The City of Havamon

Chapter 3 - Unlucky Day

Luck. Such a funny concept. To define it, it is when a coincidence that has occurred is one that favors you. The word that contrasts luck, meaning a coincidence that works against your favor, is known as unlucky. If you are known as an unlucky person, one might believe you are put in a lot of situations in which the odds do not favor you. And if you are known as a lucky person, one would believe that the odds do nothing but favor you.

Laine Cohen. He was lucky for a while. Or so he thought. 6 months after the event and he still hasn't been caught. At this point he has denied the event so much, his brain is starting to believe it truly never happened. This was not so.

The wind whipped through Laine's brown hair as he headed towards home, yet the feeling of anxiety slowly poured into him. He tried to ignore it, telling himself that he was okay. He was safe. He was fine, he had to be! He wasn't seen! He... he hadn't been seen...

Laine's steady heartbeat began to pound with every step he took. Should he turn back now? No, he was too close to home. He could make it! Or so he thought.

As Laine continued down the barren path, ignoring the signs that he should turn back, he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. He really wasn't hallucinating. He should have listened to his friend.

The man from before had stepped out from a dark alleyway directly in front of Laine, blocking his path home.

"Hello, Laine. You were quite difficult to find!" The man greeted with an eerie, foreboding grin.

Laine scrambled to get away, but the man was faster, and grabbed his wrist before the kid could make an escape. Laine opened his mouth to cry out for help but the man gripped his mouth before any sound could come out. As Laine was dragged through the very same alley that Helena had disappeared in months ago, he felt his life flashing before his eyes. He was barely nine, he can't die yet! He needs to escape, no matter what it takes.

When the kidnapper finally reached his secluded base, the poor kid dragged along in his hands, hehrew Laine into a dark room and locked the door, staring through a window on the opposite side. The man was covered in blood top to bottom, and stood at the window. Laine's tiny hands fumbled as he tried desperately to open the door, ramming into the steel as hard as he could. He screamed for the man to let him out, but all he heard in reply was cold laughter. Laine's eyes filled with tears. He should have listened to Alex! What was he thinking?! Now he's gonna die without the chance to say goodbye. Laine's small body shook as he collapsed to the ground in tears, eyes darting around the eerie room. Whatever happened here was about to happen to him too, and he knew it.

A few minutes pass and the kidnapper enters the room with what looks to be tools of torture. Laine backed into a corner, fear gleaming in his eyes as he stared at this horrible man. For just a second, the kidnapper showed remorse, before shaking it off and clenching one of his tools.

"I guess I should explain what your last days are gonna be like, little one." the man started, while walking towards the helpless child. "I'm going to enjoy this. I only get to kill you dumb kids twice a year and I like to make the most of it! So your first couple of months will be torture, how fun! His voice took on a teasingly cheery tone, knowing how terrified the child must be. "Then after that, I will take you to the 'Last Room'. It's called that because once you're in there, you're basically already dead. Isn't that exciting?" a wide, terrifying grin reached each end of the man's cheek.

"W- why are you doing this?" Laine helplessly pleaded.

"Oh... Fun!" The man responded. Whether that was the truth or not was unclear.

Before Laine could speak again, the man pulled out one of his tools. "This little tool is what I like to call 'Shut Your Damn Mouth'! What's about to happen is I'm gonna sew the corners of your mouth shut so you can't call for help or ask any annoying questions!" Laine never knew a grin could hold so much malice.

Laine panicked, covering his mouth, and trying to hide his face in the safety of his arms, but he was unsuccessful. The man tore Laine's arms and hands away with a strong force. Before Laine could fight back, the man had the kid pinned to the wall and brought the tool inches away from his face.

"You wanna know what I do to kids who are too damn difficult? You'll find out if you squirm any more." He threatened.

"please don't do this..." Laine whispered in a small, pleading voice.

All the man did in response was laugh. So much laughter from this man, one would think him to be a very happy man under different circumstances. The man laughed, and started the process of pure, relentless torture. Laine tried so desperately to escape and get it to stop, but his small body was unsuccessful. By the time the man had finished, Laine couldn't move his mouth properly, or at all unless he was willing to endure that much pain.

As the man laughed in the poor boy's face, mocking his terror, he crouched down in an intimidating manner. His eyes crinkled upwards. "Oh boy, I forgot to introduce myself!" He said in a mock 'woe is me' gesture. "My name is Dimitri Rose. It sure is a pleasure for me to finally meet you! I should warn you that no one has ever escaped. So don't even try." Kids were so stupid; so easy to capture and manipulate. So fragile...

And so fun to break.

Laine could only cry in response, trying to speak would do him no good. How could he survive this? He can't die here! The man- Dimitri- seems way too confident; maybe he's lying about there being no escape? He just has to find an opening. How hard could that be? He really hopes the answer to that is the one he wants.