When I grasped consciousness again, my head felt heavy, like bricks were weighing it down, and my mouth felt fuzzy, as if it had been stuffed with socks. I couldn’t stop the stench of burnt putty from invading my sense of smell. I was powerless. Even the effort to think was taxing. I groaned involuntarily as my body began to wake and catch up with the thoughts and emotions in my head.

The words of a man rolled over me in waves. ‘If I’m going to play a part in this, I get to pick my tune.’ His voice sounded familiar.

‘Well yeah; I knew this stuff was gonna happen! But couldn’t you at least have given me more information about the blast radius so I could get away sooner? Your precious cargo got knocked out by the blast, and now he’s on the floor messing up my plush carpet!’

As I gained greater awareness of my surroundings, I could pick up the words of someone else’s voice on the other end of what sounded like a phone call. Accompanying the voices however, was a faint ringing sound I could hear in my ears.

‘No, of course he’s safe now. Why else would I have called you? I tried to cover his ears but I think the explosion temporarily deafened him too.’

At least the ringing made sense now. I wasn’t going crazy.

‘Well I’m sorry sir! I can’t work miracles in situations like this! He’ll just have to heal on his own.’

I soon became aware that I was lying in a foetal position on the carpet floor. My whole body ached but I couldn’t move to try and alleviate the pain and discomfort.

‘Yes sir… understood. Oh, but in exchange you have to pay for the removal of the black carpet stains,’ he added with a snicker.

I had to smile at that, even though it hurt. The man had some interesting priorities.

I didn’t realise it until then though, that my eyes were screwed tightly shut. I surmised that it was probably a reaction to the explosion and the pain I was feeling. Although it took me considerable effort to do so, I slowly managed to open my eyes.

With my blurred vision I could just make out that my jogging clothes were stained with what looked like black paint. If the carpet was stained, then there was no way my clothes had made through unscathed.

I heard the beep of a phone call ending and the sound of shoes shuffling on carpet. ‘Ah, lookie here! You’re awake after all.’

A pale face came into my field of vision; the man was crouching in front of me.

Until then, I thought- no, I hoped I didn’t know the person, but when I saw his face I immediately recognised that pale skin and dark hair. It had to be the man from the park.

He was wearing a grin on his face and holding a mobile phone in his hand.

I felt a quiet anger simmering inside me, but tried to keep my features neutral so my emotions didn’t betray me- which was pretty easy in my state. However, one wrong move could make my situation worse than it already was, and I wasn’t in a position to run away either.

‘Don’t worry about the carpet. It wasn’t your fault we got splattered with monster goo,’ he said, putting his phone away in his pocket.

Monster goo?

He stood up and all I saw was the bottom of his trousers and his polished black leather shoes.

‘Damn, this stuff is all over the carpet!’ The man exclaimed in disgust. ‘It stinks too. I’ll have to get some stronger air freshener.’ I watched closely as he lifted one of his shoes up. The sticky black matter remained attached to his shoe and the carpet like gum on pavement to a shoe.

‘I wonder how long it takes for a stain like this to be removed?’ The man muttered. ‘Probably too long…’

Then he took a sticky step towards me and chuckled. ‘We have to get you cleaned up. You’ve got monster goo all over you too!’

He crouched down next to me again. ‘Think you can move, pike?’

I groaned in reply.

He sighed and shook his head. ‘I’ll take that as a no.’

He reached forward and started to pull sticky black goo off of my clothes. I grumbled in protest- the only thing I could do.

‘Please don’t be alarmed, I’m trying to free you from the goo,’ he said calmly.

My body was so confined by the goo that I couldn’t even flinch back from his touch.

‘It’s like half-dried PVA glue…’ he muttered as he freed me.

It took a few more minutes for him to speak up again, and this time his tone was softer.

‘Sorry for letting you lie there for so long,’ he said as he pulled the goo off. ‘I had to make an important call to my boss. Did you hear any of it?’

There was no point in lying to him if he was my only source on information about this place. I moved my head to try and nod.

‘Heh, well it doesn’t matter anyway. I’m just relieved that you’re still alive. Didn’t think you would make the trip for a while there.’

I knew that he was almost finished pulling off the remains of the goo that bound me to the floor, because I could finally move my legs- albeit slowly. Some small chunks had started to solidify on my clothes but it didn’t matter, because I could finally move again. It hurt like crazy to shift positions, but it felt so good to be free. 

The man helped me up and let me lean on him for support; he even draped my arm over his shoulder just like he had done in the park and helped me walk. I kept my mouth tightly shut in case another water bottle appeared, but almost laughed at how useless I'd be to stop him if he did try it again.

I didn’t take in too much of my surroundings because I was focusing all my efforts on walking, but from what I could tell we were inside an apartment or an office suite.

‘There you go,’ he said, helping me sit down on a large plush leather lounge. ‘Now wait here for a sec. I think I have some clothes in my room that’ll fit you.’

And with that, he left me sitting on that couch- still in incredible pain I’d like to add. I tried to move my fingers and toes slowly- my shoes had amazingly lasted whatever trip I had been on to get here. Dragging my gaze up from my shoes, I inspected what I now saw was a large, open-plan apartment. The décor from my viewpoint was minimalist in style. This man didn’t have anything personal hanging on the walls or sitting on the coffee table in front of me.

Maybe he doesn’t like to stay in one place for too long? Or maybe, this isn’t even his apartment to begin with. Maybe he stole it!

I had to marvel at my thoughts whilst being in such an unbelievable situation.

Across the room in front of me there were two doors along one wall of the apartment and one on the adjacent wall at the far end on my left, which was probably the entrance. Most likely the other two lead to a bathroom and a bedroom. The whole apartment was vaguely rectangular in shape but the wall I was facing cut away and disappeared at the end a few metres away from the windows and there appeared to be another small area connected to the open-plan room, perhaps a study.  

Suddenly, out of the door on the left along the wall came the man striding towards me, holding a sizeable amount of clothes in his arms.

‘Sorry, they might smell a bit. I went through a bit of a denim and leather phase a while back, so they’ve just been sitting in my drawers untouched for quite a few years.

I crinkled my nose in disgust, as the man kept talking.

‘You can try them on in the bathroom when you feel like you’re able enough to walk.’ He dropped the clothes on the coffee table- not making a move to pick up a few items that rolled off the pile and onto the floor. Then he sat back down where had been sitting before, near me, and then sighed deeply. He folded his arms behind his head and closed his eyes.

‘T-thanks,’ I forced myself to say. Above all else, courtesy was best used in hostile situations such as this.

I watched closely as the man slowly opened his eyes and turned his head in my direction.

‘Ah, no problem, pike.’ He smiled. ‘You weren’t too much trouble to handle after all.’

His calm tone and smile eased the tension a bit, so I ventured to ask another question.

‘W-where are we?’ I asked in a cautious manner.

‘Oh, nowhere fancy. It’s just my apartment,’ he replied nonchalantly, closing his eyes again and breathing in deeply. 

Nice sidestepping of the question, weirdo…

‘And where exactly is that?’ I asked, feeling bolder.

He turned his head, opened his eyes and smiled slyly at me. ‘Ah, getting a bit more confident are we? Well where’s the fun in telling you where we are exactly? It’s not like you’ll be leaving anytime soon.’

My heart dropped. No, no way! He kidnapped me for real?

The man’s smirk vanished in an instant as he realised what he’d just said.

It was at this point that I managed to understand what he did to me in the park.

‘Oh my gosh you drugged me, didn’t you?!’ I yelled at him in horror. I tried to slide away from him on the couch, the feeling in my body returning with the adrenaline triggered by my fear. I didn’t get far before I hit the couch armrest on my right.

The man jumped up from the couch and waved his arms frantically in denial. ‘No, no, no! I didn’t drug you! Who the hell do you think I am?! A crazy kidnapper or some-’

‘WELL YEAH!’ I yelled back at him. ‘WHY ELSE WOULD YOU HAVE REFUSED TO TELL ME WHERE I AM, HUH?!’

He slowly sat down, but this time on the coffee tabletop, bringing a hand up to his forehead and closing his eyes. He took a deep breath, which made me feel even more irritated- like he didn't deserve the luxury to breathe like that, before he opened his eyes to look at me. 

‘I honestly had no personal wills or intentions to uh, “kidnap” you, or keep you here. I’m sorry, I just…I can’t tell you where we are,’ he said defeatedly.

It was a complete contrast to how he had acted moments ago. I calmed down slightly, but I could still hear my heart racing from the shock.

‘Look, I’ve been sworn to secrecy. I can’t tell you where we are without facing massive repercussions,’ he said calmly. ‘Not until I’ve been instructed to by my boss.’

I leaned forward and rested my chin on my shaking clasped hands. ‘From what I’ve seen, um... well, you don’t seem like the type of person to take orders from anyone, let alone your boss.’

The comment made him flinch, even though it was only for a moment, it passed by before he relaxed a fraction and smiled uneasily at me. ‘Oh really? I didn’t think you’d say something like that to me.’

Then he stood up and began to walk towards the kitchen, his movements stiff.

I called out to him. ‘Can I at least know what your name is? Please?’

He sighed and turned back to face me, taking a few moments to compose himself before speaking. ‘I have many names, for many different purposes. Sebastian, Diablo, Lucifer, Raphael, Alejandro and even Frederick that one time... Call me any of these or something else; I don’t really care.’

I groaned internally, watching as he turned back and walked towards the kitchen again. I needed a name so I could report him to the police when I escaped this place. Although he didn't claim to be a kidnapper, whether that was true or not didn't matter because even if it was supposedly not at his personal pleasure to hold me here, he was clearly involved in some criminal acts. It didn’t make it any easier for me if he had that many aliases.

‘But, don’t you have a real name? Don’t you have one that you were born with?’ I asked aloud.

He stopped in his tracks then, and this time I could almost see him thinking hard about whether he would tell me or not.

‘Yes, I did have a name once,’ He said at last with a huge sigh, turning back to face me again. ‘Only, it was a name that my mother and father gave to me before they died. I was only ten years old when they passed, so I can barely recall my real name now. I think perhaps it was… Altonio… or Antonio? Not sure why I’m telling you all this though…’ He scratched his head in thought. ‘You’re very persistent.’

‘Well, I think Altonio sounds unique,’ I boldly suggested. Not the outcome I'd wanted, but at least now I had a few names to give to the police.

‘Alto for short, eh?’ He added with a wry smile and nodded.

I groaned with pain, getting up off the couch slowly. ‘I’m going to try those clothes on.’

‘Sure,’ he waved his hand in acceptance. ‘The bathroom’s the door on the right along that wall in front of you. You can take a shower or whatever when you’re in there if you don’t want to smell like goo anymore.’

When I limped across the room to that door, it opened to reveal a stunning bathroom. It was the kind you might see in an interior design magazine, with matte black tiles and floor to ceiling mirrors and a large spa bath as the centrepiece in the middle of the room. 

Adjacent to the bath, along the right wall was a large shower with pristine glass walls. From certain angles you couldn’t even see the glass, which would probably result in many injuries for some people… 

But my focus went back to the black tiled floor in front of the bath, where there was a pile of clothes almost as high as the bath’s rim. Most of the clothes I could see on the outside were dark in colour, or completely black, reminding me of the black sticky substance on the carpet. 

What I was most curious about however, was how the pile of clothes from the coffee table were now in here when I hadn't even seen him take care to pick up the pieces from the floor that had fallen off the pile, let alone have the courtesy to carry the pile for me into the bathroom due to my current state. 

Suddenly, thoughts of running away came back to me. If I gathered up all of my strength to run across the room to the front door, I just might make it. I turned to look behind me and saw "Altonio" working in the kitchen, his back facing me.

‘Don’t even try to think of running, pike,’ he called out without even turning around. ‘You’re too important to my boss for me to lose on assignment.’

I gulped and stepped back to close the bathroom door. It closed with a quiet snick.

When I couldn’t hold in my frustration any longer, I yelled at the top of my lungs. ‘DAMN IT!’ My voice echoed around the room.

It was a stupid move to make, because it proved I was consciously plotting against him, but I didn’t really care right now. 

Still, some of my pent-up stress was gone after that outburst and at least now, I was finally alone.