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November 9, 2016

0714 Hours

James groaned as he regained conscience. Besides the numbing pain in his brain and the chilling sensation of the room he was in, he felt his hands grasping something hard and cold. Opening his eyes, he saw darkness. Everywhere he looked, it was just black. Feeling with his hands, he noticed his hands were clenched around something metal. He tried unclenching his hands, but he couldn’t. It was like his hands had a mind of their own, and their only objective is to not let go of the metal object.

James moved his hands around, but stopped as soon as he acknowledged the itching feeling on his wrist. He moved the wrists some more, and assumed he was tied with rope. James swung his feet, and his tiptoes barely scratched the ground. His feet weren’t tied up like his hands were, but they seemed heavier than usual.

All of a sudden, a blinding light lit up the room. James closed his eyes quickly in pain of the sudden overstimulation. The light hummed like it was taking a lot of power to make it emit the energy that was now all over the room.

A few minutes passed before James could even open eyes to a squint. After a few more minutes, James’ left eyes was open all the way.

The room he occupied had walls and floors made of concrete. A single pipe, that didn’t seem to be used anymore, was the only object that accompanied the ceiling other than various cables popping out where lights used to be. James’ lip was swollen and visibly pulsing. His left eye was slightly black, and his right cheek was bigger than usual. None of this James’ noticed. His thoughts were more on the line of how to possibly escape. That’s what he tried to think of.

But no thoughts entered James’ mind as he hung there in agony and torment. The effect of the sleeping pill was wearing off, and a sharp pain took its place. His right side started to sting, and he could notice that his right cheek was higher than his left cheek. The thought of someone beating him up while he was passed out crossed his mind. The second coherent thought in his brain was: “Damn, what a party.” After looking at the situation he was in, he quickly turned that thought upside down. Maybe it wasn’t a party that got him into this mess.

He tried wiggling his arms and hands again, but nothing happened. He had no control over the power in his hands at the moment. They were going to stay clenched for a while.

James cussed into the silence, and he got a hush in response. James tensed up immediately, and tried opening his other eye. The light was more bearable than before, but that didn’t help. The light that was shining the bright beam was right in front of him. If he tried to look around it, there would be darkness.

The whole time, a man of the name of Charlie Angel stood behind the light, watching James be helpless. Charlie chuckled, and came into the light. His front was covered in shadows, but at least James knew there was an actual person in the room.

“Who…” James started to say, but he couldn’t finish his sentence. He didn’t have the strength.

Charlie leaned in, and looked at James’ face closely.

“You’re so pathetic.” Charlie stated. He backed up, then pressed a button on his belt. Lightning pulsed through James’ body, and he screamed in pain. Thousands of volts went through James all at once, and his body nearly shut down.

“Oops, wrong button.” Charlie said sarcastically. He pressed a different button on his belt, and a beep came from the door. The metal door creaked open, then slammed shut behind him. Charlie looked behind him to find Jir at the door. He was in a business suit, and looked like he just came out of a very long and boring meeting. He was nearly bald with the exception of a trimmed cul-de-sac he had going on. His expression on his face screamed, “Don’t play with me”, and his horn-rimmed glasses matched that face.

“Is this him?” Jir said. Charlie nodded, and Jir smiled. James recognized the voice, but he didn’t have enough brain power to recognize where he heard it. His body was still tingling from the pulse of electricity that coursed through him. “What about the other one?”

“He’s in the room next door. Hannah is taking care of him,” Charlie said. Jir raised an eyebrow, and Charlie knew what he was thinking. “Do you want me to check on them?” Jir nodded his head, and Charlie quickly left the room. The metal door slammed shut, and Jir turned to look at James. James had his eyes half-open by this point, but he still couldn’t see anything intelligently. The bright light was blinding him from seeing anything. The tingling in his face helped with the difficulty of keeping his eye open.

“Hello James, this really is a coincidence,” Jir said. James’ memories stirred, but nothing came up. Two words popped up however: “past case”. “I can imagine you might not remember me, it’s been a while. Specifically five years, two months, and fourteen days, but who’s counting?” Jir said. James tried to think of five years ago, but nothing was coming up.

“Thanks to you and your stupid brother, I lost millions. MILLIONS, JAMES!” Jir yelled. James winced, and tried to remember a case that caused someone to lose millions of dollars. His memory was slowly coming back, and he remembered the case now. The person was still of mystery. “I don’t think you understand how mad I was. Naturally, I still had millions of dollars left with me, always look towards the positive sides of things, so, you’re lucky I didn’t personally track you down myself, and break you and your brother. Honestly, you guys weren’t worth the hassle to me anyways, considering you two go everywhere across the United States. I didn’t want to send my men on some wild goose chase across the nation for two guys who didn’t know what they were doing.” James regained half of his conscience, and he was now thinking complete sentences.

Who is this guy?

What did I do?

Why didn’t we get a million dollars?

“But once I got the call from one of my special assets that she thought you two were the guys I was looking for, I couldn’t believe it! I just couldn’t! I sat in my luxury office, dumbfounded! I guess God didn’t want me chasing you guys down, because you ended up in my arms anyways.” Jir took out his necklace with a cross on it, and kissed it gingerly. “Thank you Lord for bringing these two to me. Oh, what sick games we’re going to play.” James heard that, and everything became clear. He suddenly knew who was in front of him.

OH S**T!

“LET ME GO YOU B*****D!” James yelled. Jir was taken back by the sudden rage, but he quickly composed himself. Jir chuckled, causing James to thrash and try to kick Jir. It failed, as his legs barely moved from their spot.

“You’re not getting away that easily James. Not this time,” Jir said. He turned around, and left the room where James was screaming and cussing out his kidnapper’s name.

Dan was a lot quicker at regaining his conscience; he’s been drugged once or twice in his life. Enough times to know when he’s been drugged, and the train of thoughts to run in his head to make him think coherently.

Rock, 90’s music, hunting, climbing, justice, James, rock, 90’s music, hunting, climbing, justice, James.

A metal door opened, then slammed shut. Dan opened his eyes to see who it was, but was treated with the same light James had to look at in the other room. He immediately closed his eyes, and sat there helplessly.

His position in this room was different however. He was on the ground, sitting “criss cross applesauce”. His arms was bound loosely behind him with a thin rope, but he hasn’t noticed yet. He was too busy trying to figure out how he got there in the first place. The sound of high heels clacked around the stone room, and Dan was still trying to figure out where he was.

“Who’s there?” Dan said. The high heels stopped, and the figure sifted herself into position.

“You wanna have fun?” A female voice said. This voice was known as Hannah Angel, but Dan didn’t know that yet. Walking up to Dan, she tried to study him. Behind the beaten up face and defeated look he had, she thought he was cute.

“What?” Dan asked incredulously. If he didn’t know what was going on before, he doesn’t know what’s going on now.

If this is some sick stripper game James set me up to again, I’m going to kill him. It’s not even my birthday this time.

“Noooothiiiiing,” Hannah said, and she walked over to a table to the left of the light. As she was rummaging through the items on the table, she muttered, “You were supposed to say yes.” She picked up a drill, and turned it on.

A loud drilling sound rang through the air, and Dan let out a little squeal. Hannah giggled, and turned off the dril.

“I just wanted to see your reaction,” She said. She giggled some more, and came up to Dan. He could sense her presence as she came closer, and got the smell of lavender choking his noise. He coughed from the strong scent of her perfume, and she smiled.

“Like it? Lavender's my favorite scent. My brother,” she straddled Dan on the ground, and Dan sat straight up from the sudden movement, “says that I put on too much, but I just like it that much!” Dan opened his eyes in the shadow of Hannah, and he saw a girl who seemed to be in her early twenties. Long, flowing blonde hair with an innocent high school face.

Okay James, yeah, get me a girl that’s like ten years younger than me, and make her use power tools to scare me. This is the best one yet. He thought sarcastically.

“Lady, I’m sure you’re nice, but I don’t what my brother set up here. You’re creeping me out with the drill, and the ‘innocence’ you’re emitting here,” Dan said, but he got cut short with Hannah putting a finger up to his mouth.

“Ssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhh,” She said, rubbing her finger around Dan’s lips. Dan was dumbfounded. “I’m not here to play with you Dan.” Dan felt a little uncomfortable with her using his name like that. “No, I’m here to get some information from you.” He looked at her straight in the eyes, and saw she was deadly serious now.

She’s not a stripper. Dan realized.

“You and your brother made my brother’s client lose a lot of money years ago. Today, you’re gonna pay for that.” She said. Dan tried to remember a case in where they made a guy lose a lot of money in the past few years. There was a handful of them, but only one of them was big. Huge, even. Only one of them had caused a person to lose millions of his dollars in lawsuit. Jir ran through his mind, and sent cold shivers down his spine.

“Is it Jir?” Dan asked. Hannah was about to speak, when a scream came out of nowhere outside the room. Dan quickly recognized it at as James, and his blood ran with anger. His hands turned into fists, and he twisted his body to throw Hannah off. She yelped with surprise from the movement, and hit the ground to the right. Dan got up, his legs were never bound, and started running towards the door.

“JAMES!” He yelled as he reached the door. Hannah turned around to see Dan running to the door, and she pressed a button on her belt with no hesitation.

Dan stopped mid-run, and arched his back. Volts of electricity ran through him, causing him to crumple by the light. His hands shook vigorously, loosening the rope around his wrists some more. Hannah giggled on the ground at Dan’s failure to get to the door. She got up, and made her way to the slightly shaking Dan underneath her. She leaned over to get a good look at him. Touching his twitching nose slightly, she stood straight up, and skipped her way to the table again. Dan groaned on the ground, his body stopped convulsing, but the shocks still tingled through him.

“We put some electric stuff in you,” She said as she looked through the tools on the table. A metal door slammed in the background, and Hannah jumped a little from the sound.

“That might be my brother,” she said thoughtfully. She looked down at Dan to see him groaning on the ground in pain, and regretted getting him into this state. “Charlie won’t like it when he sees you like this… Maybe you should try to look better next time.” Hannah went to the door, and opened it to find Charlie standing there already. She looked down at Dan on the ground, then back at Charlie. “He was like that when I found him,” she said as she brushed past her brother. He looked in, and sighed at Dan’s helpless body on the ground, still in pain from the voltage he was put through.

“Don’t worry,” Charlie said as he made his way to Dan’s body, “She’ll get in trouble later.” Charlie picked up Dan with ease, and laid him in the middle of the room again. “I would slam you down, but honestly, I’m not that cold hearted.” Dan took a mental note of that, and his cognitive sense started coming back to him.

“Where’s… Jir…” Dan said with hesitancy; not from wanting to ask the question, but from the work that it took to say those two words. Charlie stayed silent as he went to the table and stared at it.

“What in the world Hannah,” Charlie muttered to himself. He picked up a screwdriver, and looked at it curiously. “What… what did she want to do to you?” Charlie asked rhetorically. Dan ignored his question, then tried to speak some more.

“I… want to… know… where… is… Jir…” Dan said, a little stronger than before. Charlie waved his hand carelessly in front of Dan.

“Yeah, yeah. I heard you the first time.”

“Then… tell me…”

“I don’t think I will.”

“Why… not…?”

“Because he’s going to come into this room any second now, and he’s going to talk to you personally about what he’s going to do to you, and then discuss with you about what I’m going to do to you.” Charlie half-screamed. Dan didn’t speak, not knowing what to say to that.

Silence filled the room, with the occasional tools being picked up and put back down on the table. Charlie would often mutter to himself, “What?” or “Why?” to the tools. A sudden loud voice jolted both guys in the room. It was from the other room where James was being held, and Dan got angry again.

“I’m going to… kill you…” Dan said menacingly. It was more like he tried to be menacing, but it came out weak and desperate. Charlie put down a key in the shape of a skeleton, and walked up to Dan. He crouched, then grabbed Dan’s face.

“Did you know your brother is pathetic?” Charlie said. Dan’s eyes were full of anger, but he was still paralyzed with the aftershock. He could feel movement in his arms, but not enough to do anything with them. “Well he is. It took him awhile to get around and get an actual bearing of his surroundings. I’m sure you didn’t take that long, you’re a lot stronger than him. That, and it looks like you made a run for it, and that’s why you were on the groun-” Another series of yelling came from the other room, and then a metal door shut in the distance. “He’s coming. Behave yourself.” Charlie said with a smile. Not the friendly smile between friends, but the smile of a man who knew the person in front of him was going to not have a great time in the next hour. Maybe even weeks.

A metal door slammed, and Charlie moved out the way. Dan looked up, his eyes used to the light by now, and saw Jir. Jir looked down at Dan with disgust. Dan looked up at Jir with detest and something else. A feeling he doesn’t have often when faced with men of power. But Jir was an exception. Dan never wants to admit this out loud, nor even in his own head, but the feeling was still there nevertheless. Dan feared Jir.

“Dan.” Jir said. He started walking around Dan, and laughing to himself. “Dan, Dan, Dan. You must hate seeing me, huh? After all you guys did to me: exploit me, made me lose millions, embarrass me, abuse my wife!”

“We…” Dan said, interrupting Jir, “did not do that…”

“Oh. You guys didn’t send my wife to the hospital?” Dan shook his head weakly. “Look at you. You’re pathetic. You can’t even look me in the eyes and tell me the truth.” Jir stopped pacing in front of Dan, and crouched. Jir grabbed Dan’s cheeks, and brought Dan’s face towards him. “LOOK ME IN MY DAMN EYES AND TELL ME THE TRUTH!” Jir yelled.

Dan looked straight into his eyes. Jir’s eyes were wild. His pupils were flared, and Dan’s heart quivered a little. Jir’s breathing was ragged and quick. Dan gulped and said calmly, “We didn’t do it.” Jir’s face turned hard and cold. His pupils were still flared as he threw Dan’s face to the side, causing Dan’s whole body to go in that direction.

“Give him a shock.” Jir said. Charlie pushed a button on his belt, and a shock went through Dan. Not as much as Hannah did, but enough to put him back into a helpless state of no movement. Dan screamed with pain, and Jir stood there and smiled.

“You’re going to stay in here until you tell me the truth. And once you do… maybe we’ll let you go.” Jir said. He got up, and went to walk out when Dan grunted. Jir stopped short of the door, and looked back.

“Did you want to say something?” Jir asked. Dan mumbled something, and Jir got closer to him. “Speak it boy!”

“Why…” Dan said, trying to form the words in his vibrating mouth. His brain was hazy, and couldn’t find the right words.

“SPEAK BOY!” Jir yelled to Dan. The words clicked in his head, and he spoke the next words carefully and clearly.

“Why didn’t you chase us when we left?” Dan said, heaving from the exhaustion this was taking from him. “Was it because you just don’t care about your poor wife?” Jir stood there, staring at Dan. No emotions were visible on his face. Charlie stood to the side, and looked at Jir like he was going to do something. Jir sighed.

“It was that reason.” He said. There was pain in his voice when he said it.

Jesus, I just wanted to make a cool last remark. Dan thought with disappointment.

“I didn’t appreciate her as much as I should’ve. I see that now. I realized recently that she was the most precious and important meaning to my life, and that I wouldn’t be where I am now without her.” Dan looked up with furrowed eyebrows in confusion. He didn’t expect that to come out of Jir’s mouth.

“Boss, really?” Charlie said from the side. Jir looked towards him, and then back at down.

“No.” He said. Jir wound his foot back, then kicked Dan square in the face. Hot, white pain spread throughout Dan’s face, and he fell back. His left eye felt like it was going to burst from the pulsing, and the jawline where the foot landed felt fragile and frail. “I never cared for that w***e, but that incident caused attention I didn’t want!” Jir came up to Dan, and kicked him again in the chest. Blinding pain came from Dan’s ribs, making him weaker than before. A crack resonated in the stone wall, and Dan screamed from the pain. “Screaming won’t help you here buddy!” Jir said, kicking him once more in the stomach. Dan was now lying by the wall, defeated. Pain filled every fiber of his body, and he couldn’t do anything about it.

“Boss, I think that’s enough,” Charlie said. Jir, heaving in and out, looked over at him with an expression Charlie didn’t know. Fear ran through his body, and he didn’t know what his boss was thinking. Jir looked back down at the crumpled and groaning Dan.

“I want the truth.” Jir said, and with that, turned to leave. The metal door opened, and slammed shut. Charlie looked down at Dan on the ground, feeling pity for the man. He felt regret too, which was off for him, as he never felt that feeling before in his life. This was the first time Charlie witnessed his boss taking on someone, and he didn’t like it. It was unfair, and Charlie didn’t agree with it.

He went to the metal door, but stopped before touching the handle to open it. He looked back at Dan on the ground, and sighed.

“What Jir said about screaming is true. The room you’re in is sound proof, but it still can receive sound from the outside walls. New technology our people made… anyways, it just means that you can hear your brother’s scream, but he won’t hear yours. Why he did it… I honestly don’t know.” Dan didn’t move a muscle in response to Charlie. “I’m supposed to shock you before I leave… but I’m not going to.” He said. Dan still didn’t move a muscle, but he was silently thankful. Charlie opened his mouth to speak some more, but then closed it. He opened the door, walked into the hallway, and slammed it shut.

Dan laid there in the room all alone, hearing James whimper next door. Dan was going to yell that everything was going to be okay, but he couldn’t.

After an hour, the shock wore off and he could move freely again, yet he stayed in that spot. He thought it was useless to get up and move if nothing was to be gained from it.

The single light in the room gave out, plunging Dan into darkness. Dan looked around in the darkness, and he heard a child’s giggle echo. A single tear fell from his eye, and one single thought went through his mind.

Hello darkness, my old friend.