The Darkness Bound

ONE - A World in Darkness

Chapter One – A World in Darkness

“Mmff!” said the heap underneath Deon.

Still a little dazed by the events that had happened to him so suddenly, Deon couldn’t see straight, let alone hear anything as quiet as a muffled groan. He was brought back to reality when a hard kick struck him in his rear which sent him sprawling face first onto the muddy ground.

“What do you think you’re doing, dumbass?” an angry voice half-whispered, half-shouted at him. “Get the hell off me!”

Turning onto his back, Deon saw the dark outline of another person lying on the floor in front of him, their legs knotted with his. It was hard to make out the expression on their face as it was so dark under the thick canopy of trees above him, but he was sure it wasn’t a happy one.

Hearing an annoyed grunt and sensing an onslaught of insults heading his way, Deon quickly untangled his legs and stood up, squinting to see his companion in the dark.

Deon hastily stuck his hand out towards the girl, offering to help her up, but probably shouldn’t have added, “Why are you lying here on the floor anyway?”

The girl moved so quickly that Deon couldn’t even follow her movements. Before he knew it, something whacked him on the back of his head and he gasped in pain. But before he could let out so much as a whimper, a hand was placed roughly over his mouth and dragged him backwards – none too gently – into a range of trees growing close together, hiding them in the already dark night.

But the damage had already been done; judging by the silhouettes, a pair of muscled men stepped into the clearing Deon was just dragged from and looked around.

“Did you hear that, Mitchen?” one of the men said.

“You’re being paranoid again, Julius,” the other man replied. “I didn’t hear anything.”

“That’s because you always have your head stuck up your –”

“At least I don’t hear things like a freaking madman!” Mitchen counted back angrily.

“Shut up, mamma’s boy!”

“Make me, freak!”

At this point, the arguing men grabbed each other and began wrestling, each trying to force their opponent to the ground while still keeping up with the stream of insults towards each other.

All the while, the confused Deon looked on helplessly, wondering what was going on, until he was pulled backwards again by his kidnapper, with enough force to make him stumble backwards, but as quietly as if they were blending in with the darkness itself.

When the sound of the two men’s argument and scuffling disappeared completely, Deon’s captor finally released him, muttering something along the lines of ‘good thing they’re so dumb’. The thick canopy of foliage above them still showed no sign of breaking, so no light shone for Deon to make out much about the person standing in front of him. But from what he could see was that she was slightly shorter than him and wore an expression that made him feel like he had done something very wrong.

As Deon’s eyes slowly got used to the darkness, his captor seemed to get angrier and angrier by the moment. Suddenly, she moved forward and grabbed the front of Deon’s shirt and, with surprising strength, lifted him up a foot off the ground.

Before Deon could cry out or curse, she him asked in icy tones, “What the hell do you think you were doing back there?”

“Let me go!” Deon struggled but her grip was too strong and her stance too firm. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”