Hecathe couldn't help but feel tired even though he was simply sleeping. His eyes fluttered open and he looked around, but instead of the morning sun abusing his eyes like every other day, it was the darkness that had greeted him.
All his limbs were hurting for some reason and he felt as if this was normal since he remembered having a car accident.
His bed that had always been comfortable suddenly felt like the most uncomfortable thing ever...
Wait a darn minute.....!!!!
Hecathe's consciousness slowly returned to him and just as it did, he realized that this wasn't his room and nor was he in his bed!
He wasn't even in a hospital for crying out loud!!
He tried to move but felt something stopping him. All of him, to be more exact. The only thing he could move was his head, however, even that was useless since the room was dark and his eyes couldn't register anything except for the pitch-black darkness.
For a minute, he even wondered if he had gone blind but as his eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness, the theory of blindness was kicked out of his mind.
Hecathe tried to struggle out from the restraints, but he couldn't even make out what the thing restraining him was.
The more he moved, the more shuffling and clacking sound of metal was heard, but it made no progress in his escape.
Suddenly Hecathe heard a loud 'Bang' and flinched due to the sudden shock and fear as his head snapped up to look at the dark outline of the door inside this room.
"Stop making noise!" Someone yelled from the outside.
Hecathe gulped as he tried to calm down his poor racing heart that had truly been too shocked by that loud bang.
"W-who's that?" The only guess Hecathe's brain could come up with at this moment was that he had been kidnapped.
Hecathe's eyes widened ever so slightly as he felt that something was off about his voice.
It was... Weird...
Really weird...
However, he didn't bother pondering over it too much as he pushed the thought away.
When he heard no response, he cried out once again, "Let me go! We can talk this out. If you let me go, I'll make sure that the police don-"
"Would you shut up inside there?!" The voice of the angry man from the outside of the door was heard interjecting Hecathe once again.
Hecathe gulped as he tried to twist his hand but even that small action was restrained.
Damn it...
Whoever this kidnapper was, there was no way Hecathe would let him go without a few years of a jail sentence.
They shouldn't have messed with the founder of Zuex! Hecathe was already planning on making sure that they learn this important lesson in the future.
After pointless effort and struggling for an hour or so, Hecathe finally calmed down and closed his eyes as he simply decided to wait for the police to come and save him. If they weren't going to come soon, Hecathe was certainly going to file a complaint against them as well.
He waited for minutes, turning into hours and soon those hours turned into a whole day. A whole day passed and his stomach started growling in hunger, but there was no sign of anyone coming to rescue him.
This room was so dark that he couldn't even guess what time it was.
On the second day, he suddenly heard some noise and the door to the room opened, but there was still no light inside the room and hence the face of whoever had entered couldn't be seen. Hecathe wasn't an idiot to believe that it was the police who had come here to save him.
The silhouette belonged to a man and the man was let in by the guards outside so there was only one answer to the identity of this newcomer.
He was the kidnapper.
"What the hell do you need?!" Hecathe asked, not even trying to hide away his hostility. It wasn't like he was going to be polite to his kidnapper, in fact, he wouldn't have been polite even if it wasn't his kidnapper.
After letting the man enter, the door closed once again as the man slowly made his way to the other corner of the room and sat down in a chair that Hecathe didn't even notice was there till now.
He said nothing and simply looked at Hecathe. The only thing Hecathe could make out was his silhouette hence there was no way Hecathe would be able to know what expression the man had on his face as he stared at Hecathe.
Hecathe, "Who the hell are you?"
The man said nothing and Hecathe was also silent after this question.
After a solid minute of awkward silence had passed, Hecathe heard a deep male voice chuckling and it was the man who now had his head down, his shoulders slightly shaking, seeming to laugh at a joke that had never been said.
"Alphius, after knowing what you did, I came here with the intention to kill you."
"..." Hecathe had the urge to correct the man and tell him that he got the wrong guy but before he could say anything, the mysterious man added.
"But that isn't you, is it?"
Hecathe scoffed, "So you kidnapped the wrong guy? Tch- How unprofessional!"
The man stopped laughing and Hecathe was satisfied with it. He was sure that if he were to kidnap someone, he would do a much better job than this man. At least, he won't kidnap the wrong person and realize his mistake only after a few days.
"Who are you?" The man questioned.
Hecathe smirked proudly and was almost about to give out his real name but stopped himself in the end as his brain told him not to reveal his identity just yet. Even if this man had kidnapped Hecathe by mistake, he didn't know who Hecathe was yet. If Hecathe gave his name, there was no guarantee that the man would let him go.
Maybe he would see that kidnapping Hecathe was like stumbling over a Zelium mine worth a lifetime of riches and would be driven by greed to kill Hecathe or bribe him.
"You sure you want to know?" Hecathe laughed, "You'll be shocked to death!"
The man stood up as he heard this and walked over towards Hecathe as he sighed, "Believe me. Right now, nothing you say can shock me."
Hecathe smirked, "Look, brother, you got the wrong guy and I don't wanna have any trouble with you. Just let me go and I'll be on my merry way. I forgive your small mistake and we forget that this whole thing happened. How does that sound?"
Even if this man really fell for this trick and let Hecathe go, there was no way this case would end that easily. Hecathe still planned to sue this man. A few years in jail should teach him not to kidnap the wrong person next time.
The man chuckled as he heard this, "Did you just call me your 'brother' with that mouth?" His right hand reached forward and grabbed Hecathe's face, his fingers digging into Hecathe's cheeks in a rather painful manner.
It was still dark but Hecathe could swear that he saw the man's pair of eyes looking red as he glared at him and for the first time in his life, Hecathe was a little intimidated. Only a little, because if his limbs weren't restrained, he would have surely punched a hole in this man's face for even trying to touch Hecathe's precious handsome face.
"I don't care if you're Alphius or not but if you dare call me brother with his face, I will make sure to collect your tongue," It was a clear threat and Hecathe wasn't a person who enjoyed being threatened.
Hecathe gritted his teeth as he spat out, "Try me."
"..."
What came to him as a response was a punch to his face. A punch that made his whole face feel numb for a few seconds with his head ringing and he was almost sure that his jaw had been dislocated.
Hecathe's head had been forcefully snapped towards the right making him feel as if his neck had almost been broken, but thankfully, he was still able to move his head and face the man again, however, not for long as the man punched him again and this time, it was a punch to the nose that had surely broken Hecathe's nose bridge, there was no doubt about it.
Warm blood flowed down from his nose and Hecathe felt as if he was losing consciousness all over again.
"You dare!"
Another punch to the face and Hecathe was now completely sure that this man wasn't playing around. He really wanted to go to jail for picking a fight with the Zelium Legend!!
Hecathe's eyelids felt heavy as he looked at the man with half-open eyes and smiled as he ignored the blood trickling down from the corner of his busted lips, "I'll kill you, Bastard..."
The man scoffed mockingly as he punched once again and this time, the punch was strong enough to knock Hecathe out cold.
The last hate-filled thought that Hecathe had before he completely went blank: Just you wait...!