CHAPTER ONE - A WAITING GAME
I sit in my car across the street from your house, waiting for you to finally leave. I take a sip from the bottle of water beside me and rummage to see if there's anything edible amongst all of the garbage on the floor. There isn't, so you'll have to deal with me being hangry later, too.
I reach into the back as I decide to check my supplies. I grab my duffel bag and pull it onto my lap, the fabric of my puffer jacket making tremendous amounts of noise as I do so. It's as I suspected, I'm short a roll of duct tape and a few zip ties, having needed to take care of Mrs. Woods who's found her home for the next few days, you guessed it folks! In the woods!
I'll send an anonymous tip to the police in a few days, she wasn't part of the plan, but it was necessary for me to be able to move ahead with it.
It's not a problem anyway, if memory serves I seem to recall you being somewhat of a DIY fanatic, so I should easily be able to make it up. After another half hour I decide to listen to some music. I put my headphones on and set my phone to shuffle. The first song that comes on is Choke by IDKHBTFM.
"How fitting" I chuckle to myself. "A song about hatred and revenge coming on now."
It's not too crazy a coincidence, I don't know if you could really call it that actually, because they comprise about 70% of the music I listen to.
As I start to lose myself in the beat, I see you walking to your car. I wait five minutes after you leave to make sure you haven't forgotten anything and go around the side, letting myself into the back garden. I make a beeline for the sheds and look inside.
"Bingo."
An large unused roll of duct tape and ten zip ties lay on a shelf. They could be stronger, but I'm gonna take what I can get. I start to open the door when I hear someone walking close by and I duck behind the shed. I peek around to see who it is and I see your daughter. And then she looks to the left and sees me.
Shit.
I burst out from behind and wrap one arm around her, holding her close to me while my other gloved hand smothers almost her entire face as I gag her. I realise that I'm cutting off her air and move my hand a bit. She's putting up one hell of a fight, I've gotta say I'm impressed.
"Those karate lessons really helped, huh kid? I'm not here for you, don't worry. I'm not gonna hurt you unless you absolutely make me, and I really don't wanna do that. Relax, I'm not here for you. Now I'm gonna take my hand away if you promise not to scream, okay?"
She nods her head and I uncover her mouth.
"I'm not here for you, I'm not interested in you. I'm here for your dad."
"Why?"
"Payback, plain and simple. He fucked my life up in the past, and now I'm coming to pay him back with interest. You seem like a smart kid, so how about we make a deal?"
"What kind of deal?"
"You keep shtum about seeing me and keep him away from the basement for the rest of the night. In a couple of weeks, I'll come forward with a ransom, or an auction date, whichever's preferable. In return for your continued silence, I give you 20% of whatever I make."
"Bullshit."
"Young lady I have been called many things throughout my life, many of which I wear on my sleeve because, well because they're true. Sociopath, psychotic, a bit of a sadist. The one thing I have never accepted, the thing that I most certainly am not, is a liar. You'll have your father and/or your money within the month, if not, you've seen my face, you can give a report to the police. Now, do we have a deal?"
"Okay, deal."
"Excellent. Lock the door when I go into the basement and unlock it after your father goes to bed."
I grab the tape and zip ties and walk inside the house, walking down to the basement. Your daughter locks the door. I spend the next few hours listening as you get back home, cook dinner and play a few games with your wife and traitorous daughter.
At around 2am, I finally decide that I've waited long enough and leave the basement, which your daughter dutifully unlocked. My boots make an unbearable racket as do my best to be sneaky going upstairs. I do my best attempt at being a tap dancer trying to avoid the creaky floorboards, managing to step on every. Single. One instead.
"This is going to be easier than I thought" I whisper to myself.
This is the point of no return, when I cross this line there's no going back. For a second I hesitate. Am I really about to do this? Am I actually about to kidnap a man? This is crazy! But no matter how crazy it is, I see you sleeping there, remembering everything that you said to me over the years, and I realize that the answer is yes. I grab a pair of handcuffs from my bag and walk over.
