I'm a Gay Wizard (Wattpad Books Edition)

Chapter 5

0 HOURS TO EXTRACTION

I heard a crash and woke up from the nightmare. Bolting up, I scanned the room. Through bleary, sleep-worn vision, I saw two large shapes heading toward me. My post-sleep haze delayed my instinct to scream, so I kicked my legs and scooted back against the wall. When my vision cleared, a brown-haired man in a black suit was crawling onto my bed and reaching for me.

"What the hell?" I yelled. "Get away from me! Who are you? What do you want?" He grabbed me and yanked me off the bed, spilling me onto the floor as I kicked and screamed. "Get off me!" Nearby, a second man in a black suit with bright blue eyes waited, ready to back up his friend.

"Dad!" I cried, praying he'd hear my pleas, "Dad! Dad!" He didn't come. Writhing on the floor, I struggled against the brown- haired man's heavy hands. "Let go of me, shit bag!"

He crossed my arms over my chest and drove his fingers into my wrists, pressing down so hard it left bruises. I kicked and kicked, so he put a knee over top one of mine and pushed down. Searing pain shot up and down my leg. Everything hurt so bad that I screamed and screamed.

The picture frames on my floating shelves rumbled in place, then launched themselves at my attackers, their glass frames shattering on impact. Books flew off my shelves, my desk drawers popped open and notebooks and pencils jumped out; everything in my room sprang to life and attacked the two men. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to stop them. They merely swatted the flying junk away. The blue-eyed man joined the other in pinning me down, scooting down to hold my legs.

"Help! Somebody, help me!" Tears filling my eyes, I wriggled helplessly under their hands. Again, my voice cracked, "Help me, Dad!" I couldn't free myself. Nobody was coming to help me. "What're you doing? Get off me!" With one hand, the man pinning my arms reached into his jacket and drew out a metal canister. After giving the can a quick shake, he sprayed me in the face with some- thing that smelled like rotten raspberries. I sneezed.

My eyes burned, throat went dry, limbs went dead. My body was paralyzed but my mind was racing. The men got off of me, and I tried hurling curses at them, but I couldn't speak. My frightened eyes darted around, finally settling on my fingertips. Homing in on them, I focused hard, tried wriggling them. Nothing. I fought to move my toes. Nothing.

The brown-haired man scooped me up, flung my body over his shoulder, and marched out of my room. As he carried me down- stairs, I hovered in and out of consciousness, my arms swinging side to side like dangling cables. When we passed the living room, I saw Dad sitting in his recliner, eyes fixed to his laptop, perfectly still— frozen. My dad had always defended me, but now, he couldn't do anything. We were both powerless.

After lugging me outside, the brown-haired man headed for a black van. It was daylight. They were kidnapping me in broad daylight. Mrs. Areson, our next-door neighbor, was standing behind her garden fence, frozen as she watered her begonias. Even the shimmering water droplets spraying out of the hose hung in the air like someone had paused life.

When the brown-haired man tossed me into the van, everything went black.

•

The van ground to a halt. Getting up off the bench, I trained my eyes on the doors, forgetting the pain in my throat, the fear in my heart. Once those doors were opened, I would run until I couldn't run anymore. It didn't matter where I went, so long as I got the hell away. Swwwwfffffffffff!

A hiss filled the air. Rotten raspberries. They were pumping gas into the van. My vision grew blurry, my knees wobbly. I fell to the floor. Then the dark sea of unconsciousness carried me away in its undertow.