Free All or Nothing by Stuart Keane

realised, except that the fan is now going to be spinning faster.
    With that thought, he saw Francisco’s front door on the screen in front of him, and witnessed the figure stepping inside.
    Game on!

TWELVE
     
     
     
    Kathryn Cox wasn’t trapped at all.
    As she walked through the apparently doorless opening into the hallway, she felt a vicious knock to her head. It had been caused by the heavy rope ladder that was dangling in the centre of the opening. The blow had caught her off guard, and she could already feel the bump forming on her forehead.
    After the initial shock it had taken her a few more minutes to relocate the ladder itself without taking her head off completely. Kathryn climbed up the rungs. She took it slowly, not knowing how high up the ladder reached. Her head had touched the trapdoor above before her hands reached it. With a push she found that the door was hinged at the left side, she forced it upwards until it was upright, and then clanked down with a thud, to leave an open hatch. A few minutes later she was out and free. She found the open trapdoor, reclosed it and sat down to catch her breath.
    She imagined her captors dropping her down to the room below before climbing down themselves and picking her up and then dumping her in the cell and leaving her. She imagined them copping a feel of her womanly parts whenever they could, looking at her in her scant clothing. For the first time she noticed she wasn’t wearing her normal clothes. They had dressed her in something different.
    When she had gone to bed, she had been wearing her favourite tee shirt and a pair of shorts. She had been clothed because it had been a chilly night, she normally slept naked.
    She thanked God she'd been dressed.
    However, she was now wearing a plain, tight white tee shirt that clung to her breasts and restricted her arm movement. She was also wearing a pair of tracksuit bottoms, but nothing else. Her underwear had been removed and so had her earrings and watch. Her feet were bare. Even her eyeliner she wore to work the previous day had been washed off, and she could smell cheap supermarket-brand soap on her skin. It had caused a slight rash on her neck.
    After surveying the area, she realised she was hidden by foliage. She looked around and took in her surroundings. Well, what she could make of them anyway. It looked as if she was in a park, and it seemed to be late evening. The moon was out, casting its glow on everything beneath it. Three dim streetlights lit the way for her to the left. To the right was a vast patch of grass with a muddy puddle in its centre.
    White posts stood parallel, with a barely visible white net attached to them. High wire fences surrounded the area, and beyond that she could see the moon shining off the surface of a river. The river seemed to swallow up everything beyond the fence.
    How many kids had kicked balls into that river ? She wondered.
    She hated kids, reckoned that they grew up all wrong these days, spoilt or misled, which, in turn, led to crime. Society’s youth was all twisted and street crime was at its highest in years. Happy-slapping and cyber bullying seemed to be the norm amongst youth these days. Damn the parents!
    Then she climbed to her feet and waited for several minutes. The cold air stabbed at her skin. She was going to need to find some more clothing. Once she knew she was alone she started to move.
    Kathryn walked left, deciding this was her only option, and followed the gravel path. It was poorly lit. Aware of the trees surrounding the path, she kept alert and was ready to bolt if she had to. She was a strong woman, but she was also determined to get out of this shithole. Fighting some aged tramp or heroin-high teenager was not on her agenda for this evening.
    She just wanted to get home.
    The path ended abruptly at another wire fence, almost as high as the one she had seen previously. A rusted iron gate stood in front of her, its handle missing. She gripped it and