I frown as my eyes flick to the bed. “I’m innocent,” I state.
“Yeah and I’m fucking Brittany Spears, asshole,” she replies.
“Get out!” I yell.
She fakes a smile. “If you want I can get the boys to hold you down while we do a cavity search. It’s your choice,” she sneers.
I am humiliated and drop my head again in shame. The male officer gives me a breath test and I blow into the tube. I’m going to fail. I’ve had a lot to drink.
The female officer takes a look at the reading on the machine and shakes her head. “Out celebrating that you got away with murder, were you?”
My eyes hold hers. I have never wanted to hit a woman so much in my life.
“Sorry to break up the party,” she sneers.
I step toward her.
“Get fucking dressed, asshole, before I taser your ass once more. If there’s one thing I love to do is taser motherfucking wife beaters like you.”
I narrow my eyes and undress in silence as their beady eyes watch me and they take my clothes and put them into a plastic bag.
“Watch?” she demands as she holds her hand out.
I remove my watch and pass it to her and they look at it together.
“How much did this watch cost?” she asks.
I glare at her. “More than your fucking house,” I sneer.
She narrows her eyes in disgust.
“You won’t be questioned tonight because you are over the legal limit,” the male officer replies. “Sleep it off. See you tomorrow.” He throws a blanket onto the plastic bedding and they both leave the room.
The door locks behind them with a deafening sound.
Natasha
Four weeks earlier
The distant sound of a buzzer bounces off the walls around me and I struggle to open my eyes. Shit, my head hurts. My hands instinctively clutch my temples as I fight my heavy eyelids. My vision is blurred and I continually blink to try and bring them into focus in the darkness. What the hell is going on? In my peripheral vision I see someone enter the room and attend to the thing making the buzzing noise. From what I can see it looks like a drip or something. I squint my eyes to try and see. Where the hell am I?
“Joshua,” I whisper through a gravelly throat. “Baby, what are you doing?”
No answer.
I frown. “Joshua.”
“Sshhh,” a male voice whispers.
My heart rate picks up-that’s not Joshua’s voice.
“Joshua?” I call, more desperate. I blink my eyes frantically as I try to see. “Who are you? Where am I?” I stammer.
I feel my arm being lifted and something being injected into the drip. “Oww,” I snap as I pull my arm from the grip.
“You are in the hospital, Natasha. Go back to sleep. Joshua is here,” the gentle voice coos.
Oh, relief fills me and I smile as I slip back into unconsciousness, my love is here. All is ok.
I wake to the dusting of sunlight kissing my face. It’s early morning and my eyes search the space I am in. Where am I? Distant foggy memories of the night before and a man in the room make me sit up instantly.
Was that a dream?
My eyes dart around nervously. What the fuck? The carpeted room is huge and luxurious, with a king bed and bedside tables. On the far wall opposite the beds are six televisions hanging mounted from the ceiling and under that a small table for two and two highback chairs. I bring my hand up to wipe my hair from my face and see that my right wrist has a large bandage around it. What happened?
“Joshua?” I call.
I stand and slowly walk to the doorway to the right of the room and open it: a large bathroom complete with marble bath and shower. Where am I?
More urgently I walk to the large black door on the other side of the room and turn the knob.
It’s locked. I jiggle the handle as I try to open the door. Panic sets in and I bang on the door.
“Hello,” I call. “What’s happening? The door is locked,” I yell.
“Joshua,” I yell. “Ben.”
No reply. Silence.
I walk back to the bathroom with my heart pumping hard. What’s going on? Where am I? Where the hell is Joshua?
I look around the room nervously for my handbag. That’s right, I left it at the wedding. Huh? I was on the boat. I sit on the edge of the bed while I go over the last thing I remember. We went to the wedding. The text. Max. My eyes widen and then we went to the boat and went to sleep. I frown. I don’t understand. I stand and walk to the bathroom and look at myself in the mirror. I look like shit and what am I wearing? I look down at the black nightgown I am in. I don’t own this.
What the hell is going on?
I start to bang on the door frantically. “Hello. Is anybody there?” I scream. I start to panic. Where am I? Where is Joshua?
“Ben,” I yell. “Where are you?”
I listen for an answer.
“Cameron,” I scream.
Silence.
The televisions all come on at once. No sound. Just vision. I drop to the bed at what is unfolding in front of me. News channels, every one of them has a different channel. I frown as I try to make sense of this. I walk around the room once more and notice on one of the bedside tables a basket with six television remotes in it.
Huh? This is bizarre. I pick up one of the remotes and point it at the televisions to change the sound and the volume on one of the televisions goes up slowly. I try to change the channel but it doesn’t work, just the volume.
I’m lost. I have no frigging idea what is going on. With the news playing in the background I go into the bathroom and look in the bathroom cupboards. Hair products, face creams, moisturiser, tampons and pads. I slam the door shut in shock and storm back into the bedroom and swing open the wardrobe cupboards. Clothes, underwear, pyjamas. Whose bedroom am I in?
The television sounds.