Kidnapped

As I said, this story is obviously about a kidnap, isn't it?

Kidnapped (a piece submitted for the 2010 Scholastic Writer's Award Contest, and this isn't the original title.)

 

Rays of sunbeam were emitted from the blazing sun, hammering through the windows of my room. Sitting at my desk, I tilted my head towards the brightly lighted windows, the sun was transmitting unbearable heat down on me. Closing my eyes, a series of images drifted into my mind instantaneously. Within seconds, my mind was flooded with crystal-clear images of that fateful day. That day was pretty much like today, the same old flaming ball hanging above with relentless heat.

It was almost two years ago on a sunny afternoon, I was with my best friend, Anthony, and both of us were heading toward a shopping mall for a primary school gathering. Under the blazing sky, our clothes were glued to our bodies as we were sweating like never before. We discovered a shady tree and to avoid the grilling heat, we quickly lunged towards our gracious saviour.

A few minutes later, we continued our journey. As we were walking along the pavement, few vehicles could be seen travelling along the road. It wasn’t that weird, after all it was still a rural area, and most of the residents didn’t even own any vehicle.

Moments later, a loud mechanical sound came from behind us. I turned around and saw a van galloping down the road. Nothing odd, I thought, but surprisingly the vehicle abruptly halted beside us. Everything happened in an instant, we did not even have the slightest chance to react. Two men jumped out and forcefully pulled us into the van and knocked us out cold.

The next thing I knew was we were ‘stored’ in a room with our hands and feet tied-up. I was the first to regain consciousness, I strained my eyes to study my surroundings. The floor was encrusted with inch-thick dust, greeny mosses were grown on the dilapidated walls and most of the furniture were broken and torn apart except for the wooden chair in the middle of the room. On the chair sat a bulky middle-aged man holding a mobile phone, this man probably wasn’t ordering McDonald for us.

“Mr Tan, your beloved son is with us.” he said. “prepare RM100,000 if you ever want to see him again.”

The man came to me and kicked me on my abdomen. I moaned painfully.

“I believe this is convincing enough, isn’t it? Now, get the money and do not try to do anything funny, you know, such as calling the cops or else your son will be really sorry.” the man said and he hung up.

Anthony was awake and we looked at each other helplessly.

The man squatted down beside Anthony. He grabbed Anthony’s collar and pulled Anthony nearer toward him.

“Boy, tell me, what is your name and who are your parents?” he questioned.

Anthony told him everything and the man called his parents and demanded for ransom.

After that, the man walked across the hall and ordered his two accomplices to guard us closely before he left. But apparently, the two of them did not take his order seriously, they went out from the house and started playing poker in the doorway, granting us a chance to come out with a plan to escape. Anthony discovered a small solid stone nearby. The stone wasn’t really good for slicing through ropes but that was all we had. We started slitting through the ropes with minimum movement. We did our job subtly to avoid any attention from the two men who were now enjoying their mugs of beer.

Hours later, the men were snoring with their mouth wide open and we knew it was time to make our move. We tip-toed towards them and managed to bound them to a table with ropes and gagged them with pieces of ragged cloth. A mobile phone was found in one of the men’s pocket. I took it out and quickly dialled the number 9-9-9.

“Police, please... please save us, we are being kidnapped.” I sobbed.

“Okay kid, calm down and tell me where you are.”

“We... we are...” I said and looked around. “I don’t know where we......”

The phone call went dead, the battery was out. I tossed the phone to the ground and made our escape without wasting any more time. We were in the middle of the woods, trees were everywhere and we did not know which path would possibly lead to the way out. However, moving further away from this place would certainly be better than waiting for the arrival of the remaining kidnapper, so we chose a pathway which seemed obscure and started running.

Darkness began fading as dawn approached, and this looked pretty much like good news to us. Just as I was about to feel safe, the middle-aged kidnapper appeared right from nowhere with a gun in his hand.

“Pretty smart kids, huh?” he scowled.

He pointed the gun at me.

“Now, die, you little rascal.” he snarled at me and pulled the trigger.

“Bryan!” Anthony shouted.

Anthony pushed me aside but he was shot. He fell to the ground and lost his consciousness. I quickly lunged forward and tried to subdue the kidnapper but he shot me on my leg and I collapsed. The pain was unbearable, I pressed my palm on my bleeding wound. Then, the kidnapper came to my side and pointed the gun at my head.

“Ciao” he whispered.

Bang!

I’m dead, I thought. But then, I opened my eyes and saw the kidnapper lying beside me. I raised my head and saw a police-officer holding a pistol not far away from me. The police somehow managed to find us!

We were immediately taken to the nearest hospital, I managed to survive but Anthony wasn’t that fortunate, his bleeding couldn’t stop, and he died on the way to the hospital. My best friend sacrificed his life for me......  

Tears rolled down my cheek shamelessly as the image of Anthony flow into my mind. I knew I shouldn’t be crying, Anthony wouldn’t like to see me crying. Wiping off the tears from my cheek, I limped toward the windows and the sunlight burned my eyes. Closing them tightly, I took a deep breath.

“Rest in peace, my friend” I sighed softly toward the sky.

 

Reviews

[Elvina CZq]

With the name "Bryan" and surname "Tan"... I hope this wasn't real. haha, but enjoyable read. This is the second story I've read of yours, and I noticed that you started a story nicely and ended calmly. In short, your story flows right at its pace and place. Good job on this. Keep it up! :)

[Terence Foster]

i loved this!
was engrossing,really
cool stuff

[Coyote Poetry]

A very good story. I believe could be longer. I like the description and detail. Kidnapping is a big business in some countries still today. I like how you described his emotion in being capture and being free .A excellent story.
Coyote

[Dev]

Aww.. this was really good.. I'm sorry his friend had to die though.. !!