It’s getting dark in the city. The last shoots of the sun are hiding in oblivion, and you can feel some waves of coldness in the air. Muffed voices, the transport’s noise, and other sounds reach the woods just like through the deaf wall, as if life does not stop and remains so active. Time kind of stopped here. No noises, no birds’ singing – only the strong gusts of wind that make trees that reach out the sky shake in a soundless round dance. This place is kind of a dead zone that makes a person feel anxious and tense. The piece of the ground where a human has never walked. Before today.
Sinister calm is disrupted by the crunch of the wheels of the car, which is driving slowly on the path as if the owner knows where to go and what they need for sure. The only source of light is bright headlights, thanks to which it’s much easier to orientate here and avoid the threat of crashing into a tree. All the flying insects reach the light like bees get attracted to honey and accompany the car the whole way. Until the transport stops slowly in front of the abandoned building that nobody remembers and hardly knows about. From some distance, you can see that it’s dark inside, and the glasses are broken out of the frames.
At some moment, the car stops a few miles away from the entrance of the building as small rocks and dry sticks that fell off the trees grounded near crunch under the wheels. The roaring motor shuts down sharply, letting the deep silence get its infinite power of all of it. A little bit before the doors of the car open. The young man with light brown hair brushed into a loose bun, who is wearing simple dark clothes, leaves the driver’s seat. And his passenger is much older. With blonde hair and dark eyes, with easily seen circles under them. He looks at what surrounds him with an indifferent look as if he rates the place where he has just arrived. And he is happy enough with it, judging by the sly smile that flashes on his face covered with tons of mimic wrinkles.
“Follow me, Mr. Longbottom!” the young man makes a calling gesture with a slight smile. “I will show you the way.”
“Yes, let’s go,” the older man nods. “Let’s not make the guys wait.”
“Oh! It seems like I see Luther’s car! It’s there, far from here! You see?”
“Right, that’s his car…” The older man glances at the black car that does not look like new and is parked a little further than the one he came in. “The guys are here, then.”
“Hurry up! Let’s not waste time!”
The young man goes further to lead his companion, putting the keys from his car in his pocket after locking it. When they pass some distance, they enter the building through the rotten doorway without a door. They can see a lot of wide halls where rotten woods, bricks, and much trash have been lying so long that rats and cockroaches show a great interest in it. Spiders made thick webs in the corners all together, the coldness makes the whole body squeeze, and drops of water that fall monotonously in different places wake up a strong tension.
Later, they come to the brick stairs, on which they get one floor up, trying so hard to be very careful since some stairs are missing, and another one is rotten and is about to crash at any time. The young man warns the older man about being careful multiple times and holds him as the man is trying to pass this barrier. After, they spend some time walking down the long walls where there is still a lot of trash and broken windows and get up on much more ruined stairs, having to be two times careful. Nevertheless, both of them finish their mission successfully, getting closer to their goal every time. The young guy walks forward confidently, and his older companion glances at dry sticks, plastic bags, plastic packs, used cigarettes, and boards that are now black from dampness.
So, they finally reach the large room where there is a lot of similar trash. There is smoke, which is the reason why it’s hard to see something from afar. While the older man looks around again, pulling slightly the sleeves of his gray jumper and regretting silently putting on the light pants and light shoes since they are now covered with mud, his younger companion starts walking from one side to another as if he is looking for someone, for whom he, so to say, has arrived.
“Hey, folks, we’re here!” the young man announces loudly. “Get out now! Men! We’re here! We’ve come!”
A few seconds pass before several young men show up out of nowhere. All of them are tall, with thick bristles on their faces, with a tough body, and they are wearing mainly dark clothes. All of them are dark-haired, but one of them has a burr-headed cut and a big tattoo on his arm as a roaring lion, and another has his eyebrow and lip pierced. None of them looks like you can trust them. They can hardly be called decent men, who would do nothing bad to anyone.
“Mr. Longbottom, Elijah…” one of the men inclines his head with a slight smile. “Glad to see you.”
“Don’t get sick, youth!” Mr. Longbottom replies amicably enough. “So, how can you make me happy?”
“We’ve made your order,” the man with a burr-headed cut says confidently.
“Really? Did you catch that boy?”
“We did!” the man with a pierced eyebrow pronounces proudly. “He is here! Just like you asked!”
“Excellent!” Mr. Longbottom pronounces with a smug smile as he raises his head. “So, how did it go?”
“Not as easy as we wanted,” the fourth man confesses honestly. “We had to work hard.”
“His pals stood in the way again?”
“Nope, that bastard was alone this time. His main ass-licker was with him, but he left at some moment.”
“Aha, it seems like they confronted over something,” the first man assumes. “They didn’t fight, but that guy was definitely too furious. And he decided to get out before the boy wanted to provoke him.”
“Do you want to say the boy started it first?” Mr. Longbottom frowns slightly.
“Exactly, sir!” the third man nods. “And it seems like they fought over his girl.”
“Over his girl?”
“Aha, it’s like your plan’s working. That bastard really started to consider the girl a betrayal.”
“M-m-m, you, guys, made me fucking happy!” Mr. Longbottom smiles much more widely. “I am thrilled!”
“Thanks, Mr. Longbottom,” the man with a burr-headed cut pronounces amicably.
“Alright, stop talking!” Elijah meddles. “What about the boy and where did you leave him?”
“The boy’s here, we tied him up to the chair,” the man with a pierced eyebrow announces. “Luther had to knock him out because he was resisting.”
“And I had to hold the dog while the men carried the body of that bastard in the trunk,” Luther confesses.
“Yeah, I see it was hard for you…” Mr. Longbottom pronounces thoughtfully, looking at all the young men, whose faces are covered with bruises and blood tracks, and whose clothes are ripped in some places.
“Of course, the boy tried, but he did not manage to hold on without his friends,” the first man says confidently. “Moreover, there was much more of us, and he was alone. Even his pal got out.”
“It’s much better for us!”
“Is he still unconscious now?” Elijah specifies.
“Yup, he hasn’t woken up yet,” the man with a burr-headed cut replies. “So, we drove him here and tied him up with no problems.”
“Bring me to him,” Mr. Longbottom says. “I want to look at him. And make sure that’s really him.”
“That’s him! Don’t doubt!”
“Anyway, I want to see.”
“He’s there!” Luther announces as he points aside. “Come, see, enjoy…”
Mr. Longbottom moves his eyes aside and looks through the smoke. He sees the silhouette of the very old chair, on which the man is sitting with his head inclined. He is tightly tied up to the one with thick ropes that squeeze his wrist placed behind the back of it. Smiling slyly and raising his head proudly, the man comes to him slowly but confidently, while his companions follow him. He sees the owner of the gorgeous wheat blonde hair, good physical data, and deathly pale face that is covered with tons of bruises. A thin flow of blood is dry under his blue nose, and there are tons of holes in his simple t-shirt. It’s like he had been beaten cruelly before he was brought here while being unconscious. And he is still out, judging by the man’s eyes that are still closed tightly.
“Good job, men!” Mr. Longbottom exclaims with a sly smile. “You did it brilliantly!”
“Do you want us to make him wake up shortly?” Luther suggests.
“No, don’t do it. Let him wake up on his own.” Mr. Longbottom starts walking slowly around the unconscious man sitting on the table. “I shall wait, I’m not in a rush.”
“I think you don’t have to wait for too long,” the man with a pierced eyebrow assumes. “You’ll be able to talk to him soon.”
“Didn’t he wake up once when you were on the way?”
“No, sir!” the man with a burr-headed cut shakes his head. “Everything was fine.”
“Good… Very good…”
Mr. Longbottom raises the face of the tied man and looks closely at him with open despise and hatred.
“Let’s hope it’s really him.”
“Make sure about it!” Elijah exclaims. “You said something about the birthmark on the neck!”
“Right, I did…”
After walking around the man a little, Mr. Longbottom tilts his head forward and smiles slyly when he sees a small birthmark on the nape of his neck. It’s a little darker than his skin color, and its form looks like a map of a small town that probably exists in real life.
“Yea-a-a-ah…” Mr. Longbottom pronounces confidently. “It’s here… The birthmark…”
“Does it mean you were not wrong?” one of the men concludes.
“No, Darren… I was not wrong. That’s him. Peter Rose. The one I need.”
“The fame of his band was pretty good for you,” one of the men shrugs.
“Yeah… It helped me a lot. It helped me realize that I was fooled once.”
“But now you have a chance to fix all the mistakes,” another man notices.
“And I will not miss this chance. Not for anything.”
Mr. Longbottom grabs rudely the unconscious man by the hair, pulls his head back sharply, and sets his icy look at him.
“So, we have met, Peter. I have finally found you. After I found out that you were alive. And I did not have to apply so much effort.”
Mr. Longbottom smirks evilly.
“Now you, asshole, will pay me for everything. You will pay me for all my suffering. For every second that I suffered because of you. Before today, I doubted that I was on the right track, but your birthmark spoke everything for itself. So, now, I am going to be much crueler and much more determined. I shall destroy you and your girl. You will not hide from me. And your friends will not help you. And they will die if they ruin all my plans.”
“We’re always at your service, sir!” Luther says with his head proudly up. “We’re ready to do anything you say.”
“One beautiful say, you will know who I am. You will know who Marcus Longbottom is. You will know who you really are. I shall help you reach the depths of your soul and find out all the interesting things. Everything you’ve been trying to deny and subdue for years.”
“I am sure that we will need the information that some nice people shared with us,” Elijah expresses hope.
“Be sure, what’s going to happen to you will not be easy for you. I shall make you suffer. I shall make you cry a lot of tears and feel as lonely and miserable as never ever. Powerlessness and despair will be your killer. I will do my best for you to beg me to kill you, after all. Because you will not be able to endure everything I am going to put you through. What’s happening now is nothing. Every day, rates will rise. And one fateful day, one of us will go all-in, and another will have to put all or admit defeat.”
“And the cash will be obliviously yours, Mr. Longbottom,” the man with a pierced eyebrow says confidently.
“Right, Ronald… Absolutely right.”
“Even if the boy did not die after he tried to kill himself, nothing and nobody can help him this time,” the man with a burr-headed cut assures.
“Nobody, David… This time, we can do this. But if we don’t, I shall not give up. I shall be trying again and again. Until his dead body is lying at my feet. Until you check his pulse and say, “Dead!” Or until I do it by myself and feel nothing.”
“Whatever and whoever tries to stop us, we will win anyway,” Elijah assures with his head proudly up.
“Yes… The victory will be ours…”
Marcus smirks evilly, lowering sharply the head of the man named Peter as it falls heavily on his chest like a stone, while his eyes still remain closed tightly.
“Let’s wait for him to wake up! And then I will go first and tell him what he should know. And then you will show up and start a little show for me.”
“We’ve got a backpack with everything we need,” Darren announces proudly. “We’re ready to hit him with electricity, strangle him, and pour a bucket of water over his head. We can also hit him a couple of times.”
“And then we can keep holding him with us and drive him to a more secret place and keep him locked there until he gets weak, and you decide to get rid of him,” Ronald suggests.
“Who said I’d let him go?” Marcus smiles evilly. “Who said he’d go home after all of this? Oh, no! Peter is my captive now. Now, he will have to get through terrible tortures every day until I decide his time has come.”
“Aha, and we can also catch the gal and let him flirt a little before you do what other people didn’t do many years ago,” David sneers.
“The problem with the gal will also be solved. Since we didn’t manage to get rid of her that time, we will do it next time. Both of them will not run away from us forever.”
“That’s right!” Luther says. “Of course, I’m sorry for this cutie, but what I can do if she’s daring your biggest enemy.”
“We will talk about her later. Now let’s deal with this pretty boy.” Marcus smiles evilly. “I can’t wait to see him peeing his pants when he realizes he got in great trouble. When he realizes that he cannot count on his pals, who are far, far from here now.”
“Since he’s fought with one of them, it’s gonna be good for us!” Elijah exclaims. “Minus one problem.”
“You said it right, Elijah.” Marcus raises Peter’s face, squeezing his jaw with his fingers. “I don’t want to spend too much time doing this. My biggest dream is to kill Peter Rose as soon as possible. And I will not calm down until I bury his corpse personally somewhere in the woods. Until I make sure that I will keep silent about the place where his body will be buried when it’s my time to die. His dead body that is about to become the excellent fertilizer for the wood ground.”
Marcus keeps laughing evilly as he looks at the unconscious Peter with despise from up to down. The young guy does not even guess that he is in mortal danger. He does not know the plans of those, who go aside at some moment, hide, and start to wait for their victim to finally wake up in this dark and cold place that is far from the city. The place where it’s freaking tense and silent. Where silence can be ruined by the annoying monotonous sounds of dripping water that can affect negatively even the person, who has always had strong enough mental health and can usually keep calm in any situation.
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