Author's Note: This is another
FICTIONAL
story. All characters in the story are
FICTIONAL
with the exception of my wife and I. All of the actions and conversations in this story are
FICTIONAL
.
*****
It had been several weeks since my 'seven days hard labour' sentence had finished and since then I had been with nobody except my husband. I was enjoying being married and doing all of the things that any husband and wife normally do. Alan and I were going out for dinner this evening. We were just heading out to a nearby pub where I knew that I could get some decent wings and he would have his usual 'pie and a pint'.
He had spent the day working from home but I had to go into the office for a full day of meetings. The plan was that I would swing by the house and pick him up and head for the pub. It had been almost a week since I checked the mailbox and so I texted Alan and asked him to go and see if there was mail to pick up.
We got to the pub and ordered our meals and drinks. While we were waiting, I asked "Did you pick up the mail?"
"Yep." He replied.
"Anything important? Any bills that need to be paid?"
"No, just this." He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out an envelope.
"Expecting anything?" he asked.
"No, what is it?"
"I don't know. It's addressed to you. I haven't opened it." He replied.
He handed me the envelope. It was black and had a single word embossed in gold on the front. The word was 'Janice'.
I assumed that either Darby or Marcus were the main suspects as I nervously opened it. Inside was a card that read simply "Friday the 13th. Are you brave enough?"
The only other information on the card was a time, 7.30pm, and an address in the next town over.
I didn't know if the address was a house, a bar or what. I looked at my phone to check the date. It was Wednesday the 11th of July.
I gave the card to Alan and asked "What do you think it might be?"
"I have no idea. There isn't a great deal of detail on the card. Any idea who might have sent it?"
"Obviously Darby or Marcus or perhaps Ronnie spring to mind but I don't know."
"Well, you have exactly two days to figure out if you are going or not." He pointed out.
"You have nothing to do with this do you?" I asked.
"No, I'm as much in the dark as you are."
"Do you want to go?" It already sounded like I was seeking his approval.
"It's addressed to you and you only. I'm obviously not invited."
"Do you think I should go?"
"That's up to you. I've never stood in your way. If you want to go, then go."
"I'll think about it." I was intrigued and curious but I had also promised myself that I was going to take a break from any kind of party for a while.
Alan got up early on Friday morning to go to work. I had decided to stay in bed for a bit and spend the day working from home. I was supposed to go into the office for a couple of meetings but I decided to call in and do the meetings remotely. In truth I was still trying to decide whether or not to go to whatever the Friday the 13th event was. As it turns out a phone call made my decision for me.
"Hi Janice, how are you?"
"Hi Ronnie, I'm fine. You?"
"Good, good. Hey, are you going to be home tonight?"
"Why do you ask?"
"Well, your husband has invited me over. I wondered if you wanted me to bring Marcus with me?"
My husband had obviously already assumed that I was not going to spend the evening at home and was already lining up some entertainment for himself. I wasn't upset about it and I was very curious about the invitation that I had received.
"No, I've got plans I'm afraid. You'll have to have fun without me."
"Ok, I hope we'll all get together sometime soon."
"Yeah, that would be nice." I agreed.
We chatted for several minutes and, when we had hung up, I went straight to my computer and googled the address on the invitation. To my surprise the first thing that came up was a picture of a two-storey building and prominently above the entrance was the familiar sign of a well-known international hotel chain. I figured that a reputable hotel chain would not rent out one of their hotels for any of the shenanigans that happened regularly at Darby's hotel. Even Darby would never let anything happen in his hotel where the public could see it.
I felt quite disappointed in one way. I had built myself up for some excitement but was sure that whatever was going to happen would not involve the kind of excitement that I had l had come to crave.
When my workday was over, I had something to eat and went for a quick shower and got dressed. I didn't bother to put anything special on. Instead I figured some regular underwear, a pair of jeans, socks and a plain white t-shirt. I wanted to visit my friend Cheryl before I made my way to the hotel and see if she was interested in joining me.
As it turns out she wasn't at home and so I went to a bar to pass some time. I nursed a glass of wine until I decided to go and see what the Friday the 13th event was all about.
When I got to the hotel, I was surprised to see that the sign had been taken down. It was no longer part of the international chain of hotels. I parked the car and made my way up the steps to the main entrance. I pushed the door open and went into the hotel lobby. There was nobody in the lobby but I noticed a sign on an easel. The sign simply read "This Way" and an arrow encouraging me to turn left. Ahead of me was a short corridor and a set of double doors.
As I got close to the doors I saw a sign that read "The Point of NO RETURN". I smiled thinking to myself "Boy, whomever organised this is trying very lamely to make it scary."
I pushed the door open and was immediately confronted with a second set of double doors. These had a sign on them that read "If you let this door close behind you it will lock and can then only be opened from the outside. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED".
This was turning out to be about as scary as an elementary school Halloween party. I pushed the door open and walked through. The door did indeed click shut behind me. I found myself in a large hall. There was a bar in front of which stood about thirty or so guys. I started to get nervous when I realised that all of them were wearing either jeans or leathers and all of them had some kind of symbol on their backs. Then it dawned on me that they were dressed as if it was a biker gang kind of thing. I couldn't see any other women in the room.
One of the guys ambled his way over to me. He was a large man with long straggly hair and a full, very unkempt beard. I couldn't help but notice the skull and crossbones emblem on the front of his jean jacket.
"Did you read the sign?" He growled.
"Yes, but I'm sure the door will open from the inside too. It has to or nobody would be able to get out."
"Not that sign. This one." He pointed to my left.
I turned to see a hand written sign. The lighting wasn't too good and I had to get up close to see what it said.
"No clothed women allowed beyond this point." Beside that sign was another that had an arrow pointing to the floor and the words "Leave clothes here."
I turned back to look at him and I noticed that a dozen or so other guys had made their way over. I wasn't prepared for this and I slowly started to back up towards the door. As I backed up the group of guys stepped forward. I noticed that more guys had come over and now there were very few still at the bar.
I backed up until I hit something. I looked around to see the guy with the beard behind me.
"Do you want to take them off or do you want us to do it for you?" He asked as he started to pull my t-shirt out of my jeans.
"No!" I exclaimed.
"You saw the signs but you chose to come in anyway. Well, there's the door."
He stepped aside and I hurried to the door. I pushed as hard as I could but it wouldn't open. I turned back to face the guys hoping that someone I knew would come out of the crowd and tell me it was all a joke. Nobody did.
"Well honey, you've read the signs and checked the door. You know that we aren't kidding. Are you going to take your clothes off or am I going to take them off for you?"