Scars And Stories

Chapter 14

Alex drove Ryan to an abandoned warehouse. He swung his car around the back of the warehouse and unbuckled his seatbelt. The sun had already set and the back of the building was slightly illuminated by the blue lights fixed next to the garage doors. The blue light was mixed with the white one of the streets lights, giving the place a bluish atmosphere, as if it was underwater.

Ryan's eyebrows knit at the sight of the building. "Where did you bring me?"

Alex turned to face him. "Don't be scared, everything's fine," and as if on cue, one of the dark blue doors slid open, making a loud noise that drew Alex and Ryan's attentions.

Alex parked his car inside the warehouse and got out. Ryan stayed in the car for a moment, inspecting his surroundings.

It was just a simple garage. The brick walls were painted in black and maroon. Another black car was parked next to Alex's.

"Hey," Alex called as he knocked on the car's hood, making Ryan jump in surprise. He nodded to the door in front of the car. "Let's go."

Ryan nodded hurriedly and got out of the car. He followed Alex to the door as he waited for him. He opened the door and stepped in.

The old warehouse was pretty calm at this time of the day, even though some people were still up. As Ryan could see, the building was divided into a few parts only by some simple curtains. It looked like one of those army camps that you could see on tv. The main part, which occupied most of the warehouse, was situated in the middle; all around it were beds or other things hid by the curtains or prefabricated walls. A big table sat in the middle of the room, maps and documents scattered all over it.

A black-haired man was sitting at the table, his head resting on his arms as he slept.

Alex stepped closer to him and nudged his shoulder, waking him up. "Hey, Joe."

The man, who Ryan now knew as Joe, lifted his head up, squinting his eyes. "Hey Alex," He greeted as he stretched and rubbed his eyes.

"Where's Jack?" Alex inquired, "He said he'd be here when I got back."

"Oh yeah. He left with Zack and the rest of the guys," He replied, "We had an alert."

Ryan stepped closer to the table.

Joe's head spun around and he narrowed his eyes at him. "Ryan Tedder?" He said as he slowly stood up.

Ryan stepped back a little, "Yeah, it's me." They stared at each other for a moment and Ryan grew more scared. "Hey, listen. I know the Syndicate got me for a moment, but I promise I'm not with them."

Joe turned to face Alex, his facial expression still as angry and annoyed. "Why did you bring him here? We can't trust him."

"He was in a Syndicate's car," He confessed, growing scared as well, "He made it crash into another one to escape. When he got out, he looked so lost. His eyes were black too."

"His eyes were black?" Joe repeated, raising his voice to a near shout as he smacked Alex on the arm, "Are you fucking stupid, or what? The Syndicate's guards' eyes are black. He's with them, and now he knows where our headquarters are."

"I'm not with them!" Ryan retorted, "I promise." He took a few steps forward and continued more calmly, "They had me five years ago, but I managed to escape. Ever since, then, I've been hiding from them. But they found me, and now they're chasing me." King looked at him, his facial expression still a little doubtful. "I found some stuff about you guys on the internet. So, I decided to come here, to New York." He moved his gaze to Alex. "He found me after the car accident I caused with one of the Syndicate's car. This guy, Brendon, he found me yesterday and injected me with something," He explained, rolling up his sleeve to show the bruise on his right arm.

Alex and Joe's gaze fell on Ryan's arm. Joe looked up at him and stepped closer, taking the dirty blonde's arm in his hand. "So they started it," He muttered.

"Started what?" Ryan inquired, his eyebrows furrowing together in confusion.

"A few weeks ago, we found a briefcase in a Syndicate's car," Alex started, drawing Ryan's gaze to him, "We brought it back here and did some tests on the vials we found inside of it. They held a brand new version of the Novocaine, and it's really, really strong."

"Sit down," Joe ordered, nodding to a chair next to him. The three men took a seat at the table. "How did you feel when they injected it?"

Ryan narrowed his eyes and looked at his lap. admitting, "I don't really remember." He bit his lower lip as he tried to recall anything from the injection. "I felt numb. I couldn't feel anything. I couldn't think straight. All my thoughts were replaced by mumbling and weird voices. And my sight, it turned purple."

"His eyes were black when I found him," Alex added, "Well, actually, the black was fading."

Joe nodded his head as he wrote everything down in a little notebook he'd extracted from the mess covering the table.

"Oh and, my head was pounding when it started to take effect. And my voice was really weird as well, like, really deep," Ryan tacked on as he watched Joe's hand quickly moving on the paper.

Joe glanced at the dirty blonde. "Really deep?"

"Yeah," Ryan nodded, "But mixed with my normal voice, and kind of a high pitched one. It's like I had three voices."

Joe raised his eyebrow, his eyes widening ever so slightly. "Well, that's interesting."

He wrote that down as well, and just when he was finished, Ryan spoke up, "There's something else I want to say." The two other men in the room looked at him, waiting for what he had to say. "I had nightmares, or visions maybe, about a prison."

"A prison?" Joe repeated. Ryan nodded and a smile appeared on Joe's face. "Looks like you came to the right place."