by Sourav Deka
“No, we are fine,” I said. “He will tell us everything. Calm down.”
We put Kelvin on the car’s trunk and Andrea started the car. She was shivering in fear. It can be seen in her face.
I got into the seat next to Andrea. “If you don’t mind, I should drive the car,” I said. “You are scared. You will hit someone or something.”
Andrea looked at me in anger. She was breathing heavily, her whole face turned red. “No, I am fine. I can drive,” she grabbed the steering.
Aaron got into the back seat. “Think about this. Are you sure?” he said.
“Yes!” she started the car. “I can do this,” she inhaled deeply. “I can.”
I chuckled and crossed my arms. “Okay, but don’t kill us today with your driving.”
Aaron smiled. Andrea simmered with anger like she was going to kill me now. We drove for an hour until we reached our hotel. Luckily she drove well.
“Are you crazy?” My eyes widened. “You brought us to a hotel? If anyone sees us here we will be in serious trouble.”
“We are already in trouble,” Andrea said. “I don’t know any other place where we can hide him. We need to sneak him to the hotel.”
“This is a hotel Andrea, find some other place. We can’t sneak him in. There are a lot of people.”
“I know,” she gulped. “But what choice do I have? I don’t know any place.”
“Ask your mother, she will know.”
“Okay,” she took out her cell phone and called her mother.
Gloria gave us an address of a cheap hotel that she owned. But it was far away, about twenty miles away.
“Okay. We can take him there,” Andrea said. “No one will say anything. Mom owns the place. We can do anything.”
“Great,” I clapped.
We drove to that address. The hotel was between farms, very few people live there. It had some broken cars outside which were covered in dust and some middle aged people were playing cards outside sitting around a round table. They were workers of the hotel, as there were very few customers, they were free and passing time outside. We took out Kelvin and took him inside the hotel. The hotel staff knew everything as Gloria told them before. So they didn’t stop us. We took him upstairs in a room and locked the door.
“We should open it now and tie him to something,” Aaron murmured.
“Yeah, Andrea, bring some ropes and tapes,” I said. “Aaron and I are going to tie him to the sofa, before he gains consciousness.”
Andrea left the room. After a couple of minutes she came with some ropes and tapes. Kelvin was still unconscious. We tied him to the sofa with the ropes and made sure that they were tight. Aaron splashed some water on his face and woke him up. He gained consciousness and protested by moving and pushing himself against the ropes continuously.
“Hello Kelvin, I guess we already met,” I chuckled. “We have some questions for you.”
“You have made a big mistake,” Kelvin said in a heavy voice.
I gazed into his eyes. “Who sent you to spy on Mrs. Walter’s house?”
“Go to hell,” he spat on my face. “I am not telling you anything. You will be dead soon anyway.”
“Don’t make this hard for us, okay,” I clenched my jaw. “I don’t want to torture you.”
Andrea raised her eyebrows. “You are going to torture him?” she asked.
I turned around and looked at her. “I didn’t want to, but we have to find out.”
I never tortured anyone and I didn’t want to torture anyone. I never thought that I would have to do something like this. But I had to do it. It’s too late to turn back. We had to get information out of him, or else we are dead anyway. I curled my hands into fists and punched him. “Tell me,” I yelled.
“No,” Kelvin said, his lips were bleeding.
I punched him again. “We are not done until you tell us what we need to know.”
“I won’t.”
I kept punching him again and again.
“Ross stop, you will kill him,” Andrea grabbed my hand.
Kelvin’s face was bleeding and my hands were covered in his blood. I grabbed his collar. “You are ready to tell me now?” I yelled.
“No!” Kelvin spat blood from his mouth.
I sat on the floor, and wiped the sweat from my forehead. I was tired. He was tough, didn’t say anything. I guess he was trained for situations like this.
“He is tough, he won’t easily reveal his secrets I guess,” Aaron said.
“Yeah, maybe he is trained for situations like this,” I said. “One thing is now sure. He is not alone. My hunch was right. There is someone who gave him orders and trained him.”
Kelvin laughed. “You are so dead.”
Suddenly someone knocked on the door.
“Who is it?” I said.
“Room service sir,” a male voice answered.
I turned to Andrea. “Did you order something?”
“No, maybe Aaron did,” Andrea said.
Aaron shook his head. “No, I didn’t.”
Before we could think anything, someone kicked the door and broke into our room. A huge black man wearing a grey coat pointed his gun at us.
“Wait, wait! Who are you?” I asked, raising my hands.
“You messed with wrong people kids. You three have to come with me now,” he said.
“Who are you?” I asked again.
“That doesn’t concern you, come with me or else I am going to kill you and dump your bodies in this room. No one will ever find out.”
“Okay, okay. We will go,” Andrea said, shivering in fear.
He freed Kelvin and took us downstairs. When we reached downstairs suddenly Andrea began to scream. “Help! Help! This man is kidnapping us, help!” The manager of the hotel came towards us.
“What are you doing? Leave them or else I will call cops now,” The manager said.
“Well, I am a cop. These three kidnapped a boy named Kelvin Wilson and kept him in this hotel, they tortured him. Look,” he showed Kelvin covered in blood. “My superior sent me here. This is my id,” the huge black man showed his id.
The manager couldn’t help us. He led us here with Kelvin but that’s it. He can’t go against cops, so he and the staff stayed away. The huge black man took us in his car and drove us away from the hotel. I guess we became criminals in Atlanta.
We were sitting on the back seat with handcuffs. Andrea looked at me and Aaron in anger. “Congratulations! We became criminals,” she said. “Now we will rot in prison, thanks to both of you.”
“Still, you shouldn’t have screamed inside the hotel, that was absurd,” Aaron said.
“What should I do, huh?” she raised her voice. “I warned you, told you not to do this but you two didn’t listen.”
“I think something is wrong,” I leaned down my head towards her and whispered. “This guy is not a cop.”
“Maybe he is taking us somewhere to cut our throat. We are dead,” she began to cry.
I looked at Andrea. “No, we weren’t going to die. We will find a way.”
I tried to comfort her but she pushed me away and kept crying. The black man didn’t say anything. He just ignored our talks and kept driving.
CHAPTER 4
After a long drive we reached a mansion. The gate opened and our car parked near a statue of a man looking up at the sky. It was surrounded with two roads made of white concrete. The black guy opened the car’s door. Some more guys with big muscles came to us and took us inside the mansion. The mansion was exquisite with a huge swimming pool and a garden beside it. They took us in a dark room with just a small bulb hanging in the middle providing some light. I was now sure that he was not a cop. This is not a police station, it’s a mansion. Someone else is behind this. They locked the room and left us.
“See, I told you he is not a cop,” I whispered to Aaron.
“Then why did they bring us here?” Aaron whispered back.
“We are going to find out.
”
“They locked us here,” Andrea said. “They are going to torture us. Oh god! I have made a big mistake. I shouldn’t have gotten involved in this.”
“Stay calm,” I said.
“Calm???” a line etched between her eyebrows. “It’s your fault, you two kidnapped Kelvin. I told you this could go wrong.”
After a few minutes a tall black man came inside the room. He was wearing a long black coat. His right cheek had a scar beneath the eye and it looked like he hadn't brushed his teeth in years. The man was creepy. His round eyes glanced at me. “You kidnapped Kelvin,” he clapped. “Great job! So, you were smart enough to find out that he is spying on Walter’s home. I am impressed. Many people failed to notice that he is a spy, you know.”
“Many??” I said. “There were others who found out?”
“Yeah, you are not the first one.”
“Why did you bring us here?”
“I kill everyone who comes finding Ludachris.” he took a deep breath. “But not you as I have an offer.”
“Offer??” Aaron’s forehead creased.
“If you do exactly I say I will reward you.”
I raised my chin. “What if we refuse?”
“Then I will kill you,” he narrowed his eyes. “And believe me, I like to kill people very slowly.”
“Yeah! Yeah! They will do whatever you want. Just don’t kill us,” Andrea interrupted, her chest tightened with fear.
“Shut up, Andrea. Let me talk,” I said.
“No, you kidnapped Kelvin,” her jaw clenched. “I told you it was wrong, and now we are in this mess because of you two,” she yelled.
The tall black man took out his gun and stepped forward towards Andrea.
“This is my home. If you don’t shut your mouth now, I will kill you for free,” he pointed his gun at her head.
Andrea gulped and stayed silent.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“I am Roland Tanner,” he said.
“Why did you bring us here?”
“Because I need you. I have been finding the seeds since my childhood, when I first learned about it from one of my cousins. I am like you.”
“Why did you choose us? You killed everyone who comes finding Ludachris? Why us? What’s so special about us?” Aaron asked.
He grinned. “I choose you two for a reason. You have to do something for me. If you succeed I will even reward you.”
“What type of reward?”
“Don’t you want to know about your parents? What happened to them?”
My jaw tightened. “You know our parents?”
“Yeah, I know your dad. I will tell you about him but first you need to do something for me.”
“How can we trust you?” Aaron said.
“Boy, that’s your only choice.” Tanner narrowed his eyes. “You need to trust me.”
“Okay, we will do what you want us to do, but first you have to tell us about our parents,” I said.
“No, first you need to do as I say. If you succeed,” he shrugged. “Then I will keep my promise.”
Aaron shook his head. “No, we don’t know what you are going to make us do. We can’t promise that.”
“You have to succeed,” he leaned down towards Aaron. “And I tell you about your dad, that’s the deal. You two are locked up here. You are not in a position to make demands.”
“No, that’s not…………….” Aaron stuttered.
I interrupted him. “Okay, deal. We are going to do it.”
Aaron’s expression dulled. “What? No Ross, we don’t know what we are stepping into,” he said.
“We are getting a chance to know about our father, I am not going to lose it,” I looked at Tanner. “Tell me what we need to do.”
Tanner smiled. “You need to go to a forest near the town. My people will take you there. There is a cave, many monsters and animals live there.”
“What??” my eyes widened. “Did you say monsters?”
He nodded. “Yeah, they exist. They are not limited to books and movies.”
“But we are just teenagers. We can’t fight monsters.”
“Don’t worry, my people will provide you with weapons. They will also fight with you. You two won’t be alone.”
“Why don’t you just send your people then? You don’t need us.”
He shook his head. “No, I need you. After defeating all of them inside, you will face a door. That door was opened by your father. He kept something there. I need it.”
“Then break the door and get it.”
“No it doesn’t work that way. He locked it with his blood.”
My eyes widened. “His blood?”
“Yes, now don’t ask me how he did it? Because I don’t know.”
“Okay, go on.”
“The door can be opened with the same DNA of your father’s blood as he locked it the last time. You both are his sons. You share the same DNA in your blood. We will need your blood to open the door,” he chuckled. “Don’t worry, just a little drop so that we can open the door and find out what your father hid there.”
I nodded. “When do we start?”
“Today,” he said. “My people will take you there and provide you weapons. Prepare yourself. My men will come after some minutes.”
Aaron gasped. “Wait! At least, give us some time to prepare ourselves. We are teenagers. We don’t know how to fight.”
He inhaled deeply. “My men will fight. They are good at it. You just have to go with them.”
“You are not coming?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Nah, I am good here.”
Aaron gulped. “We can’t do this.”
“Aaron,” I looked at him. “We have to. This is a chance,” I said. “We will find out what happened to dad.”
“There are monsters in the cave, Ross.”
“He said his men will fight for us. We are good. We just have to go and give our blood to open the door.”
Aaron sighed. “We can die.”
“No you won’t,” Tanner said. “My men are trained professionals. They are good at their job. They will protect you.”
I stared at Aaron’s eyes. “We can do this.”
Aaron nodded.
They took off our handcuffs and took us to the forest. Three more cars followed us. They parked their cars a mile away before reaching the forest as we had to walk from there. There were seventeen people including me, Aaron and Andrea. They gave us some weapons, two guns and a stick which looked like a baseball bat. It was heavy.
I eyed at my gun. “I don’t know how to use it.”
“Just aim and shoot,” one of them said.
I walked towards Andrea. She was waiting beside one of the cars with her hands clasped. “I will wait for you two here,” she said.
I smiled. “I understand.”
“Please come back alive.”
I nodded lightly. “We will.”
We prepared ourselves and went inside the cave. Aaron and I were nervous, we had no idea what kind of monsters were inside. We were just teenagers and now we were stepping into grave danger. Tanner’s men were not enough, this can go south and we may need to turn back. But we needed to do this, this could help us find out about our parents.
After walking a few feet, we heard growling sounds.
“What was that?” Aaron said. He stopped walking and looked around.
A pack of big wolves showed up. They were staring at us from a distance and their saliva was dropping slowly from their mouth. It looked like they hadn't eaten in months. My legs and hands started shivering seeing their sharp teeth. Oh god! Where did we come? For a second seeing their monstrous faces made me regret my decision.
The wolves ran towards us growling and attacked us. There were so many of them. All of us began to shoot them but it wasn’t enough. The wolves succeeded in biting three of our people’s arms. Aaron was scared. He tripped and fell down.
“Are you okay?” I forwarded my hand to pull Aaro
n up.
“Yeah, but I think it’s the beginning, bro,” Aaron grabbed my hand and stood up.
“Have faith in yourself. We will survive,” I patted his back.
We kept shooting at the wolves, after a couple of minutes all the wolves died. Blood was all over the place. Most of us were injured, groaning in pain. But they were still ready to continue the journey. Fortunately, Aaron and I were fine. We stayed back and let Tanner’s men face the wolves.
We walked a bit deeper into the cave. There was a big monster of about nine feet tall with an ugly face eating some animal’s meat. His teeth were very sharp, enough to rip out anyone’s throat. He heard our footsteps and saw us coming. His dark eyes met ours. Before we could shoot, he left his meat and ran growling towards us. I shot him again and again but the bullets had no effect on him. The bullets were like mosquitoes biting him in his skin. He grabbed me, tossed me in the air and then threw me towards the wall. I crashed into the cave’s wall and hurt my back. No one stopped. All of them continued shooting at him but our guys were getting killed. The monster was recklessly ripping Tanner’s guys one after another.
Aaron climbed the monster from behind and hit his head with the baseball bat. He kept hitting him on his head. The monster got annoyed and grabbed Aaron somehow. He was helpless in his grasp, tried hitting his fist but it wasn’t working. The monster threw him high, but he landed safely on his feet. He tried to run as the monster came running towards him. He thought he was dead but Tanner’s men kept shooting at the monster and distracted him. The monster went towards them and started ripping them into pieces. Aaron gathered his courage and climbed the monster’s back again. This time he took out his gun and kept shooting at the monster’s head. It worked, he was hurting. Blood was pumping out from his head from the bullet wounds and at last the monster fainted and fell down. I stood up somehow, my back was aching. Five of our guys were lying dead. Their blood was spilled on the cave’s walls. Aaron came to support me as I hurt my back. I was unable to maintain my balance.
“Are you sure you are going to continue?” Aaron asked, holding my arms helping me to stand up.
“Yeah I will continue, don’t worry, I am fine,” I groaned.
“You don’t seem fine, Ross. You can wait here. I will come for you when I clear the path.”
