Chapter Nine: A Package Deal
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om and I suddenly heard a commotion outside our cell. She stirred in her chains and nudged me. I was feeling to sick to sit up, so I could just turn my head. I saw a lantern at the edge of a hallway. I heard muffled squeals and protests.
“She’s a feisty one, isn’t she?”
“Yeah, she is going to be such a pleasure for the Dark Knight to train.” The Dark Knight! That was the name of the asshole in the black clothes and the white mask.
“Ladies, you have company.” Van Dyke opened the door, and a man that I had never seen before stepped in carrying another chained and gagged woman. The girl was struggling for all it was worth.
“Make yourself comfortable. Although I don’t think they’ll be much in the way of conversation, do you, ladies?” The man heaved the girl off his shoulder and onto the floor. Oh no! Rena turned her face towards us, her eyes widening in surprise. I don’t think she was as surprised to see me, as she was to see my mom. Van Dyke and the henchman stepped out of the cell and slammed the door shut.
“In just a few hours, my little beauties, you will be moved from this dark and dismal place. Oh, and Miss Ryan, and Miss DuVall, enjoy the time that you have with your mothers while you still can.”
Mom, what are we going to do? I don’t want you to die! God, Joshua has no idea what’s going on! Mom nuzzled my neck again. She was trying so hard to keep me calm. Rena was still struggling, even though there was no way in hell she would escape those chains, unless…
She started tossing her head around like a wild woman. I couldn’t understand for the life of me what she was doing until I heard a clink on the cement floor. She heaved her chained body into a sitting position and picked up something. In the dim light I could see what it was, a bobby pin! How ingenious! Rena wiggled her fingers towards me. I understood what she wanted. I rolled off my mother’s lap and scooted over to Rena. She laid her head down by my fingers. I reached into her tight bun and pulled out another bobby pin. Then we both sat up and started to try picking at the locks on our wrists. This just had to work!
Maybe there was some hope for us after all…
* * * * * * *
James McCarthy, or Jimmy Mac, as his friends knew him, was another one of Caitlin’s students, and also one of her finest male cheerleaders. Born and raised on a little farm in Arkansas, Jimmy had been living in Chicago since the age of fourteen, and in that time, he’d gotten pretty well adjusted to, as he liked to say, “Yankee life.” Still, there were some Southern traditions that he’d never let go of, like his thick accent that let anybody know in thirty seconds of conversation, where he came from, and also his incredible strength that none of his friends could match. This sort of physical strength didn’t come from lifting iron weights, but instead from toting bales of hay, pumping water to animals, and one of his favorite pastimes, wrestling bulls. One thing that Jimmy possessed was a very warm and softhearted way of dealing with animals, big and small. His favorite pet was in fact, a large black and white rat with a long pink tail and dark eyes and a nose that never stopped wiggling.
“Hey boy, what are you doing over there? You’re supposed to be helping me.” Dwight McCarthy, Jimmy’s father, called to his oldest son.
“Feeding Abigail, Pops. I’ll be right over.” Dwight was, needless to say, no longer a farmer, but instead, a security officer for one of the largest warehouses in Chicago that at one time, was a slaughterhouse, but since the stockyards had closed years ago, it was now a warehouse that stored printing material for the nearby Chicago Tribune printing plant. Often, when things were slow, he brought his oldest son along to keep him company and also to teach him the importance of getting his high school diploma and going onto college. Dwight wanted nothing but the best for his son, a very bright young man, and he deserved better than sitting watching a bunch of security monitors looking for trouble from eleven at night until seven in the morning.
Dwight looked over at Jimmy, who had his pet rat, Abigail, in his lap while he stroked her back with the other. The rat was chewing happily on a piece of apple that Jimmy offered her. Jimmy smiled, thinking of how his good temperament with animals, rats in fact, had saved his girlfriend from an awful fate just a few weeks earlier. It had been when three of the varsity cheerleaders had been kidnapped by a professional team of abductors and were being held hostage in a warehouse quite similar to this one. Jimmy had a brilliant idea and lured out a whole team of rats just by leaving a trail of candy. Even though these rats weren’t tame like Abby was, Jimmy handled the wild rats with the utmost of care and used them to scare the shit out of the criminals, allowing he and his boys time to rush in and save the day.
“James, come here a second, boy.” Jimmy set Abby up on his shoulder and walked over to the security desk.
“Yeah Pops?”
“Look at this here. Did you clean them cameras in the basement like I told you to?”
“Sure Pops. First thing when we came here, remember?”
“Somethin’ ain’t right here. They’re all fogged up. I can’t see a thing.”
“Is anybody down there?” Dwight hit a few buttons on the keyboard in front of him. He saw a man in dark fatigues climbing down a ladder.
“Who is that?” Jimmy wondered.
“I don’t know, but he ain’t got no business in here, I tell you that.” Dwight hit another button.
“Son of a gun!” Jimmy leaned in to see what his father saw.
“That’s my teacher! That’s Miss Ryan!” Jimmy rubbed his eyes. He had to be dreaming.
“Your coach, son? The one with sugar?”
“That’s her! And that’s Dominique’s cousin! Oh man, Pops, what’s going on? How’d they get in here?”
“James, you get on that horn right now and call the police. I’m going down there.”
“Pops! Wait, no! You might get hurt.”
“Boy, I’m doing my job. What am I supposed to do? Something really bad is going on in that there basement.”
“I’ve got a better idea, Pops.” Jimmy picked up the phone and started to dial. He prayed that he got an answer on the other end…
…A half an hour of searching and questioning had gotten Josh and the others nowhere. Now, Senator DuVall couldn’t find his wife, and Rick still couldn’t locate his mother.
“Listen, I think we should…” Joshua was interrupted when his phone vibrated in his jacket pocket. “Hold on, let me take this…Detective Martinez here.”
“Detective Martinez, this is James McCarthy, I mean, Jimmy Mac, one of Miss Ryan’s students.”
“Yes, I remember you. What can I do for you, brother?”
“Detective, I’m over here at the Chicago Trib warehouse working security with my father, and Miss Ryan and her friends are down here being held hostage.”
“Are you serious?”
“Detective, I wouldn’t lie about something like this. I’m a serious as a heart attack.”
“All right, stay where you are. Wait for me. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
“Who was that?” Eric asked.
“Jimmy Mac, one of Caiti’s kids. He knows where the women are.”
“What? How?”
“His dad is a security guard at the Chicago Tribune warehouse, and they’re tied up in the basement, from what he tells me. I’ve got to get over there.”
“I’m coming with you,” Rick said.
“And so am I,” Senator DuVall spoke up.
“Me too.”
“No way! It’s too dangerous. All of you need to stay here and let the professionals handle this.”
“No brother,” Rick said. “My sister and my mom and my lady are involved in this mess. Uh-uh, I am in an ass-kicking mood. I am going with you.”
“That goes double for me,” Eric said.
“Senator DuVall, please let me appeal to you. This is very dangerous! You could all get killed.”
“Those men should’ve thought of that earlier,” he said, balling up his fists. “Come on!” Joshua sighed. Well, there was safety in numbers, he thought.
* * * * * * *
I felt the edge of the pin enter the lock. I started to turn it, when all of a sudden,
“AH-HA! Trying to escape, are we, ladies? That’s very, very detrimental to your health at this point!” The cell door swung open, and that creep they called The Dark Knight stepped in. He marched over to Rena and pulled her to her feet and pinned her against the wall.
“You want to play games, little girl? Huh?” He punched her in the stomach. She gagged and fell to the floor in a crying heap. Then he charged at me.
“Since you girls want to play so rough, I can certainly oblige you.” He started reaching for my neck. That’s when my mother swung out her chained legs and tripped him. He pitched backwards, hitting his head on the bars of the cell. His keys fell from his belt. The keys! Way to go, Mom! She started inching over to try and get to them. She reached out with her fingers, and she had them! She was about to unlock her own handcuffs when a long black barrel hit her in the temple.
“Don’t you even think about it, Mrs. Ryan.” Van Dyke stepped out of the shadows, holding a huge rifle.
“I can kill you right here and now, and let your daughter watch as the life drains out of you. I’m sure that’s how you want her to remember you, isn’t it?” He snatched the keys away from Mom before giving her a hard one across the face. The Dark Knight was coming around by then.
“Let’s get the girls ready for shipment. I am through playing games with them. The sooner that I have them in my hideout, the better.” His hideout? Oh hell no, I wasn’t going down the street with this man! I cursed and screamed and kicked at him, but that rifle quieted me down quick. The Dark Knight heaved me over his shoulder and said to Van Dyke,
“I’ll take her first. Watch the others.” He carried me off into some inky blackness. I didn’t like this at all! I couldn’t see anything! I could hear little pitter patters of feet scurrying across the floor. Rats! Rats and mice and probably little ugly crawly things with ten legs! We finally stepped into another room that was illuminated only by a torch. He set me down on my feet. He grabbed me by the throat and said,
“All right, little girl, play time is over! If you make one false move, I will kill you, do you understand me? Nod if you do!” I nodded slowly. “Good. Now, don’t even think about running. Not only will I put a bullet in your head, but you could fall and hurt yourself, chained up like you are. Besides, you can’t see much around here, can you, my dear?” I shook my head. He came up to me with something that looked like a dog’s collar, except that it had multiple silver rings on it. He snapped it around my neck, and then attached a leash to it!
“Walk! Move it!” He gave me a shove. There was enough slack in my ankle chains for me to shuffle forward. “Stop here! Now, I’m going to remove your ankle chains. Remember what I said. No stupid shit, all right?” He unlocked one ankle cuff, and then the other. He then took off my shoes. “Step up and over with one leg, and then the other.” Up and over what? I was too frightened not to obey. I stepped over something metal, and then my feet hit some smooth wood.
“Kneel!” When I didn’t move fast enough, he pushed my head down and clamped my leash to something on the floor of the cage, a ringbolt. He then undid my handcuffs, only to readjust my wrist and waist restraints so now my wrists were at my sides. He cuffed them to some more ringbolts, and then recuffed my ankles. I felt something lowering on top of me, and then I heard something lock in place. I was in a cage! I was kneeling down, bent forward, with my neck chained to the front of the base, and my wrists at my sides, and my ankles under my butt. Already, it was very uncomfortable.
“Now, you just wait right here, while I get your little friends. As if you can go anywhere, my dear!” I heard him cackling as he left me. I listened in the darkness. I heard muffled cries, shuffling of chains, and then, he came in carrying Autumn. He quickly collared her and got her chained up in a cage like mine. Then he came back and did the same to Rena.
What are you going to do to us? I whimpered.
“Well ladies, you are all going to become my newest houseguests for some time, while I train you to become obedient slave girls for our clients. And then, what happens to you then, of course, is up to them. My colleague and I are only but wholesale distributors, shall we say? And as for you, Miss Ryan, do not worry about your diabetes. You will have your proper medication and you will be placed on a strict dietary regimen to ensure your health. And as for your powers…well, I have some drugs here that will keep you nice and subdued so that you don’t try any of your magic on me or my clients.”
You bastard! You absolute fucking bastard! Let us out of here! Let us go! You can’t get away with this!
“Oh, my dear, I can, I have in the past, and I will again. And as for your mothers…well, we are going to have a nice little going away party. I will make sure that you have the chance to say goodbye properly before you all must part ways. Please excuse me.” And with that, he took the torch and he was gone.
The room was as silent as death, except for our own muffled sobbing.