Chapter Four

Lydia stands in the sitting room gawking at the intruder. His body was covered head to toe in royal blue fabric, with his head covered by a royal blue hooded cape and an intricate mask. Lydia stares at the mask with her mind flashing to the fleeting memory of the man in black who chased her in Evergreen Park.

'That, that was the man who attacked me,' mentally quivered the girl. As she stood petrified by the spooky man, the man in blue stared back in a rigid pose. His shoulders were arched with arms raised up and frozen stiff, his face behind the mask now contorting to an 'oh shit' expression. The man in blue scrambles to think of what to do. He had been spotted, and for the life of him, he couldn't figure out how he even got in there in the first place.

"Ah..ah..ah..Am I dreaming this?" he could see the girl was about to scream, his own type of panicking starting to set in as a pink light appears behind her. The man in blue stammers and curses before he replies, "What? Pffsst, of course you're dreaming this! I-uh-I mean who would go around dressed like this anyway? HAHAHA! In fact, if this wasn't a dream, could I dooooo this?" The man in blue materializes a set of plushies that looked like white haired Realian ladies, and starts juggling them with a strained smile. Old timer circus music plays in the background as the incredulous girl looks for the source of the music. The man in blue starts singing along to the music, throwing the plushies into the air, and stopping them midair before they explode into confetti.

"Ta-da!"

Lydia maintained her incredulous gaze at the man in blue before she starts running to the door screaming. The man in blue curses to himself and starts chasing the girl around the room. "Hey, no stop! Don't panic! I'm not going to hurt you!" His words of assurance fell on deaf ears as the two ran around the sitting room couches. The man tries to grab the girl to calm her down when he is hurled off his feet by a swirl of pink auras attacking him. "What the hell is this?!" He shouts. Lydia uses the opportunity to maneuver past him.

"Haha! Take that, sucker! Hahahahah!" Lydia with insane laughter dashes from the sitting room to the unlocked sliding door. The man scrambles to his feet and dashes after her with fierce growls. Oh thank heaven she thought, freedom was almost here. She pushes through the door expecting the hard floor of the apartment hallway leading to the elevator. She feels a subtle sensation of falling when stepping blindly into the hall, or what was once the hallway. The girl looks down and starts to scream bloody murder.

"Ahhhhhhhhhh! WHAT THE FUCK! WHATTHEFUCK!" Shrieked Lydia.

'Where was the ground? Where was the ceiling? Where was everything?!'

The hallway leading to the elevator was replaced with an empty void, bottomless and silent. Her screams echoed in the darkness around her like they were in a dark cave, her body glowing like a flashlight in the void. In anime fashion she flails her arms like a flapping bird, and manages to hang on to the bottom half of the door with her hands. The man in blue watches the girl flail and fail to pull herself up from the door, hearing her struggle. His facial expression relaxes to a sigh, producing a peach size sweat drop on his head. The man in blue looks out at the void and mumbles with approval and fascination.

"Huh, a pocket in the encephalon…neat! It's a very nice touch on his part."

"Are you fucking serious!?" screams the irate girl.

"What? Oh right, wouldn't work well for his plans if you die like that. Don't let go now," the man in blue leisurely helps the dandling girl by plucking her up from the edge with one of her hands. He receives her gratitude by being kicked repeatedly.

"Let. Go. Of. Me!" She hissed and struggled.

The man ignores the bratty girl by calmly dragging her by her hands and plops her on the sitting room couch like a porcelain doll. The girl grumbles over how easily he moved her over from the front door to the couch, then became perplexed when she feels a strange presence holding her down to her seat. The man in blue sits on the opposite end of the couch thinking about when to tell the others he screwed up. He mutters under his breath several obscenities while covering his masked face with a gloved hand. The man becomes anxious as his left leg begins to tap repeatedly.

"Wh-who are you? What do you want?" asked the girl. He turns his attention to the girl and stops tapping his foot.

"That is not for you to know yet. All will be told in due time," The man replies with cryptic words.

"What the fuck does that mean?!" Lydia asked with a now sneering face.

"What are you, stupid? It means what I just said," glares the man in blue. He leans in with a creepy leer prompting Lydia to recoil with disgust.

"Take note you will not be harmed, so long as you don't do anything to cause yourself harm." The man in blue sits back and stretches his legs staring at the girl. "All you have to do is sit there and not cause a fuss, and when 'he' has what he needs, you'll be free to go."

Lydia glares back at the man in blue dubious to his intentions. She struggles a bit from her spot on the couch unsure what was keeping her in her seat.

"So…you're kidnapping me?"

"More like forced house arrest…sort of," answered the man in blue. The man had his arms stretched out on the couch tapping his fingers on the top cushions bored. The man appeared more relaxed after getting his story straight, and continues to sit on the couch waiting for something to occur.

"Are you going to tell me why?" Lydia asks.

"Nnnnnnnnnnnnope," he replies, earning another glare for Lydia.

"Can you tell who you are?!"

"That is also classified," smirks the man in blue. He appeared to enjoy messing with the red eyed girl, who now glared daggers into his head.

"I swear if this is another bizarre nightmare, I'm going to be pissed. If you're not going to tell me why your keeping me in my own apartment, can you at least tell me why you're dressed up as blue Darth Vader?" growled the girl. The man responds by stating,

"Actually, this mask is decorated to look like a plague doctor. It's supposed to be symbolic to ancient religion."

'What kind of religion is that from?' mentally scoffs the girl.

"I don't see it," squints the confused girl.

"Says the girl who ran off screaming seeing…never mind. I'm not arguing with a kid about this." The adolescent maintains her scowl at the man in blue mumbling about being almost sixteen. She hangs her head in annoyance, half convinced she was dreaming up this whole mess. 'If this is a dream, this is definitely a crappy one. Who the fuck dreams about being kidnapped? Come on, Liddy, think! What about that stupid lucid dreaming Josie mentioned last time? Use the force! Um...What could I do to get him to tell me more?'

"This is your first kidnapping I assume," Lydia watches the man reaction. 'Ok, making small talk with the guy who trapped you in your own home? Not the best strategy, but let's see where this goes...'

"So? What of it?"

"Well you sound like you don't do this often," commented the girl.

"Oh? And I assume you're an expert on this?" the masked man takes a turn scoffing at her. She furrows her brows before saying,

"Fair point...But this does seem like an odd set up, even to someone who hasn't kidnapped someone before."

"Look, I didn't come up with the plan. You're only supposed to stay here and that's that," the man in blue narrows his eyes at her through his mask. She could see he knew what she was doing and gives her a cold intimidating stare. The young girl stares with trepidation before thinking of reason for why she was taken. 'Well this so far doesn't look like sex trafficking. Maybe organ trafficking? Noooooo, this is probably some kind of weird cult thing. Yeah that's gotta be it! Why else would mentioned that whole religious symbol stuff?'

The girl continues to cringe at the possibility of being abducted by a random extremists cult when she sees the man restraining a grin. She eyes him with suspicion while looking for an opportunity to run to one of the rooms to lock herself in. 'Why did it look like he was listening to me talk? I didn't even say anything.'

The girl gasps softly thinking of a more plausible answer to her situation…

"If this has to do with my mother, then you're wasting your time holding me here. I don't know anything about Mom. I…don't even know where she is," the girl frowns thinking of her mother's voice on the phone. The girl then scowls at the man when she picks up the cloaked man snickering. He tries to no avail hiding his snickers from the paranoid girl.

"Don't you dare laugh at me, you bastard," Lydia hisses at her captor. She clenches her fists and growls with determination before hissing back, "If you don't tell me what's going on, I swear I'm going to cause as much hell as possible until you do."

The man in blue gives her a stoic but eerie stare, making her almost waver in her fleeting determination to look tough. A couple of pink auras begin to appear around her, the man standing his ground to look calm. He looks up to the ceiling as if someone calls to him. "Geez, finally you people help." The girl's eyes blink with confusion watching the man converse with the ceiling.

"Yeah, yeah, I didn't say anything. Just get me out of here before he finds out," said the man in blue.

"Who are you talking to?" Lydia looked at the man in blue confused. She looks around the room looking for the source of what grabbed the man's attention. He gets up from his couch cushion and walks out the door with a casually stroll. Lydia gawks at him in confusion while feeling the force holding her to the couch let go. "Wha-what the fuck. Hey, get back here!" She starts to walk after him with a scowl on her face, a few pink auras popping out of nowhere.

"Like I said, no harm will come to you if you don't give us reason to do so." The man in blue stops at the door over looking the black void and turns to look down at the adolescent girl. He raises one finger remembering what to do before he left as she gets up close enough for the trick.

"So, be a good girl, and stay put." He placed a finger on her forehead as a white light flashes. Lydia spring up from a soft surface. She finds herself still in her apartment, sitting up on her twin bed. The girl looks at the room flabbergasted by her sudden change in space, then becomes even more confused seeing herself back in her school uniform.