She scanned the entire room in two seconds looking for an escape, beads of sweat forming on her forehead. Her abductor, a tall, pallid man with the darkest sunken eyes, entered the room and removed her restraints.
“Please… Why are you doing this?”
“Don’t talk. Here,” he said, handing Randi a scalpel, “Your next task is to cut a slit in your eye.”
“I’ve done everything you told me to do… Please, just let me go… I won’t tell anyone!”
“DO IT!” Randi picked up the scalpel, hand shaking, pleading and crying as she brought it closer to her eye. The words, “The slower you do it, the more it hurts,” creeped out of his mouth with a grin. With one swift motion, Randi peeled her eyelid open and slit her eye, shrieking in pain, blood pouring from it.
“That’s two. Three more, and you’re out of here.” He re-tied her, laughing as he left the room. “I’ll be back soon.”
Randi struggled in her chair when she heard a knock at the door. She found a way out; she just needed to free herself before her abductor checked the door. The more she struggled, the tighter the ropes became. Her abductor walked through the doorway into the kitchen and peered through the peephole.
“Don’t do anything,” he warned Randi, facing her, his voice muffled. Turning back to the door, he opened it a crack, enough that the man standing on the other side could see her and the look of absolute terror in her eyes. “What do you want?” he demanded.
“Oh, hi. I’m your new neighbor, if you can even call it that since the houses are so far apart—” As her abductor was about to close the door in the neighbor’s face, he said, “Anyway, I just wanted to get acquainted and invite you over for dinner some time.”
“I’m busy.” The door slammed shut. “Where were we? Ah, yes. I have something for you.” He grabbed a nutcracker from the cabinet and shoved it in her face. “Put your big toe in it and twist.” Randi flinched away from the nutcracker. “Or I’ll do it for you.”
She snatched the nutcracker up and quickly broke her toe, wincing in pain. The abductor gave her a glass of water, and sat down in the chair next to her, but she refused to look up from the floor. He told her that she made the right choice because if he would have done it, it would have been much more excruciating.
“Who was that at the door?” she said, sifting pain through her teeth.
“Nobody. Some dumbass neighbor that shouldn’t have come here.”
“I heard him invite you over; are you going to go?”
He sprang to his feet, banging his fist on the table. “Mind your damn business. You think I’m dumb or something? Like I’m just going to leave you here alone? Nice try.”
“You can take me with you—that way you know where I am.”
He hesitated, but then said, “Anything you do, you ask me permission first.”
Dinner went smoothly until cleanup when the neighbor asked Randi to assist him in the kitchen. She looked to her abductor to see if it was okay, but was given a look of warning so she politely declined and said, “Would you please show me to the restroom, actually?”
“Sure, right this way. By the way, what happened to your eye?” he asked as they headed down the corridor. She had to choose her words carefully with her abductor around, so she said she had a freak “accident.”
As Randi stepped into the restroom, she whispered to him, “It wasn’t an accident.” In the restroom, she left a note on the toilet paper with the toothpaste sitting on the sink. “Help me, he’s going to kill me.”
After Randi and her abductor thanked him for dinner, they went back to the house. Behind closed doors he could reprimand her for what he called “misbehaving.” Holding a revolver in his hand, aimed at Randi, he said, “Let’s play a game.” Randi froze in her tracks and put her arms up above her head as if she was being arrested.
Her abductor opened the chamber, showing Randi the single bullet. He closed the chamber, letting it spin. A laugh slipped out of his mouth—ragged and malevolent—as he said, “I told you not to try anything, you bitch. Russian Roulette—fire the gun at your head. Three times, if you’re lucky.”
Randi grabbed the gun, shaking with fear. She had two options, both terrifying. She could aim it at her abductor, she could kill him, but it could be a blank, which would piss him off even more, or she could end up shooting herself in the head. Randi closed her eyes and pulled the trigger, tears streaming down her face. Time slowed. Seconds passed. One, two, three, four, five. A blank. The look of relief on Randi’s face turned to horror; she had to do it again. Two more blanks. Randi dropped the gun on the floor in defeat. The tears continued, but her sobs silenced. Her head hung to the floor.
“You’re one lucky girl. Now stop your crying!”
Just as her abductor finished restraining her, he picked up the gun and placed it on the kitchen table. The phone began ringing. She had no will left to fight.
“What do you want?” There was a pause as he listened to the person on the other end. At the same time, Randi tried to stop her crying. “What?! She did what?! I’m going to kill the ungrateful bitch!” He slammed the phone down onto the table and glared at Randi. “You think you can just leave me? After everything?” He shook with anger as he lunged at Randi, grabbing her neck with his big paws.
The door slammed open as Randi’s abductor continued to scream in her face, not taking his eyes off her. Holding a lock pick set, the neighbor stood in the doorway, stormed over to the table, picked up the revolver, and yelled, “Hey, Rowan! Turn around.”
Rowan instinctively turned toward the startling voice and saw the gun in the neighbor’s hands.
“I told you not to kill her, Rowan. I told you what would happen if you tried to kill her. Why didn’t you listen to me?” He opened his mouth to try to explain himself, but it was too late. The neighbor raised the gun, pulled the trigger, and shot Rowan in the heart, watching him collapse on the floor. He walked over to Randi and removed her restraints.
Rowan screamed in agony as he bled out. “Why are you leaving me? Why does everyone leave me!” Randi got up and hugged the neighbor.
“We need to get out of here. Come over, get cleaned up, and I’ll take you to the hospital.” Randi shook her head and darted out of the house. She heard a shout from behind her. “Get back here!” Tripping over tree branches and rocks, the footsteps quickly got louder. The last thing Randi saw was the ground, after a heavy bang to her head.
As Randi slowly came to, her eyes fluttered, then opened quickly. She was in the same dining room she had been in an hour ago, her arms and legs tied down, a gag in her mouth. On the table next to her was a “Missing Person” flier. She saw her “savior” holding a large kitchen knife in his hand. She began to thrash in her chair frantically. He circled Randi’s chair, his shirt soaked by sweat. He pulled the shirt off over his head and put the knife to her neck.
“Do exactly what I tell you to do.”
Jess Wilson is a junior at Capital Area School for the Arts Charter School (CASA).
John Harris Sr., the founder of Harrisburg, lies buried in a small graveyard under a mulberry tree in Riverfront Park.
If there’s one thing that’s been proven throughout all of history, it’s that people like free things. And while fun can be had in dumpster diving, checking out the “Free” section of Craigslist, and waiting for the first day of spring (fro-yo!), there is a more satisfying way to get your fill of “free”—the movies.