Merciless

Prologue

2021

The man regained his consciousness and found himself enveloped by a suffocating darkness, the reek of mold mixed with sweat.

Where am I?

As he's trying his best to collect himself, a throbbing pain entered the back of his head. But when he tried to reach it with his hands out of reflexive impulse, they won't move. No, they couldn't. Something what he's certain to be ropes was weighing them down, binding them.

What the hell is going on? What happened?

He tried to speak, but words wouldn't form due to something that was taping his mouth shut. Reality finally kicked in and panic immediately overtook him, causing him to idiotically made a vain attempt such as struggling himself free. Which in result scraping the skin of his wrists even more from the friction of the ropes.

Fuck! Stay calm and think! Think! Think! What's the last thing you remember. Ah! I was doing groceries.. yes, yes! And then I walked my way home, and then.. what? What comes next?!

After what it felt like hours of desperately wrecking his memory out for answers, something finally clicked.

Shit.

At that exact moment, the dirty moldy sack that has been encasing the man's head for who knows how may hours was finally lifted. As if the sunlight blinding him, he squinted his eyes when the light from the ceiling came into frame.

The place showed to be a room. A gloomy, windowless deep rectangular room with high-ceilinged concrete. Sort of what a normal basement looks like. But he immediately withdrew that thought when he saw the metal table across him equipped with variant types of knives, pliers, and other things that he couldn't even name. Maybe the word normal is an understatement.

The man then noticed that he's not alone in the room, there were two tall men in dark suits that stood behind the tool table. The first guy was hugely built, with a scar imprinted on his left eye. The other one was not as ripped as the first, but he sure was taller with hands and neck buried by tattoos. Amusingly what made the man broke out in cold sweat was not their intimidating appearance, but the small golden griffin lapel pin that attached on their suits.

He knew well enough where the pin belonged to, and he knew that there's lesser than small chance of ever seeing the light of day again. Yet, he still pondered on the reason why he's there. What had he done that led him to have to deal with these people? No, this organization. Not because he's innocent, but because there's too many to choose from.

Too preoccupied with his thought, the man didn't realize that there's a fourth person in the room that stood behind him, until he spoke.

"Ah, you're finally awake."

Before the man had time to turn his head around, the owner of the voice already walked to face the man upfront. The surprised look on the man's face didn't point at how petrifying or how menacing the voice owner appearance was. But at how he looked just like a common young man in his mid 20's. Not to mention how pretty his face was. Yes, his height was beyond average, and yes, his body seemed to has sizable proportions from the outline of his shirt. But an executive was not quite the right word to view him, nor the others. Judging by their demeanor they're probably associates or soldiers at best, and compared to the rest he was the least intimidating one. Even so regarding the golden pin, it still didn't make the situation less terrifying.