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“How can I accept if I can’t see you?”
My expert eyes scanned the room looking for the camera or the speaker system. Nothing. Just silence.
“Are you still there?” I asked. Whenever I was nervous or afraid, my default setting was defiance. But this time was a little different. I decided to be … deferential, for a change.
“I’m sorry. Can you ask me that question again?”
Silence.
“Please?” I added.
The voice crackled to life. “Solange, will you accept the Step?”
Relent. Relent. Relent. I was here to experience new things. Hadn’t I enjoyed every Step so far? Why dig my heels in now?
“I do.”
“Excellent. Will it be pain or pleasure, Solange?”
Oh dear. Second thoughts crept in.
“What do you mean?”
“Which do you prefer? Pain or pleasure?”
My eyes didn’t know where to look: the walls, the doors, the bed, the dresser, the floor, the ceiling.
“I … pleasure, I guess,” I said, fear shoving me to the safe zone again.
“Then I want you to step through the white door.”
I looked at both doors carefully. “They’re both white.”
There was no answer.
“Tell me which door!”
Still no reply.
“Are you there?”
Nothing. The clock ticked louder, or maybe my heart’s rapid beat enhanced the sound. I looked back and forth between the two white doors. What if I picked the wrong door? I wanted to hear his voice again. Fuck it. Just pick a door. This isn’t Trivial Pursuit. There can’t be a wrong choice.
I chose the door to my left, the one nearest the windows. I turned the knob and pushed it open. The room inside was inky black, the air dead still. The light from the room I was standing in only illuminated the edge of an oriental rug covering a beautifully scuffed wood floor. I felt around for a wall switch, and that’s when a gloved hand encircled my wrist and yanked me inside, shutting the door behind me.
The darkness engulfed me. I screamed. Another gloved hand gently went over my mouth. I was pulled back against a fully clothed man, taller than me by a head.
“Shh. Solange. You’ll wake the neighbors.”
It was him, the bearer of the same mellow voice I had heard over the intercom, his mouth now inches from my ear.
“You fucking scared me!” I shouted through his fingers.
“Shh. It’s okay. You’re safe. You’re very safe,” he said, keeping my mouth covered. He kept saying it as he walked me deeper into that room, my upper body restrained by his strong arms, my legs prompted by each of his legs.
“If I let you go, do you promise not to scream?”
I nodded, intrigue beginning to replace fear. His hand fell away from my mouth and he released me.
