Chapter 3

                                    

                                          
*Nathaniel's POV
I woke up after hearing a lot of fuss going on around me. I opened my eyes and saw three strange men standing in the corner of  the room. I  had no idea how long I was out for, but I think it was quite long considering the men in the room looked well rested and not like they had
come here in the middle of the night. Who knew sleeping while tied to a chair could be this comfortable. 
I saw the men talking to Ezra's dad and I tried to overhear what they were talking about, but all I could hear was mumbling. While I was trying to eavesdrop, one of the men started walking over to me. I was a little scared of what was going to happen or what he would potentially say, but I didn't let it show. The man, who looked like every bald middle-aged business man, stood only inches away from me as I felt his gaze slowly gliding across my entire body.  Suddenly I heard him say "untie him please". I was confused, why would they have to untie me. I wasn't complaining because it would be nice to be able to move for once, on the other hand I don't know what they were planning on doing to me. I wasn't really sure if I should feel relieved or stressed.
Ezra's dad came over and untied me before pulling me up by my arms and pushing me over to the man that asked for me to be untied. He put his hands on my shoulders leaning over to my ear and whispering something that made my heart drop "Take your clothes off." I looked at him with fear in my eyes and then I looked at Ezra's dad, but he had an angry look on his face which made me realise that he wouldn't be helping me get out of this. I tried to run away but as soon as my feet started moving, the man grabbed me by my arm and pulled me back to him. He then once again commanded me to take off my clothes."No" I said, clearly not knowing my place in this situation. As soon as the word left my lips, I felt his hand strike my cheek leaving a stinging pain. "It wasn't a question, you will undress for me now!" He yelled with so much anger in his eyes that I wanted to cry, but I couldn't I had to be tough.
I think he realised that I wasn't going to be undressing myself, so he grabbed me by my shirt and tore it apart. I started panicking and began moving my arms around wildly trying to escape  his grip, but my effort was unrewarded. He was trying to remove my pants as I noticed Ezra walking into the room. I looked at him pleading for help, he looked at me then he looked at his dad and then back at me. I saw the guilt in his eyes, but he did nothing. He just stood there staring as it all happened. The man removed my pants and as I stood there completely naked, I was being inspected by him and the two other men. After about 5 minutes, which seemed like an eternity, he told me to put my clothes back on and go sit back down on the chair. I did as he said, not wanting to be slapped again. As I sat back down on the chair, Ezra's dad tied me up again. That was it for my 10 minutes of freedom.
Ezra's dad and the men were discussing something in the corner of the room and once every 2 minutes they looked over at me. After a about half an hour, Ezra's dad shook the hands of the men and they left. Ezra's dad asked Ezra something to which he answered yes, then his dad left as well. Now it was just me and Ezra in the room. He came over to me and handed me a bottle of water which I immediately knocked out his hands. He picked the bottle up and came back over to me, " I don't care how much you hate me, you have to drink water or else you'll die." he told me in a soft voice. "Since when do you care about my wellbeing? I don't remember you helping me earlier when I was put on display like a zoo animal." I said angrily."Well first of all, you're of no use to us when you're dead. Secondly, I'm not a bad guy this is just something that we have to do to survive.""What exactly is that something you're talking about?" I asked him. "Well since there's no way you could ever escape, I guess I could tell you. The guy that inspected you earlier, he and his associates want to buy you." he replied. "BUY ME!" I yelled in shock. "You must be joking! Why don't you just ask my parents for ransom, they would gladly give it to get me back so that this could be all over. I promise I won't tell anyone it was you." Ezra looked at me with a worried look on his face before replying."It's not about the money this time I'm afraid. My dad has had some conflicts with the men that want to buy you and they agreed to forget all that if they got you." This was horrible, not only was I kidnapped but there wasn't any chance that I'd return home anytime soon. I only had one last question for Ezra. "When are they coming to take me with them?" I asked with a shaky voice. "They're coming tomorrow." he answered, to my surprise with a lot of sympathy in his voice.
I couldn't take it anymore I had been trying to act tough the entire time but it was too much for me to handle at the moment, I bursted out in tears. I was surprised when I felt Ezra's hand on my face wiping away my tears when he suddenly kissed me on my lips and whispered " I'm sorry for everything." and left.
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