Double Danger

Chapter 5

Madsen could smell the vomit in the strands of hair that lay across her face. When she tried to brush the hair away, she discovered she couldn"t move her arms. Gradually she became aware of a weight that was crushing her, but she was too tired to push against it. Every effort to move made her dizzy; and the strong odor of urine and defecation around her was overpowering. She heaved again, and the remains of her stomach retreated into her throat. Finally she began to sob until the exhaustion from the effort forced her back to sleep.

Hours later Madsen awakened once more, still dizzy and confused. When she cried out into the darkness, her own voice answered back. She blinked several times in an attempt to orient herself in the room. She knew it had to be very late because she could hear no voices or music coming from the parlor or the garden. And the degree of darkness was very strange.

She longed to hear the throbbing music that drifted up into her room each night as she entertained callers at Maire"s Gentlemen"s Club. She always enjoyed their company, for they kept her from feeling so lonely. And Maire"s establishment had become home. It was the only real home she had ever known.

As Madsen lay still, she tried to imagine the face of her mother. Their last visit was motivated by a “message” from her divination cards that her mother needed her. Madsen had located her in a Shreveport jail where her mother had been incarcerated on charges of theft and p**********n. The swelling in her chest increased as Madsen pictured her mother. “Mama,” she tried to call out, but the only sound she heard was a muffled sob.

She desperately wanted a drink of water. As Madsen struggled to lift her head, her breath was labored. Her panic mounted as the thought of suffocation overcame her. She commanded her hand to reach for the lamp.

Suddenly Madsen froze. She could not feel her body below her neck. She tried again to lift her hands, but all she could feel was her muffled screams ricocheting throughout her chest like heavy hail stones.

She cried out again, her voice growing smaller against the mocking echo. “Help! Maire? Can you help me? Oh please, somebody please help me!” she pleaded to the abyss. A dull ringing in her ears increased her dizziness. Perhaps she was drunk, she thought. But she didn"t drink, she disliked liquor. Had she gone back to her room after the dinner? Had she ended up somewhere else–in someone else"s bed perhaps? Madsen couldn"t remember where she was, or how she got there. “Maire,” she called again, “please help me!”

As the relentless vacuum pushed in, she feared she had gone blind during the night. When Madsen tried to raise her head to call for help again, it was too heavy to move. Oh, God, I can"t breathe! I have to get up. She could no longer control the panic.

Oh, God, I can"t breathe! I have to get upShe knew she must have been very bad to be punished like this. She tried to remember all the things in her life she had done that were bad. She had always believed that ladies of the night were no different than those girls who slept around for no money at all. Her mother had told her the only difference was that professionals were good businesswomen. And her mother was a professional.

When the men her mother brought home had started having their way with Madsen, she had run away. After that she had given herself to men for money, too, which is all she knew how to do. Some said that was sinful, but Madsen remembered the many men who had come to her with sad eyes and broken hearts. Of course, some had just wanted a good time. Perhaps they were the bad ones, and she was bad for servicing them. But she couldn"t understand what she had done that was evil enough to deserve this torture.

Please don"t leave me here, God, she silently begged. Finally Madsen willed herself to lift her head, forcing her neck to stretch so far the strain made her head shake. She hit her head on a hard and rough surface located just inches above her face. The air around her evaporated and closed in.

Please don"t leave me here, GodMadsen was suddenly seized with overwhelming horror. She realized she was locked in a box of some sort, blanketed with nothing but endless blackness. In a moment of living death, a monstrous terror overtook her senses, and she knew she had been buried alive.