FOR YOUR LOVE

CHAP 4: THE BIGGEST SHOCK

THE NEXT DAY:AROUND 3 P.M

"Ah! This stinking smell, its getting on my nerves. Can't just breathe. I wonder what shit's there in those cartoons." James muttured angrily as he opened his eyes to see that he was tied to a post at one corner of what seemed like a large store room of a factory. Cobwebs hung loosely on the walls. A pile of  cartoons with sacks sandwiched between them, 10 feet high, lay infront of him, blocking his view.

"Why didn't those bastards kill me, it will be better to die, than lie down here sucking. Lisa, can you listen to me. Are you here?"

There was no response, his voice echoed through the room for a while and then the room stood as silent as before. The sqeuaking of rats could be heard distinctly.

"I am not giving up now. Not so easily. I am the best scout of Northwood. You can't just lock me in a cage, like a hamster, its below my dignity." James said to himself, boosting his self-confidence and then shouted with all his might, "Lisa!, Lisaaaa!".

To his disappointment nothing could be heard except the reverberations as they bounced from one wall striking the other in chase. But, then like the faintest sound, as faint as that of a lizard striking its tail against a wall,  just caught his ears before it diminshed in the air. It was a girl's voice, trying to say something, but it was unclear. Surely it must be Lisa on the other corner of the room, James thought.

 "Don't worry Lisa, these swines will not be able to harm you, as long as I am there."

But James was tied with ropes. He needed to get rid of them. Luckily, for him his hands were not tied, only his chest and the post were bound together. "That monkey thinks me a a fool. Well, he will pay for his foolishness." James smiled and took out the sharp Swiss knife, that he always carried with him since the day Sniora gifted it to him. Then using all his strength and ability as an able scout, he cut the ropes, in a matter of  few minutes and set himself free.

"That was easy. I am coming to screw you soon, bastard! ", he smiled .

But a bigger, more mammoth task was still left. He needed to remove those piles of cartoons and sacks. He tried his athelic skills but the height was so huge that jumping was unsensible. He tried pushing them with all his might but they wouldn't move an inch. The bottom ones, the upper ones , he applied every practicality to move them, but the boxes were resolute. 

"Oh God! I always get pissed off." he angrily stamped the floor with his left foot and with all his might kicked the pile of sacks sandwiched between the boxes with his right. To his surprise the boxes started falling on the floor one by one on the other side along with the middle layer of sacks. The smell  got all the more worse, giving him a headache.  Dust particles covered the air but he held his breath.

"Now thats what I call luck. But how did these swines apply so much of science? I will worry about that later. Firstly I need to get to Lisa and save her." The upper portion of the blocks was  now levelled with the lower ones lying on the other side. James could now easily climb over them. So what was he waiting for.

It was luck on his side, that day for the unluckiest person of the world, the rarest incident, or just an accident, he wondered.

He climbed on the tops of the hard boxes  easily jumping down on the other side. Then he saw three similar piles on the other three corners. "Lisa must be behind one of them", he said to himself and without wasting any single moment ran to one of them. He applied the same principle, kicked the middle layer of sacks and they fell down according to what he was expecting. But climbing up he saw that Lisa wasn't there.

He went for the second one but with the same  ill luck. There wasn't  any trace of Lisa there too. Only the last one was left now. "Oh please! Now don't you let me down" James requested to the pile before his final attempt. Then with finger's crossed he gave a flying kick to it.

The boxes starting falling off one after another until they became level with the ground. But to his horror, it was not Lisa.  A thin, weak girl with whip marks all around her shoulders and her face hidden in them resting on her knees was sitting there tied to a similar pole. It looked as if she had been beaten mercilessly and kept without any food for many days.

"Who are you? Why have you been here? Do you know where my friend Lisa is? She is short-heighted and has long golden hairs. She was wearing a blue shirt and black jeans." James looked down and spoke as gently and softly as his impatientce could permit, to her, having pity on her state.

The girl looked up. The sky crashed down on James. He stood frozen, legs losing  the power of any kind of motion, the eyeballs were still, the eyelids didn't shut for a while. He kept staring at her. Tears that would put an ocean to shame, kept coming down.

Could fate be that merciless? Had goodness become so much non-existent in the world that even God took his hands off it. People say that nothing is more painful than the time when your death comes. But this time even death was the loser. The world turned upside down for James Walker.

"James, its you!" Sniora smiled faintly.................................

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sniora is alive. Could this be the beggining of something unexpected for James?  What had happened 6 months before? Go for the next chapter.