22.
I regain consciousness with a raging headache that seems to split my head in two. I open my eyes, moaning. I’m lying on a bed. My hands and feet aren’t bound. Luckily.
I sit up slowly and look around. My look is still a bit blurry and my head aches even more now. In the meanwhile I prick up my ears, but there’s nothing to be heard. The neighborhood is as quiet as a mouse. When my look finally sharpens, I can see that the bedroom is huge and decorated minimalistically. A bed without back or front with a plain, white bedcover on it. No night tables, only build-in cupboards and everything in shades of beige. I sway my legs over the edge of the bed. The ground is a light parquet floor with not even a little carpet on it.
The ones who kidnapped me, pulled out my boots and set them neatly next to the bed. I pull them on immediately.
On the left side of the room is a door and the right side is totally dominated by a picture window. The view is magnificent, I can’t deny that. I look at a spacious garden behind which a forest begins. Because the window covers the entire wall it seems as if the room is in the garden itself. The sun is high, so I suspect it has to be Monday in the afternoon.
In line with the room, I now see, is a bathroom without dividing wall. A shower cabin that’s big enough to fit two people, a spacious round bath, two washbasins and a hanging toilet. It all looks cool and new.
I walk to the washbasin and look in the mirror that’s hanging above it. I look tired and wearied, which isn’t a surprise. I quickly splash some water on my face and then see the glass with the box of aspirins next to it. Well, well, so my kidnappers do have some compassion. Although I don’t totally trust it I decide to take the risk. That headache is unbearable and is even aching behind me eyeballs. I swallow down an aspirin and then walk to the door.
Of course it’s locked. I pull and tug with the little power I’ve got left, but the door doesn’t move an inch. I feel incredibly tired and washed-out, as if every sprinkle of energy has disappeared. The windows! I walk towards them and look at them thoroughly. No handle that suggests they can be opened. Shit!
I don’t understand why I’m so exhausted and why my muscles are pricking painfully. Sighing I plop down on the bed. There’s nothing else to do but to transform myself into fog, I conclude, to sneak out through the door cracks. I try it, but I don’t manage to do so! At least, not totally! My hands transform into fog and just my underarms, but there it stops. That never occurred to me before. No, that’s not entirely true. When I’m very tired or when my body is physically exhausted, I sometimes also don’t manage to transform. It makes me think about the first attempts I undertook to transform myself.
I was about fourteen years old when the potential gift manifested itself. With every otherkind it’s at a different age, but always during puberty and with girls especially during their first period. During my first transformation Diedie and Jabar were there to guide me and comfort me. It’s quite scary and requires a lot of concentration. I still remember well I wanted to transform into one of my favorite actresses: Naomi Watts. I found and still find her an incredibly beautiful woman.
‘Concentrate on her, see her in front of you, even every detail,’ Jabar said.
That’s easier said than done, let that be clear. I did see her in front of me, but different thoughts were forced on me. It took me almost two hours before I had only formed her face and I bathed in sweat. Diedie suggested I should maybe take something that was easier, like a cupboard or closet. Jabar said it didn’t matter, that the first times were always difficult and that it was part of it all. Nothing is simple and easy to learn, a gift of an otherkind isn’t an exception to that rule. Eventually I became really angry with myself and especially ashamed of Jabar and Diedie because of the fact I didn’t manage to transform. Although I have to say that they had an endless patience with me. A few months later I could transform into what I wanted and quite quickly. Still a few months later I could do so in two seconds at most. Jabar truthfully let me know that I didn’t learn it quickly, but also not slowly. He took Diedie, Oded and me to an expensive restaurant to celebrate. It was my first visit to a real star restaurant and I felt as proud as a peacock. I could even drink champagne! The entire evening was about me and I though it was a pity there were other costumers in the restaurant because I couldn’t wait to do the transformation as much as possible.
And now I’m just sitting here, kidnapped and stripped from my powers!
I suspect not only the tiredness is playing tricks on me, but also that the narcotics they gave me are keeping my transformers-gift in a dormancy. Damn it! I feel so helpless and weakly knock with my fists on the quilt.
Where am I? It doesn’t seem more than logical to me N.B. has kidnapped me. But why? Only to play a nasty trick on Jabar? And then what? What’s he planning to do with me? He can’t just knock me out with sedatives and keep me here forever against my own will? Or can he?
Luckily Oded saw what happened and hopefully he could read the number plate of the truck. If he couldn’t… then they’ll never find me.
However, I can’t wait for their rescue. I have to try to escape myself. Hopefully the anesthetics wear off quickly, before they can give me another one, otherwise I’m screwed.
And where are those kidnappers, damn it?
I lie flat on my back and stare at the ceiling. The headache drains away, so I’m happy it was indeed an aspirin I swallowed down.
The minutes, in which I can’t do anything but look outside, pass tauntingly slow. There’s no television or stereo in the room and of course no books either.
I try to transform into fog again, but still I don’t manage to do it completely. Frustrated I think about the things I could do.
And then I get a brilliant idea!
I can transform myself into water and escape through the shower or bathtub drain. Change in water is somewhat easier than in fog, so maybe it will work out. It isn’t really a hygienic escape route, but everything is better than waiting and maybe getting killed. Although I think, if they want to kill me, they would have done it already.
Cheerful about the idea of being too clever for them, I run to the bath. My heart immediately sinks into my boots. They blocked the drain! I quickly run to the shower. The same of course and also for the washbasins. I didn’t notice earlier because you don’t suspect something like that.
Vent dampers! They definitely need to be here, since the bathroom doesn’t have windows that can open and above that is situated in the bedroom. I find a ventilation grid but it’s screwed down with a metal plate. I look around, searching for a chair I can stand on, but already know I won’t find one. Besides, with the little power I now have, I’m not even capable of lifting a television.
Dejected I take a seat on the bed again. I wonder why they specifically kidnapped me. Not because it was easier, I presume. Then they even could have kidnapped Diedie easier when that transformer pushed its way into our house. It would have hurt Jabar just as much if they had taken Diedie instead of me. Of course I don’t want Diedie to sit here in my place, I’m just wondering.
Unfortunately my mobile phone fell when they dragged me into the truck. And still, they would probably have taken it from me.
I ponder, searching for solutions. Think, Manon, think hard.
Eventually I fall asleep from pure frustration and exhaustion.