Glitch | #ONC2020 ✔

Chapter Fifteen

Kidnapped

I groan as the pain in my head increases exponentially.   Light returns to my vision as my eyes blink, trying to see in the dim room.

My body lurches forward as I attempt to move, but my arms seem to be tied.   Is this the part where the main character in the action book is kidnapped by the antagonist of the story? Because I am sorry to break it to whatever higher being that is creating this, I am not an action hero.

This is not an action story, it is real life.  That ship sailed when I realized I could not walk on walls like Jackie Chan.

I growl at the thought, what exactly happened? At first, I assumed that I was saved.  But seeing that my hands are tied together and I am in a dark room, I do not think that is the case unfortunately. 

But why would that robot tie me up? I would only assume that I would have been hooked up to the system and dreaming about dating Aira again.  So why am I still on Earth?

Is this another part of the system? A protocol where all glitches have to destroy their sanity so the system can take over?

Or is there something far more sinister waiting for me to make the wrong move?  Someone watching me right now, hoping to kill me and all I care about.

Yeah, that is probably not it either as I think about it.

I am not important enough to make such a scary enemy.  I am just a sad kid who was taken away from his mother due to her being insane. 

See? I am totally normal!

Oh who am I kidding? I had a crappy life, so maybe this new hell will be better for me.

Or I am actually going insane due to not being able to see five feet in front of me.

This honestly sucks so much.  

My wrists burn due to the rope that is tied to them is tied way too tight.  The air is cold and damp, making me want to shiver. Somehow, one of my shoes fell off at some point. 

How exactly did that happen?

Anyways, I feel like anyone could get the picture since it was just thrown out there clear as a summer day.

This entire room is way too dark.   What evil mastermind would leave a person in a room with barely any light? Either make the light blinding or make it pitch black.  Anything other then that is sloppy and idiotic.

Maybe the person who kidnapped me is a friend of Aeryn's? Since I did make the untouchable female cry, any one of the glitches could have easily kidnapped me.

Perhaps they waited in the next hallway and waited for a machine to take the bait, hoping that I would either be killed or knocked out.  And since I was knocked out, they dragged me here and have decided to murder me without anyone's knowledge.

But that is just a conspiracy theory.  Even then, every single one of the glitches were inside the hideout before I went on patrol, so that could not be the reason.

Maybe Aira did it.  She was out there with me.  If she is smart enough, she could have made sure a machine was close enough and just talked louder.

Did she start a conversation just to kidnap me? Did I piss her off that much?  I mean, I did call the girl a brat, but it is not like that statement is not true.   She most definitely is a brat, no ways around that.

If Aira did not kidnap me, then who did?

Who else would have a motive to kidnap me?

Was it Aeryn?  I did make the girl cry, so it is quite possible that she got a bit pissed off.  Perhaps she thought I was going to spread her secret around and she wanted to kill me.

But why would Aeryn do that?  There would not be any real motive other than that.  Even then, someone who had saw her acting strange, and would have put two and two together.

Right?

Or maybe she could have fed them lies.  Maybe she is telling them that I was caught and put back in the system and there was not a single way to get me out.

But Aeryn would not do that...probably.

Why am I being like this?  Why am I coming up with theories that are outright wrong and should not be made?  Why am I blaming my friends or someone connected to my friends? I trust those people enough not to try and murder me.

So who else could it be?

If it is not a person connected to my friends in a kind way, could the kidnapper be an enemy?  Could Aeryn have cast out someone and they wanted revenge? I am a pretty scrawny guy if you think about it, so they could have thought they had the overall upper hand. 

And they would be correct if that is their mindset. 

Before I was in the system, I pretty much did not leave my room at all.  My foster parents were okay, both great, but better than some I know of.

So I did not do a lot of upper body strength training.  Hell, I was playing Minecraft nine hours a day, I was not even training my mind.

I was just a husk, surviving as much as I can.   Funny how after a traumatic event for the entire planet, I am no longer that husk.

I am acting like a real person.  While I did act like a normal person in the system, that is an entirely different story.

I thought that world was my dream world, but I am not quite sure anymore.  I do not believe the world right now is my dream world, but the people inside this world is what makes it so great.

I do not want to leave this world any time soon.

Perhaps my previous theory about this being a  way to break my sanity is correct. Or I am just a mentally weak person.

The latter is probably the case.

But just before my brain can go through other possible scenarios about why exactly I am in this prison, I hear a door open.

I strain my wrists as I pull on the rope to try and look at the door.  There stands the shadow of a man.

Before I can even say anything, the lights flick on, making me hiss as my eyes try to adjust.

"I see you are awake."  As my eyes adjust, I realize who is in front of me.

It is the man that I saw when I started to glitch.

Professor Allen Williams,  the man who started all of this.

Chapter Word Count: 1145
Official Book Word Count: 16525