by Kelly Oram
“No problem. See you later, Ellie.”
For a second I watched in wonder as Dave skated away. I think that was the first time he’d ever called me by my first name. Maybe something was different about me. “You’ve been spending way too much time with Angela,” I muttered to myself and then hurried into my house before Seth could stop me.
Wednesday morning I expected Seth to show up at the park like he had on Monday since I’d done everything in my power to avoid him. Sometimes it’s nice to be wrong. I got to have a nice stalker-free game. Well, nice except for the part where Dave told everyone I had to have a babysitter on account of being serial killer bait.
Babysitter comment aside, though, I have to admit I was relieved when a few guys who live closer to me offered to take me home. I didn’t want to ask Dave again and have him think I liked him. But I also knew Seth would probably be in his garage working out—AKA waiting for me—when I got home, and I didn’t want to be alone when I showed up.
The escort turned out to be unnecessary. Seth’s garage was open like it always is, but I was surprised to see that he wasn’t in it. Then I noticed that his car wasn’t there and my heart leapt for joy in my chest.
I’d been cooped up in the house so much lately, hiding from Seth, that even though I’d just played hockey for the last couple of hours I couldn’t bring myself to go inside. I fell to the grass in my front yard, ripped off my skates, and lay there enjoying the fresh air.
I could have stayed like that for hours, except for some reason Seth’s open garage seemed to be screaming at me. The car was gone, the house was completely dark and still, and the garage was left wide open. It was begging me to come over and take a look around. Not that I’m some major snoop or anything, but Seth had me seriously freaked. I figured I’d be safer if I could find out something—anything—about him. Plus, if I could find something really creepy to show Angela, she might get off my case about him.
It took me ten minutes to work up the guts to go over there, but once I did I was kind of fascinated. It made me realize how desperate I was to know more about Seth.
You’d think that someone who drives a BMW would want to park it in the garage, but Seth never did—probably because there was no room for it with all the gym equipment and the piles upon piles of boxes. It seemed to me like Seth and his aunt didn’t plan on staying in the neighborhood long. They’d hardly bothered to unpack.
I read the labels on some of the boxes. At first they seemed normal—photos, books, crock pot, Christmas decorations. But then I started seeing boxes labeled FBI, first-degree murder, fingerprinting, child abduction, federal laws, local law enforcement procedures… “What the?”
That was weird. I mean I didn’t know what I’d expected to find in here, but as creeped out as I suddenly was, I guess a part of me hadn’t believed I’d find anything strange.
I knew I should leave, but there was a tall metal cabinet sitting in the corner and I simply couldn’t help myself. I opened the cabinet and stared in disbelief. Knives—lots of them, and all different kinds. Seth had everything from a machete to a Swiss Army knife, and they were all neatly hanging there shiny and sharp, like they were on display in a museum.
Deciding it was definitely time to leave, I shut the cabinet, turned around, and screamed when I found Seth standing at the entrance to his garage.
Seth didn’t say anything. He was standing there with his hands tucked casually in his pockets, watching me through narrowed eyes. He was also, I noticed, standing between me and any escape route from his garage.
“Seth!” I gasped as soon as my heart started beating again. I forced myself to play it cool. “Geez you scared me. I didn’t hear you pull up.”
“That’s because I didn’t pull up. I walked up.” Seth’s voice was toneless, his face still cautious.
“But where’s your car?”
“Technically it’s my aunt’s car. She does drive it every now and then.”
“Oh.” Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Ellie, you moron!
I waited for him to say something, but he didn’t. He didn’t move. He didn’t speak. He just stood there. It was torture.
“So...” I gulped. “Did you go for a walk or something? Exploring the neighborhood a little?”
“I was at your house. Angela found me waiting for you on the porch when she left. She told me I could wait inside.” Seth finally removed his hands from his pockets—only to fold them across his chest. “I didn’t realize you’d try to come see me first.”
“Oh… yeah… well I…” Think, Ellie! Think! “I was just in my yard and I thought I heard a cat meowing.” Yeah, that’s good. “It didn’t look like you were home, and I was afraid it was stuck in here.”
“It was nice of you to be so concerned.”
“I didn’t find it. I must have just been hearing things. Sorry. I guess I’ll just be going now.”
I stepped forward and to the side, planning to give Seth a very wide berth, but the second I moved Seth took a matching step, placing himself directly in front of me again. “What’s the rush?” he asked casually.
“No rush,” I said nervously. “I’ve just been playing hockey for the last couple hours. I’m tired and I kind of need to hit the showers.”
I took another step and again Seth matched me, but this time he’d moved forward a little too. A few more steps and he’d be within arm’s reach. I froze and so did he.
Maybe if I reasoned with him… “Seth.”
“Ellie?”
We stared each other down—me looking at him wearily, him looking politely inquisitive.
When I couldn’t take the silence anymore I sighed. “You’re not going to let me leave, are you?”
Seth’s face lifted then, as if this thought had never once occurred to him. He stepped aside and waved his hand, gesturing for me to be his guest. I definitely wasn’t falling for it, but I didn’t think I was likely to get another chance, so I took off running.
Seth snatched me up so fast I didn’t even see how he did it. In a split second my feet were off the ground and he was dragging me inside his house. I kicked and punched as hard as I could, but he had me from behind and I couldn’t make any good contact.
As Seth struggled to get the door shut behind us I managed to kick him hard enough that he dropped me. I ran for the front of the house, but Seth caught me near the base of the stairs and flung me over his shoulder.
I like to think it was with great effort that he managed to get me into his room. I mean, I struggled—you bet I struggled. I’m even pretty sure he’d have a few bruises later. But Seth seemed to know exactly how to hold on to me, and he was just plain stronger.
Before I knew it, he’d dropped me on his bed and gone to stand in front of the door. I went straight to the window, but unlike my house, there is no roof to climb out onto, just a second story drop. I whirled around and gave him a mouthful that would make a sailor blush.
Seth leaned back against the door, enjoying himself immensely. “Ellie, calm down. I just want to talk to you.”
“Then try using a phone, freak!”
“You’d never take my call. Just like you won’t answer the door when I come over.”
“I wonder why!”
I was so angry that I grabbed the first thing I could reach—a lamp off of his nightstand—and chucked it without hesitation. Seth had to scramble to duck from it. He was surprised that I’d thrown it at him, but instead of getting angry like I’d expected, he looked at the busted lamp and sighed. “Ellie, come on, stop it. I only want to talk.”
I picked up his alarm clock tore it from the wall and hurled it at his face. He didn’t duck quite fast enough this time and it clocked him—excuse the pun—really good on the side of his forehead.
Seth pressed his hand to his head like it hurt and calmly said, “Fine. We’ll do this the hard way.”
Reaching for the next thing I could grab, I screamed, “You mean we’ve been doing it the easy way?”
One corne
r of Seth’s mouth twitched into a smile and then in a flash he had me pinned face-first to the floor. “I do love your spunk,” he told me, pulling my arms behind my back, “however inconvenient it is at the moment.”
I wasn’t in the mood for his compliments. I started screaming as loud as I could and tried to wrench myself free, but my arms screamed in protest.
“If you hold still it won’t hurt,” Seth said calmly after I gasped. “And you may as well stop screaming. There’s no one home to hear you. Not here, or in either house next to us, or in your house across the street.”
“So I should just lay here and take it?” I yelled. I thrashed even harder and cried out, surprised by the pain that shot through my shoulders.
“Careful Ellie, you could dislocate your arm like that. You need to hold still.”
I didn’t have any choice but to stop struggling.
“There,” Seth said proudly. Though, if he was proud of me for calming down, or proud of himself for forcing me into submission I couldn’t tell. “Now, are you going to be reasonable?”
“Get off me!”
“If I do, you’ll just try to run away and I want to talk to you.”
“I don’t want to talk to you! You can’t treat people like this!”
“You’re not leaving me any options. I’m going crazy waiting for you Ellie.”
“Clearly!”
“I like you. A lot.”
“Well you’re doing a bang up job at winning my heart you psycho!”
“So I’ve noticed. Tell me how to do it right, and I’ll let you up.”
“You can’t. It’s impossible. So why don’t you go abduct someone who would appreciate it? Angela’s as stupid as you are crazy. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind.”
“I don’t want Angela. I want you.”
Even despite how angry I was that statement made me blush. It’s just that no one—and I mean no one—had ever picked me over Angela before.
“But why?” I asked before I could stop myself. “Angela’s prettier and popular. Plus, she probably doesn’t wonder if you’re the spawn of Satan.”
Seth ignored the Satan crack. “Aside from my weakness for redheads?” He chuckled and then sighed. “Ellie, I’d really rather have this conversation face to face. If I let you up will you talk to me, or are you going to start throwing things again?”
At this point I was pretty sure Seth wasn’t going to carve me up—at least not today—so I decided to give in and let him say whatever it was he wanted to say. I figured the sooner I did, the sooner I’d get out of here.
“Fine. You want to talk, then talk. I’ll behave as long as you stay away from me. And none of your soft caress/smoldering gaze/sexy voice crap either!”
Seth laughed as he lifted himself off me, but he didn’t seem to trust that I wasn’t going to bolt. He took a seat propped against his bedroom door.
After swinging the stiffness out of my arms, I climbed up on his bed, which was pushed into the far corner of his room, and placed myself securely against the two walls.
Seth sat there with this look on his face as though he were trying to figure out exactly how to proceed.
Well I sure wasn’t going to help him out with conversation so I took the opportunity to check out his room. He had plaid sheets, a couple posters up on the walls of bands—it bothered me that he had the same taste in music that I do—a bookshelf full of CD’s, DVD’s, video games, and paperback novels.
At first glance it looked perfectly normal, just like his garage had, but like the garage there were a few subtle differences. For one, it was clean. I don’t mean it was more picked up than my room—which I’ll admit is a little sloppy, though definitely not the “pig sty” my mom says it is—I mean his room was clean. There was not a single dirty sock, his bed was neatly made, and the things on his bookshelf were alphabetized. Seriously, alphabetized.
Which brings me to my next problem. Seth’s DVD collection consisted of movies like Silence Of The Lambs, American Psycho, Seven, and the entire collection of the TV show Bones. I didn’t recognize any of the books, but judging from the titles they were all crime novels. And, of course, there was his lovely video game collection starting with good ol’ Assassin’s Creed.
I heaved a shudder and moved on with my inspection, stopping short when I saw the CB radio on his dresser. Random.
“It’s a police scanner,” Seth said, startling me so bad I knocked my head against the corner behind me.
I’d almost forgotten Seth was in the room, he’d been so quiet. When I looked up his eyes were fixed on me. He’d clearly been watching me analyze his room. I wondered if he could tell what I was thinking about it. I hoped not. “A police scanner?” I repeated just to break the tension in the room. “Are those even legal?”
“Depends on what you use them for.”
“And what do you use it for?” Evading the police after you carve up girls with one of the bazillion knives in your garage?
Seth’s eyes narrowed as he considered answering me, but when he spoke he said, “You don’t like me.”
It wasn’t a question, but he waited for an answer. When I didn’t give him one he asked, “Do you hate me?”
He seemed sincerely curious, so I felt bad for not responding this time. The problem was, I wasn’t sure how to answer. Hate didn’t seem like the right word.
The seconds of silence ticked on.
When Seth finally spoke again he said “I don’t understand you,” and he didn’t look like he was happy to be admitting that. “You aren’t like other girls. You don’t…”
Seth was really struggling for words now but he didn’t seem upset exactly, just frustrated. “No one’s ever responded to me the way you do.”
I tried not to scoff at that too badly, since I knew somewhere deep inside Seth there were, in fact, feelings. Still, I made enough of a reaction that Seth’s eyes flashed a hint of self-consciousness. “Did you know I’m from Beverly Hills?” he asked me suddenly.
I thought about not answering again, but that felt mean and something about the way Seth looked just then made me unable to be a jerk. Grudgingly I said, “Not surprising.”
Seth was trying to hide his emotions, but I could tell he was relieved when I spoke. “Things are different there. People are different.” He hesitated again and then said, “I’m rich, I’m good-looking, and my aunt is a very famous novelist, so I know a lot of the right people.”
I was startled by how matter-of-factly Seth blurted all that. He wasn’t bragging, though, he was just explaining something. Whatever it was, I wasn’t catching on. I think Seth could tell, too, because he smiled a little and explained himself further. “In the world I was raised in, that’s all that matters. People don’t care about your personality. Most of them don’t even bother to get to know you. It’s all about what they think you can give them.”
“Charming.”
Seth shrugged off my sarcasm. “That’s just life. At first I didn’t think it would be any different here. All the girls I’ve ever known were all the same. Even Angela—at least a little. When I first met her all she saw was the BMW and the smile.”
“Actually, what she saw were the extremely hot workouts in your garage every morning.”
With a gasp, I slapped my hand over my mouth. That was not supposed to come out of it.
Seth laughed once, but spared me the humiliation of teasing me. “But not you,” he said, tactfully moving the conversation along. “The first time we met you saw…”
“A taser-wielding dog killer who mysteriously knew my name?” I offered, surprising us both when I cracked a smile.
Seth broke into a wide grin. “You’re not like other girls, Ellie,” he repeated. “Not like anyone I’ve ever met.”
I folded my arms tightly across my chest and clamped my jaw shut. I refused to let Seth sweet-talk me into forgetting I was being held here under duress.
Seth ran a hand through his hair, frustrated that I’d clammed up again. “I don’t
know how to act with you,” he confessed. “Most girls are easy, but I can’t figure out what you want.”
“That’s because I don’t want anything from you.”
I’d warned him not to, but he looked up at me from beneath his long eyelashes and turned his voice to a smooth whisper. “I wish you did.”
“Sorry.” I forced myself not to tug at my clothes. It was rapidly becoming way too hot in his room. “I don’t know what to tell you. Except that invading my personal space, breaking into my room and, uh, attacking and holding me hostage? All excellent ways to make sure that never happens.”
But suddenly I wasn’t nearly as angry about all those things.
“At least you didn’t break my nose.”
Ironically, realizing I wasn’t angry anymore made me very, very angry. “Only because you had my arms pinned behind my back,” I growled.
“I am sorry about that, Ellie. I would never have done it if you weren’t throwing things at me head.”
I shrugged at his dry tone. What did he expect, sympathy for the new bump on his forehead? “Sorry. It’s my natural reaction to being kidnapped.”
Seth sighed heavily. “I didn’t want to do this.” He dropped his gaze to his lap and began picking at the strands of hideous brown shag carpet that blanketed his bedroom. “It’s degrading having to force you to talk to me like this.”
“So why do it?”
Seth lifted his shoulders and dropped them, his mask of confidence finally dissolved. He looked beaten. “Because it’s worth it if I can get you to listen long enough to not hate me anymore.”
Surprisingly, I’d almost prefer creepy-full-of-himself Seth. At least I knew how to feel about him. This new vulnerable Seth was much more confusing. Maybe Angela was right. Maybe I was insane thinking Seth was capable of killing people. But then, he did just kidnap me. Maybe he was manipulating me again.
I sighed. “It’s not that I hate you.”
Seth looked up at me again from beneath those thick long lashes, almost daring to hope. Geez, he knew how to tug at a girl’s heartstrings. Seriously, why did he have to be so hot?