Chapter 30

27th December 2019

Noel's POV:

My eyes fluttered open as instantly a bright strong light assaulted my vision. My eyes immediately shut close and my hands shot up to cover them from the light. I blinked slowly squinting my eyes against the blinding beam of light and tried to sit up.

A faint pain emanated in my head causing me to wince. My left hand rubbed the back of my head from where the pain seemed to originate. My fingers felt wet and sticky as I withdrew my hands to look at them. A thick crimson liquid stained my fingers. It was almost dry.

I looked around me to see where I was. It was very dark except for the small window on the top end of the wall which poured a little amount of sunlight that directly fell on me. I stared at the narrow piece of floorboard which was the only thing visible to me right now.

Where am I?

I struggled to get to my feet as my knees buckled refusing to cooperate. I stumbled backward failing to gain balance before I hit the wall behind me. I traced the wall with my bare hands as I slowly made my way forward along with it. The walls were dusty with cobwebs clinging all over it. I dusted my palms off once in a while before continuing to walk forward.

My hands abruptly hit another wall telling me it was one of the corners of the room. I resumed walking along the second wall of the room. Suddenly to my relief my hands brushed against a switch box. I frantically clicked on all the switches as the lights and fans in the room turned on.

It was a small room with no furniture at all. It just had a ceiling fan, a couple of tube lights and few yellow bulbs hanging randomly from the ceiling. It looked absolutely creepy and abandoned. What the hell?

That's when memories of me driving hastily to my neighborhood, Kanyakumari hit my head. Then eventually I realized how I was here. I was talking to Renita about how I found where she was being held. Suddenly my battery died. I didn't have the charger cable in my car and so I thought of stopping the car near some public phone booth to inform her of the further details.

Its because trying to rescue Cathy all by myself is not quite a great idea. The kidnapper might be capable of anything. Informing the police once before going would be better. The police might stop me from going first if I go to them directly, but I was the one who found where she is. I deserve to seek her first.

As the excitement of going to rescue Cathy invaded my mind I got stuck in between heavy traffic. After two minutes or so I pulled my car in front of a small hardware shop at the corner of the road near a construction site. Beside the shop was an old booth which was probably under the control of the hardware shop.

I grabbed my wallet from the passenger seat before slamming the car door shut and walking up to the shop. To reach the shop I had to cross the construction site which looked like it was inactive. There were no workers in or around it. As I was walking to the shop where an old song was blaring from the radio which was hanging from the roof, I felt a sudden sharp pain on the back of my head.

I stopped in my tracks as my hands slowly reached for the place where the pain came. My eyeballs rolled back before I hit the ground.

Rewinding my hours back to recollect what had happened I was still standing with one of my hands over the switch box and staring at the wall in front of me. I dropped my hand looking around for a door. It was right behind me. I pulled on the doorknob and twisted and turned it but it wouldn't budge.

I sighed turning around to look if I had any possibility of getting out of here, but no. The only small window in the room was very high and there was nothing to help me climb to it. I turned back and banged on the door with all my strength.

"Is anyone there? Hello? Can you hear me?", I screamed at the top of my lungs only to be greeted back by silence. I didn't know why I was so much exhausted, I couldn't even shout more than that. I slumped over the door and slid to the ground.

So I am kidnapped? As I dropped my head back the sharp pain again sparkled all over my skull. I squeezed my eyes shut gritting my teeth hard. The pain was unbearable.

Was he following me all along? How did I fail to notice? I had been so carried away about retrieving Cathy that I had failed to notice him.

Thinking back to the moment, when I realized who the kidnapper was after looking at the details that Vasudev's friend had given me still gave me chills.

Victor? After twenty whole years, Victor again? Where was he all these days? And why did he come suddenly out of blue and take Cathy? So many questions piled up in my head. Is Cathy somewhere nearby?

I stood up slowly holding on to the walls beside. The lights seemed to aggravate the headache and so I switched them off and walked to the place where I was lying when I woke up. I then sat against the wall that was facing the only window in the room and sighed. What should I do next? And what happened next was me passing out again without even realizing it.

HAPPY READING!