Disclaimer: I do not own Now You See Me or any of its characters. If I did, there would be more of Jack
Chapter 3: Prison
Jack awoke to a pounding in his head. Slowly, he peeled one eye open and then the other. For several moments, he was worried he had gone blind, until his eyes began adjusting to the darkness of the room. While waiting for his vision to return, Jack tested the mobility of his arms and legs. (Waking up in a dark room, feeling like he'd been run over by a truck- yeah… not a great sign.) What he found was meta shackels around his wrists. At first, Jack was confused. What had happened to him? All at once, his experience came flooding back to him. Walking the store to get groceries for the Horsemen/ Seeing that Fuller guy/ Trying to lose him on the street/ A black van pulling up beside him/ Trying to get away/ Getting picked up by thre huge guys and thrown in the back of the van… That ws where the memories stoped. Jack gave a tug with his arms, but all that accomplished was having the cold metal cut into his skin. 'Well, that shouldn't be a problem,' he thought to himself. Living on the streets had required many survival skills, one of which was being able to pick any lock he came across. He felt his way along the very short chains that attached his wrists to the wall, and found the connecting point to be welded to the wall at about 2 feet off the ground. Honestly? They couldn't have given him even a little but of leeway? There was like 5 inches of chain between his wrists and the wall, and that was being generous. His eyes were by now mostly adjusted to his windowless prison and roamed over the shackles, looking for a lock. To his dismay, there was no simple lock, but a finger print scanner.
"What in the world?!" Jack spoke into the darkness. "What kind of psycho puts finger -print locks on shackles that he used to chain someone up?"
"Well, I suppose that would be me."
Jack squinted as the door on the far side of the room opened and light flooded in. Though the figure in the doorway was shrouded in shadow, Jack would recognize the voice anywhere.
"Bradley," he spat, "What do you want with me?"
'Wow. That wasn't cliche at all.'
"Oh, don't think so highly of yourself. I don't have a vendetta against you in particular. Just your team. You were simply the easiest target."
At Jack's evident confusion, Bradley explained, "Technically, you are dead, so, not only will your team be the only ones to know you are missing, but they can't report it to the authorities. You are the bait for the other four."
Through his panic, one word stuck out to Jack, "Wait. What do you mean, four? There are only three others" he said, trying to play it off.
"Oh, Jack, I already know about Dylan. In a rare moment of impulse, he revealed himself to me, gloating about his plan. And honestly, he is probably the one I want most."
"What makes you think they'll come for me?" Jack asked in a last desperate attempt to get Bradley to call off his plan.
"You underestimate their (misplaced though it may be) affection of you. They will come. And when they do, I will be waiting." The man responded, moving towards the door. "And Jack... I wouldn't hold out hope about that agent that saw you get nabbed, if I were you. I have men sent to eliminate that variable as we speak. Meanwhile, you have fun."
Jack's heart fell as his last hope to get his family out of this mess safely vanished along with all the light in the room, as the door closed him off to everything that he cared about.