Melaine

Chapter 21: Playing with the Prey

Dan, probably around 11:00 pm of the Tuesday night, came back to his house from a booze bar flushed with alcohol, yet he managed to pull his sober act enough to drive without any casualty of accident or a traffic cop that might have questioned the reek of alcohol on his strong breath. He searched  his breast pockets for the key and found it in his jeans'. He dropped the key on the doormat and bent down, groaning, to pick up the key and stuck it inside the keyhole. He rotated the key disengaging the lock and entered inside the pitch blackness of house. His hand found the switch in the dark, oblivious to the second presence in his house, and turned on the light when someone from behind slammed a crowbar on his head. He let out a shout; an ugly one and instantly clutching the side of his head he fell on his knees. He, noticing blood on the palm of his hand, sucked in his teeth and looked up at his assaulter who was wearing a black hooded coat and hockey mask on his face. 

The man laughed under his breath; a sound that didn't spare him from the fear and lifted his leg connecting his shoe with Dan's skull that rendered him good to unconscious.

 
The time, when Dan came around, he found himself tied with ropes to a styling-chair. His ankles were tied against the legs of chair and his wrists were tied on the armrests. His torso was coiled perfectly in the rope tied around the backrest of the chair that restrained him from moving. A throbbing ache in the right side of his head made the young boy wince in pain and reminded him of what had actually happened- being assaulted in his house. Dan saw his own reflection in the mirror on the wall and noticed a clean bandage which had been wrapped around his head. There blood was smeared on the right side of his face.His eyes darted around upon the remembrance of the second person that, no doubt, must be inside his house and his eyes landed rightly on the masked man.

"I wouldn't want you to die before the playtime", the person told him in his noticeable hissing voice and Dan didn't let his questioning gaze ignore more importantly the glowing blaze in man's fiery eyes that utmost seemed to mock him more than anything.
"Who the hell are you?" Dan barked struggling against the ropes that were keeping him down and the man could only take pleasure in seeing him thrashing about in nothing but vain to free himself.

"Don't waste your energy and breath in asking trivial questions". He answered arrogantly to the ignorance and arrogance of the young boy whose attitude became impeding death of him. The man reached his gloved hand in coat's pocket and pulled out a carton of cigarette, waving it to Dan's contorted face.

"The hell you want from me!" Dan shouted loudly at him and the man fed on his desperation who appeared to him as a stray dog dying in the filth of streets.

" Money...weeds?"Dan gritted his teeth when a low sound of his chuckle met his ears. The man pulled out a cigarette and lit with his letter.

 
" Your sexton is waiting at your grave", he spoke inhaling the smoke through the holes for his nose. He examined the burning end of cigarette and brought it near to Dan's mouth, tracing the shape of his lips in the air.

"Who the fuck are you?" Dan glowered at the intimidating mask, that had its own unnerving effect added to his fear. The eyes bore into his through the two black holes and he could picture that utterly twisted smirk beneath the mask in his mind.

"Your death", he whispered and Dan shouted out in pain when the man placed burning cigarette on his lips for few seconds. Dan sucked on his lower bleeding lip to soothe the burning pain.
The man grabbed green armchair and sat on it crossing his legs.

"Why are you doing this to me?" Dan asked releasing his lower lip.

"It's more than personal, Dan Conrad." He answered.