@cptnfalcn liked the starter call
IT WAS THE THIRD TIME Vanya woke up in the strange room, locked up. The room wasn’t strange in itself, but it was vastly different from where he’d been before, and he couldn’t remember traveling. That wasn’t a big surprise, either. It had happened a lot already. No, what was really strange was that nobody was coming for him. They left him alone. Sometimes he could hear people walk by, but nobody entered, nobody unlocked the door. Vanya could do whatever pleased him. There wasn’t a lot, though. He couldn’t read the books. The tablet required a password he didn’t know and couldn’t figure out. The view from the window showed a construction site and some shrubbery, and every now and then a group of people, jogging. At least the radio was easy enough to deal with, even though the people there talked a lot in English. (This was another clue that he wasn’t in this nice African country anymore. The thought made him a little sad. He’d liked it there.)
The music changed to a bored-sounding man who was probably reading the news. He was talking about a storm. Vanya reached out to turn the volume down when the control broke all of a sudden. There was a ping! sound and Vanya stared at the little key that had fallen out of the hole somebody had carved into the volume control. Then he looked around wildly because there were always people watching him.
Nothing happened.
Vanya decided to risk it. They would probably punish him for it, but at least something would happen. He was bored out of his mind. He took the key carefully and walked over to the locked up door. It fit perfectly. Giddy with excitement, Vanya opened up and tiptoed out of the room. There was a long hallway with more doors. Nobody came running for him, so he walked down the corridor until he came to an open space with lots of little couches and armchairs. There was a long row of bookshelves and a man sitting in one of the armchairs. He was really attractive. Vanya appreciated the curve of his biceps for a few seconds before he said: “Hello.”












