THE CASTAWAY
The storm showed absolutely no sign of abatement, as it caused our tiny vessel to drift well and truly off our chosen course. As the waves continued to grow, the wind driving them only increased in intensity, and our small fishing boat became more and more thrown about. To the point when one particular wave took hold of my own body, sweeping me of the craft’s deck, into the swirling sea itself. From then I was completely in the lap of the Gods, and they proved to be in a good mood that day, outside of my own knowledge as unconsciousness claimed me very shortly afterwards, but not until I had lifted myself onto a bit of passing flotsam, coming no doubt of the very vessel that I had been part of the crew until recently.
By the time I came to, the skies had somewhat calmed, and that previous evasive condition whereby the wind had yet to abate, had come to a welcome end. But I had only recovered to a degree, whereon I could, and therefore, did crawl further ashore, to out of the reach of the waves, now gently sweeping onto the sandy beach. Before I passed into a state where I was completely unaware of my surroundings, or everything else for that matter, I had determined that there was no sign of my former shipmates, or the vessel that had been the source of our livelihood.
I had no idea of how much time had passed when my left eye flickered open, shortly followed by my other, right, one. But it became apparent that my circumstances had certainly changed, and not necessarily for the better. I was no longer situated on that beach; I was now lying on a very luxurious bed. Fitted with a bedsheet made of, no less than pure satin. However, when I tried to rise, I found that I was totally unable to, I had been very effectively tied to the four solid and secure bed posts. I was also stripped utterly naked, apart from some sort of underpants which were definitely not my own, appearing to be female in nature.
Which triggered some vastly differing emotions within my mind. Firstly, as you can imagine, there was a fair amount of pure relief that I was still alive, present. As my memory recalled, as I passed from being aware of matters, I was clinging to a bit of wood in a raging sea. Now I was relatively safe, rescued from the ocean’s wrath and now lying on a very comfortable bed. But then I wasn’t just lying upon it, I was placed in a position of having no choice in my situation, being absolutely securely tied to it. As I say, when I tried to leave I couldn’t. although my bonds were totally safe, they also were unescapable, whoever had done this to me, knew their business. I was now a helpless prisoner, and at this stage I knew not of whom.
All of this triggered a fierce debate within my own head. Should I cry out or not? At first the answer appearance to be a firm ‘NO,’ as I desperately searched for an escape from my bonds, but after a few minutes when it became clear that it was utterly impossible, and believe me I tried, that switched to a likely ‘YES.’ I mean, I was the captive of somebody, might it, in fact, be better to identity that person or persons. It would be necessary to gain the knowledge of just why they had done so, and what was required of me in order to obtain any possible release.
So, and I was thankful that I hadn’t been gagged, I cried out, “hello. Anybody there?†And it appeared that after a short period of time that my efforts were not in vain, for a heard a key turn in the door to the room. Blimey, my captor, or captors, hadn’t been just content with binding me firmly to this bed, they had locked me within this room as well!
The door opened and in walked a very attractive woman, dressed purely in satin. She wore a beautiful blue nightdress that hugged her slim figure, exquisitely, over which was a matching dressing gown. She really did appear to be utterly divine.
She walked up to the bed, with a myriad of questions floating around my head, but it her who spoke first. “Good to see that you appear to be in decent physical shape after, what was clearly an ordeal for you. But you could start by explaining just why you ended up on our beach?â€
WHAT? Did she think I’d CHOSEN to end up here? I still didn’t know exactly where I was, after all. But I was held in her hands, not her in mine, I was firmly tied to what was, presumably, her bed. So, it wasn’t the time to be obstreperous. “Ma’am, I ended up here purely by accident, as you say I’m lucky to be relatively unharmed, in fact I’m lucky to be alive. The ship I was travelling in got caught up within a violent storm, and I ended up being carried overboard by a wave. I passed out almost immediately, and landed where I did by chance, not any design on my part. I don’t even know where I am.â€
The mystery woman sat herself down upon the edge of the bed. “Yes, I’m more than willing to accept just what you say. You did appear to be somewhat dis-orientated when we found you and bought you back here. And that storm you mentioned was very much real. You have the look of total honesty about you, and what you claim has the distinct ‘ring of truth’ about it. I don’t believe that you’re lying, trying to deceive me or pull the wool over my eyes.â€
Well, that’s a relief, I thought to myself. Perhaps she’d give real consideration to releasing me from this bed. As she did it appeared! She untied the bond holding one of my arms, but from the bedpost itself, leaving my wrist very much looped. And after moving my arm around she then simply re-tied it back to the bed! Starting to repeat the same process with my other arm, as she now explained. “Just trying to ensure that cramp doesn’t set in, Darling, you are still very much ours.†So, there was more than one of them, then. “Now I need to check out your story, like I say I DO believe you here, but I need to be sure. What happened to the ship you were a member of the crew of, for example? In the meantime, you are staying here.†She held up a glass of water. “Do you need something to drink!â€
She lifted the glass to my lips, and I needily drunk the contents. “Thank you,†I decided I needed to be polite, I was still tied to the bed, still in captivity to her, and her yet unseen companions.
“Well, ciao then Darling, I’m just off to check out your story. Like I say not because I doubt what you say, but more to try and find an answer to those, as yet, unanswered questions. I’ll be back later, and I understand that you need to meet my companions.†Just like that, she was gone, locking the door once she’d passed through it. As if THAT was necessary!
Leaving me even more confused than ever. She’d said that, essentially, she believed me, so why was I still being held as a captive? What did she, and these mystery ‘companions,’ have in mind for me? Talking of them, how many were there, and of what gender were they? More questions than answers, I’m sure you’d agree. In the meantime, I was still tied to this bloody bed, more out of sheer frustration than anything I guess, I one more tried to escape from my bonds. Only to discover it was as impossible as before, but I suppose that she may have made some mistake when re-applying them. It seemed that she hadn’t though.
I was left there for a couple of hours, but to the captive and confused me it seemed like a couple of years, before I heard the key turn in the door lock. Said door opened and in she stepped again, fully dressed in a beautiful leather suit, together with two companions this time, both similarly adorned attractive women. So, these were her companions or were there yet more of them? She soon answered that question in the negative sense.
“Greetings once more Darling, these are my companions, Laura and Fiona, they live alone here with me. Oh, I am sorry, I haven’t yet told you my name, it’s Anna. But I digress. Your story checks out completely, but I’m afraid that there is some rather bad news for you. Upon a notorious set of rocks there is now the wreckage of a small fishing vessel, presumably the one that you were a member of the crew of. And everybody aboard seems to have perished. Tell me, how many big was the crew?â€
Still realising that I was still their prisoner, although it did appear to answer some of my questions, but in a negative manner, I continued to co-operate. “There were six of us in total, Anna.â€
“Firstly, that’s Mistress Anna to you. But it does appear that your former shipmates are all accounted for, the relevant authorities have recovered five bodies from the wreck, actually they were four only at the site itself, but another was found washed ashore close by. That might prove useful to us, but I assume that as far as said authorities are concerned that was the entire crew, nobody outside of this room knows that you’re still alive. Let’s keep that way, eh?â€