Part 6: Harold’s law
Due to Harold’s intervention in the construction part of the theatre, Felicia can’t help but notice that Harold seems to have ruined the narrative by breaking the fourth wall and injecting himself into a genre he does not belong to. This genre is the genre of warrior heroism where Harold doesn’t even meet the standard of an amateur athlete let alone warrior. Due to Felicia and Javelynn’s fight taking place in a theatre, they have, unintentionally, perfected the dramatic art of a well-rehearsed fight scene with the end narrative of Felicia becoming Queen after exploiting a lucrative treasure that her rival wanted. Unfortunately, the scene was spoiled by Harold with his cowardly seizing of Felicia from behind that would ruin what the screenwriter had planned and cause the audience to boo.
What should have been a climactic moment of triumph for Felicia, with the claiming of valuable treasure as a reward for overcoming a peer competitor, has turned into a quiet apprehension where she is now going down with a whimper through compliance instead of going out with a bang as a screenwriter would want it to go down-as if the curtain has come down too abruptly and creates rumors among patrons that an accident had occurred. It is a buzzkill of a situation.
Behind this curtain, Javelynn lays unconscious with her ankle monitor rendered inoperable and Felicia finds herself in a jam that she couldn’t foresee with Harold’s surprise ambush. With Harold pressed up so tightly behind her, and with a gun that she knows (knowing guns) is loaded and firmly held up her chin like an uppercut, her ability to twist or even turn an inch has been canceled out with Harold’s other arm around her waist. Felicia thinks to herself:
Felicia: Ugh, if it wasn’t for the gun I could hip toss this fat slug in a second and stomp him. I could try to nudge his legs apart to get him off-balance, but he might pull the trigger out of panic or accident. I need to negotiate.
Considering the unintentionally intimate position Harold finds himself in, Felicia figures that she can attack his reputation by making him feel guilty about groping her. She says:
Felicia: Hey, uh, Harold?
Harold: Quiet, I am busy wondering how to convict you two for breaking my law.
Felicia: You know, I find it quite unmanly and perverted that you exploit the circumstances to grope me. I can surrender without you having to-
Harold: SHUT YOUR TRAP! I ain’t treating you any different to anyone else. Just because you got a sexy figure doesn’t mean I compromise my safety to not look pervy. That ain’t how this works, missy.
Felicia: Not sure your wife would agree.
Harold: Ha, I see what ya are trying to do, but no, I told my wife I had to miss dinner to stop you two from tearing the place up. She also got a big crush on Spiderman and def wouldn’t mind catching him in a position like this.
Felicia: And….you don’t mind catching me in a position like that, do you?
Harold: *Leans Felicia back onto her heels with her hair draping over his shoulder and pushes gun up her chin in irritation* Listen, lady, you can’t guilt trip me out of this. I am married with 1 son and 3 daughters who are all grown-up, the last thing I would do is flirt with a baddie like you. I got to protect myself from you kicking my head in, it doesn’t matter if you are Spiderman, Spidergirl, James freakin’ Bond, or a model wearing a see through swimsuit at the beach. Ya violate Harold’s law, you get seized.
Now that Harold has made his stance on the scenario final, he marches Felicia up the steps of a nearby prototype rigging truss that has been assembled to test studio lighting and motorized grappling devices so that performers can be pulled up or dropped down safely. It also has a walking platform with guardrails that go across the truss so that the motorizing rigging system can be repaired without having to disassemble the whole structure. On top of the structure, there are enough ropes and belts tie multiple people. After Harold guides Felicia onto her stomach and blindfolds her, she tries to make him feel bad saying:
Felicia: Getting a bit kinky now, are we? I doubt you would treat a guy you captured this way.
Harold: Ha, there ya go again. As I said, anyone who breaks my law becomes a part of my jewelry collection. Your assets are just a bonus *He says as he puts her hands behind her back*.
Harold then spends the next 15 minutes binding Felicia in a combination of belts and rope. Harold memorized some of the bondage knots and harnesses that a Shibari rope and suspension artist taught him backstage briefly. He was eager to learn this just in case his menial thieving of lost jewelry items was exposed. Being cross-trained as a stagehand, he now knows how to rig for safety and for suspension bondage. He also blindfolded Felicia to make sure that she is unaware of how she is being bound.
As Harold works on Felicia, Javelynn wakes up and notices Harold is too distracted to notice her while he is elevated and tying carefully. She groans slightly as she takes off the broken ankle monitor, throws it towards the work bench, then remembers that Felicia hid her purse underneath it. She takes the small walkie talkie Felicia used to communicate with Elizabeth out and limps off the stage towards the doors. She limps in a way that requires her to drag her leg because her ankle has been badly damaged with first degree burns. The uniform she is wearing was able to protect her from a more severe injury, but she is still disabled of her regular abilities and is only able to walk. Once through the stagehand doors, Javelynn goes through the emergency exit and disappears into the night.
Back on the set, Harold begins lowering Felicia, who is hanging upside down, into a prop used during magic shows. This prop is a cube-shaped glass tub full of real water with two battery powered alligators moving up and down with their electric mouths chomping and with a green light on the platform the cube is mounted on that is colored green to indicate “On”. Felicia’s legs are wrapped in belts with connecting cinch points in the middle for each wrap. Her upper body has been placed in a rope harness that mimics the official strap harnesses with her wrists tied high in a box tie of sorts with extra rope around the forearms. Her blindfold has been taken off and repurposed as a gag. Once she gets to within a foot of the water, Harold stops the motor that lowers her and the alligators in the cube stop moving when the red “off” light comes on. He then says:
Harold: Don’t try to escape, because if ya do, then you will fall into the water and my fatass won’t be able to pull a big Amazon like you out. Got it?
Felicia: *muffled protest*
Harold: That is what I want to hear and…..gawd damnit! Yer friend woke up and left! I will be back. *Harold walks off stage and into the hallway beyond the doors*
As Harold goes to find Felicia’s “friend”, Chloe wakes up all disoriented wondering how Felicia escaped. She says to herself:
Chloe: Fuck my life! I figured that Felicia bitch was strong! I have to get out of here before I get spotted.
Chloe, foolishly, exists from the underneath towards the stagehand doors and, as soon as she exits, runs into Harold who comes back through the stagehand doors and says:
Harold: AHA! You are not the lady I am looking for, but you are still trespassin’. Hands up and walk backwards toward me, missy.
