FEAR.DEATH.BY.SWORD

CHAPTER 4

Nemo woke up in a dark room with an awful pain in his neck. He was still trying to rationalize what had happened, but his first thought was about how upset his mom would be when she found out he wasn't coming back with the butter. He looked around and tried to identify where he was as the fog of unconsciousness faded from his head. After a few minutes, when his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he could see he was surrounded by four brick walls with only one window facing his direction. There didn't seem to be a door anywhere in the room, leaving him without a clue as to how he got inside.

The rusted metal chair Nemo sat in wobbled under him as he looked around. Down in front of him, he saw the sweat outline of his unconscious head on a matching metal table. On top of the table, sat a small speaker. If it weren't for the searing pain in his neck, Nemo was sure the uncomfortable chair would have irritated him by now. He tried scooting his chair back from the table, only to realized that he was chained in place. His legs and his chair were chained to the table, which was bolted to the floor, forcing him to stay seated in a very upright forward position.

As he was looking around, still taking in his surroundings, someone switch on a glaring light aimed directly at his face. The light was so intense that he could barely keep his eyes open, but through the slender gaps of his eyelids he thought he could see the silhouettes of people in the window.

A dull robotic voice came from the speaker on the table.

"What is your name?"

Nemo was still trying to find an angle where the light didn't completely blind him when the voice on the speaker repeated itself.

"What is your name?"

"My name is Nathaniel Lake but everyone calls me Nemo. Why am I here? I haven't done anything." said Nemo.

Instead of acknowledging his question, the voice from the speaker asked another one of its own.

"Where were you Tuesday between the hours of 6pm and 3am?"

"Why does it matter where I was, I haven't done anything!" Nemo shouted. "And why am I chained to this chair?"

"Just answer the question." said the voice from the speaker. "The quicker you answer our questions the quicker we can resolve all of this."

Nemo sighed and gave it some thought. "I was home the whole time. I get home from school around four, and I usually don't go anywhere else so I'm sure I was home the whole time." The speaker went quiet for what seemed like hours, but it was actually only about twenty minutes. Finally, just as Nemo was thinking he wouldn't last another second sitting in this uncomfortable chair, the speaker came back on.

"Last question, what were you doing following Neith?"

Nemo's head popped up at the mention of the name. "Neith? Is that the name of the woman that brought me here?" he asked.

"Yes" replied the voice from the speaker.

"Well by the way she ran, it looked like she was in trouble. I didn't know if I could help, but I thought I'd at least follow her and see."

There was slight pause. Nemo heard men whispering in the background before the speaker shut off again. Just as he was dreading sitting there for another twenty minutes with the light shining in his eyes, the light shut off and he heard locks being opened. A section of the wall opened up like a door and four tall men walked in. The tallest of them needed to bend over to make it through the doorway. The other three were slightly shorter and could simply walk through. All of them wore black jackets. Black masks covered the top of their faces, leaving their mouths exposed. Their shirts and pants were different but they somehow managed to still look surprisingly uniform.