A Battle of Minds Ch. 04

Other than that, Laura's life had become quiet once more. And cold. Every now and then Martin still brought along the two young men from their school. Laura dreaded those days, but somehow even that did not really get to her anymore. She knew exactly what would happen, and she knew when it would be over. Her body was adapting fast, she barely felt pain, and learned to just block out all emotions during such moment. It was, as if it wasn't her who was experiencing this, as if she was still sitting in the safety of her cage, watching the two guys abuse a lifeless body that just happened to look a lot like her own.

Besides those occasions, Martin left her alone. Most days, Laura was sitting in her cage almost motionless for hours, wrapped in the sleeping bag and a blanket. Of course, she was still shivering from the icy cold, her breath forming little clouds in the winter air. At least, however, she was free to let her thoughts wander. She was herself, and that was more than she what she had during the past years. Martin spent most of his time in Leskow now, and Laura wondered what he was up to there.

Another spider. It crawled along Laura's sleeping bag, distracting her from her musings. These creatures really seemed to have a preference for her cage. And sitting inside her sleeping bag seemed to be what they liked best. This little thing there was obviously searching for a way in. Laura shook her head in disgust. They made her almost wish for a harsher winter, some more snow -- of course the cold would probably kill her, too, but hopefully it would also chase away all those spiders.

A deep growl of her stomach steered Laura's thoughts into yet another direction. Hunger was an all too familiar feeling lately. It had to have been a few days since she last got anything to bite. A dry bit of bread and a small bowl of soup, if she remembered right. Laura tried to think back: When had that been? When had she last seen the old woman? Two days had passed at the very least since then. So she hadn't received any food for at least two days -- that wasn't too bad, but it was definitely longer than to call this a good hotel service. Laura snorted at the idea of calling her cage a hotel room. Yes, why had she never seen that? Her sleeping bag was obviously a nice king sized bed with fluffy cushions. And the view: So many windows, right into the forest. With her own shower too: She only needed to move over into one corner of her cage where the plastic plane was kind of broken. And the air conditioning was highly efficient. Just the heating didn't seem to work.

She needed food though. 'Room service', Laura mumbled to herself, and imagined Mr. Seger in a fancy waiter's uniform. He turned up once or twice a day. His expression always absent, his eyes empty and he never deemed Laura worthy of as much as a look. But each time he showed up, he put a new bottle of mineral water into her cage and removed the old one, which was usually empty or frozen. But no food. He never brought food. Laura's stomach grumbled again.

A few times when Mr. Seger showed up, Laura tried to speak to him -- after all he had once worn the locket himself. He had to be stronger than the old woman, maybe he could learn to fight off its influence. If she could get through to him somehow, she could show him how. It was no use though. She never saw as much as the shadow of a reaction on the teacher's face. He was Martin's puppet.

Laura sighed. The truth was that she was getting bored. She wasn't scared of Martin or of his two cronies anymore. Disgusted and angry, yes. She hated what he did to her, but even that was part of the routine now. Nor did she truly fear the spiders, despite the nightmares. Laura wondered if she even was still capable of feeling fear. Fear was an emotion. It wasn't boring. Something truly scary might be entertaining in a way. Or if nothing scary could happen, then something else. If only something would just finally happen. Or if there finally was a chance to get out of this cage, instead of always sitting here. Every day, just sitting motionless staring over the clearing to the little hut. Staring and waiting for food or new humiliations and wondering what Martin was up to...

***

Warm rays of sun fell through the window into her room. There were voices around her. "Happy birthday! You are a big girl now." That was mom's voice. She blinked. Daddy was there too. And grandma and grandpa. They were all standing around a huge pink cake, adorned with five burning candles. She looked down at herself: That was her body, those were her legs, but she was wearing a pink princess dress.

"I want presents!" That was her own voice, though she was speaking in a strangely high tone -- and a demanding tone, at the same time.

Suddenly a huge pile of colorfully wrapped packages appeared, while parents and grandparents were still standing around the cake. They were smiling expectantly, pointing at the presents.

„Go on, unwrap them. They are for you."

In three big steps she was by the pile and grabbed the package on top of it. Without hesitation, she started tearing sparkly red paper off it. The package was big and heavy.

'Maybe it is a new doll!' she thought hopefully.

Then, something moved in the package. The sound of paper breaking, and then something made its way out of a hole in the wrapping. It was a leg. A long, thin, hairy leg. With a small scream she dropped the package. A big spider crawled out of the broken paper.

She jumped to the side to get out of the animal's way. Then she took the next package from the pile. She opened the paper a bit more carefully now: and dropped it again, as another huge, eight legged beast tried to crawl up her arm.

In shock, she turned to her parents. They were still smiling, unaware of the accusation in her eyes. They pointed at the pile and spoke together in one cheerful voice.

"Open them all. They are your birthday presents."

"I don't want any more presents," she whispered.

Her parents' faces changed. They suddenly became more round, formless, ugly, but still smiling.

"Come on, open them. They're all yours."

A sound emanated from the mountain of parcels and presents: The sound of paper being shredded to pieces. The presents started opening themselves. Everywhere from under the red and green and pink paper appeared long, hairy legs and small, round bodies; spiders of all sizes started crawling over the floor, towards her.

In panic, she turned to her parents and grandparents again, but suddenly she realized that all four of them looked exactly the same. They looked... like Martin!

And suddenly Laura realized that she was not five years old anymore; she was twenty, and she was not wearing a little pink princess dress but was naked inside her musty old sleeping bag. And this sleeping bag was covered entirely by spiders, some of them tiny, others quite big, and all of them were crawling towards her unprotected face.

Laura wanted to scream, but some of the spiders had gotten dangerously close to her face. She pressed her lips together as tightly as she could and dared no more than to utter a terrified whine. Holding her arms protectively in front of her face, she did not know where to turn. Everywhere, on the tender skin of her neck, in her hair, on her arms and hands, and soon also inside the sleeping bag she felt the tickling sensation of hundreds of small spider legs crawling over her.

Then, through her panic, she heard the sound of laughter. Martin!

Laura tried to open her eyes, tried to peek past the protective shield of her arms -- but her whole field of vision was covered up by the small, dark bodies of the spiders. They tried to push past her arms, past her closed lips, crawl through any small gap they could find. She felt them creeping along her tummy, her breasts, her legs. They were everywhere. They were going to kill her, suffocate her, Laura was sure of that.

And then, finally, as if following a silent command, all spiders vacated her body, scurrying off into various directions. Only seconds passed until not one of them was inside her cage anymore. Laura sat up. Her whole body was trembling, she believed to still feel a creeping eight legged creature here or there, on her back, in her hair, at her neck -- but when she raised her hand to check, nothing was there anymore.

Martin was standing not too far from her cage, staring at her; his hair was wild, his expression that of a mad man. For a moment he did not move. Then he threw up his arms into the air.

"There are no limits to my power anymore!" he screamed triumphantly. "Soon I will control everything! Everything!"

He turned around and hurried back to the house. Once more, Laura was alone. She pulled her legs up close to her body, wrapping her arms around her shins, and put her head on her knees. She had not cried in what seemed an eternity, but now there was no stopping the tears that were running down her face.

***

Drip. Drip.

The sun was shining down onto her cage, and onto the heavy load of snow lying on the plastic plane. Its weight was pushing the plastic down. However, the snow was slowly but steadily melting in the warmth of a new spring, causing water drops to drip down into Laura's cage. One drop after the other, again and again.

Drip. Drip.

Laura was lying on the floor, awake -- it seemed like days had passed since she had last been able to sleep. She was staring into the direction of Martin's hut. It had been four days since she had last seen him, and just as long since she had last received anything to eat or a bottle of water -- though her thirst, at least, could be stilled by eating the half-molten snow. It was the hunger that was slowly but surely driving her crazy. Of course, this was not the first time Martin forgot about her for a while, but it was so far the longest time that she had not seen any sign of him.

Somewhere near the house there was some movement. Laura jumped up. The next moment, she had to hold on to the bars of her cage, to steady herself against an onslaught of dizziness; she was, in fact, too weak for such sudden movements. As soon as her head stopped spinning, she pressed her face against the bars, as though that would help her to see better through them. After a little while she could make out Mr. Seger, who was carrying a strange collection of items in his arms. He was hurrying towards the entrance of the little house.

"Hey! Come here! Please!"

She knew that shouting and shaking the bars would not have any effect on the man, but somehow it seemed a good way to let out some of her frustration. At least it felt like she was doing something. To Laura's surprise, however, Mr. Seger suddenly stopped and looked up. For a few moments he stared across the clearing towards Laura -- then he turned away again and continued with his work.

***

'It's a trap. It's got to be a trap', Laura thought for what seemed the thousandth time.

Still, she kept staring to the door of her cage, never taking her eyes off the little key. There was an iron chain holding the door of the cage closed, and keeping this chain together was a lock. Only Martin had the key to this lock. Sometimes he gave it to Mr. Seger or whoever else he needed to get to Laura, but he always took back the key afterwards and hid it in his pocket. Now, that very key was inside the lock, and there was no one around but her. Laura was sure she could reach the key, if she just put her hands through the lattice.

Someone had brought her something to eat during the night, without waking her up. As the first rays of sun crept over the clearing, Laura had awoken and found the small bowl of soup and the big lump of bread. She hungrily devoured it all, before even looking up and discovering the key. Since then she was sitting here and pondering whether this was a trap, some kind of trick, and what Martin would do to her if he found that she had attempted to escape. Maybe all he was waiting for was a reason to kill her. But... why would he need a reason? Wasn't it also possible that the key was there indeed just out of coincidence? If Mr. Seger or the old woman, or someone else brought her food, was it possible for them to make mistakes? Martin might not have been nearby; maybe his control was weaker, when he was further away... Was he still able to keep track of such details like a forgotten key, if he was busy with something else? Could it slip their mind to retrieve something because it wasn't present in his mind anymore?

And if this really was a trap -- how much worse could her life get? What did she really have to fear? It was spring, the morning sun shone warmly into her cage. It had to be April at the very least, more likely it was already May. So she had been sitting in this cage for eight or nine months by now, Laura calculated. Eight or nine months with no one she could talk to, no diversion. Every day like the other, other than the fact that every now and then Martin amused himself with watching her being taken by some of his drones. There was nothing in her life she enjoyed, except maybe the feeling of the sun on her skin, or the smell of melting snow and growing grass... But even that was somehow not the same anymore. If Martin killed her, or rather, had someone kill her -- was that really so much worse than this?

With a deep breath, Laura peeled out of her sleeping bag. She stood up and slowly put her hand through the bars. A slight spring breeze brushed past her. Laura shivered a little bit. Without her sleeping bag she was naked -- but she did not care. Her fingers soon caught hold of the small, metal key. For a moment she held her breath, just enjoying the sensation of the artifact under her fingers and of all the possibilities its possession entailed. The wind grew stronger. Without letting go of the key, and without retrieving it, Laura looked up to the sky: Dark clouds were pushing in front of the sun, hiding it from view. A storm seemed to be approaching from the direction of the lake.

'Now or never', Laura decided, and after another deep breath she turned the key in the lock. All her muscles were tense, her whole body ready to run, or jump back into the safety of her sleeping bag. She was almost sure Martin would be standing somewhere, hidden from view, just waiting for her to try to escape.

But nothing happened. Only the cage's door opened. The creaking of the rusty metal hinges made Laura stop for a moment -- however, no one but her was there to hear it. Carefully, slowly, Laura set one foot outside. Soft grass tickled the soles of her feet. Only recently, the spring sun had called these young stalks out of their sleep under ground. Dew was covering them, moistening Laura's feet. A raindrop fell onto her face, but nothing else happened.

Another step. Somewhere in the distance a bird was chirping, else it was quiet. Another step. And another. Step by step, Laura got faster. She felt the blood starting to run through her legs, felt her muscles at work. Like a thousand little needles, as if her body had been numb before and was now waking up. Laura knew that she would not be able to walk very far or run very fast: Her body was not used to such exertions anymore. Her only option was to disappear into the forest and find a good hiding place, where she could think. She might have time; after all, Martin seemed constantly busy lately. Who knew when he would notice she was gone.

The wind increased, and somewhere far away Laura heard the grumbling sound of thunder. She looked around. Why did there have to be a thunderstorm coming up now of all times? A new breeze of wind swept over the clearing, stronger than before. The trees started swaying threateningly. They almost looked as if they were reaching for Laura. The sky was dark now, covered by black clouds. Hadn't it been sunny just a few minutes ago?

'I have to hurry and find a place to hide', Laura thought.

The edge of the clearing was near. Laura could see the thick undergrowth of the forest, promising shelter. Another step and another. She could almost touch the first shrubs and bushes. Just a few more steps... A scream cut through the air somewhere behind her. A dark, thundering scream. A loud roar, like she had never heard one before. Unwillingly, Laura's head turned, and she stopped short in her flight, petrified by fear: Martin was standing in the door frame of his hut.

"Stop!"

He looked different than usual. His hair was longer, hanging wildly into his face, obstructing his view. Still, Laura could recognize that his eyebrows were pulled together, giving his expression a more dangerous appearance. In fact, his whole face somehow seemed darker, angrier -- only Martin's eyes were light. Even from the distance, standing on the other side of the clearing, Laura had the impression that his eyes were burning into her, like two flames. Martin stretched his arms up into the air, as if reaching for the sky. At that very moment the dark clouds burst into flood of rain, splashing down onto the forest with such force that the ground under Laura's feet turned into mud within just a few moments. Within seconds the whole scenery changed: Laura could barely see further than a few meters now -- but Martin's shape, though much further away from her, still was recognizable. He was standing unmoving by his house, like a dark threat. Laura knew that he could still see her, too.

"Stop!"

His voice sounded like the grumbling of thunder. It carried across the clearing, easily audible over the roar of the rain. For another moment Martin stood still, staring at her, and then he started walking across the clearing towards Laura. With each of his steps, a flash of lightning burst across the sky, so bright that Laura feared she might go blind.

'It's him! He is making the lightning and the thunder!'

The realization flashed through her mind. How could she not have realized it before? And now, for the first time in months, she felt true fear again.

Slowly Laura stumbled backwards, no other thought on her mind than that she had to get away from here. Martin kept walking, slowly, each of his steps apparently shaking the ground as another flash of lightning lit up the forest, accompanied by deafening thunder. Still, Laura was sure he would not dare to use the locket against her. She just had to run, he wasn't getting any faster. Once she was in the forest he would not be able to find her, and if he let the storm continue for days. All she had to do was run.

Laura turned around. Her knees shook slightly, but her legs automatically began moving faster, her feet splashing into the ankle deep water that covered the forest ground. The wind increased; thick raindrops and wet leaves hit against her face. Despite her effort, she could barely move against the storm at all. The wind stood like an invincible wall, pushing her back onto the clearing again and again. The cold air was cutting into her lungs; Laura was out of breath within seconds. Still, finally she reached the safe haven of the forest's edge. She was underneath the trees already. Not much of the rain could reach her now, the heavy rain drops were blocked by the trees. Laura could see the forest ground again, and she could go faster now. She had made it. She would be out of Martin's sight soon.

"Stop!" Martin's voice rang over the storm for the third time, but Laura ran on.

Then, suddenly, her foot was stopped by something. It got caught in a root, or a dead branch on the ground, and she fell, face down, onto the ground. She was sure that the path in front of her had been free of obstacles. Behind her, she could feel Martin approaching. She could feel the ground tremble under his heavy footsteps. Quickly Laura started getting up again. She had to keep going, she had to get away. A blow against the back of her head made her fall forward again. For a moment, Laura's vision blurred, it took up all her strength to keep herself from passing out. What had made her fall? Martin was still a few meters away -- she could feel his approach, she knew he wasn't there yet.