| Prologue In the movies, the hardasses wearing the suits and ties and sunglasses never sweat. Not matter what the temperature is, they never ever sweat. Which is impossible, especially when the thermometer hits near eighty degrees. Yes, summer had come early during this wonderful month of May and it caught both Stephan and I by surprise but it was too late to change our clothes or anything like that. In five minutes the school bell would ring, all the students would walk out chatting it up and getting ready to go home for the weekend. Among them would be a certain Elaine Jesch and when she came out, we would kidnap her. Yes, you comprehended all that right, I said kidnap her. Now I want you to know right now that my long time friend, and now accomplice, Stefan and I are not criminals. This right here is going to be our very first illegal act, okay well purposefully illegal act, and honestly we would never have done it had necessity not interfered and made it … well, necessary for lack of a better term. I mean we had to pay our rent. And after having been out of a job for a couple of weeks now, money has been pretty hard to come by. And it isn’t as though they’re handing out jobs with the massive recession and all. So we’d come up with a rather idiotic plan of kidnapping this girl and holding her for ransom. Why this girl you ask? Well first off we saw her picture in the paper for going to nationals in a spelling bee so we knew what she looked like and what school she went to. And secondly, she’s the daughter of the bastard who fired us. Call this necessity and vengeance mixed in a nice little cocktail best served cold. Killing two birds with one stone as my mother would say. Oh dear God, what would my mother think about all this? I cleared my throat and focused, if I let my mind wander to places like that, I would never be able to pull this thing off, so instead I glanced at my watch. Only a couple more minutes. And then we would be wanted men all across the nation after the Amber Alert sounded, if it sounded I wasn’t exactly sure if there was an age limit on it, technically she was eighteen and therefore an adult so if she were to say ‘disappear’, what would the protocol be? Anyway, if the Amber Alert did sound, hopefully Stefan and I would be holed up all nice and cozy with our little guest. If we made it in time. But I tried not to focus on that. Like they told me in grade school, “Think positive.” Yep, I’m positive that we’re fucked. Big time. Nervous now, I wiped some of the sweat off my forehead, and I knew that not all of it was from the heat and the lack of breathability inherent in all suits. No, I was definitely scared and one glance at Stefan told me that he was feeling the exact same way. And why shouldn’t we be scared? We were about to do the single most idiotic thing either of us had ever done. Here’s another thing Hollywood has failed to mention: how incredibly heavy a gun is. You wouldn’t really think about it but the things are practically solid steel so a standard hand gun has about an average weight of ten pounds, and it only goes up from there. And this heavy metal thing, if you don’t have a nice pretty little holster and you just stuck it in your waistband, well this thing pulls down on your pants, making you look like a fake-ass gangster, and it begins to chafe in no time at all. Fun little experience that no one bothered to warn me about. I shifted my weight so that the gun wasn’t resting so heavily on my hip. Now I know what you’re thinking, you’re all like, ‘Oh my God, they’ve got guns and they’re going to use them on this poor helpless innocent little eighteen year old girl!’ Yeah well the first parts true but we’re not going to use them, unless we’re forced to. They are just a precautionary measure, I mean I don’t want to be caught with my pants on the ground or anything. For all we knew, this girl could have pepper spray, or worse a tazer. And let me tell you something, I do not want to get tazed if I can help it. So the guns were really just for persuasion, to persuade her to get into the car with us without a fight, our intent was not to use them as weapons. I just want you clear on that, I don’t want you all thinking how we’re awful people. Because we’re not. I’m going to say this now, and I can’t stress it enough: We are not bad people. We’re just normal people who got put into a bad situation and are trying to make the best of it, albeit by some rather unconventional means. What can I say, we’re the guys who constantly think outside the box. And outside the law in this case… I was about to ask Stefan if he was ready when we heard the school bell ring and then both of us stiffened up preparing for what we knew was coming next. Shortly kids began filing out, first in a little trickle, then a stream, then a torrent of just faces upon faces upon faces of kids. Some of them gave Stefan and I weird glances but we remained stoic in our suits and our snazzy Wal-Mart sunglasses. However after the torrent turned back into a stream and then once again into a trickle we both got a little nervous, a little antsy. We hadn’t seen our mark. Pretty much the entire school had passed us and we hadn’t seen our mark. At first I thought that we might have lost her in the massive crowd because there were so many faces that even a familiar one could’ve easily been swallowed up. But before Stefan and I could really start freaking out our prayers were answered. A Miss Elaine Jesch stepped out of the school and began heading in our direction. She was a pretty girl, even without makeup which is fairly surprising when a girl is finishing out her senior year, at least in my graduating class all the girls wore makeup … and so did some of the guys. But she didn’t wear a fake face, or really any jewelry, not that I’m saying that makes her less pretty. It doesn’t, she was still quite attractive for her age even without all the extra garbage. “I got this,” I said to Stefan, who nodded. Then with a clearing of my throat, I raised one of my hands and flagged the girl down, “Elaine! Elaine! Over here!” She started, straightening her spine with a shudder, and then she looked over at us quizzically, putting a hand on her bust as though asking, ‘You mean me?’ I nodded. “Who are you?” “Excuse us Mrs. Jesch,” I said trying to act more formal about it, like her father’s employees probably did, like I must likely would’ve had I known that our boss had a daughter before I had been fired. “We’re employees at your father’s company. He sent us to come pick you up, he’s very busy today and needs to speak with you…” I let my voice dwindle to nothingness. Her blank look told me that she was totally not believing a single word I said. She took a step back quickly, “You’re lying, who the hell are you?” “No we’re not, but you probably—” She took another step back and then began to turn to run. Well, so much for treachery, now onto plan B: muscle. Quickly looking around to make sure that no one was really watching the whole engagement, they weren’t, teenagers never really seem to see something unless it gets out of hand, I then pulled out my gun and aimed it at her before clearing my throat to get her attention. The gleam of the metal flashed into her face. Her already unhealthily wide eyes dilated even more. “Look sweetheart, I don’t want this to be any harder than it has to,” I said. “Now get over here before someone, i.e. you, gets hurt. My friend and I aren’t going to hurt you, we just want to spend some quality time with you, okay?” She was frozen so I beckoned her over, her feet slowly, robotically, began to shuffle forward. “Atta girl.” “Who—who are you?” she stammered as she approached. Stefan smiled the most polite Cheshire cat smile I have ever seen, but it looked more creepy than anything, “Us? Why we’re friendly strangers in a black sedan. Now get in.” Couldn’t have said it better myself. |
FALLEN101Feb 20, 2010 9:17 PM
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| Kidnapped “We aren't bad people,” I said as gently as I could as I shoved a sock in her mouth and then duct taped it shut. I made sure to lift her hair up so when we removed the duct tape it wouldn't be ripped out. I meant it to be somewhat comforting but I don't think she was comforted by it. She just kept shaking like a leaf in the face of a hurricane. I guess I would've too if I'd been in her situation. Two guys in dark clothes and sunglasses standing beside a black car with the shine of a gun in their hands just waiting to pick her up. Yeah, I guess that would creep me the hell out. But I figured it wouldn't hurt if I tried to calm her down, not all kidnappings had to be horror stories. At least I didn't think they had to be. On second thought, they probably were. I let her lay back down, flat on the seat. I'd already zip-tied her hands together when we'd picked her up after school. I got them strapped to her while I was helping her into the car. We voted to leave her legs untouched, I mean sure she could kick us and all that but she wouldn't get far without her hands. I mean if she was running and tripped it was all over. And closed doors would definitely pose a problem for her. We wouldn't even have to lock them. When she was on her back, her eyes kept jerking around inside her skull, back and forth between Stefan and I trying to figure out what we were planning to do with her so I figured that more comforting might be in order. “Don't worry,” I whispered. “We're not going to kill you, hell, we aren't even planning to hurt you. We're just going to take you until your rich daddy pays up and then we'll let you go, simple as that.” I'm not sure what it was exactly that confused her but something I said certainly did, her eyebrows scrunched together and she looked at me questioningly. Confused by what she was confused about I just said, “Really, there's no need to worry.” Then I hopped up front with my partner in crime, both in the literal and metaphorical sense, Stefan and watched the asphalt pass beneath the car. He turned to me and asked, “So you got her all wrapped up?” “Yep, she's got her arms tied behind her back and her mouth's taped shut,” I replied. He nodded a little shakily, which is understandable. This was the first real crime either of us had ever committed, oh sure we've been pulled over for speeding tickets and shit like that but I mean this was the first thing we'd ever done that we might actually get jail time for. And we were going all out. Kidnapping of a minor or whatever the hell they call it in the legal scene, threatening someone at gunpoint or assault with a deadly weapon or whatever, blackmail, the whole shebang. I mean if we got caught in the middle of all this, we'd be screwed. So I could really understand why Stefan was nervous. Just thinking about what we were doing made me nervous. I mean, it really wasn't rational. Like not at all. How many people do you know who would turn to kidnapping, even if they really really needed money? The list is probably pretty sparse; I mean robbing a bank or something like that would probably be more common than kidnapping. But then again, we weren't just doing this for the money. We were doing it for vengeance. You see, Stefan and I used to be working stiffs at this wonderful corporation, that you might know about but I will not bother to name, just like you probably are. Anyway, our boss, who just happens to be our kidnappee's father, decided that one day it would be tons of fun to fire us both just because we were standing talking at the water cooler for too long. I mean, is five minutes too long? So to get some sort of vengeance on Mr. Rich Bastard and to get some sort of income with which to pay the rent for our shitty apartment, yes we’re roommates and no we’re not gay, we decided to kidnap his daughter. Still though, looking back it really hadn't been all that rational. I mean, we really didn't need to pay the rent that badly. And there are dozens of other ways to make Mr. Rich Bastard's life miserable. But this is the first one that occurred to us, so we went for it. Probably not the most intelligent thing we've ever done. And we've done some pretty stupid shit throughout the years: Filling the public pool with Kool-Aid. Cussing out a teacher during school. Stealing a speed bump from the school and telling someone about it. Grabbing onto a ceiling fan and spinning around on it. And those are just a few of many many screw ups. But this one definitely took the cake. Hands down, this was the stupidest decision we had ever made. I'm telling you all this right now because I don't want you to get the wrong idea about who we are. We are people, capable of making mistakes, and as of right now we are criminals. But what we are not is bad people. We are just normal people who were really pissed off and made a really really bad call. However, we're committed so no turning back now. That's when I remembered something. I tapped Stefan's shoulder, “Dude, dude, we've got to run by the post office real quick.” He turned his brown eyes on me and looked at me like I was the craziest person he'd ever seen. It wouldn't come as a surprise if I was. “Trey, in case you’ve forgotten, we've got a girl tied up in back. Why the hell do we need to run by the post office?” “I forgot to mail the ransom note,” I mumbled. “What?” “I forgot to mail the note,” I repeated a little more forcefully. He smacked his palm on top of the wheel, “Son of a bitch Trey! I told you to mail the damn thing yesterday so it would show up the day after we kidnapped her. Now they won't even get the thing until like two days from now. What the hell are we supposed to do with her until then? Have a slumber party?” “I'm sorry, I forgot,” I muttered. “Okay, we'll go by the post office. Anything else you forgot to tell me before we get out of town?” I shook my head. “Did you remember to get the Tracphone?” “Yes, I got the phone, I'm not a total idiot,” I sniped back. “Well you forgot to mail the goddamn ransom note so I just wanted to make sure.” “Well if you would've reminded me about the note this morning, instead of worrying about breaking off with your girlfriend, I would've mailed it.” “Don’t bring my girlfriend into this mess, and anyway, why should I have to remind you about everything? Why can't you remember something for yourself for once in your life?” “I told you to remind me!” I shouted futilely, already knowing that this argument was in the pits. But after an argument goes on for so long even the stupid things begin to matter enough to be fought over. “Did it ever occur to you that sometimes I have to worry about number one? You know, maybe every once and a while Stefan can't watch your ass because Stefan's too busy watching his own? Huh, did that ever manage to sink in?” I watched the street as he ranted and saw the post office get in view of my window and then disappear behind us. I waited a little until Stefan had stopped venting and said, “Um Stefan, we sort of passed the post office.” “GODDAMMIT!!!” he screamed. Ten minutes in and we were already the worst criminals ever. I couldn't be sure but I thought I heard a muffled snicker come from the backseat. Because he was angry and it was my fault, Stefan stayed in the car with the girl and forced me to walk inside and mail the damn thing. I stepped in the door and moved across the ice cold linoleum and dropped the little white envelope into one of those blue curvy things. I have no clue what they're called. Then I walked out and no one said a word. That's why I love governmental agencies or whatever they're called, like the BMV and the post office, because no one in there gives a damn whether or not you live or die. Which on any other day would've pissed me off but saying how we didn't want to be noticed, I rejoiced the fact. I hopped back in the car and noticed that Stefan was looking paranoid, well more paranoid than usual and more than was really needed under the circumstances. I sat down next to him, buckled my seatbelt and asked, “What's up?” He nodded at the rearview mirror, “Look back about three cars.” I did and saw a black and white police cruiser parked on the side of the street. “Okay, it's a cop, what's the big deal.” His chubby thumb jerked behind one shoulder, “That's the 'big deal.' If that guy sees her in the back then it's over. We go to prison and she goes free and we don't get the money and-” “I get it,” I muttered, watching the car through the mirror. “But I don't think he's seen us, so let's just pull out and get going. I mean, seriously, how can they know that the girl's been kidnapped this fast? I mean the police are good at what they do but they're not that good. Hell, the Amber Alert hasn't even gone off yet, has it?” Stefan licked his lips, pink on brown, and agreed with me. He restarted the car and then glided back out onto the street. He kept glancing back at the cruiser through the rearview mirror. But I guess I was right because it didn't rush out into the street to follow us and flip on its sirens. And just as I thought that, the thing pulled into the street and began to follow us. Fortunately, no sirens were on. Yet. Stefan noticed it too, “Holy shit, we're being followed. We're being followed by a cop, he knows we've kidnapped her and he's going to arrest us and it'll all be over. Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit.” Then to me, “Why did I let you talk me into this?” I ignored it, “Look man, maybe he's not following us. Maybe it's just a coincidence.” “Oh yeah, just like he'll think it's a coincidence that we have a girl hogtied in the backseat!” I swallowed and kept my eye on the cruiser, he was staying a good three cars behind us, not trying to gain ground or anything. Just following us, watching us, waiting to see what we did. “First off, she's not hogtied, she's zip-tied but that’s not the point. Okay, here's what we do try and act like we don’t notice him. Don't do anything stupid or illegal trying to lose him, let's just keep cool and just keep doing what we're doing and see what he does.” “Okay, okay, calm down..,” Stefan told himself quietly as he tried to focus on the road. But I saw his eyes dance up to the rearview mirror for a quick look before he looked back down at the road. I just kept my eyes on the guy and watched as his car pulled up, making the space between our cars even closer. I bit my lip and put my fingers on the gun at my side. Now before you get the wrong idea, I wasn't even thinking about using it to kill the guy, he would only be doing his job, and like I said earlier I am not a bad person. But guns really do make negotiations go much faster and smoother, now whether this is a plus or minus depends on whether or not you have a gun. But if someone's got a gun at their head, you'd be amazed at what they'll do that they wouldn't even dream of doing normally. You want to go on a date with that girl at the movie rental store? Hold her up at gunpoint and I bet you a Benjamin that she'll go wherever you want. However, I don't recommend it for repeat dates. Also, the whole restraining order stuff really isn't very fun. But really, that's what guns should really have been invented for, not necessarily killing but rather negotiating. They really do work wonders in that regard, and you'll have to take my word on that one. Like I said though, I am not a bad person. I am a normal person who made a stupid decision, a really stupid decision. And just for the record, I never held a movie rental girl at gunpoint for a date. That was just a joke. I swear. When the police car diminished the gap between our cars to just one car length, that's when I started really getting nervous. My fingers stopped resting on the gun and instead pulled it out from between my belt and my pants. Stefan took his eyes off the road for a second and glanced down at it, and his eyes bugged. “Dude, are you crazy? That's a cop back there, you can't kill him. If you shoot him the whole system will fall down on the two of us like a ton of shit.” I gritted my teeth, “I never said anything about shooting him. This is dissuasion in case he's planning to pull us over or something.” “Are you crazy?! You can't pull a gun on a fucking police officer!! They can shoot you; they can shoot both of us over something like that!” Stefan screamed, swerving a little bit and then swerving back into his lane. “Great, now we look like we're drunk so he's going to pull us over. Oh God.” I kept watching the mirror, if he'd seen the swerve the cop wasn't going to do anything about it. He didn't flip his sirens on or anything, he just kept following us, one car between us. “He's not going to pull us over, even if he did,” I hefted the gun. “Trust me, I'll make him back off if he decides to pull us over.” Stefan blinked his eyes, hard. “If he pulls us over, I'm totally going to say that you held me at gunpoint and forced me to drive you and the girl. I swear to God I will.” I looked at him and forced a tight smile, “You and I both know that if one of us goes down, we're both going down. That was the deal at the beginning, remember? If we end up in prison, we're going to watch each other’s backs to make sure we don't get raped.” He barked a quick laugh and then turned his attention back on the road. When he next spoke, his voice was strained, “I hope you know what the hell you're doing because I sure as hell don't.” I bared my teeth and looked at the car through the back window. He'd cut the gap between us down even more. If he kept going like he was going, he'd catch up to us by the next stoplight. I grabbed the barrel of the gun and chambered the cartridge; I wasn't going to be taking any chances. If he so much as reached for a gun or taser or baton or whatever else they had on their belt, I'd whip my pistol out. The cruiser's turn signal flipped on and he pulled out into the lane beside us. And then the stoplight in front of us went red. Great, just fucking great. While we were waiting for the stoplight to turn, he'd get out of his car and search ours. Stefan slowed the car down to a stop, right on the line and the cop pulled into his spot right next to us. I stared at him through my window and he glanced back. He looked right past me and then looked to his right before he turned right on the red light, going away from us. Both Stefan and I deflated at about the same time, blowing all the air out of our lungs. We were quiet for quite some time before I burst into laughter thinking about how worried we'd been. First Stefan just stared at me as though I was crazy for a moment and then he was laughing too. As I was laughing, my fingers tightened involuntarily. The gun went off, blowing a hole in my door. “HOLY SHIT!!” Stefan and I screamed at the same time, ending our laughter. Our passenger in the back made a sound sort of like a shriek but with a sock shoved down her throat it sounded like an audition for the Mummy. I opened the drawer beneath the dashboard and threw the gun into the opening before slamming it closed. I did not want another incident like that when the barrel was in my pants pointing at my happy place. After the shock had worn off, we both heard the honking of horns. The light had turned green a long time ago. |
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| Okay, first off, some very tiny mistakes I noticed, nothing major, just one of those pesky ones that always manage to hide out of view; there might be more, but those are the ones I managed to pick out: "we would never have done it had necessity interfered and made it … well, necessary for lack of a better term" you are missing a not before interfered "then a torrent just faces upon faces" missing an of before just; maybe a coma "He father sent us to come pick you up, " father is unnecessary "Her already, unhealthily wide " hmm, no coma necessary, I think "both in the literal and metaphorical sense, Stefan and watched " insert a coma after Stefan Other than that, I think you did a really good job with this. Especially at the second chapter, I was all smiles and trying to contain my laughter. The "I forgot to mail the ransom note" was sheer brilliance, closely followed by Trey shooting a hole through his door. The feeling of two innocent guys who are doing something extraordinarily stupid is well conveyed, and I find the story to be very realistic so far. I do think that the Prologue may need a bit more work, especially at the actual kidnapping part, as it seemed almost as if the girl was the only one there; what happened to the group of boys that came out with her? Maybe change it so they first follow her with the car until there is nobody around, or maybe Trey coming out to follow her on foot, and Stefen quickly passing by with the car to pick the two of them up. Then again, the two guys are amateurs, and changing the kidnapping method would kind of destroy the "we are working for your father and came to pick you up" premise. Keep the chapters coming, I am anxious to see what happens next. |
| A past can last a lifetime. How to Read Manga! | AnimeBytes | iMangaScans |
| Thanks for the feedback, I went ahead and made the corrections, except the rehashing of the prologue, I'll work on that later after I've gotten the rest of the story going. I'm glad you are enjoying it although sadly the upcoming chapters are not quite as funny, but I swear that I'll get out of the dark funk coming up and give them a happier funnier tone. |
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| Little Chat Well after all our fun with the cop that we thought was after us and our little incident with my gun misfiring, we made it out of the city in a fairly uneventful change of events. I mean sure, there was a girl tied up in the back of the car and all that but if you were one of the people to pass us on the highway, you would have never known. No, the way to our safe house was clear of all obstacles. Seriously, besides the one we saw in town, we didn't run into anyone else in a black and white sedan with flashing red and blue lights. Like I said, it was fairly uneventful compared to our morning. Stefan pulled our car into our safe house's parking lot as I scouted around the area, looking to see if anyone was out and walking around. An old man and woman were getting checked in at the front desk but after they went inside, no one else was there. I guess I should add that our safe house wasn't really a house at all; it was our apartment at the Super 8 motel. Yeah I know, real safe, real secure, right? Well, it's relatively private and for fifty bucks a night you got a microwave and a mini-fridge. Besides, it was the only thing in our price range since we'd been fired. We had originally thought about taking her to our actual apartment in the city but then dispelled that notion; it would have been a really bad call because if we let her go from our apartment she'd be able to lead the cops straight to us. And that was something that we simply couldn't have. So we had rented out a room in a local Super 8 for a week. Although it wasn't exactly what you'd call secure, it was cheap and it wasn't very showy. Even if she were able to escape or get word out that she'd been kidnapped and was being held at the Super 8 motel, so what? There were like a thousand in our city alone. By the time the cops started searching, we'd have cut out. So Super 8 it was. Both Stefan and I hopped out of the car at the same time, pulling a sweet Miami Vice move except without the scruffy good looks. He went to get the door unlocked with his key card and I went around back to get the girl out. Her eyes shot up to my face as soon as I pulled the door open. They were still full of fear so I tried putting on my best award winning smile … yeah … that probably only scared her even more but I figured that it was worth a shot, “Hey, we're here. I'm going to let you out and I'll help you into the building but if you start running, I'll have to knock you out or something and we don't really want that now do we?” Yeah, I’d knock her out and maybe after that miracle I’d learn to walk on water. She shook her head quickly. Of course she didn’t know that. “So you're not going to run, right?” She nodded. I reached in and as gently and quickly as I could, I pulled her out. I kept one of my hands locked around her zip-tie and the other at the back of her head, just in case she tried to run or kick me in the nuts or something. Fortunately, she didn't try to do either. We were waved through the door by Stefan who then ran ahead and unlocked our room door, after two tries. As soon as we stepped in, he slipped the 'Do Not Disturb' into the card slot, before he slammed the door and dead-bolted it. I sat the girl down on the bed as Stefan walked back in the room, dodging around us and taking a seat in the wheeled office chair at one end of the room. He flopped down and leaned back in the thing before he said quietly, “We made it.” I nodded, looking at the girl in front of me and how her eyes were darting around like crazy, “Yeah I guess we did.” A small smile touched Stefan's lips, “Now all we have to do is wait for a couple of days, let our old boss call us, begging for his daughter back. We tell him how much we want, we exchange, and then Poof!” His twitched his hands away from him to simulate an explosion. “We're rich and we leave this goddamn town and never come back.” As he said this I saw the girl's eyebrows scrunch together in confusion and she began to make moaning sounds, as though she was trying to say something. Her confusion once again confused me but I let it drop as I said quietly, “Don't try to scream. You've got a sock half down your throat, so you're just wasting your breath.” Stefan was still going on and on about what he was going to do after this job, after he got all the money. “...And I'll never get fired again. It'll be great; we'll be living the lives we've always wanted. What are you going to do with your half of the money?” I kept my eyes on the girl, “I'm not sure. I really haven't gotten that far.” “If you want, you can help me with my DVD chain,” Stefan offered. I grinned, “Let's actually complete the job before we start worrying about what we're going to do afterwards, okay?” He shrugged, “I was just offering.” We sat in silence for a while before Stefan go bored and picked up the TV remote. He began to search through the cheap excuse for cable, looking for something interesting to watch. After two times going all the way through the channel lineup, I was certain that there was absolutely nothing on so I stood up and stretched, “Look, Stefan I'm going to take a shower, can you watch her by yourself for a little?” At first he didn't reply so I called out his name. “Huh? Oh yeah, sure sure I'll make sure she doesn't go anywhere. You go ahead and do your thing.” I sighed and shook my head. If he couldn’t pay attention to what I was saying, how could he hope to pay attention to our highway to money? I shrugged; I was certain that if she started moving too much, he would get up and stop her. Yeah, I was sure of it… I grabbed some clothes from my ancient suitcase and headed into the tiny cube that served as a shower. Seriously, I've been in phone booths with more space than that bathroom. But I managed to strip down and step into the glass case. Water cascaded down my back as I began to wash, as I began to think about what all had gone down in the past week. I remembered getting fired and how Stefan and I had put together a plan. How we had shown up at the girl's school and grabbed her, throwing her in the back of the car and peeling out of there. And now here we were, at the motel with the girl in the other room, one phone call away from being very rich men. Even though I knew all this, I couldn't stop shaking as I shampooed my hair, the cop and the gun discharging had shot my nerves straight to hell and the adrenaline of it all was beginning to fall away, leaving me a shivering mess of a man. That's when I felt sick. We had just kidnapped a girl, a girl who was just about to graduate from her high school. A girl who had a caring family who was probably worried sick about her right now. Probably a boyfriend wondering why she wouldn't answer her phone. A dog. Friends. Parents who were worried sick. And for all she knew, she would never see them again. That's when it occurred to me that although I wasn't a bad person at heart, I had done something horrible. I finished washing and turned the knob to off. And I just stood there in the glass case that quickly began to fill with cold air causing me to shiver as it hit my wet body. At that moment, I realized how terrible I must seem to her, how terrified she must be. I stepped out of the shower and put my clothes on as quickly as I could. When I stepped out of the bathroom, I tossed my clothes in a little pile next to my suitcase. The TV was blaring and Stefan's eyes were glued to the screen. “What are you watching?” I asked as I crossed the room to get a better view. “Ah nothing really man, it's something on Animal Planet about lemurs,” he replied. My accomplice was watching a special on lemurs instead of watching the girl. You just can't find good help nowadays, now can you? “Hey man, you want to take a shower now? I'll watch the girl while you're in there,” I offered. He hesitated for a moment, chewing the whole thing over before he nodded and stood up. “Okay, sounds good. Do you want me to leave the TV on?” he asked holding the remote out in his hand. I cocked an eyebrow, “No thanks, I don't particularly want to watch a special on lemurs.” He shrugged as he clicked the button turning the thing off, “Your loss.” With a long-armed stretch, he stood up and began to saunter to the bathroom. We slid past each other and he went to his suitcase, just pulling the thing behind him into the bathroom. After he had closed the door, I flopped down on the bed beside the one the girl was on and let all my air out. At first I just stared at the ceiling trying to run through everything that had happened so far but when I felt my skin prickle from someone watching me, I refocused my eyes. The girl was watching my every movement; I think I even heard a whimper or two. I sighed, reminded of the horrible thing we were putting this girl through, just for a little cash and a little revenge, but it was too late to turn back now. When I spoke, I tried to make it as calming as I could, “Are you thirsty?” Her head bobbed up and down. I stood up and stepped beside her, reaching my hand forward, she flinched away from my touch. “Look, I'm not going to hurt you, I'm just going to pull the duct tape off your mouth, okay.” Oh yeah, like that wouldn't hurt her. “Well … maybe it might hurt a little bit but that's all I'm going to do, okay? And promise not to scream; otherwise ... it'll get nasty.” After a moment's hesitation, her dark eyes contemplating whether or not to trust me, she gave her consent, not like it really mattered. Without waiting for her to change her mind, I tore the tape off in one quick pull. She let out a little shriek of pain before she stifled it, remembering my warning. That's the first time I got a really good look at her face without tape covering it. And I realized that she was stunningly beautiful. Not in the movie star way, certainly not in the porn star way, and definitely not girl next door pretty. She was simply stated: beautiful. That's the only way I can explain it. No makeup on or anything during the age when every girl at least wore something of the sort, and she was still attractive. In a few more years, she would make some guy very happy. I had to bite my lip as I thought of what we were doing to her, hard enough to cut it. That's when she asked, “Why did you kidnap me?” I sat there for a moment, shocked that she hadn't thought about how rich her father was. I mean, that would be the most obvious reason why we had picked her. So I answered her, “We needed the money.” I shrugged. “But why me? Why not some other girl?” she asked, almost sobbing. “It's a long story,” I replied as I began walking over to the little kitchen area that was provided. I grabbed one of the little cups they provide each place with and slid the little white thing off the top, filling it with water. I carried it back and sat down on the bed next to her, “Okay, look, here's the deal: I'm going to help you drink this and if, after a while, I think that you won't try anything stupid I'll let your hands loose so you can do this stuff on your own, okay?” “Okay,” she whispered. I just noticed how pale and shaky she was; well I guess I'd be the same way. I held the glass up to her lips and tipped it slightly, she caught most of it but some trickled down onto her clothes. She began pulling away to show that she had had her fill so I put the glass on the bedside table. Then I turned back to her, “You hungry?” She nodded. “Okay, well you've got some pretty sucky choices; let's see … you can have Easy Mac, some soup, or some Ramen.” As I was looking over our food choices, my heart sort of sank. We didn't have shit to eat. “Um, what kind of soup do you have?” she asked quietly. I grabbed one and looked at the label. “It looks like we only have vegetable with beef. You still want it?” She nodded her head once and I followed the instructions on the packet, sticking it in the microwave for about five minutes. We sat in silence for a moment, just watching each other and listening to the low hum of the microwave. I decided to start a halfway decent conversation, one that didn't have anything to do with kidnapping. “I saw your picture in the paper … that's how we knew what you looked like, and it said that you had gone to nationals or something in the High School spelling bee?” She nodded. “What place did you get up there?” “Third,” she replied quietly. “Wow, that's cool. I remember that in school I could barely spell, words like indefinitely and things like that always threw me off.” She shrugged as much as she could with her hands bound behind her back. “I've always sort of had a gift for spelling. I could spell four or five syllable words when I was in third grade without much trouble, even if I hadn't ever heard them before.” “Really?” I asked with a smile, trying to keep her talking and get her feeling more comfortable. “Really.” I smirked, knowing just the way to help this along, “Okay, if you think you're so good, how do you spell this: pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.” Yeah, I have no life, I look stuff like that up on Wikipedia. She sat there for a moment, slightly baffled by it before a small smile touched her face. “Can you repeat the word?” So I said it again and then she started spelling, “P-N-E-U-M-O-N-O-U-L-T-R-A-M-I-C-R-O-S-C-O-P-I-C-S-I-L-I-C-O-V-O-L-C-A-N-O-N-I-O-S-I-S. Is that right?” My holy shit had started coming out of my mouth about halfway through the word and it finished just as soon as she did. So I repeated it to her beaming face, “Holy shit! That's exactly right. I'd hate to see the people who beat you.” Her smile stayed, “They were both foreign kids.” “Good God girl, you have a gift.” The microwave beeped obnoxiously to let me know that the soup was done. I jabbed a finger in her direction as I stood to get the soup, “You have a gift.” I opened the microwave and pulled out the soup, complete in its own little red plastic bowl. Just as I was setting it on the counter-top and peeling off the lid, I remembered something rather important, we hadn't brought any silverware, silver or plastic. “Shit,” I muttered. “What is it?” she asked. I turned around and gave a tight smile, “We forgot to get silverware … you'll have to wait until my friend gets out of the shower and is able to go get some before you can eat. Sorry.” She shook her head in a sort of resigned way, “It's okay.” Just the way she said it set me off. “No it's not!” I snarled, making her jump. “It is not fucking okay! We just grabbed you off the curb, tied you up, and took your life away. Don't you get it?!” When I saw the way she was looking at me, I swallowed and tried to keep my voice in check this time, “It's not right, it's not okay. You should hate us; you shouldn't be telling me it's okay to have forgotten to bring spoons.” We were both quiet when she finally broke the silence, “You sound like you were against kidnapping me.” I shook my head, “I was never against it, it seemed like a good idea at the time but going through with it is something completely different, you know?” She was quiet for a moment, “Well if you don’t like it, why don't you let me go?” I laughed, I barked, “Let you go? Are you kidding me? If we let you go now there's no doubt that you'd send the cops after us. And we'd never get the money, and we really need the money. That's why I can't just let you go. So go ahead and hate us all you want, because we're not letting you go until we get the money.” “I don't hate you,” she replied calmly. “You've been nothing but nice to me this whole time, I mean besides the whole tying me up thing but even then, it wasn't too bad. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. You seem like good people … well, you do at least, the other guy kind of scares me.” Good people. I used to think that we were. But now I'm not so sure. I nodded, “Don't worry about Stefan. He won't hurt you or anything.” I was going to say he was a good guy, but I bit my tongue, after all of this, I didn't think either of us was. I didn't think either of us would ever be again. “Really though, I just want to go home,” she said, tears twinkling in the corners of her eyes. “I swear that I won’t tell the cops about you. It’s still early I’ll just tell my parents that I hung out with some friends and that’s why I was late. I swear. Please.” I stared at her for a moment hating myself because I knew how I was going to answer her. “I can’t let you go. I’m sorry.” She opened her mouth to say something but I cut her off before she could, not wanting to crack from listening to her sad story, “And no matter how much you cry or beg or anything, it won’t change that. The only way we’re letting you go is when we get the money so until then you’ll just have to sit tight.” A tiny whimper escaped her and I had to force myself not to do anything stupid like say, let her go. My voice dropped to a quieter, more comforting tone as I said, “We’re not going to hurt you, we’re not going to do anything terrible to you, I promise. And as soon as we get the money, we’ll let you go, no strings attached, I promise. Okay?” She nodded slowly, barely keeping the sheer hopelessness held in. I sighed, silently cursing myself and all the shit I was forcing this girl to go through. Her eyes fell into the folds of her skirt and I saw a tear make its way there too and I knew I had to do or say something that would make her feel better about her current situation. Of course the only thing I knew that would make her feel better was to tell her that she was free to go and cut off the zip ties latching her arms together. But I couldn’t think of anything else so exasperatedly I said, “Do you want to watch some TV or something? I’m sure there’s a lemur special or some other piece of shit programming we can watch.” She glanced up and then she laughed. It was a tiny little choking sound at first, almost like crying, then it became a giggle before finally it was a full fledged laugh. I blinked. I was going to ask her what the fuck she was laughing at but she decided to go ahead and fill me in before I could, “You are so different from your friend, I mean he couldn’t pull away from the lemur special,” she giggled again. “And you sound so disgusted when you say the word lemur.” Well yeah, they were disgusting rat-faced monkey bastards. “Have you ever seen a lemur?” I asked rhetorically. She nodded. “Well then you know, they’re the most pointless animals on the planet. I think that all manatees, platypuses, lemurs, and chihuahuas need to be blown off the planet.” She giggled again, “Why?” “Why? They’re worthless! I mean look at a lemur, it’s like the bastard child of a monkey and a raccoon.” “Hey don’t talk about lemurs that way!!” Stefan shouted from the bathroom. Both she and I cracked up at that one. |
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| good. really good. |
| A past can last a lifetime. How to Read Manga! | AnimeBytes | iMangaScans |
| ...I need to update this badly.... I promise I will get on it ASAP. |
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| Thanks, I was beginning to forget about it. |
| A past can last a lifetime. How to Read Manga! | AnimeBytes | iMangaScans |
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