 |
|||
|
|
Chapter 4 – Trapped in the Aquarium
She'd been picked up from the airport by a chauffeur driven Jaguar. Her suitcase containing all her clothes and personal items had been safely stowed in the boot by the driver.
She had spent four weeks sitting a bedside vigil with her father, but he had not regained consciousness. The doctors told her that he was in a coma, his vital signs were strong and that he could wake up at any time, or then again not for years.
As the weeks swept by the doctors began to worry about Charlie. She couldn't very well just sit there for ever. She was missing school, and most importantly there were no relatives to look after her. She had been using her dad's supply of emergency cash from his safe to ferry her to and from the hospital and buy food. But the money was running out.
Finally one kind and matronly nurse took it upon herself to call Charlie's father's lawyer. The lawyer did in fact have copies of all of her father's legal documents and Charlie's custody was temporarily given over to him while arrangements were made.
Charlie's father had, like many people, arranged to have an enduring power of attorney in place in cause of a prolonged illness or loss of mental faculty. In these circumstances, with him in a deep coma, the power of attorney came into effect. The lawyer phoned the person named in the power of attorney to advise them of their obligations and responsibilities to the estate while Charlie's father was incapacitated. That person was none other than Frank Campbell.
Mr Campbell had arranged for Charlie to fly by to his home, at first Charlie was reticent, wanting to stay with her father. However Mr Campbell kindly pointed out the folly of such an act. He made the point that she was technically truant at present, unable to fend for herself in the family home and that the only option was to come and live with him until her father recovered.
So Charlie had packed her favourite clothes and sports equipment into a suitcase and caught a Delta flight back to the city.
The Jaguar pulled up in front of a ritzy looking apartment block. The concierge opened her door and the chauffeur lifted the suitcase out of the trunk. Charlie was shown to the elevator, a swipe card flashed over the security scanner and the button for the penthouse was pushed.
Charlie walked out of the lift into an expansive marble foyer. A skylight above shed natural light into the room and a waterfall in one corner provided a soothing mood to the entrance.
The driver followed her out of the lift as a Maid walked into the foyer. Dressed in a classically formal English maids outfit she directed the driver to pop the bags in "The Prepared Room". She kindly took Charlie's hand, "I'm sure after such a long flight you'll be happy for a shower. The master will be home soon and I'm sure he'd be delighted to show you around the apartment before dinner."
Charlie and the Maid walked down a hallway passing a number of closed doors, the architecture here was a blend of the classic and modern eras. Again, as with the store, everything was perfectly clean, not a thing out of place. The Maid opened a door revealing a bathroom.
"Just leave your clothes here. There's a towel on the rack in the corner and we'll pop your suitcase in your bedroom while you are showering. Speaking of which, your bedroom is just through that door there."
The Maid pulled the door too and Charlie stripped off her clothes, she thought of waiting for her toiletries bag, but noticed that the shower recess contained everything she needed, shampoo, soap and a razor.
Freshly showered and towelled off Charlie ventured through the interconnecting door into her new bedroom.
The door opened to the most hideous creation Charlie had ever witnessed. The walls were alternately a brazen pink and wallpaper patterned with tiny teddy-bears. The sole window was patterned with lead lighting outlining a central floral theme. The carpet, a tasteful beige that contrasted the pink walls while a rug inlaid with tiny teddy bears dominated the centre of the room.
In one corner stood a white desk topped with shelves, within the shelves were soft toys and books with titles such as "The Adventures of Isabelle" and "The Island of Blue Dolphins". An antique white chair was pushed neatly into the desk. Next to the desk stood a white duchess, with a large white framed mirror sitting on the wall behind it. Another set of virginal white drawers lent against the opposite wall next to the wardrobe. A tasteful pot-plant sat atop it.
But perhaps most alarmingly of all was the bed. In front of the sole window stood a single bed, with a white bed head and set off with a frilly white valance. Upon it was a blue coverlet, again motiffed with little teddy bears, and bunny rabbits. Next to the bed sat a white bedside table, upon which a bunny rabbit patterned night light sat.
But what concerned Charlie most of all, was what the room was missing – her suitcase.
She tried to open the one built-in cupboard in the room, only to find it locked. In an ever increasing frenzy she tried to open the drawers in the duchess, the bedside table and all the other drawers in the room only to find them locked as well.
Returning to the bathroom she noticed the clothes she had worn on the plane had disappeared. She went to open the door that she had initially entered the bathroom from. It too was locked.
Now in a complete panic she raced back into the hideous little girl's bedroom only to notice something that should have stood out immediately. Besides the interconnecting door from the bathroom there was no other door out of the room.
Distraught, nigh on tears and in a panic, Charlie sat on the edge of the bed to try to get a grasp on her situation. Here she was, thousands of miles from home, without her suitcase, half naked and locked in a girlish nightmare full of teddy bears, rabbits and frills.
"Charlotte – can you hear me?" Mr Campbell's voice echoed from the roof. Charlie looked up, astonished to see a tiny set of speakers and what she guessed to be a camera on the ceiling.
"WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH ME! LET ME OUT!"
"Charlotte, now calm down."
"WHAT DO YOU WANT YOU BASTARD!"
"Charlotte… If you can't be reasonable I shall have to take corrective action."
"LET ME OUT OF HERE! AND MY NAME IS CHARLIE YOU PRICK!"
"I will return after you have had time to think through your situation." The voice disappeared leaving Charlie sitting on the bed in only her thin damp towel.
Perceiving that somehow Mr Campbell had engineered her imprisonment Charlie began to look closer around her room. Fruitlessly she tried to move furniture, but to no avail as everything was securely bolted to the walls or floor. No other doors except the bathroom door, and that one was locked. She threw her shoulder into it a few times only to learn that the door was heavily reinforced, probably bolted top and bottom and unable to budge an inch.
It was then that she started to notice the temperature dropping.
"LET ME OUT YOU BASTARDS!"
She ran back to the bedroom and looking at the window with the floral lead lining she hurled the copy of "The Adventures of Isabella" from the desk at the window. It harmlessly bumped off and fell on the bed. She tried punching the window to find that whatever it was made of wasn't going to break.
The temperature was now decidedly frosty and Charlie's teeth began chattering. Looking despairingly at the bed covered in a pattern of teddy bears and bunny rabbits, Charlie decided that her pride would have to suffer for the sake of warmth.
She dropped the damp and now freezing towel, and crept under the covers. Still the cold hit her in waves – it didn't get this cold in industrial refrigerators, what the hell was going on.
"Charlotte." Not a question, a statement. The voice of Mr Campbell returned.
"W w w what d do you w w w want?" A freezing Charlie responded.
"Are you cold enough yet? It can get a lot colder. I don't want to have to do that now, do I?"
"N n n n n n n no?"
"If you are prepared to be reasonable then I will turn the thermostat back up. Are you going to be reasonable?"
Charlie's thoughts turned over, she'd never been this cold before, it was terrible, every bone in her body ached when she moved, her teeth have gone beyond chattering and her whole body had been shivering for several minutes. It must have been easily below zero degrees. Soon, she knew, she would stop shivering entirely and her bodies defences would start absorbing muscle and body tissue to generate energy to keep her warm. She had no choice.
"Y y y y yes."
"Now that's better. I'm going to turn the thermostat back up now Charlotte, and I'm going to have a little talk with you. If you start shouting and screaming, or you fail to do what I tell you then the thermostat will be turned back down. Am I understood?"
"Y y y y y y y y y y yessss."
|
|
|