Alex was surprised when he got the phone call from Sabina. It was one of those rare times when he would show any emotion at all.

Flashback

"Alex here."

"H-hi. It's Sabina. Sabina Pleasure."

"Oh." The memory of the phone call came back to him. All those years ago. This was the girl who had broken his heart. Probably not as bad as he had thought at the time, but it was still pretty bad. "Hi."

"Hey, I-I was just wondering I-if if you would like. If you would like to. If you. I was just wondering if you could like to come have dinner with me sometime. I'm in town and I thought of you. There's this nice little restaurant down town. It's called Chef's Boutique." Sabina stuttered

"Wait. You were in town and you thought of me? How is that possible? I moved to Massachusetts a few years ago."

"I-I ahhh…."

"No matter. Yeah. Sure. How about this Sunday?"

"Sounds. Sounds great."

"Around five?"

"Yeah. Ok."

Alex hung up, still in a daze, even though he sounded quite confident on the phone. He hadn't thought of Sabina in over a year. Why had she decided to contact him now?

Dinner was basically uneventful, they chatted about meaningless junk. About homes, jobs, family, the weather. After desert, they stood up, and went to wait outside for the valets to get their cars. That was when Sabina confronted him.

Swiveling around on one foot, Sabina turned to face Alex.

"Hey, I just wanted to say sorry for everything."

"For some reason, I remember faintly me saying those exact words, except I think I stuttered a bit."

Sabina couldn't tell if it was a joke, or not due to Alex's straight expressionless face.

"Y-Yeah."

"So, is that what this was all about?"

"What was what all about?"

"This. The phone call. The Dinner. This"

"Yes, but what do you mean?"

"I mean that what you calling me, just a way to get the guilt of what happened seven years ago off your shoulders?"

"Err… well. I guess you could call it that… but I really did want to see you."

"Yeah. Well, you don't have to worry about it. I've forgiven you. I forgave you a long time ago."

"Really?" Alex was confused. Instead of seeing a relieved look in her eyes, he saw worry.

"Yeah. I forgave you Sabina. Don't worry about it." Now Alex was sure of it. The more he began to spell it out for her, the more worried she looked.

"But, I accused you of many wrong things. I said that… well you know what I said. Why wouldn't you still be mad at you?"

"Uh," as the words rolled off of her tongue, Alex continued to steadily grow more and more confused, even if his face didn't show it. It was as if she was trying to get him to say he wasn't able to forgive her. "yeah, I'm not the kind of person to hold a grudge for those kind of things…"

"But-but I – but I broke your heart! You even said it yourself!"

"Look, Sabina, I don't know what you're trying to pull, but as I've said for the pased few minutes, I forgive you. Now this is getting ridiculous. I'll see you around sometime." Alex pushed open the glass door as a rush of wind blew into the restaurant, as if eager to meet him. He walked with a confidence, it almost made him seem arrogant, but not quite. The moving air caught at the flaps of his trench coat, causing it to billow out behind him.

'Wow, that was one of the most perfect exits I've ever seen. Everything down to his hand dragging though his hair was so cliché but oh so awesome. He himself is awesome. I wish I didn't have to do this. Damn Thorndike.'

Alex was inwardly battling with himself, wondering what was going on inside of Sabina's mind. Why was she trying to get Alex to say he wasn't forgiving her? Or was that what she was trying to do? Slowing down his car, Alex pulled onto the side of a street. Thorndike Ave to be exact. He walked a block, savoring the feeling of the cool spring air. It had just began to get warm again, and that feeling was nice. Off in the distance, the sun was setting and would soon be lost within the large builings that were built downtown.

He walked into the bakery. Fresh scents of baking bread and sweet spices came rushing at him as soon as he opened the door.

A small ding sounded. The baker looked up at Alex, a smile appeared on his face.

"Welcome! Welcome! What would you like to have Mr. Rider? Perhaps a nice load of Lola's banana bread? Or a few strawberry muffins?"

Alex smiled at David's warm greetings. Somehow, David managed to make each and every one of his customers feel appreciated and important. "Those sound marvolous David. I'll have two loafs of banana bread, and four muffins please. And how many times do I need to ask you to call me Alex?"

The man gave a jolly laugh, "But it is improper to call a customer by their first name no matter how friendly you are! Here are your orders Mr. Rider. That will be a total of $10.57. And Lola asked me to put a cinnamon raisin cookie in the bag the next time you came. She's trying out a new recipe."

"Thank you David. You are too kind. I'm sure everything will be delicious as usual."

"Goodbye now!"

Alex stepped out of the store, not knowing that he would every day curse that action.

As soon as he was a few meters away from the bakery, two men cloaked in black hoods took hold of him. They knocked him on the head, and dragged him into the nearest alleyway. Everything was dark and musty. Alex was still too dazed from the blow to see anything clearly, but was quickly recovering. As soon as he had taken in his surroundings and was adjusted to the dim light, he got into preparation mode.

Alex stood up, hands in their ready position, held firmly in fists, up by his face. Turning around to see where the men were, he saw that two others had joined the first two and they were looking at him with amusement.

"You think that you can take us on?"

"I know that I can take you on. Common, try me."

They came fast and hard, but obviously not fast enough. Alex ducked all of their punches by dropping to the ground, and just as they were right behind his, he swiveled his leg around tripping the hooded men. Quickly scrambling up, they rushed at him again, except they were ready this time. Each aimed for a different part. Alex blocked and kicked all the flailing arms away. Again, they got up and started circling him. They charged at once, and Alex dropped to his hands. Raising his torso into the air, he started spinning around, his legs acting as if they were helicopter wings. Suddenly there were four more men. They had run into the ally to help their accomplices.

The more Alex fought them, the more the men grew. As soon as he took down one, another five would come. It was scarily turning out to be like the Matrix. Right after when Neo meets with the oracle and fights all the agent smiths, except that he wasn't 'the one' and he was getting tired. Finally, one unexpected blow at the stomach made him fall, and he felt his arms and legs being bound together, and his mouth being gagged. Not having enough energy to fight anymore, he just lay there, dejected on the ground. He was roughly lifted off the hard cement and dumped into the back of a pickup truck, where he was blind folded. They left the ally, his brown paper bag of bread and muffins lay forgotten.

Not being able to see or move or make any noise all together, Alex just lay there, straining his ears to hear scraps of information that was being said from inside the truck. The little window was open in the back so he could understand most of the things being said. They seemed to have forgotten that he was only a few feet away and able to hear everything.

Alex didn't know how long it had been since they started on the road, but after what seemed like hours, the truck slowly bumped to a stop. He knew they were somewhere far far away from the city because the beeping and honking noises of the city faded away quite some time ago. The truck had bounced and jolted along the road and Alex heard the crunching noise of gravel. They had driven on an unpaved road.

Two burly men had lifted Alex out of the back and carried him into a house. They dropped him onto a cold cement floor and locked the room shut as they left.

"Master, we have brought him. He is in the dungeon as we speak."

"Excellent. You know that I am a fair master, so because you all have done what I have asked of you, you will each receive an extra spoonful of porridge tonight for supper."

"Thank you master, you are too generous." The men chanted ceremoniously, bowing again and again as they retreated out of the room.

"Fredrick, summon the lady." Fredrick, who only left his master's side when to do his bidding, bowed and answered with a quick 'yes' before scurrying off to do as he was told. A few minutes later, he came back in, this time a dignified lady following behind.

"Ah, lady. Thank you Fredrick. You may retire to your room."

"What do you want Thorndike? I did what you asked." The lady was the only one who spoke to Master in such a manner. She was the only one who dared talk back to him.

"Well of course you did. All I want is the report. Will you be able to attain his friendship?" he asked in a sickly sweet voice.

"Yeah." She answered sullenly.

"You are under my power, or do you not remember? I saved your parents from dying and the price I asked was for you to be my servant until you carried out my initial plan. And let me remind you again, if you do dare to defy my orders, your parents will die, a painfully slow death." He said, still smiling.

"Fine." She said through clenched teeth. Her jaw was locked together firmly.

"Now, my dear, you know what the rest of your orders are. You may retire to your bed." She turned around and was about to open the door when he spoke again. "He's hear my dear. He's in the dungeon right now and I wouldn't try to help him escape if I were you." Her eyes blazed with anger. She twisted the doorknob with such a force that it broke off. Kicking open the door, she heard him laugh and call gently, "Goodnight Sabina."