Julia’s eyes slowly open. The first thing she usually sees when she wakes up is her tiny desk, with a barely functioning laptop on it. The view was vastly different now. Everything was so clean, the colors of the bedroom, a calming cream and a warm purple, made for beautiful scenery. The sunrays were greeting the woman joyfully, through the huge windows of the first floor.

Still having slept in the same clothes as yesterday, Julia stepped in the living room to find Sonja where she had left her. Sort of. The girl’s night-time struggling had caused her chair to fall over to the side, along with her. The blanket had half-slipped from her body, leaving her to sleep for the rest of the night cold, on the floor. Julia’s doppelganger awoke by the pulling of her chair back into an upwards position. She moaned in her gag, groggy from a bad night’s sleep. Julia didn’t bother with her muffled complaints. There were already starting to become white noise to her ears.

After checking that all the windows were closed and all entry-ways were locked, Julia tried to kill some time, with breakfast and then some TV. Sonja watched her use her house, staring daggers at her. The truth was, Julia was just putting off her decision, regarding what to do with the woman she had attacked and was keeping prisoner in her own home. Things were still very tangled in her mind.

Throughout the rest of the day, Julia could not trust the girl enough to leave her ungagged, never mind untied! Sonja complained she was cold, but her identical kidnapper didn’t want to risk undoing her bonds over trivial things like this. She could crank up the AC. As for soundproofing her, Julia relented to using a less gross stuffing, opting for a couple of handkerchiefs she found on the woman’s drawers.

She still kept them behind the girl’s teeth with the same scarf.

In the afternoon, Julia left Sonja restrained by herself, taking a more relaxed tour of the house. After all, they were both barricaded inside, and you can only watch TV with a gagged flat mate for so long. Every room was prettier than the next, Julia was left speechless in every turn.