Time Shift

Chapter 5

"Another one found, just walking on the sidewalk. Had a bit of trouble, but they won't know where we are."

The voice reached Derek's ears and it made him wake up. It was pure darkness and he couldn't move around in the confined space. His hands and legs were tied up, but he could feel a texture similar to a gunny sack. Maybe it was a gunny sack he was trapped in. He was sweating all over to the point of filling a small bucket with it. His clothes rubbed against him and he felt uncomfortable, both from the dissatisfaction of the darkness, the rough texture of the gunny sack and his clothes meeting his skin. Not only that, the sudden awakening had his heart pounding, like he had been sleeping on a chair and then someone waking him up abruptly. He was also groggy and nauseated from it.

"Sir, do we have the next target?" The same voice said.

Then a different voice came into range. A very relaxed voice.

"Just wait a second, jeez. I just woke up. What do you want?"

"Sir, I have captured Derek, as you wanted." The other voice said.

"Alright, good," His voice raspy and rough. "Go on and capture the other ones."

"Um.." The other voice said. "Sir, I don't have the location for the next shifter."

"Okay, fine. Here, take it and leave."

Derek heard a few more footsteps before they were gone. His nausea had gone away and he felt wide awake now, knowing that he was kidnapped. And he felt terror stabbing into his heart. Against his better judgement that the kidnapper might kill him if he moved, he slithered like a worm before a hand was laid on him.

"Derek, isn't it? Let me get you outta there.."

The man untied the knots of the sack and pulled Derek out by his shoulder. He untied the rope around his hands and legs and made him stand up. Derek caught a glimpse of what he saw.

The area in his field of view wasn't as dark as the space of the gunny sack. He saw a bookshelf standing at one corner with dark wood and spiky ends. A few compartments of it were empty and the other compartments were filled with books of different colours. He also saw a gothic bed with a queen-sized comforter. It didn't fit the bed and therefore, the other half of the blanket was drooping from the bed and covering the side of the bed instead. Two gothic-themed lamp stands with actual bulbs in them were turned on, but they didn't emanate much light. They looked more like vanity items than actual light sources.

The man in front of him was of a medium build. He had brown messy hair, a result from sleeping and a brown epic beard, in Derek's opinion. Though, it wasn't an excuse to avoid regarding the man as a bad person, since he ordered Derek's kidnapping. He was wearing a blank white T-shirt, plain brown shorts and a pair of feathery slippers.

"Try to escape, Derek. Try and see," the man said casually.

Derek sent a clenched fist at his face and it connected, sending the man sprawling across the floor. He turned around and looked for the exit. There were more bookshelves to fit the gothic atmosphere. There were books that filled the bookshelves, but he doubted that the man read everything. Actually, he took his words back. The man probably read all the books here, since he wasted his life in this rancid and putrid place, having nothing to do. That was just guessing, though. There was a door with a ring of metal for a handle, yet another item for the gothic feel. Even though it made the man look desperate for a gothic atmosphere, Derek went for it, seeing that it was the only door to a way.

He opened the wooden gothic door by the handle; a metal ring, and pulled it open. Light started to creep in towards the dark room, causing the man to shout. He must have been in the darkness for years. The sun was high up, showing Derek that it was almost noon. There were no paths leading to a place. It was a long fall from here to the sea. They roared at Derek as the waves tried to sweep the building off, but they failed to, every time. He even caught a glimpse of a shark fin cutting through the sea, hungry for food. It probably also meant that the sea was shallow, since Derek watched a movie about sharks that had their fins erected from the sea and it sparked him to research about it. Apparently, sharks didn't usually do it. It was only when water was shallow.