I wake up in a dark moist room with no windows. I tried to move my hands but it was tired behind my back and my mouth was taped with duct tape. I was sitting in a chair in the middle of the room facing the door. I could hear the whispering of two people talking and footsteps getting closer to the door. "Where am I?" I thought to myself. I start to panic a little as I look around the room.
The door swings open and the light comes on burning my eyes. Two guys come into a room both holding a bat. "Look who's awake?" One of the guys says wearing all black with a mask. I could tell the other guy was smiling through the mask. "We're just going to ask you a few questions, David." The taller guy rips the duct tape off my mouth. "Where am I? Who are you? How do you know my name?" I ask panicking.
"Calm down you prick, you'll know after we ask the questions?" I nod frantically. "Who runs The Town of Kids?"
"Why do you need to know?" They look at each other, nod, and the taller one speaks again. "Answer the damn question!" He yells. "My brother... My brother runs the place."
He gets closer to my face, "What's his name?" I shake my head. "I'm not telling you until I see both of you guys' faces." He gets even closer to my face then he punches me. "I'm still not... telling you," I said in pain. He punches me again but this time in my throat. I cough and gag while trying to gasp for air.
"Now...Tell me!" I slowly raise my head up with throbbing pain. "No..."
"Okay then bring in the girl." The other guy leaves the room and then brings in a girl squirming in his arms. "Let me go!" Through the pain, I could see it was Juju. "Juju..." I said quietly. They pull up a chair and then tie her to the chair. She was all bruised up and was bleeding from her bottom lip. "I'm not telling y'all shit!"
"Shut up girl!" The tall one turns towards me once again and kneels to my level. "You got one more time David or you going to cause this girl some pain." I swallowed hard then I turned my head to look at Juju. Juju has this tough look on her face like she's been kidnapped before. "I can't give you his name..."
"Okay..." He said calmly. He walks over to Juju and punches her hard in the stomach. Juju grunts in excruciating pain. "Is that all you got?"
"I'm so sorry Juju," I said while trying not to cry. "Don't tell them... nothing David..." Juju says breathless. He walks over to me once again and punches me hard in my face. I spit out blood on the floor as blood covers my teeth. "Let's make this easy for you." He nods at the other guy and they both slide their masks off.
My eyes widen and my breathing picks up. "Laden? Jordan?"
"He remembers us, I'm surprised he didn't recognize our voice." They both chuckle. Juju stays quiet trying to stay conscious and aware. "Y'all are going to pay for this!" I yell with all my strength. Laden smirks, "That sounds like fun. And I know you're wondering why we ask you who your leader is when we already know...Well, we were seeing if you were trustworthy, and guess what, you're not!" I look at them too in pain and dazed to speak.
"We needed new recruits for our own town we're making, and y'all two seem like the best bet. But now I'm not sure."
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
"Why do you think we will join you?" Juju says struggling to speak.
Laden smiles, "This place is way better than "The Town of Kids". We have an arcade, a bowling alley, and also a skating ring. The kids here don't want to leave because this place is their dream. Your brother can't offer y'all anything, we will make both of you top dogs control everybody and everything. We'll let y'all think about it."
They both walk out of the room then I hear the door lock behind them. I look over at Juju who's spitting blood on the floor. "Are you okay?" She looks over at me, "I've had worse days, trust me."
I look around trying to find a way out. "We have to get out of here..." I said trying to stay calm. Juju tries to wiggle the rope with her tied hands to loosen the rope. Juju then looks down at her pocket, "I have a small knife in my pocket but I can't reach it." I looked down at her pocket to see if I could see a print of the knife in her pocket. "Do you always carry a knife around with you?"
Juju continues to try and loosen the rope. "Yes, you don't even know when you'll get kidnapped." Laden quickly swings the door open and to our surprise he throws Joey in the room with his hands tied behind his back and duct tape over his mouth. Joey slams into the ground as he's thrown into the ground. He groans in pain as a tear flows from his left eye.
Joey's shirt was ripped, with a black eye on his right eye, and it looked like he was covered in dirt that was all over his hair and clothing. "Joey!" I yelled.
"Are you okay?" Joey doesn't answer but heavily breathes. I hear footsteps coming down the hall getting closer and closer to the door. The door swings open once again and this time Jordan comes in, unties the ropes on my hands, grabs me by my shirt, and aggressively drags me out of the room. "Where are you taking me?" He doesn't say a word and takes me to another room, straps my legs down, and then straps my arms down to the armchair.
Laden comes through the door with an object that looks like a tattoo gun. "What's that for?" Laden pulls up a chair and nods at Jordan to leave the room. Jordan walks out of the room and Laden stares at me, "So what's your choice?"
"I'm not joining you..." He then punches me in the face once again. "Wrong answer, you didn't learn your lesson the first time we beat you up. You're going to be one of our strong soldiers, Juju and Joey also."
"You do not make sense..." I said with the last strength I got.
"I'll just show you then." Laden grabs a small rolling table, puts the tattoo gun on the table, and then starts prepping by putting gloves on.
"What are you about to do?" Laden grabbed duct tape that was sitting on the floor and then duct-taped my mouth shut. He then grabs an alcohol pad to clean the inside of my right forearm. I start to breathe heavily when the needle starts to scrape my arm. I never knew that a tattoo could hurt that bad.
My vision started to get blurry when I looked down to see what he was doing. I could see the letter D and half of the letter W. I moan in pain from the back and forward motion of the needle. When Laden finished the two letters on my arm were black and bold. "We're all done and the good news is that Joey and Juju have one too.
Laden unties my arms and legs, stands me up, and aggressively throws me back into the room with Joey and Juju.
"Okay here's the deal, I'll let y'all go back to your town on one condition." There was a quick pause then he spoke again. "Y'all have to be my spies and bring me back supplies once a week and if y'all don't...there's going to be consequences."
"What kind of consequences because I'm not betraying my town for you," Juju says.
Laden gets close to Juju's face, "Well some of y'all are wanted kids, popular runaways, thieves, I mean this could end the whole town, so make your choice wisely y'all work for me now." I look over at Joey who looks defeated. "Y'all will hand me over my supplies at a secret spot behind the town, I wish all of you luck and tell them Dark World says hi." A creepy smile slowly covers his face then he starts to put earplugs in his ears.
The same high-pitched ringing fills the room. I put my hands over my ears and fall to the ground. The ringing continues as I pass out from the pain.