Chapter Fifty

Menolly arrived in Bridgeport and took a look around, she'd just sneaked off a container ship having stowed away secretly to get here.  She was feeling pretty confident and pleased with herself, she'd managed to get herself all the way here on her own and nobody knew!

She made her way to the Bridgeport theatre, she'd heard it was the centre of the music scene and she was certain she'd be able to get herself a contract and become the next big thing...

Unfortunately the manager didn't agree, he wouldn't even see her.  A very superior personal assistant simply told Menolly "Go back to school kid, we've got far too much work to bother with every brat who turns up expecting to get an audition"

Menolly was furious, but soon decided that the theatre was clearly part of the establishment and she'd just have to show them all!  She wandered around the city until she found a park where she busked for the rest of the day...

Alas for her, no-one paid the slightest bit of attention to her 

As night fell she began making her way into the main part of the city looking for somewhere to sleep, as she walked past a building site she was accosted by three men

"Hello there pretty girl, and where might you be headed in such a hurry?" asked one of them, Menolly tried to brush past them but he put out a hand to stop her

"Don't be going so fast lovely, I'm sure a pretty girl like you has stuff she wants to share..."

Menolly was shocked, she'd never been spoken to like that before and the way the men were looking at her creeped her out

"How dare you" she shouted outraged "I'm not "your" anything, take your hands off me!"

"Look girlie" one of the other men said, "there's three of us and we're all older and bigger than you, so why don't you just hand everything you've got over to us and we might let you go on your way"

When Menolly continued to protest and argue with them, the first man stepped up to her and slapped her round the face hard

The three of them then proceeded to attack her, knocking her unconscious and stealing everything she had before leaving her alone on the ground

When she eventually came round and realised what had happened she dragged herself off to the nearest park, curled up on a bench and cried herself to sleep, her dream was in tatters and she couldn't understand where it had all gone so wrongShe woke up the next morning in a foul mood, determined to get her own back at the world for ruining the dream that had seemed so certain the previous morning.

She wandered round the city looking for the most expensive houses and apartments she could find and threw eggs at their doors.

Then she found some paper bags, filled them with the most disgusting things she could find and set them alight in front of the gates of the expensive houses of Bridgeport's celebrities

Feeling somewhat avenged for the events of the previous day she went in search of a way to resurrect her dream.  She visited every bar she could find, although most took one look at her and told her to leave, until she found one that had a set of musical instruments on a stage.  She asked the bartender if she could maybe play there that night but the woman just laughed at her and told her to come back when she'd grown up

Eventually she found a dive of a bar where the rather sleazy looking barman was happy to let her play that night, he even gave her a drink on the house...

Menolly was thrilled, she could already see her name in lights once the city had heard her play, and she immediately grabbed the guitar, becoming lost in the music as she played.

She didn't even notice the sinister man watching her from a corner as she playedWell, not until he approached her as she took a break from playing and  offered her a drink,  feeling thirsty after her hard work that night she accepted and as she took a long gulp she looked up at him and registered his glowing eyes...As she suddenly realised what he was, and it hit her that everything her parents had told her was true, she felt a grey fog warp around her and the world faded awayWhen she awoke she found herself curled up on an old bed in what looked exactly like a makeshift dungeon!  There was a tumble of stone in the corner of her cell and she nearly screamed when she realised there were bones poking out from under the rubble...To make matters worse, the only light came from old fashioned torches, all of which were outside her cell, there seemed to be no door in or out and there was a coffin propped up against the wall...

As she looked round the tiny room, most of which was fenced off from her by barbed wire and a locked gate too high for her to climb over, she was stunned to see the wall itself suddenly crack open and a man dressed in evening wear walk in

He approached her cell and stood there looking at her for a moment before speaking "Greetings my lovely captive, I hope you don't find your surroundings too uncongenial...""I know who you are of course, I can smell your blood and I'm sure it will taste even better than it smells.  Don't bother trying to escape, you'll never find the way out and you may find whoever captures you next somewhat less congenial than I.  However for now you need to keep your strength up..."

Menolly never even saw him move, or the gate to her cell open, but abruptly there was a plate of food on the floor next to her