THE CODE THAT LINKS US ©

Chapter Twenty One

DYLAN

I have a hard time opening my eyes. The bright light is blinding me. I try to use my hands but it's impossible for me to get them to my face. Are they tied? I shut my eyes, then I open them as much as I can, forcing them to give form to everything that now are just shadows. Some are moving and the others just stay still.

As things finally focus into view, I see three people in front of me. At the bottom upside, there's a big square lit up which seems to be the source of the light.

I look at the floor to find my feet tied to the chair I am sitting on. Where am I? I raise my sight again till I finally find the people's faces in front of me. Three men, all of them wearing black suits. Two familiar ones; the man with the truck and the one at the cafeteria. They're on either side of the man in the middle who is quite tall with slightly curled ash-blond hair, with white skin and big blue eyes.

"Surprise," he says.

"Who are you?" I ask, looking around. I am in a warehouse or what seems to be a warehouse. Piled boxes are all over the place, covered in transparent plastic and there are more suited people around. I look back at the man that is now just three feet apart from me. "Where am I?"

"There's no need to be paranoid..." He snaps his fingers with a British accent like trying to remember something and immediately one of the others replies.

"Dylan."

"Dylan," repeats the man. "You will be fine, as long as you cooperate with us." Is he threatening me?

"What do you want?" I try to stand up but someone pulls me back from my shoulders. There wasn't even a way for me to get up. "My family won't be able to pay for the rescue."

All of them laugh. I don't know what kind of joke I am missing. "Oh no, we are not kidnapping you," the man says. I frown. "I just want what I own back..." he continues.

"I don't know what you're talking about." One of the other men approaches me. I follow him with my eyes and unexpectedly he punches me right in the stomach letting out all the air I was holding in my lungs. "What... the fuck!" I can barely talk and the pain is terrible.

"I am going to tell you what I know," says the fucking blue-eyed man. I glare at the man that punched me, standing next to me. He is tall and strong, so much that the coat he is wearing looks like it's going to tear apart with his next move. "Dylan Papasavvas, born on March the tenth in Chicago, Illinois. Son of Marienne and Hendrick Papasavvas, you have two little sisters who still live with your parents in Illinois. You live in Los Angeles in an apartment of the Griffith tower. In the mornings you work at the AM in the mall along with Kaycee Hawthorne. You practice surf on the weekends in Santa Monica with a young man from San Francisco, Levy Blanchard... does all this sounds familiar to you?" He reads all my information from a yellow folder, the same one I think I saw with the man at the coffee shop. Have they been watching me? What does Levy have to do with all this?

"I understand nothing," I reply.

"I told you what I know of you." He comes closer and bends down in front of me. "I want you to tell me what you know of me," he says, dead serious.

"I know nothing of you." I receive an electric discharge on my side that delivers me a sharp pain that makes me press my teeth. I see that it came from a little golden pen that is now held by the man next to me. "I really don't know anything!" This time I shout, desperate for someone to hear me out. I won a second one, even stronger. "What's wrong with you?!"

The man in front of me stands up and opens the folder again, he takes out a paper and shows it to me. It's a photo of Madison at the Golden Gate. Is that what I need to know of them? Her? Is she one of them? How much did she want to hide? Do they want to hurt her like they're hurting me? Have they hurt her before? What did I get myself into?