Chapter One

THE DRIPPING OF water echoing through a long tunnel was the first sound Sonny heard as he began to regain consciousness. His head felt fuzzy and his eyelids were so heavy he could barely open them when he awoke. He looked around the room he was in and it looked like he was in some kind of medieval dungeon. He was laying on top of a dirty cot. Sonny forced himself to sit up. He held his head in his hands as the room began to spun. When his feet hit the dirt floor he noticed his shoes and socks were missing. So was his watch and belt. The only personal item they had let him keep was his wedding ring.

"Where the hell am I?" Sonny asked the room and his voice echoed off the walls. He tried to remember who he could have gotten there. He'd obviously had been drugged. But when and how did it happen. He tried to think back to the last thing he recalled and then he remembered.

He had just had a big fight with Carly. He'd stormed out telling her he couldn't take anymore of her lies and deceptions and when he'd waited by the elevator for it to arrive at their floor, someone had grabbed him from behind and held their hand over his mouth while they jabbed a syringe into his neck.

He'd tried to fight the effects of the drug, but it had been useless. Then he felt himself being slung over someone's shoulder and carried away. The man who was carrying him, carried him up to the roof. Then he heard the sound of a helicopter approaching. It landed on the roof and he was loaded inside. After that he had finally passed out and surrendered to the dark oblivion that awaited him.

Sonny leaned his head back against the damp cobblestone wall and waited for the drugs to finish wearing off him. He felt too weak to even stand. Whatever they had given him it had been really strong stuff. Sonny tried to clear his head and figure out who could have done this to him. It had to be whomever was out to get him. All the strange things happening were connected. Someone was out to get him and by the looks of things they finally had.

Suddenly there was the sound of a key being turned in the lock. He looked up at the top of the winding staircase that lead out of the pit he'd been put in. The hinges on the door groaned in protest as the door was opened and a man Sonny had never seen before stared down at him in satisfaction.

"So, you're finally awake." He spoke with a thick accent Sonny couldn't identify. "How do you like your accommodations, Mr. Corinthos?"

"Who are you?" Sonny asked. "And why are you doing this to me?"

"My name is Alcazar Santiago." He told Sonny. "And why I'm doing this will become clear to you very soon."

"I don't know you." Sonny declared. "I've never seen you before in my life. Why did you kidnap me?"

"It's true we have never met." He continued to wear a pleased smile on his face that Sonny wished he had enough strength to knock off. "But you know someone who is very close to me."

"And that's why you've done all this?" Sonny couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Because I know someone who you're close to? You kidnapped Elizabeth Webber. You lured my sister into becoming a stripper. You did all this because I know someone who is close to you." He added. "That's insane."

"All will become clear to you soon." He promised.

"It's already clear." Sonny spat. "You're nothing but a stinking coward who uses women to get what he wants. You used both Elizabeth Webber and my sister to get at me."

"How dare you." His hand shot out as he backhanded Sonny across the face. "Do not ever call me a coward again, Mr. Corinthos, or it'll be the last thing that ever slithers off that forked tongue of yours."

That was just the thing Sonny needed to snap him out of his lethargy. He jumped off the cot and grabbed Alcazar around the throat. "You miserable sick bastard." Sonny snarled as he began to strangle him. "I'm going to kill you."

Hearing the sound of a scuffle, two of Alcazar's guards rushed into the room and pulled Sonny off of him. "That was a very stupid mistake, Mr. Corinthos."

"One I'll repeat in future." Sonny promised him. "If I get half the chance." Sonny was shoved back down on the cot by the two guards. "You know, you're not going to get away with this. There are already people out there looking for me."

"You mean your trained pet, Jason Morgan?" Alcazar laughed. "He'll never find you. You are no longer in America, Mr. Corinthos. The helicopter you were put in transported you to a plane and that plane brought you here. No one will be able to trace you." He added. "And if you by some miracle manage to escape from here, which is highly unlikely, you'll never be able to escape this country without money or a passport. I will track you down and put you someplace far worse than this place is." He looked down at Sonny's bare feet. "You don't even have shoes. You are powerless, Mr. Corinthos, and there's nothing you can do about it. You're trapped and you're helpless, and if you don't want to make it worse on yourself, you won't try another foolish stunt like you just pulled."

"I am not powerless." Sonny jumped to his feet and declared passionately. "I am not helpless. I will escape from here even if I have to claw my way out of here to do it." He added. "You just watch me."

Alcazar suddenly looked up towards the top of the stairs. "Ah, my dear, you've finally arrived to greet our prisoner." He smiled. "He's been wondering why I kidnapped him and brought him here, but I'm sure once he sees you everything will immediately become clear to him."

Sonny stared towards the top of the stairs and shook his head in denial over what he was seeing. "No." He refused to believe what his own eyes were telling him was true. "This is some kind of trick." He shook his head in denial again. "I don't believe it."

Alcazar met her as she reached the bottom of the stairs. "It seems our guest doesn't believe what he's seeing." He smiled as he kissed her hand continental-style. "What shall we do to convince him that what he's seeing is true."

"Perhaps he just doesn't remember me." She suggested, as she glared at him. "From everything you've told me, it seems he forgot about me a long time ago." She added bitterly. "I wish I could have done the same about him."

"Perhaps you're right, my dear." Alcazar was really enjoying this. "An introduction is in order." He turned to Sonny. "Mr. Corinthos, let me introduce you to my wife..."

Sonny's legs gave out on him and he sat back down on the cot shock. Sonny closed his eyes, as the full impact of what was going on hit him. Then he whispered a name he hadn't been able to speak in years because it caused him too much pain to say it. "Brenda."