Picture Perfect

So, here I am in a skimpy little black bikini, hanging by my ankles off the side of a fourteen story hotel in the middle of an late evening Florida thunderstorm. How I got here? Long story. The ropes wrapped around my ankles are starting to dig into my skin. My ears ring so loud that the voices of the two men holding the other end of the rope fade. The pain of the blood pooling in my head is unbearable. I have to do something fast, except I can’t think from the pain. I try pulling myself up, not a chance. I should have done more crunches. Lots more!
“You keep swinging, and we gonna let you fall, baby!” One of the men on the roof laughs down at me. “Aww, poor baby, looks like you in big trouble.”
“Please pull me up. I’ll do whatever you say!” I scream.
“No chance, Boss-Man wants you to suffer just to make sure you know he means business.” They laugh.
I scream for all that I’m worth hoping to draw someone’s attention. Not much good when you’re hanging from fourteen stories up on a beachfront hotel, late at night, in the middle of a thunderstorm. The noise from the waves and thunder drowns me out.
“Hey, we said no screaming for help!” I hear one of them yell.
I’m suddenly free falling and then slam into the building when the rope goes taunt again. My back scrapes across the rough stucco exterior of the wall, making my skin burn and bleed.
“You understand now, baby? No screaming!” One of the men snickers down at me.
Tears pour out and I whimper, “Yes.” My head pounds, my skin burns from the bloody cuts and scrapes and I can’t control my crying.
“Good girl! Now, you see that balcony just a few feet below you?” Somehow I’m able to focus on the hotel balcony. “We’ll lower you down to that balcony so you can run off and get what the Boss-Man needs. Understand?” One man yells at me.
I nod. They slowly lower me closer to the balcony, scraping off more of my skin as they do.
Fighting through the pain and my panic, I turn my shoulders ever so slowly to face the wall. When I finally get my body turned, I have removed another layer of skin in the process from the very rough stucco wall. Blood is now smeared on the pink wall and starting to run down the side. They continue to slowly lower me until my head is below the top edge of the balcony. The curtains are open but no lights are on inside. I scream again but there is clearly nobody to hear me. What do I do now? As I review a very short list of alternatives, the door to the room opens. “Help, help me!” I cry, hyperventilating.
A man drops his bags and dashes towards me. He slams into the glass door. “Shit! Hang on!” He fumbles with the door lock and after a few yanks on the door, it opens. “What the hell are you doing out here?”
“Help me… Fast! The rope!” I scream as he yanks my arms, pulling me towards him. We land with a loud, ungraceful thud.
“Are you okay? Are you hurt? Where’s all this blood coming from?”
“I’m okay. Just had a fight with the stucco wall. I think I lost.” I shakily breathe out.
“Hold on.” He jumps up onto his feet and runs inside. Returning with a towel, he wraps it around me. “Here, this should help. What were you doing out there? It’s a little late to be washing windows, you know. Does the hotel pay extra for cleaning them in this?” He bends over to untie my ankles but not before I catch a slight smirk on his face.
“Well, yes, they do pay extra. I’m actually a peeping Tom. My rope just got caught on something, and I was left dangling by my feet.” I laugh nervously. “I’ve got a nasty headache, got any aspirin?
“Sure, hang on.” He eyes me suspiciously as he helps me stand. Gingerly, he puts his arm around my waist and leads me inside. I sit on the edge of the bed and put my head between my knees. I just might get sick right here, right now.
“Here, lie down.” He holds out two white tablets and a glass of water. “We should probably get you some medical attention. Some of these cuts look pretty bad.” He checks out the cuts and rope burns on my ankles and works his way up. “What a sight that was. I’ll have a great story to tell when I get back to the office.”