Dead EndChapter 2

The house Sebastian brings him to is old, the stately building shoved in between two taller, and much more modern, apartment buildings. The brick house nevertheless stands proudly, if somewhat shabbily, and the door is visibly heavy when Sebastian pushes it open.

Jordan eyes the bars on all the windows, feeling his uneasiness growing. Licking his lips, he hunches his shoulders slightly and lowers his head as he walks through the doorway. The iron door bangs shut behind him and he winces, eyeing it nervously. For a second, they’re standing in complete darkness before Sebastian flicks a switch and a dangling light over their head turns on.  jaXd6N

Jordan takes in the long and narrow hallway they’re now standing in. The walls are completely bare, the lights all hanging from the high ceiling. His fingers grabs onto the phone in his backpocket, gently sweeping over it to ensure he has easy access to it.

”Where are we?” he asks, rocking back on his feet. He’s standing right in front of the door and Sebastian is in front of him; the hallway is narrow enough that if he tries to get past him, he’ll have to touch him. And he’s fairly certain he heard the door lock behind them, too.

Chrysanthemum Garden.

He licks his lips again, his mouth suddenly strangely dry.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Sebastian sighs deeply. He leans his shoulder against the wall and brushes his hand over his head, messing up his hair again. Rubbing his eyes, the man slumps his shoulders and says, ”My house. I would have bought a new one out in a more defensible location, but I wouldn’t be able to get the renovations started in time, so this will have to do. I think I got all the most urgent things completed in time, so now it’s just a waiting game.” mFOACK

”What do you mean, waiting game? Waiting for what?” Jordan demands, heaviness sitting in the pit of his stomach. He doesn’t like the way the man looks; exhausted and worn out. It makes it seem like he’s not insane.

”Chaos,” the man answers. He drags in a ragged breath and lets his head rest on the wall, too, as if he needs the support. ”Complete and utter chaos, like you’ve never seen before.”

Jordan slumps back against the door, exhaling. ”You know that doesn’t tell me anything, right?”

”Yes,” Sebastian mutters, ”But you won’t believe me, so it’s better to wait and you’ll see for yourself. It’s not long now, anyway.”

”See what?” Jordan snaps.

The man doesn’t answer, apparently tired of the conversation. Jordan hisses in frustration, banging his head softly against the door. It does nothing except cause him pain, of course. But it grounds him in the here and now. 

”If you won’t tell me that, at least tell me how you know me,” Jordan says, an edge of pleading in his voice.

Sebastian only shakes his head and says nothing. UOeqZc

”Fuck,” Jordan whispers under his breath. He rubs his forehead, his fingers pressing down on his scalp and brushing the short hair every which way. He closes his eyes and inhales softly, trying to organize his thoughts into something that’ll make sense. 

He followed a kidnapper and a potential stalker to the man’s heavily fortified home. A man that won’t give him any answers and yet doesn’t seem insane at all. He just seems… tired. Fatigue clings to him like a second skin and now, in so close quarters, Jordan can see the dark circles below Sebastian’s eyes, the dry lips, the slight tremble to his large frame. He doesn’t seem crazy; he just seems defeated.

Opening his eyes again, he pushes off the door. He lets go of the phone in his pocket, leaving it there, and walks past the strangers. Their arms bump against each other as he passes, but Sebastian doesn’t do anything about it. Jordan walks through the hallway to the other end where there’s another heavy iron door, already open.

”How long until this… chaos… happens?” Jordan asks as he walks through the door. He braces himself on the doorframe, scanning the far more open area the door guards before he enters. Hearing footsteps behind him, he glances over his shoulder and sees Sebastian slowly lumbering toward him. RY53VW

”A couple of hours,” Sebastian says. The man voice is low and unhurried, as if he’s expended all his energy and has nothing left. ”I shouldn’t have cut it so close, I’m sorry.”

Jordan frowns. But he doesn’t say anything more. Instead, he walks into the room and stalks over to an armchair standing silently in a corner. He settles himself down, ignoring the bars he can see through the windowpane. There is a latch of something above it and he has the unnerving feeling it’s a cover of some kind.

The man really believes this, doesn’t he? That something horrible is going to happen, and soon. 

Sebastian sits down on another armchair, in another corner. The room is long and wide, the table in the middle covered by boxes of bottled water and cans of food. In another corner there is a pile of toilet paper taller than Jordan. The light hanging from the ceiling is mercilessly bright, and he sees pile after pile. They’re carefully situated so as to not block the clear path throughout the room, and Jordan swallows uneasily. Uia9XN

His fingers clench on the armchair’s armrest. He pulls his feet up below him, toeing off his shoes as he moves, and settles into a ball. Sebastian isn’t saying anything, not even looking at him. The man is only fiddling with his phone, completely focused on it. If Jordan tries, he could probably make it passed him and out the door before he noticed.

But… the man hasn’t hurt him. Still hasn’t threatened him, hasn’t implied he wants to do something bad to him. He only sits there now, slumped against the backrest and rubbing his eyes. Jordan curls up tighter. According to Sebastian, in only a couple of hours, something horrible will happen. Then, when nothing happens, he should be free to go, right? 

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