Only the Strongest Survive (12 page)

She
cried until her screams turned into quiet sobs,
intermingled with little moaning noises. She began to shiver with
cold and covered herself with the heavy cover. Pressing her knees
to her chest and putting her arms around them, she remained in this
position, lamenting her situation, and finally fell asleep with the
light still on.

*

In the
morning,
Emely felt much better. Looking
at her Chopard watch, she thought,
The police must be looking for me by now
. She got up and did a few squats and then turned her body
left and right twenty times. Her thoughts were racing all the while
and she had to try hard not to become depressed again. She decided
to do a few pushups too. Afterward, she went to turn on the tap and
out came ice-cold water.

Slowly she
put her hands under the stream, gritting her teeth. She washed her
face, smeared from all the tears
of the
day before.
Crying won’t get
me anywhere. I have to act soberly and carefully.

The chipped
mirror above the basin reflected wrinkles that she had never
noticed before.
I must be
nicer to John. Only when he trusts me and gets more careless will I
be able to seize the opportunity.

Once more she
rinsed her face, rubbing it hard. She took the new toothbrush that
stood next to the toothpaste.
Yes, that’s what I’ll do, wait for the right
moment.

*

John appeared
at nine. Instead of a greeting, he said: “I
can see you got up early. I’ll take you to the bathroom,
where you can have a shower while I fix you some
breakfast.”

She was about
to get up to indicate she was ready when he took her hand and said,
“I’m warning you, if Ronald comes and hears you, I won’t be able to
help you!”

She looked at him obediently, nodding. As she
was about to leave the room, he squeezed her right shoulder.

“
The noise of
his car
can be heard from far off. For
additional security I put an alarm on the gate which will announce
his arrival in time.” He pointed at the small loudspeaker in the
corner, which she had not noticed. “When that happens, you must
remain down here, perfectly silent. Have I made myself clear?” He
was looking her in the eyes as if wanting to see what she was
thinking. “Although I doubt he’ll turn up soon. Ronald has never
liked this house.”

She nodded.

When they
came to the ground floor, she was glad to see something different.
The
re was no smell of dampness and the
house seemed nice and light. She looked out of the window and
noticed the wonderful but overgrown garden.
Obviously the house has been neglected,
she thought.

The
w
arm water on her skin gave her
additional energy. She sighed with pleasure, taking her time and
spending over twenty minutes in the shower, soaping herself twice
thoroughly, as if wanting to wash off all the unpleasantness. She
also washed her hair and was surprised to see a brand-new
hairdryer.
He must have bought
it for me.

During
the
substantial breakfast, they barely
spoke. Finally, while they were drinking coffee, he offered her a
sheet of paper and a pen.

“
Write down
everything you need
,” he said. “Also give
me your size and I’ll buy you some clothes.”

“OK.”

Every time he
asked her something, she responded
politely and then looked away. She was afraid of him and
didn’t want to either irritate or attract him with her eyes. She
was aware that he found her attractive and that it was only a
matter of time before he came on to her again. At the thought of
this she began trembling, telling herself,
I must be cautious.

She examined
her surroundings. The o
bjects she might
be able to use as a weapon attracted most of her interest. A long
metal poker next to the fireplace in the adjacent room held her
attention the longest. Looking at the thin handle, she imagined
John collapsing helplessly, shielding his head with his hands
against her blows, yelling in pain, begging for her to stop, but
she refused to and kept going until her strength began to
fade.

“Emely!”

“Yes?”

“What were you thinking about?”

“
About which
shares i
t would be best to invest
in.”

“
Aha
. That’s something I won’t
interfere with.” He kept watching her, knowing he couldn’t trust
her and that she’d use any opportunity to escape. He took a last
sip of coffee and got up. Emely responded instantly and jumped up
in order to prevent him pulling her again with his rough hands. In
fact, she didn’t want him to touch her at all.

*

During that
day and the next
, she didn’t see him
much, apart from at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. After each meal
she trembled at the thought of him appearing again, but knew that
it was only a matter of time before he did. When she lay on the bed
or sat at the desk, she replayed the memory of what had happened to
her. She thought about it so much that it gave her a headache. When
she wasn’t thinking she was crying, and when she wasn’t crying, she
was asleep.

*

John
was not thinking of her. His thoughts revolved
around the money that would soon be in his account. Every morning
he rang his bank to check the balance. He knew that a transfer from
abroad took at least three days, but still hoped that things would
perhaps happen sooner. During the day he lay around drinking beer.
In the evening, drunk, he drove to the nearest town where he
entertained himself with the prostitutes who waited for clients
next to the railway station. The thought of Emely seemed
unattractive. Since he had pulled her, covered in dirt, from the
coffin, thinking she was dead, she no longer appealed to him. Often
during the night he woke up from terrifying nightmares which always
included her dead body. He was unable to forget the expression on
her face when he had pulled up the coffin lid. Her skin was white
and cold and she no longer seemed beautiful. She smelled of the
damp soil and he was horrified to have to lift her out. Everything
he had done was done mechanically and it was only later that he
remembered the details.

*

On the
third day of Emely’s imprisonment in the small,
stuffy basement room, John did not appear until midday. Emely had
already done an hour of fitness training and stretching. She boxed
and kicked as if getting ready for a military operation. Then she
began to wonder where John could be since she was getting hungry
and needed the toilet so badly that she had already glanced at the
chamber pot angrily a couple of times.

When he came
in she noticed
his face was glowing.
Clearly, he was in a good mood. She also saw that he had bought a
new pair of pants and a T-shirt. He was carrying three full plastic
bags.

“
The money is
in my account,” he said
, and threw the
bags on the bed. “I didn’t really believe it would happen until
today.”

“I saved it for a special occasion,” she said
absently. “I knew it would come in handy sooner or later.”

“Oh, yes, baby!”

He pulled a
CD from one of the bags and later also
connected a special interface that allowed Internet access.
He was so happy that he completely forgot about Emely and looked at
the computer screen like a child, proud of himself and his idea. He
had instructions on a special sheet of paper that he’d received
from a computer wiz instructing him how to install special filters
so that Emely would be unable to see any other sites but the ones
he would allow and to stop her getting access to e-mail. Finally,
he was going to protect the whole computer with a special password,
preventing Emely from changing anything.

While he was
playing
on the computer, Emely sat on the
bed, feeling angry. The pressure in her bladder was increasing and
so she transferred her weight from one side of her backside to the
other.
This fool doesn’t even
think about other people having needs, too.
She stared at his back, digging her nails into the thick
cover. First she crossed her left leg over her right and then the
other way around.

“
Listen
, John,” she said when she
could last no longer, “I really need to use the
bathroom.”

She got his
attention for a moment
. He glanced at her
and then got back to his difficult task. “There’s the pot there,
you can piss in that,” he said.

She could not
believe her ears and sat helplessly on that bed with her mouth
open, staring at him.
What?
This pervert is asking me to do it in front of him.
She became really hot. “Surely you don’t think
….”

He spent some
more time looking at the
monitor, but
then couldn’t contain himself any longer. The corners of his mouth
began trembling until he finally burst out laughing as he looked at
her stewing in anger.

If she could,
she would have killed him with her look. Her eyes glistened and her
lips were
pressed into a straight line.
Her cheekbones became pronounced, and she felt a consuming
rage.

“
I was
joking, honey.
One more minute and then
I’ll take you to the bathroom.”

Out of
sheer anger she dug her nails deep into the
cover so that her knuckles turned white. She could feel the fever
pulsating in her head as her hatred extended beyond all limits. She
was only just able to control herself as tears pushed their way
into her eyes again.
No, damn
it. I’ll not give him the satisfaction of seeing me cry.
Gathering all her strength, she held back the
tears that kept trying to find their way out and one did manage,
but the rest stayed in. She quickly wiped away the stray tear with
a finger and pretended everything was OK, and cooled her anger
inside with deep breaths.

Then she
thought
,
Maybe
there’s a hard
object in one of the bags.
Slowly, she
stuck her hand into the first bag, which was made of very noisy
material.

“
Sorry,
Emely. I bought the things
from your
list,” he said without turning around as he continued installing
the software. “And some clothes, so that you don’t have to wear the
same things all the time.”

With my money,
she
thought.

She
rummaged through all the bags, looking for a
suitable object, trying to remember what she had put on the list,
but due to her excitement she couldn’t think straight.
Why didn’t I ask for a nail file? I
could use that to stab him in the heart.
She kept looking without caring if he saw her.
If I find anything suitable, I’ll
strike quickly so that this bastard doesn’t have the time to defend
himself.
She examined the last bag in
despair, but to her disappointment there was nothing useful in it
either. It was full of clothes, toiletries, and other small
objects. Like a disappointed child she stared at the empty bags and
their contents scattered over the bed.

Suddenly she
looked at the reading lamp by the bed.
If I hit him hard with that, he wouldn’t be able to
get up.

She pulled
out the plug while rustling one of the bags so that he
wouldn
’t hear what she was doing. She
took the stem of the lamp and lifted it up.
It’s now or never.

What she had
not realized was that John was constantly observing her reflection
on the monitor.
As soon as she took a
swipe, he ducked so that the lamp hit the back of the chair.
Immediately afterwards he struck her so hard that she dropped the
lamp in fear.

John threw
himself on top of her and began to tear her clothes off.
“
Since you don’t want to try on the new
clothes I’ve bought you by yourself, I’ll have to change you like a
little girl.”

She
screamed so loud that he stopped for a moment
before putting his hand on her mouth. She dug her teeth into it and
he immediately let go of her.

“You can shout all you like, no one can hear
you!”

She closed
her eyes and
grimaced in the expectation
of another blow, but it didn’t come. Instead he grabbed both her
wrists with one hand and tore off her panties with the other. She
was completely helpless. She tried to wriggle free, but he was too
strong. She could hear the buckle of his belt being undone and
became resigned to her fate. Gritting her teeth, she lay perfectly
still as he mounted her.

H
e lay there for a while, making
small movements, mumbling.

After a
minute
, he got up, swearing. She opened
her eyes and saw his manhood in a flaccid state. Embarrassed, he
fastened his pants without saying a word and left the
room.