Chapter 44: Chapter 44 – Kidnapping
"Erin!" Matthew said almost screaming and holding her by her shoulders. "Where’s Mia?"
"Matt? What happened?" Erin asked confused about his sudden outburst. "She went to the bathroom."
Erin saw Sarah shifting behind Matthew clearly scared, Matthew lifting his head looking around for Mia, and Faralynn stepping closer with a worried face.
"What is going on?" Erin asked getting scared herself.
"There is a man..." Sarah said, but didn’t finish.
"There was a man following us." Matthew finished for his sister. "I lost sight of him."
"Where’s Mia?" Faralynn asked getting closer to them. "Dad’s security will be here in 10 minutes."
"She went to the bathroom." Erin said pointing to the bathrooms close to them.
"Go check on her. Faralynn, go with Erin." Matthew said. "I’ll stay here with Sarah."
The two girls went to the woman’s bathroom, while Matthew and Sarah stayed behind. Sarah was holding Matthew’s shirt with one hand afraid to let go as if he would leave her alone if she did.
"It’s ok, Sarah." Matthew consoled her holding her hand. "As soon as they bring Mia we’ll go somewhere safe and wait for Faralynn’s security."
As soon as he said his last words, a child of about 8 years old poked Matthew. He was eating an ice cream cone with one hand and had a piece of paper on the other. Matthew looked at the child confused but turned to him.
"That uncle told me to give you this." The child said handling the paper to Matthew.
"Which uncle?" Matthew asked controlling his voice so he would not scream at a child.
"That..." The child pointed to a cart selling ice cream. "Wait... He’s not there anymore."
"How did he look like?" Sarah asked getting close to the child.
"He was bald." The child said taking a bite from his ice cream. "He bought me this and asked me to give you that paper."
Matthew remembered the man in green had brown hair. It was other person. Were they working together?
Sarah thanked the child and told him to look for his mother. To which he replied that she was inside the store pointing at a lingerie store.
"She didn’t let me in and said to me to stay on the bench."
"Then be a good boy and sit on the bench and wait for your mother, ok?" Sarah said forcing a smile and patting his head which made the kid’s face turn red.
He went to the bench almost running and waved energetically at Sarah when he sat down. Sarah just gained another fan.
Matthew’s face went pale when he read the paper. It read:
"If you want to see your friend again, send the elf to the rooftop. Alone. Just her. You have 5 minutes."
Matthew cursed between his teeth. It was Faralynn’s uncle again. She had told him that her father took care of the problem, that she was safe and didn’t need security anymore. Did she lie to him or was Farzan wrong?
Faralynn and Erin returned soon after with worried faces.
"Mia is not in there." Erin said shaking her head.
Matthew didn’t say anything to that, just handled the paper to Faralynn.
Her face went pale reading it. And then she looked to Matthew with her eyes wide open.
"There was more than one of them." He said looking down. "They got Mia."
"Mia is only level 3." Faralynn commented closing her hands in fists.
"What’s going on?" Erin asked covering her mouth in fear.
"They want Faralynn. They got Mia and want Faralynn to go to them or they’ll hurt her. They wrote 5 minutes, but we can’t be sure how much time we have." Matthew explained.
Faralynn didn’t give him time to say anything further. She ran at full speed towards an elevator.
"Lynn, wait!" Matthew screamed running after her and entering the elevator with her while Sarah and Erin stayed behind with all the bags.
"I can’t let them hurt Mia." Faralynn said after the doors closed.
"They’re going to kidnap you. Are you stupid? Just stay here. Let’s call the cops. Your security is coming too."
"And what they’ll do to her while we wait?" Faralynn’s face was pure anger.
"What they will do to you?!" Matthew screamed at her. "You don’t see that you will only do what they want? If they have someone able to teleport up there? They will take you away to Nuilynn to marry your uncle and there will be no way to stop them!" He continued referring to the planet elves were from.
"And then let Mia get hurt? Or killed?!" Faralynn was almost hitting Matthew poking him at his chest with her finger. "You’re the stupid one here! If they take me, they’ll not hurt me. Remember what Orson said? They won’t hurt me."
"We don’t know that. We don’t know what will happen." Matthew protested.
Faralynn looked at the numbers showing the floor the elevator was on. She was holding the emergency button that prevented the elevator to stop at other floors. That button also sent an alarm to the mall administration for them to send medical help, if needed, or the security, if pressed for no reason.
"You will stay in the elevator and I’ll go. Alone." Faralynn ordered him.
"No. I won’t let you go." Matthew said decisive.
"Matthew. Please. I don’t want you to get hurt too. And I can’t let them hurt Mia." She begged him.
Matthew breathed deeply. He looked at Faralynn in the eyes:
"You’re right. I’m sorry." Matthew said touching Faralynn’s cheek.
Faralynn recoiled a bit with the touch, not from disgust, but from surprise. But soon relaxed and allowed him to touch her. Leaning into his hand, she smiled and said:
"Don’t worry. My father will save me later, but first we need to..." Faralynn closed her eyes not finishing what she was saying.
Matthew held her gently and put her on the ground. He used the Witchcraft skill to cast a sleep spell on her, needing to physically touch her head to cast the spell.
When the doors to the rooftop opened, he got out pressing the bottom floor button in the elevator. He didn’t know how long she would be asleep, but he could not let her come back up. He would also not let Mia alone to be hurt or killed. Therefore he decided to go out himself.
The mall’s rooftop was only a small glass belvedere that was usually empty save in special occasions. That day in particular, there was only a mother and her small daughter watching the view, and the man in green that Matthew saw earlier.
"Where’s the elf, kid?" He asked getting up from the bench he was sitting as soon as he saw Matthew getting off the elevator.
"Where’s Mia?" Matthew asked back holding himself not to attack.
"She’s with my associate. She’s unharmed. For now." The man answered. "The elf was supposed to come alone. You know what that means, don’t you?"
He got a cellphone from his pocket and tried to call someone, but Matthew was quicker than him and charged forward grabbing his wrist before he could make the call.
The man got scared by Matthew’s speed. He wasn’t expecting a 1st year adventurer like him to be that fast. He tried to get rid of Matthew, but Matthew was also stronger.
"What the fuck?!" He exclaimed making his hand shine with light magic.
A Luxomancer, Matthew thought. A tier two Mage line class that can control light. A very useful spell a Luxomancer could use, was invisibility. That explained how Matthew lost sight of him. It also meant that if Matthew let him go, he could turn invisible and run away.
Matthew held the man’s wrist fast and punched him in the face taking out a tooth.
"Where’s Mia?!" He screamed.
The mother and daughter who were there quickly ran away, running down the stairs to call security.
"Fuck you, kid." The man said hitting Matthew with a laser beam spell from that hand that shined earlier burning Matthew’s chest.
Matthew screamed in pain, but soon applied Anesthesia on himself and didn’t let go of the man wrist. He quickly slapped the man’s hand away making the laser beam shoot up into the glass ceiling making it shatter and rain glass on them both.
On the same movement, Matthew punched the man again, his demonic mana now becoming visible behind his eye patch. The man was clearly a Mage, meaning his Vitality and HP weren’t much higher than Matthew’s even if he was above level 20.
The man got dizzy from the second punch and could not react when the third punch reached his face again.
"Where is Mia!" Matthew screamed again. It was now clear for him that the man’s level was not near level 20, perhaps 12 or 14.
"Fuck you." The man said spitting blood on Matthew.
Matthew’s hand hurriedly encircled the man’s neck and pressed down taking off his air.
"If you kill me, you’ll never find her." The man said grasping for air.
Matthew let go of his neck with those words. He was right. He couldn’t let the demonic mana take control of him. He needed to be smart now, not violent.
After a deep breath, Matthew used purification on himself to clear his mind. Then he thought about a person he could never lie to. No matter the circumstances. His mother. He touched the man’s head and used Witchcraft to incite those feelings on the man. To make him look at Matthew the same way Matthew looked at his mother.
"Now tell me. Where is Mia?" Matthew asked calmly.
The man looked away from Matthew. As if he were ashamed of what he did.
"She’s... She’s over there." He pointed at a maintenance door. "Near the air conditioning machines. My associate is with her." The man said softly. "I’m sorry." He cried. "I’m really sorry."
"Your associate, is he strong?" Matthew asked.
"He’s level 17." The man said cleaning his nose. "Stronger than me."
Matthew then put the man to sleep and gently put him on the floor so he wouldn’t wake up from the fall.
When Matthew stood up he heard from behind him:
"Don’t move. Get away from that man."