Anusha Arora

Thriller

4.9  

Anusha Arora

Thriller

The Hostage

The Hostage

9 mins
393


A narrow beam of light entered the room from a tiny slit of window my captor had forgotten to cover. I had been taken as a hostage a few weeks ago maybe even months, but then I just couldn’t be sure. I didn’t even know my name, or my age, the name of my parents or the very logic of my existence. I knew nothing about my life, the moments which had passed or about the moments which were to be.

All I remembered was a very bright room, a stretcher with my hands and legs strapped to it and excruciating pain. The room was bare, except for a large amount of machinery on my either sides, against the wall to examine me, my heart rate, brain waves and electrical impulses. I remembered the high-pitched scream which erupted from my mouth and engulfed the entire room every time they used to put the currents through my mind. At first the currents used to be of a very high potency, erasing memories of past. Everyday I’d wake up on the stretcher remembering nothing about the yesterday….my yesterday. I didn’t know for how long I had been in the room I was present in for I knew I could have been coming every day to that place and …still remember nothing. But I still knew I had at least been for about a day in there. But I can’t be sure.


Time mattered nothing to me then, I speak couldn’t eat, couldn’t think. My inside instinct was all that kept me alive. I paced around the room. I had learned to walk since they didn’t bind me. Why would they? I was a brainless child could feel nothing, could do nothing. They had better things to do anyway. I rubbed my sore temples. My head spun and throbbed, and since I could think nothing I focused on my walk. That’s how I had spent my time walking or crouching, covering my head with my hands, organizing myself in brace position figuring that the … pain would start any moment. I froze in my tracks. The bustling of people outside my cell told me that someone was going to get me. The thing with these people was that they couldn’t possibly maintain tranquility. But I couldn’t understand them so I guess that It made sense that they always moved around in a stampede and announced their presence. One of the guards flung my door open muttering something I didn’t understand then, but I do know. He said, “couldn’t have informed earlier” he huffed and wheezed out “today’s the day”. I was mildly surprised by the commotion and even more flabbergasted when he grabbed me by my hair and pressed me against the wall. I was weak due to lack of nutrition and had no knowledge of how to defend myself, so I did nothing when he thrust his fist with a metal device attached to his knuckles toward my neck.


A current passed through my body. My body went limp and pale and my hands dropped to my sides. The pain was less than the one I felt with the machine, but enough to make my eyes bug out and head pound. As I lost consciousness I saw the guard gesturing his friends to carry me away. As I gained consciousness I found myself staring at a low stopping roof. I rolled to my belly and found myself in a van with tinted window glasses. I was lying in a tiny stretcher at its rear end. There was a man to my left who yanked me back when I tried to get up. I couldn’t move, I wasn’t allowed to, so I lied still instead. The van came to an abrupt halt. The man to my left grabbed a funny sort of a belt with wires going up and down and a timer in the middle. He pulled me up and pulled me up and placed it around my waist on my tatty grey T-shirt and faded, denim jeans. He got me up, jabbed at a few buttons on my belt and pushed me out of the Van. I got out and began staring at the swerving van and the dust rolling behind it. For a couple of seconds I kept on staring at the different vehicle and people at the road. Moving vehicles were a curiosity to me. Those seconds turned to mins and the mins maybe into hours.


A few people looked at me funny and their eyes widened when they moved towards my belt. Suddenly a car which had driven past me started to come back towards me on reverse gear. A man peeked out of the window. He asked something but as his language was gibberish for me I simply shook my head. He got out of the car and on reaching in front of me crouched. He said a few more things pointing towards my belt and I caught nothing but one-word “Bomb”. His hands shook and fumbled as he messed with the belt. He pulled out a wire and the time which was beeping till then elapsed. He took out a handkerchief from the inner pocket of his coat and wiped his face which was beaded with sweat. He grabbed my arm and pulled towards the car. The past day had been so crazy for me that I didn’t even blink an eye when he stuffed me inside the car like a pile of sacks. We maneuver the streets for half an hour or so and then I reached a lab. It was brilliant white building from the outside with lots of window. Few windows were draped with a plush red curtain like a veil which curtailed me from seeing any further. The man guided me inside through a maze of corridors into a room. I bit my lip and screamed. It was the same machinery to put the currents through me but not the same room.


Maybe I was hallucination and this place wasn’t there at all. A few men accompanied by the same man appeared. I hadn’t noticed his ability to disappear in shadows. I thrashed like a wild animal as they carried me to the stretcher. Similar equipment was attached to body like when they used to put the currents through me. The man in the car was about to place a metallic head rest around my head when he quietly said “This is for your own good “and his face was the last thing I saw. This process felt a lot better than I thought. It actually felt good having something familiar done to me and feel for once that the world was not going bonkers all around me. But when I woke up everything changed. I could feel my eyes more focused my senses keener as if anticipating attacks from every direction. The most wonderful change of all was that I could finally remember, my name, my age existences of my life and the instances during my captivity. The door of the room opened and the man in the car walked in “Hello” he said. I am Dr. Ashley Kinley. I believe you can speak now? “Yes” I answered. His words had started to make sense now. It was lie all my memory was piece by piece fitted back inside my brain to from a memory jigsaw puzzle “Good” Dr. Kinley retorted. He gave a small smile and said " Your interrogation will begin at 4 pm” he glanced at his watch “ so you have approximately I hour rest.” I gave him a puzzled look so he explained “you were taken hostage for a couple of weeks from a group of international terrorists. They planned on making you a human bomb as you had managed to intercept a meeting of their’ s in a restaurant …” he looked at me for approval. I nodded. it was all coming back to me now. He cleared her throat and continued “so luckily I saw you with that bomb. Our special agents had received information about a blast on that very location. You see I am a nuclear engineer, so defusing the bomb wasn’t exactly easy but doable for me.” He smiled. The door creaked open. “aaha… doctor. Kate here” he said gesturing towards the lady who had entered the room “is my wife. She’s a neurologist. She oversaw your memory treatment here” he finished. I nodded and then suddenly asked “how did you cure me? I mean no one in the know history has been cured of their lost memory before as far as I know. How did you do it? All I remembered was a very bright room, a stretcher with my hands and legs


Kate said her voice and face both grim “You have been the first person as far as I know to have been cured of their memory and believe me I know quite a bit” She pursed her lips and forcing a smile added ‘”Those people gave you too many electrical shocks. So, you are now somewhat resistant to it. Just as bacteria become resistant to antibiotics medicine if we consume too many. The same happened with you. We checked your citizenship data and gave some signals to your brain and facts like your name, age etc. through shocks”. She smiled apologetically “ And the rest of it came tumbling itself” Kinley added.

They began explaining the process in more detail but quickly stopped when they saw my eyes glazing over. You better rest now “Kinley said glancing at his watch.” The UN officials will be coming soon.” I nodded as if this was understandable, but this really freaked me out. Since my head felt s if it had been filled with mercury and my heart ran faster than the formula I cars. I decided to get some rest. At around 3:50 pm I was woken and taken to you. I finished gesturing towards an array of UN officials on my either sides. A man on my right scratched his beard. “Thank you for your time” he said. The information of attacks and weapons along with your experience is rather valuable. Hopefully we’ll be able to make some arrests soon” he began stroking his beard. I nodded “You’ll be meeting your parents at the airport he added. My eyes gleamed and shone for the first time were since my memory had been cured. I dashed joyfully towards the stairs to the car which would lead me to the awaiting arms of my parents at the airport.


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