It had been three days since Soda left. You'd think that, in the middle of a summer day, it'd be stinking hot, but surprisingly enough, it was quite cool outside; the wind was blowing just soft enough to make the grass sway slowly to one side, and there were a lot of clouds, blowing forward along with the wind. Me and Two-Bit went outside to get some oxygen running through our veins, since we had spent the last two days inside vigorously playing poker. I didn't tell him about what happened the other day because I knew he wouldn't have understood how scared I was then, and he'd make fun of me until the end of all eternity; I'm a greaser, remember? And I have a reputation to keep. I mean, sure I can handle crying every once in a while in front of the gang, but only if I felt it was necessary, and I haven't cried at all in front of them.
"So, Pony, have you wrapped your mind on girls yet?" Two-Bit asked curiously. I just looked at him and cocked an eyebrow. No, I haven't really. Yeah, there was a lot of nice girls out there who paid plenty of attention to me, but then the next thing I know they show up the next day at school, hand in hand, with another boy. So I haven't really gotten that whole concept yet… besides, when Darry gets a girl then I'll start looking; but for now, I'm perfectly content with myself and myself only.
"No." I droned. Two-Bit put his hands up in an ' I'm sorry I asked' gesture and closed his eyes. I smiled and then thought of the many girls that he's dated. He used to date Kathy, but she had moved on, and so did he. Now it's a Ruth, I think. Or was it an Ellen? I don't know, I don't keep track of his love life. Two-Bit then sighed.
All of a sudden, I heard that noise again, this time it seemed closer. I stopped dead in my tracks, and froze.
"What?" Two-Bit asked in a loud voice. I stared into the woods, and all of a sudden I could see someone peek out from behind a tree not too far from where I was standing. I knew that they knew that I saw them because in a matter of seconds, they came out, a knife in one hand and a gun in the other, and attacked. It looked to be a middle-aged man, a stubble of grayish-white beard covering his chin, and a pair of dark, cold grey eyes to match his torn black jacket.
Two-Bit bolted towards me and started towing me towards the trailer. It wasn't any use to even try, because the man had caught up with us and pounced on Two-Bit. They wrestled each other on the ground, and I was too stunned to move.
"RUN!!!RUN, PONYBOY, RUN!!!" Two-Bit said in a strained voice, managing to hold the man down for a couple seconds. I could see the desperation in his face to try and keep the man down, beads of sweat rolling down his face. At first I turned to run but then, when the man had thrown Two-Bit to the ground and held the gun up to his head, I body slammed onto the both of them. The gun went off, but luckily it didn't hit anyone. I started punching and kicking the man as hard as I could, trying to use every last bit of energy I had so I could defeat this guy. All of a sudden the man had pushed me onto the ground and punched Two-Bit hard in the gut. My mind felt hazy with so many thoughts racing inside my brain and I struggled to get up again, trying to catch my breath. When I had just a moment to glimpse at our situation, I could see Two-Bit was getting beaten up pretty badly, but he just grimaced and kept fighting. I jumped on the man's back and gritted my teeth as I kept a firm hold tightly around his neck, trying to strangle him to buy time; but sadly, it wasn't enough. He threw me over his head to the ground and kicked me in the face. I opened my eyes weakly and saw in horror as Two-Bit was thrown to the ground once more, and knocked unconscious with the end of the knife.
"Two-Bit…" I pleaded in between gasps, crawling towards him. "Two-Bit, please…!!!" I could see Two-Bit open his eyes weakly and look at me before I was pulled up by the front of my shirt.
"You can't hide from me anymore…" The man said in a rough voice. He had a southern accent, and threw me on the ground once more.
"No…" I heard Two-Bit whisper faintly. The man bent down over me, gave me a revenge filled smile, and put his thumb over the bottom left corner of my neck, jabbing hard. I gasped, but I was then blinded by a white mist that took me away from my world for a while, and slowly let out all the breath I had built up in my lungs.
An insufferable pain from my wrists and ankles woke me up instantly. There was a stale, moldy smelling rag wrapped around my head, covering my mouth completely. I wiggled around in the wooden chair that I was bound too, but stopped after the pain had worsened. As my mind cleared so did my eyes. I was in a small room with grime covered walls, and a dust covered floor. Not only were the walls dirty, but they had several cracks and disoriented holes in some areas, a hanging light producing a dim, yellow beam on me. The floor was old and looked as if it had had all the liquid and color sucked out of it. The whole room looked lifeless, like a black and white figure in a painting, staring plainly at you, no smile, no silly hand gesture; nothing.
"So, you're finally awake…" a familiar voice said impatiently. I swiveled my head to the left and saw the man that had attacked me and Two-Bit earlier. I felt fear being struck through my nervous system and started screaming, since I couldn't hold it in any longer. The man's expression turned from bored to furious. He charged at me and clamped his hand over my mouth. It felt like he was trying to crush every tooth that I had, so I stopped and I felt tears run down my face.
"If you don't shut up, I swear-" he put a loaded gun up to my head "-I will pull this trigger, and honestly that'd be a shame for you to have to go to waste like that." I nodded my head shakily, begging in my mind for him not to kill me, and after a minute or so he put the gun down. I relaxed my shoulders just a bit.
The man paced back and forth across the room, scratching his chin every minute or so. Then he looked at me and let out a short, angry sigh. I could depict his features a little more clearly now that we weren't in a blind fury to knock each other down. His hair was white-grey, but I could spot several tufts of it being a dark brown, or even black. He seemed no taller than I was, 5 feet 11 inches, though he looked older than my history teacher, Mr. Esario, who would be retiring soon. He had on thin, mud-brown suede shoes that looked as if he had put them through the wash a billion times. He was wearing blue jeans and a black t-shirt, similar to the one Darry had, but, more stretched out and longer.
"Ponyboy… such a stupid name…" The man said in disappointment, giving me a penetrating stare.
"HEY!" I tried to say in protest, but all it really sounded like was a humming noise. The man then pointed the gun at me again.
"WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT KEEPING THAT TRAP OF YOURS SHUT!?!" He said menacingly, his eyes wide with an everlasting supply of madness and rage. I looked down at my lap and stayed quiet. I don't use my head a lot of the time, like I've mentioned before, and now I know why it bugs Darry so much… It's what's going to get me killed sooner or later in life.
"You don't know me… but I CERTAINLY know you… and your parents." The man continued on, studying me closely, like we did to this frog held in a glass jar during science class. "You look like your mom, yet you have so many of your dad's features… I never knew that David and Margaret had a third kid until I heard your name mentioned in the news a couple months ago." Who exactly was this old fart and how in this universe did he know my parents?!
He studied me even closer. "Man, you look a lot like your oldest brother, Darrel, you know that?" He said in shock, snorting with laughter. I've never heard anyone say that before; everyone's always been saying things like "You look like Soda", and "Wow, you and Sodapop are like twins, except you're younger!", but never did I hear them make connections between me and Darry about my looks. I started to get uncomfortable; with the whole him staring at me and making comments, I mean.
"But that doesn't matter… what matters is the reason I kidnapped you and dragged your nauseous butt down here." Why did he kidnap me? Was there a specific reason he had in mind? There must've been, since he seemed to know so much about my background. And now that I've been around him for a while, he started looking vaguely familiar, like when you bump into the same person twice at the mall or something.
The man walked up to me and gave me the coldest stare that I had ever received in my fourteen and (almost) a half years of living. " I'm gonna make you a little deal. You answer all my questions truthfully, and I, in return, won't put this bullet through your heart." He whispered creepily. His breath smelled awful and I tried so hard, first of all not to make a comment on it, and second of all not to laugh at the comment I was going to make.
"Got it?!" I nodded my head quickly, and he smiled. "Well okay then." He untied the rag from around my mouth and bunched it up in his enclosed fist. I still kept my mouth shut, remembering Soda telling me to not kill myself.
"Where's you parents?" He asked nonchalantly, playing with the rag inside his hand. I licked my lips nervously before speaking.
"They're… they're dead…" I said shakily. The man looked surprised, then slapped me across the face. It reminded me of when Darry hit me for coming home late that one night; I felt real scared and hurt.
"Don't even try and lie to me, I know your parents are alive. WHERE ARE THEY!?!" He gripped the top of my shirt and pulled me up, and repeated his question.
"They're dead!" I said, trying hard not to start crying from the pain I felt. He dropped me(more like threw me), walked across the room swiftly and punched the wall so hard that the wall crumbled, and I could see bits of rubble drifting down towards the floor in a hurry; my eyes grew wide, and I realized that he had both the heart and the strength to kill me.
He strode towards me and bent down, looking at me straight in my eyes with his.
"I am going to ask you one more time: where are your parents!? I know that you've moved from Iowa, so don't even THINK about trying to trick me with your foolish nonsense boy!" The man repeated airily. I could feel the horrible smell climb up my nostrils and I remembered the comment I was going to make on it earlier and started laughing; wrong move. He gritted his teeth and slapped me again, except this time with his gun, which made the pain a billion times worse. After that he pushed my chair backwards and kicked me in the ribs, making me scream in pure agony. As I lay there gasping, he unexpectedly cut me loose from the chair, and after that had happened I wished that I was tied to the chair instead.
He grabbed me by my upper arms and slammed my back against the wall. I started sobbing, telling him desperately that I was telling the truth. I wished so badly for Darry and Soda to be here with me, helping me.
"LIAR!!!" He yelled again, and he threw me against the floor. I tried to get up, feeling blood dripping from the corner of my mouth and the pain in my arms throbbing, making my proposed action much harder to accomplish; but I had been too slow to do it. The man grabbed me and punched me in the face a couple times while I tried to block with my crossed arms. After that he then again took hold of my arms, squeezing harder than anything, and shook me tremendously. The room was spinning around me in a white swirl, and the pain I felt in my chest, head and arms didn't help.
"Okay then. Since your parents are 'dead', then where are your brothers, hm? Because I know that that boy back there with you wasn't one of them." He continued, gripping my arms tighter. I didn't want to tell him where they were. I didn't know what he wanted with my family, but I wasn't about to let his plan continue.
"I'm not telling you," I tried to say with determination, thinking of how proud the gang would be of me if they were here. His eyes glowed with rage, and I knew that I wasn't going to be able to see my brothers again if I kept it up; but they would be safe, and that's all that matters to me. He threw me down to the ground again and started beating me up again, and I tried desperately to defend and protect myself, but after a while I felt myself give into the pain that had been pulling me down for a long time now.