Chapter 2: Point of view
And so, I knew. I knew what happened, or at least, as much as I could. I tried to move a bit, get more glimpses of the room, but so far I could only see the walls surrounding me and the cold that was already starting to bite through my hoodie. As I was looking around the room, a door opened and suddenly there was a man in front of me, dressed in fluorescent clothing. He was wearing bright pink tights, a green shirt and a purple cape. He also had a blue mask and a cap, so I wasn't able to see his face and he was carrying a rubber baseball bat. He came to a stop in front of me and only then did I notice that my legs were tied to the wall as well. He then introduced himself as Eztli and raised his baseball bat. Even though I knew that what was going to happen would be impossible to escape, I still struggled against the bonds, but to no avail. Eztli then started swinging his baseball bat and hit me straight in the stomach. And even though the bat was rubber, my ribs and stomach still hurt as if though they were on fire. After he repeated the movement about ten times or more, he left and locked the door behind him. I couldn't even sit straight anymore, and I collapsed on the cold stone floor in pain and exhaustion.
While Juliet didn't know where she was or how to get out of wherever that place was, Tim skated to her apartment, to apologise to her for his behaviour the day before. He ringed the doorbell and the door opened to show Juliet's mother, panicky, worried and in tears. She told him that Juliet still didn't come home and that she even called the police, but they were unable to find her as well. Tim didn't know what to do, so he ran to the skate park, because that was the first place he could think of and was sure that if anywhere, Juliet would be there. The park however was almost completely empty, and there was no sign of Juliet either. He went back to her house, with worry clouding his brain. When he came to the backyard of the apartment building, he noticed Juliet's skateboard lying in the grass. He knew that Juliet would never just leave her skateboard outside, especially not in the grass which would get wet with the morning dew. He picked the skateboard up and went back home, determined to find her.
Tim was still seated at his desk in front of his computer and doing research on local kidnappers. He found out that the most recent and known one was a man called Eztli. He was a man dressed in colourful clothes, who kidnapped girls dressed in black. The police weren't able to catch him yet because he never left any traces except for the victims' clothes, backpacks, or in Juliet's case, her skateboard. Tim then started to look for Eztli's hideout. He knew that this part was going to be anything but easy, but he wasn't going to just give up on Juliet. His father used to be a cop, so Tim not only had a whole lot of knowledge on how to track people down, but he also had access to all kinds of sources and documents the country had on different cases and criminals. He was going to find Juliet, he didn't know why, but he felt like he had to.
***
When I woke up again, Eztli was in front of me with his baseball bat. He now visited me three times a day and every time he beat me up with the rubber bat and then left me in pain on the floor. I was starving, considering the only meal he ever brought me consisted of a piece of dry cornbread and a cold cup of tea, but I was alive, even though at times I felt like it would be better if I just died and escaped the pain once and for all. I was thinking of what was currently happening to my parents, schoolmates and friends, trying to keep myself alive by clinging to the memories.
They were the only way I could of to pass the time and other than that, the only other thing to do was to observe the room I was trapped in. Luckily, there was a carpet next to me, so I was at least able to keep some of my body heat. The walls were painted a bright green and yellow which literally stung your eyes if you looked at them for too long. There was a flickering light hanging from the ceiling, giving off a pale a sickish glow. A couple of paintings were hung on the walls, if you could even call them that. They were just quotes about the meaning of life, hung on the walls and framed. I read them for about a hundred times and I still didn't understand them. Every day, every time that Eztli came down to visit me, I asked him why he had kidnapped me. And as expected, I never got an answer.
***
But today something was different. First, when Eztli came down, he wasn't wearing his mask. For the first time I saw his face too. And it was the opposite of what I had expected. I don't know why, but for some reason, I thought he would have loads of scars and angry features. But the reality was the complete opposite of that. Eztli had bluer than blue eyes, dark brown eyebrows, long brown eyelashes and his hair was the colour of dark brown chocolate. His lips were a cherry red and at the moment they were in a thin straight line. And even though his skin was slightly tanned, his face was pale, and he looked really shaken up. As every day, I asked him why he had kidnapped me and to my surprise, I got an answer this time. 'As you already know, my name is Eztli' he said, 'I… borrow young girls that are dressed in black, such as yourself. I don't like black, that's the symbol of sadness and mourning. No girl comes back alive from this place. And until now nobody has been able to find me. But, for a few days however, there has been a brunet boy dressed in black and hints of aqua spying around my door, so I am afraid we'll have to speed things up a little bit.' I then noticed a yellow and purple gun hanging from his belt. He grinned and winked at me, walking out of the room without a mention of his daily beatings, cold tea and cornbread.
I repeated his words on my mind and as it clicked I felt my blood run cold; a brown-haired boy dressed in black with hints of aqua. My mind was running miles per second as the pieces came together, it was Tim. But…why?
***
Tim has quite quickly figured out that Eztli was going to be hiding in a cave or at least underground, it was either that or an abandoned warehouse. And so, he started doing research on all of the nearby caves. He found out that the only closed and unvisited cave that was remotely close to the city centre was actually some sort of a mine. He then went to take a look at it one day to try and find at least a trace of Juliet. However, no matter how many times he went there, he never found anything.
Until one day, he caught a sight of a purple cape on the other side of the planks that were covering the entrance. He got closer, leaning his skateboard next to the entrance of the mine, but then something hit him over the head and his vision went dark.
***
I tried to get up again and felt something probe my leg and remembered that I had a pocketknife in my back pocket. I felt stupid for not remembering it sooner but then again, with everything that was going on at the moment, I couldn't really be all that surprised.
I slowly pulled the knife out of my back pocket with two fingers and opened it. I knew it was sharp enough to cut through ropes. I got the knife years ago from my cousin Max and I sharpened it, so it was now able to cut through almost anything. I dragged it across the ropes that were binding my arms at the wrists and at first, it looked as if nothing was going to happen but then the ropes slowly but surely started ripping apart. Once my arms were free, I began to work on my legs as well.
And that was when I heard it. A sound of somebody walking right towards my door, dragging something behind them. Whoever it was seemed to have then changed their mind and continued walking down the hall.
I released a breath I didn't even know I was holding and began cutting the ropes even faster. After what felt like an eternity , I was finally free of my bonds and stood up, or I tried to at least. But considering that I had been sitting or lying on the floor for the past few days and being beaten up in between, I could feel my head spinning and my legs fell asleep as well. So, I needed a few minutes to even stand straight. Then I started exploring the room looking for an exit. It was actually quite bigger than it seemed and there were a few wooden crates on the floor that I haven't noticed before either and started taking pictures off the walls as quietly as I could. Behind one of them I found an air shaft and took the lid off of it. I slowly and carefully climbed inside since the raft wasn't all that wide.
After I was in the shaft for what felt like 10 minutes, I came to some sort of a section. I could hear voices coming from the left side, so I decided to take that route. The first voice was obviously Eztli's, but I wasn't so sure about who the other voice belonged to, even though it did sound familiar. About five minutes later I reached what looked like an opening with iron bars on the right side of the shaft. I looked through and I suddenly realized why the second voice had sounded so familiar.
I could see Tim, lying as if though he was boneless on the chair he was tied to and I could see Eztli bowing and flicking his cape behind him, as if he were doing some kind of show before he turned around and closed the door behind him. Only when I could hear the lock click in the door, did I feel safe enough to come out of the hiding. I quickly scanned the room and noticed that it was about 3 meters tall. I then took of the bars and jumped on the floor as quietly as I could. When Tim saw me, he was surprised on course, confusion and questions were written all over his face. I then took out my pocket knife and began to work on his binds but before I could even do some damage to the ropes, I heard steps coming towards the room again and this time I was sure they weren't going to pass it and walk on.
That could only mean one thing- Eztli was coming back! I looked in panic around myself for a hiding spot since I couldn't very well jump 3 meters into the air. I saw a dark wooden chest, which was about 2 meters deep and 1 meter wide. I opened the chest and in it I could see pieces of colourful silk. I quickly jumped in and just in time too because as soon as I closed it, Eztli walked in the room.
The minute he came in, I could see he was really angry. His blue eyes held a hint of craziness. I swear I could even see foam forming at the corners of his mouth. Then he started screaming. And while I had heard him talk before he usually talked at a somewhat normal tone. While his voice usually sounded rich and like dripping honey, right now he sounded like an outright beast, which he was.
'The girly escaped!' he screamed and stuck a taser to Tim's leg and he screamed in agony. I had to cover my mouth so i didn't scream as well. 'Tell me where she is!' he screamed at Tim. 'I don't know where she is, I swear!' he yelled. Eztli pushed the button on the taser again and Tim screamed even louder than before. I had to look away, because I had a feeling I was going to throw up or scream or both.
'You're out of your mind!' Tim screamed at him hoarsely after Eztli was finished with him and began walking towards the doors again. At his words however, he stopped and turned around. I could see a smirk crossing his features and his eyes held a twinkle of something else than just craziness now. 'Well of course I am out of my mind,' he said 'it's dark and scary in there'. With that he turned around with the smirk still intact on his face he shut and locked the door behind him.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone