By Jenn McNab © 2004

June 30th (9:56pm)

(Just as a reminder, this story is set in the 1970's)

Chapter 2:

Arden woke up, the haze in front of her eyes was difficult to see through and it was dark around her. It felt as if she was lying on a steel bench but she couldn't be sure.

Arden lifted herself off the surface she was on and peered around the dark room. Her body felt tender and limp and she clutched her spinning head in a feeble attempt to cease the pain. Whatever the man had put in her mouth was impairing her thoughts. She lifted her body over onto the floor and blindly began to stumble about in the dark to find some way out of this mess. The carpet was sticky on her hands as she crawled across from the smooth cold surface onto the flat but distinctly shagpile carpet. She had nearly no clue as to where she was nor where she was going. She banged her knee sharply on the corner of a couch which made a noise loud enough to bring her kidnapper's attention to the room she was in.

Arden managed to pick up her coat which she found draped over the couch and slowly stumbled through the various bottles and cans to a window. She had just begun to push the window open when a person had entered the room behind her. Arden ducked behind the chair before the person had any time to turn the lights on and rubbed her eyes. Her mind wasn't thinking straight foreword yet so she waited, her breath held tight so as not to make a noise.

The person rustled around for a bit before eventually leaving the room.

Arden let out a sigh of major relief before continuing to open the window. The cool winter air brushed her cheeks and for the first time in nearly twelve hours, she felt clear.

Arden reached out the window and groped for nearby external plumbing but to her bad luck, there was none.

The sun was beginning to rise above the other houses in the area and she could see that it was only half a metres drop onto the neighbour's roof. Arden climbed onto the outside sill and clutched onto the window frame before slowly lowering her legs down one at a time.

The tin roof beneath her made a slight crunching sound under her feet as she walked across to a nearby gutter. She followed the guttering until she found a sturdy pipe in which to climb down.

Once Arden had made it to the ground in mostly one piece (a few scratches and cuts exceptional) she began to run as fast as she could down the street and into the park. The morning mist was thick and bit into her skin like bees but she kept running until she had made it behind a tree. Arden panted hard. She never thought she would make it out of there alive let alone perfectly well.

Or so she thought…

Her body was feeling wrecked but she wasn't sure if she had been beaten or drugged to feel like this. Once she had caught her breath, she started to walk up the hill to the row of shops.

She could recall these lines of shops to be the same place she was kidnapped from only a few hours ago. She could tell it was around six O'clock in the morning with ought checking her watch, as people were beginning to open up the shops and the street dwellers were packing up and leaving for the day.

She had always wondered where the street bums went during the day… Had they gone to work? She had always suspected no since if they had money, they might have a home to live in. Perhaps they just walked around aimlessly until nightfall when they would set up camp again. She never could tell.

Arden once again pulled out the clipping of the singer and looked closely. The article read:

Ziggy stardust, rock legend and alter ego of David Jones who recently changed his name to Bowie so as not to be confused with the Monkees singer Davy Jones will be playing at the following locations this year. The list followed down half the page until she reached London.

He was to be playing in September but she would probably be back at home before she had the chance to even consider going.

Arden liked the sound of this Ziggy Stardust man, she had heard his music once or twice but she had never really considered him to be a great man. They were all the same in the end, tight suits, razzle hair and eye makeup. This appealed to her greatly! She was beginning to wonder if anybody would ever leap out and make a change. Would music be like this forever? Somehow she didn't see this Ziggy character to be the start to a new generation of singers and fashion…

Arden's stomach gave a deep growl and she had only just realised that he hadn't eaten in hours. As she walked along the shops, peering in at all the luxurious foods, she had realised that she hadn't even thought to have brought any money when she had crashed out the front door of her suburban home. And food in the city proved to be more expensive than that of her tiny town.

So what would she do? Arden began to knot her fingers in her hair as she usually did when she was nervous or lost but it was quite obvious what she had to do. She knew she would have to find herself a job.

Arden kept to the left of the footpath as she limped along past the shops. She knew that there would have to be a shop looking for workers somewhere in this huge city. But her search proved unsuccessful as she neared the end of the road, the last shop being a pub.

Arden began to walk down the next road avoiding the beggars who, (if you made any eye contact with) would talk you into handing over any possessions you had on you through eye power and sympathy.

At that moment, Arden heard a scream from about a block away from where she was standing. It sounded as if it were the scream of a young girl. Arden knew not to get messed up in these things, she knew there would be things like this happening in the big city but knew well enough to stay away. Those were the sort of things you'd get raped for trying to investigate…though as usual she had completely ignored her mother's warning and continued down the main road until she met the corner of a main alley. Without looking, she could hear the voices of two male men attempting to conceal the girl. Arden decided not to get involved and waited patiently on the corner until the slamming of a van door could be heard. Arden sat quickly down on the pavement and looked towards the ground in hopes that the van drivers wouldn't stop at the sight of her. She had learnt this trick when she was in school back at her hometown where if she had not done her weekend homework, she'd sit with her face looking down so as not to be noticed by any of the teachers. This worked 60% of the time but there was the occasional teacher who would look out for the ones who would hide away.

The truck backed out of the alley and sped as fast as it could down the main street until it was out of sight. Arden stood a d brushed her coat off and turned to look down the alley way. Sure enough there was a bag at the end of it. The bag seemed to be still but there was a distinct muffled breathing from within.

Arden bent to the bag and began to pull the ropes at the top until they were loose. This took much effort and much nail breakage but eventually she got the bag open. As she had suspected, there was a girl of about eleven, bound and gagged and with nothing but her undergarments to shield her skin from the freezing winter breeze. Arden pulled her blue coat off from around her shoulders and began to untie the ropes that bound the girl into the fetal position.

Once the ropes had been removed, Arden wrapped the coat around the girl and as her mother had once done, cradled the girl in her arms. "So this is what the big city can do to people is it?" she asked the towering buildings above that stood powerful and dominant. Arden was feeling queasy knowing that she was slowly being chewed up by the blunt metal teeth that were the city she was now living in, but she couldn't give up just yet. She had only been gone two days and she had felt that she had had a lifetimes worth of thrashings and horror movies. Arden rocked backwards and forwards, still cradling the girl in her arms, tears rolling down her cheeks. Why was this so hard? Why?

I'm sure we'd all like to know…..

(End of Chapter)

Ohh! Wondering when Ziggy will appear? I am too! Oo; but I promice you all I have so just sit tight and relax! The next chapter should be up tomorrow! What is Arden going to do next? What has this girl got to do with anything? And will Arden discover a solution that will change her lifestyle forever? Keep reading! It will do you no good! =D

Marysian