Just Another Day

Dina awoke with a start in the dank basement of her captor’s home. She was not quite sure what had woken her up, but she knew that all she wanted to do was to go to sleep, and not wake up again.

She didn’t know how long it had been. It had turned from pizza with friends to a dark alleyway to a man keeping her locked in what looked like a bomb shelter, without light, and brief respites of food. Thank the gods she had a bathroom.

She had tried everything. Screaming, desperately for help. Cursing the man who held her with every possible word she knew. Begging for forgiveness from God for this one small misstep, begging for mercy from the man she was afraid was going to rape and then kill her. None of it seemed to be working, because she was still in that bunker, cold, lost, and alone.

To be honest, she had no sense of time. It could have only been hours, or days, or maybe even weeks. All she knew was that she wanted to go home, and that man wasn’t letting her. He would caution her to stand away from the door, and she even had gotten ready to run, but he always walked in with a floodlight, and like a deer, she just froze, blinded by the sudden change in light. And he had calmly set her food down on the floor and left her alone.

If she wasn’t so bored, it wouldn’t be bad. But he had forced her to remove her clothes, and taken away her purse, and given her new clothes to wear, ones without pockets. He hadn’t even tried anything with her yet. It was like he was playing a sick game and she was the prize at the end of the tunnel. And as she sat, alone and teary eyed on the mattress that had been left there for her to use, and apparently die on, she heard a noise outside the door. She immediately sat up, and was amazed to see, not the door opening, but a soft, blue green light passing through the door which held her captive. What looked like a little orb floated towards her, and she backed away slightly, intrigued and frightened at the same time.

“What the fuck?” She muttered as it drew even closer to her face, emitting an eerie, high pitched humming noise. The orb slowly solidified to a very, very small man with wings and completely naked.

“Hi.” The man squeaked at the prize he had just found. “Sup?”

“Um.” Dina choked in surprise. Apparently, it was a faerie. And it could talk. “Hi.” Dina swallowed her objections to this rock thrown into her reality, and straight out asked. “What are you?”

“Don’t you know?” The man asked, indignant. He swung towards her and punched her arm. Well, she felt a poke. But she would give him credit: he had at least tried.

“Would I have asked if I knew?” Dina offered by way of apology. The faerie thing had seemed exceptionally offended.

“I suppose not. I,” The little man puffed up his chest, “Am a fairor.”

“What’s that?”

“A male, small statured being with wings.”

“So you’re like a fairy?”

“It’s not…” The man growled and kicked her arm. She laughed. “It’s not like that!” He protested. “Fairies are men too!”

“Okay. So you’re a fairy. Why are you…here?”

“My name…” The man continued, pointedly ignoring her question. “Is Broon-dy-kao. And I, dear princess, am here to rescue you and claim you as my own.” The little man puffed up his chest proudly.

“Oh, really?” Dina sat up and reached for the man, but he swung out of her reach. “And how do you expect to do that when one of us humans is keeping me captive?”

“Keys.” Broon-dy-kao announced. “And then you shall fall in love with me and dwell in the Great Forest with me for the rest of time.” He smiled charmingly at his new found love and soul mate.

“Right.” Dina said as the man flew closer to her, puckering up his lips to kiss her very large, almost gargantuan by comparison, cheek and lips. She swatted him away. “Let’s get me out of here first. And then I’ll think about it.”

“The man is in the house, right now.” Broon-dy-kao admitted to her. “But wait a bit longer, my love, and we shall have our freedom.” The fairy faded back into his orb and floated through the door.

Well, if she was going to hallucinate, at least it would be fun, she decided as she reclined back onto her cold, unforgiving mattress and waited for death, or something worse, to come. Why did he have to have wings? And be so damn small? She had always liked taller men – definitely not fairies.

Seconds later, she heard the ominous footsteps coming her way. She felt so naked, even though she was clothed. He hadn’t even given her utensils to eat with, so she had nothing except her bare hands to kill him with. Which was an excellent starting point, if she didn’t take into account the fact that the man holding her captive was much stronger, older, faster, and more skilled than she was.

Light flooded her vision, and momentarily blinded, food was brought in to her. Suddenly, without the man or his flood light leaving, the door shut, and Dina’s stomach fell. This was it, then. She was going to die, or get raped, or mauled, or meet some other horrible fate. She could only hope that he would be done with her quickly.

“It is almost time.” The gruff voice of her captor sounded from the other side of the room. She was huddled into the corner, hugging her pillow and looking as miserable as she could, while also concurrently attempting to bare her teeth and look like an animal ready to attack at any given moment.

“Time for what?” Dina asked, trying to fight back her sobs and squeals of fear that were threatening to surface. If anything, she would not show weakness.

“The veil has been brought down, and you will soon be offered as a sacrifice for my safety.”

“Did someone take away your Prozac?” The comment slipped out of Dina’s mouth, forgetting momentarily that she was in a vast amount of danger. Already sliding down the slippery slope, she continued with her train of thought. “Because I honestly have no fucking idea what you’re talking about.”

“The veil between the worlds has been brought down, and all of those mythological creatures you have feared in fairy tales have entered this world.” For the nonsense he was spouting, her captor seemed both knowledgeable and calm about these supposed facts of life. “Centaurs and dragons both, along with several other creatures released, are known for their affinity for young, virgin women. It is said in most historical accounts of those creatures, in a mythological setting of course, that villages would sacrifice virgins to guarantee their own protection.”

“So you want to sacrifice me to mythological creatures to protect Sedona?” Dina nearly choked on her anger. What was he going to do? Tie her to a post and leave her at the edge of the woods to die?

“No. I want to sacrifice you to a group of ravaging centaurs to gain their loyalty and ensure for myself a better future.” Joseph said. It sounded a lot less sane to him when he was saying it out loud, but he had seen the newspaper pictures. There were centaurs. And they were holding captives.

“So I’m about to be ravished by a bunch of half horse, half male, stallion assholes, because you say I’m a virgin?” Dina asked.

“You’re about as young as you can get without missing puberty. Of course you’re a virgin.” Joseph Bisucria said knowledgeably.

Dina laughed outright. She would rather make herself out like a whore and chance on getting released instead of admitting that she had never even kissed a boy. “You’re about as dumb as you can get without dying from stupidity.” She retorted seconds later.

“You’re not a virgin?” He asked nearly a minute later, the truth sinking in. He had not even comprehended the chance of that – the girl he had chosen was barely out of her training bras. How could she have slept with a guy that soon into her life?

“First, it was a horse. I’m a rider. And then, it was Billy from down the street. In my parent’s bed. Do you want details or are you just going to let me go?”

“Well, I can’t let you go.” Joseph answered. “Not now that I have you. You’ll have to do. Everyone’s accounting for their loved ones nowadays.”

“How long have I been your supposedly virgin sacrificial captive?” Dina asked, arms crossed. Her eyes were finally getting used to the flood light, which her captor had so graciously set on the floor instead of shining it into her young, unadjusted eyes.

“A week or so.”

“So don’t you think that my parents are looking for me?” Dina asked pointedly. “Don’t you want them to know that their loved ones are safe?”

“You’re young. And pretty. You’ll have to do. They can’t tell the difference anyway…” The brief moment of sanity that Joseph Bisucria had regained around the girl had sunk back into his desperate need for safety from the unknown.

“Please will you let me go? Go find someone better. Or, better yet, go find your fucking lithium and stop fucking with the rest of the world. I won’t even press charges. I swear.” Dina protested as Joseph rose and pushed her roughly onto her mattress, rushing out of the room before she could get up.

Dina’s heart protested at the newly imposed darkness, not only upon her body, but upon her soul. In a way, it was funny, but it was shadowed by her miss of her mother and her father, and her friends at school.

She didn’t doubt there was some truth in what the man had said to her. Maybe her supposed savior, the little fairy who had gotten so defensive over his abilities as a man, had not been a simple hallucination. Maybe there had been some truth to that strange, strange creature.

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