Chapter 3
The first time Oliver woke up, he was still very high. He was sober enough to understand he was in a secondary location, that he was restrained to a chair and that there was someone else in the room with him. He made a couple of unintelligible noises before dropping his head and losing consciousness again.
The second time Oliver woke up, he was still high. Although he was sober enough to form coherent thoughts. Just only pretty stupid ones. The first thing he noticed was that he was in some shitty, mostly concrete building. There wasn’t any furniture except for a camera, his chair, and the chair of the boy beside him. The second thing he noticed was that there was a boy beside him. He was also restrained to his chair and was looking at him with very wide eyes.
“Who are you?” Oliver slurred at the boy.
“I’m Peter. Who are you?” The boy slurred back. Peter had multiple small punctures in his neck. Oliver assumed he had a few too.
“I’m Oliver,” He blinked at Peter a couple of times before slurring out again. “What are we doing here?”
Peter looked at him for a bit longer, then shrugged. “Maybe we are ransom.”
Oliver let out a gurgly sort of laugh. He meant it. “Ransom for who?”
The door behind the camera opened and both boys loosely turned their heads to look at it. It was the pencil skirt lady from the bus stop.
“Hey!” Oiver yelled “You drugged me!” He found this woman both frightening and funny. He seemed to find a lot of things funny. Probably the drugs. The woman walked up to Oliver and smacked him in the face. Oliver let his head hang loose for a moment before turning back to the woman with tears in his eyes. He started to sob. “That was so mean!” He felt betrayed, hurt, upset.
The woman grabbed his face in her hand and centered it with hers. “Look at me,” Oliver tried to let his head go limp. “Hey! Look at me.” He obeyed, the woman searched his eyes for a moment before letting his head drop. “You are still much too high huh dear. No fun yet.”
Oliver closed his eyes and listened to the woman walk over to Peter. She wasn’t quite sure what she said to him. He was really tired again. He let himself fall back to sleep.
The third and last time Oliver woke up, he was mostly sober. With this sudden lack of drugs flowing through his blood stream, Oliver was finally able to realize the gravity of the situation he was in. He took stock of his body and the possible threats in the room. Body in pain from Jackson still, face still swollen from Mr. Stark and from the woman from the bus stop. Overall, not great. Oliver looked around the room for a second time, taking note of the well constructed and locked doors leading out. There are three of them, no guess as to which leads out. THe restraints keeping his arms and legs against the chair are metal and the chair is attached to the ground. Oliver turns to Peter.
Peter cocks his head. He looks tired and his face is more swollen then Oliver remembers. “You still under the influence?” His voice comes out rough, but he doesn’t seem terribly scared. Oliver feels more scared then he looks.
He nods. “You said we were ransom right? Before?”
Peter nods, slightly confused looking. “Yeah for Mr. Stark, like I said.” Oliver didn’t remember hearing this part. He couldn’t imagine himself being held ransom for Mr. stark, he only just met the man and couldn’t say he left a huge impact.
“I think they took the wrong guy then there’s no way I’m supposed to make Tony Stark give someone money or something.” Oliver looked down. No way that a man like Tony Stark would give up so much just for his life. “Do you know him well?” He looks back at Peter. Peter nods, slightly hesitantly. “Good, you’re my bet at getting out of here alive then huh.” Oliver says this with a joking tone but the look in his eyes spells fear. They both sit, about a meter apart, alone in their separate chairs.
The door behind the camera opens and the woman from the bus stop, along with another woman and a man that both looked jacked, all walk in.
“Yes, I am the woman that drugged you. No, I'm not going to let you go. No, we did not take the wrong kid. Now look at me.” All of the questions Oliver immediately felt forming on his tongue were dispelled. He did as he was told, looking into the woman's eyes well as she held his face up. She smiled and tightened her grip slightly before letting his face go. “Good, we can finally record.” She turned to the two she came in with. The man excited and came back with a scrawny looking person, who got behind the camera and handed all three a black devil mask.
The man came over to Oliver and looked him in the face, through the holes in the mask. “Shall I rough him up a bit first?” He asked. Oliver couldn’t see the response. The man swung at Oliver, stopping just before hitting his face. He laughed at Oliver cowering, preparing to be hit, laughed at Oliver’s arms instinctively straining against the restraints.
Next, he hit Oliver for real. He didn’t flinch as much, because he wasn’t hit before. He should have. The force into his nose sent his head back, hitting the back of the chair. Oliver jerked forward, eyes watering as blood splattered from his nose. The man’s fist makes contact with the side of Oliver’s face, he could feel his knuckles digging under his cheekbones. This man is stronger than Jackson. Either that or Oliver wasn’t used to being punched in the face. The man wipes his knuckles on Oliver's shirt, adding to the bloodstains from his nose. Oliver let his head hand as the three took their places beside Peter and him. The person behind the camera counted down from three.
The woman from the bus stop speaks. “Hello Tony Stark. By now you might have noticed that these two people have been missing. Your closest intern, Peter Parker as well as the only person in your house after you tried to hide from us. Bethany Smith.” Oliver cringed. “As you can see, they are both here. We have been taking very good care of them.” The man behind Oliver pulls his head up by his hair, showing off his bleeding face. “Along with this recording you have received a list of demands. You have 24 hours to deliver these demands to the attached location before we kill these two. The sooner you deliver the demands, the better. Every six hours you have not delivered anything, you will be receiving a lovely video of these two being treated better and better.” The little red light blinking on the camera turns off and the man holding Oliver’s head up lets it drop. He spits out the blood that had started accumulating in his mouth. A list of demands. Not one. Mr. Stark was going to leave him here to die wasn’t he? He was going to go through hell every six hours and then he will die. Maybe he should just start looking for ways to die sooner instead.
“You know he’s going to come for us!” Peter blurts out as the people start to leave the room. Oliver cringes, please don’t make them mad, but the woman from the bus stop just smiles.
“Oh? He’ll come for you huh? Leaving his wife vulnerable just to come 12 hours too late to get two newly fucked up kids? Be honest with yourself dear. He’ll either pay up, send someone else, which we are prepared for, or he won’t do anything.” The woman leans on Peter’s chair arms, getting uncomfortably close to his swollen face. “So, how much are you worth?” She pauses, as if waiting for an answer but Peter just recoils. She leaves the room with the others.
“Do you really think he’ll come for us?” Oliver stays looking down, but, he needs to know if he has a chance. He needs to know if this boy’s presence means anything for him.
“Yes.'' His voice is filled with confidence and Peter can’t tell whether or not it's for Oliver or if it's honest. They both sat there, pondering their situation. Pondering solutions.
“How long do you think it’s been, since we were kidnapped?” Oliver speaks up to break the silence. His voice is soft, scared of being heard by their captors.
“You were asleep for a long time, they said about eighteen hours earlier.” Peter’s voice has the same tone. Eighteen hours. Oliver wondered how pissed his parents were, wondered if they were even worried yet.
“Oliver, you. said your name was right? How did they, you know, get you?” Oliver looksat Peter, takes in the rapidly purpling marks on his face and the blood drying on his lips. Intern is what their capturs said.
“Yeah, Oliver. I was uh on my way home from school and this lady asked for help with directions and drugged me.” Oliver felt stupid about it now. He had suspected something was wrong with the situation but, he just couldn’t trust his gut could he. He had to help the lady. “I guess I should've just kept walking huh?” Oliver smiled at Peter, but they could both feel the emotion under it. He felt stupid. He felt careless.
“Yeah it was pretty much the same for me too. She had to inject me a good couple times before I went down though. I should’ve run.” Oliver thought he had heard them talk about upping the dose for the next kid, but, if Peter had to be dosed a lot, maybe not. Oliver wiped his nose on his shoulder, trying to get at least a little more comfortable. He was thirsty, but at this point too scared to ask for water.
It grew awkward, after a while, sitting there alone together. They didn’t even know each other. They kept alternating, asking each other questions, learning little bits about each other and what their situations was. Peter told Oliver that Mr. Starks wife had been sent to a separate, very secure location. They probably wouldn’t find her. That Mr. Stark had been annoyed by this, more then anything after he knew his wife was safe. His wife had insisted he hide himself though and apparently, Oliver told him, that meant going to Canada.
Oliver learned that Peter was incredibly smart. He guessed he could have assumed as he was Starks intern but, when he asked what he was working on, Oliver barely understood what he was saying. Peter explained it though, and well. Thats what really told Oliver his intelligence. The fact that he understood. Oliver told Peter a little bit about his art, about the little hobbies he had. Foraging, growing things, art in all forms. Peter seemed very impressed and Oliver wasn’t used to it. People only ever seemed to shrug and act like they were slightly annoyed by how much Oliver talked. Hours passed slowly, especially with both boys growing thirst and developing bruises. Peter’s seemed to develop much quicker, turning dark purple while Oliver’s were still red. They were both glad the hours passed slowly, as the anticipation and fear of what was to come grew stronger every second that passed.
Hours after the video, the door finally opened again. Both Peter and Oliver stared at it, waiting for the pain they knew was going to come through. The two muscular people from before entered, carrying a large metal tub. The woman from the bus stop enters as well, she’s carrying a hose which she attaches to a tap in the wall. She starts filling up the tub. The person that stood behind the camera earlier came in with the same black devil masks, handed them out, and then moved the camera to look at the metal tub.
The woman from the bus stop turns to Peter and Oliver, smiling. “Alright, which one of you wants to go first?” Oliver shook. This woman not only wanted to torture them, she wanted to enjoy it, didn’t she?
“Fuck you lady. We’re just kids, why are you doing this?” Oliver blurted out. It sounded more pathetic than he had intended.
“Why? Because your beloved Tony Stark has everything. He has money and power and he was given it all for nothing.” The woman stepped closer to Oliver, who held her gaze. “Because the only people who get those gifts are the people that suck up to him, and I’m tired of living on the bottom, waiting for paychecks, waiting to be listened to, waiting for some fucking white man to make decisions that barely help.” She wasn’t wrong, Oliver thought, but they were innocents. Why attack children that know a man benefiting from the system.
“Bullshit. You just can’t take down the people you really want to. Instead you are grasping at the little power this shit is giving you.”
The woman leaned in close, her face nearly touching his. “Is that so?” She smiles wickedly. “Or are you just scared because you know I'm going to kill you?” He was scared. Scared out of his fucking mind. She was right and she knew it. It didn’t matter if this was some power trip or a finger to the system, he was going to die either way. His eyes welled with tears he refused to let fall. It still wasn’t fair. It still wasn’t right. But what was at this point? Oliver would get out of here and go home to parents that tolerated his existence and go to school alone except someone who beat him up for stress relief. None of this shit had been fair and he hadn’t done anything about it.
“You think this is right?” Peter calls out, watching the woman smiling in Oliver’s face. “You think it’s right? That what you are doing gives you enough benefit that this is okay?”
“I think that I don’t give a shit whether this is right or not. You are tools for me. Sacrifices must be made.” The woman stood back, looking at the both of them again. She put on her mask and turned to face the camera. “Time to start boys.”