Chapter 7

Terror, pure terror. That was the only thing that Seth was thinking about right now. 'Terrified' did not even begin to describe what he was feeling, though. Seth didn't feel the pain radiating from his shoulder and he didn't feel the cold seeping through his clothes from the floor, all he felt was terror. He was locked in a room with his hands tied behind his back and his eyes blindfolded, left at the complete mercy of Graft, the same man that had terrorized him when he was younger. Seth was so terrified that he had to remind himself to breathe. He had no idea what Graft wanted him for, but he knew that whatever it was, it couldn't be good. Seth's terror began to heighten when he heard keys rattling at the door. He was coming.

"Seth, are you happy to see me again?" Graft asked.

Seth visibly cringed at the sound of his voice, but kept silent. He heard footsteps approach and prepared himself for the worst, but Graft simply pulled off his blindfold. He looked away from Graft, not wanting to see have to see the Monster's face. It would be better that way.

"We're going to make a little film here and you're going to be the star. Doesn't that sound like fun, Seth?" Graft began to set up the equipment necessary to make his video while the apprehension in Seth began to grow.

"And guess who is going to see you're film debut first?" Silence. "Well, come on guess."

Graft once again received silence from Seth. "Fine, I'll tell you. Lieutenant Shane Wolfe will be the first one. I'm going to have my assistant send the tape to him as soon as we are finished so that Shane can share in the fun we are going to have. Well Seth, now answer me truthfully, how do I look?"

"Psychotic."

"Ahh, just what I was going for." Graft turned on the tape and for the second time that day, he roughly pulled Seth to his feet.

"Lieutenant Shane Wolfe. I am Wilhelm Graft, you may have heard of me. I'm pretty famous you know. Anyways, I seem to have something that you want. And I'll tell you what; I'm willing to give him back to you in exchange for something else, the Ghost. I will give you two days to find the Ghost. At the second day at midnight, you will meet me on the docks, alone and with the Ghost. If I have any indication that you did not follow my orders exactly or if you do not bring the Ghost, I will kill the boy. Just to accentuate my point…

Seth knew what was coming next but he was powerless to stop Graft. If he could live through it once, he could live through it again. Seth braced himself for what he knew was coming and sure enough he felt the first blow land on his already bruised cheek. He fell backwards and curled up into a ball in a desperate attempt to protect his body. Graft began to kick Seth. Seth felt a few of the kicks land on his ribs and back and managed not to scream out in pain until he felt one of his ribs snap. He withered in pain as Graft managed to kick the same spot again and Seth's vision began to swim, but no matter how hard he tried, his could not make his mind succumb to the darkness. He heard Graft take off his belt and he prepared himself for the first blow. It landed on his back. Finally after what seemed like ages, Graft got bored with him. He turned off the tape and left the room, once again leaving Seth all alone in the dark and in complete agony. Seth finally let the tears that he had been holding back, fall from his eyes.

Meanwhile at the Plummer household:

Julie Plummer took the news, that her oldest son had been kidnapped, better than Shane expected, but that did not change the fact that he had failed to protect the child. He was just starting to like the children, and then this had to happen. The entire situation was all his fault. He was supposed to protect the children, not let them get kidnapped by an evil madman. Zoe was blaming herself as well for what happened, but she couldn't have known. Shane was about to continue beating himself up, but then the doorbell rang.

"I got it." Lulu yelled.

"Lulu, wait. Let me do it. We don't know who it is." Shane said as he ushered Lulu back. Sure enough, when Shane answered the door, it was the same mysterious attacker from the previous night, dressed in the same outfit with the flames. He was about to attack her when she held up a tape. As Shane took the tape she turned around and fled before he could do anything.

Cold. Now he felt cold and terrifed and the pain was intensifying.What felt like hours later, but was really only half-an-hour, someone else entered the room and walked towards Seth. Seth figuring it was Graft did not open his eyes but cringed as the person stopped beside him.

The visitor stooped down so that they were eye level with Seth and looked at his bruised face and disheveled appearance and said,

"What have I done?" Seth looked up at the sound of the voice; it wasn't Graft, but…

"Sammy?"