5 February 2013

I was coming around. Again. I was sat in a chair. Again. And it was dark. Yes, again. But this time I wasn't tied to the chair, far from it. I wasn't attached to it at all, so I stretched out my arms first, then my legs. So far so good. Nothing broken, just pretty achy all over. But I had the hell of a pain in my head. That's what a roundhouse to the face will do for you. I gingerly touched my face, and winced when I reached the area surrounding my right eye. That's at least a black eye, I thought, and I started to remember. Round the corner of the final stairwell at Mo's, into the darkened lobby. Bodies. Blood. The figure that stepped into my line of sight, the voice, the flash of blonde... Then darkness. Blonde. Emma. Had to be, for there was no-one else there. I'd made sure of that. But why? I knew all of these recent events had to tie in somehow, but how? Trying to piece it all together was hard, and made harder by the situation I was now in. The room I was in was pretty much pitch black, but I was free to stand if I wanted to. But there didn't seem any point if I couldn't see where I was going, so I elected to stay put and gather my strength and my thoughts. I closed my eyes. The pain in my head got suddenly worse and as I opened my eyes slightly there was a vision in front of me, like a dream, or a hologram. Images flooded my sight, coloured red, moving too fast for me to focus. I could see figures, but couldn't identify them. They were moving back and forth, ever more rapidly like an out of control videotape. A replay. Or a fast forward. Then the pain got too much. I cried out and closed my eyes tight. Just before I passed out, the images vanished, and merciful blackness came for me again.

It could have been minutes, hours or even days. I had no idea. But I was still sat on the chair, I assumed in the same room too, so I couldn't have been out that long. What the hell? There was no sound, just my breath in the gloom. Maybe this was part of it, whatever 'it' was, to play with me, my senses. Keep me on edge, maybe I'd just give up and play ball. I stood up, groggily, holding the back of the chair. Letting it go, I decided to take a few tentative steps. I walked around the chair, there was nothing in my way, so I widened my circle. There was nothing. Then the sudden realisation; the pouch! Gone. Oh shit. No point checking for the gun then...I checked anyway. It was gone too. Maybe it was about the disc after all. But then again, if they had what they wanted, why keep me? I didn't know what was going on. But Emma... Oh, Emma. Where was she? And it wasn't Jackie Chan movies, was it sweetheart? She'd been trained. But when? And by whom? Questions, questions... But no answers. I sat back down, rubbing my head from the double pains. I still had no idea how long I'd been here, and it seemed that no-one was likely to be telling me either. I'd pretty much assumed that this wasn't the diner at least; the last I knew it was around 3am, and knowing I'd been out of it for a while led me to believe it should really be light outside. But this place was pitch, so it was safe to assume there were no windows. No quick escape route. My confusion was growing, and starting to blur all of my senses. Had to stay awake. Alert. Who knew what was coming next, if anything? I could feel my strength coming back, but without a clear head to control it, it was next to useless, I knew that. I found my thoughts turning to my mother. It was an image of the last happy time we had together, when I passed as a rookie cop. Such a beautiful kind smile. I closed my eyes to savour the thought, then opened them again. She was still there, moving slowly on front of me, coloured slightly green. What on earth? I could only stare. I blinked. She disappeared. Now I was seriously confused. Here I was, in the dark, who knows where, in some pain with a trashed apartment, a wife who may or may not be involved in some kind of criminal activity and is apparently a ninja, and now seeing things? Was this a part of their plan, some kind of plot? Had they given me the drug Emma had told me about? I couldn't help myself, and I began to laugh. No-one seemed to have heard, though, because no-one came. I stopped laughing. The situation was actually quite serious. Ludicrous, but serious. I was totally lost in the course of events. This was definitely not a normal day. As I sat in the chair, I realised, all too clearly, that this could actually be it. The End. Whoever it was most likely had the disc, and if that was what they were after, then they probably wouldn't need me. It still remained to be seen exactly why they were keeping me here, but to try and do anything about it right now would just leave me stumbling in the dark, metaphorically and literally. The pain in my head was subsiding, and I felt pretty strong again, recharged. I decided to save my strength for whatever lay in store. And while I waited, I decided to sing. In my head at first, some old rock classics, but when I got to Springsteen, I decided to belt them out. And loud. The boys back at the precinct always said I had a shitty singing voice, maybe these people would agree and at least come in to try and shut me up. Zeppelin, Stones, Doors (The End of course), all progressively louder. But it didn't work. I shut up, and still nothing. No-one. Ok, thank you Ladies and Gentlemen, and to finish our show... Ironically, considering my situation, I was about to encore with 'Born To Run' when the black became a blinding white. It was as if a million cameras had taken a flash photo. I closed my eyes against it and threw up an arm over my face. An image of Emma. Coloured red. Standing in front of me. When I took my arm down and slowly opened my eyes, she was actually there. I tensed, and she saw it. 'Don't.' Remembering that she was the cause of one of my pains, I decided not to. I loosened a little in the chair, but I was still tensed, ready for an attack. She'd known me long enough to know this, and kept a respectable distance. She didn't say a word more, but kept me fixed with her gaze, which I returned. We stayed like that for what seemed like an eternity, her knowing what I was capable of and me just learning what she was capable of. Her gaze wavered slightly and she looked beyond me. Footsteps were approaching. Listening intently, I didn't take my eyes from Emma. She smiled. The footsteps stopped. 'Hello son,' a familiar voice said. I whirled in disbelief. It was my father...

leelee101Replay 8 • Opuss № I