AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The muffled voice resumes and abruptly ends when I hear a blunt smacking of skin on skin. The sound of a person being beaten. I hear their pained grunts which are muffled through what I assume is a gag. The gasping and grunting noises become clearer, as if a gag is being lowered from the person wearing it. After a few desperate gasps, I overhear a man’s weakened voice.
“Vadim will kill you for this. You’re betraying your broth-”
Another smack cuts the words off, followed by deep groans as the person who sustained the hit struggles to breathe.
“This is the last chance I’m giving you,” I hear from a man who sounds like the captor. “Approve the transfer, or you die today. And we’ll find someone else to do what you’re too scared to.”
“Today…” I hear being mumbled, “I die a brave man.”
My heart races as I hear a panicked gurgling noises and then silence.
I lie on the cement floor, whimpering with my hand cupped over my mouth to stay quiet. A hot tear runs from the corner of my eye and across my face. The icy ground burns my skin. Wetness seeps through my shirt sleeve. I roll away and lift my upper body, waiting for my vision to steady before I proceed further. The room is so dark I can hardly notice the difference between my eyes open and closed. I blink a few times just to make sure my eyes are actually opening, feeling my eyelashes grazing my skin when I blink them shut.
The captor’s voice echoes through the halls again, making me freeze in terror.
“Da,” he says before I hear another voice coming from a cell phone. The captor paces the room again, listening to the voice on the phone. It goes quiet, and the captor responds.
“He refused to cooperate, but don’t worry. I have other ways to get the job done. I have contacts with the land registry.”
The captor’s footsteps make it sound like he’s walking out of the room. I can still hear the voice on the cell phone but can’t make out the words.
A roar of ignition echoes through the space and a line of bright red-orange light flashes from the bottom of the door to my room, allowing me to piece together that I’m in a cell. The light only reaches the immediate area in front of the door. It’s not enough for me to see the rest of the room, but I feel warmth. I crawl as quietly as I can in front of the door to warm up. The chill from the cement ground rattles my bones and I’m desperate to feel circulation in my fingertips.
The captor’s distant footsteps grow louder as he returns to the cells. He stops in the area I initially heard him from and lets out a deep sigh.
“Ok old man, let’s go,” I hear him announce, followed by him grunting and straining. “Heavy fucker,” he mutters before I hear him walking away again.
When the sound of the captor’s footsteps drift off I wave my arms in front of me, trying to feel my way around the room I’m trapped inside. The further away I go from the door, the colder the room is. My chin trembles uncontrollably, and I can feel the wet fabric of my shirtsleeve freezing into my skin.
My feet wobble when I raise myself up, taking small steps in front of me as carefully as I can to avoid making noise. My hand hits the side of something metal, like a table or cabinet, making a low cymbal strike of a noise. I freeze, hoping the captor didn’t hear me moving around.
Footsteps echo in the distance again, growing louder and clearer.
I hold my hand to my mouth to smother my gasp, hoping a man who just killed someone didn’t hear me moving around in my cell.
I crouch down and crawl towards a far corner, trying to find anything to hide under or inside, but the room feels almost bare. My knee lands in a sharp corner and my body loses balance, tumbling over the side. A scream escapes my mouth as I fall into what feels like a gutter. I suck in panicked breaths, listening to the footsteps come to an abrupt stop.
The silence overwhelms me. I become conscious of any noise my body is making, even the internal ones. The roar of whatever the captor lit up emits a low hum I hope disguises my noises, but if he put me in here, then he knows I’m here.
The sound of water falling echoes from the next cell over. The captor walks around as water drains down the pipes in the next room.
He’s cleaning the room where he just murdered someone.
The little hope I was clinging to crumbles. There is nothing to stop this man from doing the same to me, but why would he want to? I don’t get it. I’m nobody.
Metallic squeaking noises pierce through the cell as a water valve turns. The pipes gurgle as they drain the rest of the water, reminding me of the horrible sounds the man in the next room made just before he died.
The captor walks out of the cell and slams the door shut behind him. I hear his footsteps trail off and a door even further away close shut.
Then silence.
I curl up and wrap my arms around my knees, tucking my head in the void between my torso and legs, and let out a sob. Tears run down both sides of my face as I desperately try to figure out who brought me here and why. Random bits of memories come to me as I try to construct a theory of why anyone would abduct me. They usually kill people in my situation without a second thought.
I scour my memory, trying to recall the moment before I lost consciousness. I was crouched on the floor, falling backwards, and through the corner of my vision I saw the leg of a man who entered our cafe.
And then I was knocked out.
I touch the part of my head that’s been throbbing since I woke up and feel a sharp pain as I inspect the sensitive area, tapping around it, realizing I was hit over the head.
