Matt
My eyes drifted open. My entire body ached. My head was pounding, and I couldn't move anything. As I regained consciousness I realized I was bound to a chair. Tightly. I tasted blood in my mouth. My left eye wouldn't open all the way. I coughed, and blood came out. The cold metal chair was uncomfortable. The room smelled moldy and mildewy.
I looked around, but it was pretty dark. I closed my eyes and opened them again, straining to see. After what felt like an hour, something like sunlight creeped into the room I was by a window that had a heavy green tint; this still made it hard to see, but it was more visible.
It was a concrete room, with a few wooden pillars supporting it. I noticed the windows were at the top of the room instead of in the middle. Was this a basement? There were wooden steps to my right, a workbench in front of me about ten feet, and a bare wall to my left. Above me were lights, but they weren't on. I craned my neck to see behind me. I saw the shadow of a figure sitting in the darkness where the sunlight didn't reach.
"Hey," my voice sounded hoarse and dry. It was so raspy, I was surprised to hear the voice leave my mouth. "Where am I? Who - who are you? Can you help me?"
Silence.
"Hey, can you hear me?" I coughed up more blood.
"Look, I'm not supposed to talk to you, so stop talking," said a voice.
"Who are you?" I asked, trembling.
"Didn't I just tell you to shutup?"
Wait a minute, I recognize that voice. It sounded like a kid. Oh god, what was the name of that kid who threw me in the van? My head pounded harder the more I tried to remember. "Na-Nate-Nathanial? No, wait. Nathan! Right?"
"FOR THE LAST TIME DUDE, SHUT UP!" Nathan said. He emerged from the shadows.
"What the hell is happening?"
"Obviously I can't tell you."
"Why aren't you supposed to talk to me?"
He stayed silent again.
"Untie me." I said.
Nathan laughed. "Yeah, ok!" he said mockingly. "Yeah why don't I just let you go. Yeah, right. Might as well burn the money from this job."
"Really? This is your job?" I asked. "What are you, like, 12?"
"15," he said. He was annoyed.
"Shouldn't you be like, I don't know, in school. Right? Isn't that what kids do?"
He laughed audibly. "Are you telling me to stay in school? What's next? 'Don't do drugs'? 'Stay out of trouble'? 'Don't talk to strangers?'"
"That sounds like some pretty solid advice," I said.
"Man, you're worse than my deadbeat parents," he said.
"Haha, wow. I see why you were told to shut up. You spill a lot. So what's up with your parents, huh?" A punch landed in my gut and I groaned. More blood came out of my mouth. "Touchy subject then. So, uh, you wanna turn on the lights? I don't know if you noticed but it's pretty dark. Nathan. Hey, can I call you Nate? Nathan sounds stupid, no offense."
If I kept this up maybe I could get some information out of him. He seems reluctant to be doing this. He said something about money. Is he trying to support his family. Probabaly poor. I feel bad. He doesn't want to do this. I need to fish something out of him. I remembered Mark. I'm doing this for him.
Nathan groaned audibly. "God, do you ever shut up? You're tied up in a chair and you act like we're out for lunch."
"Well, what am I supposed to do? Just sit here?" I smirked. "Oh, I smirked by the way. Not like you could see it. You know, with the lights off and all."
Light flooded the room. There wasn't much in the basement. Just Nathan by the light switch, me, and the workbench with nothing on it.
"There! Will you stop talking now?" Nathan said.
"Hey Nate, while you're at it why don't you spray some febreze down here. It smells like something died."
"You've got to be kidding me. You're a high maintenance hostage."
"Oh cool, I've never been a hostage,"
Nathan groaned and got in my face.
"Will you just fucking shut up?"
"Why?" I decided to poke around. "Is it because me talking makes it harder to see me as your next paycheck? Because it makes me seem human?" I looked him squarely in his eyes. "Look Nate, I can tell you don't enjoy this type of work. If you let me go, or tell me who you're working for, I can help you out with money." His face softened, but he wasn't about to give in.
"I'm fine, thanks."
"You know, you'd make a good football player."
"Stop talking."
"Why?" I said chuckling.
Silence.
"Why?" I repeated.
Silence.
"Why?!" I yelled.
"Because you're right! I can't deal with this anymore. This sucks. I hate this work." I felt bad for the kid.
"That's cause it's not work. This is torture for both me and you."
There was a long moment of nothingness, but I could hear his stifled sniffles. The rope around my body was rough and tight.
"Alright, here's the deal," he said unwillingly. "You're right about that. But there's no way we can get out of this. Its pointless."
"Give me some background, and we can get out of this," I said carefully. He nodded reluctantly. "Where are we? Where's Mark? Why are we here? Who hired you?"
After a heavy sigh, Nate said, "We're at Chris's house. Mark is here too, I think. Chris is getting revenge here. Chris hired me."
"Great!" My heart skipped a beat. Mark was here. Ok, I had to stay level-headed. "Alright here's what we're gonna do."
