Page 16 of The Wolf and the Monarch

Benji shook his head. “No.” He had a headache but he supposed that was to be expected after two doses of chloroform and a beating.

“Okay,” the man stood back up after a few minutes and walked towards the stairs. “I’ll be back down in a bit.”

He watched him disappear up the stairs and listened to the door unlock, open, close, then lock again. Even though he was absolutely exhausted, he took the time to assess his bonds for the first time. His ankles were tied tightly to the legs of the chair. He attempted to tug them off but the rope wasn’t budging. His wrists were equally as stuck, if not more so considering they were handcuffed to the back of it. A rope he could maybe manage. But cuffs? No. He wasn’t Superman. He couldn’t break through metal.

Benji figured he had at least a few days before they got sick of him and decided he wasn’t worth the effort. As he sat there, attached to the chair and in some extreme pain, he did try to formulate a plan of escape. He would clearly need help from the guy who had just cleaned him up and that probably wasn’t going to happen. And he didn’t have any weapons on him. Even if he did, it wasn’t like he could grab them.

As he proceeded to try and think of some sort of a plan, his head lulled forward and he somehow managed to fall asleep. Which was probably a good thing because he was going to need all the energy he could get.

He didn’t jostle awake until he heard the sound of someone coming down the stairs again. Rather lazily, he lifted his head and saw it was the guy who had cleaned him up. And he was bringing down a bowl of food. Benji’s brow furrowed as the man approached him once again. His eyes looked to the bowl, then up to his face, then down at the food again. “Everything okay?” The man asked.

“You’re feeding me?”

“Is that a problem?”

“I…” Benji began, but shrugged slightly. “No, it’s…it’s fine, I’m just–”

“Confused, I see.”

“Confused.”

The man smiled just a bit as he grabbed the spoon and stirred what looked to be stew of some sort around. “I figured you could use some actual food.” He lifted the spoon and presented it to Benji, which a look of suspicion immediately crossed his face. “I didn’t do anything to it,” he said. “I can understand why you wouldn't believe me, but I promise it’s fine.”

Leaning forward, he took a quick sniff of the spoon and admittedly, Ben didn’t smell anything odd. So, he risked it and took the bite. It wasn’t the best stew he had ever had but beggars certainly couldn’t be choosers. He was grateful for just about anything at that moment. The food would certainly help his headache.

“I won’t be able to get you food like this all the time,” the man said while scooping up another spoonful. Benji could see in his eyes that he felt bad about that. “It’s just not possible. But, I’ll do what I can for you.”

He took the bite once again, now suddenly savoring the stew knowing it wasn’t going to be a regular occurrence. “Why are you doing it in the first place?”

“Like I said, I figured you needed some food while I could get it.”

Benji still didn’t understand it. Why would one of his captors patch him up and give him food out of the goodness of his heart? The others had to know what he was doing, right? “They wouldn’t like it if they found out, would they?”

The man shrugged. “They wouldn’t be pleased, no. But they want you alive and food keeps you alive.”

They were silent for a few moments while Benji was fed the stew before he broke the silence. “How long are they planning on keeping me alive?”

He shrugged. “Until you tell them what they want or they get frustrated.”

“How long until they get frustrated?”

“Depends on the situation. This one?” He huffed, “Honestly not sure.”

Benji just nodded his head and tried to keep his face as neutral as he could, but he could feel the frown tugging at the corner of his lips. He was going to be stuck for some unknown amount of time. His family would have no idea where he was or if he was even alive. Did Spence even know he got taken? Was Spence alive? There were so many questions and he had absolutely zero answers. But he supposed he could try to ask. “Did you take anyone else?”

The guy raised his brow. “Do you see anyone else here?”

“So, you keep everyone you take in the same place?”

“We don’t usually take more than one at a time. It gets tricky.”

Well, that was somewhat good to know. Spence was probably okay. All he knew is that he couldn’t let them know that he wasn’t Andi. He would hold onto that until his last breath. He would rather die than let them find her.

“Are you here to…watch over me or something?”

The man nodded once. “More or less.”

“Okay,” he sighed, dropping his gaze towards the floor. From what he was gathering, the guy was okay. Or, at least, he was better than the others. Maybe things wouldn’t be as miserable as he thought if he had him around. Not that he was going to have a good time down there, but if he had someone on his side in some capacity, that would help.