“Unfinished”

Author’s Note: This is a Take Ten to Write story and has not been proofread for errors. If I feel inspired or if there’s interest in the story, I’ll post a revised, edited, and extended version at a later date. Happy reading!

Prompt: Write a story titled “Unfinished”.

He scowls at me. “We’ve got some unfinished business, you and I.”

I pull against my restraints, testing them, and find that they are, in fact, holding me quite securely.

“Who taught you how to tie these knots?” I ask, jerking at the ropes.

He spits, “Why is this important?”

“Oh, it isn’t,” I say with a shrug. “I’m just saying that they’re very well done.” And yet, they’ll still be a piece of cake for me.

His scowl deepens. The uneven clickclack…clickclack…clickclack of his shoes echoes around what I assume is his mother’s basement as he walks to the table holding all his tools. There’s some clanking of metal as he arranges the tools on the table before he seems to decide. He turns back around to face me, holding a baseball bat.

“Let’s begin,” he says, his voice a low growl. He approaches me, tapping the bat in rhythm with his steps.

“Come on, man, can’t we just talk about this?” I say, leaning back in my chair as my fingers begin their work on the knots. “There’s no need to bring in violence.”

“Enough talk!” he shouts, swinging the bat forward so that it slams onto the ground at my feet.

I frown. “But I thought that the point of this whole threatening-to-torture-me thing is to get me to talk. You do want me to tell you all of NISVA’s secrets, right?” I’ve finished untying one knot; onto the next one.

He pauses. Perfect; he’s confused. Jeez, you’d think that they’d train their henchpeople better to interrogate highly experienced agents. Oh well, makes it easier for me.

Another knot undone. Only one left.

I sigh. “Look, I’m sorry for shooting you earlier. But if I’m being honest, I was aiming for your heart. I know, it was a moment of uncharacteristic inaccuracy for me, but I can promise you that it won’t happen again.”

The bat hits the ground in front of me again. “SILENCE!” he roars. Spit flies onto my face. I screw up my nose and try to shake it off. When that doesn’t work, I release the ropes that were holding me seconds ago and wipe my face.

Calmly, I grab his bat and yank it from his grasp. It easily slides out from his hands. Gross, it’s all sweaty. Still, I whack him on the leg in the exact same place that I shot him earlier. He goes down with a pained scream.

“Okay, well this was fun,” I say, untying my legs and standing up. I cock my head as he writhes on the ground in front of me, clutching his leg. “Let’s not do this again, yeah?”

His lips tremble as I grab his shirt and drag him to the edge of the conveniently-placed hole in the ground on the other side of the room. He probably meant to drop my body down the hole after he finished getting all the information out of me.

Just as I’m about to shove him over, he shouts, “WAIT!”

“What now?” I sigh.

“I have information about TEVA!”

I scoff. “Yeah, right. No one has any information on TEVA. That’s kind of the point, isn’t it?”

He shakes his head. “No, no, I know the leader of TEVA! If you let me go, I’ll tell you!”

“No deal,” I say. “Good-bye.”

“Wait, his name is Mr Beeeeahhhhhhh!”

I peer into the hole with wide eyes. He really did know the name of TEVA’s leader.

Crap.

Final Comments: I spent a bit longer on this one because I wanted to get to the end!

Overall Rating: 😏