The tense feeling in the room was killing me. I was tied to this chair with a rancid smelling blindfold nauseating me more with every second and all I could hear was this guy shouting at Penny because she wasn't playing ball. He'd been trying to force feed her this dinner for a couple of minutes and she was spitting it out, refusing to digest any of it. I knew this was going to take a violent turn if she didn't just eat it. He seemed to be happy when we played along with what he wanted and at one point had almost become human. Why Penny couldn't see this and just do as he said was beyond me, maybe the fear had stopped her from thinking straight. Listening on, I knew I was going to have to intervene in this one before he seriously lost the plot.

"Eat the food!" He barked as I heard the clink of cutlery against her teeth. "Eat it! I have cooked for you so you should be a good guest and eat it!" I could hear the hurt and anger in his voice and I knew any moment now he was going to snap.

"Errm..." I squeaked, the fear taking control of my voice. "I dont think she's going to eat it because we haven't said grace." I lied, knowing Penny wasn't religious. I had turned my head in his direction despite not being able to see anything and heard the cutlery go back onto the plate.

"Of course!" He said calmly, sounding human again. I heard his footsteps come closer to me. He placed a hand on my shoulder and bent down so his face was beside mine. "Would you like to do the honours?" I gulped the lump in my throat down and nodded.

"Dear God, we would like to thank you for this meal and for the effort this man has put in to make it. We thank you for watching over us all and making our lives as good as they are now. We know you only have the best in mind and look forward to the future." I rambled, hoping to stall him for as long as possible. "Thank you Lord. Amen."

"Amen." He and Penny said at the same time which creeped me out a little. If that was anyone else I'd laugh but not now, not today, not ever.

"That was beautiful." He said, patting my shoulder. "Not many people thank God for what they receive any more. They are ungrateful and just accept it." He ranted to me. "That makes me like you two even more." Great! I tried to delay him and I've made him like us more... Was this a good thing though? If he liked us, he wouldn't kill us, right? He walked away from us both and by the sound of it, to the makeshift kitchen where he began stirring something in a pot once more.

"Go along with it." I hissed to Penny quietly.

"No way. I'm not eating poison." She snapped back at me. I remained silent, hurt that she was willing to argue and snap at me when I was trying to protect her.

"He'll kill you otherwise." I said simply as his footsteps made their way back to the table and beside me. I heard the clatter of a plate being put in front of me, followed by a scraping of cutlery.

"Eat it." He ordered me and without a second thought I opened my mouth and let the gloopy mess enter my mouth. I chewed it as quickly as I could, the texture making me gag. I chewed and chewed for as long as I could and swallowed it quickly. Letting out a thankful sigh when it had gone down.

"Are you not having any?" I asked, delaying him feeding me any more. "Its not fair that you've cooked all this and you're not going to rest and eat some." I heard Penny huff as she would if she rolled her eyes at me. She could think what she wanted. I wanted to survive.

"That's very kind." His gruff voice spoke calmly, as it would with someone you have just met but gained a liking towards. "I want to make sure you are all fed first though, guests come first." The cutlery scraped the plate again and I found myself preparing myself to be fed. I felt like a baby, when the mother or father is spooning the mush into your mouth and hoping you don't dribble it out everywhere, all that was missing was the airplane noises and the childish babbling. After a few more spoonfuls, I was more than done. I dont know how long I'd been without food but this gloopy mess I was chewing had bloated me out.

"Thank you for that, it was nice. Could I possibly have some water?" I asked carefully.

"I'll get it for you once your friend has eaten her share of the dinner." He bargained. "So you'd better get her to do it." He'd obviously given up on her which was a bad sign. She needed to play along for us both to survive. Who knows what he would do to us if he lost the plot. There was blood on the table and the floor so we already knew he was capable of being violent, why wait for him to do it?

"Penny please, just eat some." I said to her almost pleadingly. She really needed to trust me, I seemed to be getting on with this guy as much as you can when he's your kidnapper. Penny remained silent, not answering me. "Penny, eat some of this goddamned food, this guy has taken the time to prepare it so eat it!" I snapped, my acting coming back again. If she didn't want to help herself that was fine but I was definitely going to help myself.

"Fuck you both. I'm not eating it." She shouted. "Leave me alone!" The man's footsteps were heavy as he stormed over to her side of the table. My heart sped up and my breathing quickened as I waited to hear what he was going to do. There was silence for a few seconds before a huge bang shook the table and made me jump. I let out a small shriek as I straightened in my chair.

"Penny?" I said, my voice shaking with fear. "Are you okay?"

"She needs to learn her place. She's eating now." What was this man talking about? Did he shove Penny's face in the plate of food? I could hear a strange noise, almost like a mixture of eating, choking and suffocating at the same time.

"Okay, she's learnt her lesson. Please stop doing that?" I cried to him. "Please, you're hurting her..." I sobbed as I sat helplessly on the chair, the material catching my tears. There was nothing I could do to stop his violent actions, I couldn't even see what he was doing! This guy was so difficult to predict, especially with us being in such a vulnerable position. I could hear Penny trying to speak from the plate of food which stopped my sobbing almost instantly.

"She's trying to say something!" I shouted out and from what I could hear, he must have lifted her face from the plate of food. She coughed and spluttered and sucked in some deep breaths.

"I'm sorry! I'll eat whatever you want me to!" She pleaded with him. "Please!"

"You're an ungrateful little cow." He spat. "You need to be more like your friend here." He ripped the blindfolds from our heads and threw them on the table. "Now I'm going to have my dinner so you two behave and stay quiet. If I hear so much as a peak out of you two I will be straight back down here - and I dont think you want to disrupt my dinner..." He stormed back up the stairs and switched off the light, leaving us in darkness. I desperately tried to get my eyes to adjust to the darkness but the more I shut my eyes when I blinked, the longer I kept them shut.

"That food was disgusting." Penny piped up in the darkness.

"I know." I slurred. I shook my head to try and wake myself up, what was wrong with me? "But at least we didn't die." My eyes felt heavier again as the seconds passed.

"I still think we can survive without sucking up to him." Her speech had begun to slur too. I shook my head, my vision delayed and blurry.

"Well look how that ended up. You had your face drowning in that gloop." I sighed, most of my body beginning to feel numb. "I dont feel too good..." I voiced quickly, my words almost coming out as one long slur of a word. My eyes barely staying open, I could feel this overwhelming sense of tiredness take over.

"Me either..." Penny stated, waking me up slightly. "What was in that food?" I opened my mouth to answer but nothing came out, just the air I breathed out. No noise at all. My eyes closed again and this time they were too heavy to open again. This was definitely happening - although im not quite sure what 'this' was. Had he drugged us? Or poisoned us? Were we going to die?

"I'm sorry Penny." I managed to say, using all the energy left in my body before I drifted into a dark world of unconsciousness, unsure of whether id be coming back out.