The cool concrete chilled her skin. She covered her face creating that private space she needed.
Breathe in, breathe out.
Breathe in, hold, increase awareness of time and place, breathe out.
Breathe in, calm the heart, listen, liberate the fear. Breathe out.
She pressed against the rough surface of the wall, feeling the small grains of sand dig into her skin.
She felt the bones of her buttocks carrying her weight into the floor and allowed the anticipation to center and grow.
She felt the shivers come, her body tense, shaking, and allowed herself a peek.
In between breaths she watched them play, the squeak of new tennis shoes on hardwood floors, the rhythmic bounce of the leather ball, sounds of competition, defeat, and victory.
“To the victor goes the spoils” she had read in high school, but now she was the spoils, and she cared very much about victor.
She heard a grunt, an expletive, a brief argument, then heavy steps approached her. She felt her body tingle, quiver, and prepare.
Her boyfriend’s voice cried out, “Best two out of three?”
“Deal,” the tall man said, “is but I get her twice as long.”
Looking up she saw him, saw it, and realized, she would win either way.
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Time had lost all meaning. At first awareness she screamed until she had no voice and pounded on the walls until they turned pink, then red. The room was neither hot nor cold. The lights were either on or off and never in any perceptible pattern. She shouted and there was no echo, nor answer, she cried until she had no tears.
She thought she was in hell. Purgatory perhaps, some interminable place of waiting, always waiting with no liberation in view. It was certainly not heaven, though everything was white.
She realized at the end of each light/dark cycle that she had slept, but was never sore from the hard surface. With no mirror there could be no reflection and she had lost a sense of self, purpose, and reason?
he tried to count, tracking day and night, but soon it was a jumble and she would find herself sitting in the corner for Days? Weeks? Minutes? Seconds?
She never dreamed.
With no immediate threat, there was no immediate fear, so tentatively she touched and was instantly rewarded. Time was now spent on her back, endlessly pleasured, always pleasuring, never tender, never sore, never tired. Endlessly.
Memories returned, and names remembered, a life reclaimed.
Then a voice questioned, a door opened.
She shook her head, and stayed inside.
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I have very little time for commentary today, i have three minutes to get out the door and to another meeting, but I had two very different takes. I love the picture but was stumped until this afternoon as I listened to Marquette escape defeat in the final seconds of their 1st game of the NCAA Basketball tournament. (I should link you to the game's coverage, but I have no time and crappy web connection).
These teams are playing for pride, honor, glory, and a chance to keep their scholarships,but what would happen if they were playing for something really important.
And for the other one? I hope it worked. I always thing sci-fi when I see a bare room, all white, a single person. I think abduction, experimentation, probing and getting probed. I don't write sci-fi very often, but, like I said, i hope this was at least a little interesting, at least 209 words of interesting.
Thanks to all who joined in this week!!!
Add your link!!!
