Thanks again for the feedback.
And sorry for taking so long, just had a sort of writers block for some time. Here is the next part:
Chapter 6 – Capturing the Giant
Victor had taken off his jacket, when we got back to the kitchen. That was as good as an excuse to start talking to him as any.
“Hey, you are violating the dress code. Put that back on”, I said, trying to keep my voice mainly teasing. Victor just looked at me with a smirk. “It's too warm in here, and I don't want to sweat into the jacket. You will survive. Or are you saying that you suddenly don't like how I look now?”
I felt how my face got slightly red. That jerk! He knew, how to irritate me. But never mind, I had to continue on with the conversation. Even without focusing on him, I could see Neil grab one of the sleeping bags that my friends had brought over, carefully carrying it into the living room, probably to avoid bringing Victors attention to them. The living room was connected to the kitchen through a door that we kept always open, so I would notice when Neil was ready.
“You know,”, Victor started talking again, “I'm not sure, how I feel about this situation. It seems like it's getting out of hand. And your mum kind of expects me to have an eye on you.” He looked somewhat serious, but also lost in thought. It irritated me. I didn't want him to end the game. “You sure that this is just one of you guys playing a prank on the rest?”
I gulped, not knowing how to answer. I still was certain that there was no dangerous person involved. In that case, he wouldn't have wasted time, by going after one person each time.
“Yeah, who else could it be? Come on, even if we don't catch the culprit, it's a fun evening, isn't it?”
But Victor didn't seem satisfied with that. He looked irritated. “To be honest, I really don't like this. Maybe I should get some tools, and free Justin, and the guys in the closet. I mean, it was fun, but it also went on long enough already, don't you think?”
He was right in some way, I couldn't deny it. The whole thing was weird and somewhat scary, but it also felt too exciting to end it now. I wanted to wait it out, danger be damned! Right on cue, Eric and Neil came out of the living room. Victor was standing with his back to them, and didn't hear their slow, soft steps, as they came closer, the opening of the sleeping bag held up.
“Come on, you really don't have to do this. Everything will be fine, I'm sure”, I said, trying to stop my neighbor from moving away.
Victor shook his head. “No, I'm the adult here, and I say we end it now. Sorry, but something about this whole thing seems off to me.”
Eric and Neil were already pretty close, but not quite near enough to attack. It was a matter of seconds, so I, in a case of mild panic, grabbed Victors tie and pulled him a bit closer. My neighbor was caught off guard by this, just giving off a light grunt. It wasn't much time, but my friends decided to just go for it. They closed the small distance and pulled the sleeping bag over Victors head. I let go of the tie and, the bag was pulled completely down immediately.
Victor was still confused and just stammered some words, while moving his arms around. Neil didn't loose any time, and drew the string of the sleeping bag close, before sealing it of with a knot. And with that, we had captured Victor.
“Hey, what just happened?”, he asked, still confused. He tried to move his feet, but immediately realized that they were trapped by the opening of the bag. “Is this a sleeping bag? Who did this? Let me go!”
Neil grinned, obviously very satisfied with himself. “Nope, sorry, can't do that, killer. First, you have to tell us where you are hiding the keys for the closet and the stuff that you used on Justin.”
There was a short pause, before Victor realized what he just heard. “You think I captured the other guys? Don't be ridiculous, I didn't even know about this nonsense, before I came over. At that point, three of you were already tied up!”
My neighbor intensified his struggle. “Come on, guys, let's put him on the floor. We need to make it harder for him to move.” Eric, Hunter and I nodded. And, while Victor was capable of beating two or three of us at once, he normally wasn't as handicapped as now. There was just no way for him to avoid getting wrestled to the ground by us. Soon enough, he was lying on his stomach, with me and Eric sitting on his back.
“Ow, come on guys, you are heavy. Let me go!”, Victor complained, but, aside from struggling, there was nothing he could do. We all took visible pleasure from him being our prisoner.
“Well, time for some interrogation”, Neil proclaimed, before sitting down on his lower legs, and taking off Victors socks. “What are you doing? Neil?!”, Victor said, a slight panic in his voice. Neil didn't say anything, but held up his hand while flexing his fingers. I couldn't see his face, but I would have bet on seeing a slightly unhinged smile there.
And sure enough, a few seconds later Victor couldn't stop laughing. Neil went all out, letting his fingers dance on the soles of our prisoner, who soon went from threats to begging, if only in the short moments between the forced laughter. I hadn't even known that Victor was that ticklish, but he was completely helpless. It was actually pretty hard to constrain him to his lying position, as he thrashed around so much. Hunter needed to help us keeping him from moving.
After five minutes, Neil stopped. Victor was breathing heavily, and was clearly too tired to try to escape. So my friend got up, collecting the rope and tape that we had left on the floor earlier. Afterwards, he started to talk.
“This was the first punishment. But it will not be the last, except if you tell us about the keys. Well?”
Victor still breathed heavily, but managed to answer “I have no idea, I'm not the killer. Let me go!”. There was a bit of begging in the last sentence, and I felt somewhat bad. I wasn't sure how I felt about torturing him.
“Wait a second, before we do anything else, I want to know how you even got the idea that it was him. You didn't actually tell us”, I said. Neil looked at me, slightly annoyed, but relenting. “Well, the stuff that was used to tie up Justin can't have been that cheap. I couldn't buy cuffs, or such a mask, and neither could any of us, I guess. But he”, Neil said, pointing at Victor, “earns money. Not that much, granted, but he definitely has more than we do.”
“I wouldn't waste money on stuff like that, come on”, Victor answered. But there was some logic to it. Neither me nor my friends had enough money to buy stuff like that. At least I assumed, I had no idea how much cuffs would cost, but they certainly weren't cheap.
“Also, it's not like the door to your house was ever locked, right? He could have easily snuck in, tied up Peter, and go back out. We have no idea where he was, back when everything started.” I considered this. It was true, and, because Victor wasn't even planned to be here, he was the last one I would have suspected.
“Ok, I guess. But stop tickling him, let's just keep him in the bag”, I demanded, not wanting Victor to suffer any more. Neil rolled his eyes, but nodded. “Ok, ok, but we need to prepare him a bit more. This doesn't look safe to me.” He took a few seconds, thinking.
“So, are you cooperating, or not? We need to switch the sleeping bag around, so that your head is free and not your feet. Just to make sure you don't suffocate, or anything”, Neil explained. There was a bit of silence, before Victor answered. “What do you mean, cooperate?”
“Well, I need to make sure that you don't try to escape. The main thing would be, that you put your hands behind your back, so that we can tie them up.” While explaining that, Neil had already started binding our prisoners feet with some rope.
“Ugh, just let me go, ok? I'm not the culprit, I promise!”
I had to grin a bit. While I didn't want to see him actually suffer, it did feel nice to have him in a position of no power.
“Sorry, Alex, but I need to assure us some cooperation.” And with that, Neils fingers started to dance again over Victors bare soles, and my poor neighbor started again to laugh like crazy. It was only short lived, as Neil stopped, as soon as he heard the first beg for mercy.
“So, did you change your mind?”, my friend, whose sadistic side started to irritate me a bit, asked. “Just get it over with”, Victor replayed, obviously trying to not get tickled anymore. I was really surprised that I had never known how sensitive he was to this.
“Great, than cross your hands behind your back”, Neil demanded, and, after some hesitation, Victor complied. The fight seemed to have gone out of him. Eric and I got up, but still held him down with our hands.
Neil would have to pay for this. I wouldn't have wanted to change places, whenever Victor would get free. But my friend seemed to enjoy his new found power.
Neil slowly pushed the opening of the sleeping bag up to Victors belt, where he fastened it again. Then he applied some more rope, one time below the knees, one time in the middle of the upper legs. Then came the critical part, the hands.
“You promise to behave yourself?”, he asked, before continuing. Victor sighed, but agreed not to move. Eric and I still pushed him to the ground, but in any case, he couldn't change in an instant from his hands behind his back to using them to get up. So Neil probably felt pretty secure, as he pushed the bag up. He fastened it around the elbows, before using some more rope on the hands. And with that, Victor was, without a doubt, helpless.
Some more rope was applied to the upper arms, but that was not a problem. With the hands tied, Victor had lost the last way of defending himself. So we finally put away the sleeping bag for good, and greeted him with a warm smile.
I had never seen Victor so annoyed. Neil was probably not the only one who was going to pay for this day, but that didn't matter now. It was too much fun, seeing him helpless on the floor.
“I swear, you will all pay for this.” I nearly had to laugh, it felt just too cliched. But, trying not to be mean, I restrained myself.
Eric didn't. He just laughed, which made Victor go red. He tested his bonds, struggling and rolling from side to side, but Neil had done well. There didn't seem to be much, if any, leeway.
But he was not done yet. Neil picked up the sleeping bag again, and went to Victors feet. “Come on, guys, help me. Just pick his legs and his body up, so that I can pull up the bag.” We immediately went to work and, despite Victors helpless struggles and threats, he was soon inside the bag. Except this time the right way around, with only his head sticking out.
Neil finished, by securing the cord of the bag near the neck, and knotting it off. I had to grin, as Victor looked rather silly, with the collar and tie knot still visible, while the rest of his body was covered by the sleeping bag.
“Well done, everyone, we got our killer. Now, we only have to get him to talk.”
Describing Neils smile was hard. It looked like the smile of the nice, cute boy he usually was, but there was a small, crazy edge to it, it seemed to me. He seemed to enjoy this more than he probably should have. But I was sure that he wouldn't go too far, it was probably just fun for him, to have control over a guy who was older, taller and stronger than him.
Still, the answer was basically the same. “How often do I have to tell you? I am not the killer, I have no idea where the keys are.”
Neil only answered with a smile. He definitely had wanted to hear that answer.
“You probably just need some time to think. We'll give it to you. Wait a second.” My friend got up, grabbing the socks he had taken of my neighbor. “Last chance, my friend. Where are the keys?”
Victor had a hard time looking anywhere but up, so he probably hadn't seen what Neil had done. So he didn't suspect anything, when he tried to answer. “How omph!”, he, uh, produced, when he was cut off by his own sock. Neil didn't waste any time using the surprise, and stuffed both socks inside Victors mouth. They were thin, but obviously still filled it up pretty well. I was clear that Neil had trouble to stuff the last bit inside.
Eric and I were near, enjoying the show. Eric had already prepared the tape, and immediately started wrapping it around Victors head, while I helped by holding it up. And soon enough, we were finished. We put Victor into a sitting position and moved him to wall of the living room. He was still visible from the kitchen table, and it was obvious that he struggled, but it mainly looked like he was taking a rest in the sleeping bag. If I hadn't known that he was tied up, he would have looked like he just took a time-out while trying to get warm.
The gag, of course, made the reality pretty obvious.