~Jeff~
I woke up just before four. I changed into my ninja clothes and slowly opened the door of my bedroom. I looked both ways down the hall and listened to make sure my parents were both still in their room. Then I made my way out into the hall and crept down the stairs.
I grabbed a travel mug from the cabinet and filled it with the coffee I had set up last night so that it would be ready for now. I clamped my hand over Mum’s keys, and willed them not to clank against each other to make noise. I was paranoid that even a small noise would wake my parents up.
I grabbed my schoolbag from the floor, I had already filled it up with all the necessities last night. Not the things I would need for school, more important things. Feeling very ninja, I stealthily made my way out of the door and into the crisp, early morning air.
I unlocked my mum’s car and slid into the driver’s seat, putting my bag in the passenger seat. Then I unzipped my bag and took out the GPS I had also taken from Mum. I turned it on and set in the dashboard to finishing powering on, as I warmed up the car and drank my coffee.
When the GPS was on, I double checked that all five addresses were programmed in correctly. I set it to give me directions for the closest location first. Then I sat it on the cradle, put my coffee in the holder and took one last deep breath.
Slowly, I backed out of the driveway and into the street. I drove carefully as I headed out towards the highway. I was already driving with only my ‘L’, I didn’t want any cops pulling me over and checking for my licence. If that happened, I might never get there in time.
The cops wouldn’t do this themselves, so I was doing it for them. Only they didn’t know that yet. If any cops got too serious, it could mean the death of my friend, and the capture of a senator. I wasn’t about to let it get to that.
About an hour’s drive later, I arrived at the first house. I didn’t think that this one would be the one were Natalie was being held. The information that George had managed to email me said that the girl who lived here was maybe only eleven.
I quick look around the house made it clear that there were no open windows. I didn’t want to actually go in the house, but I needed some clue that would tell me Natalie wasn’t here. If I found that, I would be able to cross this off my list.
Then, looking through what must have been the living room window, I found my clue.
There was a pair of blue crutches leaning against the wall next to a staircase. They were adjusted for someone clearly under five feet. Natalie wasn’t here.
I went back to the car and set the GPS for the next closest location. It was now just after five. I had five hours left before George went to meet with Natalie’s captor. I needed to have her before then.
~Natalie~
“I’m going to visit your daddy now,” Scary Man said as he came into the room. He was carrying my plate of rotten food. Normally it was one of the Minions that brought it in, but I guess today was a special occasion.
“Eat up,” he ordered shoving the food in my face. “We want daddy to think I’m feeding you right.”
I glared at him.
“But you know, when your daddy gets here, it could ruin some of my fun.” His eyes raked up and down my very exposed body.
Suddenly his hand shot out and he gripped my hair, pulling me up to my feet. I bit my lip to stop myself from crying out as my sore limbs screamed in pain.
Scary Man forced me over to the table and forced me to lay down on it. He used the ropes the Minions had left tied to the table from when they had fist brought me here. He tied my wrists down to the table on either side of his head. I squirmed as he hungrily licked his lips, his lust was clear in his eyes.
I had no way to cover myself up, no way to push him away as his hands reached for me.
I just closed my eyes and turned my head to the side. The only thing I could do was now was hope that it would be over quickly.
~Jeff~
The second and third house were also busts. At the second house I was able to climb a tree and look into the bedroom windows, the girl had been blonde not a redhead. At the third I had called Natalie’s cellphone and listened at the four sides to see if I could hear it ringing in the eerily quiet early morning.
When I had arrived at both houses, I had just felt that Natalie wasn’t there. Call me crazy, but it’s true. I didn’t think she was there and she wasn’t.
It was ten to eight now and both of the next two houses were equally distance away, an hour and a half drive. I wouldn’t have time to go to both before George met with Natalie’s captors, so I chose one at random and hoped that it would be it.
I would have left early this morning, but I had been up until one preparing for today. George’s email filled with the addresses and information hadn’t hit my inbox until just after midnight. Then I had been busy programming them into my GPS and planning what I would do. If I had gotten up any earlier, I was scared I wouldn’t be able to function. But now I was regretting that decision, I was cutting it really close, I might not even find Natalie.
I drove as high over the speed limit as I comfortable risking. I wanted to get to Natalie before ten, but if I was pulled over, it would be all over. I would be hauled back home, too late to do any good for anyone.
As I sped towards the forth house, all I could think was how happy I would be if I was Natalie’s knight in shining armour. I wanted to be that guy whose arms the damsel in distress collapsed into even though it was the knight that did all the work. I wanted to be the one to hold Natalie and have her feel safe in my arms. I wanted to be that guy she would always remember because he had found her when she was kidnapped.
~Natalie~
I felt so violated, so used. Scary Man departed my personal hell with only the promise that I could help him torture my dad until he agreed to do what Scary Man wanted.
He was a very, very sick man.
He had also promised me that when I wasn’t helping him torture my father, the man that had adopted me, me, out of tons of more interesting children, who I loved more than anything; I could live with him in the master bedroom upstairs. I know I don’t have a choice, but I wanted out of it so much.
Scary Man had untied me from the table before leaving. But I still lay there, too sore to move. The beatings from the past couple of days were finally catching up with me, and what just happened didn’t help at all.
I noticed the bare bulb hanging above me. It was one of those old lights, one of the ones that glowed yellow, gave off a lot of heat, and always seemed to be dim no matter what.
If that bulb exploded right now, pieces of glass would rain down onto me, the filament would explode and the hot metal would burn my skin.
If my skin was burning, would it make it easier to forget the horror that just happened, and the hell I’ve been living in the last couple of days? I hope so.
An idea started to form in my mind. I lifted my head off the table enough to see my food was still sitting, untouched, on the floor where I had been when Scary Man had first come in this morning. My water glass was still full. Perfect.
I closed my eyes and fell asleep on the hard table. I was too depleted to shift into a more comfortable position or to try and carrying out my plan now.
It could wait a little bit, death wasn’t on a schedule. Sleep. That’s what I needed now. I just needed to sleep…
~Jeff~
I arrived at the forth house and I heard the soft noises from within that suggested that people were just waking up. I had half an hour until George met with Natalie’s captors. This had to be the house, it just had to be. I knew it was, I could almost feel Natalie here.
I entered the carport. I slowly went to the door that lead to the house. This was it. I was about to enter the house.
I twisted the handle, but it was locked. But it was a really old style lock. I had only ever picked a couple of locks at school before when I needed to get into a classroom, nothing to serious. This lock didn’t look much different than one of those.
I took the hair clip I had stolen from Mum, and fitted it into the lock. I twisted the clip, but the door didn’t open. I took the clip out and started bending it’s shape, trying to get something that might resemble the key that fit this lock.
I was using up too much time opening the door, but breaking a window was too noisy. Plus the sun was now up properly and I couldn’t exactly sneak in a window or anything. At least in the carport I was slightly sheltered.
After about ten minutes of carefully jimmying the lock, I head the satisfying click.
I was in.
I pocketed the clip, just in case I would need to use it again. Then I slowly crept into the house.
I had taken a scarves and duct taped them to my shoes last night so that if I did need to break and enter, my shoes wouldn’t squeak, and I would be able to make a quick getaway.
I slowly walked down the hall. It looked like I was in a basement or something. I paused to listen, but I heard no signs of movement on the floor above me. The people living here must have bedrooms on the top floor and hadn’t made their way downstairs yet. I hoped they stayed on the third floor for a while. I prayed that they weren’t morning people and wouldn’t question any noises I might accidently make.
I tried the doors as I passed them. They opened easily under my touch. There were only three doors other than the one I had just come through in this hallway. One led to a small bathroom, another led to a crawl space and the third was locked.
This had to be it.
Once again I fitted the hair clip into the lock. I held my breath and hoped that it would work. I didn’t want to risk more time by reshaping the hairclip. I closed my eyes and sent up a quick prayer that whoever lived here wasn’t smart enough to have different locks on their interior doors and their exterior doors.
I slowly turned the hairclip, anticipating the dull thud that would mean I would need a different key.
Click.
My heart was beating so fast right now. The hairclip had worked. I opened the door slowly. I didn’t know if this was where Natalie was, if she was in a completely different house, or if she was just in another room. I didn’t know if this was just some creepy locked door, or if it was locked because there were terrible things running around behind the closed door.
I eased the door open.
The first thing that hit me was the stench. It smelled like someone had been living in this room and hadn’t showered for weeks, no months.
But that was the only thing I noticed. The next was the frail person standing in the middle of the room. They were hunched over like it hurt them to stand and they had fiery red hair.
Natalie.
I wanted to call out to her, but I didn’t want anyone to hear. I had no clue if she was being monitored or not.
As I watched, her hand dipped into what looked like a glass of water. Was she washing her hands, or had she cut herself or something?
Then she slowly looked up to the light bulb hanging from the top of the ceiling.
She moved so she was sitting on the table and then she made to stand on it. I realized what she was going to do.
I rushed into the room and took hold of her wrist, the one that was wet. I realized at that moment that she wasn’t wearing anything. But I wasn’t looking at her body. All I could see was her face.
Last time I had seen it, it had been smiling and the most angelic thing I had ever seen. Now, all of her skin was much darker than what it usually was, darkened with dirt and who knows what else.
Her eyes were distant and surprisingly peaceful. Her hair was every which way and caked with dirt and grime.
Natalie gave me a small smile. She placed the glass she was still holding on the table and then she curled up on it.
She didn’t even looked surprised to see me or anything. She looked happy I was there, but she looked like she had been expecting it or something. Was I that predictable? Was this some sort of twisted test?
But I didn’t know how much time I had left to question everything now. My own goddess was laying in front of me and I had to get her out of here, I had to get her back to her father.
I took of my sweatshirt and wrapped her naked body in it. Then I gingerly carried her out to the car and placed her gently in the passenger’s seat. She was asleep before I had even buckled her in.
I drove as fast as I dared away from the house. When I was a couple blocks away I took out my phone and called her father.
When he picked up I said only five words.
“She’s safe with me now.”
~Natalie~
I sat on the table. My hand was now wet from the glass of water and the light bulb hung above me. All I needed to do know was stand and reach up to it. Hopefully it would explode and end this nightmare.
I started to stand even though all the muscles in my body were protesting it. I needed to do this, I wanted to do this. I could do whatever I wanted in the afterlife, I didn’t want to be in this nightmarish world anymore.
But suddenly my wrist stopped moving. I followed the hand to the body it was connected to. Jeff’s face filled my vision.
Death had come for me in the form of a friend. I think that was the best way to go.
I smiled at him and laid down, ready for him to take me away to the place where no more devils would haunt my waking hours along with my sleeping ones. I was ready to go and be with my mother, I was ready to experience a new world.
Jeff took off his sweatshirt and laid it over me. It was black, just like I always thought death would be.
Then he picked me up and walked towards the door.
That’s it. It was over now. Death was taking me away to be with my mother and Scary Man could no longer hurt me.
I closed my eyes and felt myself start to drift in Jeff’s arms. I would be with her soon, that’s all that mattered.
Dad should be safe, Scary Man had nothing left to bait him with. Both Mom and I were gone now.
Death placed me down and I let myself go. I accepted the blackness that overcame me with welcome arms. This is where I wanted to be.
***
No Natalie is not dead. She is just very delusional. Just making that clear right now.
I'm sorry for all the switchig of POVs. It just wouldnt have worked without switching so much. When I finish this story I might rewrite it in 3rd person so that it is easier to understand, but only maybe.
This story is still a long way from the end. So please keep with me!
Thank you so much for reading!!!
And if you are confused, comment and I will explain!
Vote + Comment + Fan please!