Samuel Black

Chapter 9

For weeks after that day, I battled with severe insomnia, a million dreams and thoughts keeping me awake . I hadn't spoken to any human being except the delivery guys that brought my junk  food and my bedroom had become a makeshift office and my walls turned into my own warped version of  murder boards.  Khelanie had called me several times, but I couldn't bring myself to answer any of the calls. I needed to be sure of what I was going to do before I  acted.
          That morning, I had no plans to do anything apart from lounging about lackadaisically and complain about how messed up my life had become to myself. Sadly, my plans were destroyed by a brief phone call phone call with my boss. Long story short, I was forced to do the unthinkable. I even shuddered at the thought. I was made to leave the comfort and safety of my house. The experience was oddly similar to leaving a movie theater after a long movie. I had to blink several times before I was able to walk to my car. The normal half hour drive to HQ had become ten minutes, despite the long routes I used and I got there before I was fully prepared to. Within ten minutes of my arrival, I had already been summoned by my boss for a meeting with him.
        I barely payed any attention to what he was saying. I was completely consumed by the unsolved mysteries surrounding David. The moment I had begun to trust him again, he turned out to be evil, but there was still this feeling that there were important  things that I wasn't being told. It just didn't make much sense to me, but who was I to complain. The moment I got back to my office I called Khelanie and agreed to meet up with her at a different cafe. I arrived half an hour before the scheduled time. Seeing her again brought mixed feelings which confused and overwhelmed me at the same time. I waited for an eternity thinking i was fully prepared,m but the moment i caught sight of her, my knees went wobbly and I was consumed by the strong urge to leave, but I didn't.
            She came over and sat opposite me, fixing me with her soul searching gaze. For several awkward moments, we sat there staring at each other. I felt like a kid in the principals office. It just wasn't pleasant. At all. The awkward silence was broken when a waiter came to take our orders. After he left, Khelanie smiled and asked. "Are we just gonna sit here and stare at each other?".  " It's really up to you." I followed that line with an apology. She kicked me in the stomach under the table. I guess that was her way of accepting my apology. We had a nice time catching up, but then she had to go. I turned and began walking to my car when I heard a stifled  scream. By the time I turned around, Khelanie was gone, but her car was still there.
          Instinctively, I headed over towards the corner, I tripped over something on my way there. The moment I  turned the corner, a white van sped past me, probably holding her inside. I turned around heading to my car which was about a ten minute walk away. I saw her purse on the ground. I picked it up. Her car keys were in it. I grabbed the purse and sat in the car. I didn't care how it looked to passerby's. I ignited and stepped on the gas. Within seconds, I was hot on the van's tail. We tore down the street at maximum speed, weaving through the light traffic. Whoever the driver was, he seemed to know exactly where he was going. I could tell by the way he made his turns. They weren't impulsive, they were planned, like someone on the way home. The unfriendly realization that he was simply luring me somewhere began to slowly creep into my mind.
          I felt the impact and heard the glass break, but i failed to escape the red zone. I felt myself smash against the door and the car somersault several times before coming to a stop a few meters away. I had a mild concussion and a searing pain in my leg. Everything around me seemed to be out of balance and spinning at the same time. I hit the door several times, but it wouldn't budge. i began leaning on it, using all my fifty seven kilograms of weight. After a few seconds it gave away, spilling me onto the street. I thought I had succeeded, well that was until the pair of combat boots approached me and came to a stop a couple of centimetres away from my face. The person was joined by about four more men. I pulled myself into plank position, trying to get up. The boot came into contact with my face. The smell of shoe polish filled my nostrils and once more, I felt my nose break.
          All five pairs of feet went into action, kicking whatever was available. My entire body was on fire. Blood spewed out of my nose and mouth. Just when I thought I couldn't take it, it ceased. One of them placed something, a phone in front of me. My vision blurred and everything went black. I woke up surrounded by nurses. I was moving. It was a hospital bed. One of the nurses leaned in and told me in the calmest way possible that I was being taken into the OR for emergency surgery. My vision blurred again and everything went black.
          For the second time, I woke up from my unconsciousness. This time, I was in a still hotel bed in a hospital room. There was a ziploc on the bedside table with my wallet, keys,watch and phone in it, but there was another phone in it as well, probably the one that was placed in front of me. I removed it and turned it on. There was no password on it. I scrolled through until I found a single video on its camera roll. I played it. My heart stopped. Hundreds of thoughts rushed through my head at the same time. I sat up and watched again and again as a tied up David begged for me to come and save him. He was in the middle of telling me where when the video was shut off.