Page 63 of The Captive Missing

Before she could respond, he was gone, leaving her with a melancholy sort of sadness. She was sorry for Charlie. Sorry he had to pretend. Sorry he had to seduce not only free women but captive women as well. Then she was sorry for Gabe and all the others who had ever been forced into this strange fantasy life.

Gripping the sides of the tub, she frowned into her bath water. Millions of tiny bubbles floated along the surface, all of them sparkling. Charlie was right. They should try to forget. They should just live the next few days here and not worry over the impending punishments. Shoving the turmoil from her mind, Val opened the book and began to read.

* * *

Later that night they lay down next to one another in the full-sized bed. It wasn’t large enough to avoid touching, so after a few attempts to keep to one side, they both gave up. Cambric did not provide pajamas in Breeding. They wanted to encourage nudity in all its forms so Val was left only with her red dress. It was tiny and uncomfortable. The fabric cinched tight around her ribcage, making it hard to breathe deeply.

Sensing her discomfort, Charlie offered her his shirt. For his own part, he wore boxer-briefs and nothing else. The skin of her arm rested up against his, their legs tangled. He complained about her cold feet. She pressed them further into the warmth of his calves. Both of them fell asleep with the hint of a smile tugging at their lips.

In the morning, Val woke first. Opening her eyes, she blinked at the slack sleeping face of the handsome man next to her. Her heart dipped because it wasn’t her husband. In the unconsciousness of sleep, his arm had been thrown across her belly. She lay still for a minute, watching the steady rise and fall of his back. Oh, Charlie, she thought. What are they going to do to you? To me? Frowning at herself, she carefully slipped out of bed without waking him.

The window, that was not really a window, shone with an early morning sun. The computer program that controlled it mirrored an actual outdoor experience. The sun tracked throughout the day, rising high towards noon and settling behind distant mountains at sunset. Last night, there had even been stars.

Out in the kitchen, Val opened the pantry and tapped her foot lightly on the hardwood floor. When she was about half-way through making pancakes, Charlie stumbled out and flopped down on the couch. He rubbed at his messy dark hair and stretched his arms wide in a yawn. Not a morning person, apparently.

Val smirked at his grumpy face. Catching her drift, he rolled his eyes and reclined, pulling a soft knit blanket down over himself. She turned her back on him then and filled a mug with steaming hot coffee.

“Cream or sugar?” She asked.

“Black.”

“I still can’t believe all the food down here.” Val brought the cup over to him before moving back to finish breakfast.

“If you really think about it, it makes a lot of sense. They want us to come back here willingly over and over. Sometimes it takes a few months to get pregnant. This is a perk job with perk benefits. If you never got a taste of free life, then this would be pure fantasy land.”

“Why not just go artificial?” Val pondered, arranging pancakes and bacon on two large plates.

“The old fashioned way is still the cheapest,” Charlie countered. “No fertility treatments, no frozen embryos or semen.”

“Good point.”

She took a seat at the small table and began eating without him. There was orange juice, fresh berries, even syrup. Val sipped and munched lazily. Still wearing Charlie’s oversized shirt, she crossed her bare legs beneath the table.

Charlie shifted around on the couch to watch. When he was done with his coffee, he got up and plopped down across from her before digging in happily.

“So, what do we do all day?”

“I have a surprise.” Charlie wiggled his eyebrows, face suddenly mischievous.

“I’m not sure I like the sound of that.” Val commented, rising to wash her plate in the kitchen.

When he was done eating, Charlie shoved his plate to the side and stalked after her. Grabbing Val by the wrist, he led her reluctantly back to the bedroom where he teased and cajoled her onto the bed. She sat as instructed, drawing her knees up to her chest.

Leaving her there alone, he returned to the living room, then reappeared with a stack of pillows from the couch. He tossed them at her and she caught them, laughing at the look of conspiracy on his face. What was he up to?

“Ready?” He asked, standing beside the armoire.

“I don’t know, am I?”

Stepping in front of it, Charlie pulled the doors open wide. Inside was a flat screen television. Val’s mouth dropped.

“That’s right,” Charlie announced. Fishing through a drawer, he started throwing movies onto the bed. “What do you want to start with? We can watch them all.”

“I’m speechless,” Val sputtered, then crawled forward to sift through the options.

They were all censored, of course, but they were movies. Real live movies. Entertaining shows that splashed across the screen, promising to take them away from this place and deliver them somewhere else. Anywhere else.

“You’ve probably seen these a dozen times.”

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