Chapter 6: The Other One

It was the fourth day since he had been down there. He didn't know where he was or what was going on. He received food and water once a day but he never saw who brought it. His 'cell' was cleaned by morning and he never saw who did that too. He wasn't being maltreated or mishandled, just tied up and connected to a tube. The tube supplied him with oxygen directly to his lungs because the room was completely devoid of air. Oxygen was allowed in only when he was ready to eat. Once he was done, the oxygen would be sucked out of the room until he passed out. By the time he woke up the tube would be back in his nostrils.

Once a day he was made to pass out by means of the tube. By the time he comes to, he'd be in the washroom. A sign was there directing him to take his bath and use the 'loo'. There were cameras everywhere keeping a close eye on him.

Being as smart as he was he started counting the seconds by using his heart-rate as his timer. It was also the only activity that was keeping him focused. He knew that by the time he woke up from sleep he had 1,250 heartbeats before he passed out. He had 350 heartbeats to use the wash up before he passed out again. In that period his food and drink would be provided.

He had also used his sleeping times as a way of counting the days since he found himself in that peculiar situation. On this fourth day something was off, very off. He counted 2,200 heartbeats before his meal came in. This change in routine started to mess with his focus and his instincts started firing like crazy.

He started to work out possible escape scenarios but none of them seemed feasible since he didn't even know how he got there in the first place. There was nothing he could grab and since the cameras were always on, 4 in each room viewing all 4 angles of the whichever room he was in, he couldn't sneak anything into his outfit.

Also for some funny reason, more oxygen was being pumped through the tube as if his captor was trying to keep him awake. it was working, no matter how hard he tried he just couldn't call on the sandman to come sprinkle some fairy dust on his eyelids. He then started counting his heartbeat just to keep him focused but that wasn't working. His mind wouldn't let him.

He tried counting again but the oxygen wasn't helping. Focusing with all his will power he managed to get to 600 irregular heartbeats before then next strange thing happened. The oxygen began to lessen. At first it was relieving, until he realized that whoever was controlling it was about putting him to sleep, again.

As he was passing out, he heard a noise, like a door opening, at a corner of the room you'd least expect a door to be. A man walked in and in the dying moments of his passing out he heard;

"Time to put you back Mr. Charles Takyi. Or should I call you Tek?" That was it, he was out cold.