As Martin opened his eyes, it took him a while to realize where he was. The effect of whatever he’d taken the night before hadn’t properly worn off yet and he still felt dazed. He looked around the room taking his time to absorb the strange medieval decoration. He blinked a few times trying to clear his vision and slowly his focus started to come back. Over on the far wall, above a magnificent marble fireplace he could see a knight’s shield positioned over two crossed swords. To the right of the fireplace a full-size suit of armor. The floor had been lined with Persian rugs and the walls plastered with tapestries and paintings of English Dukes, Lords, Kings and Queens.

With great effort he sat up. His head felt heavy and a bitter taste lingered in his mouth. Only then he realized he’d been sleeping in a four-poster bed surrounded by silk sheets and pillows. Damn, I fell asleep on the set of King Arthur, he thought to himself with a little chuckle. Over on the bedside table, several pills lay scattered together with a small cellophane bag – some sort of white powder inside it.

That’s what I need before the comedown hits me, he thought. Without knowing or caring what they were, Martin picked up a couple of pills from the table and popped them into his mouth. He looked around searching for something to wash them down with. A half-full bottle of champagne was on the floor next to the bed. He took a large swig of it and shook his head, allowing the stale liquid to run down his throat. He waited a few minutes for the pills to start taking effect before getting up and slowly making his way out of the room.

From the landing Martin had a clear view of the living room downstairs. He could see another nine or ten people spread over the ancient-looking furniture and rug. One lonely body had fallen asleep over the grand piano. Two naked hookers on the floor next to it. Everyone seemed down and out. Martin stumbled over to the staircase passing another empty room to his right. This is definitely the entertainment room, he thought as he peeked inside. Holding on to the balustrade, he made his way down to the room below, one slow step at a time. As he reached the bottom of the stairs he realized how hungry he was.

‘Where the hell is the kitchen in this horrible place?’ he said out loud, scanning the exotically decorated lounge. He heard noises coming from a room at the end of a small corridor to the left of the staircase. ‘Someone is up.’

Staggering as if drunk, Martin made it to the door. He tried to push it open but it barely moved. He wasn’t sure if it was stuck or his effort just hadn’t been enough. He took a step back and tried again, this time throwing his right shoulder against the door and putting every last ounce of energy into it. The door swung open and Martin was catapulted onto the floor.

‘Hey, man, are you OK?’ Duane, Martin’s best friend, was sitting at the kitchen table with a two-liter bottle of water in front of him.

Slowly Martin picked himself off the floor. The kitchen was very spacious, and unlike the rest of the house, decorated in a pleasant modern style. The black Italian marble worktop contrasted beautifully with the gleaming, polished, stainless-steel double-door fridge positioned at the north end of the room. An overwhelming collection of pots and pans hung grandly above the table where Duane was sitting.

‘Are you the only one up?’ Duane asked, sounding a little too animated.

‘I haven’t seen anyone awake apart from you, but then again I only surfaced a little more than ten minutes ago.’

‘Have you looked around this place? It’s awesome. It’s more like a museum than a house, except for this kitchen. Whoever owns this place is totally obsessed with medieval England, it’s everywhere like a rash.’ Duane’s words came out fast and in a steady rhythm like a machine gun.

‘And you think that’s awesome?’ Martin’s expression clearly indicated that he didn’t share Duane’s thoughts.

‘Well, it’s very different.’

Martin wasn’t very interested in Duane’s house review. His eyes roamed the kitchen looking for something. ‘Is there any food around?’ he asked.

‘Yeah, man, truck loads of it, just check the fridge.’

As Martin opened the fridge door he was greeted by an enormous variety of junk food. From donuts to marshmallows, hot dogs to fried chicken – a hungry man’s paradise. He quickly grabbed a jar of peanut butter and one of jelly together with two cans of soda and a bag of marshmallows. ‘How about bread?’ he asked, facing his friend once again.

‘Right over there.’ Duane pointed to a bread dispenser on the kitchen worktop.

Martin wasted no time in retrieving a couple of bread slices. Using a knife he found in the sink he smothered the bread with enormous amounts of peanut butter and jelly.

‘Damn, man, easy on the jelly,’ Duane giggled. ‘What are you on, hash?’

‘I have no idea. I took a couple of pills that were on a table upstairs,’ Martin said in-between huge bites. A blob of jelly ran down the left side of his mouth.

‘Tripping?’

‘Hell yeah. How about you?’

‘No, man, I’m on dust. Haven’t slept since we got here, I’m still buzzing like hell, man.’

‘When did we get here?’ Martin asked, looking confused.

‘Shit, dude, you are tripping. On Friday night,’ Duane responded with a laugh.

‘And what day is it?’

Duane’s laughter grew louder. ‘Early hours of Sunday morning.’

‘Damn, you’ve been awake for two nights and a day.’

‘Hell yeah.’ Duane looked proud.

Martin shook his head in disapproval, grabbed a handful of marshmallows and walked back to the bread dispenser. ‘Would you like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?’ he offered.

‘No man, I’ve got no appetite, but knock yourself out.’

Martin made himself another sandwich, this time with even more jelly.

‘Hey, Mart, remember I said I had a surprise for you?’

Martin looked at his friend curiously. ‘No, I actually don’t remember that at all.’

‘Well I did. Would you like to see it now?’ Duane sounded excited and Martin couldn’t tell if it were the drugs talking or his friend was really happy to be able to show him some sort of surprise.

‘Sure, what is it?’ he said casually.

‘It’s a DVD. I’ll go get it while you finish that jar of jelly,’ Duane said, pointing to the almost empty jar on the worktop.

‘A DVD?’ Martin questioned unimpressed.

‘Trust me, you’ll like this one.’ He dashed out of the kitchen leaving Martin to finish his sandwich. A few moments later Duane stormed back in holding a slim DVD case. ‘Here it is.’

Martin checked the case. There was no front or back cover. The disk inside it had no printing on it either.

‘Where can we watch it?’ Duane asked, sounding even more animated.

‘I seem to remember a room with a huge flat-screen TV and surround sound system upstairs.’ He drank the last of his soda down in huge gulps. ‘But what the hell is this DVD all about, Duane?’

‘This is gonna be cool, man. I know you’re into bondage, right?’ He sounded like a character out of Wayne’s World.

To his closest friends it was no secret that Martin enjoyed bondage and rough sex.

‘This is a bondage DVD?’ A tingle of interest in his voice now.

‘This, my friend, will probably freak you out. This is supposed to be some extreme bondage shit.’

Martin stared at a hyper Duane. ‘I’m game, the rougher the better.’ He stuffed the last of the marshmallows into his mouth.

‘So where’s this room with the flat screen?’

‘Upstairs somewhere. We’ll find it, don’t worry. Let me just grab a donut.’

Martin went back to the fridge and grabbed a box with three chocolate donuts and another can of soda. They both left the kitchen.

It didn’t take them long to find the entertainment room with several spacious and very comfortable-looking leather chairs facing the biggest flat-screen TV they’d ever seen. The surround sound system together with the DVD equipment was state of the art.