The Panic Pure

Chapter Eighteen

His mouth was horribly dry and he moaned as he tried to move his stiff limbs. He felt confused when he realized he couldn't bring his arms down from where they were positioned above his head. Danny shivered, his skin prickling from the surrounding cold. His eyes fluttered open with another moan. His brain felt slow and it took a moment for him to put together what he was seeing.

A whine escaped his throat and he was horrified to realize that he was naked. Naked and tied to some kind of table, his wrists and ankles secured to the corners by wide manacles.

He turned his head back and forth, but the angle was bad and all he could tell was that it looked and smelt like a basement. Dusty and dingy, with the nose-curling scent of mushrooms growing. There was a heavily curtained window near the ceiling on the wall to his left, and there were workbenches and bookcases filled with glass jars and what looked like tools everywhere.

"I see you're finally awake."

Danny turned his head to his right and found a blond man kneeling next to the table, looking at him. He jerked his head back, but there wasn't anywhere for him to go. The man laughed.

The man spoke like they were already in the middle of a conversation, "He likes the meat fresh and tender, but he doesn't care what I do to the carcass before it's slaughtered." He slowly reached out his hand and traced his fingers across Danny's cringing face, brushing against the tears Danny couldn't help.

"Don't be afraid, pretty. I'll take good care of you."

"Please," Danny rasped. "Please, no."

The man "tsked" and picked something up off the floor. "You're really going to beg? I thought you were better than that."

Danny tried to turn his face away, but the man clamped his free hand on his jaw to force his mouth open as he jammed the ball-gag past Danny's teeth.

"I'll be back soon. I wouldn't want to rush with you."

The man walked away, his footsteps retreating across the room and up what sounded like creaky stairs. There was the sound of a door opening and the click of a switch; the overhead light went out.

Danny's world shrunk down to total darkness, then there was the flooding light of an open door, but it only lasted a few seconds before the door swung shut with a heavy sound.

Everything went dark.

Danny shivered in the blackness and tears streamed down his cheeks. He prayed that someone would come to rescue him soon. Before the fun began. Because he knew the man was going to kill him afterward. It was the only reason why he wouldn't have bothered with a mask.

Danny was going to be raped and murdered and no one would ever know what had happened to him. The earth would swallow him whole. He would disappear without a single trace.

He lay in the darkness and wept, the sound muffled by the gag.

* * *

Marshal was losing his mind. Danny had been kidnapped and who knew what was happening to him, and it didn't seem like anyone was doing anything. Sure, there were FBI agents, police, and men and women wearing the uniform of Worth Enterprises swarming the property, but it didn't feel like enough was being done. Not enough for Danny.

"I think we've got it."

He turned to Arthur. They'd moved inside and were using the library as a planning post for the Worth Enterprises security people. He hadn't wanted to get too far away from Arthur and his tablet. He'd decided that the microchip was Danny's best chance of being rescued before it was too late.