The Man In The Midnight Blue Suit

Chapter Two

Lights above my head. Blankets covering my body. A soft pillow beneath my head. A warm presence sitting next to my bed, oddly familiar. As the world around me slowly comes into focus, my last memories come flooding back to me. The over-crowded party. The man in the midnight blue suit. The dark, trash-filled alleyway. My name on the wall.

My name! Suddenly the drudgingly slow awakening to the world around me isn't fast enough. I look over at the person next to me. He was tall, even sitting. He wore a plain dark T-shirt and blue jeans. He had tender cheekbones that sat subtly on a face that was neither handsome nor grotesque. A mess of curly dishwasher blonde locks sat upon his head. Thin, curved eyebrows shaped in line with a sharp nose. His eyes were light blue. There was something startling about those eyes. I'd seen them before. But whoever he was, he wasn't the man who led me here.

As movement came into my limbs, I started to hear the guy next to me. He was saying something.
"Casey... Wake up, baby girl. Come on, Casey..."
The voice seemed to pull a trigger inside my head. I jumped and quickly sat up, gathering the blankets around me, as if they were an unbreakable wall protecting me from this man. My heart was threatening to break from my chest and my hands were shaking.
"Whoa, calm down Casey. It's ok, I'm not going to hurt you." The man put up his hands in a way that was probably supposed to be comforting but only made me shrink away.

I frantically scan the room, looking for something, anything, to defend myself with. It was bare, apart from a plain bedside table, the chair the man sat in and the large bed I cowered in. The walls were a sleek white, with a dark green floral print. The wall was adorned by two dark silver wall sconces – the kind people might have lit fire in, before gas or electricity. Their purpose may have been medieval, but their design was beautifully modern – like wild, twisting branches. Light streamed in through floor to ceiling windows. My eyes trailed upwards to the ceiling. I found it hard not to gape at the sunken panels adorning the ceiling, made out of beautiful light wood and cut with a sleek precision. There were no electrical lights, no power points. The door was on the other side of the room, no doubt locked. Whoever put me here expected me to have this reaction. I consider screaming, but only for a second. Screaming would only bring attention to me, possibly attracting someone else. The guy next to me didn't look like he was about to call for help either. Something about him said that he wanted to do this on his own. The man was standing now, but – was he smirking? What part of this was funny to him?
"Come on, Case. You don't even remember your own brother?"

My heart contracts. My breath falters, and for a moment I'm close to fainting. There's a lump in my throat. I unconsciously drop the blanket shielding me. I'm frozen, but my eyes never leave his face.
"Jonathan?" I choke.

Jonathan, my older brother of five years, had disappeared when I was 10. Police had searched steadily for two weeks, but the effort had thinned out after that, no matter what my mother and I said. Jonathan was pronounced missing, assumed dead. I had held out hope that he'd reappear at first, but after 2 years, I gave up hope that I'd ever see him again. But now here he was, five years later. I stare at the face that I now see to be so similar to my own. Jonathan. He's alive. We don't say anything. I stare at his smirking face. He stares at my dumbstruck one. A minute passes. It feels more like an hour. I'm taking it all in. His face, his clothes, and the impossibility of him being here, of him being alive.

I lurch towards him, straggling over the bed. I throw my arms around his neck. He rocks back but is sturdy enough to hold my weight. I feel tears trickle from my eyes, dampening his shirt. Oh, Jonathan. Where have you been all these years?

My older brother. He was my only role model. He was the one that comforted me when things got bad. He filled the hole left by the father I had never known. When he had disappeared my happiness came crumbling down. Jonathan was perfect – he had faultless grades, didn't get into trouble at school, and was going to one of the best universities in the country on a scholarship the next year. Our mother loved him. She praised him and always hung his awards on the wall. Jonathan hung mine. And although he was one of the busiest people I knew, he always left time for me. He made me feel special. But when he disappeared our mother slipped into a depression. I don't blame her – her perfect son was gone, and she was left with, well, me. I hardly ever saw her. She spent all her time working to distract herself from her grief. I had to learn to look after myself. Mum came back to life after a while, started working again. She never ceased telling me that I would never be as good as Jonathan. I would never be as smart as him, as perfect, although I tried. I threw myself into my studies. I got academic awards at school all the time. To our Mother, they were worthless. I would never be enough.

Jonathan's arms soften and release me from their strong embrace. He holds me in front of him and looks me up and down. "God, Casey. You're not the ten-year-old I left behind anymore, are you?" I look at Jonathans smiling face. I left behind. He didn't say lost. He said he left me behind, as if his disappearance was something necessary for him to advance in life. I step away from him, as far as I can, until my calves touch the bed. I force myself to remember that I'm in an unfamiliar room with my brother who has been missing the last six years. Nothing about this is right.

"Jonathan," I ask, "Where am I?"
"Oh, of course." He says as if he's waking up from a daze. "You know nothing about this... situation, am I right?"
I keep my distance from my brother. Part of me wants to trust him, yet the other part says that he's been missing for six years. He's no more than a stranger now. "All I know is that I followed a man in a midnight blue suit into a creepy tunnel with my name written on the walls."
"Wow. A bit different to my own Awakening, I must say. But then again, it's different for everyone."
"What do you mean, 'awakening'?" I say, my panic rising. "You were kidnapped, for God's sake! And who's everyone?" I feel indifferent to this person who I was embracing not long ago. My brother would not accept whatever this is so casually, treating it as something from a fantasy novel.
"All will be revealed in good time. First, I need to take care of you. You've been out cold for the last twelve hours. Aren't you hungry?"
Now that he mentions it, I realise hunger is gnarling at my stomach. Although it's the last thing on my mind, I agree to be fed.

Jonathan makes sure I'm tucked up in bed again before he steps outside of the room. He's only gone a moment, not long enough for me to even consider escaping. He comes back carrying a tray holding a cup of water, a bowl of tomato soup and a fancy looking bread roll. The cup, bowl and plate are all plastic. How dangerous do these people think I am? There's not even a spoon. I wouldn't hurt my brother anyway, no matter how much he's changed since he disappeared. Jonathan sits beside me on the bed this time. From his back pocket, he pulls a spoon, one of the useless plastic ones.
"Uh, uh uh." He says when I reach for it. "You have to eat your bread roll first." I eye the food suspiciously.
"Oh, come on, Case. You don't trust me now? That hurts." Jonathan clutches his chest as if wounded. I'm unamused. He rolls his eyes and looks at me sincerely. "Casey. I wouldn't let anyone poison you, or drug you. Ever."
I look at the food once again and let my hunger get the better of me. I tear into the bread roll, eating one half and dipping the other into the soup. I force myself to take it slow. I still have to be careful. The roll is delicious. I've never tasted anything like it.

Once I've satisfied my hunger I look over atJonathan. I've eaten, just like he wanted. Now I want to find out what is goingon. Jonathan sighs and runs his hand through his blonde hair. "Ok. I'll answeryour questions. You must be pretty confused."
No shit. I've woken up in an unfamiliar room, my last memory is of seeing my name repetitively written on adark tunnel wall, and my older brother, who's been missing for five years, isat my side. I need to know what's going on. I start cautiously as if saying the wrong thing could trigger my end. "Idon't know anything about... this." Iwave my arms at the room, at him. "Just tell me everything."
Jonathan smiles at me, a lopsided grin that is startlingly familiar to the onethe man in a midnight blue suit tossed me when I followed him away from theparty. Suddenly feeling the need to shield myself again, I pull the blanketback up in front of me and cross my arms. I look at Jonathan expectantly.
"I want – I need to know what is going on. Please."
Jonathan smiles warmly: and the jolt of a memory rushes at me. My brother. Heruns his hand through his hair as he begins.