AbductedAddiction wrote: ↑2 years ago
Fantastic writing! I loved your story plot and the twists and turns!
Thanks for the appreciation [mention]AbductedAddiction[/mention] . Here's the next chapter.
Chapter 5
Archie’s slumber had not been tranquil. The drugged boy had not really dream; nor had he experienced an actual nightmare. But he definitely had felt some sensations. Feelings of choking, of being unable to catch his breath because something was obstructing his mouth, sensations of his limbs being manipulated… He also had heard some noises, some voices talking around him… but in his state, he had only caught some distant, smothered buzzing.
It was as if he had been trapped underwater, unable to swim, unable to reach the surface.
But his senses started to come back little by little though.
The first thing Archie became aware of was a sensation of movement. Not something fluid like when one was sitting in a car; something more abrupt, in fits and starts.
“mph”
Archie grunted, as if he was in his bed, emerging from a deep slumber. He had not realized yet that his grunts were barely audible since the sock in his mouth blocked his tongue and the strip of tape plastered over his lips prevented them from moving.
The movement continued for a while. Archie was beginning to realize that he wasn’t actually in his bed. He tried to open his eyes. His eyelids were heavy, his eyes were dry. But he finally made it.
Nothing but darkness.
“mmphh?”
Archie now realized something was wrong with his mouth. He felt the large mass of cotton invading his mouth and blocking his tongue. He also noticed that it had quite a nasty taste as he explored it with his tongue. He tried to spit it out, but the stuffing was so massive he had difficulties even moving his jaw muscles. He finally realized that something was obstructing his lips which remained glued together.
“mphrrmp?!?”
He tried, almost by reflex, to reach his mouth and his eyes with his hands, to check what was wrong. But he discovered with horror that his forearms were locked alongside behind his back. He gave his wrists a little tug, then a firmer one, to no avail. He only felt a burning sensation on his wrist… where something linked his hands together.
All of a sudden, he became aware of all the ropes constricting his body, not only his wrists, but also the two sets of coils locking his arms to his chest, and also the ropes binding his ankles, his legs and his thighs.
“MMPPHHAAA?”
Archie suddenly felt a change in his balance. He felt himself being lifted, then his butt met a hard surface. He realised he had just been put in a sitting position… which meant he had previously been carried over. Hence the movement.
“MMMMMMMMPHHHHHHM! MMMMPPPPPPHHH!”
The boy was now almost fully awake. The sitting movement had revived him, he remembered in a flash all of the events of the past minutes. The attack, his struggling, and this damp big cloth over his nose that had knocked him out… the chloroform!
Archie went mad. He started to screamed muffled unintelligible shrieks of outrage behind his gag, and he struggled mightily, but as he wriggled his chest, he suddenly lost his balance, and started to fall face first… but a strong hand clamped over his shoulder and put him back in his initial position.
Archie realized he wasn’t sitting on a chair, but on a more precarious stool… and that his feet were not on the ground, but on a mere bar.
He explored his bonds more carefully this time, wriggling and squirming here and there, but he only discovered his bonds were merciless; they didn’t harm him, yet they were very snug and definitely secured; he tried to wriggle his shoulders but the torso ropes didn’t move an inch; he tried to reach some knots with his finger, but they all were out of reach; his legs were fused together without any hope of freeing them. This was a shock for the strong lad. Archie had never really been tied up before; he had once when he was a kid and played Cowboy & Indians with Jughead and his mates, but the ropes were sloppy, it was nothing serious. Being truly immobilized was another thing, and Archie had never really thought it was something possible. Until now.
The struggling had quite exhausted Archie, who was now sweating and panting behind his gag.
“Gggrmmmp…. mmpphhgr…. mmmphhggr”
“He’s ready. Let’s begin”, he heard a voice say. The voice of one of his captors, he recalled.
A strong hand suddenly ripped out the sticky piece of tape which had been glued over Archie’s lips, which caused him to let out a little cry of pain and surprise, still muffled by the rolled-up sock in his mouth. Archie tried to expel the wadding now that his mouth was free, but before he could really use his jaw muscle, he felt the same hand extracting it.
“MMpphhaaaa. Gah. What the fummmmmmhh??”
Archie’s ability to speak was quickly suppressed again by the strong hand handgagging him. It clamped over his mouth so hard and so suddenly that he lost his balance again, but his assailant's other arm held him by the shoulder again. It wasn’t a bare hand, Archie could feel that his captor was wearing some glove… something like leather, but softer and more supple… Anyway, it worked well to seal his mouth again.
“Listen boy”, his captor said for the first time. Archie identified the other voice. “We’ve got you good. I think you understand now that you’re not going anywhere until we let you free. So here are the rules: we have questions for you, you’ll answer them, and you’re not speaking if you’re not spoken to. Nod if you understand”.
Archie’s first reaction when discovering his predicament had been anger. He wasn’t used to being manhandled and had developed a strong-willed character; he had always been ready to fight for what he stood for.
But being attacked, chloroformed, tied up, gagged, blindfolded, captured, had made him experience another feeling. One he had not met for years.
Fear.
So Archie nodded.
“Good”, Sam said, withdrawing his hand. He then noticed that Archie’s blindfold had slightly slipped in the hussle. As he was adjusting it, Dean said:
“I changed my mind, Sam. I want to see his eyes during the interrogation. He already saw our faces anyway.”
Sam shrugged. “Fine”, he said, as he lowered it and left it dangling around Archie’s neck.
Archie blinked. Free of his blindfold, he now could have a good look at his captors. He considered himself strong, but he had to admit these two guys had easily beat him. They were older than him, the one facing him was a true giant, and the other one sitting in his old armchair was quite a butch too. But Archie’s fear grew again when he noticed the black cloaks they were both wearing over their shoulders.
Who the hell were those guys?
At least he was still in his house. Archie recognised his music studio in a blink. But his father had him sound-proof the room. Even now that he got rid of his gag, screaming for help won’t be very useful.
“So boy, first question”, Sam announced, pointing an inquisitorial finger at him. “An easy one. What’s your name?”
“Uuuuh… Archie. Archie Andrews”.
“How old are you?”
“I’m… I’m sixteen”
“So what do you do in life? Still at school?”
“Uh, yes, at Riverdale high”
“And apart from that?”
“Uuuh… what do you mean?”
“Any… extra curricular activities?"
“Uuuhhh… I…. I like music, and football… Look, Sir, if you’re looking for money, we don’t store much cash here...”
Dean loudly sighed. “This is going nowhere”, he said.
“Fine. Let’s be more direct then. Who is the Red Paladin?”
Archie shuddered in his bonds. He wasn’t expecting that.
“Well?” Sam insisted. “I can see you know what I mean!”
“But… It's me!” Archie replied, now even more deeply confused.
“What?” Sam said, eyes wide. “So you admit it?”. Dean was listening from the chair, now all his attention focused on Archie too.
“Admit what? I don’t understand…”
“You just said you are the Red Paladin. So you know about the prophecy?!”
“What prophecy?”
“Don’t test me boy”, said Sam threateningly.
“Woah”, Dean thought, he’s really into it";
“But I don’t know what you’re talking about. Honestly”, said Archie, completely lost in this dialogue. Those guys are clearly not robbers, and this is too elaborate for a prank… So what is this?
“So”, Sam resumed. “What does this expression “red paladin” mean to you?”
“It’s my… class”
“What do you mean “class”?”. It was now Sam’s turn to be puzzled.
“In Gryphons & Gargoyles”, Archie said. A gap. “The role playing game”, he insisted.
Another silence. Then Dean bursted out laughing, in a nervous way.
“Oh boy. All this for a fucking rpg??”
Sam didn’t reply, but he reached in his pocket for his smartphone, and started to tap away.
“Look, Sir”, Archie tempted, “obviously there’s some kind of misunderstanding here. Just untie me and go away, I won’t send the police after you”.
“Yes we shall go. But we’ll let you here, nice and tied, boy… someone will eventually find you, but we’ll be far away”.
“Hold on, Dean”, Sam said. “I can’t find any occurrences of this game on the web. What does that mean?”
“It’s only in Riverdale, I guess”, said Archie.
“How so?”
“I don’t know… the box game just popped up in our lockers at Riverdale High a few weeks ago… Now everyone’s playing it. Must be kind of a promotional event before a larger release”.
“Hmmmm…” Sam said, dubiously. “By the way, what’s your friend's name? The one you were with this evening in the dinner”
“It’s YOU!” Archie finally recalled. “You were there! In the booth behind us!”
“Answer the question, boy. Who was with you?”
“You mean Jughead?”
“What kind of name is that?”
Archie shrugged in his bonds. “I don’t know. Everyone has called him Jughead since ages”. Why did they suddenly take interest in Jughead, Archie wondered.
“And his real name?” Sam insisted.
“uuuh…. Forsythe Pendleton Jones.The third”.
Dean chuckled. “Oh boy, his parents must hate him”.
“And what about his beanie?”
“His what? What kind of question is that?” Archie said, resuming a little - and vain - struggling in his bonds. The readhead now feared that he was now captive of actual madmen.
“His woolen beanie”, Sam asked again. “Where does it come from? For how long has he had it? Why is it shaped like a crown?”
Archie now started to panic anew. Clearly they had left the domain of rationality.
“I DON’T KNOW”, he almost screamed“He had it since I remember being his friend. And we were 5 years old. This is a little community here. Look, Mister” Archie wriggled his torso once more. “Could you untie me please? These ropes hurt”.
“They don’t, I know my ropes, boy. But last question”. In the background, Dean started to lose patience too. “Your friend plays your rpg with you, right?” Archie nodded. “What’s his class?”
“Huh… He always plays the hellcaster”.
Dean jumped on his feet. Sam addressed him: “So, an unknown game popping out of nowhere close to Greendale; it’s an rpg when you beat supernatural creatures; our pal Archie here plays the red paladin and his best buddies - who appears to wear a woolen hat shaped as a crown - plays Hellcaster. How much of a coincidence is that?”
“Too much”, Dean replied. “Let’s bring him back to the Temple. The mystic brothers will know what to do with him”, he added as he leaned forward to pick up the discarded sock gag.
“Bring me where?” Archie asked, in a more high-pitch voice than usual. “What are you do…?” he stopped as his eyes followed Dean’s hand picking up the gag. Archie didn’t pay attention but he now recognised what he had had in his mouth… one of his crew socks from yesterday. He had this bad habit of letting his dirty laundry lying around in his room. Hence the foul taste of his gag.
No way he’s tasting that again! But Dean, still speaking with his brother, just ignored his shriek.
“No! NonoNONOPLEAAMMMMMPHHHHH”, Archie screamed as Dean casually force the sock back between his teeth. Archie tensed, tried to pull back, and almost lost his balance again, but Sam was there, keeping an hand over his shoulder, preventing him from falling.
“That’s it. We’ve no more questions for now”, Dean grinned to Archie as he was pinning his tongue with the sock.
“MMMMPPPHHHHMMMPP! MMMMMMRRRUUUUUPPPHHMMM!” Archie said. He could still produce some noise, but intelligible speech was now out of the question. He tried to spit the sock out, but Dean swiftly handgagged him with his large gloved palm. Archie’s tongue was efficiently blocked, the foul taste returned.
Sam got the roll of grey tape in his hand. Archie tried to protest anew, but the two brothers just completely ignored his muffled shrieks.
“I think we won’t fail our reputation here”, Dean said. “24 hours after the call, and the Winchester brothers are coming back with the red paladin all trussed up”.
“You shouldn’t give our names, Dean” Sam said as he was ripping a sticky piece of tape in front of Archie.
“Relax”, Dean said, “look at him all trussed up. What could happen?”
Sam shrugged, cut the piece of tape and approached Archie’s lips. Archie had been screaming the whole time in Dean’s hand, but the brother just didn’t pay any attention to his garbled pleas. Being ignored like that added to the humiliation of having his own sock forced deep inside his mouth.
Suddenly, Dean forcibly pressed over Archie’s jaws to have him close his mouth around the sock. At the exact same time, Sam pressed his piece of tape over Archie’s lips, keeping his hands over it like a vicious handgag. Archie could feel the extra stickiness of the tape; he could feel the glue taking hold over his lips. Sam pressed hard on the tape with his hand, one time, two times, then withdrew when he was satisfied. The shiny tape didn’t have any creases.
Archie Andrews had been tapegagged again.
MMMMMMPPPPPHHHHHHHH! MMMMMPPPPHHHRRRRR!! MMMPPPPHHHHHOOOO!
“He’s feisty”, Sam said, as he untied the blindfold scarf hanging on Archie’s neck.
“Yup. We’ll have to chloroform him again for the trip”, Dean answered.
***
Jughead had been walking for a half hour now as he reached Archie’s street. He had tried to warn his friend about his arrival, but his cellphone didn’t pick up. Jughead had not gotten alarmed though; it was almost midnight, maybe Archie was already asleep, or maybe he’d left his phone in buzzing mode.
But as he approached the house, Jughead noticed some oddities.
There was light in Archie’s room on the top floor. But there was also light coming from his garage.
Jughead stopped. Archie never played music that late, even if his garage was soundproof. Did he forget to switch off the light? Why would he go in the garage in the first place.They were together just a few hours ago.
Then Jughead noticed something else. An old Cabriolet was parked in front of Archie’s house. A 1970’s chevy Impala. With a texan plate reading “KAZ-2Y5”.
Jughead knows Riverdale as his pocket. He was sure he had never seen that car before. And now there was this odd car in front of his friend’s house, who didn’t answer his phone but the lights were on.
Jughead’s instinct was telling him that something was off. And Jughead always followed his instinct, even if that should make him paranoid.
He resumed his walk, but now went along the walls. Instead of directly ringing the bell, he decided he would have a look at the garage first...