Angie

Inspired by the song "Angie”

*****

"...tonight showers and possible thundershowers. And that's the news for Saturday, July 18th and I'm..."

July 18th. Eight weeks now. Eight whole weeks of this... this... nightmare. I just can't take it any more. If only it would end. Anything, even death would be better than this. Trapped inside this radio by a witch. Well, she's a witch to me even if everyone else thinks she's just a harmless, crazy girl. Angie, the poor mentally retarded girl next door.

Now you be nice to Angie, Billy. And don't say anything mean while her parents are here.

Mother, if you only knew. If only I could talk to you. You'd see just how nice she really is. Angie isn't as dumb as everyone thinks either. She tricked me good. I was the stupid one. What's a young guy supposed to do when a girls always teasing him? She drove me loony with her tricks.

You see our bedroom windows face each other. Every night she'd dance around her room. The first few times I could barely see anything between her curtains. I guess I was trying to get a look at her while she was getting undressed. I know I shouldn't have but all guys try it at some time in their youth.

Any ways, she must have noticed because she soon started to put on a show for me. Oh not obviously, but it was a show nonetheless. She'd leave the curtains open a few inches or forget to close them all together. She'd dance around the room. Swaying provocatively. At first fully dressed but as time went on she'd leave her shirt open a little or dance in a towel. Soon she was down to just her underwear. I was really going out of my mind. I couldn't eat or concentrate in school or anything.

Mom sure noticed something was up. I pretended I just didn't feel well. Maybe I should have just told her about it. That way maybe they could have found me. I heard all about the search on the radio.

Boy missing... Towns people volunteer to search... still no news of the missing boy... Police fear the worst..." and finally "Search for the Harris boy has been called off after eight fruitless weeks. Police say the file will be kept open but it is feared that he must be dead.

"Hey everybody. I'm not dead. Not dead. Do you hear me! I'M NOT DEAD!"

It's no use. Nobody can hear. I've screamed some days until I couldn't talk and then I'd cry for hours until at last I'd fall asleep.

Sleep. Thank goodness for that. It's been my one and only refuge in this place. Usually fitful and often filled with nightmares, there have still been times I could forget all this. Some times when I wake up I'd think I was at home in bed and mom had breakfast frying. I'd think it had all been just a bad dream only to fully awaken and find that the horror was true. Oh so very true.

Oh and then came that long Friday night. I hadn't been sleeping well all week but that night I didn't sleep at all. Angie danced in front of her window all night. Starting fully dressed and treating me to a slow, seductive strip tease. well as you can imagine I stayed glued to that window until dawn.

Finally she must have got tired because she went to bed. I tried to rest but sleep evaded me. The thought of her drove me mad. Restlessness drove me outside. I saw Mr Harcroft load his gulf clubs in the car. Mrs Harcroft came running out for a ride to the market. She'd walk home. The house was empty except for Angie. Lust and passion took over. Without thinking I went straight into their house.

I never really had a clear image in my mind what I was going to do. I was just doing. It was as if my mind was clouded preventing clear thinking. There was some kind of unrelenting force pulling me to that room. Outside her door I hesitated. Music. She had her radio on again. Still that force pulled me on. Part of me wanted to run but after all those nights of watching her I also wanted to go in. The lust inside me started to grow. My blood was pounding, my head throbbing. I threw open the door.

Arrrh! The music was blaring. Assaulting my being. An evil force bombarding my brain. Hypnotising me, controlling me, suppressing my will.

Beside the radio stood Angie. She was totally naked but the fact didn't really register. The look and feel of evil about her was shocking. I've never seen anything that evil before. The thought still makes me tremble.

"Close the door." she said and I did. With no thought on my part my body obeyed her command.

"Come here." And again I did. My mind was no longer in control of my body. Inside my mind was screaming but outwardly my body was calmly doing everything she demanded.

She made me become her lover. Doing all the things that I had ever dreamed of and much more. All those things that I thought would be so fun, so good and they were so terrible. She used me and abused me at will. There was nothing I could do. I was totally humiliated and my spirit was broken.

When she was done with me she casually turned to the radio and began to turn the volume down. As she turned the volume down. I got smaller with the sound. Toward the radio I'm bound. Never to be found.

I shrink and shrink until the music is all but gone and I'm trapped somewhere inside the radio. My body returned somewhat to my control and I start to scream. Then I heard her laugh. Evil laughter, going on and on and on...

I must have passed out then for the next think I remember it was all quiet but for the sound of the radio. I could just make out what was on. Another song but this time a mellow one. It helped my nerves.

I remember looking around that first time. I seemed to be suspended outside of space. I could see the room and the witch on the bed from where the radio was. Only it was hazy as in a dream. Where I was there was nothing. It didn't make sense but then, nothing about this did.

I guess the shock had hit me pretty hard because I passed out again. The next thing I remember is a voice. It was a woman's voice saying "Good night Angie." A door shutting.

ANGIE! Everything came flooding back then. The sleepless nights, the music, the radio and her horrid laughter. I looked up to see her starring at the radio, at me. I was her prisoner, her slave. As long as the radio was on I'd have to obey her. If it would go off I'd be gone. Probably dead she thought because none of the others had ever been heard from again. I was only her third guest she said.

The first was lost when she turned the radio off, not knowing better at the time.

The second went due to an electrical storm that had knocked the power out. But I wasn't to worry because she had hooked some batteries up that were supposed to cut in if the power ever failed again. She said she wouldn't want to lose her private lover. If I'd had a choice I think I would take death over this.

Well that's how I got into this mess and I've spent the last eight weeks being her slave. Answering to her every whim. Never eating. Sleeping only from total exhaustion. Not growing older, just thinner and probably crazier as the days go by.

She mentioned that once. My thinness. She claims that the radio should keep me alive so that I don't need food or get older. I think maybe I've just lost the will to live. I sure don't have much hope of ever escaping.

It's raining. Hope we don't get too much lightning. I remember the last time. It nailed a pole and out went the power. I could feel it coming some how. The radio fading and then the emptiness, the total blankness of not existing for that fraction of a second before the batteries cut in. It was terrifying. I don't know which is worse living in this hell or dying and that emptiness.

It sure is something, man's will to survive. I've had time to think in here and I really wonder about it. Here I am, totally helpless in a horrifying state, thinking that death would be a welcome release but still when the moment comes when I am close to death I would fight and struggle just to stay alive. It's really weird. When I have to live in these conditions I want to die but when I'm about to die I want to live, no matter what the conditions. If I had to choose right now and had the power to do so I don't know what I'd do.

Hey! That lightning was close. I was so busy thinking I didn't notice the storm getting worse. Here comes another one.

Oh no! there goes the power.

"Damn batteries..."