Stay Away (The Beocraftian Gambit - Book One)

CHAPTER FOUR: DANGER AFTER MIDNIGHT

When Kevin opened his eyes, they were watery, and his throat felt scratchy. He wasn't sure where he was. He felt himself sitting upright in an iron chair and tried to get up, but couldn't. That's when he noticed that something was restraining his arms. He looked down and saw the belt that wrapped around his wrist, anchoring his hands to the arm of the iron chair.

Kevin moved his body, struggling hard to set himself free, but the belt was just too thick. He looked around the room nervously and noticed a long table in the corner of the room. Some bottles were placed on top. He glanced up at the window behind drawn curtains high up the cinder-board wall. The curtains sealed off a partial trace of light. The room seemed empty and devoid of life.

A thin line of sweat rolled down his forehead and rested at the side of his lips. He took out his tongue to lick it off. It had a distinctive taste of sweat mixed with blood. That was when he realised he was bleeding. The last thing he remembered was being knocked out with a shovel. He struggled to get loose, but then stopped moving when he noticed that he wasn't alone in the room. Something else was sitting with him in the room.

A figure sat in the dark corner far across, watching him from the shadow. It stood up and walked towards him, revealing its face in the light. Kevin noticed two things when he looked at him. He wasn't wearing a mask, and he wasn't the man that'd kidnapped him; the man standing before him was much taller.

"Where am I?" That was all he could think of asking. He couldn't understand why anyone would want to kidnap him. He wasn't rich, neither did he have any rich relatives, and as far as he was concerned, he hadn't offended anyone.

"Who are you?"

The tall figure stood staring down at him with a straight posture and a neutral face, not uttering a word.

"What is this place?" Kevin panicked and was sweating, struggling to break free.

His questions were met with a blank stare. The man took a rag from the table and walked towards him.

"What do you want from—?" Kevin asked just before the man stuffed the rag into his mouth, sealing his words away.

"Patience. All of this would make sense to you with time." The man finally spoke and walked away. Kevin wanted to call him back, but all he did was muffle noises through the gag.

"You can call me T-Murek, and it's not you I'm after, at least not yet," the man said, and walked towards something across the room which was still hidden in the dark. Kevin continued to writhe and groan before T-Murek finally hit the light switch, filling the room with bright fluorescent light.

Kevin's eyes bulged when he saw what had been hidden in the darkness on the other side of the room. The love of his life was gagged and tied to a pole at the centre of the room, leaving him confused about what was really going on.

"Kevin? Kevin!" The voice was coming to him from far away, slowly dragging him out of the dream. "Bro, wake up!"

Someone was gently tapping his shoulder. Kevin woke from the terrible nightmare with a quick gasp, chest heaving rapidly. He turned to see a tall male standing at his side.

"Landry?" he called, his brows knitted. "What are you doing here?"

"Cedric has been worried about you. He called a while ago to notify me that you are home. I just came to see if you're alright."

Still panting, he glanced around, then looked up at the clock. Only forty minutes had passed. It was a long night, he observed. Each second seemed to go by as though they were minutes and each minute like an hour. Then he returned his wondering gaze to Landry.