TIME

Tick ... tock ... tick ... tock ... It has been said that two of the most powerful of all warriors are patience and time. Time, for the most part, is working for the enemy and Majella can no longer afford to be patient. To do or die, so to speak and preferably one and not the other. Business is about to pick up. Just how swamped will Majella become? The answer to this could be the difference to victory or defeat.

1.

A single car travels a darkened road with road-side lighting being next to non-existent. The vehicle's sole occupant attempts to sort out the on the fritz radio and is not particularly getting anywhere with it. There is an uneasy feeling about this journey so much so that she has been question her own motivations for taking the trip at this particular time as well as taking the route she currently is on, and then it happens.

There is someone in the car, she is sure of it, directly behind her. She seen it, possibly a man, briefly in her mirror. Still driving, and with a gasp, she turns. There is no one there. She is alone in her Primera, just as she is supposed to be. Turning forwards and this time there is someone there, not within the car but out on the road, dead center of the lane she drives within ... forty feet away ... thirty ... twenty-five ...

She swerves at the last second, heads uncontrollably off road and into a slight ditch where everything ends up off and she is left in total darkness. She is fine or so she thinks, having taken a knock and being in enough of a panic that she may not yet be able to tell if she has been hurt or not.

The ditch is such that if she could get that Primera going again, she should be able to get back out onto the road again, but there is someone out there, isn't there? Someone out there in the darkness. It is so dark that if there truly is someone out there, and not just some trickery of the mind, then that person could be quite the distance away or right outside her door, she has absolutely no way of knowing.

Get the car going, this is the priority, anything else is for afters as long as, that is, the car does start. Finding the key in the ignition is easy enough. She gives it a turn, and nothing happens. A second turn does the job. Reverse back out onto the road. Lighting on the car reveals nothing that shouldn't be where it is she is.

She puts her car into gear and begins to go, gets no more than five feet for it is there, he is there, standing in the road a few feet ahead of her, a man dressed and covered in black. She cannot make out his face, but he surely is male. Her heart echoes to the point it may as well be in her neck or trying to burst out through her ears.

'What do you want?' she screams, her breathing erratic.

No answer will come, time will not offer time for it to come for her door opens so suddenly it had bee the last thing she would have expected. She is pulled from the car with ease then it is lights out for her never mind the car. Yeah, she is out until she no longer is. Waking in an upright position, her arms and wrists are chained, her hair draped over her face. She is wet, why is she wet?

The smell too, it appears she is within a barn and what she smells is a combination of hay, wood carvings and animal droppings. The sounds too, there are a number of animals in here if not all apparently obvious. It is a rather large barn with two levels, with horses, pigs, sheep and at least a couple of dogs currently taking up room here.

More than a little groggy, it takes a moment or two to wonder why she is where she is. The lighting isn't great with just one single undressed light with the bulb being no stronger than sixty watts. So, with the surrounding darkness, she has either been here a short amount of time or something possibly no more than twenty-four hours.

Along with the smell and the animal presence, there is someone else in here too, the man from the road perhaps. Yet to understand or know what is happening to her, why it is happening to her and who is doing it to her, someone else arrives, someone who will have questions, someone who could even be more dangerous than whomever it is who has set this situation up.

***

A group of young people are travelling with no destination in mind, there even is no destination put a side for any of them to rest their heads overnight other than the Volkswagen Camper they currently travel within. There is a newcomer to this group who has been invited to join more out of a sense of curiosity and a feeling of pity. This girl, as it is, needs no one's pity. If anything, she has used her situation to get in with this particular crowd and get in she does despite one or two grievances.

In this Volkswagen Camper, she remains close to its rear and quiet while observing the company she has come into. For most of this journey she is relatively still, still that is, until the Volkswagen's radio begins acting up. This has sparked something in her, just as if a sign has presented itself informing her that the reason to why she has joined this group of sterling individuals is about to make itself known.

'What the hell is this?' the driver of the Volkswagen asks.

The vehicle is travelling slow enough that stopping without delay or incident is relatively easy despite the distraction the radio had brought. Out on the road and blocking it for the most part is a vehicle. The Volkswagen is large enough for a problem to be caused with passing the vehicle unintentionally blocking its way.

The occupants of the Volkswagen investigate and soon see that the opposing vehicle is unattended. Investigation comes as a dispute soon does too. The driver's door of that vehicle is open so it obvious someone was inside not all so long ago. Where did such a person go? ... to relive themselves perhaps? If so, then why not pull the vehicle over properly first and close its door?

If such a person is near, then why are they not showing themselves? Someone has been taken, this much is clear, the car is evidence enough. Such a person too, could be in a position of being a prisoner somewhere near? On this logic, shouldn't this group do something about it? Ringing police may not get the job done. Someone may be in danger and in danger right now. There may not be time for police to come out and investigate.

Some of the group want nothing to do with whatever might be going on and others feel it is their duty to do something. Acting now might make a difference in something possibly life or death related. Before any decision can be make, a notification comes to light ... so to speak.

The new girl, she is nowhere to be seen. Where did she go? It is nighttime so do she even have a torch? Most phones do have a torch app of some sort so if she has gone on her own personal investigation, why is she doing it alone? What none of the group know is that this girl is never truly on her own, even when she is.

Something has compelled her to leave the company she had got herself in with. That compulsion leads her to where she needs to be. A barn ... where one person is being held prisoner and with he who has taken himself a prisoner is here too.

'Father ...' speaks the new arrival to the barn. 'What are you doing?'

'Charlotte? ... Is that you? ... My God ... it is ... isn't it.'

Confusion. Why is her father holding a stranger prisoner in a darkened out of the way barn?