Trapped!!

This is the life, Niobe thought to herself after a long day of setting up the trailer by herself. It was weeks of planning to get to where she was to finally camp at her favourite campground not to far from home. Her dad parked the RV for her, set up the essentials and left!

Lying on her bed exhausted, she was truly by herself to enjoy the moment, her breakaway from her crazy life. All the windows were open so she could breath the fresh air, feel the light breeze brush her sweaty skin. She couldn’t help herself but to smile and take it all in.

Then, she heard knocking at her door! Instantly she was aware that she was truly by herself. She was parked away from the other campers, and could hear people singing, and talking in the distance.

Again the knocking got louder. “Who is it?” She yelled. Niobe was in the back bedroom suddenly aware that her door was unlocked. If someone came in, she would be trapped. The tingling started at the back of her neck and her chest started to feel tight.

She could hear the latch move, and the door open. Panicked all she could think of was to pretend to talk in the phone. “Jon, just a sec, someone’s at the door.” Talking loud enough so the person entering could hear her.

Then, the door stopped opening and was quickly shut. She heard footsteps outside leaving her camping spot. Her heart racing, still holding the phone stumbled towards the door to lock it and looked outside.

It was dusk, so she couldn’t see anything. She immediately closed all the blinds and flopped in the dinette seat in the very small kitchen. Still holding the phone Niobe looked at it and thought what could she do? She was panicking and her breathing became shallow.

All she could think of was, what if the person came back! They know she is there, the lights are on, no vehicle, and her roomates were not camping with her until the weekend. Her phone doesn’t work at her campsite unless she walked to the office, 5 minute walk away! And the office was closed until the morning.

She felt trapped. It’s not the first time she felt trapped. Her breathing became shallow again remembering back 6 months ago to the most horrific time of her life.

Niobe got up, got a bottle of water from the fridge, turned off all the lights except her phone that lit up the way to the back bedroom. On her way to the bedroom she remembered there was a whistle attached to the life jacket. She opened up the closet and took the whistle off of the life jacket and hung it around her neck. That’s all she had to protect herself. She stayed awake praying whoever it was would not come back.

….. six months ago ….

It was a very cold day in December when Niobe went for her morning walk before work. Within seconds her breath on her scarf turned white and her face eyelids felt heavy with frozen eyelashes. She was determined to keep going further. The air was crystallizing in front of her so visibility was not good. The trees were frozen, the branches all white against the grey sky looked so breathtaking .

She could feel herself slipping on black ice and tried to brace herself, and put her hands out to break her fall. Instantly when she landed the most excruciating pain rushed through her body. Her wrist was broken, and the pain from her ankle vibrated through her body like a lighting storm. She looked and it was not only broken but it was facing the wrong way. She started to cry profusely. Looking around screaming now calling for help.

She new that 6:00 am not very many people are out yet, she was wearing a grey parka, and the visibility was zero. She had no choice but to drag herself to the nearest house and get help.

Each time she would move the pain from her wrist and ankle was unbearable. She thought she was going to get sick from the pain. However she was getting closer to a tiny house light blue ahead of her.

Finally she made it, she put her back to the door and knocked with her good hand. She felt week, and dizzy with pain. She could feel herself head dropping to the side, she new she was going to faint. Before she did, her body fell with the weight of the door opening and felt a gush of warmth.

Niobe didn’t know how long she was out for when she woke up, but did not know where she was. It was a dark room with wood panelling on all thee walls she could see. A white door in front of her. Looking around she could see she was hooked up to a saline drip. Her other hand was bandaged. Her right foot was propped up and in a cast.

Hello…she shouted..Hello…

The door opened with a creak, standing in front of her smiling was an older woman looked like she was in her seventies. She was wearing a full nurses uniform including the white hat. She closed the door behind her and said “Hi, I see your awake, you had quite the Bad fall!” Smiling at her.

Niobe said”where am I?”

The nurse in front of her responded and said, “welcome to my hospital, isn’t it beautiful.” Moving her arms like she was Vanna White!

Niobe now feeling a little uneasy said, “may I please use the phone. I need to get my dad to pick me up!”

“No dear”, she said. “All of the patients in my hospital have no access to a phone while in my care.”

Niobe’s eyes went big, her heart rate sped up, her throat dry. She said, “ I need to get out of here, my cat needs to be fed, my job needs to know why I’m not at work. I can’t afford to be fired!”

“Well dear, your stuck aren’t you. You can’t walk on that broken ankle!” the woman looking at her smiling and said, “I’ll be back dear, you must be famished!” And left.

“No, wait! Please don’t go. She screamed, please come back!” She reached down to prop herself up more but screamed in pain from her broken wrist.

She heard a faint “Hello, is anyone there!”

Yes Niobe shouted back. Who are you, how long have you been here. The faint voice said two years. Another voice to her right said she wasn’t sure but around six months.

Niobe was now feeling trapped, her breathing became shallow, the pain was sending the electric waves through her body. She started to scream. Help, somebody help. The voice to the right said, “don’t bother, our rooms have no windows. Kathy will be back with lunch and pills to calm you.”

Who are you? What happened to you? Niobe said to the voice.

I’m Isabelle, I was on the street begging for food when this nice lady offered me a hot shower and a sandwich. I have been here since. I got my hot shower, a sandwich and hanccuffed to my bed.

Niobe, scared looking around tried to move again but couldn’t, her pain was to severe! She was trying to make sense of all of this. And how she could escape. She wondered how many others were in this house of horrors. She needed a phone. She was a smart 25 year old, and thought she would try to trick her captor in some way to get out of here and get help.

The days went on, and then weeks. Niobe got to know her neighbours. On the right the homeless 28 year old woman named Isabelle. On the left was a 16 year old Mable who was robbed, and tied to a tree. She was left to die in a park nearby.

After a month Niobe new she was getting stronger but pretended she still couldn’t move. She didn’t want to get shackled like her neighbours. She would pace the room at night, so she wouldn’t be heard from Kathy. At first glance Kathy looked like a nice older woman with kind eyes. But she was nothing like that. She was very clean, almost to clean. Every time Niobe went to the washroom with assistance she would clean the bathroom. Scrub her back in the shower, scrub her good foot raw, wash the bed sheets every second day with bleach. The floors were cleaned with bleach on her hands and knees. The meals were equally portioned on her plate and just enough for her to survive. Her grey hair was always in a perfect tight bun. Her nursing uniform was always stark white.

The good thing about Kathy was she was a creature of habit. Niobe was carefully planning her escape for a week before she finally decided that it was going to happen.

She waited for Kathy to go to bed and waited until the house was quiet. Once she hobbled to the dore she new it was locked like every other night before. This night she was equipped by a thin steel square shaped metal. Niobe broke it off of her bed a week ago, putting it under the wheels of the bed to flatten it out. Finally it was the thickness of a credit card. That’s all she needed to pop the lock on the door. She new she had to go right towards Isabell’s room, but she had to be quiet. She held on to the wall to help her move forward trying not to drop her casted leg hard on the floor. She could see a window ahead of her and new she was close to the back of the house.

What she wasn’t prepared for was the door had a sensor on it with a beeping green light. It was coded. Niobe thought once she passed through the door an alarm would go off and she would only have seconds to run as fast as she could. Her ankle was healing but it was still very soar. But realized that’s all she had. If she stayed it wouldn’t be to long before the cast came off and she too would be shackled.

She took a deep breath, and opened the door quickly. The alarm was much louder than she thought. It was ear peircing. She ran not looking back. She could see the gate at the back of the yard. She was almost there when she heard Kathy yelling over the alarm. Get back here. Niobe kept running. Opened the gate and started screaming for help. Kathy was right on her heals.

There was a man walking his dog. Niobe kept screaming, help, help hobbling as fast as she could, now her ankle was once again failing her. The man stopped turned and looked at Niobe. Still screaming please stop, help me. He ran to her. She looked back and saw Kathy at the gate and turn around quickly.

The man helped her, immediately called 911. He stayed with her in the street until they arrived. The police took her statement and helped her into the ambulance. Niobe refused to go until she saw her friends come through the gate.

10 girls walked out through the gate that night, she wasn’t sure who was Isabelle or Mabel but new she would meet them in the hospital. Niobe frantically looking around waiting for Kathy to be handcuffed but she never came out. Defeated she was ready to go to the hospital. There she was reunited with her dad and brother. Met Mabel and Isabelle. The two girls eventually moved in with Niobe and spent all there feee time together. They were bonded.

Knock, knock Niobe heard from outside the camper. She kept quiet. Hoping whoever it was at two in the morning would go away. But she new they wouldn’t. She was scared, and not prepared except for her whistle. And a small knife from the kitchen.

The horror immediately came back at her in waves. The voice outside her trailer was Kathy. How did she find her, how did she know she was alone. Was she stalking her this whole time?

Kathy said, “open the door now Niobe or I’ll start a fire under your camper.”

Trapped once again Niobe new she had no choice. What was Kathy going to do in a campground. There is no way she was going back to that house, or any house with Kathy.

Niobe breathed in deeply, closed her eyes and said, “Ok, Ok, I’ll open the door!” In her head she was ready. Her whistle around her neck and knife in hand.

She slowly opened the door and saw Kathy staring at her with her beedy brown eyes. She had a pot in her hand.

The only thing to do was drop the knife and cover her face with her hands. Instantly she could feel boiling water and the smell of bleach running down the back of her hands and arms.

Shaking in pain, she blew her whistle and started screaming. One by one people opened up their camper doors.

Niobe pointing in the direction where Kathy ran. “Stop her, stop her!” Is all she could say.

A woman ran to her, the panic and worry in her eyes when she approached Niobe. “Henry, call the police and ambulance, we need help!” She wrapped a blanket tenderly around Niobe and tried to hush her while Niobe breathlessly still saying stop her stop her now in a whisper, crying in pain.

A man in the distance yelled “we got her!”

Finally, after all these months Niobe let her body relax in the arms of a stranger waiting for the police. Finally her nightmare was over. She sobbed in pain that night letting go of the intense fear she had bottled up. She was free, she was finally free.