He woke up slowly, his head pulsating and his arms stining slightly. Groanin, he opened his eyes, they were still havy with sleep. He looked around the room, the damp and musty smell infitrated his nostrils, it burnt slightly. He saw the faint outline of his friends. They appeared to be sat down, but the dim, almost non-existant, light wasn’t helping.

“Alicia, Max, Josh, Cindy” he muttered. His speech was slurred, so it took him a few seconds to say each name. “Guys?”, he asked, not sure sure if he was going to get a response. Suddenly, he saw some movement. The figures of his friends shuffled in their seats, “Guys, come on, say something…” He tried getting up. The chair screetched. Looking down he saw his hands and feet were tied to the chair. He started started chuckling aawkawardly “Haha, very funny guys(!) Come on, get me out this chair”.

Alicia groaned “James, w-what are you talking about?” She had recognised his voice.

There was an abrupt sound, what appeared to be a loud screetch fom a speaker. “I see you’ve started to wake up, how was the nap?” The voice was distorted, but the words were still easy enough to make out. “Oh my(!) You appear to be tied up right now, should I come back at a later time (?)” The voice laughed.

“What the hell is going!” Max shouted as best as he could.

Cindy still hadn’t said a word, she sobbed quietly in her corner of her room confused by what was happening. Only just last night had she had her first drink, and now this? “Is this some kind of joke?” she thought, still sobbing away.

“What do you want?” James asked the voice.

“Good question James. What do I want? What do I want? What do I want? James, the answer to that is simple really… An apology”.

“An apology?” They all exclaimed at the same time.

“What type of sick joke is this?” Alicia said, there was anger in her tone.

“JOKE?! The voice roared violently through the speaker. The room became deafiningly silent. “Does this look like a joke to you?! You know what Alicia, you’ve just pissed me off! I was having a nice day until I heard that…” The voice faded out again.

“He’s going to hurt us, isn’t he” Cindy whimpered

No one responded. Max sat there, struggling, trying to get out of his restraints, James jumped in his chair, trying to scoot closer to the others.Cindy went back to her silence with Alicia sat there, wondering if this was going to be the end of them…