Syndedeménos (Connected)

CHAPTER 07

Keenan opened his eyes and he saw a woman he knew very well was stroking his hair. Amber-colored eyes looked at Keenan with a sad look and a smile was etched on her lips. The woman in front of Keenan tried to smile even though her face still gave a sad impression.

"Mom?" The sound that came out of Keenan's mouth had a high frequency. Hearing a voice that didn't match reality made Keenan realize that he was in a dream.

Like a pause in a movie, suddenly Keenan's vision darkened and the scene turned into a long corridor that was vaguely visible. This time Keenan saw himself when he was nine years old running in the corridor of his own house. There was no need to continue, Keenan already knew that the little boy would run towards his parents' bedroom door. When little Keenan arrived at the door of his parents' room, someone came out of the room. Keenan still remembers how much he wanted to see his mother but little Keenan only found his father out with a gloomy face.

The scene moved back to Keenan's bedroom and his mother was standing in the doorway, smiling at her son. Little Keenan moved immediately to reach his mother, but the figure disappeared and made little Keenan scream while crying. The scene repeated itself back to the little Keenan running. Over and over again until finally Keenan focused his mind on getting out of the nightmare.

Finally Keenan really opened his eyes in the real world. In a split second later Keenan closed his eyes again as sunlight filled his vision. After being able to see normally and fully awake, Keenan found himself tied to a chair. His hands were tied behind the back of the chair and his legs were tied to each other.

The nightmare Keenan dreamt was repeated everyday for the last week. Every time Keenan had too many thoughts that lead to uncontrollable things, that was when his mother appeared in his dream. And now the reality was as scary as his nightmare because Keenan became helpless with the body bound by rope. As if the nightmare was a sign for him to be careful. But, it was too late.

As far as Keenan's eyes could see, there were only concrete pillars of the building's construction. He was in the middle of the floor which was also made of concrete. There were no walls demarcating among pillars. From the edge of another building Keenan could tell that he was in the above parking lot of a high-rise building. Keenan also guessed that he was in a building that was abandoned because the floor and some of the pillars were already cracked.

Keenan's eyes narrowed and found a figure sitting leaning on one of the pillars not far from where he was. The figure was big and seemed to be taller than him. After recalling the incident before Keenan passed out, it seemed that the figure had been the person who gagged him from behind after he had a minor accident. The figure seemed to be asleep and didn't realize that Keenan was awake.

Once again Keenan tried to analyze the situation that happened to him at that time. He thought that a building must have access to descend from the top floor to the lower floor so Keenan's gaze scanned the floor from end to end in search of stairs. Instead of finding what he hoped, his gaze caught another figure approaching him. The sound of the footwear rubbing against the concrete made the large sleeping figure wake up. An unfavorable condition for Keenan to escape from that place.

"Looks like I had put in too much anesthetic that made you wake up in the morning."

A small figure walked from one end of the building and approached where Keenan was. The small figure's voice sounded relaxed and casual, making Keenan both annoyed and wary.

What the hell are you. Someone who kÎdnapped me tried to explain something unimportant when in a hurry?!

Keenan raised his head and looked at the man approaching him with a sharp gaze. From his height and innocent face, Keenan predicts the man was younger than him. Man's hair was curly and left untidy. The look in his eyes did not depict the figure of a kidnapper at all. To lift Keenan's body even one inch it seemed that the man would not be able.

“What do you want?! I don't have much time to play with you!” Keenan shouted as the curly haired boy was only feet from his tied position.

"We have no intention of playing with you." Although the boy was briefly jolted by Keenan's shout, his face relaxed again in harmony with his tone. "Ah… I remember Aquila said that you may wonder about your sister's condition after waking up."

Hearing a piece of information about Karen, Keenan immediately widened his eyes. His hands and feet reflexively moved but were restrained by the ropes. Not wanting to wait for Keenan to shout again, the boy continued the information he planned to say.

"She's fine. She was still with her friends and some teachers this morning. Aquila told me to immediately tell you about this.”

Keenan was silent. Half of his mind said that his intuition was correct regarding the strangeness that had occurred after he met Nathan for the first time in the elevator. The other half of his mind was trying to process the situation because it had never occurred to him that Karen was used as bait for his kÎdnapping.

Who is Aquila? I tried to remember all the employees who are in my father's company but none were named Aquila. Is she from Tobias and Valencia's acquaintance?

"My name is Pygmy. The big guy over there is called Mateo. Mateo can't talk. So he'll only look at you when you ask him."

Keenan still remained silent and looked at the small figure in front of him with a dejected gaze. Keenan didn't intend to talk to the boy named Pygmy. Keenan was annoyed again by names of each people who kidnapped him that he felt no need to know. Even the humming that Pygmy was doing right now made Keenan even more annoyed.

After Keenan and Pygmy's eyes didn't meet each other, Keenan just turned his gaze to the big figure named Mateo. Mateo looked at Keenan blankly with a baseball bat in his right hand. It seemed that Mateo's job was to keep Keenan from running away all night.

Just when Keenan thought he was going to spend the whole day with his hands tied, it turned out that the boy who talked a lot of unimportant things was trying to untie Keenan's hands. After his hands were untied by Pygmy, Keenan immediately untied his legs. Keenan held his hand to directly hit the person beside him, remembering Mateo never took his eyes off him. After Keenan managed to untie all the bonds in his body, Pygmy approached Mateo to give orders. Mateo nodded. Then the two kidnappers looked at Keenan who was getting up from the chair.

"Follow us."