DYLAN'S POV
It was already night when we arrived at the very heavy roadblocks, as we were now leaving the city of Southrain, heading towards the city of Pamuti. Yellowleaf was the next town after Pamuti, and it was a fairly long driving distance. There was a small queue of cars, and there were armed police officers who were searching each and every car. Seeing that, I felt relived, looking forward to my car being searched and the man being caught, so that I could finally gain my freedom.
When my turn came, I drove to a stop, "any funny trick and I will shoot", the man reminded me for the umpteenth time. I lowered my window and smiled at the police officer. I opened the door as I meant to step out of the car, just like what everyone else was doing, but the police officer closed my car door with a smile. "You don't need to come out, doctor Dylan de Milo!! Isn't it an honour to see you in the flesh!!" he beamed with joy.
"Hey Frank, come meet the son of the billionaires!" He called out to his friend.
The friend came over, along with three other officers.
"Doctor de Milo, it's a pleasure to meet you", he smiled. "You're the son of the well known billionaires Roderick and Shimmer de Milo, are you not?" the man smiled from ear to ear.
"Yes I am. Nice to meet you too", I responded, then I tilted my head slightly to the back, as I was trying to make the police officer see that I was telling him to check the back seat. He did not get the hint. Instead he continued to talk and laugh happily.
The other officer extended his hand and I shook it, but instead of letting him go, I held him tight, causing him to look into my eyes. Again I tilted my head backwards, as a way of saying please check the back. I tightened my grip on his hand. The police officer's eyes widened in shock. He immediately giggled like a high school girl, turned to his colleague and whispered rather too loudly, "He indeed is into man! Look how he keeps holding on to my hand. That rumor was true! He likes me!".
I immediately let his hand go, and at the same time I felt the nozzle of the gun nudging me on my hip bone. I knew what it meant. The young officer smiled even more, looking around at his friends. The officer who was standing ahead of the car motioned his hands for me to proceed, and I did not move. I looked at him straight in the eyes and jerked my head slightly to the back, as if pointing with my head, asking him to check the back of my car. "You may proceed," he spoke out. Slowly I drove the car, looked at the officers who had greatly let me down, and in a few minutes I bid farewell to Southrain, and hello to the city of Pamuti.
The moment we were out of the police's sight, the man sat up on the back seat and asked, "Who are you!"
"My name is Dylan de Milo", I answered with an irritated voice.
"Oh no!!" he seemed to be in great regret.
"What?" I asked him.
"I kidnapped the de Milo's son!! What did I do?"
By him saying that, at least one of my questions was answered. I was not his target.
"Oh, I should have known. This car is too nice to belong to an ordinary person." He spoke to himself, the regret in his voice was too deep to be missed. Seeing that the man was deeply troubled and worried, I decided to take the chance to make my escape. I started to slow down the car, but too bad for me, he noticed that and shook the gun near my head as he spoke, "there is no turning back now, Dylan de Milo! Let's go! Drive faster!"
After a long drive, before we reached the city's residential areas, the man ordered me to stop the car. With great fear, I parked on the side of the road.
"Drive deeper into the forest," he ordered. I obeyed without saying a word.
"Get down!" he barked. I listened.
"So what were you trying to do back then? Why did you keep holding on to that officer's hand?"
"Because I like him", I said.
He roared into laughter and said "you like him, huh? Since when did you start liking men, doctor Dylan de Milo?"
"Everyone knows that I like men", I said with a straight face. I told myself that if I had to use that rumour to help me at that moment, then let it be.
He roared out laughing even louder. The more he laughed, the more he looked like a mad person.
"Don't fool around with me, doctor Dylan de Milo!"
"And stop calling out my full name each time you call me, its irritating!" I said.
"You dare talk back to me? And in such a rude manner; doctor Dylan de Milo? You? Kneel down!! Kneel now!!" he demanded.
The way he was speaking made me very scared, yet I refused to show that I was scared of him. I could see anger all over him, and he held tightly to his gun. Thinking that he wanted to kill me, I said "you cannot kill me. Very soon the whole police force will be looking for me. Let me go. I won't tell anyone about you, and you can go free."
"Who says I will kill you? But I can't let you go now. I said kneel down!"
"No. I am not kneeling down", I stated it as a matter of fact.
"I have killed before. I can do it again." The man's face suddenly looked solemnly dangerous. His eyes said it all. He was not lying. We remained standing facing each other. I had no explanation for the source of my guts.
"Don't force me to do something terrible! It's already enough trouble that I have you with me here. Why were you driving along that street, don't you stay at the Clear Opal Manor with your family? What were you doing there! I never wanted to take some spoilt child of some silly billionaire!", he really seemed to regret his move to kidnap me.
"Then let me go. I won't report this to anyone." Although I acted brave, my voice was shaky and horse. I was very scared.
"You think I believe you! You think I am dumb? Kneel down now! It's bad enough that I have you with me here! But there is no turning back now! I have you and I will work with you! And believe me if you push me to the limit, I will kill you!" the man had to reinforce his speech by pointing his gun at me, acting as if he was going to pull the trigger at any minute.
As he came closer to me, he forced me to go down on my knees by hitting my shoulder. The piercing pain went through my shoulder. Instinctively, I grabbed his hand for balance. His finger was on the trigger and it needed only one bad move for one of us to get shot. He gave me a hard punch on my stomach, throwing me off balance and I staggered before falling completely onto the ground. At the speed of lightning, the man positioned the gun in his hand and pointed it at me, but I was too quick to kick his leg and he fell on to the ground. We started fighting for the gun again.
He was obviously overpowering me, and as I saw death approaching me at a very fast pace, I could not help but remind him "you can't kill me! Remember who I am! They will find you!" It was a cry of desperation. Never in my life was I involved in a physical fight, and I was obviously not good at it. At the gym I punched the dumbbell punch with speed and agility, but believe me, when it comes to punching a human being, it is not that easy.
Three fire shots fired consecutively from the gun, all of them hitting at my car. For a moment I thought it was me who was shot at, and I checked for the blood that I was sure was going to gush out. Although I saw none, fear still gripped me. There was still a chance of living, and I needed to grab it before the lunatic killed me. I reached out for a stone and with all my might I threw it, aiming to hit him on his head, but he dodged it, and the stone went smashing into my car window. He picked his own stone to hit me but I was fast enough to dodge; amazing myself.
He pulled me up by the collar and hissed in my face "I underestimated you, doctor Dylan de Milo! Who knew you could fight? Now I'm going full force on you!" and with that he gave me a huge blow on my face. His fist punched me so hard that the pain shot into my jaw, going deep to the point of affecting my entire body. I got an instant headache. Immediately darkness and stars moving in a circle enveloped me. Blinking many times, to test my sight, I felt my legs giving in, but I did not fall because he was holding me by the collar.
He pulled me up and served me another forceful punch, way harder than the first. It caused me to bite my inner cheek; and blood instantly gushed out of my mouth. He gave me a third punch on the same spot, and using his knee, kicked me in the stomach; sending me flying from his grip; landing on the hard ground. He angrily marched towards me, straddled me and pointed the gun at me. I closed my eyes and waited for my death.
Nothing came. There was no gun sound. No bullet. Slowly, I opened one of my eyes, for the other one was swollen from the man's punches. He was still standing in the same spot.
"W-who are you?" I stammered. All I could see was a hazy image of him looking down at me. I felt a tear run from the side of my eye and I tasted the blood in my mouth. My energy was fast draining out of me, and I heard the man's voice sounding as if he was far away from me; "I am Eden Salatto. You don't mess with me, doctor Dylan de Milo….." and everything became blank.