Six Days, Sixteen Hours

Erin awoke with a beam of sunlight. She blinked her eyes open and turned onto her back,but suddenly regretted it. Her head throbbed painfully at her sudden movement. She sat up and covered her face with her hands. She suddenly became aware of where she actually was. She was on a big double bed, with white sheets, rays of sunlight stretching across them. The room was big and expensively furnished: there was an antique chair in a corner, and a glass bedside table with a black telephone resting on it. Apart from it's expensiveness, it certainly looked lived in. There were clothes thrown on the persian carpet and over the chair, along with bits of torn or scrunched up paper,a couple of empty beer bottles on the ground and there was also a guitar in its case in the corner. Erin turned and saw that the light flowing in was coming from a balcony with long white,almost transparent curtains, blowing in the breeze. There was also someone there. Erin squinted trying to recognise him. He was leaning on the balcony railing, in a light blue t-shirt and boxers, his straight black hair shining. He took a drag from the cigarette between his fingers, and looked down underneath him. Erin moved back the covers and painfully slid her legs onto the floor. She noticed she was dressed as the night before, exept her jeans which were missing. She looked round and saw they were folded on the bed. Erin stood up but her head panged painfully, making her gasp. Frank turned round hearing her. he stuck his cigarette in a plantpot and moved towards Erin.

"how's my girl doing?" he smiled. Erin looked up, suspicious,and raised an eyebrow.

"oh," Frank said quickly, holding out a hand,"Frank."

Erin looked at the hand, and then back into his big brown eyes. He had a nice smile,she thought. She managed a grunt and then fell back onto the bed. Frank sat on the end beside her feet.

"Not too good,eh? not surprised."

Erin covered her face with her hands. "How did I get here?" she found her voice croaky.

"I saw two men leading you away, so I followed them and stopped them before.." his words faded away.

"oh god.." Erin croaked again.

"they probably drugged you." said Frank.

"oh god..god..god.." she took her hands away from her face and looked at him. They looked at each other for a few seconds, then Frank got up and headed towards a dresser.

"I'll get you something for your head. I bet its killing you." Erin didn't manage an answer. Frank got some water, a glass and an aspirin, then handed them to her. She just stared at them.

"come on kiddo,it'll help the hangover." Erin took them and gulped it down. Then she tried to get up again.

"hey hey,what are you doing?" he said,grabbing her arm as she swayed dangerously.

"I have to get out of here. I don't know who you are, I don't know where I am and I don't want to be here."

she tried to get up again but Frank held her down.

"oh come on," he said. "in the state you're in you'll have to crawl home, and I don't want you doing that."

Erin struggled to get his hands off her shoulders.

"come on girl, I'm not going to do anything to you, I just want you to stay here until you can actually walk."

Erin looked into his eyes for a few moments.

"fine," she croaked,"fine, but as soon as I can get dressed I'm out of here."

Frank let go of her. "fair enough." he nodded. He sat on te end the bed and watched as she curled back under the covers again,and fell asleep.

***

Erin woke much later. it was music that woke her. She looked round, still tired at Frank, who was on the bed again, the guitar in his hands. He was strumming something quietly and humming. He looked up at her. "oh, you're awake." he smiled, and propped the guitar against the side of the bed.

"how long did i sleep for?"

"about 6 hours..enough anyway."

Erin sat up and rubbed her eyes, then caught sight of herself in a big mirror on the wall. It was on the opposite side of the room but she could see that her eyeliner was smudged onto her paler than usual skin, and her hair was all over the place. She scratched her head and sneered at herself.

"God, i look horrible."

"you can have a shower if you like, it's through there, door on the right." he pointed at a white door leading out of the bedroom. Erin slipped out from under the sheets and caught sight of the time on the clock on the bedside table. It was 4 in the afternoon. She crossed the room and opened the door, then turned to Frank.

"it's Erin, by the way."

"Erin," he repeated,smiling.

She smiled back and went out of the room.