The Dark Side of the Moon

Chapter 24: Florence

-Florence’s P.O.V-

It had been twenty, agonizingly painful minutes since we had jumped into the unnamed red van. I sat wedged in the corner, my back protected and my eyes trained on the one man in front of me. My mind had run over the incident time and time again, concluding that it was the best decision to accompany these strangers, but something just didn’t feel right.

The man that had oddly rescued me was relaxing against a built in bench, his arms propped behind his head and his eyes closed peacefully. He looked to be a fair bit older than me, probably around thirty years give or take a few. He had light brown, floppy hair and a carefree smile, but looks could easily deceive.

I stiffened when he shifted positions and his jacket hung open to expose a gun, just as I had suspected. These men were dangerous and I definitely didn’t want to get on their bad side, but I needed to form an escape plan ASAP.

“I can feel your eyes boring into my face,” the man grumbled, lazily opening one eye and gazing at me. “Lighten up.”

I kept my mouth shut, resolutely staring straight back at him the whole time. He frowned when I didn’t reply, splaying his hands about in a harmless gesture. “What are you so scared about? I rescued you from bad men.”

“Then why do you have a gun, and various other weapons stashed in here?” I replied frostily, nodding my head pointedly at the large duffel bag under the bench he was sitting on. The zip was slid open a little, the barrel of a gun poking out.

The man looked down and zipped the bag up fully, turning to look back at me. “I told you, those men were criminals. We work for a covert section of the government, targeting major criminals and drug dealers, you name it. That type of occupation inevitably requires fire arms.”

“Just the two of you? That seems unlikely,” I countered, doubtful. My eyes briefly flickered to the hulk in the front seat driving, the Russian man who never talked. He still freaked me out, even though he had hardly moved this whole trip.

“We form a team. This mission was going to be discreet if anything,” he answered. All his facts, even though they seemed plausible, sounded a little rehearsed, like the script of a school play. Something was definitely off about these two.

“Can I see your badge then?”

“Don’t have one. No one is meant to know about us, so badges are next to useless,” he shrugged, but I could see his eyes were narrowed slightly. He didn’t like all the questions I was firing at him.

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll see.”

“You can let me out here you know, I’ll just catch a bus home,” I suggested nervously, eager to get out of this freaky van. There were too many loopholes in their story, such as the fact that they had no actual proof that they were who they said they were. Or perhaps it was the odd reaction to all my questions, as if he was running out of answers or just plain unable to answer them on the spot.

“I don’t think so. We’re taking you to our head quarters to meet the big wig, then you’re free to go,” he made it sound reasonable, until I figured that letting me go would be the last thing on their agenda. After all, they’d already told me their whole life story about a covert section of the government, and I knew too much information. The easiest thing to do would be to ‘dispose’ of me. I shivered at the thought, things looked grim.

The van spluttered to a stop not five minutes later. It was impossible to see outside because the windows were tinted, but I had already formed a mental image of the place: tall, dark walls and bodyguards marching me to the door, shoving me into a cell and a cold, mean man questioning me. Okay so maybe I had read a few too many horror books and my view was a little exaggerated, but I really was expecting the worst. That was why when I stepped out of the van – followed extremely closely by the freaky Russian man – I was a little surprised.

Sure the place was an old warehouse, but we looked like the only people in sight. No electric fences, no firearms in plain sight, not even a single camera detectable as far as the naked eye could see. I was marched up to a small door by the side of the warehouse, and its height dwarfed me in comparison, its long tin walls giving me the creeps. The red van was the only car in the parking lot, and on all sides thick forest prevented any means of escape. If I had to get out of here, my bet was on the keys being in the ignition of the van, which was unlikely.

The door opened and I was shoved inside, the heavy sound of a lock being turned came from behind me. I was trapped. I looked around frantically, taking in my surroundings like a frightened deer. My eyes darted from the rusty metal stairs to the large glass window at the top, providing a glimpse of an office-like room. Then they skittered over the minute details of the empty, vast room ahead of me. The whole place appeared to be an unused storage warehouse, with an incredible amount of space in the middle, and small staircases and railings hinting at a small second level around the main room.

“Wait here,” one of the men told me, and they both jogged up the steps to the office room that I had seen earlier. I saw a snatch of some brown hair, and there was muffled arguing as they closed the door. They were no doubt conversing with their boss, and somebody wasn’t happy with the whole equation.

I spun around and sprinted for the door, but it was locked tight with no key available. Taking care to make sure the men in the room didn’t see me, I ran up the length of the warehouse, searching for another exit. There was none.

I should never have trusted that strange man, how could I have been so stupid! You should never enter a van with a stranger, even if you are trying to escape an enemy – that was conveniently never sighted. Who am I kidding? It was obvious all along! This place doesn’t even look like a secret government headquarters, it just looked neglected and creepy!

Scared and closed in, I sat down on the concrete floor with a huff. What could I possibly do? Perhaps when my kidnappers walked out of the room I could attack them like a crazed woman and bite at their arms, forcing them to let me out! – Right, like that was going to happen.

I started to draw patterns on the floor absentmindedly while my brain explored the limited options of escape attempts. Once I was out, where was I to go? What if there weren’t any keys in the ignition of the van? Would I run all the way back to Banff?

My finger stopped drawing. My eyes were glued to the concrete, inspecting the colour closely. Around the room, the concrete was a light grey in colour and felt smooth to touch, but at this patch it was different. The patch was about a metre wide and quite thin, but sliding my fingers over it was a little difficult. It felt slightly sticky, as if something had been scrubbed off recently, but didn’t work completely. The colouring was off too, it looked almost a little...red.

I froze in fear at the realization. Footsteps drew close and I whipped my head up, taking in the figure of a man who looked not too older than me. His hair was a dark brown colour and he wore a crisp business suit – strange attire considering the setting. His pointed snakeskin shoes drew closer, until he stopped in front of me.

He flashed me a rehearsed, million dollar smile and withdrew a hand from his pocket. It looked tanned and firm, but I didn’t shake it. Instead I stood up too and faced him head on, about to demand that he free me immediately, but he beat me to it.

His eyes looked intelligent and dark, but his face was flecked with a cold, grim expression that chilled me. “It’s nice to meet you young girl, my name is Jonathon.”

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For those of you who have forgotten who Jonathon is, read the prologue again! ;) So I've reintroduced a character to the story, bit of a twist. He'll probably be a major one, so remember the name. I've also changed the blurb of the story again, so check it out in the top right corner. It tells you a little more about the story. Hmm I was thinking of making a cast for the story, should I or should I not? 

SOTM: Grenback Boogie by Ima Robot. It's the theme song to a show called Suits which I love and personally I think it describes Jonathon pretty well :)

-Mooz