4 – Darkened Rooms

Alice smiles, “I made it.” Then she looks up and down the corridor, “I think.” For she suddenly realises that she does not quite know exactly where she has made it to. She is dismayed to find herself in another dimly lit corridor. It stretches down the length of the house with a couple of closed doors on either side and a dirty little window letting in a trickle of light at its end.
Alice is now quite unsure of her plan of finding a bathroom and perhaps some clean clothes. For it is a completely uninviting house that she has found herself in. Someplace she doesn’t at all want to explore. However her only other choice is to go back down the stairs.
She glances down into the dimly lit stairwell. “It is hardly any more inviting,” she bits her lower lip. She takes a deep breath, pulls back her shoulders, pushes out her chest and pulls in her stomach and sets off down the corridor.
Thought it is but two short steps to the first door. So she finds herself stopping almost as soon as she starts. She hesitates, her hand half reached to the door handle. She listens but can hear nothing except her own heartbeat.
Gingerly she takes hold of the door handle. It is cold to her touch, but otherwise nothing unusual happens. Slowly she turns it and pushes the door open.
It opens, not unsurprisingly, into a dimly lit room.
“Does nobody in this house like sunshine?” wonders Alice as she pushes the door open more fully.
The curtains are pulled closed, the bright sunshine forming a rectangular aurora around the window. There is a heavy air to the room, as if it has not been disturbed in a very long time. The thin light makes the dim shapes of the furniture more a presence than defined items. You know they are there even though you can’t clearly make them out.
Alice peers into the gloomy room. At first she can see nothing but the dim blobs of the furniture. But after a few moments she notices a glow from the far end of the room. She takes a step inside and leans around the door. At the far end of the room is a hunched figure sitting in front of a computer screen.
At first she can not make out anything but a dim outline of a head against the computer screen. She is not sure if it a real person or if it is just a high backed chair. But then the screen changes and the head moves and Alice can see half a silhouette of a man’s face. The faint sound of a mumble forces its way through the thick air.
Alice’s heart beats fast and her mouth is dry. Should she announce herself. Her farther is always annoyed when she disturbs him when he is working on his computer. But on the other hand she does not want to creep about the house like a burglar. I’m not a burglar, she reasons. I am merely an uninvited guest. An uninvited guest in a rather disheveled state, she can still feel the dried mud on her arms and legs. “And my botty too,” Alice blushes as the words leave her mouth.
“Hello,” an old craggy voice calls from the far end of the room. “Is there someone there?”
OH, shit, thinks Alice. I’ll have to expose myself now.
“Hello?” calls the voice again, the chair creaking as the silhouette turns its head.
Alice takes a deep breath and slowly steps out from behind the door into the room proper. “Err, hello,” she ventures.
“Oh,” the voice is unsure. “Who is there?”
“Um, Alice,” Alice says.
“Alice?” the voice answers. “Alice the maid’s daughter?”
“Um…” Alice does not know what to say.
“Well don’t just stand there, Alice the maid’s daughter,” the voice calls. “Bring my lunch over here.”
Alice hesitates, unsure if she should venture further into the darkened room.
“Come on over here,” the silhouette turns back to the computer screen.
Alice starts to slowly walk down the dark room, not quite sure if she should, nor what she will do when she reaches the dim figure at the computer screen.
The man is concentrating on his computer, flicking through web sites in rapid succession. He keeps clicking on web pages as Alice comes to a stop beside him, not bothering to turn his head to look at her.
“Just leave it there and I’ll eat it later,” the man says.
Alice looks at the desk all cluttered with pages of close typed text. She does not know where she would be supposed to leave anything, even if she had something to leave.
“Oh, that’s good,” the man half whispers.
Alice is unsure if he is talking to her, or just talking to himself.
He has stopped clicking through web pages and has started to read the current one.
Alice takes a moment to look at the man. He is not as old as she had first thought. Maybe just a little older than her farther. But his features look more weathered and crinkled than her farther’s. Like he had had an outdoor job, once a long time ago. But now his skin is pale. He looks like he has not been in direct sunlight for a very long time.
“Don’t be shy,” the man says. “Come and stand beside me where you can see the screen properly.”
Somehow she finds herself stepping closer to him.
“What are you doing?” she asks before she remembers that she should really stop asking questions of these strange people.
“Why, I’m downloading porn from the Internet,” the man responds in a tone of voice that says,’well what else would I be doing?’.
“I beg your pardon,” Alice can feel her cheeks redden.
“Why? What have you done?” The man clicks the computer’s's mouse and the screen flashes to a new web page.
“I sorry,” Alice looks at the man’s face.
The man is still looking at the computer screen. His craggy features illuminated by the screen’s glow.
“Well I glad you’re sorry, but I still don’t know what you have done,” the man clicks a link.
“Done?” Alice is completely bemused. “Why, I haven’t done anything.”
“Well that’s not right,” the man scans the new web page. “A girl your age should be out doing things not sitting inside downloading porn from the Internet.”
“Sitting inside …” Alice stops talking, astounded at the man’s words.
The man clicks a link on the web page and a download dialog pops up.
“I am not sitting inside downloading porn from the Internet,” Alice states.
The man clicks ‘OK’ and the dialog is replaced by a progress bar. “Well what are you doing then?” the man continues to look at the screen.
Alice looks at the computer screen for the first time and is slapped in the face by a tangled web of intertwined naked bodies. There are arms and legs, and breasts and bums, and erect penises and open vaginas.
“Oh, my,” she feels a knot in the base of her stomach.
“Oh, yes,” the man hisses.
Alice’s attention is diverted from the overwhelming montage of naked flesh on the screen by a movement in the corner of her eye. She looks down and sees that the man has his hand in his lap. Or rather in his crotch.
“Oh, my,” Alice feels a sinking feeling.
“Oh, yes indeed,” the man squeezes his fingers on the bulge in his crotch.
“Oh,” Alice does not know where to look, “my.”
“Yeah,” the man sighs.
Alice fixes her eyes on the progress bar on the screen, a warm flush spreading across her cheeks, and neck, and down onto her breasts.
“Hummm,” the man hums as his fingers flex.
Alice looks only at the progress bar displayed on his screen, trying her best to ignore both the man’s hand as it grips the bulge in his crotch and the images of naked flesh on the background of the screen.
“Nearly there now,” he hisses.
Alice stops herself from asking “Nearly where?”
“Oooooh,” the man’s voice is a horse whisper.
Alice thinks she should probable leave now. She does not know if she wants to view the contents of the video he is downloading. She does not know if she wants to be here when the download, or the man, finishes.
But instead of walking away she stands there watching, with the man, as the progress bar slowly fills.
Watching and waiting, for what she does not know.
Ping.
The progress bar fills and the dialog tells them that the download is complete.
Immediately the man clicks back to the web page that displays the list of videos available for download. His eyes hungrily scanning the web page.
“Ah, here’s a nice sounding one,” he looks sideways at Alice. “It’s called Alice and Sienna.”
Alice’s blush deepens.
“A different Alice, I presume,” he chuckles, clicking with his mouse.
“Well, yes!” Alice does not know why she is so flustered.
A new progress bar displays itself on screen.
The man sits back, his hand gripping his crotch once more.
Alice waits a few moments, then realises that the man is not about to play the video he has just downloaded.
“Are you going to play the video you just downloaded?” her eyes keep flicking down to his crotch, but she keeps making herself look back up at the new progress bar.
“Oh, no,” the man keeps his eyes glued to the progress bar. “I don’t have the time to view every file I download. There’s tons of stuff available and I need to download as much of it as I can.”
“But surely…” Alice briefly looks down at his crotch as his hand massages the bulge in his jeans, then quickly adverts her eyes, “… surely viewing the files would be more exciting than downloading them?”
“You’d think so,” the man glances at Alice. “Wouldn’t you.” His eyes return to the screen.
Alice opens her mouth, but does not know how to reply to this cryptic remark.
They both wait a few minutes while the progress bar continues to slowly fill. The only sound being the rasping breath of the man and the hum of his computer, hidden in the shadows beneath his desk.
Alice waits patiently for the file to finish downloading unsure if the tingle inside her stomach is excitement or dread. Each time her eyes catch glimpses of the images on the web page she refocuses her attention on the progress bar, but then finds her eyes wondering down to the man’s crotch. She concentrates as hard as she can on looking at the slowly filling progress bar.
The man sits lent forward, eyes glued to the screen, tensing and relaxing his hand in his crotch.
Presently the progress bar fills and the file is downloaded.
As quick as he can the man scans the list of download links displayed on the screen and clicks another to download.
“Are you,” Alice thinks she already knows the answer to this question, “going to view this file?”
“Oh, no,” the man whispers. “No time. No time.”
“This is mad,” Alice snorted.
“Oh, no,” the man replies. “I’m not mad, I’m sad. The mad Wanker is having a tea party out in his garden right about now.”
“Hmmm,” Alice winkles her nose.
The man’s eyes are fixed on the progress bar.
Alice takes another look around the room and sees for the first time a pile of empty pizza cartons and soft drink cans on the floor beside the man.
She glances at the slowly filling progress bar, “Is this what you do all day?”
“So much porn,” the man whispers. “So little bandwidth.” But his attention is not on Alice. His eyes are fixed on the progress bar.
Alice feels that she could spend the rest of her life standing here watching the man downloading porn. One file after another, over and over again.
Slowly she straightens up and softly walks away.
The man does not notice.
She takes one glance behind her as she leaves. At the silhouette watching his computer screen. She slowly shakes her head as she turns and walks away.
The man continues as he was before Alice briefly entered his life.

Purchase Alice