PENALTY MINUTES

By

Norm E.

 

     AUTHOR’S NOTE: This story is the continuation of Little Amusement Park of Horrors, so if you need a refresher on the back story for this, please check

that out first.

 

 

ONE

     Elizabeth Ferrum and Felicia Graham entered the BackTrax Dance Club. Being

only five o’clock, the place was open but practically deserted. Which was

perfect for what they had in mind.

     “Do you think they suspect anything?” Felicia asked her friend as they

headed back toward the public phones, “Because I could swear I saw a car

following us over here.”

     “Oh God I hope not,” Elizabeth shuddered. She glanced behind them. No one

else was coming in. “Keep an eye open while I make the call,” she told

Felicia, “We can’t let them do this. It just isn’t right.”

     She inserted a quarter in the slot and dialed 9-1-1. There was a long hold

before she was punched through to the authorities. “Good afternoon, Sherman

Oaks Police Department, how may I help you?” the receptionist asked.

     “Hello, I’d like to report that there’ll be an attempted kidnapping,”

Elizabeth said in a low voice.

     “Who’s calling?” the receptionist inquired.

     “Look, I’d rather not give my name,” Elizabeth said, “They’ll know it’s

us.”

     “Who’s they?”

     “I guess I might as well start from the beginning. In about twenty

minutes, on the UC-Sherman Oaks campus, there’s going to…………..”

     And then, before she could go any further, a hand was clamped over her

mouth. “Hello Elizabeth,” a low but familiar voice rasped in her ear, “I’m

very disappointed in you. You don’t know what you’re doing. Tell them

that.”

     “Hello, are you still there?” the receptionist asked over the phone. With

a gun to her head, Elizabeth sighed and said, sorry, I’ve got the wrong

number,” and hung up. “What do you think……..!?” she demanded to her captor,

who promptly covered her mouth again. She saw another familiar figure

holding Felicia in a hammerlock behind her and covering her mouth as well,

hence no warning from her friend. “I see you’re bent on ruining our

hard-thought-out plans,” Elizabeth’s captor said softly, “Well then, you two

have just earned yourselves several days under heavy wraps until it unfolds.

Out the back door, please.”

     The two of them were forced out the door in question and into the back of a

black van with tinted windows. “You can’t do this!” Felicia protested once

the hand was finally lifted from her mouth, ’This is utterly unethical what

you’re planning! And people are going to notice if Elizabeth and I are

missing!”

     “We’ll come up with a reasonable excuse for your absences,” the abductor

next to her held a cloth over Felicia’s face. Felicia gasped and slumped

into her seat: chloroform. “Right now,” he advanced toward Elizabeth and

smothered her face with the rag, “All I want from you two is to just relax

and let us make you comfortable while we do our thing.” Elizabeth squirmed

but couldn’t break away from the cloth and blacked out.

 

     “Marcliff takes the ball up the middle, she passes it over to York, York

swerves hard to the left to avoid the defender, she shoots it over to

Springston, now the ball comes back to Marcliff, Marcliff takes aim at the

net, she shoots, she SCORES!!!”

     Bonnie Marcliff pumped her arms in triumph. Although practice had ended

about ten minutes ago, she frequently stayed behind with whoever on the team

wanted to and played longer. Tonight was no exception. She high-fived her

wing mates Annie York and Shawna Springston. “Good passing, guys,” she

thanked them.

     “How come you keep beating me on that fade route?” Susan Rivers shouted

playfully, climbing to her feet after diving and missing Bonnie’s kick, “You

have to be going that way every time, and I keep missing!”

     “Because she’s the best of the best,” Annie gave Bonnie’s long blond hair

an affectionate tussling. The four UC-Sherman Oaks freshmen collapsed in a

clump on the field near the goalpost and glanced up at the clear blue

California sky.

     They’d become a tightly-knit clique within the already closely-knit

sorority of the UC-Sherman Oaks woman’s soccer team since arriving on campus

in August. Bonnie had been hoping to find people her age who shared her

love for the game on campus, and she was glad she hadn’t been disappointed.

Although her phenomenal skills had gotten her the lion’s share of attention

this season, her friends were no slouches by any stretch. Annie had managed

to crack the starting lineup in camp as well, and had teamed with Bonnie to

make a formidable front line. Susan had been given the chance to start in

goal after the regular starter had been injured earlier in the season, and

had proved herself to be solid. Shawna, by nature a defensemen, had seen

comparatively limited action than her friends, but when she had played,

usually in blowouts, she’d set out strong results. And in just forty-eight

hours, they and their teammates would be playing in the game of there lives.

     “I wonder if Santa Ana State even gives us a chance?” Susan pondered out

loud.

     “Probably not,” Annie figured, “You saw their interviews on TV; they’re

overconfident as ever. If we can give our A-game, we should pull the upset

easy.”

     “Well after six straight titles, anyone would be overconfident,” Bonnie

agreed, “That’s why I always try and keep myself grounded on Planet Earth,

even when things are going good. And even if we don’t get them this year,

they’ll have to put up with us for a while. I mean, we’ve got three more

years, Katie, Christina, and Valerie have two more years, Gwen and Holly

have another year; we’ll be able to keep the chemistry we’ve got going

intact for a long time.”

     “Especially when we’ve got the biggest threat on turf at our disposal,”

Shawna patted her on the shoulder.

     “Well, one of,” Bonnie said modestly. She turned to Susan and asked,

“You’re still going to get my mother and brother at the airport after class

tomorrow, right?”

     “Not unless you don’t want me to anymore,” Susan told her, “Southwest

Airlines Gate 32, right?”

     “That’s the one,” Bonnie said, “Three o’clock sharp it lands. It’ll be so

nice to have them out here for the title game. I’ve missed them as much

as….”

     The sound of a car horn blowing nearby caught their attention. Bonnie

broke into a smile. Ever since she’d been a little girl, her idol had been

U.S. Woman’s team star Gail Gilbert. One of the reasons she’d ended up

picking UC-Sherman Oaks was the fact that it was Gilbert’s alumna. It had

thus been her joy to find that Gilbert regularly attended game and over the

course of the season the two of them had gotten to know each other well

enough so that now they were on a first-name basis. And tonight, Gail had

been kind enough to agree to host Bonnie’s 19th birthday party--with the

rest of the national team present.

     “Well,” she told her teammates as she rose to her feet and picked up her

duffel bag with her clothes in from the bench, “I guess I’ll see you over at

Gail’s in about fifteen minutes or so.”

     “Don’t start without us,” Susan gave her friend a thumbs-up.

     “And how’s the birthday girl this evening?” Gail asked her young friend as

she climbed into her car.

     “Very good, very good,” Bonnie shook her hand, “You?”

     “Oh great,” Gail said as they pulled out into the university’s main road,

“We’ve just managed to raise the final four thousand dollars we needed to

help the homeless in Africa; Beverly’s sister threw in the extra money.”

She showed Bonnie a check for over twenty-five thousand dollars. “This goes

to the continent in a couple of days, just before we fly out their for our

final qualifying match before the World Cup.”

     “So you’ll still be able to watch us play?” Bonnie asked.

     “Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Gail told her, “And I’ll be glad to

finally meet your family, after everything you’ve told me about them.”

     “And it’ll be a pleasure to introduce you to them,” Bonnie told her, “My

mother’s the one that kind of got me hooked on you in the first place. And

Robbie and I were always very close after my dad died; he’s deliberately

skipping a week of class at Montclair to come out here.”

     “Well men skip out a lot, I know,” Gail said, her brow furling at the

thought of several relationships that didn’t pan out, “Well, I’d have to say

this is an exciting week for the two of us. We’ve both got big important

games to play, we’re….”

     Suddenly, Bonnie felt someone rise up from the seat behind her and cover

her mouth. A loud and startled moan to her left indicated Gail had met the

same fate. “Don’t either of you turn around!” the one behind the national

team star ordered, “Miss Gilbert, I believe you’re expected at home with

Miss Marcliff here for an important occasion. Would you be so kind as to

call it off convincingly? We need you here with us right now. And in the

meantime, drive exactly where we tell you to, understand?”

     Gail nodded. She pulled out her cell phone and dialed a familiar number.

“Hi Joyce, it’s Gail,” she said into it, “I want you to know that, um, how

do I say this, we’ll…”

     “And now Miss Marcliff, lean forward and put your hands together behind

your back,” Bonnie’s captor ordered her, placing a knife against her throat

for further coercion. Terrified by this horrible turn of events, Bonnie

complied. She thought back to when she’d finished reading her book for the

evening about an hour and a half ago and how she had thanked herself for

never having to be in the same life-threatening situations as Carrie. “Me

and my big mouth,” she thought dismally to herself now.

     “Why would they be after Gail?” she thought to herself as she felt a harsh

piece of rope bite into her wrists, “I know she has a big game coming, but

why would they do this? Unless they’re after the money she and her

teammates raised. But why are they tying me up now?”

     She winced as the kidnapper tied her wrists painfully tight. “Ah, you’re

not a big fan of rope?” he asked her, “Well don’t worry, I’ll go a bit

easier on you.” Bonnie heard him rummaging around somewhere. He held a

plastic tie in front of her. I think these might suit you a bit better,” he

said, and proceeded to push it up her arms to her elbows and pulled it as

tight as it would go. Bonnie wrenched in pain into his hand. The tie dug

into her elbows even worse than the ropes did on her wrists. Then more rope

was bound around her chest, immobilizing her arms up against her back.

     “Look, leave Bonnie alone!” Gail protested, “She has nothing to do with

whatever you want! Just take me and…”

     “Just keep driving and be quiet!” the man behind her ordered, “We’ll do

with your friend Miss Marcliff what we choose.”

     “And right now, sweetheart, we choose for you to open your mouth for us,”

Bonnie’s captor ordered her.

     “No!” Bonnie closed her mouth tight, having a bad feeling what this would

entail. The man gave her hair a vicious yanking, however, and try though

she might, she couldn’t stop from screaming in pain. The moment she did, he

reached over and pushed a thick cloth into her mouth until it filled up all

the crevices. “We need you good and quiet,” he said, producing a glittering

golden handkerchief and tying that over the cloth in a tight triple knot.

“That should hold you for now,” he said, testing his handiwork, “But don’t

get too comfortable, because we’re not done yet. In the meantime, just

behave yourself or else.”

     Bonnie didn’t need a reminder of that; his knife still pressed against her

head. She tried to ignore the rising terror inside her over her abduction.

It wouldn’t last, she told herself. Either the girls would notice her

absence and call the police, or she’d be let go in due time. Hopefully.

     Eventually, after a long and winding trip, Gail was made to drive to an

abandoned industrial park near the outskirts of Santa Monica. They parked

near a black van with tinted windows. Bonnie had noticed it parked outside

her dorm when she’d gone down to the field for practice, but hadn’t thought

much about it, especially since it left halfway through. Squinting through

the setting sun gleaming through the windshield, she saw about a half dozen

accomplices all dressed in black jackets, gloves, and ski masks similar to

their captors (Bonnie had gotten a brief glimpse of them in the center

rearview mirror) waiting for them.

     “You take Miss Marcliff into the van,” the first captor told his associate

as he took Gail’s keys out of the ignition and pocketed them, “I’ll make

Miss Gilbert here just as comfortable in the meantime.”

     “Start walking,” Bonnie’s abductor told her as he opened the door and

gestured with his weapon. Bonnie was too frightened to do much else. She

stumbled over to the van and was forced up into a seat inside the sliding

door. It was independent of the seat on the other side, like an airline

seat. Bonnie’s resolve came back somewhat, and she aimed a kick at one of

the new captors, who despite not having a feature visible looked no older

than she was, she thought. He grabbed her foot before she could make

contact with him. “Still competitive, huh?” he asked her coldly, “Well, I

think we should immobilize those well-publicized legs of yours.”

     “Oh no, not more plastic ties!” Bonnie groaned at the sight of more of them

being produced. One was fastened above her knees, and a second below them

just above her socks and shin guards. Then it was back to the ropes. One

was tied around her ankles, and another around her thighs. Then more

heavy-duty rope was pulled out by the rest of the new kidnappers. Bonnie’s

back was completely tied to the back of the seat from her shoulders to her

waist. Then her legs were similarly bound to it. The knots were tied

excruciatingly tight, and had Bonnie not been so thoroughly gagged, she

would have screamed loud enough to be heard all the way up in Bakersfield.

     A loud mmmfffing hinted to Bonnie that Gail was come and was getting as bad

a treatment as her. Her eyes bulging over a plain white handkerchief gag,

Gail was led into the van and forced into the seat next to Bonnie. She

looked over at her young friend and flashed a look that hinted strongly of

regret. “It’s OK, I don’t blame you,” Bonnie told her with her eyes.

     “You can go now,” the kidnapper now working on securing Gail to her seat

told the driver of the van, “We’ll have them good and ready to go.”

     “Which means they don’t know where they’re going,” the kidnapper closest to

Bonnie added. Her nodded to somebody behind her, and the next thing Bonnie

knew, a heavy blanket was thrown over her. “Oh come on!” she thought to

herself as more ropes were tied over the blanket around her midsection to

hold it in place, “Is this really necessary!?” Now in darkness, her anger

quickly shifted back to fear as the van started off toward who-knew where.

“Please let someone have seen us!” she thought frantically, “I don’t want to

spend my birthday like this!”