Chapter 62: The Hunters and The Hunted

by John Dent

Uri slowly regained her senses and quickly realised that she was no longer riding naked in the boot of a car. Instead, she seemed to be sitting normally in an easy chair in a very dimly lit room... though her pounding head and raging thirst did make it a little hard for her to think straight. The next thing that she discovered was that her wrists and ankles seemed to be bound to the chair somehow... and that she appeared to be wearing some antiquated clothing of the type normally only seen in a museum.

"Ah, back with us I see, Uri," whispered a male voice full of concern. "I suspect that you're in need of a drink, yes?"

Uri nodded her head and immediately felt a glass touch her lips. Greedily she opened her mouth and, as the glass was tipped, she drank so eagerly that the contents were all gone within moments. A second glass was produced but the voice then suggested that she take some offered pills to relieve her headache. The unwanted thought dashed through her mind that she didn't know what the tablets actually were but, she told herself, whatever they did couldn't be much worse than what she was currently suffering and so she opened her mouth and allowed to pills to be popped in and swallowed, followed by some more mouthfuls of water. "Rest now, Uri... close your eyes and sleep... allow your body to repair itself..."

When Uri next opened her eyes, her headache and thirst were gone, but little else had changed - she was still very effectively locked into the easy chair and, with the extremely low lighting, she could see only a few feet before shadows made everything indistinct. Giving up on trying to spot what was out there, she instead looked down at herself and was horrified to discover that she was attired in a long sleeved, loose fitting dress with a hem that hung well below her knees! Not only that but the material, a thin white cotton with small prints of pretty, colourful flowers all over it, reached to just below her neck! Twisting one foot out and craning her neck, Uri was able to discover that she was wearing flat soled shoes in black patent leather that had buckles to secure them and, not only that but she was also wearing white ankle socks of the type that only small children used nowadays. Uri then discovered something else - under the dress she could feel - 'My god! It can't be, ' she thought as full realisation struck home, 'I'm wearing a bra and cami-knickers!'

"Ah, yes, my dear," said the same voice, again in low tones, "you're now correctly attired as a young lady should be. Welcome to my home... or, at least, its cellar. Let me turn the lights up a little..."

Somewhere close by, a dimmer switch was operated and, as the room was slowly filled with light, Uri saw more and more details and, indeed, the place did appear to have started life as a large cellar for there was no windows in it and only one very stout looking door with a huge combination lock mounted on it. The cellar itself had been broken up into several areas, each furnished and decorated as if they were differing rooms is a normal house - there was a sleeping area with a double bed, a bathroom complete with toilet, a small fully equipped kitchen and, of course, the area that Uri was currently sitting in, the living 'room' with most of the amenities of life apart from a video-phone or a holo-vision. Into view now stepped her capture, the Tazer Killer. "Do you like it? It's taken me many weeks and all my savings to put together but you and I can live very nicely down here, don't you think?"

"Live down here? What do you mean? And where are all the torture devices? I thought that your plan was to... well... you know... and then to kill me..."

"That was my original intention, dear Uri... and then I reconsidered. It's not your fault that you are the way you are - you were simply brought up in this corrupted and perverted life style that surrounds us these days... you know no better. So, I'm going to show you how life should be... how it used to be. You'll live down here as my wife, keeping our home tidy, preparing our meals, that sort of thing, while I go out to work and provide for us. You'll not be able to leave, of course... but that will be a small price for you to pay as you learn enlightenment."

"But... I don't want to live like this... these clothes, they're awful. I want to take them off!"

"No, Uri, that isn't the way things work now. You'll live the happy life of a liberated housewife and you'll like it. If you can't adjust - and adjust quickly - I'll be regrettably forced to conclude that it's your genes that make you the wanton slut that you currently are and that you cannot change... in which case I will reluctantly have to terminate you. It's that simple."

Listening to the man's matter-of-fact tone, Uri just knew that he meant every word. "But... we're not married, are we?"

The man tutted to himself before producing a pair of simple gold bands, the smaller of which he slipped onto Uri's ring finger before putting the large onto his own hand. "There, now we're man and wife."

"But I thought that this had to be done by a priest, didn't it?" queried a puzzled Uri as she struggled to remember her history lessons.

The man suddenly stood up, his face reddening with fury as he yelled, "IF I SAY WE'RE MARRIED, WE'RE FUCKIN' MARRIED, GET IT!?" With a visible effort, he took hold of himself and slowly sat down before going on to say in more normal tones, "Since the sort of priest you're talking about no long exists, we'll have to do without, won't we?"

Only now did Uri realise just how mad this man that she was going to have to deal with was and the full understanding of just how unstable he was scared her. "Yes... yes, I guess we will," she stated, trying to appease him. "What should I call you, by the way?"

"Oh, any of the usual terms of endearment - you must have seen the historical dramas on the holo-vision, haven't you?"

"Yes, yes I have," replied Uri neglecting to say that she had always found that type of show to be utterly boring. "But you must have a name, don't you... my love."

"Of course I have a name, my dear... but I don't wish for you to use it. You do understand, don't you?"

Uri didn't... but she wasn't going to admit to that; instead, she simply smiled at the man and agreed.

"Good. Now, my dear, I'm going to cut you loose... but first, a kiss..." The Killer moved over and leaned in towards Uri, his lips puckering up as he did so. Repulsed by what was happening to her, Uri nevertheless decided that living like this was better than dying and so she responded in kind. As it happened, the kiss was surprisingly brief, almost chaste in fact, and the man made no attempt whatsoever to slip his tongue into her mouth. Instead, he withdrew and smiled at her before crossing over into the kitchen area and returning with a large bread knife that he then used to free Uri. "Now, don't get any fancy ideas about attacking me with a knife or whatever other weapons you might find down her, my love, because only I know the code to open the door without which you'd never get out - you'd be trapped down here and, eventually, you'd die of starvation."