Endless Winter (Guardians of The Light)

by J Armitage

  Anais thought back to the scene that had just unfolded and there was something not quite right that she couldn’t put her finger on. The whole thing was strange admittedly but it was something else. Something she had seen that didn’t add up.

  The door was now open which shed some light into the room allowing her to see it properly for the first time. It was as opulent as she had suspected with the swirly wallpaper turning out to be a complex damask pattern in black and gold. The carpet was a rich deep red. It glittered with tiny slivers of glass still littering it which the woman had not managed to sweep up. The ruined table was a dark wood and looked like an expensive antique which, in any other situation would have made Anais feel guilty for breaking. Her father had instilled in her a love of antiques which had only grown when she had met Winnie and started working in her antique bookshop.

  She moved as far as her shackles would allow so she could see out through the door. Outside was a corridor in which the red carpet continued.

  She could only see a small part of the corridor but it was decorated in the same opulent style as the room.

  Anais looked again at the carpet. The light from the hall was hitting the glass fragments creating a pretty sparkling effect and bouncing the light in pretty flashes on the wall.

  That’s when it hit her, what had been wrong before. She had quite clearly seen the woman’s face when she had held the tissue to Anais head. The only light in the room was coming from the hallway. Anais was facing the doorway and the woman had been between her and the door. The woman would have been able to see Anais clearly but Anais should have only seen her silhouette. There was no way that Anais should have seen the woman’s face so clearly. The flecks of light in the woman’s eyes had no source to reflect. Anais wondered if she had banged her head harder than she thought she had. She brought the tissue down and saw that there were only a few spots of blood and although she could now feel the spot where she had banged her head, it wasn’t really causing her any discomfort.

  As she was pondering this new development, the woman came back. Her hands were full. She carefully laid everything on the bed and then turned to Anais and spoke.

  “It’s not so bad but I’d like to clean it and cover it,” she said this whilst brushing an errant hair away from Anais eyes.

  The gesture was strangely comforting but made Anais feel self-conscious. Now that the woman was so close to her, Anais was surprised that she had been right. She could see the woman’s face so clearly that it was like a soft light was shining on it. Anais nearly looked over her shoulder to find the source of the light but knew there was nothing behind her, just the wall with its damask pattern. The room was still dark, with its only illumination coming from the light in the corridor, behind this strange woman.

  The woman picked a bottle of green liquid from the bed and removed the stopper with a slight pop, bringing Anais out of her thoughts.

  “Antiseptic,” she said as she dabbed it onto Anais cut forehead with a bit of cotton wool. It stung for a second and a cold dribble ran down her face which was expertly mopped up by this woman.

  Anais sat perfectly still whilst the woman ran a bandage around her head. She watched the woman’s face. Her eyes, full of concern were endless pools of blackness but they reflected the light so perfectly that they sparkled. Light that wasn’t there. She could see the woman so very clearly, even in the dark. Her skin, pale but flawless and those scarlet lips, lips that were now smiling at her. The woman looked her in the eyes and smiled, making Anais feel uncomfortable once again. She still had her hands on Anais head and was looking at her intently. Anais was so close she could see her own reflection in the woman’s eyes.

  “That should do it.” The woman finally dropped her hands and then handed Anais a sandwich which she had placed on the bed. “It’s ham and mustard, I hope that’s ok.”

  Anais realised that she had been holding her breath, so hypnotised she had been by the presence and closeness of this woman. All at once the spell was broken and Anais realised she was actually hungry. She took the sandwich and ate greedily despite her dry throat. Just like her previous meal it was delicious. She devoured one half and then grabbed the other. Putting it into her mouth she looked up at the woman. She has watching her eating. Anais suddenly felt self-conscious and bit just a small corner off the sandwich.

  “I guess banging you on the head has not affected your appetite. How does it feel?”

  “Fine thanks,” Anais answered. It was the first words she had uttered since this woman first arrived. “Please can I have a drink?”

  The woman threw her a bottle of water, which Anais opened and drank down in gulps. The cold water soothed her throat and quenched her thirst.

  “What am I doing here?”

  “You are here for a very special reason, we need you. I can’t really say much more but we will not hurt you Anais. You will know everything shortly but for now, just eat your food and get your head better.”

  Anais noted the use of her name. This woman obviously knew her and hadn’t just kidnapped her randomly.

  “You obviously know who I am. Do I get to know who you are?”

  “I’m Aethelu, pleased to meet you.” She held her hand out to shake hands with Anais, as if they had just met at a business meeting instead of being kidnapper and captive.

  With all the other weirdness of the moment, Anais took it in her stride. She swapped the sandwich into her other hand, quickly wiped her mustardy hands on her pyjama bottoms and shook Aethelu’s leather clad hand.

  “I have to go but I’ve left you another bottle of water there on the bed. I’ve left you some slippers just here on the floor. Wear them. I don’t want you cutting your feet on the bits of glass I missed. I’ll come and vacuum tomorrow but it’s a bit late now. I don’t want to keep the others awake.”

  “I’ve also left loo paper, clean PJs and some magazines.” She pointed to the bed.

  “How do you expect me to read the magazines if you keep me in the dark?” Anais asked.

  Aethelu stood up, walked to the door and put her hand up. She pulled a cord and light flooded the room. With a wink she picked up the dustpan and brush and left the room bolting the door behind her.

  Anais mentally kicked herself. How could she have missed the light pull? She felt like such a dolt. She must have just missed it when she was feeling her way around the room. In her defence it was just a bit of string hanging down from the ceiling with a ceramic end. Easily missable in the dark if you were expecting a switch. Not that seeing the room had improved her situation any. She was still locked in it, and being able to see the room didn’t make it any more escapable. She looked around. The floor glittered more than ever in the bright light. She put her feet into the slippers and absent mindedly chewed on the remains of her sandwich. The light came from a chandelier on the ceiling. Crystals added to the rooms twinkling brightness. The bed was indeed a four poster bed made from intricately carved dark wood. It was all very old fashioned and reminded Anais of the one time she had visited a stately home as a member of the public with her parents shortly before they died. She followed one of the posts down to the bed and saw the pile that Aethelu had left. There was a neatly folded blanket of ruby red, the magazines she had promised and a key with a label attached to it. Anais picked up the key and studied it. It looked like a perfect fit to the shackles on her wrists. She awkwardly twisted her arms to be in a position to turn the key in the lock and straight away the shackle fell off. She quickly turned the key in the other shackle which fell on the bed to join the first. She read the label on the key. It simply said ‘Sorry’.

  Moving the shackles to the floor she picked up the bottle of water. Having had nothing to drink except for gravy for the last day or so had left her extremely dehydrated. The first bottle of water had soothed her somewhat but her throat still felt like sandpaper and her tongue was rough. She unscrewed the bottle top and drank the whole lot down, though sipping it more slowly than the last one. Feeling refreshed
she turned her attention to the pyjamas that Aethelu had left on the bed. They were a men’s style cotton with blue stripes. Nothing like her pink ones but they were clean so she changed into them, neatly folding hers and placing them on the floor. She then picked up the magazines, the toilet paper and the blanket to see if Aethelu had left anything else. There was nothing else there so she wrapped the blanket around herself and flicked through the first magazine. It was full of ridiculous stories of people’s lives, pictures of babies and tips of the week. It reminded her of the trash that Winnie used to read.

  Throwing them aside she instead concentrated on Aethelu. What had she said? “We need you.”

  So there was more than just the woman holding her captive. She had felt inexplicably safe in Aethelu's presence, but was she just there to put her at ease before the others did unspeakable things to her? Aethelu had also said that she didn’t want to wake others up which suggested there were other people sleeping in nearby bedrooms. Were they other captors or other people kidnapped and locked in just like her? She didn’t know. None of it made sense. She wasn’t sure if she should shout and wake the other people up anyway. She decided it was pointless. If they were locked in a room just like her, what could they do to help her and if they weren’t, well then what would they do to shut her up? Either way, she’d be in no better place than she was now. She put the sheet back on the bed, laid herself down, and closed her eyes. Aethelu’s image remained in her conscious as if it was burned into her retinas and it was thoughts of those cherry lips that led Anais into a deep sleep.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Dreams of flying were interrupted by a strange whirring noise. Anais opened her eyes to find Aethelu vacuuming the carpet and finally getting rid of the glass particles. When Aethelu noticed she was awake she smiled.

  “Morning sleepyhead. It’s nearly 10am.”

  Anais had lost all concept of time but she felt marvellous after a long nights sleep. She sat up and yawned immediately spotting the plate of breakfast which was now sat on another side table. She walked over to the table, picked up the fried breakfast and took it back to the bed. She knew it was going to taste amazing even before the first bite and she was not disappointed. She took a bite out of one of the three sausages on the plate. Bacon, eggs, hash browns, mushrooms and beans filled her plate. Each mouthful tasted better than the last.

  Aethelu looked at her with a quizzical expression. “You didn’t try to escape?”

  Anais looked at Aethelu and the wide open door. She could have easily escaped. She was much closer to the door than Aethelu was. With the element of surprise she calculated she’d have easily got through the door and perhaps half way down the corridor. So why didn’t she? It was partly fear of the unknown but she knew that the real reason that she had not escaped was because a little part of her didn’t want to. Aethelu had intrigued her. She should have felt scared but fear had long since left her and was now replaced by curiosity.

  She had lost the element of surprise, as it was her captor who had pointed out that she could have escaped. Her failure to escape yesterday was in the forefront of her mind and she knew it was pointless to even try to escape right now. She would think about it and try to escape later.

  “Are you going to tell me why I’m here yet?” Anais asked. “And just where is here?”

  “We are in Baildon.”

  “Baildon?”

  “It’s a small town, less than 50 miles from where we took you. This is our house.”

  “Our?”

  “I live here with my family. At the moment there’s my eldest brother August, my brothers Alexander and Raphael who are twins and our family friend Andrew. They are all dying to meet you. I’ve told them all about you but my father won’t allow them to meet you until he gets back in a couple of weeks. He’s abroad with my mother at the moment.”

  “Look. As much as I’d like to sit around here for the next week or so waiting until your father gets home think I’d rather just go home now if you don’t mind.” Anais tried a sarcastic tone.

  “I hate this.” Aethelu looked at her with a pained expression which did nothing to diminish her pure beauty. Anais wondered if they were having the same conversation.

  “Sorry?”

  “I hate having to keep you locked up, He should have given the job to Alex or Raphael.”

  Anais took he to be Aethelu’s father and the job to mean keeping her locked up.

  “Why are you then?” Anais was now trying to sound sympathetic but it was difficult when Aethelu was purposely not telling her why she was here.

  Aethelu gave a sad smile but didn’t answer.

  “Let me look at you.” Aethelu made her way over to the bed where Anais was still eating her breakfast.

  Anais wasn’t sure exactly what Aethelu wanted to look at until she put her hand up to Anais face.

  Anais got another close up of those amazing eyes and realised Aethelu was unwinding the bandage from her head. Her hands once again lingered just a fraction of a second longer than Anais was comfortable with.

  “Healing nicely. It was just a small cut. I don’t think we’ll be needing this anymore.”

  She took the used bandage, balling it up and putting it into her pocket to throw away later.

  “You don’t look how I imagined.” said Aethelu. She was still uncomfortably close to Anais despite having finished seeing to the cut on her head.

  Anais wasn’t sure how to take this so she replied with a question of her own.

  “What were you expecting?”

  “Not sure, really,” answered Aethelu. “I don’t think I was expecting your hair to be so dark.”

  Anais self-consciously twirled the end of a lock of hair round her finger.

  “Don’t get me wrong,” Aethelu said apologetically. “It’s beautiful, really shiny. It’s just so black.”

  “It comes from my mother’s side of the family.”

  “Ah, I see,” said Aethelu as if this was a great revelation to her. “Well, it’s pretty gorgeous.”

  She looked slightly embarrassed at what she had said and so retreated, leaving Anais alone once again.

  It wasn’t until late in the afternoon that she reappeared bringing Anais’ dinner with her.

  She placed the spaghetti bolognese on the side table along with a small bottle of red wine and a glass made out of the finest crystal. These people sure know how to kidnap in style thought Anais. She watched silently as Aethelu went about her business, emptying the chamber pot and taking away the dirty dishes from the previous meal. Anais knew it was pointless asking why she was here as much as it was to be set free.

  Aethelu stopped and looked at her as if she was expecting her to say something.

  Well Anais wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction. Let Aethelu speak to her if she wanted.

  Finally Aethelu broke the silence.

  “I really am sorry you know.”

  Anais thought she was beginning to sound like a broken record. ‘She was sorry’; ‘it wasn’t her fault.’ For all Anais knew, there was only Aethelu here.

  She kept silent as Aethelu approached her.

  “Here I brought you these.” Aethelu placed some puzzle books on the bed including a couple that were cryptic crosswords only. “I bought them especially for you. I thought you’d like them more than those rubbish magazines my Mother reads.”

  Anais was surprised that Aethelu had guessed how much she liked puzzles. The short time she had spent locked in the room had dragged, each second ticking by excruciatingly slowly, each minute seeming to last an hour. It was, perhaps, the hardest part of being locked in a room for Anais. Her usually active mind, devoid of stimulation, had become very bored, very quickly. The puzzle books were a very welcome gift although she wasn’t going to give her kidnapper the satisfaction of knowing that. She composed her face into what she hoped resembled complete indifference.

  “Ok then. Enjoy your meal.” Aethelu seemed downcast as she left the room, pulling the bolt bac
k after she left.

  Anais jumped off the bed and went straight to the food. It was laced with heaps of garlic, just as she liked it. It was delicious, just like Winnie made. A lot of the food she’d had since coming here could rival Winnie's. The thought momentarily made her feel sad but she was too hungry to dwell on it for too long. She’d never been much of a wine drinker but the small bottle, which, when she poured it out, fit neatly into the glass and tasted wonderful with the pasta dish.

  After dinner she sat on the bed and spent the evening filling out crosswords. She was so glad of them. The magazines she had been given earlier were so trashy that they were barely readable. Even so, she’d read them all cover to cover three times, including the adverts. The hours dragged in here with nothing to look at except pretty wallpaper and with only her own thoughts for company. A couple of crossword books were fine to occupy her for a few hours but even with them, the relentless boredom of inertia was sure to kick in again as soon as the last crossword was completed. Sleep was the only sure fire way to pass the time without feeling bored and hopeless and she found herself sleeping more now than she ever had in her life.

  Aethelu made her appearance early the next day and she seemed in a much better mood than she had been the previous evening. She chattered away in her sing song voice as she cleared away yesterday’s dishes and emptied the chamber pot. She’d brought another wonderful breakfast which Anais was now wolfing down. The meals she was brought were the only thing, besides sleep, that broke the monotony. Mind you, she mused, with food as good as this it was almost worth being kidnapped. This morning it was Eggs Benedict with salmon, another favourite of hers. Seriously, how did Aethelu know? It was like she could read her mind.