Fan Fiction ❯ Room 316 ❯ Chapter 6 ( Chapter 6 )

Chapter 6

     ‘Athelstan was the one who saw it happen.’ She let out both a mental and physical sigh.

     ‘Let’s just say that it didn’t bother him, but it bothered his parents, and I was out on the street again. With the laptop my only possession.

       My time on the street was not all that great. I would break into internet cafés after hours. That’s how I earned my highschool credits. Food came little, but by that time I had already learned my lesson when it came to meat products, so there was even less than normal for me. Still, as bad as all that was, things were fated to get worse.

      Vince had gotten out of jail on parol, and it wasn’t too long before he found me again. At the time, I had been sleeping underground in the sewers. It was the only way that I could keep away from people, and never be hurt again. He had searched me out and abducted me. It was then that I learned about his real plans for me. He had reasons for taking me from the pound, and wanting to keep me from the rest of the world. He was waiting for the right time to take me. At the time I was still to young, and in a manner of speaking, I still am. But it was still in his plans. Once he had me, he took me into his newest place of residence. There, he chained me up in the basement.

      He handcuffed me to the water heater. I could only lie down and sit up. He gave me one blanket, but no pillow. The cement floor was cold and hard. He took my laptop away and hid it from me. One thing he would do is bring plenty of food, but it almost always contained meat. At first, it was things like hamburgers. I would only eat the buns and what ever vegetable that might be placed on it. It wasn’t too long before he noticed that I was deliberately avoiding the meat he presented me with.’ She had to stop because Abby decided to speak.

      "You two have done nothing but lie there all day. I’m going out. Either of you want to come with?" When she received no response, she just rolled her eyes, and stepped out of the room. Once he was sure she was gone, he made his way to Deirdre’s bed and tapped her on the shoulder. She turned to look at him.

      ‘What?’ She projected. In return, he smiled, and signed to her.

      /Why can’t you have meat?/ His action caused her to sit up.

      ‘You know sign language?’ Her eyes were trained onto him. ‘Well, I guess this could help, at least now, I won’t have to probe your mind for questions and answers. How did you learn?’

      /You are off the subject. I will answer your questions after you answer mine./ He gave her a stern look.

      ‘You win.’ She sighed, defeated. ‘In a way, it speeds up my aging process. No, that’s not right.’ She thought it over for a moment. ‘Being what I am, part of my life is spent according to my mother’s heritage, and the other my father’s. It’s not until a certain age that the two mix, though my mother’s will be dominant. The meat brings that side out sooner. Since I haven’t had the training needed to control the instincts that accompany it, I lose control. Not just of my mind, but my body as well. If it happens to me too often, my body would adjust, and I would be lost forever.’ Duncan hung his head at her plight.

      /I understand./ He signed.

      ‘No, you don’t. Not completely, but you will soon. Just let me finish.’ They both adjusted themselves, and she continued. ‘Once he had figured out that I was refusing to eat meat, it was all he would give me. I went three weeks without eating a thing. By that time I was too weak to fight back, and Vince knew it. He came down the stairs one day, and proceeded to shove strips of raw meat down my throat. I hated the taste, but part of me wanted more. By the time he finished, I was nothing more than a feral snarling mass. This was a pattern that went on for weeks. Once I would regain control over myself, I would refuse to eat, until I was too weak, then he would force feed me.

      I eventually figured out that the times he would force feed me happened to be around the same time he had to check in with his parol officer. I knew this because I would have wound down by the time he came back complaining about the task. So, one day, I ate the meat willingly, he took it as breaking me, and didn’t suspect my plan. By eating it when I did, I had some strength the next time that he had to check in. He had left a plate before leaving, and I waited until I could hear the car pulling away. I broke the pipe that I was cuffed to and emerged into the house. I was just going to leave, but I couldn’t do it without my laptop. The first place I looked was in his bedroom, it wasn’t there. I looked everywhere, and my time was running out. Then, I looked in a hallway closet. There was so much stuff in there, you would never be able to tell what was what. I dug through the first layer of items when I found it. I was ecstatic, but I had wasted too much time. So, I ran with plan B. I grabbed a phone, and dialed 911, but you know I don’t speak, so I did the next best thing. I screamed into the phone. Aside from growls and whimpers, it’s the only sound I know how to make. This got the phone operator’s attention, and all she could do is ask what was wrong. Since I couldn’t answer, I just left the phone off of the hook and made my way back down to the basement. I used the blanket to wrap up the laptop so that it looked as if I had folded it to make a pillow. It was rather hot and steaming down there since the pipe I had broken was pushing out steam.

      Reluctantly, I ate the meat and let myself go away. I’m not exactly sure what happened when, but in the end, I woke up in a hospital. Apparently, Vince came home and saw that I had broken free. He was happy about it, but when I had dialed 911,they had traced the call. They had come in on me attacking Vince, who slammed me into a wall where I passed out. It took five men, but they subdued him and took him back into custody. I had received a concussion from hitting the wall and needed to be hospitalized. The first thing to enter my mind was the laptop. It sat beside my bed. I stared at a nurse questioningly and looked at the laptop beside my bed.

      "Oh, your awake!" She smiled at me. "You must be Deirdre. At least, that’s the name on the bottom of the laptop. We assumed that it was your’s." The nurse was quite nice, but they refused to release me until I started talking, thinking it was due to shock. It took them awhile to find someone who could read sign language. Once they found someone I basically told them that I couldn’t speak. They tried to get more out of me, but I’ve never trusted humans, so one night, I escaped. With only the clothes on my back, and my laptop I went back to my breaking and entering habits. At times I would stay in people’s attics. Sometimes I would stay there for days, but I would always leave before they became aware of my presence.

      I lived like that up until about a year ago. Dodging Vince several times in the process. I came to live with some others of my kind. They had left the clan by their own choice, a few years before my mother’s exile. They told me many things that I did not know or understand about myself. They are the one’s paying for me to go to this school, and enacted the restraining order that I have on Vince. Doesn’t look like it did any good though.’ She stopped signaling that she was finished. ‘Now you know."