Just Another Messy Ending

“Huh?” Surely I’d misheard, did he really just say he was going to tie me up?

“You heard me, sit on the chair so I can tie you up” Gerard repeated his instructions and gestured to the wooden chair, wrapping and unwrapping the long rope around his hand in a repetitive motion.

Unable to work out quite what was going through his mind, I decided to just oblige; this man’s a genius in his field, he obviously had a reason for it.

I cautiously walked over, my footsteps echoing in the small enclosed space. Since Party had closed the door after we’d entered, we were left in darkness apart from the light coming from a tiny overhead lamp Party had turned on as we entered.

Sitting down on the chair, I placed my hands in my lap, my heart beating fast as Party approached with the rope, crouching in front of me so we were eye to eye.

“Put your hands behind the back of the chair” he commanded quietly but firmly, taking my wrists to pull them closer together behind me as I complied. I felt the roughness of the rope binding my wrists, creating uncomfortable friction again my exposed skin as Party tied them tight in what was probably a complex knot. He then brought the rope around and tied each of my legs to a chair leg, his fingers brushing against my ankles unexpectedly and making me tense in the low light. After they were secured, he brought the rope up and looped it around my body and the back of the chair a few time before tying it in one last knot.

“Done!” Party exclaimed, grinning at me and causing me to cock my eyebrow at him. His raven fringe dangling in his face slightly and the occasional strands that were longer than the rest fell over his hazel eyes.

“So, what happens next?” I asked, even though I was pretty sure I knew what his reply would be.

“Escape, Wild One, just get out of the chair” he lowered himself to the floor and sat crossed legged in front of me, obviously anticipating that he we were going to be here a while.

“How?” I grumbled, yanking and pulling against the restraints and failing to loosen them even a little bit.

“If you were tied up in a hostage situation, I wouldn’t be there to tell you how to escape, now would I?” his answer was simple and a private grin briefly graced his face as he thought of something he didn’t voice to me, leaving me unaware of what was running through his mind.

“No, but… I thought you were meant to be teaching me basics! You’re expecting me to do this with no training?!” I scowled lightly at the man on the floor as I tried to think of what he expected me to do in such situation. I went back to struggling against the rope, feeling it dig in to the sensitive skin around my wrists and ankles as I thrashed about. I didn’t feel comfortable being so restricted, being so unable to move and the dark wasn’t helping the panic rising in front of me.

As I struggled, I could feel my wrists being rubbed raw by the friction of the rope and found myself getting nowhere and getting frustrated.

“What? I can’t!” minutes passed while I tried – unsuccessfully – to free myself. Eventually, I threw my head back and resigned myself to the fact that I couldn’t get out.

I was completely and utterly trapped.

“Party! I can’t do this, okay! Untie me!” frustrated, I took to yelling at Party, who’d so far sat there watching me with a look of concentration and slight amusement.

My jaw literally dropped slightly as he rose to his feet with a simple ‘okay’ and began to untie me.

“Wait, you’re just going to untie me? Earlier, you refused to tell me how to get out because you said that wouldn’t happen in a real life kidnapping and now you’re untying me? Yeah, because in real life I’m sure you’d just come on in and untie me!” I was a little annoyed at Party’s actions, none of it was making sense to me and there was no way I was following his train of thought.

“You aren’t seeing the point in this exercise, Wild One” his calm tone was irritating me still and I couldn’t help but scowl slightly at him as he freed my ankles, then my waist and finally my wrists.

“Then explain to me” I stood up, causing him to take a step back so that we could both stand up without being chest to chest with each other. Before answering, he took a hold of my wrists and pulled my arms up so that the undersides were pointing towards the ceiling.

“The rope marks don’t look too bad; you really shouldn’t have struggled so much…” he let my hands drop to my sides again before continuing with what I hoped would be an answer to my question. “and there are quite a few reasons I tied you up, you’ll see the logic in them as I explain. Firstly, I didn’t tell you how to escape because in a real situation, that simply wouldn’t happen, as I’ve already explained. The reason I left you to struggle when you obviously had no way of escaping was because I wanted to see how long it took you to freak out and get frustrated in a situation you weren’t in control of. The reason I tied you up in the first place when I knew you wouldn’t be able to escape is so that you would fully understand the necessity of learning the basics before trying to advance to harder stuff when you aren’t ready. Finally, the reason I untied you when you asked? That’s to show you that, as long as it’s possible, I’ll be there to help you and to show you that you can ask me for help. See, logical reasons that tying you up was a good idea!” I found myself nodding along as Party explained, as crazy as it seemed at first, his exercise actually made of lot of sense once he’d explained it.

“I never thought I’d meet anyone who could state numerous reasons why tying me up was a good idea, but obviously, the day has come” I mused with a small smile as Party bundled up the rope and placed it in the corner. “Just so I know though, are anymore of today’s activities going to involve tying me up again?”

As he approached me again, Party chuckled lightly and shook his head.

“No, now we are going to start on the basics! Since you obviously can’t escape once tied to a chair, the first thing we’re going to do is learn some defence and escape moves which should help you avoid getting in the situation in the first place” Party discarded the dark jacket he was wearing on the floor and pushed the chair to the back, leaving us with more space before flicking a switch on the wall I hadn’t noticed before and making the room flood with light.

Glad there was more light in the room now, I looked towards Party for further instruction. His little exercise a minute ago made me realise just how smart he was and it was clear why he was in charge of our team.

“Let’s do this. Teach me”.