Sentence The Onehundredandsixtieth
Which was how she learned her true predicament; she used the little ledge to stand on, so that she was able to pull herself up onto the little square roof of the room she had woken up in – here the battlements were just a foot high and she crouched, because she felt so vulnerable up here, so high and so exposed, and when she crept over to the side opposite the door she had come through, she realised that she was on the roof of a square Tower, including the balcony, which must form the stairway up from the ground. For below where she now lay, with her head peeping through from between two blocks of the battlement wall, she could make out doorways further down, for she was
gazing into a huge empty space, the walls of which, mossy and damp, contained window spaces and
other niches on each of what must be, she counted down, seven floors – and directly across from her another tower, but that one was round and did not match her own in any way except that it, too, rose above this vast, square vault; she noticed that round the top of the walls which formed the boundary of the main building, railings had been installed, presumably for safety at a time when the building was more intact and less desolate than it was now; but the doors into the small room in which she had been left – handcuffed to a radiator, and that radiator itself, were fairly new, which must mean a regular use of this tower; and she wondered how long she would have before the non-doctor Man returned to check on her, for he would surely realise that the drug will have worn of and he may bring some food and drink for her; she realised that he could come back at any moment, so if she s going to climb down to freedom, she would have to get going soon, for the longer she lay here and tried to work out some kind of understanding of what was going on, the more likely that he would come out looking for her, and if she was still here on the roof, he would easily drag her back inside; that sudden thought galvanised her into action and, after the briefest visual scan to see what would be the safest, if not the quickest, route for her to take – luckily it was rubble built, rather than dressed stone for the more part, and certainly no brickwork, so as far as she could make out there should be enough hand and foot holds if she took a kind of zigzag, crawling across as she descended, to the right for a bit, then to the left, and with nu further ado, she gingerly eased herself backwards into the void and began a slow descent; for the first part, she stayed within the walls, until she had gone down a couple of floors and noticed that – for a bit anyway, the next few looked smoother, more dressed, and offered less to hold onto – the outside, being coarser, would in all probability be safer, although she felt
terribly exposed as she lowered herself down for the next stage; and so she went on, every couple of floors changing over from an outside to an inside route, and then back again; so far, she had heard nothing other than bird song in the woodland which lay on all sides, and the wind blowing into and past herself, particularly when she was on the outer side of the building; and then she heard it – distantly, and while she was on the exterior, with a large, blank, expanse beneath and to both sides – it was definitely a car, on the furthest side from where she was and presumably already coming along the driveway she had been unable to see; the noise grew louder, the sound magnified by the effect of the chamber, the large empty space enclosed by the four thick walls; but she did not allow it to panic her into making any rash, or dangerous moves – it was right now that she needed to be most careful, for her life depended entirely on herself, sticking to the safest and the quickest route she could discern; and she kept going; and suddenly the noise of the car's engine stopped; hush! she told herself, although the only sound that she could here, closer tan the birds and the trees, was her own shallow breathing; she had already dispensed at various stages with her outer garments, for they either restricted her movements, or had been torn and in some parts almost shredded; now, as she looked down, realising that she was nearer to the ground below than the distance she had come from
the top, she could only hope that The Man, for it could be none other, she believed, would not climb directly to the room under the roof where he had chained and locked her in, and as she lowered herself nearer to her only escape route, she also removed her shoes, leaving them on the stone sill of a vacant window – she needed to be able to find and secure her toe-holds more quickly than ever, and she hoped against hope that he would not choose now to take a stroll around the Prison and spot her, still several floors above; down lower she went, going as directly as possible, feeling quite desperate and determined that she should not be caught – she knew him already to be quite capable of murder – his slashing of Bernie's throat was proof of that; for some reason he’d not killed her, but she assumed that he would be angry when he found her cell empty and that he would quickly discover that she had escaped over the rooftop, and so time was surely now of the essence, if she was to escape from here with her life and seek the sanctuary of the Police and tell them what she knew, or had worked out in her mind; no, she hadn't seen his face, but there probably were clues in what she had seen that would help the Police to find and catch him – but only if she escaped and reached safety alive – and then she heard the crunch and froze, and the voice when it came seemed to curdle her brain: “well, well, I never had you figured for such a hardline capability; I daresay your genesis should have alerted me - for though she may be an aged rosinante now, Tabby has taught you well and I guess if you had your druthers you'd still choose to be her daughter, but don't let me stop you now - so near the bottom – keep coming and then we'll decide what to do with you!”
Which was how she learned her true predicament; she used the little ledge to stand on, so that she was able to pull herself up onto the little square roof of the room she had woken up in – here the battlements were just a foot high and she crouched, because she felt so vulnerable up here, so high and so exposed, and when she crept over to the side opposite the door she had come through, she realised that she was on the roof of a square Tower, including the balcony, which must form the stairway up from the ground. For below where she now lay, with her head peeping through from between two blocks of the battlement wall, she could make out doorways further down, for she was
gazing into a huge empty space, the walls of which, mossy and damp, contained window spaces and
other niches on each of what must be, she counted down, seven floors – and directly across from her another tower, but that one was round and did not match her own in any way except that it, too, rose above this vast, square vault; she noticed that round the top of the walls which formed the boundary of the main building, railings had been installed, presumably for safety at a time when the building was more intact and less desolate than it was now; but the doors into the small room in which she had been left – handcuffed to a radiator, and that radiator itself, were fairly new, which must mean a regular use of this tower; and she wondered how long she would have before the non-doctor Man returned to check on her, for he would surely realise that the drug will have worn of and he may bring some food and drink for her; she realised that he could come back at any moment, so if she s going to climb down to freedom, she would have to get going soon, for the longer she lay here and tried to work out some kind of understanding of what was going on, the more likely that he would come out looking for her, and if she was still here on the roof, he would easily drag her back inside; that sudden thought galvanised her into action and, after the briefest visual scan to see what would be the safest, if not the quickest, route for her to take – luckily it was rubble built, rather than dressed stone for the more part, and certainly no brickwork, so as far as she could make out there should be enough hand and foot holds if she took a kind of zigzag, crawling across as she descended, to the right for a bit, then to the left, and with nu further ado, she gingerly eased herself backwards into the void and began a slow descent; for the first part, she stayed within the walls, until she had gone down a couple of floors and noticed that – for a bit anyway, the next few looked smoother, more dressed, and offered less to hold onto – the outside, being coarser, would in all probability be safer, although she felt
terribly exposed as she lowered herself down for the next stage; and so she went on, every couple of floors changing over from an outside to an inside route, and then back again; so far, she had heard nothing other than bird song in the woodland which lay on all sides, and the wind blowing into and past herself, particularly when she was on the outer side of the building; and then she heard it – distantly, and while she was on the exterior, with a large, blank, expanse beneath and to both sides – it was definitely a car, on the furthest side from where she was and presumably already coming along the driveway she had been unable to see; the noise grew louder, the sound magnified by the effect of the chamber, the large empty space enclosed by the four thick walls; but she did not allow it to panic her into making any rash, or dangerous moves – it was right now that she needed to be most careful, for her life depended entirely on herself, sticking to the safest and the quickest route she could discern; and she kept going; and suddenly the noise of the car's engine stopped; hush! she told herself, although the only sound that she could here, closer tan the birds and the trees, was her own shallow breathing; she had already dispensed at various stages with her outer garments, for they either restricted her movements, or had been torn and in some parts almost shredded; now, as she looked down, realising that she was nearer to the ground below than the distance she had come from
the top, she could only hope that The Man, for it could be none other, she believed, would not climb directly to the room under the roof where he had chained and locked her in, and as she lowered herself nearer to her only escape route, she also removed her shoes, leaving them on the stone sill of a vacant window – she needed to be able to find and secure her toe-holds more quickly than ever, and she hoped against hope that he would not choose now to take a stroll around the Prison and spot her, still several floors above; down lower she went, going as directly as possible, feeling quite desperate and determined that she should not be caught – she knew him already to be quite capable of murder – his slashing of Bernie's throat was proof of that; for some reason he’d not killed her, but she assumed that he would be angry when he found her cell empty and that he would quickly discover that she had escaped over the rooftop, and so time was surely now of the essence, if she was to escape from here with her life and seek the sanctuary of the Police and tell them what she knew, or had worked out in her mind; no, she hadn't seen his face, but there probably were clues in what she had seen that would help the Police to find and catch him – but only if she escaped and reached safety alive – and then she heard the crunch and froze, and the voice when it came seemed to curdle her brain: “well, well, I never had you figured for such a hardline capability; I daresay your genesis should have alerted me - for though she may be an aged rosinante now, Tabby has taught you well and I guess if you had your druthers you'd still choose to be her daughter, but don't let me stop you now - so near the bottom – keep coming and then we'll decide what to do with you!”
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