Long before Matthew—before Vigilante—there was Carmine Fisk. 

He was the type of man who was well known around town, and not for being particularly kind. There were rumors about him, of course, about the things he was supposedly involved with. They were the kind of rumors that were probably mostly true. But then, they were about the kind of things that painted a picture of Fisk as a man who shouldn’t be messed with. At least, unless they were just a tad insane and obsessive about justice. Like Matthew, for example. 

Eli was starting to really hate that particular trait.

"What? But, he's in jail." While Eli hadn't really followed the news all that much, he remembered hearing about a bunch of crime bosses and drug dealers going to jail. Mostly, he remembered it all because Matthew had been involved. What he did remember though, was that Fisk was one of the guys sent to prison.

"Yeah, and now he's out," Al said with a shrug. "You can't keep guys like Fisk locked up that easy, or else the cops woul'da done it a while ago." Eli could see Al's point. He didn't like it, but it was still true. "Anyway, he'll show up soon enough. Probably to ask you about that masked pain in the ass. Try not to talk your way into getting murdered." The way Al smirked told Eli he hoped he actually talked himself into getting murdered.

Yep, definitely bad news for Eli. Mostly because he didn't think Fisk would ask all that nicely.

"But I don't know anything about him!" Eli said, because he was starting to panic again. It seemed like he did that a lot lately.

"Then you better hope the boss likes you," Al said with a grin that told Eli he still wasn't over the whole getting ratted out thing. Which, okay, fair. Eli still didn't appreciate Al's amusement over his current situation.

Al left not long after that. The smoking gorilla from before returned, now with a magazine instead of a newspaper. Eli would have asked if there were any better looking guards, but he thought better of it. Maybe that was a sign that his brain was recovering. Let it never be said that he couldn't learn a lesson—eventually.

He did his best not to panic as the minutes ticked by, but every time he heard someone talking somewhere nearby or heading towards them, he feared that it would be Fisk. Even with Eli’s limited knowledge on the guy he could tell he wasn't someone he wanted to meet. This was especially true given the situation he was currently in.

At some point in time, Eli started wondering where Matthew could be and whether he was looking for him. Mostly, he wondered whether the man even knew Eli was missing. He supposed it was very likely that Matthew didn't. After all, Eli hadn't been what you'd call nice the last time he'd talked to Matthew. It was just his luck that the last conversation he'd had with the man was an argument.

The thought made him feel more miserable than he already was. And that was really saying something, considering he was cold, hungry, and his face felt like it had decided to test out how much pain it could take. So far, it was holding up, but Eli was hoping it would stop getting punched.

Mostly though, he was just wondering if he’d ever see Matthew again. If he’d get the chance to tell him, well, Eli didn’t know what he would tell him. Not because he didn’t have anything to say. There was just so much Eli wanted to tell Matthew, things he’d never had the chance to say. He supposed that’s what he got for taking time for granted. 

Not that Eli had ever expected to die at the ripe old age of twenty-one. His mother would have a fit.

It was just as he was considering asking the smoking gorilla—who was apparently in charge of making sure Eli didn't Houdini his way out of there—if he could get a bathroom break that something interesting happened. Fortunately, it wasn't the 'throw Eli in the river with concrete shoes' type of interesting. It was more on the 'sudden and suspicious blackout' side of things.

Eli could hear the scraping of the legs on the flimsy chair the man supposedly guarding him had been sitting on. Clearly, he was up and on guard at the lights suddenly going out. There was what sounded suspiciously like someone being thrown into something that didn't quite withstand the impact. It was followed by a yelp of what could have been either surprise or distress. Eli was leaning towards it being the latter. Whatever it was that was going on—and Eli hoped it was a good thing for him—it set the large man in the room with him on alert.

The guy went to one of the windows lining the office wall and pulled down the blinds, just far enough that he could take a look outside. It was pitch black and Eli didn't think the man could see much of anything. Either way, the guy did not look happy as he turned away from the window, turning on his phone for a bit of light. He turned it towards Eli, nearly blinding the redhead who’d gotten used to the dark. Eli would have said something about it, but he didn’t think his face could take any more punishment. 

“Don’t do anything stupid,” the man warned. As if Eli could do anything. 

He still nodded and tried to look as harmless as possible. Of course, that had a lot to do with the fact that there was already a gun in his hand. That did nothing to calm Eli. He sincerely hoped the man didn't get trigger happy in his apparent panic and ended up shooting him.

Nothing happened for a while, and the silence that stretched out was tense, but the man was scowling to try to hide his panic. Eli would have said something to mock him if he weren't so sure it would get him shot. Instead, he kept as quiet as he could and looked on with a mixture of horror and interest, waiting for something to happen.

He didn't have to wait long and he wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or not. With a loud mess of sound that indicated the breaking of one of the windows, something burst into the office. Eli was very glad that he was far enough to not get hit by the shards of flying glass. The guard wasn't as lucky, but he didn't get hit by enough glass to prevent him from shooting and cursing when he realized it was just a crate that had smashed through the window, missing him by mere inches. 

Eli was almost disappointed. Mostly because it would have been hilarious to watch him get taken down by a crate. It was still amusing to watch the man panic. Before he could really think about what he had been expecting a lot of things happened in very quick succession. Eli could only describe it all as utter chaos.

The guard cautiously moved to the door and opened it, his gun pointed and ready. He didn't get to use it though. Before he could prepare himself, he was tackled to the ground by a dark blur and fell back into the office with a yell and a THUD. He cursed once more and shot his gun as his attacker moved over to Eli in a flash. The redhead had only a moment to panic before he went down with a shout.

His chair—the one he was tied to—was knocked back. Eli cursed as his head was once more the recipient of abuse as it hit the floor. Once on the ground, he realized that maybe it was for the best. After all, he could hear a couple more shots being fired somewhere above him. He didn’t think he’d be so lucky as to have them all miss him if he’d not been knocked down. 

Just moments after he'd hit the ground, Eli heard a loud curse and then a crash that was unmistakably breaking glass. For a couple of seconds, it was deathly quiet. Eli wondered if he'd been forgotten and would just lie there in the dark until someone stepped on his face and found him.

Then a blindingly bright light—or so it seemed at the time—was cast over him.

There, standing over him and looking about as relieved as he could in the dim lighting, was Matthew. He was holding a small flashlight and hurrying to help Eli, who wasn't really sure how to respond. His first instinct, as was usual when he was dealing with Matthew, was to kick him in the shins. Unfortunately, he was tied up at the moment—literally. His second instinct was to actually be glad to see him, which didn't really happen all that often as of late.

"Hey Eli," Matthew said, already working on untying the redhead. "Are you okay?" Eli went back to wanting to kick him because his face could tell him that no, he was not okay.

"What the hell kind of question is that? I'm tied up and my face looks like it lost a fight against a concrete wall," Eli said, clearly forgetting how just a while earlier, he'd wished he had been nicer to Matthew. At the very least, the masked man didn't seem to mind, instead looking amused.

"If you can complain like that then I'm guessing you're fine," said Matthew, helping Eli to stand. "Come on, we have to get out of here." Eli completely agreed with at least that much.

He hadn't taken a single step forward when there was a loud sound—a gunshot—and a crippling pain that spread through his body. Eli didn't really hear himself cry out in pain. Honestly, he didn't process much of what happened. He supposed it wasn't really his fault. After all, Eli had never been shot before.

He didn't really care to repeat the experience—if he lived through the whole mess he'd gotten himself into. At least, as he stumbled and nearly fell over, he had Matthew there to lean on. His hands caught Eli easily, a reassuring warmth even as Eli’s leg felt like it was on fire. 

Matthew's here, he told himself as he felt the man's strong arms leading him to some cover. The thought alone made him feel better. Matthew was there, and Eli trusted that he woudl get them out.