The immense cold drove his body to awaken from its vulnerable state.
Left lying on his side Henry tried lifting himself up back onto a sitting position but for the life of him, the pain left him unable to move. He instead turned to lay on his back. Eyes squeezed shut, taking in a deep inhale releasing a shaky exhale trying to minimize the amount of pain hitting him like a truck but he couldn't help but let out a sob. Everything hurt. His head was throbbing and his chest made it hard to breath. He wondered if Drex might have injured one of his ribs during his whipping session.
Now that he thinks on it, what time was it? He looks up onto the only sense of time originally thought he had, the small window above him. It was dark. The moon's light shining through. Henry hadn't noticed it before but a ticking sound made him reposition himself, letting out a groan in response to his injured body looking around from where this sound was coming from. He looked to his right to find a clock he hadn't noticed before ahead of him that read 2:15.
Henry realizes he's been out for a minute. He could've sworn that clock wasn't there before. It was only now three days into his captivity and he was starting to already lose his mind.
Was he seriously this weak? Did he really not have much fight in him left already?
'no'
He had to fight. He had to stay strong no matter how mentally and physically broken he would become he just couldn't. He couldn't lose hope, not yet at least. He needs to look forward to tomorrow even when tomorrow seems so far away, helpless even.
But his friends.
If he didn't cooperate God knows what Drex could do to them. Now that he thinks on it why did Drex held him captive anyway? Revenge?
All these questions that floated around his head caused his throbbing headache to ache even more. He settled lying back down ignoring the pain in his chest, taking a breather. He wraps his arms around himself to stable his shivering. He looks up upon the ceiling covered in cracks and missing concrete pieces. He closes his eyes once more trying to relieve his unrelated pain and takes in a breather.
All he could think was,
'How did it come down to this?'
He sleeps the night away dreading dawn.
—
He tried.
God he tried.
Ray, Swellview's fellow hero tried with all his will power. With everything he had but in the end, Henry was still taken. He parked the Man-Truck just behind the infamous junk store. Face mundane. He just couldn't believe it. His all was not enough. Not enough to defeat Drex and not enough to save Henry. This was all his fault. Ray unseat-belts himself still grasping onto the wheel as he hits his head on it letting out a sob. Then hits the dashboard not caring if he broke anything. Nothing mattered in that moment. Nothing expect Henry. He couldn't help but think,
'what if?'
—
He dodges one goon, then another. Ray punches goons in every direction. He's had enough.
"Kid take care of these goons, I got a butt-whooping to take care of"
Henry turns to eye Ray a grin on his face as he knees and punches Drex's goons knowing he's got this. He can take care of these whitpuppies what can go wrong?
Ray walks up to the former sidekick giving him the hardest punch he could've sworn he's ever given anybody. He grabs his shoulders and knees him. One punch after another until he shoves him onto the ground. Drex looking helpless looks upon the hero. Ray chuckles.
"Not gonna lie, I thought this fight would've been wayyy more harder to handle."
Drex spits out blood onto the hard ground "Keep it up and you'll see what comes your way."
Ray punches Drex once more leaving him distressed he turns to face Henry who had just finished beating up Drex's goons.
"See I had that." Henry said walking over the spread of villains.
Drex laughs "-Or did you? NOW!"
Drex rises to chokehold Ray who was trying to resist his hold, his goons rose up to restrain the Kid's arms behind his back then suddenly being hit in the neck. Everything went black. One of the goons lifted him over their shoulder throwing him into a van parked nearby driving off.
He turns Ray around still grabbing his neck choking him making sure he was paying very close attention as Ray struggled through his grasp.
"Your pride is what will kill him. Say your prayers because I'm sure none of them will come true." evil laughs follow.
Drex punches him right on the sweet spot of the side of his neck and he blacks out.
He lets go of the limp hero letting him hit onto the hard ground. Everything was coming together. This was the one plan he was sure he would come out on top of and there was no one who was going to stop him from going through with it.
He ran off leaving the fallen hero behind.
—
"Your pride is what will kill him"
Why did those words pierce him so much? Why were they true? For the first time in his reputation of admitting things he just had to say it,
'Drex was right'
His pride is what has caused him to fall into many problems over the years many corruptions in his fights with goons he's severely underestimated.
...and he let it happen again.
Ray was full on crying now. He knew that his pride would be his end but he never thought Henry would be the one to take his place. He couldn't help the guilt building up. The lump in his throat. What was he gonna tell them? The rest of the gang?
"Hey guys I'm sorry to tell you this but because I was so cocky that I thought that Drex would be an easy beat down that he kidnapped Henry in the process and now we have to find him before Drex does something bad."
He didn't have a choice. He had to go in and be strong. For Henry. Ray gets out of the truck and tubes himself down to the Man-Cave, the HQ of Swellview's very own heroes.
Charlotte the curly haired girl turned from her seat from the monitors, Jasper the joker looked up from his phone, and Schwoz coming out of his hiding spot to face him.
Charlotte was the first to speak of the trio, "Ray! Where you've been?! We lost communication and weren't able to get through neither you or Henry and speaking of which where is Henry?"
His heart sank. He couldn't hold it in anymore. Ray peels away his mask a deep frown forming onto his face.
He had to tell them. There was no hiding this.
"Um... h-he w-was t-t-taken."
Yay! here's chapter two. I plan on updating weekly so await Chapter 3 next week! bye loves.
