me to a van parked nearby.
“Let me go,” I stil struggled, even though I knew that it was useless.
“Don’t make this harder than it is, Drei,” Carl made me enter the van and he followed suit. He
was sitting so close that it was unnerving.
“Why don’t you just let us go? It’s not that we have any intention to do what you want us to do,
right? It was obvious right from the start. We’l come up with a compromise with the syndicate,
but you don’t need to do this to us. My mom’s been doing what they’ve been telling her to do
and yet---“
Carl suddenly pressed a handkerchief to my face, covering my nose and my mouth. The next
thing I know, the van was spinning just as I saw Zed dragging Anthony in.
~
I was expecting to feel the grip of Carl’s filthy hands on my arms the moment I came to. But to
my surprise, what I felt were rough ropes circled both my wrists. I didn’t open my eyes yet,
careful to all the sounds in the room. If we were to get out of here alive, I must be very vigilant to what our captors were doing. Or what they were planning to do.
Listening to any sounds of Anthony or Drew’s presence in the room was very difficult
considering that I had to feign unconsciousness. Only now did I realize that I was sitting in a
chair, tied to it actually, making it more difficult to feign unconsciousness since my head was
ducked low. I could feel the strain on the muscles of my nape.
“What now? It’s not that we could just force them to work for us,” Carl complained.
“You have way too many worries in your head, Carl. Leave it to them. They can decide. It
seems that until now you haven’t gotten over the fact that they snatched the position from you.
Now tell me I’m wrong,” Carley challenged him when he gave out what seemed to be a groan of
disgust.
“If I wasn’t over it, Carley, why would I be here now?” There was an undeniable smug edge to
his voice.
Wait. They were talking about they. Could it be that there were more than one leaders of the syndicate? Which made it even more difficult to talk our way through all this. How can my mom
and I hand Anthony in? If they had such harsh and illogical rules, it was close to impossible to
convince them to just let us off the hook. Or maybe there was some kind of jury that is
responsible for the decisions of the whole group. If only we could get to the leader without the
jury knowing…
“You have a point. But stil . Your actions speak otherwise.”
“Whatever Carley.”
Suddenly I heard sounds of movement and a bang of a door.
“See? So bitter,” Carley said dismissively to whomever it was that was left in the room with her.
“Let’s go,” the unknown one answered.
I waited until I heard both of them got up from their seats and assumingly exit the door when I
let out the sigh I didn’t know I was holding in. I didn’t realize that being blindfolded like this would double the anxiety.
I tugged on my wrists only to confirm that they really were tied up at the back of the seat. The
second tug told me that the knot wasn’t looped around the chair, which meant that I could
acrobat my way off it. That is, if I was flexible enough.
Trying to elicit some reaction from whoever was left in the room, I tugged on my wrists a third
time, but a more forceful one to exaggerate what I was trying to do. I waited for a few moments,
and to my relief, no one objected.
Slowly I raised my head, the muscles on the back of my neck screaming relief as I did so. With
much concentration, I tugged on the ropes tying my hands again, thinking of a way to escape
them. Suddenly, I felt the ropes being tugged by another person. My heart sank. Just when I
was on the brink of escaping. How will I ever find Drew and Anthony now? I should have waited
a little longer to make sure the coast was clear!
“Hold stil .”
Through the blindfolds, I blinked in thought. Could I be right? That was…
“Anthony?”
“Ssshhh!” Another voice interrupted. Drew!
Finally the ropes on my wrists loosened, and the blindfold from my eyes were off. I blinked to
adjust my eyes to the sudden burst of light. My eyes swept the room we were in, and sure
enough it was in a warehouse. It was practically empty except for my chair. It had the size of our
kitchen except that the ceiling was much higher. It also appeared to be bigger since there was
nothing to consume the space except the chair. I struggled to hold on to hope when I saw that
the only window in the room was a good ten feet from us.
“I know, the window’s high,” Drew’s voice broke my thoughts. He was stil talking in a whisper.
“We could try the door,” Anthony suggested, now untying the ropes on my feet. I realized just
now that they were tied in the first place.
“Even if it’s easy to open, surely it’s heavily guarded,” I countered, stil scanning the room. But now, watching out for cameras.
Drew paced the room, still thinking of a way to get out. He was walking so stealthily that he
didn’t make any sound. I was wracking my brain for options that I didn’t notice what Anthony
was doing. He was tying all the ropes that were tied to us just moments ago.
I patted his arm and shot him a questioning look as he looked at me. He just smiled
reassuringly, but just continued doing it.
When he was through, he jogged to Drew and whispered something to his ear. Drew’s eyes
automatically went to the window above us. My eyebrows furrowed in thought. What was he
planning? Throw himself to the window? Besides, the chair would not make much of a height
enhancer. The window was just way too high.
Finally, Drew nodded and proceeded to where I was seated.
