Wolves and Men

Ansuya heard the basement door swing open and she was just able to get herself back into her passed out position before she heard footsteps on the stairs leading down into the basement prison. She had begun to try and squeeze herself into different positions in her cage. She used the bars and the cage as resistance as she pushed and pulled herself in multiple directions. It wasn’t what anyone would call working out, but her body needed some kind of activity. She had to be careful to be back in position when the basement door opened though. This time she barely made it back to her sitting position before the steps were heard on the wooden stairs. She would have to be more careful in the future.

Her eyes were closed but she tracked the footsteps with her hearing till they were outside her cage. She did everything she could to appear like she was still in fact in her drug induced stupor. Long moments passed; it had never taken this long for the drug to be administered. She remained calm and breathed deeply and evenly keeping her body limp, and lifeless.

“I hate you, bitch!” spat out the light feminine voice from in front of her. “I look at you and wonder how I ever could feel threatened by you at all.” There was another long pause, “no, no that’s not it, either. I used to fear you and I respected you for a long time. My mate did everything he could for weeks to try and break you and then, that one time, you almost broke him. I was fascinated by your strength.”

Footsteps sounded as the woman outside the cage started to pace back and forth. “But then I had to come to his rescue. I had to show you your proper place. And now look at you. Covered in shit and piss and God knows what else. I offered to clean you once just to get rid of the smell down here but its underground and we clean around your cage well enough. In fact, it’s hard to smell you at all now, even with my vampiric senses. This drug is amazing; it keeps you alive and produces almost no waste products. Of course, you wouldn’t know because we keep you sleeping soundly pretty much all the time now, don’t we?” The voice was very near to her cage as the woman spoke these words.

“I have a feeling that maybe someday you might wake up.” Ansuya’s heart skipped a beat but her outward appearance was that of a comatose slumber. “I keep thinking that maybe you’re down here working on some plan or other to escape. I keep thinking about stories that I know and movies where the prisoners in some prison or other, Alcatraz or some prison camp in Nazi Germany, dig their way out from underneath the walls and make their way to safety. I keep wondering about that,” there was a pause. “But then I remember what happened to those prisoners, they were shot in cold blood by the Nazi’s and the others probably froze to death in San Francisco Bay and drown.” The voice once again was very close to the cage bars, Ansuya could almost feel the air move as the other woman spoke. “And if you ever wake up, dog, the same thing will happen to you. I admire your strength but I’m stronger and one day I hope you give me a reason to kill you.” With those last words a needle plunged deep into her thigh and Ansuya felt the drug rush into her bloodstream.

There was a small scoff as footsteps lead away from her cage. They climbed the wooden stairs out of the basement and the door slammed shut loudly, leaving Ansuya once again in solitude. The Tracker could feel the drug working its way through her system. She closed her eyes and focused inward on her body and mind.

Much sooner than she would have liked, but longer than expected, her mind slipped under the veil of total blackness that even the darkness night could not imitate.

She was dancing again. The room was filled with colorful dresses and everyone around her was stunning and graceful. She had to work harder than she ever had to just to be recognized among the sea of people she was in.

She was on the set of her first Bollywood film, “Seeta Aur Greeta” and she was part of a big dance number. She didn’t know if this was to be in the beginning or end of the film. She never read the script. She had been given a choreographer and her job was to learn the dance and chorus parts of the song. And she was going to be the best.

They had just finished rehearsal and they were going to film the scene once everyone had taken a five-minute break. Ansuya was excited and ready. She had traveled a long road to get here. Her mother would be proud of her and she would make an impression. She had trained and practiced harder than anyone here, and she was ready to showcase her skills and talents.

The set became quiet on the yelling commands of the director, the lights lit up while others dimmed, the music struck a chord and the slow thunder of drum beats rolled over them.

It was much like that first time she had danced for her one gentleman audience. Her body seemed to move on its own. The drum beats told her body where to move and when. She was liquid on the dance floor. Her body flowed from step to step and the people around her disappeared. There was nothing but her body being moved by the music.

Then the music turned up and her voice was lifted up towards the Gods as she sang out with the rest of the chorus and her voice rose in magnificent harmony and strength higher and purer than those around her. She was a boulder in the tides, immovable by those around her and impossible to not see and admire her beauty.

The song ended, the drums died down and everyone escaped the dance floor, except for the two or three main actors that would continue the scene after the chorus and dancers had left. Ansuya gazed at the main players, bathed in bright lights that hung overhead. One day she would be there and then she could finally pursue, from a place of power and influence, her goals, her dreams, and all that she wished for her country and people.