I open my eyes, blinking away the darkness and trying to get a clue of my surroundings. I feel my hands pulled tight over my head, and my feet dangling below me. The stretch almost felt good as it pulls the muscles and bones of my body into a long stretch. I blink a few more times, my eyes begin to adjust to the dim lighting of the room. I can just make out the walls of the drafty room. Each appears to be lined with shelves and tables, I see objects on them but can't quite make them out yet. I pull a bit at my restraints, feeling my hair tickle between my shoulder blades as I crane my neck upwards.
"It's no use," a quiet whisper jolts me out of my investigation. "the restraints- they're not going to break- not until he wants them to." the voice is close, just a few feet away. I blink again, feeling my eyes adjust even more acutely to the dim lighting.
"Is someone there??" I turn my head towards where I thought the voice came from as I ask. As my eyes continue to clear I see it, the shape of a naked woman, lit around the edges by light that looks to be coming in from underneath a poorly sealed overhead door. The shape moves, just a little shake, but enough to draw my attention to the small rope-like strand that connected her nose to a large oval mass sitting on the floor below her feet.
In a moment my mind flashes back replaying the events of the previous day. The car that had picked me up, the strange drive into town, the bathroom and-
"Oh fuck- the toilet! Did he trap you too? Did he do this to you??" Desperation fills my voice as I begin to pull more aggressively at the restraints.
"Toilet? No no." the woman speaks again, a calm resignation in her voice,"For me it was a stool, in the diner." The woman breathes deeply. My eyes continue to adjust to the low-light, I get a better picture of her. Her hair is short and looks to be bright blonde, high cheek bones and bright eyes make her face alluring even in this stressed state, her body appears slim and toned as if she's a runner or some kind of athlete, her breasts are mostly obscured in the dim light but are no bigger than a B cup. "I sat down, and before I knew what was happening, it had wrapped around my legs and pushed into my cunt", she pauses, emitting something between a laugh and a cough, "My hands were pulled inside the countertop and-"
"Yea- yea it got in your-" I pause for a moment letting the implication hang in the air.
"So- so it's inside you too." Her resignation turns to sadness,"Do you know what it is? Did he tell you?"
"No, no but the bathroom- it kind of shifted and moved." As I speak my voice falls, I feel the tightness of my wrist restraints and know this is not something I'll wriggle out of.
"It can do that, not anywhere, but it can do that sometimes." the voice responds, quietly and in a very matter of fact way. She shifts, wiggling the small rope again. "The girl that was here before me- she told me what it was. She was an investigative journalist. Looking into missing people, reports of weird creatures, all kinds of weird stuff." She cough-laughs again, pausing to catch her breath.
"What's with the rope-thing?" I ask, before she can continue her monologue.
"Copying- they need- copies," she responds quietly, her voice getting weaker and weaker. My eyes adjust well enough finally to make out markings on her body. They look like small runes. A sideways "A" on her flat stomach, strange "O" and "D" combination on her left breast, an "S" with dots inside it, and an upside down "Y" on her forehead. "It doesn't matter- you need to know why- what it is-"
"Copies?! Of me??" My voice betrays my panic, I pull again at the restraints, trying to free myself.
"Stop- he'll hear- he'll come to start you." She tries to plead with me, it falls on deaf ears as I rattle the small metal bar that my hands are attached to. "Please I- I don't think I'm much- longer" her body falls limp. I freeze, watching her seemingly lifeless body swing ever so slightly from side to side.
"He- hey are you-" the woman breathes in deeply, as she does the mass on the floor immediately begins to swell and deflate in time with her breathing. "Hey are you- are you ok?" I try to get the woman's attention. She is entirely unresponsive. Her eyes flutter open gently, looking around the room with a confused expression on her face.
