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Fearless – A web novel
Chapter 12 – Sore spots and numb parts
Garphy the goblin, the wobbly legged future cellmate of some undescribably menacing giant named Tiny, stood up and gestured for Dinky to follow. The unlikely pair stepped out of the cell where I had been strung up and undressed – probably not in that order- for the last unknown number of hours. And then the door clanked shut behind them. “What?” I asked the door as the lock engaged. “What the hell is wrong with you?” There was nothing much I could do though, so I wrapped the blanket tighter around me and tried to find a way to sit on the chair that wouldn’t cramp my legs or numb my ass. There wasn’t. My ass was numb, my legs were stiff, I was smelly, and my feet were cold. Damn my curiosity.
I heard them mumble on the other side of the door, but I didn’t even wonder what they said. Not one bit curious. I stood up and stepped over to the door, pressed my head against it. Promptly something sharp poked me on the cheek and I yelped in pain. Of course the whispering criminals shut up. I heaved a heavy sigh and sat down on the earthen floor and leaned against the door.
After a moment, the mumbling resumed. Very carefully I pressed my head against the door again and listened hard.
Dinky’s rumble travelled through the wood and transformed into muted bass, no way of hearing specific words. He didn’t sound too happy though. Was that a no? Garphy’s reply came quickly though, loud and clear. “You will do as I tell you, little brother. Ponzi don’t need to know.”
Brother? What the hell? No, seriously weird. My mouth fell open and I would have laughed if I could have. No way. It had to be some kind of guy thing, like my man, or son. Dinky had even said he was an only child hadn’t he? Yeah, he had. Damn right he had. I shook my head and tried to focus on the conversation outside again.
Rumble, rumble, indistinct shuffling, and a door opening and closing. But I heard nothing else I could make out. I got to my feet and whinced at the stiffness in joints and muscles. I hadn’t quite noticed it before, but my wrists ached. I glanced at the shackles hanging from the wall and wondered how long I had been hanging there before Dinky made his unforgettable appearance. I was in pain, but not that much; not enough to have been hanging there long. A few minutes at the most. What did that mean? They didn’t seem interested in hurting me. Not primarily in any case.
I sat down on the chair again and tried to figure out what time it was. I had no more luck than before. I couldn’t have been here very long though. I sketched a quick timeline in my head. Amy, home, sleep. Ok, that was Wednesday night. Thursday had been as normal as it gets. With the exception of a mystery container full of money that was. I sighed. In my philosophy of life, curiosity may not kill the clever cat, but a curious human female might just be a different story. If I had just left that damn thing where it was, Amy wouldn’t be my main concern now. If I had only…
I glared despondantly at the piece of spam with its attached fork. Could a dwarf be brought down by a small female wielding a fork? Ram it through the eye? I shuddered. No, that was just too grose even for me. Choked with spam? Have his throat slit by way of photograph paper-cut? Interesting idea, but after some deliberation of reality vs. fiction, I regretfully left the fork where it lay.
My thoughts returned unairingly to the weirdness of it all. Those two brothers? I gave up right away; it was too much to wrap my head around. I would just have to find out some way. I rubbed my wrists and frowned at the door. It was silent out there. Ok, those two didn’t want to hurt me, just scare me. Why bring me here for that? Why not scare the shit out of me at home, leave with the info or the money, and take off. What would be the point of dragging me somewhere else? I was missing something. They seemed to be crooks with some agenda I couldn’t fathom, and with some kind of concience. The fact that I didn’t scare easily hadn’t bothered Dinky any. Such a sweetheart. I pulled up a hand and slapped myself in the face. Not sweet, not sweet, a giant oaf of a bad guy.
I frowned and thought of something I knew normal people would have thought of right away. Those two unquestioningly male specimence had me drugged and unmoving for who knows how long, and as far as I knew, noone had touched me in any way intimate enough to be called sexual. I took a moment to look down on myself, splaying opened the blanket. I poked and prodded the relevant places, but there was nothing there that hadn’t been there before, nothing sore, nothing unusually sticky. The door flew open. Dinky’s eyes travelled from my big grin, down my arm and the open blanket, until they stuck on my hand between my legs. I didn’t know eyes could bulge so, or that skin could turn so pink. “Just making sure.” I said.
“Well certainly miss Malone, a girl can never be careful enough. Now, You might as well drop the blanket. Your bath is waiting.”
I looked around the raw stone, then i looked past the open door where, down the corridor, another door stood open.
Garphy saw my confusion and nodded. “You didn’t think we were going to let you go home for your cleanup did you?” The ugly son-of-a-bitch smiled and bowed from the waist, sweeping an arm out toward the open door.
Well, no I hadn’t really thought about how I would get a bath. I suddenly wished I had asked for something a bit more challenging for my little friend to accomplish. “So, what else do you have here? A five star restaurant and a disco?” I asked as I drew my achy breaky body up to standing.
Garphy shook his head, somewhat regretfully. “Unfortunately not young lady. But you can rest assured that we have everything we need to make you comfortable. And safe.” He added. “Come now. Let us get this show on the road. Poor Dinky here has had quite enough already it seems.”
He was right. Dinky stood still, with an expression on his face I couldn’t quite identify. It was as if somewhere under a mask of absolute absence of brain activity, something was bubbling and churning, ready to boil and burst the skin open with a tremendous crack.
I brushed past him, offering a brilliant smile on the way, and headed toward my bath.