I was lying on my bed, on my stomach, ankles crossed up in the air, wearing a long-sleeved, dark coloured leotard and thick, light coloured tights, reading an exciting book. Then, he bursts in!
“You’re bored, I see!†he boomed, which usually meant he was. “Don’t you worry, I´ll fix that,†Before I had the chance to say anything, he had thrown himself onto my bed and crossed my feet, tying them tightly together at the ankles, followed by my knees, using a thin cord.
By now, I had started realizing what was going on, and had started protesting loudly, using a lot of words my mum wouldn’t have approved of. He simply put a stop to that, by shoving a couple of scrunched up handkerchiefs in my mouth, making my cheeks bulge to the point of bursting. He tied them in place using a long scarf, and proceeded by tying my hands tightly together, behind my back, using the same type of thin cord as on my feet. As he was a bit heavy-handed, the result was quite painful, the cord digging deep into my wrists and ankles.
Then, slapping my derriere, he said:†Right! Getting out of that’ll give you something to do!â€
I gave him a murderous glance, and started to try to free myself, as soon as he was gone. He is, quite an expert at tying people (mainly me) up, making the knots almost impossible to get at. The operative word being: ‘almost’. The thing is; I’m just as good at getting out of his ties, as he is tying me. I squirmed around on the bed for a while, studying the knot, securing my hands behind my back. I found it was a complicated one, therefore taking me a while to get undone, but finally I managed. From then on, it was quite a straight forward task. The knots to the cords around my knees and ankles actually weren’t as tight as I thought they were.
It took me quite a while, but after finally having managed to wiggle myself free, I thought I’d clear my head with a bit of fresh air. Without changing my clothes (and seeing no need too), I went into the wooded area, just behind the house. Suddenly, I was engulfed by thick, damp fog, seemingly coming from nowhere. I kept on walking in the same direction as before, because I knew it was the shortest way out.
But as I kept on walking, the path somehow seemed to get longer and longer, and more and more snaky, then I remembered it to be. All of a sudden, I heard someone screaming for help. I went in the direction of the scream, and soon saw a girl, about my age, standing with her back against a tree. As I got closer still, I could see the reason why. She had her hands tied behind the trunk of the tree, and more rope was tightly wrapped around her and the tree, from just below her armpits, to just below her knees. She wasn’t gagged, but for some reason she was blindfolded.
“Is there someone there? If so, who are you?†she anxiously asked.
I told her my name, and asked her, rather ridiculously, if she needed any help.
“Well, you could get me loose. That’ll be a good start, don’t you think?†was her ironic answer, to that rather silly question. I walked around to the back of the tree, but couldn’t find any knots anywhere.
“How am I supposed to do that?†I asked. “I can’t find any knots anywhere!â€
“Just grab the ropes and pull towards you,†she said. “If done correctly, they should just fall off by themselves.â€
I grabbed the rope tying her hands together and pulled. It fell right off, just as she had predicted. Encouraged by this, I pulled the other one off, just as easily. The ropes fell to the ground, arranging themselves in neat coils. She tore off the blindfold, staggering a couple of steps away from the tree. The now freed girl turned to me and thanked me, apologizing for her rudeness before. “I’m the one who should be apologizing to you,†I said,†for asking such a silly question. Are you all right?â€
Without me noticing it, I now was the one standing with my back against the tree. “Yes, thank you, I am. And thank you for volunteering to take my place!â€
Suddenly the ropes came back to life and before I had had a chance to react, they had coiled themselves around my body, fastening me the same way they had her, a couple of minutes ago. I was soon immobilized, unable to move a muscle.
The girl, who never told me her name, lay down on the ground, and said;â€Now can finally get some rest!†As she said that, the blindfold started moving and, just before it covered my eyes, I saw her turn to dust, the wind blowing it away. I started screaming and yanking my bonds, but to no avail.
I woke up, still screaming, in my own bed, bathing in sweat. It took me a while, but I eventually realized I had been dreaming the whole thing. I breathed a big sigh of relief, and returned to sleep, safe in the knowledge I was safely tied to my own bed, and that it had all just been a bad dream.