Chapter 1: Alone
I came up this so randomly when I decided to join my dad at his work (I'm a child at heart). It was dark outside and I was like, "Oh spooky." There was no one there really, but the lights were on and… well my brain sparked a little so here I am!
A new story, because why the heck not? I refuse to let another idea die in my head because I think, "I'll write that down later!" NO! Just write it down right then and then regardless of where you are. TRUST ME.
Quickie here: there will be some language. But there's a reason hehe.
Anyhooooo…. enjoy!
Disclaimer: I own nothing but my story
6:34 pm.
His eyes snapped open. When he sat up he saw that he was sitting on a work chair with his face planted on a desk. He looked up and squinted, seeing that there was a single light above him. But looking around, it was one of the few lights turned on in this place.
An office.
He was at an office building. But what building? Where? What was going on? Did he fall asleep here, wherever it was? Where were the others?
Tony looked down at his watch and saw three digital numbers: 6:34 pm. How? He quickly felt for his pockets, and was surprised to find them empty. His wallet and phone were gone, along with the keys to his house.
Dang it.
But, that was the least of his concerns. The real problem was, this felt very planned. If he was missing his phone or wallet, fine. Someone robbed him while he was unconscious. But with his pockets empty, and nothing on him but his watch… which wasn't even his! The watch was a digital black band that looked sealed around his left wrist.
There was no notches, no buckle: just a smooth metallic band that connected to the top of the dial. "What the hell?" Tony muttered out loud. He stood up, freaking out. This was really wrong, whatever was happening to him was really really wrong. He's been kidnapped before, tortured, and even dragged to a shopping spree with Pepper. But this was scary.
Deciding that sitting around wouldn't help him leave, the genius walked away from the cubicle and turned on his heels. All around him were cubicles, minus the two parallel carpeted walkways that led to another section of the office. Tony looked up again, noted the light, and saw that there were three other lights turned on in the office block.
He rushed over to the first light that was a couple of cubicles in front of him, and stubbled back alarmed. There was a body, slumped over on the desk, much like him before he woke up. The man's arms were to his side dangling lifelessly. Tony went up to him and pushed his first two fingers to the body's neck.
No pulse.
Tony dared to check, and went around to identify the man's body. A startled gasp escape his lips when he realized it was the messenger from Stark International. The man, Benjamin, was a five year employee, who was so joyful to be around. But seeing his terrified glassy orbs and opened mouth, he looked more like the character in the "Scream" painting, than his bubbly self.
But more importantly, he was at his father's company. And Tony was here too, but had no recollection of how he had even gotten here. In fact he couldn't remember the last thing that happened to him. He knew every detail of yesterday and the past, but nothing about today and what got him here. But… but why?
Suddenly there was a pop, and the light that was turned on above his cubicle turned off. There were two on now, and the last one was on the other side of the office towards the left. Tony looked back at the man, and felt pity. This was no how he should've gone. This man was loyal and one of the happiest men working at the office.
Wasting no time, he said some words in apology before running over to the last cubicle. There was another pop, and the light behind him flickered into darkness.
This desk had no body, thankfully, but instead a flashlight. Tony quickly pocketed the tool and looked around the desk to see if there was anything else that would help. He slapped his forehead, and quickly threw open the cabinet drawers that were on either side of the desk.
Nothing.
To his horror, it looked like every drawer had been emptied. But the ones that seemed to have something, were locked, and without at least a paperclip, Tony had no way of opening the drawers. "GAH!" He screamed. This was frustrating to say the least.
POP! Tony was submerged into darkness. He fished the flashlight from his pocket and turned it on. His heart hammered against his chest, because frankly, this was terrifying. Tony walked towards the large window that was next to the cubicle and saw that he was still in Manhattan. But knowing this building, there was no way for him to signal to the outside of his trapped butt. His father put a one way window, so no one could see inside, but he went even further and placed night guards that blocked others to see the office even at night, regardless of how much light poured out from the inside.
Tony paused mid-thought, and frowned. There was no way for the Stark tower to shut down like this. His father and himself had fingerprint recognition on every keypad, and blueprint on this building. Someone must really know the systems well to be able to lock down the building and override the fail-safe systems that were wired into the mainframe.
He reared back from the window, breathing hard. God, what can he do? Tony slowly made his way to the parallel walkway and turned to his right, following it down to the door that usually blocked off each sector of the offices. It allowed for better concentration and bonding between the employees, plus in case of emergencies, the doors were bullet proof to keep anyone in (or out).
Tony reached for the door handle and heard a sizzle. It was very faint, but with the office so quiet, he was able to pick it up very quickly. His hand retracted to his side as he realized that the door handle was tripped up to an electromagnetic device. If he had touched that handle, he would've been shocked unconscious.
"What the hell…?" He said again, backing up. He made his way to the other door on the other side of the walkway, and listened carefully. He heard no sizzle, but was still doubtful. He wrapped his hand in his shirt and touched the handle, his eyes closed. When he had no reaction, he slowly pulled open the door and noticed the device sitting against the door on the other side. There were three wires attached with it's insulating wrappings gone. The copper wires were directly attached to the door handle.
Tony pulled against the door and ran through just before it shut behind him. The next section was the entrance to the floor. His flashlight picked up the glittering metal that was against the tiled floor. He knew each floor by heart, having had designed some of the floors himself.
There were two large bullet proof glass doors on the very end of the hallway that led to the main floor of the Stark tower. But a number flashed against the side of the wall, indicating the floor level. "32." Tony whispered. He was far from both his father's office and the ground floor.
Tony walked past the receptionist desk, and stopped, backing up. He flashed his light and sighed in relief to see there was a telephone. But he wasn't surprised to hear a dead tone on the line.
So his kidnapper even cut the lines on the phones. That seemed like too much work for a billionaire's kid. Tony frowned again, because there was a lot that was not adding up in this maze. If he could at least try getting out of here, he could find out who did this and why.
The glass door opened with ease as Tony pulled on the handle. He had tripled check the door's attachments, including the bolts that lined the glass panel, to ensure he was in no danger.
Like the office, the entire main floor, and the other levels in the building, were silent. A pin drop would've made Tony wet himself. He went towards the middle, where a railing surrounded the opening. He peered down, and sure enough confirmed that he was on the thirty-second floor after a wave of vertigo knocked him to his knees.
"God." He said softly. He felt so vulnerable, and for a billionaire's kid it wasn't something out of the ordinary. Yet, this feeling was as though someone was watching him.
And planning based on every move he made.
Speaking of watching, Tony's eyes quickly found the cameras that were poised in hidden locations that he placed when he designed the layout. The only way the cameras work twenty-four seven, is if the security room had manually put it in. But since his father passed away, the security detail did manual sweeps of the floor, and kept SWAT on a tight lock. So if someone entered the Stark tower at this hour, SWAT would be here in five minutes.
But the cameras weren't off, but on. The recording light was blinking red, and the lens was trained right on him. So someone was watching him, and most likely in the security room. He knew where it was, so gave the camera a dirty look and started taking the frozen escalators down: floor by floor.
6:53 pm
Tony was on the nineteenth floor when suddenly the escalator came to life. It roared to life, and jerked upward, throwing Tony off balance. He only had a second to brace himself and he tumbled down the steps, groaning once he landed at the bottom. He laid there for a moment, afraid that moving would scramble up his tumbled organs.
As he sat up he felt a nasty gash, on his back, stretch. He paid it no intention and rushed to the next set of escalators to take it down. He carefully hopped down the steps, this time holding onto the railing in case another "accident" happened.
By the time he reached the eleventh level, the moving escalators abruptly stopped, once again launching Tony down the steps. He screamed in rage once his body landed on the seventh floor. He pounded his fist against the floor and screamed, "GO TO HELL!" He shouted again, this time feeling pain cascading down his body. Those escalator steps were ridged and sharp on the corners, so they didn't feel pleasant as he made impact with it.
The escalators can't do that unless someone was manually stopping the mechanism. As a safety protocol, the escalators were made to come to a slow stop, in case riders were on it and would get thrown off by a sudden stop. But the person doing this had access to both security and maintenance branches, so could do as he pleased whenever he or she wanted to.
Tony got to the ground floor and quickly walked towards the the staircase door. He would rather take the stairs than risk getting trapped in the elevators with a psycho watching him.
The basement was quiet, which was strange because there was always the comforting hum of the tower's massive power cells that were right beneath the building. They were ever-lasting and the safest material used to harness tremendous amount of energy. And they were normally never turned off, because to turn them back on would take days.
There was a bar light in the distance that flickered as Tony got closer. He flinched, expecting it to pop like the lights had upstairs on the thirty-fourth floor. But nothing happened.
He rounded the corner and walked into the security room. He had to have someone buzz him into to the main camera room, but to Tony's surprise the doors were opened. All of them stood ajar, with no sign of forced entry. Someone had unlocked all the doors here, which never happened for, well, security reasons.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Footsteps. Tony thought in horror. He wasn't alone.
….
Yes this is a short chapter for a reason. Just wanted this as an introductory chapter for this new story, just to see what y'all think! Like I said, I got this idea just by entering my dad's office building at like six o'clock-ish. It was dark and the building was dark with just a few lights here and there. One light was even right above me!
I always wondered how terrifying it would be if someone was in the building with you… but for the wrong reasons.
ANYWAY… Please review! Let me know what you think! I've been putting out some dark stuff out, but maybe I'll get a cute one-shot out. I already have an idea for it.
REVIEW!
Love- PercyJacksonLover14
