I Saw the Lights Go Out

Where Nobody Hides

Dan knew what was happening. There was no confusion as he opened his eyes and assessed the situation. His hands were tied to a pole behind his back, his ankles bound in front of him. He knew exactly what had happened the moment he'd regained consciousness. He knew, because of the countless times he'd been on the other side of this situation. He knew because he was trained to know.

He breathed steadily as he assessed his surroundings. He was tied to what appeared to be a metal beam with what felt like rope, his legs were definitely bound by rope. The room was dark, the walls a simple grey colour, the floor a cool metal. He could smell nothing but the stale stench of blood and lemony tinge of cleaning product, used indefinitely to try and mask the smell of blood, a futile attempt. There was no furniture in the room aside from a simple wooden chair in the corner of the room, and Dan could not see a door, although he knew there must be one behind him as he could hear voices from that general direction, possibly in another room. He wondered if the door had been left open or if his earrings had been unintentionally activated. Dan knew how this game played out, so he planned to stall as long as possible so as to think up a plan.

He kept perfectly still, with his chin still pressed uncomfortably against his still bare chest as he tried to think up a plan. Rope was breakable, if he could just find a sharp object to cut through it with, he could free himself. But there was nothing in the room, nothing but a chair well out of reach, and use. He couldn't attempt to loosen the bonds without alerting the guards to his current state of consciousness, so instead he listened to try and estimate just how many people were there.

"-get him some clothes?" a voice asked, Dan only managed to catch the end of the question, but was able to deduce they were talking about him, given his current lack of clothing. Apparently whoever kidnapped him hadn't seen it fit to clothe him, and left him in only his boxers from the night before- or was it the night before? Dan wondered how long he'd been out of it.

"Nah, let the dickhead wake up like that. It'll be funny." Dan immediately hated whoever the second person was.

"Well, it just doesn't seem right keeping him like that...for everyone to see..." the first person responded, he sounded almost sheepish, which Dan classified as a weakness. This one would be easy to take on.

"Phil..." the second person sighed.

After a while, when there was no reply. Dan decided that there must only be two people in the other room, and so decided to try his luck with loosening the rope. He first shifted his sore arm slightly to deduce just how tight the ropes were - very tight, this would not be easy. His neck was aching now, as was his backside from being sat on the hard floor for however long he'd been sat there. Dan breathed in, hoping his slight movement hadn't been noticed. When nothing happened, Dan decided they hadn't noticed and continued trying to shimmy his hand out of the rope. After 5 minutes of no success Dan gave up with a frustrated huff, his wrist now stinging from rope burn. He decided there was nothing for it, he sucked in a deep breath, and tugged with all his might on the ropes, well aware that, this time, they would definitely hear him. Dan gritted his teeth, and screwed his eyes shut as he felt his already damaged skin break and warm blood trickle over his fingers.

"It's no use, you know." a voice said, matter-of-factly. The same sheepish voice from before. The one called Phil.

"Where's your friend?" Dan bit out, refusing to lift his head and look at his captor.

"He went to get the others."

Dan nodded. Of course they'd want to question him as soon as he woke up. Dan chuckled bitterly.

"Wh-What's funny?" Phil asked, clearly unnerved by Dan's behavior. Dan lifted his head, finally meeting the eyes of his captor, and smiled sardonically.