Free Elysium. Part One. by Kelvin James Roper

began to draw her to consciousness.
     She groaned inwardly.
     Opening her eyes she looked about in the darkness. She couldn’t find the clock but could see through the thick black curtains that a deep red dawn had broken.
     The binds about her arms and the additional ties around her ankles were hurting now, it felt as though they were bleeding - but when she looked down she could make out nothing but pale flesh.
     Again she scoured the room for the clock. The metronomic ticking seemed to protract the silence. She craned her neck and saw its bottom-most rim, and could make out the time as being a quarter to six.
      What seemed like an age passed in stillness. She listened to Priya’s prolonged breath and watched her dreaming eyelid’s twitch.
      The light from outside grew stronger and lit the bars of the cell like electric filaments.
      Selina could now clearly see Priya’s face, and she spent a long while looking at it. She was beautiful; not in a glamorous way: her lips were thin and her eyebrows sharp, but her face was soft and symmetrical. Her most enchanting quality was her naturally coiled hair that had remained vibrant and shimmering even after a shipwreck and two days of hiking. Even in the gloom it shone like a thousand golden halos.
     Again Selina craned her neck, though this time to see her companion’s arms and hands in the cell of the opposite wall. She wondered why Priya didn’t wear a single piece of jewellery, not even a watch. She tried to recall seeing her on board the Tangaroa , had she seen her wearing anything then? She didn’t think so, but couldn’t be certain. She had only seen her a few times, and had usually been pre-occupied with gazing at her hair, or wondering why she was always alone.
      Priya’s nose twitched and Selina became aware she had been staring for quite some time. She turned her head to the silhouettes of leaves trembling behind the curtains. She sighed a yawning moan, wondering what time Semilion would return and untie their binds.
     Grinding her teeth she turned back and jumped. Priya’s eyes were wide open and staring at her. Selina laughed uncertainly. ‘Oh, I thought you were sleeping,’ she said, hoping she hadn’t been caught staring.
      ‘Is that why you were watching me?’
      Selina blushed, and thanked the gloom for hiding her colour.
      Priya smiled and looked around the room, ‘What time do you think it is?’
      ‘Ten to seven,’ she said, straining her neck. ‘When do you think he’ll come back?’
      ‘I don’t know. He either wants us to sweat it out or he’s been up all night discussing what to do with us.’
      Both their ears pricked at the sound of footfall on the road outside. They looked at one another hesitantly, though the sound came and went without consequence. They lay back on their uncomfortable pallets, wincing for their chaffed wrists.
      Priya noticed Selina’s unease, and reassured her that everything would be fine. ‘If he was going to do anything to us he’d have probably done it on the spur of the moment last night. He’s had time to think about it now.’
      ‘What if they’re having their council?’ Selina replied, imagining a host of angry villagers baying for their death. ‘What if they decide by popular opinion to execute us?’
      Swishing grass sounded, then footfall on the stairs outside; they trudged loudly until stopping at the door, as though expressly to inform of their approach. There was a jangle of keys, and the door eased open. Silhouetted in the slither of pastel light that crept through the doorway was a short dumpy woman.
      Selina couldn’t see as her back was to her, but Priya recognized her - she wasn’t aware of her name, but she had seen her lurking in the pub the night before.
      ‘It’s all right, we won’t hurt you,’ Priya said, and Selina looked at her with wide eye’s that said, Well? Who is it?
     ‘Don’t you give me none of that cheek, girl, or I’ll box