I cant open my eyes. Something is covering them.
“Let me get that for you."
I can see.
"If you struggle I will kill you. If you scream I will kill you. If you attempt to memorize my face in the hopes of having me arrested at a future date I will kill you. If you attempt to remove your blindfold while I'm away I will kill you.”
Where’s Joyce?
“If you ask where your lovely girlfriend is I will kill you. If you begin to cry I will kill you. If you so much as piss I will kill you. If you do anything other than what I tell you to do I will kill you. Nod if you understand me?”
I nod. As if I have a choice. Where is Joyce?!
“Good. Now, I’m going to blindfold you again. Do not panic. We both know what will happen if you do, right?”
This guy pulls out a black mask and places it over my eyes.
“Right now I am sure that you’re wondering, ‘Why me? What did I do to deserve this?’ Its only natural to feel this way right now. But be patient. Everything will make sense very soon.”
I’m left sitting here in the dark replaying the day trying to figure out how I got to this point. I cant think of anything. I’ve never seen this guy before in my life. I think back a week. A month. A year. Nothing.
“Oh, and another thing. I have your two little brothers tied up in the other room. Don’t worry, I haven’t hurt them. I don’t plan on it either. I hate hurting kids. No, not for any moral reasons. They just scream loudly and I hate loud noises. Your girlfriend is with them. I’ll be back soon and then we can have a nice little chat.”
This guy is nuts and will not let any of us leave alive.
“You know what I love the most? This part. The part where you, the victim, is confused and has no idea what will happen. And then as the story unfolds you go through so many ranges of emotion. Its like a good story. Do you like to read?”
I hate books.
“First, of course, is what’s happening now. You know that people you love are in danger and you want to protect them. You’ll do whatever I say to make sure they are safe. Then as you began to see why you’re here you’ll go through denial, disgust, and anger. Then pity. You’ll beg me to kill you. But in the end I’ll have to do nothing. You’ll do all the killing on your own.”
I would never kill Joyce! There’s nothing she could ever do to make me hurt her. I love her. What is this guy talking about? I wanna scream.
“I know you want to scream now. But you remember what’ll happen if you do. Oh, God, I can barely control myself! This is going to be so exciting! Sorry about that. Its not right to take such pleasure in someone else’s misery. But you know how it is, right?”
I cant relate to a psychopath.
“I’ll be back in an hour. This is the part of the story where the kidnapper, me, usually tells the captive to not do anything stupid. Now, I believe that we have established a trust so far in our relationship where that will not be necessary.”
He leaves and I’m left wondering exactly what the fuck did I do?
I hear this guy come back into the house. I have never felt so much like a stranger in my own home. He’s actually whistling when he comes in. I hear him come inside the room. He drops something on the floor. Sounds like plastic bags.
“You’ve been a good boy. I made sure to keep tabs on you. Left a two-way under your chair. You didn’t scream once. One of your brothers on the other hand…”
He leaves the room and I hear my brother Jonathon scream.
“…tried to scream for help.”
I hear him toss my little brother on the floor.
“He knew the rules. I told him exactly what I told you. Now he has to pay the price. Hey, kid. You get to pick. Who dies? You or your brother here?”
Jonathon says nothing. He’s crying too hard.
“Don’t struggle. Just tell me who dies. Its easier than you’d think. Just pick someone. Its more heroic if you choose yourself but with a guy like me you never know which way I’ll go. I might kill you but then again I might kill both of your brothers instead.”
Jonathon vomits.
“Oh, that’s horrible.”
I hear him smack my brother.
“You trying to say something?”
I am.
“Okay, you have permission to speak.”
He removes my gag.
“I am going to fucking kill you” I tell him.
“Language!”
He smacks me hard across the face. So hard that my chair flips sideways. He lifts me back into place by my hair and pats me on the cheek.
“I didn’t want to do that. You seem like a nice guy and I hate doing bad things to nice guys. I just don’t like bad language being used in front of kids.”
“Kiss my ass, you psychopath” I tell him.
“Okay, now this happens.”
He pulls a gun from behind his back and empties the clip into Jonathon’s head. I hear Joyce and my other brother, Gerry, scream. I pray for them to stop.
“See what you did? I didn’t kill this kid. You did. You talked. I told you what would happen if you talked.”
“You said I could talk” I tell him.
“The first time. Not this last time. You did that on your own. A man walks a dog, not the other way around. We have to set some semblance of authority here. I cant have you thinking you can just mouth off at me whenever you feel like it.”
He shoves the gag back into my mouth and kicks Jonathon’s body into the corner of them room. There is blood everywhere.
“You two keep it quiet. Your girl is kind of hot. Not Playboy hot. Maybe Maxim hot. Perhaps Stuff hot. Does she, you know, shave down there? She looks like she does. Do you like that? Me, I’m not a fan of it. I like hair down there if you catch my drift. Seems too pre-pubescent. There was this one girl I dated a while back that had the hairiest bush you’d ever seen. She would, are you listening to me? She would do this thing…”
Someone knocks at my front door.
“Great. Look what you did. Whoever that is will die because of you. See how this works?”
I listen to whoever is at the door and pray that they leave. I don’t want anyone else’s death on my shoulders. This guy walks out and I hear my brother Gerry grunt and Joyce whimper. He must have hit them on his way to the door.
“Who is it?”
I cant hear the reply.
“Oh, hi, Tony! We were expecting you!”
God, no! Tony is my best friend! I forgot he was coming by to help me work on the gym I was building downstairs. Please, don’t do this…
“Come on in!”
“What the hell?!” I hear Tony shout and then a thump. The guy grunts and then I hear something drop to the floor in front of me.
“This is a big guy. Man! I’d ask you to help me drag him in here, but…yeah. You know this guy?”
I nod.
“Any more surprise visits I should be expecting?”
I rack my brain and can think of no one. I shake my head.
“Are you telling the truth?”
I nod.
“Good.”
He shoots Tony.
“Okay. Now that you’ve killed two people how do you feel? You know what’s funny about killing people? Its no different than killing an animal. I know that sounds crazy but it truly isn’t. I see so many people that can watch a man beaten and not flinch but cry their hearts out when a dog is found abused. If PETA cared as much about humans as they did about people the world would be a better place. Have you noticed that there is nothing humane about the Human Society? Ironic, isn’t it?”
This guy is babbling while my brother lies dead in the corner and my best friend is bleeding to death. I am gonna enjoy killing him.
“One day everyone will get to the point where they feel as I do. I have no problem killing. You see what I did to your little brother? All you have to do is pick up a weapon, find a target, and do it. Very easy. We like to pretend that we are above savagery. I live under no such pretense. I don’t even say things like ‘It’s as easy as killing a insect.’ Its not. I have a harder time killing insects than people. Insects have been around before us and will be around far after us. Insects have very basic functions. Live, work, mate, die. Same as us except we add on to it. Live, make money, have sex, find every fault in the world, complain, get sick, stay around longer than we should, then die. Even elephants disappear when they know they have become a burden. But, oh, not us. We’re advanced.”
I roll my neck. He slaps the top of my head.
“Arrogance. Insects have no arrogance. But you? You specifically do. You think your nice job, nice house, and fuckable fiancé make you special? You’re not special. There are thousands of others that have more than you ever will. Did you know your woman is pregnant?”
I feel my eyes widen.
“Yeah, she was supposed to tell you last week over a surprise dinner but you had to work late. You stayed at work. She actually drove eleven miles to a poor neighborhood and gave that meal to two guys sitting in a tent near a underpass.”
I feel tears roll down my cheeks.
“A couple of days ago you asked where a certain plate was. Your favorite plate. She lied. Told you she broke it. You got mad. Isn’t it funny how we look at things once new information is given? I bet if you knew the truth that none of this would be happening. You would have celebrated with her, maybe went on a trip, and had a nice meal somewhere. That silly plate wouldn’t have made a difference. You were going to be a father! But now? Maybe you wont. At least not with her. You’re going to kill her soon.”
I am not going to kill my pregnant fiancé! I don’t care what this psychotic son of a bitch says!
“I can tell that you don’t believe me. You think that you’d never kill your pregnant fiancé. Well, sorry to break it to you but you will. Not only will you kill her, but you’ll laugh while doing it. Trust me. I know things. You go to church?”
Oh, please tell me he isn’t religious…
“I used to. Then something happened in my life that proved that God didn’t exist. It was amazing. I had my Sundays back! Sure, it cost me my parents but still. It was good to not feel guilty about sleeping in after a crazy Saturday night and watching the games. Who is your favorite band? How about color? What is your favorite movie?”
Is he taking a survey?
“These are the things we use to judge each other, not get to know each other. If I told you that my favorite singer was Mariah Carey what would you think? You’d question my music, my life, and my sexual orientation. Just from learning what singer I like. We are so unfair. Actually my favorite singer is James Brown. Yeah, he could really go.”
How long have I been sitting here listening to this guy?
“Did you know that your fiancé was cheating on you?”
Bullshit.
“Check this out.”
He uncovers my eyes and is holding a picture up in one hand and a sandwich in the other. He takes a bite. It takes a moment for my eyes to focus. it’s a picture of Joyce with…Tony.
“You can talk.”
“That picture looks fake” I tell him.
“Okay, how about this one?”
He holds up another picture. Its of Joyce and Tony holding hands at The Pier. She is smiling with her head on his shoulder. He has his arm around her waist.
“You can keep talking.”
“I still don’t believe it” I tell him. And I don’t. No way would Joyce or Tony do this. “I need more proof if you want me to believe your horseshit.”
“Ah, a skeptic. Fine. You want to torture yourself, who am I to stop you? Check this one out.”
He holds it to his chest and smiles.
“Its my favorite of the bunch!”
He holds up a picture of Joyce, Tony, and my little brothers at a theme park. That was a few weeks ago. There was a carnival in town and my brothers begged me to take them but I had to…
“You had to work. Look at what you did.”
“Me?!” I shout. In the other room I hear Joyce crying. I forgot she could hear all of this. “By working I did this? You’re so full of it!” I rear back to spit in his face. He slams the sandwich over my mouth.
“What would your mother say? Hey, let’s ask her!”
God, no…
“I’m kidding! I don’t have your mother here.”
He puts the gag back into my mouth.
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