The Fever of Winter

1

His breath billowed out in grey puffs as he continued his journey through the dark streets. His nose and cheeks felt numb as a result of the biting weather, his scarf, hat and coat doing the bare minimum to keep out the chill.

Jeongguk thought back through his day, back to his English class where he learnt a new set of vocabulary and had an assignment due for next week which he had yet to start, to his computing class where he learnt a new structure of code to pass through a complex firewall, to his- 

Abruptly, his thought process cut off entirely. At the sound of screeching tires, he snapped his head up just in time to see a white van speeding towards the pavement almost in slow motion. He caught sight of what he thought were two sets of hands reaching out in his direction.

Jeongguk stood frozen resembling a deer in headlights. His thoughts stood stock still until panic finally caught up. 

Unfortunately as it were, by the time his fight or flight reflex kicked in he was already being hauled into the van with hands binding his limbs together using zip ties, followed shorty by a strip of duct tape to cover his mouth, a fabric bag in ink black, shoved over his head. 

He could barley make out words as he fought the urge to fall asleep, kicking and screaming and squirming, but it was pointless.

The thought dawned on him as what was left of his vision faded.. He'd been taken.