Afire Love

Chapter 4

The pain woke her up.
At first, there were too many places that hurt and Felicity was so dizzy, she couldn't tell what actually hurt and what didn't. It was like her whole body was aching.
Then her senses started to come back, instantly making all the parts of her body to acknowledge their pain level. She was tied up to a chair and her hands felt asleep at some point, now causing a sensation of a million needles pinching them. Her lungs were still burning from the smoke she inhaled and her head hurt so bad she couldn't see anything when she opened her eyes the first time. It was worse than the biggest hangover she's ever had. And taking into account that it happened in college, more than five years ago, proved how hard she hit her head.
She stayed still waiting for another kind of pain to come, the one she feared the most, but after minutes of waiting she sighed relieved realizing the life growing inside of her was miraculously fine. Or at least, wasn't complaining about the treatment she's received till now.
Felicity opened her eyes again, this time starting to see things. Everything was blurred though and she realized that her glasses were missing.
Perfect, she thought, now I can't even see straight.
She hated her myopia now, more than ever. Being unable to see was her biggest weakness and now it was taking advantage of her. How was she supposed to see where she was or who kidnapped her when everything, at a length bigger than one feet, was in a fog?
She made a sound, which was more like a growl, in a pointless attempt to exteriorize her desperation.
She looked around her, but everything was in a dim light and the only figures she could clearly recognize were her legs. The rest was just blurred forms. The room was illuminated by a light bulb hanging above her, that looked like a small sun to her, and the block in front of her. Or the thing that had looked like it till it made a sound.
It's certainly not a block, it's a human being, she realized herself fearing to make a sound and having no idea who that person was.
She started to panic. Till now her judgment had been clouded by the pain and the discomfort the position in the chair gave her, not thinking for a second in what danger she was. After all, she's been kidnapped and now tied up and held somewhere, without even her glasses to see what was going on. She knew who it was, and scolded herself for not taking any precautions to avoid this from happening. But how could she? If Slade wanted something, there was no way he wouldn't have gotten it.
"What...?"
The person in front of her spoke and normally she would have yelped but she recognized the voice and stopped breathing. She would have recognized that voice everywhere.
Trying to regain her breath, she panicked even more realizing how bad the situation was. Just the fact that he was here too, clarified Slade's intentions and barely thinking about them scared the hell out of her.
Noises were heard, followed by a curse and Felicity guessed he realized what was happening too. She wanted her glasses back so she could see his face, his expression, see if he was in any way hurt but she was too afraid to speak, just like earlier in the office, because she knew how much harm she could do to him just with a few words.
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Oliver didn't need to open his eyes to feel everything spin. There was no actual pain, but the dizziness was restraining him from feeling anything. At least for now, he hoped. Whatever that guy injected him with, had a huge effect because he didn't remember anything after that.
He waited a few moments for his senses to come back to him and he realized he was in a very uncomfortable position. Forgetting about his spinning head, he tried to open his eyes and was taken aback by the sudden pain that stroke him at the contact of his eyes with the light. He growled and remembered how much he drank before that man came. Not as much as he would have liked, that's for sure, but enough to give him headaches.

Then he realized he was not afraid. For some weird reason, he wasn't the exact normal thing that every kidnapped person would be, afraid for his life. He was not even curious. There was not a new thing for rich people to be kidnapped so that the loved ones would send money to the kidnappers in hope of them releasing the poor tormented souls.
Carefully, he opened his eyes again, avoiding on purpose to look at the light bulb that was above him. He looked on the ground and as soon as his vision focalized, he raised his head and he felt his stomach drop. Seeing her there, in front of him, enduring the same brutality he was forced to, made his blood boil.
"What..." he started but then stopped, feeling his hands tied up behind him. He tried to move them somehow, but the tie was to strong, maybe made of rope. Swearing under his breath, he gave up and looked up at her again.
She was scared, probably fearing for her own life, with her eyes big and on the verge of crying. She looked helpless and in pain and it made him angrier than he ever felt before.
Trying to calm down, he thought that maybe she was just an illusion, brought by the substance in his body, to make his mind more confused than it already was. But how could he know for sure?
If it wasn't, then what was she doing here? Why would someone kidnap them both? He hated all those questions and the anger only grew stronger as he couldn't find any answers to them.
In the back of his head, where the anger didn't reach, he wondered why he was reacting like this, now that he knew she was in danger too. What was so special about her that made his blood boil and his thoughts tangle at the mere sight of her suffering?
Maybe if he wasn't so angry, he would have made the connections between everything that happened since he woke up in LA, considering the fact that from here there was no running away. Looking around, he realized they were alone, in a basement, with only one door to his left, and a huge and complicated system of pipelines to his right, so clearly there was no one there to disturb them. But the only connection his mind was capable of making was between the urgent need to punch the jerk who kidnapped them and his fists.
He wondered if there was better to avoid looking at her, that maybe this way, his rage will slow down, but the effort was useless. His eyes kept on falling on her, searching if she was hurt or if she was crying.
Minutes passed, and so did his anger. Most of it, at least. He noticed that she wasn't looking him in the eyes at all and at first he was confused but then saw that she lacked her glasses and thought that maybe the distance between them was too big for her to see him clearly.
She didn't make a sound and by the look on her face, she was trying hard to do that. He was already sick of the silence and was about to say something when the door opened so roughly, it hit the wall making a loud noise.
Felicity screamed and he came to the conclusion of two things. One, she was not an illusion, and two, he was wrong, of course there was someone that could disturb them.
Oliver looked at him and realized the man that entered was the same one that he met in the club. He walked straight to Felicity and Oliver wanted to get up and stop him, and he would've done it, even with his hands tied up, but the chair had its legs cemented in the floor.
He stopped near her and Felicity looked up. It surprised him to notice that she didn't seem scared anymore. Instead, she was piercing him with defying eyes. Only her legs, that were still trembling, gave her away that she was still afraid and Oliver bet the freak saw it too.
Slowly, he brought his hand to his pocket and to Oliver's relief, took out a pair of glasses. Her glasses. He bowed down a little and gently placed them on her nose then took a step back and turned to look at him.
Felicity looked as confused and shocked as Oliver felt by his gesture finding impossible to explain it. But she didn't let her guard down. She looked at Oliver, now that she could see him, and searched him of any injuries and then turned her attention to the freak.