Fuuuhhh!
Her contractions exposed her to a new dimension of pain that compared to nothing she’d ever experienced. And it made Nele fear this was just the start. On a scale of one to ten, maybe a two, yet this level already felt like a soldering iron live in her belly.
Breathe out? Or take deep breaths?
But don’t they always pant in all those crappy movies? Damn it.
She’d never taken a birthing course, and why should she? A caesarean section didn’t exactly require breathing technique, especially with the full anaesthesia they’d use on her so as not to endanger the baby from haemorrhaging during birth.
Oh God… Her abduction, the horror, this pain… all that had completely suppressed the dangers of a natural birth for her munchkin.
But this is far from anything natural.
Tied up in a cow stall. Ogled at by some lunatic with puppy dog eyes and hair like a hobo.
‘Fuuu…’ she uttered again.
She had no idea what to scream in this empty barn. There was no foetal monitor, no heart rate monitor, not even any towels. Only this psychopath behind his camera who hadn’t stopped crying while he filmed her suffering.
What she’d really like to do is kick that lens right off its stand, but that wasn’t going to happen with her legs all tied up.
At least this madman still hadn’t felt the need to pull down her tracksuit bottoms. As a medical student, if that’s what he even was, it had to be clear to him that there wasn’t much to see there yet anyway.
She dreaded the thought that no one would find her or save her and that her abductor would go ahead and do it at some point anyway.
‘Fuuuhhhaaahhh…!’ Her scream faded. She got some relief as the last contraction waned, hopefully signalling a longer phase without pain before the next round drove all the sweat out of her pores.
‘Why?’ she shouted at him once she could breathe right again. ‘What do you want from me?’
And why are you blubbering like a little child? You going to keep wiping away tears and the snot from your nose this whole time?
‘I’m sorry,’ her abductor said with surprising care.
‘Then untie me.’
‘I can’t do that.’
‘Please, it’s really easy. Just cut through these plastic ties…’
‘Then they’ll never learn.’
‘Learn what? Who?’
‘Them. Everyone. The population.’ He stepped behind the camera. ‘I don’t actually want this. I don’t have anything against you. Or your baby.’
‘Her name is Viktoria.’ Saying the name surprised Nele. The victorious one. A survivor. The name hadn’t been on her list, but it fit, at least for a girl. For a boy she’d change it to Viktor. It was good for her to give the future a name. It felt better knowing her abductor understood that this creature inside her wasn’t just an object but a human being with a name and feelings.
‘She’ll die if I don’t deliver her in a hospital.’
‘You’re lying.’
‘No, I’m not. I have AIDS. I can give it to Viktoria. Without a caesarean, she’ll die.’
Her abductor lowered his wire-framed glasses. ‘I… I didn’t know that.’
He wiped his glasses on the hem of his sweater and set them back on. ‘But even so. I can’t turn back now.’
Nele really would’ve liked to scream but she forced herself to keep this absurd conversation going as calmly as possible so as not to sever whatever loose bond she had with her abductor.
‘Can you tell me your name?’
‘Franz.’
‘Franz, good. I won’t narc on you. I swear. Me and the authorities don’t get along so great anyway. Just let me go. Please…’
‘No.’ Franz forced fingers through his hair. ‘I can’t do that. This isn’t about us. Not about you, about me or about your baby. It’s about opening people’s eyes, first yours and then the world’s.’
‘Mine? What did I do?’
‘I went through your garbage.’
‘And?’
He briefly left the stall and came back with a yellow garbage bag.
‘I found this,’ he said and reached inside. He brandished an empty milk carton as if it were the most crucial evidence in a trial.
‘Don’t worry. I just want your milk.’
Wasn’t that what he’d said before?
‘What about it?’
‘You drank it.’
Nele couldn’t take it anymore. Her voice rose. ‘Sustainable organic whole milk, 3.5 per cent? Right! My God, is that somehow a crime?’
The corners of his mouth turned down with contempt. ‘The fact that you even have to ask shows just how necessary all this is.’
‘All this what?’ she asked him. ‘What are you planning to do with us, Franz?’
‘You’ll feel it soon,’ her abductor said, grabbed the garbage bag and left her alone in the stall.