He was then swiftly moved to the outside of the room. All that he heard after that, was the angry voice echoing random commands to some random people.
"You, go take my bag. And you, why are you still standing there, get in the car. You, lock the door of the room and let's move quickly. Time is running out."
'This whole thing has spoiled the chance of me getting fed. I don't like this at all.'
Jean was burning with rage at the moment. The only golden chance that he felt he had to satiate his hunger was blown away by the sudden departure news. Hunger descended on him like a fearsome beast, as if fueled by the fragile hope that had been shuttered some moments ago.
***
Resting on a comfortable car seat, with both his hands and feet immobilized by the tight ropes, Jean felt a stinging pain straight in his neck. Jerking away with a contorted face, Jean grimaced.
Judging from the impact of painful sting, Jean was sure that something sharp had been inserted into his neck. It seemed like a sharp needle.
The needle-like device, was removed immediately it was pierced into his neck. The pain melted away later on.
Jean gritted his teeth with resentment.
'This is getting serious now. I need to get myself out of this mess as soon as possible before it is too late…. Yeah, that is necessary… but how is it achievable? I am no better than a log of wood, considering my current condition.'
Jean indeed needed to get himself out of his current situation, but what could he do with restrained movements and lack of vision? He just needed to wait for an opportunity to show up. But how sure was he that, the opportunity would come. Even if it happens to come, how sure is he that it would be potent enough to salvage his situation.
Feeling the strings of his heart being tagged, Jean was consumed by ferocity.
'These indeed, are vile bastards. How can they torment an innocent boy like me without giving me even a tiny opportunity to fight for myself? As if that is even the best idea for them… I need to come up with a solution for myself by myself.'
At that moment, Jean froze. Something was not right.
Struggling with the growing weakness in his aching body, Jean felt helpless. What dreaded him the most, was the fact that the weakness was spreading from the point where he was pierced by the needle-like device some moments ago.
He tried to figure out what was happening to him, but his thoughts seemed elusive and blurry. The strangest thing was that; the blurriness was drastically increasing with each moment.
Jean ranted in his racing heart.
'Bastards! What have they done to me? Let it be not what I'm thinking….'
What was lingering in Jean's mind at this moment, was death. He had a feeling that the kidnappers were after his life. But when he recalled how the angry stranger defended him after being slapped by the scatterbrain idiot, he was forced to think otherwise.
'They can't kill me. I am their prize and I need to be in good shape. Wait…'
Jean struggled to focus as he shifted uncomfortably on the chair he was tied on.
'What… what if … the one who pierced me…. Is the scatter… bb… brain?'
That was the extent he could exert himself to think. And this thought was what robbed him off his little remaining hope.
He had hoped that his life could have been spared considering the previous statements from the angry stranger back in the confinement room. But when he imagined the stranger that slapped him moments ago in the room piercing him with the needle, he was forced to forget about hope for a while.
From the way he judged the stranger who slapped him across the face, by his weird character, he suspected that he could be vile enough to take his life with any given opportunity.
At that moment, Jean felt his mind growing blank, as his body weakened further. He then felt the world spinning, and in the next moment, he collapsed in the car seat like a marionette whose strings have been cut off. The sounds in the surroundings died down and suddenly, everything grew still and mute.
***
In Kili City…
The sun rose from the eastern horizon, painting the world in shades of lilac rays. The rays found their way into an exquisite room through a large glass window on the left side from where a broad bed lied. In the bed, a lone Lean figure lied facing down, sprawling on its surface like a statute. If not for its shifting, somebody could have mistaken the figure to a real statute
Lifting his head slightly above the bed's surface, Jean struggled to open his eyes.
The day that he was craving for was here. It was the day for the official house tour. Noticing the sun rays penetrating to his room through the window, Jean rose and sat upright in the bed. Still struggling with sleep in his eyes, he shifted and moved to the edge of the bed in the direction of the window.
Something had attracted his attention. Rubbing his eyes and yawning, Jean fixed his gaze on the window. some birds were singing melodious chants while jumping up and down along the concrete wall on the rear side of the house. Their songs were what had drawn his attention.
This incident reminded him about his life in the village that he left the previous day. It seemed home away from home.
'And who said I am not at home. In fact, this is my new home.'
With that, Jean blinked for a couple times and smiled with the corner of his mouth.
He was away for just some hours, but he was already missing the village. This explained how connected he was with the village life before moving to Kili city with his mom.
Experiencing some village lifestyle while in town was something treasurable to him.
While still fixing his gaze at the fence that the colorful birds were playing on, he noticed something. The birds seemed to be flying behind the fence and then back. At that same moment, he noticed some tree branches protruding behind the concrete fence.
'Oh, I see, there are some plants behind the wall. This has been a common trend along our way here. People seem to love the act of planting plants along the fence.'
When Jean and his mom were coming to this side of the estate, Jean was keen enough to notice that most of the neighborhood treasured the tradition of planting plants along the fence. But when they approached the gate of his current homestead, he noticed something different.
The plants along the perimeter wall, were shorter than those of other surrounding homesteads that he had managed to observe. They seemed of a different species from most of the plants along the fences of the other surrounding homestead. Perhaps that could explain their short nature.
He didn't know the reason behind the previous owner's choice of plants, but he kinder liked the idea itself. He was a fan of the idea behind short plants along the fence.
To him, the looked beautiful, and they didn't obscure the wall's beauty, too. The wall and the plants contrasted each other both in texture and colour. The wall was a composition of both rough texture of stones and smooth texture of concrete plaster. The plants on the other hand, were a mixture of both cool colours like green and purple and bright colours like, pink, yellow and orange – majorly from their flowers.
Judging by the height of the plants along the concrete fence on the rear side of the house, and its distance away from the wall, Jean was convinced that the tall plants belonged to a neighboring homestead that could be located somewhere beyond the wall.
Tilting his head to the left, Jean flinched. He had noticed something dreadful. The ominous tree stood a half a dozen meters away from the window he was peeping from.
Assuming a reserved state, Jean perked up and drew closer to the window. Sighing heavily, he opened the window and shook his head severally. He then hanged his head outside the window and slowly, but vigilantly, tilted his head towards the ominous tree.
Blinking severally, he stared at the tree curiously.
'Nothing again. I am now convinced to doubt what I had previously felt while staring at this tree. It was just…'
Caught mid-way, Jean heard a sudden knock on the door of his room.
Considering the situation that he was in at that moment, with the sound of the knock resounding unexpectedly, Jean found himself jolting vigorously. He then hit his head on one of the steel frames of the window and whimpered.
"Ouch!"
Jean then grimaced and tended to the hurt point of head as he immediately removed his head from the outside of the window.
At that point, a familiar voice resounded at the door of the room.
"Don't tell me you are still sleeping by this time of the day."
On hearing that, Jean wore a dead pan expression and scanned the room. He was looking to confirm if there could be a clock in the room to confirm the time. But at the end of it all, he was disappointed never to notice any.
This early visit by his mom, only meant one thing. It was time for the official house tour.
---{||}---