‘Part of the Ritual’
by Peter Walsh
Part One
The Boeing 737 of Europa Air started it’s approach to London’s
Gatwick airport through the dark but clear evening skies. The Zurich to
London flight was twenty minutes late due to Air Traffic Control restrictions
over France. Flight Attendant Toni Tyrell made the final announcements
prior to landing in three languages, English, German and French and then took
her seat near one of the emergency exits.
The mid-evening flight from Zurich had been full and Toni Tyrell and
the girls had been busy. Like her passengers Toni was tired and wanted to
be home and sleeping. She was most grateful for the fact that she now had
a five day break before she was due to fly again. There had been a minor
flu epidemic amongst the Flight Attendants and Toni had been called in to cover
absences. The money was nice but she would rather have had the
time. Toni had things to do and people to see.
The landing lights of the runway seemed like a sea of fire as the
Boeing’s landing gear came down and locked and the flaps were activated.
Toni looked at her watch, with any luck she would be home before midnight.
Her red VW Polo was waiting for her in the staff car park. She
tossed her tote bag on the back seat, slid a CD of the soundtrack to ‘The
Beach’ into the player and began the thirty minute drive home to
Brighton. The summer evening was warm and she could see the stars glint
in the night sky seemingly guiding her on her homeward journey.
Toni had lived in Brighton for three years. She liked the
Regency architecture, the shops, the clubs and the cafes. It was as
lively as London but it had the bonus of the sea and the rolling green hills of
the Sussex Downs. As she drove she again realised how tired she
was. Toni was twenty six and had been flying for three years. She
wanted to quit flying when she was thirty, being a Flight Attendant was not a
career, more of something to fill in the time prior to doing what she really
wanted to do. Toni smiled to herself, what did she want to do? She
had a Degree in Languages and French Literature from the University of
London. Teaching seemed the most obvious course but it did not fill her
with much excitement.
Toni pushed back a stray wisp of her long dark hair and smiled as
she thought of her best friend Shannon. Shannon was blonde and excitable
and also flew for Europa Air. Shannon had ambitions too. These were
to have as many adventures as time (and money) would allow her. When she
got home there would probably be a message waiting from Shannon. Shannon
always wanted involve Toni in her adventures, most of which Toni thought were
silly though usually fun. Shannon had recently celebrated her first
mortgage having purchased a garden flat in the west of Brighton out towards the
Marina. She still had a few boxes of her junk in Toni’s garage.
Toni made a mental note to remind Shannon to move them as soon as possible.
Toni steered her car into the tiny driveway of her bungalow.
The digital clock on the dashboard glowed a ghostly green 11:59 pm. She
smiled, she had made it with one minute to spare. The street on which she
lived had that special kind of hush she liked about late evenings. Her
working day was done.
She did not mind returning to an empty home, everything was just as
she had left it.
No live-in partner with untidy or unsavoury habits. She kicked
off her black high-heeled shoes and sighed gratefully. She trailed her
uniform from the bedroom to the shower. Crimson jacket followed by
tastefully short crimson skirt, crimson silk scarf, white blouse, sheer black
stockings-Toni hated tights, rose hued bra and panties. She caught a
glimpse of herself in the full length mirror. She stopped and looked at
her image. She shook out her long dark hair so it bounced over her
shoulders. She was not disappointed by what she saw in the
reflection. She was five-eight in height. As a teenager she had
been awkward and skinny now she was slender and curvaceous, long of limb and
full in all the right places. She had intelligent eyes which were a very,
light blue, high cheekbones, a full mouth and a well defined jaw. Toni
Tyrell would always be beautiful rather than pretty.
Her friend Shannon Masters was a contrast to her. She was a
year younger, blonde with grey/green eyes, three inches shorter, two bra sizes
larger and more generous in the hips. Shannon had recently had her long
blonde hair shorn down to a shorter, chic bobbed style. Toni regarded it
as a vast improvement as it made one notice Shannon’s face more. Her
features were more rounded than Toni’s, ever so slightly boyish but she was
very pretty with laughing green eyes and a mouth almost permanently painted
with a smile.
Toni took a long relaxing shower and after donning a robe and
wrapping up her damp hair in a towel she went to the living room to check her
answering machine. There was a message from her Mother, one from her
occasional boyfriend Simon and of course one from Shannon. Her Mother
warned her against working too hard. Simon wanted to know if she had
given any further thought about them moving their relationship up to the next
level (which she took to mean more regular sex). She liked Simon, he was
a pleasant, quiet and dependable man but he was so eager to please her, this
both touched and annoyed her. However Shannon’s message caused Toni to
crease her dark eyebrows in puzzled concern.
‘Toni! It’s Shannon, it’s the sixteenth and it’s just after
eight pm. Look, I need you to do something for me. I know I’ve
still got some of my stuff at your place-I need you to find something for me-it
may be in one of the boxes. It’s a small book, sort of like a diary, it’s
bound in brown leather. I really need to have it-it’s really
important. If you find it-please bring it round to the flat as quickly as
you can. Please Toni-I mean it when I say it’s important. I don’t
want to say any-’. There was a pause. ‘Please Toni-I hope you have
it, I do need it, I’d love you-bye’.
The message ended.
Toni shook her head in disbelief. Did Shannon realise how
tired she was? Shannon had been one of the Flight Attendants who had
called in sick and forced Toni to fly the extra hours. If the fraught message
was part of a joke Toni would be very angry with her. However there was
the chance that Shannon was deadly serious and the requested item was of
considerable importance to her. Toni sighed and made her way to the
garage. The concrete floor was cold under her bare feet as she flicked on
the light. She approached the stacked and dusty boxes and started her
search.
After ten minutes of frantic rummaging not caring about any residual
mess, Toni found the small, leather bound book. She gave it a cursory
inspection. It was definitely a diary or perhaps a journal. The
yellowed pages displayed text written in a fine hand in Latin. There were
also sketches and diagrams, strange symbols and even some small
illuminations. It was quite impressive. Toni did not have any
reserves of mental energy to investigate further. She left the garage,
switching off the light and returned to the lounge to call Shannon with the
good news, then she could go to bed. She got Shannon’s answering machine.
‘Shannon, it’s Toni, I’ve found what you wanted, I’ll bring it round
in the morning-no make that around midday, I promise. Now, if it’s
alright with you and everybody else I would like to go to bed!’
Toni retired to the bedroom, shrugged off the robe, discarded the
towel and padded naked towards the welcoming soft mass of her bed. She
put the liberated journal or whatever it was on the dresser. She slid her
nude slender body under the covers and was almost at once engulfed by sleep.
Something within her subconscious willed Toni to wake up. Her
eyes flickered open, her face was masked by a tumble of her long hair.
She slowly clawed the hair away from her face. It was still dark.
Then a chill of fear ran through her when she realised that she was not alone in
her bedroom. She pushed back on one elbow and started to rise up under
the covers. Her senses started to pick up speed as she knew she had to
act. Her hand groped for the switch on the bedside lamp, she found it and
pressed it home. The light stung her eyes. She then remembered she
was naked under the duvet. Through sleep misted eyes she saw a dark shape
moving towards her. She could do nothing but flinch away as it engulfed
her compromised vision. She was roughly pushed back and then the shape fell
on top of her. She feared the very worst. All she could
do now was scream and hope that she might be heard. She took a rapid deep
breath and her mouth opened in an attempt to make the loudest sound possible.
A leather gloved hand then fell over her mouth, covering it totally,
painfully silencing any cry she might make. Toni tried to fight but her
arms were trapped by the duvet and the force of her attacker. Her
assailant was agile and strong. She wildly shook her head from side to
side trying to dislodge the hand over her mouth but her attackers grip
tightened about her face. She could not breathe and her eyes widened in
panic. She then was aware of some tube-like object pressed into her
throat.
‘It’s a gun. Just be still and quiet and nothing will
happen!’ A voice hissed. It was a woman’s voice. Her attacker
was a woman! Toni recognised an accent. Toni suddenly stopped her
ineffectual struggle. The fear of an impending rape subsided
slightly. The gloved hand was locked position across her mouth, mashing
her lips against her teeth. The hand then left her mouth.
‘If you try to scream or shout I will kill you, do you understand?’
Toni nodded.
‘Say you understand!’
‘I understand’. Toni whispered as loud as she dared.
‘You are Toni-right?’
Toni nodded swiftly, there was pain about her lips, cheeks and jaw.
‘You live alone I see?’
‘Y-yes’.
‘You have something I want, I got your message to your friend, where
is the book?’
Toni shook her hair out of her face and blinked and saw her attacker
clearly for the first time. She was trapped under the duvet by the
woman. The woman kept the pressure of what Toni feared was the gun hard
against the soft flesh of her throat. Her assailant then pulled away the
duvet and Toni was revealed to her in all her glorious state of naked
helplessness.
‘You’re very lovely Toni, just like your friend said, I have no wish
to hurt you but I am in a hurry-where is the book?’ The woman’s voice
became lower in tone but twice as menacing. She covered Toni again with
the duvet.
‘It’s over there’. Toni nodded her head in the direction of
the dresser. ‘On the make-up table’.
‘Be still and silent!’ The woman hissed at Toni . Toni
became the epitome of both.
The woman turned and stepped fully into Toni’s field of vision for
the first time.
She was above average height for a woman and carried herself with
the stalking and deadly grace of a Panther. She had long straight, black
hair with a strong hint of red and her face in profile was quite
stunning. She was high breasted and narrow of waist. Toni took her
age to be late 20’s or early 30’s. She wore a short black leather jacket
over a black top, her slender legs were encased in tight leather pants which
matched the jacket and ended in boots of black suede with wide heels.
Toni saw the woman smile and almost purr with satisfaction as she
picked up the small book and flicked through the pages. Toni heard her
speak softly to herself in a tongue which she recognised as Italian. Toni
was fluent in three languages one of which was Italian. ‘At last!
At last!’ The woman had said.
The woman in black turned to look at Toni. She was very
beautiful but there was a ruthless air about her that was unsettling. She
had very dark eyes and a very red mouth. She was smiling at Toni.
‘Toni? Is your name really Antonia?’ The woman asked
her.
Toni shook her head. ‘My parents christened me as Toni’.
‘Well Toni, you are to come with me, you will be silent and do
everything I say or it will be bad-not only for you-but also for your friend
Shannon. If you co-operate you will not be harmed-if you don’t-’.
There was a click and Toni saw the glint of the small but seemingly large bored
pistol in the womans hand.
Toni took a deep breath. She had to cool, calm and
collected. She was in danger but so was Shannon. ‘I won’t make any
trouble for you but if you want me to come with you-I should get dressed
first’.
‘Be swift’. The woman told her.
Toni pulled herself from under the covers and made quickly for the
wardrobe. She was naked before the eyes of the woman that had threatened
her and she could feel her eyes watching her every move. She grabbed a
grey GAP sweatshirt and swiftly pulled it over her head, it fell to her hips
and shielded her breasts and her lustrously dark thatched pubic area. She
grabbed a pair of blue jogging pants and quickly drew them up her legs.
There was no time for any under garments. She reached down and found her
orange and steel grey Reebok’s and swiftly laced them up on her feet. Now
being clothed, Toni’s confidence increased, she pulled her long, dark waves of
hair from under the hood of the sweatshirt and turned to face the person who
had invaded her home.
‘Scream, talk out of turn or try to run away and both you and your
friend will die’. The woman told her.
‘I won’t make any trouble’. Toni told her again.
‘I know you won’t’. The woman smiled. Toni felt the
smile had as much warmth as a wine cooler. ‘Turn around and face away
from me’.
Toni did as she was told. Her mind was reeling from these
swift, dark events. One moment she was sleeping the next she was being
threatened and in danger and so was Shannon. She sensed the woman behind
her.
‘Mmmmmph!’ Toni’s eyes went wide as a pad of white cloth
passed over them to rest very firmly over her nose and mouth. The pad
felt cold and was damp with a sweet smelling liquid whose fumes flooded her
nostrils. Pop! Everything went black and purple.
The long candles on their tall holders flickered and cast many eerie
shadows about a quite terrified Shannon Masters.
For a countless last time she pulled at her bonds but as always they
were unyielding. She had long since ceased trying to cry out for help,
apart from being securely bound she was uncomfortably and effectively gagged.
The place in which she was a captive seemed vast with a high ceiling
and walls she could not make out. Perhaps in the darkness appearances
were deceptive but the room had to be pretty big. The ring of burning
candles formed a barrier of light against the black shroud which surrounded
Shannon and the strange five-pointed star-like figure at her bound feet.
She sat secured to a chair at one of the points. Strong wooden, straight
backed chairs, seemingly identical to the one in which she was forcibly seated
stood at each of the alternate points.
The figure glowed a ethereal green in the dark. It was
contained within a circle and was composed of five straight lines, including
five angles and five sides. Shannon knew what it was and had a dreaded
idea to it’s purpose but could not remember what it was called.
She had been drugged and brought to this awful place by the woman
whom she had foolishly allowed into her home. Shannon made a muted sound
of pure frustration through the heavy packing in her mouth and the bands of
tight material that held it in place. She had been so stupid.
She would never have let a man whom she did not know nor expect into
her home but a woman was different. Women were seldom a threat on a
physical level to other women. Especially such a woman as the one which
had arrived on her doorstep. Tall, figure to die for, flowing black hair
with red in it and displaying a disarming smile. Her all black leather
outfit was commonplace in a town like Brighton.
The woman seemed to know her. She mentioned the airline and a
recent flight from Genoa. Shannon had been getting ready to go out.
She had a date with a man named Paul who claimed to have an apartment on the
marina and also a boat. Shannon was going to meet him in a trendy seafront club
called Concorde 2. She had dressed in a tight, white, midriff revealing
top, tight black capris and some pristine, white chunky soled Nike’s. She
had been halfway through the application of her make-up when the interruption
had occurred.
The woman in black leather had one booted foot in the door when she
produced the gleaming pistol with the silencer attached. Shannon stood in
shocked silence and without any prompting had raised her hands above her head.
‘Good!’ The woman had said. ‘Your life depends on your
co-operation, do everything I say and no harm will come to you’.
Shannon was ushered to the back of her home and she found herself
leaning against the patio doors which led to the garden.
‘W-what do you want? I have no money-not really-I-’.
‘Be silent. You have a Grandfather-Russell Masters’.
‘He died last year’.
‘I know. However I also know he willed you certain items
including a leather bound notebook’.
Fear gave rise to absolute truth in Shannon Masters. She had
seen the notebook just once before it had been packed away.
‘Everything he gave me is in a box at my friends house-that includes
the notebook’.
The woman smiled and it sent shivers down Shannon’s spine.
‘Now. Tell me about your friend’.
Shannon burbled out as much as she could. Toni Tyrell was
tall, dark haired, blue eyed, very beautiful. She lived alone in a bungalow in
Preston Park on the outskirts of Brighton. She was flying but would be
home tonight. Toni was her best friend. The woman got Shannon to
leave a message on Toni’s answering machine with specific instructions.
‘Good!’ The woman again smiled her chilled smile. ‘Now
Miss Masters I need not just the research of your grandfather, I also need
you. Would you please turn away and face the wall’.
Shannon was still too scared to offer the smallest resistance.
She turned away from the woman with the accent and the black leather
clothes. A cloth pad was then jammed over her nose and mouth. It
was damp and reeked of something that caused her eyes to water. Shannon’s
grey/green eyes rolled skywards and she became limp in the woman’s grip.
Shannon panicked when she became free of the drugs influence.
It was dark all around her. She tried to raise herself up but found
herself held forcibly in place. She was seated in a heavy wooden chair
with arms and a broad back. Shannon saw the turns of thin white cord
which held her wrists and arms to the chair. She was then aware of the
cords looped about her middle which made indentations in her bare soft
flesh. Shannon noted with some misplaced, vain satisfaction that there
were no surplus folds of the said flesh.
Further windings of tight cord above and below her more than ample
breasts made movement of her upper body nearly impossible.
‘Shit!’ Shannon had exclaimed.
Her lower limbs were also well secured by further quantities of the
cord. Her knees had been brought together and bound and although she could
not see her ankles, she could feel them, they were tightly bound to the front
of the chair.
Shannon saw the strange shape at her feet, the flickering candles
and dark pressing in about her. She began to struggle.
‘Help me! Help-help-help! Please somebody help me!
Help me! Help me! Help me!’ Shannon added her loudest ever scream
at the end of the shouted words.
‘Shhhhh, my little blonde mouse’. Came a voice from behind her
chair. ‘You are in a ‘Sacred’ place, you must be quiet even though there is
nobody to hear your outcries’.
Shannon continued her vocal protests until something soft, folded
and white appeared before her eyes. It was adroitly shoved into her
mouth. A black leather glove hand swiftly covered her mouth trapping the
packing ensuring Shannon’s mouth closed up around it.
‘Ummmmph!’ Shannon exclaimed as her full lips were mashed
together by the tight application of the woman’s gloved hand. The hand
left her mouth and was replaced in an instant by something equally tight and
stifling. A broad length of tape sealed off Shannon’s lips and was
smoothed by gloved fingers across her lower face to back behind her ears.
Further tight lengths of tape followed and Shannon’s cheeks and jaw felt numb and
immobile.
After the last layer of tape was applied to her mouth Shannon shook
her head wildly in futile resistance. She heard the woman laugh, the
laughter was almost diabolical.
The sound made Shannon shiver with fear.
‘Just one more thing’. The woman said from behind her. A
band of folded, black cloth was then lowered in front of Shannon’s face until
it was level with her taped and packed mouth. The band of cloth was then
drawn about her mouth and firmly knotted at the back of her head.
Shannon’s eyes almost bulged from their sockets, she was certain
that she would suffocate under the gags. She had to breathe, she had
to! Slow easy applications, in and out through her nose. She
quickly established a rhythm and her panic subsided.
‘I am off to get your grandfathers notes and also some company for
you’. The woman’s accented tones told her. She heard the
authoritative sound of broad heeled boots crossing a hard floor behind her.
‘See you soon!’
Shannon was then alone in the near darkness.