17
June 6th, 11 a.m.
SADIE OPENED her eyes. The hard, naked light of the electric lamp blinded her and she rolled over on the bed, shielding her eyes with her arm. A stabbing pain shot through her head as she moved.
She couldn’t think where she was or what had happened to her. Her mouth felt dry and her body ached. She lay for some time, only half conscious. Then, after a while, her mind began to function again. She remembered dimly leaving her home. She remembered Lu. Out of the mists Grantham’s face appearedGrantham, thin−lipped, standing over her with something in his hand that she couldn’t see. She remembered her terror, and, as she started to scream, a hot hand coming from behind her, over her mouth. She remembered a sharp prick in her arm and her wild struggle, then she remembered nothing more.
Again she half opened her eyes. She was aware that she was lying on a mattress and the colour of the walls was a drab grey. Her heart began to thud wildly. It was no horrible nightmare, then. She turned over and looked round the room.
It was small. The thick carpet on the floor matched the walls. There was no other furniture in the room except the bed on which she was lying.
The door was opposite her. Slowly she sat up, holding her head between her hands. There was something the matter with the room. For a moment she couldn’t make it out, then she realized that there was no window.
The discovery did a lot to clear her brain. She knew that she was in acute danger. Of what she didn’t know, but all the same it made her sick with terror.
Slowly she got off the bed and staggered across the room to the door. Her feet sank into the pile of the carpet, which deadened her footfalls. She tried the door, but it was locked. She stood pulling weakly at the handle, and then she slid down on to the floor and began to cry.
Her head hurt so. She was so frightened. Where could she be? she asked herself. She stayed like that for some time, and when she couldn’t cry any more she again got control of her nerves. She knew she would get nowhere just crying, and, taking herself in hand, she stood up.