and reached into his pocket to grab a key before he crouched down beside her. Hope rose within her when he fiddled with the chains. They soon came loose but she found that she couldn't move. Her body was numb and stiff from being in the same position for so long and she found that she could barely move. All she could do was watch Alex hang a new set of chains from the ceiling. He drilled and hammered but Hayden could only think of whether or not Reed was still alive. Alex took Hayden by the shoulders and brought her to her feet before he placed her hands within the thick metal that wrapped themselves around her wrists. She struggled to keep herself from falling as she stared at the stranger before her. Her body was limp and beyond exhausted even though she ensured her body got sufficient rest. Her arms were raised above her head and her feet barely touched the ground. The position was far from comfortable. "That will be all for today." he said. She didn't care that her body might soon experience hypothermia or starvation, she just wanted to see Reed.