Under The Radar [Makoharu]

Chapter 2 - Stranger

Warning:
There may be some inappropriate themes within this chapter.

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I awoke to a cold, solid floor. My back was stiff and my ear felt numb and achy. Exhaustedly, I rubbed my eyes only to realise I was in some sort of cell. There were no windows, the wall was painted black and the floor was made of basic cement, hence the sturdiness.

Where on earth am I? I thought back to my most recent memory of the man in the mask- Oh NO.

NO NO NO NO NO.

I placed my hand on my right earlobe, gently squeezing it to check that my ID chip was still there, which it wasn't. Did he just kidnap me and then slice it out of my ear while I was out cold? How come I'm not dead yet- surely I would've been eliminated by the host?

Footsteps could then be heard out of nowhere.

I took the initiative to try to communicate to the man, well at least I assumed it was him.

"HEY, WHAT AM I DOING HERE? WHY AM I NOT DEAD YET?", I shouted at the top of my lungs until the footsteps died down. A small slit in the wall opened to reveal the man's face; this time it wasn't shrouded in a mask. He had Raven black hair and deep blue eyes which had an uncanny resemblance to the colour of the ocean. Surprisingly, he didn't look much older than me.

"Well hello there, hostage. Your ID chip hasn't been implanted into anyone else yet which means you'll still be alive until it goes to a different person", he replied, his voice seemed more lively than earlier, "So I'm going to have to keep you here until I can sell it off. Unluckily for you, there's no point in me letting you back out onto the streets because you'll end up spontaneously dying which would definitely arouse the police department's attention", he gave me a little smirk before quickly closing the opening in the wall.

My blood pulsed through my body in terror.

"HEY I WON'T LET YOU DO THIS-", I shouted with little determination.
Yes I will...

"I-I-I'LL STEAL MY ID CHIP BACK-"
No you won't...

"JUST YOU WATCH ME"
Sure.

All I heard in response was a laugh that seemed to fade off into the silence.
That silence, it kills me every time.

I looked around the room a second time just in case there was any form of entertainment I'd missed. All I could find was an old model magazine which had been thumbed to death and a bottle of water which, thankfully, was brand-new and sealed. I grabbed both and shoved them onto my thin blanket which was supposed to keep me warm. Suddenly, I was hit with a pang of hunger as my stomach let out a loud rumbling noise. I tried to ignore my longing for food by downing half the bottle of water, only to no avail.

My eyes flickered over to the magazine beside me, the cover had a picture of a scantily-clad woman on it who looked like she had been blatantly photoshopped. I suppose there's nothing else to do... I might as well read it. Reluctantly, I picked up the magazine and opened it to the first page: 'SAVE YOURSELF' was scratched into the paper, it looked like it was done with a fork or something as it was very hard to make out. I flicked to the next page: 'RUN IF YOU CAN'.

My heart shuddered slightly.
This just gets better and better.
The faces of the models within the magazine had been etched away with fork marks and some pages had holes in them where people had ripped out the models faces entirely. Since the majority of the content within the magazine had been scratched at or ripped, I decided to give it a miss and just take a nap. I let out a pained sigh as I put the magazine back down.