Chapter Twenty-One.

Wake up, sleepy head.

Gary had the strangest sensation that he was at the bottom of a very deep pool. A murky pool that made it hard for him to swim out. He tried to move his arms but couldn’t. His legs were as hard as lead and equally numb.

I’m not going to ask again. I have many ways to pull you out of sleep. You are not going to like any of them.

It was that deep voice…the same voice he had heard before passing out. The voice was cold and emotionless, like the monotone of an AI robot.

Gary cracked his eyes open and knives pierced through his head causing him to gasp in pain. His head throbbed. Everywhere throbbed as if he had been run over by a car.

Through his blurry vision, he found out that he was sitting on a chair at the center of his apartment. His arms were tied painfully behind his back and his legs…he couldn’t feel them anymore because of lack of blood flow to them.

The carpet had been rolled away to reveal the wood paneling of the floor. About four burning black can