DARK LONDON NIGHTS // sully from top boy

9 - ice cold

A haunting clang startled Nora out of her trance. She jerkily turned her head to see where the unpleasant noise was coming from, but everything blurred before her eyes. She shook off the dizziness and strained to focus her eyes on the object standing a few meters in front of her in the room.

"Morning," said an unknown voice. Slowly, reality formed into a coherent picture before her eyes. Nora recognized an unknown man who had apparently dropped a can. He was carrying a white bag of fast food and approached Nora after picking up the can.

"Who are you?" asked Nora in a trembling voice. She was cold and still had no idea where she was at all.

The man was dressed in simple clothes, a dark hoodie and washed-out jeans, plus worn Nike sneakers that didn't lace up completely. His facial expression was featureless, avoiding eye contact with Nora. His face looked tired and emotionally cold, but Nora could tell from the small smile lines that decorated the sides of his eyes that he must actually be a joyful person.

"None of your business," he said gruffly, unwrapping the items from the white plastic bag. Looking down, he took a kebab box out of the bag, opened the Coke can and set it down at Nora's feet, who was sitting on the cold concrete floor, chained to a radiator. Nora watched him silently and tried to read him, but he remained quiet and her heart was pounding up to her throat.

After a few seconds, she had enough.

"Where the hell am I and what do you want from me?" she snapped, tugging desperately at the rope that tied her wrists to the radiator.

The man turned away and turned his back on her as she walked.

"What the fuck are you doing? I don't even know you and you think you can lock me up here in some fucking basement? Tell me what the fuck you want from me!" she screamed, tugging at her bonds again and again. The rough rope chafed her skin, her heart was pounding and blood was rushing in her ears, but she didn't care. Nora just felt this inconceivable rage bubbling over and it only provoked her even more that the man didn't respond to her shouts.

When he arrived shortly before the narrow steel door, which was apparently the only way out of this room, he turned around again and set his sights on her.

"I wouldn't be so forward if I were you. Wait until the boss hears you," he said dryly, his voice monotone and cold, in the light of the yellow-orange ceiling lamp Nora could look him in the eye for the first time. They were a light shade of brown and were underlaid with a mixture of indifference and sadness that ran down Nora's spine like a shiver. The hair on her arms stood up. He seemed ruthless.

She was jolted out of her thoughts when the steel door slammed loudly. Damn. He was gone.

Now that her mind finally seemed to be functioning again, Nora began to familiarize herself with the room from her seated perspective. As a lawyer, she knew she had to familiarize herself with any details in order to somehow identify her location or the perpetrators. She was aware that she was being held against her will - whether she had come along voluntarily or had been kidnapped, she did not know. But the man simply did not look familiar to her. She had never seen him before.

Sighing, she looked around the room. The floor as well as the ceiling were made of gray, cold concrete, the walls had probably once been wallpapered in white, but now they were yellowed and partially shimmered damply in the light of the ceiling lamp.

This lamp hung centrally in the room and its light illuminated the otherwise windowless room with a dull yellowish glow. It had to be a cellar-like room. The ceiling consisted of square ceiling tiles, which also ran through the entire room in a white-yellowish color and were partially peeling off or hanging down slightly.

Nora could not hear any noises.

Not a single one.

Damn.

She really had to be in a basement, perhaps an abandoned building, because there was no honking of cars, no everyday noises in any form, as was usual for London. She also could not estimate the time of day. She stared into the empty room.

Where the hell was she?

The rage inside her had not yet subsided and she was now desperately and vehemently trying to somehow get the shackles off her joints. While she tugged at the radiator with the rope, it made loud squeaking and creaking noises, but did not give way. So she tried to kick at it, kicking off the pipes to which she was attached. In vain.
Furious, she kicked it again and tears came to her eyes. The pain, the despair, the ignorance - everything hurt.

Then she suddenly heard footsteps and stopped as if frozen. He must have heard her. She heard her heart beating loudly.

Then the door opened abruptly and another man rushed into the room.

"What the hell are you trying to do?" he shouted, coming briskly toward Nora.

She recognized him.

Damn, she knew him from somewhere. But from where?

His screams and insults flew past her ears, she didn't listen to him, just stared into his face distorted by anger and tried to remember. Damn, if only her head would finally work properly again!

These men must have drugged her somehow.

The man stopped yelling and seemed to be waiting for a reaction from her. His mouth closed and he looked at her expectantly and tensely. A large scar perched on his cheek. Nora had not recognized it before, but now that his features were no longer distorted, the puzzle pieces were coming together in her mind.

That's when it clicked in her head. This was the guy who had been waiting outside when she had talked to Sully. In her office.

Her heart beat faster, her palms began to sweat, and the images came together in her head. The man shook his head, cursed, and spat on the floor in front of her. Then he fixed her bonds with a thick wire. Nora's eyes filled with tears as she stared forward, frozen.

She didn't care what the man said.

She did not hear a single word.

She felt nothing.

Tears ran hot down her cheek. It burned, she had to have open wounds on her face.

The man left the room at some point.

Her heart was still racing.

Her mouth was dry, her cheeks wet with tears.

The concrete floor beneath her was ice cold.

Her heart burned in fear.

And she knew now where she was.

Somewhere where no one would ever find her.

With Sully.