Blindfolds

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Fear of the dark. Nyctophobia. It's a common thing, so common that practically everyone in the world has felt the terror that darkness holds. Little kids can't sleep without a lamp on because they worry that monsters will attack them in the black of night. Adults watch horror movies and suddenly they see inexistent shadows in their hallways.
Waking up in the pitch black was just as terrifying for Tony. See, that's the thing about the dark, it doesn't matter how old you are... you will always be afraid of the unknown.
"Your breathing pattern changed." A voice says, startling the man who's tied down to a medical table in the middle of the room. "You must be awake."
"What is this? Who the fuck are you?"
"Is there any need for that language, Mr. Stark?" The man tuts as though he's disciplining a toddler.
"Let me go. You don't wanna do this..." Tony warns him, twisting his limbs in the restraints, testing to see how strong they are.
"That's where you're wrong. This is all I have to do to get everything I've ever wanted. I need some cash, but this? Having you..." The man begins to circle the table like a shark stalking its prey, "strapped down for me to play with, well that's even better than the money."
"Who are you?"
"Does it really matter?"
"Why does it smell like shit?" Tony asks, and it does smell really bad.
The unknown man leers over him and grips his chin tightly, he turns his head to the side and gets close to the billionaire's ear.
"Stop with the questions." He whispers menacingly.
Tony shakes his head away from his grip, scowling at the person above him, he would have been a lot more brave if he knew what he was up against.
"Look, I can get you money. How much do you want and we can sort this out." Tony replies in the most calm voice he can manage, he can't seem afraid.
"Seven million, already sent the demands to your bodyguard. Clearly he's not so great at his job, it was so easy to get you here." The man let's out a dry chuckle.
"In his defence, I don't exactly keep him up to date on my whereabouts. He calls me a lot but I just hang up, thinking back now I probably shouldn't do that. I mean, he could've kept me out of your hands-"
The billionaires rambling is cut off when the man above him gets annoyed at his consistent blabbering. He punches him hard in the stomach, and then cuts off his air flow with a hand wrapped around his throat.
Tony chokes as the wind is knocked from his body, his whole body shakes from the force of the hit.
"God, you're such a prick, Stark. You wonder why everyone hates you." He huffs, releasing Tony's neck from his grasp. 
But Tony can't reply, his eyes are watering from the pain and fear and he strains against the restraints.
He takes a large gasp of air and then tries to collect himself again.
"I... fuck..." His groans are cut off when the sound of a phone ringing echoes against the walls.
"Great, your bodyguard is calling." The man sighs, but he accepts the call and puts him on speaker.
"How nice to speak to you Mr. Hogan."
"Where is he?" Happy asks, his nervous tone is clear even over the phone.
"You not gonna say hello to your friend, Stark?" The man smirks, he grabs a fistful of Tony's hair and pulls it back tight in his grip.
"Ah..." Tony hisses quietly, "Hey, Happy, how are you?"
"Fuck, Tony, are you okay?" His best friend asks.
"Great, just great. Any chance you can send this asshole the money so I can get out of here?" There's a fake braveness in his tone, but the hand that wraps itself around his throat and tightens closed is quick to make the billionaire drop the act.
He can't get a breath in and the fact that he can't see just adds to the stress of everything. "St...stop..." He chokes out, but he's beginning to see white spots in front of his eyes and he knows he's going to pass out. He can vaguely hear Happy's voice shouting profanities at the villain, not that it helps. His consciousness fades almost immediately.
There's a slap across his face that wakes the genius up from his sleep. Tony opens his eyes but the darkness doesn't change, it's still pitch black. And just to make things worse, his arms are above his head, it feels like rope but he can't be sure. He's sitting on the floor, back against the wall.
"Scared of the dark?" A voice says, startling him more than he would like to admit, it's a different person though.
"Scared of a fair fight?" Tony replies, his voice slurred but there's still a confidence in his words.
"You don't know what fair is." Another voice says, it comes from the left of him, so when someone to the right of him grabs his chin, it makes the man jump.
"Can I take his tongue yet?" But this voice is different again, it sounds like a young boy, probably in his teens.
"Get your hands off of me." Tony snarls angrily, shaking his head but to no avail. The man to his left just pulls his face roughly so that he's facing him again.
"Open your mouth." His voice is accompanied by the clear sound of a knife being unsheathed. Yep, now he's scared. Tony keeps his teeth gritted, even when the knife finds itself against his throat.
"Open your fucking mouth." The boys more aggressive now, trying to pry his jaw open with his hand.
"Don't maim him, Jace. We won't get paid." And Tony recognises his voice as the man who had been in the room with him a few hours ago.
'Jace' let's go of his face with a huff, clearly angry at the fact that he doesn't get to hurt him. Tony takes a few deep breaths before composing himself again.
"If you're getting the money, just let me go." He says breathlessly.
"Jesus, you are scared." One of them laughs, "what's wrong? Don't like the blindfold?"
"Fuck you." The billionaire says quietly, but they're right, this was hell. He hated not knowing what was happening.
There's a sharp pain in his ankle as someone presses down hard on his lower leg with their boot.
"Say another word, give me a reason to break your ankle." The boy whispers to him, he kneels down beside him, not taking his foot off of Tony's leg. "Say something." He says threateningly.
"Fuck you." Tony says, louder this time, he didn't care about the consequences, just wanted to piss off his captors.
But instead of feeling a bone break, all he gets is a punch across the side of his face.
"The next time I take you, Stark. None of my colleagues here will be able to stop me from breaking every bone in your body." He says menacingly. "But for now, I'll have to say goodbye."
"Let's go." One of them says, and the sound of footsteps all lead towards the front of the room. For a second, it's dead silent. Tony can hear the beating of his heart so loud in his chest. And then there's a hand on his shoulder that makes him flinch back.
"Hey, hey. Calm down, Tony, it's okay." Happy says, he's careful when untying the blindfold to make sure he doesn't hurt him.
Tony can't see right away, but after a second he can see his friend sitting in front of him, his face pale with fear.
"Fuck me." Tony whispers, "Happy, thank fuck."
"You alright?"
"Yeah, I'm okay. Where are they?"
"We didn't see anyone. We wired them the money and they gave us the location." Happy explains.
"They just left, two seconds ago. You must've seen them." Tony says, looking around the bland room.
"We've gone through all the security camera footage for this building, we have surveillance outside, no one went in or out."
"That's impossible."
"We got agents lined up outside just in case anyone came out. No one left, Tony." Happy says, finishing untying the knots and helping the man to his feet.
"Okay, okay. It doesn't matter, let's just get out of here." Tony sighs, glad they didn't actually break his foot.
"Smells like shit in here." Happy says.
"That's what I said." Tony chuckles. They walk out towards the entrance and it becomes abundantly clear about why it smells so bad. There's a huge manhole cover in the middle of another room.
"Think we found the answer to the question." Happy smirks, taking a second to look down the hole. "They must've escaped through the sewers."
"We'll find them later." Tony says, groaning as he gently touches the bruise left from the punch on his face.
"Glad we found you."
"Glad you found me."

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