Chapter 5
I’m woken by a loud bang that sounds like a firework and the noise vibrates through me like a dentist drill on a nerve. Still in complete darkness I feel around the cold, moist walls - nothing. I hear voices but I'm unable to make out the words. I call out -
'Help!' - I wait, nothing.
'Help me please!' - This time the large iron shutters open, the light burns my eyes and they take a few seconds to adjust. I peer up with my hands above my head showing defeat. I see Ray standing there, Karl is next to him, gagged and taped up. His face is bloodied and bruised and he has a look of fear in his eyes. Ray has a smirk on his face looking pleased with himself. Out of nowhere he pushes Karl into the pit, landing with a deep thud with the shutters closing immediately afterwards.
'Karl, can you hear me?' he groans in pain, at least he's still alive at this stage. I feel around in the complete darkness of the pit, after a few seconds I touch Karl. He screams out in pain, it's one of his legs and I instantly assume it's broken.
'Karl, if you can hear me, try to get into a position you're comfortable. He groans again but doesn’t move. I want to move him but get a feeling it's not a good idea. I feel up his body to his head and gently stroke his hair in an attempt to provide comfort although it probably doesn’t do much good.
Roughly forty-five minutes later, he moves slightly and I hear him take a deep breath.
'James mate, I'm sorry about all this, it's my fault!' Karl gently says.
'Don’t worry about that now, we need to work out how we're going get through this.'
'They've hurt me James!'
'What do you mean they've hurt you?' still gently stroking his head.
'They smashed my legs with a sledge hammer!' Fear strikes my guts and I well up with intense emotion.
'Did they do anything else?'
'They tied me up by my arms and used me as a punch bag.' He begins to whimper - 'I just want to go home now.'
'Me too Karl, did they say anything else to you?'
'Said they are going to teach us a lesson we'll never forget,' he pauses, 'I'm so tired, can't keep my eyes open.'
'Go to sleep mate.'
'James, I saw a woman.' struggling to talk.
'Don’t be silly mate you've been through a lot.'
'No I saw her she said she's sorry.'
'You need to rest.' completely ignoring his comments.
It all goes silent so I sit and wait - for what? I don’t know but just listen to the sound of my friend breathe.
After a few minutes the shutters open again, this time for some reason the loud noise doesn’t startle me. The light from above once again fills the pit, I take the opportunity to look down at Karl, I can see his chest slowly rise and fall from the motion of his breathing. His face is all bloodied, I notice blood is slowly trickling out from his right ear. I know this isn’t a good sign and my friend is in serious need of medical attention.
This time standing above was this tall broad shouldered man who stands there glaring at me. I feel intimidated, my hands shake feeling like a fly caught in a spider's web awaiting certain death. The man then throws down a rope ladder -
'Climb up here boy!' he demands. His voice is deep with power behind it, a voice that needs to be obeyed.
The rope ladder is damp, smells like dirty washing. I struggle to climb it as its unstable jolting me from side to side. I look up as I ascend looking at the man glaring down at me. Part of me wishes the rope would break and I fall back so it would all be over, but I seemed to reach the top in no time at all.
The moment I stand and look at the man in front of me he grabs my arm and escorts me across the large warehouse type building. I look around and notice a crowd of approx six men all big and staring at me with smirks on their faces. The man dragging me towards them stunk of whisky and cigarettes and was repeatedly mumbling to himself but I couldn’t make out the words.
A few seconds later I was standing in front of the men, one of them immediately jumps forward and punches me square on the nose. I fall to the floor in a heap and feel a rain of kicks and punches. The pain is intense, I scream out clutching my head with my arms trying to protect my head and face as much as possible.
Suddenly there's a loud bang, the man who brought me over here has fired a shot from a handgun and shouts.
'Enough, to your feet!' I slowly move with every muscle and bone in my body aching. I eventually stand, whimpering and wipe the blood from my brow. I look at my hand to see an immense amount of blood terrified of the next move.
'Do you know why you’re here?' he asks.
'Yeah because we stole your car?'
'We both know it's a bit more than that don’t we, now where is it?' my mind ponders, I have no idea what he's talking about.
'I, I, I don’t know what you mean?' He draws his gun and presses the cold metal against my forehead, I whimper looking at the floor not daring to look him in the eyes.
'Listen to me, do you want to end up like your friend?'
'No, please I don’t know what you mean, what are you looking for?'
'The bag?' he increases the pressure with the gun on my forehead, he has a look of anger in his eyes, a look that tells me this man won't think twice about putting a bullet through my head.
'I've not seen a bag, what do you mean?'
'Don’t play games, we both know you stashed the bag somewhere and I need to know exactly where it is or you and your half dead friend will rot here!' He then pulls the hammer back on the gun, the sound terrifies me. The clicking was loud and if he has a sudden rage or outburst, I'm dead. I need to be clever and find a way through this, so I lie.
'Ok, ok, I will tell you where the bag is but please don’t kill us!' The man standing in front of me suddenly changes, the anger withdraws from his face instantly and the purple in his skin fades.
No longer having a gun pressed against my head was a relief, I get escorted back to the pit by two different men this time and one of them opens the shutters. I instantly clock Karl lying there not moving with a pool of blood surrounding his head. The man holding my arm looks disappointed and looks down to the floor, he turns to the other.
'I think this one is dead man.' He had a strange American twang to his voice.
'Who gives a shit!' shouts the other, 'we're going to find that tape now and all our worries will be gone!'
I stand there in total shock at the fact Karl is dead. I stare at his chest to try and spot any movement but nothing. I pray in my head, begging god, pleading that he's alive and willingly stare at his chest trying to see any sign of life. My heart sinks into my stomach, Karl's family are going to be devastated. I feel emotion take hold of me like a Boa constrictor, forcing me to yelp out with complete sadness.
The man holding my arm see's I'm upset, there's remorse in his eyes, which he instantly hides and says.
'You'll be next if you don’t take us to that bag!' I look up at him with a careless look on my face. He retaliates by spitting in my face, I instantly wipe away the saliva trying not to regurgitate at the same time.
'Of course,' I say looking up at him, the only thing now on my mind is revenge.
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