Small World

James shuffled along the bed to get away, but the dog just started edging closer to him again. When it was close enough it started to sniff his face, getting close enough to leave trails of slobber on him. James pulled away in disgust and shuffled even further down the bed.

Suddenly Sarah shouted at him angrily "What the fuck James? What the hell are you doing?"

James looked at her in absolute bewilderment, surely she could see how disgusting it was to have this overgrown, smelly beast slobber all over his face. "I'm just trying to wait here in peace but this dog won't leave me alone." he said back to her, trying not to shout.

"Well how on earth did you ever expect to get to know each other? Dogs have to smell James - its how they get to know people!" she hissed at him. "If you don't want to try and be friends with him then fine - but don't be surprised if he stops letting me see you!"

Tears were welling up in Sarah's eyes as she shouted and the dog started to make the low, rumbling growl again, but Sarah wasn't done yelling "Why the fuck did you even say you wanted to meet if you were going to act like this? Do you think it was easy for me to persuade him to give you a chance?!"

James felt like he was missing a key part of an important puzzle. He stared at Sarah in confusion as he tried to piece together what she was saying.

"Did you want me to meet this dog today?" he asked feelingly completely confused, "is this Simon?"

Now it was Sarah's turn to look at him in confusion, "Of course this is Simon, who else would Simon be?" she asked in an exasperated voice.

"I assumed you were talking about the fucking giant psychopath that kidnapped us - not your dog! Why would I want to meet your dog?" He shouted.

Sarah looked horrified and turned her attention to the dog, Simon, who had started to whimper and whine. "See what you've done? You've upset him you heartless prick!"

She knelt down next to the dog and started to stroke him. She pressed her face against his and started to whisper reassuringly to him. The dog, who was apparently called Simon, started to lick her face all over but Sarah didn't seem to mind at all.

"What... the fuck." said James after a while.

"Oh fuck off James" replied Sarah simply as she continued to fuss over the dog.

James had a thousand questions he wanted to ask, but all he could think to say was "What the actual fuck Sarah?"

Sarah turned to look at him and he saw hurt and anger in her eyes.

"Why are you acting like this James? You said you wanted to meet him - it was you that asked - not me! And now you're acting like you don't give a shit!" she asked.

"I thought you were talking about the giant! I thought he was Simon!" James replied in exasperation.

Now it was Sarah's turn to look disgusted "Him? That fucking disgusting rapist piece of shit? You actually thought I would care about him?!"

"Well..." said James looking from Sarah, to the dog, and then back to again, "I just didn't think... this, that's all" he said.

They waited in uncomfortable silence for a few minutes as Sarah reassured Simon and he continued to lick her face. After a while he stopped and walked over to the corner of the room, curled into a ball on the floor, and went to sleep.

The awkward silence continued for a while, but James just couldn't think of anything to say. Sarah's jaw was clenched defiantly as she sat on the bed fiddling with a loose thread from the bed sheet.

James couldn't think of anything to say to her so he just stood up and left the room. There were no more visits from Sarah either during the day or night, and he didn't make any effort to talk to her. James felt deeply confused by the whole situation, but as time passed he felt the tug of compassion and empathy towards her. He was acutely aware of the nightmare that Sarah had lived through for many years and it was he could understand that she had to find love and comfort wherever she could.

The loneliness gnawed at his soul and he missed Sarah deeply. He could also see that it was pointless to ruin their friendship, they were the only two people in their small world and that was that - for better or for worse.

Later that afternoon, after the giant had been and gone, Poked his head through the curtain to check on Sarah. He saw her sleeping on the bed cuddled up closely to Simon, who was watching James silently. Sarah looked so beautiful and innocent as she slept, and he hoped that she was able to escape from the daily horrors of life in her dreams.

He walked over to the bed but, as he approached, Sarah stirred and opened her eyes. When she saw James she sat up and looked suddenly miserable. He moved to sit next to her on the bed. Then he reached out and took her hand in his and then sat like that for a while. When he eventually turned to look at her he saw tears rolling silently down her cheeks.

He pulled her in for a proper hug and she rested her head softly on his shoulder. He hugged her tightly and she squeezed him back just as hard. After a while he felt Simon's heavy head nuzzling to get into the embrace. James reached down and scratched him behind the ears. Simon pushed his head into into James' hand forcing him to scratch harder, and then started licking his arm.

James sat in silence with the two of them for a long time, just enjoying the company and the peace. He wanted to fall asleep on the bed so badly but he knew he could risk the giant finding them together so he hauled himself to his feet and went back to the other room to sleep.

***

The next few weeks was a great improvement for James, now that he could visit the room behind the curtain he spent all his waking hours there. He and Sarah talked for hours and grew even closer than they had been before.

Sarah began visiting James at night again, and the feeling of having their own secret night time world plus the day time company felt almost close to happiness.

But all good thing must come to an end and this happy period ended abruptly when the giant stormed into the room unannounced and caught Sarah and James together. He beat James so badly that he was unconscious for hours, and when James woke up he found that the curtain had been replaced by metal bars meaning he was completely trapped.

This sent James into the depths of depression. Sarah tried to cheer him up but she had her own problems. Ever since the giant had found her and James together he had become increasingly violent with her. She tried to downplay it at first, telling James that he had done far worse and it would stop soon. But James could tell that she was worried, it was only a matter of time until one of the beatings did permanent damage and James knew that if something happened to Sarah then he wouldn't be able to live without her.

He resolved to either escape or die trying. He discussed various plans with Sarah but they all seemed impossible. The giant was too careful, he had his shotgun with him at all times, James was now behind bars so couldn't do anything, and - even if the shotgun wasn't there - the giant could kill either of them easily with bare hands.

Sarah and James spent the days searching every inch of the cells for anything that they could have missed: anything that could be used as a sharp object, or a weapon of any kind.

They had a moment of excitement after James took apart his work boots and found a four inch long metal support inside each one. He worked through the night scraping them against the floor of his cell to sharpen them. But when morning came and he and Sarah examined them they were disappoint to see that they didn't offer much hope. They could probably be used to stab the giant but they wouldn't cause much more than a flesh wound - certainly nothing quick enough to stop him from retaliating.

They found nothing else and as the days went by they started to despair.

One night James watched through the metal bars from the shadows of his cell as the giant entered for one of his visits. He wanted to see if there was any part of the routine that they could take advantage of.

First of all the heavy door was unlocked and swung open, then the giant turned the dim, yellow light on and looked carefully around the room. Once he was happy that there wasn't an ambush waiting, he walked in with his shotgun pointed ahead and then closed the door firmly behind him. He dragged Sarah over to the bed and did what he wanted with her then he pulled up his trousers and left.

When he left it was the same process in reverse, walk backwards through the door with his shotgun pointed at Sarah, one last look around the room before turning the light off and quickly closing and locking the door behind him.

James recounted every single step of the process trying to think of something that would have a high chance of success.

The idea came to him suddenly in the early hours of the night and he sat bolt upright in excitement. It was far from guaranteed to work but he knew it was definitely the best chance they had.

He couldn't wait to tell Sarah so he called to her quietly through the bars until she woke up and then told her to come over to the bars.

She was blurry eyed with sleep but soon grew excited by his plan. He explained every single thing that she needed to do in fine detail and they spent the next week getting everything ready.

When the day finally arrived, James and Sarah couldn't sleep because of the anticipation and nerves. They met at the bars at dawn and went over the plan one last time just to make sure.

Then they waited. There was no set time that the giant would arrive but it was usually sometime in the afternoon. Sarah looked terrified and kept glancing at the door every few seconds.

The footsteps finally came in the late evening. Sarah glanced at James who tried to give her a reassuring smile.

James faded into the darkness off his cell and listened intently.

He heard the door swing open and then saw the dim yellow light flick on. More footsteps and then he heard the giant's low, menacing voice "Get over here whore".

James was both pleased and disappointed to hear slurring in the giant's words. Pleased because it meant the plan was more likely to work but disappointed because he usually beat Sarah pretty badly when he was drunk.

There was a smack and a yell from Sarah and then the bed let out a long creaking groan as it felt the weight of Sarah and the giant. James listened with growing excitement to the rhythmic creaking of the bed, a sound which normally filled him with rage and disgust.

The creaking sounds were punctuated by dull thumps followed by shrieks of pain from Sarah.

Finally, he heard the giant climax and then after a few minutes he heard the familiar creaking of the bed as the giant stood up. Heavy footsteps and then the click of the light switch and then darkness. Finally, the heavy door swung shut, but unlike all the other times, the was a loud thud as the door failed to close.

"What the fuck" shouted the giant in the darkness. Then there were a few seconds of muffled noises and shuffling before the giant let out a loud cry of pain. "You fucking bitch!" he roared "I'll make you pay for that, don't think I won't - you're going to regret this for the rest of your short life you whore!".

Then James heard the click of the light switch following by a long, tortured scream of agony from the giant. James saw the dim yellow light flicker and dip through the curtain as electricity surged through the metal hooks which were now embedded in the giants legs, and through his giant, troll-like body.

The screaming and commotion set Simon off barking which further added to the chaos.

After about 30 seconds the screaming stopped and a smell of burning meat filled the room.

"Ok turn it off!" James yelled to Sarah. The light switch clicked again and everything went dark. "Now run Sarah and don't look back - get out of here and get help!"

He heard her pick something up and then he heard her soft footsteps fading away. After a few minutes he heard a shotgun blast and marvelled at her planning as he realised that she had used the giant's shotgun to blast through the door at the top of the basement stairs.

***

As dawn arrived, the scene from the room next door was slowly revealed to him. He saw the chain that they had used as a dog lead dangling from the industrial light fitting. He saw the two bits of metal from his shoes which he had painstakingly fashioned into two barbed hooks and attached to the end of the chain. And finally, with a mixture of relief and revulsion, he saw the giant's charred body lying face down by the door. Simon was busy gnawing away at one of his legs and James had to turn away to avoid throwing up.

When help arrived a few hours later James cried with relief. As the support officer cut through the bars Sarah appeared at the door way looking like the most radiantly beautiful woman he had ever seen. She had new clothes on; clean, tidy hair; and a look of such loving concern that James felt his heard ache to hug her again.

When the bars were finally removed they hugged tightly for 10 full minutes. Simon came and nuzzled at their legs so James reached down and scratched his ears affectionately.

The media storm was intense after they left Sarah didn't want any publicity but James persuaded her that they could do a few controlled interviews and make enough money to set them up comfortably in a new house.

They did the interviews - and a chat show - and then bought a house in the country for the three of them, and let the media interest fade away without them.

The End