As Ben is walking around Ken’s home, he notices a large television on a stand and a Macintosh computer in the living room. Ben walks over and sees a dining room with only a table in the room. Ben sees stairs, but instead, turns his attention to the kitchen, which is right past the dining room. There is a door, smack in the middle, between the kitchen and dining room. Ben opens the door to discover that it is a basement door.
Ben decides to proceed down the basement stairs. As Ben is on the last stair, he quickly notices a lot of tools such as hammers, wrenches, sledgehammer’s, measuring tape, and a lot of wood. Ben hears a sound. “I hope that’s not a rat,” Ben said somewhat loudly to himself.
Ben sees a bunch of trash bags filled with stuff. He heard the sound again and right in the direction of the trash bags. Ben began walking in the direction of the trash bags. He moved them really slowly and discovered a half naked young boy’s body. The boy had on only a shirt. Ben took his leather gloves off and sat them on top of one of the tied up trash bags. Ben took the tape off the boy’s mouth. The boy began crying. “Please! Don’t hurt me.”
“I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here to help you,” said Ben.
The boy only cried louder and began screaming, “Help! Help! Help!”
Ben couldn’t take it anymore. “Shut Up!”
The young boy quickly got quiet and began shaking really badly.
“Please! Don’t hurt me,” said the young boy.
“I understand you’ve been through a lot, but I need you to understand I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here to rescue you.”
The boy seemed unsure whether to trust Ben or not, but his shaking began to slow down some. “Who are you?” The young boy asked.
“That’s not important, what is important is for me to get you the hell out of here,” said Ben .
Ben got up looking for fresh tape. Ben walked to a nearby old school desk in the basement and found some duct tape.
“I want to help you, but I need you to be very quiet. If he hears you, he will kill both of us. I have no choice but to put tape back over your mouth,” said Ben.
“Please, no,” said the boy.
“I really have no choice. Please, don’t try and fight it,” said Ben.
Ben put the duct tape over the boy’s mouth. Ben walked over to the desk and sat the tape back down. He had fingerprints on the tape, so he knew he needed to come back for the tape before he left. Unfortunately, he didn’t have room in his pockets for the tape. Ben walks back over to the boy. “I’ll be back for you as soon as I can,” said Ben.”
Ben could hear the upstairs door open. “Oh, shit, speak of the devil. He’s here,” said Ben.
Ben said this very quietly, but it was loud enough that the boy could hear him as he was less than five feet away. Ben picked his leather gloves off the tied up trash bag and put them back on his hands.
Ben realized that he never put the bullets in his gun. He reached behind his back and into his pants and pulled out the gun. He checked the chambers to see if there were any bullets in the gun. There weren’t any bullets, which Ben already figured. Ben checked “just” to make sure. Ben put the gun back behind him in his pants under his back. Ben began looking around for a weapon. He tried to walk slowly to make as little noise as possible. Ben found an axe on some old equipment. “This will have to do,” Ben said lightly. Ben grabbed it and slowly made his way up the basement stairs. As he got close to the basement door, he could hear the television on. Ben sat next to the door for several minutes. He finally got the courage to slowly open the door. The door made a creaking sound, but he knew it didn’t seem to affect Ken, as he could hear the man laughing and munching on what sounded like popcorn. Ben slowly closed the basement door, hearing a light creak while doing so.
Ben began making his way near the living room. He crept slowly as he heard a loud slam onto the counter. Ben seen Ken eating popcorn with a Budweiser can in his right hand. He had several empty beer cans on the table next to him. Ben decided to go upstairs. He slowly walked through the dining room to the stairs and up them. He was able to avoid going into the living room altogether.
As Ben began walking up the stairs, he found out that the stairs made a much louder creaking sound. Luckily, Ben was able to get into a slow enough rhythm that he minimized the creaking sounds. After Ben made it all the way up the stairs, he turned to the first room on his left. The room is a huge mess. Ben noticed papers, pencils, books, hangers, and an iron board all were thrown all over in the first room.
Ben made his way to the second room, which happened to be the middle room upstairs. He seen a small television that looked like it was made in the 1970s. He sees some old shoes and piles of dirty clothes all over the floor but not much else.
Ben walked to the last room in the hallway. This room wasn’t on the left or right side, as it was smack in the “middle” of both sides at the very end of the hallway. The last room is obviously Ken’s bedroom, as there is a bed in this room. This room actually looked nice. The room smelled of air freshener and the carpet looked recently vacuumed. Across from the bed, there are clothes folded neatly on a dresser.
Ben heard walking coming from downstairs. Ben walked slowly back to the first room on the far left and sat on an old lawn chair in the room to think what his next step will be.
Several hours had passed. Ken is snoring very loudly in his bedroom. Ben finally gets up from the chair and leaves the room. He begins walking to the bedroom with his axe in his hands. Just as he nears the middle room, he hears Ken moving in the bed and no longer hears him snoring. Ken’s body turns over with his right side on the bed. Ben is frozen cold. He hears the snoring again and begins to proceed very slowly, trying to make as little sound as possible, but a small creaking sound is still present.
Like a strike of lightning, Ken’s body shot up into a sitting position. “Is someone there?” Ken yelled.
Ken quickly pulled the covers off. He went to the dresser to grab his flashlight. He then made his way to the bedroom closet and pulled out his hunting rifle. At this point in time, Ben has not idea that Ken has a weapon on him. Ken tries aiming his rifle as he walks down the upstairs hallway, shining the flashlight in his left hand. As Ken begins making his way to the first room on the far right, he says out loud, “I sure hope I don’t have bats again.” The first two rooms are on the left side of the hallway for a person coming from the stairs, since Ken is coming from his bedroom, the rooms are to his right.
Ken takes a quick peek and believes that he is just hearing things. Ken walks out of the room and passes the middle room. As Ken is about to enter his bedroom, he hears a loud creaking sound coming from the first room on the far right near the stairs. Ken quickly turns right back around and heads back to the room. As Ken is heading back to the room, he moves the flashlight all around to the best of his ability as he tries to balance the rifle in his right hand. Ken see’s something in the room and goes in panic mode. He drops the flashlight and has both hands on the gun trying to aim it at its target. As Ken is about to fire a shot in the middle of the room on the floor, the flashlight shines on it first. It’s Ken’s cat “Petey.” Ken stumbles back and lets out a sigh of relief. The hit to the floor appeared to damage the flashlight bulb, as the light was barely shining out of it now. He bends down to pat the cat. “Look what you did to my flashlight, stupid cat,” said Ken in a light joking tone. He hears a loud creak coming from the middle room. Ken grabs the flashlight, shuts it off and then turns it back on. The light from the flashlight gets lighter and then completely goes out. Ken throws the flashlight down in disgust. “That’s just great,” said Ken as he gets back to his feet and begins to make his way to the middle room.
Ben is in a small hidden area in the room. He’s in a small space that appeared to be at one time a small closet. There is a bigger closet on the other side of the room. The place Ben is at appears to be a place that at one time was a place to hang a few important things for the coming week, and the back closet was prob
ably stored for everything else. Ben could see Ken entering the middle room. Ben’s eyes being in the dark for several hours could see Ken plain as day. Ken had just awoken ten minutes ago, so his eyes obviously weren’t used to the dark.
Ken tried to flick the light on with the barrel of his gun. He turned the light switch up, but no light shined. Ken shakes his head. “What is it with me and lights tonight?” Ben reached into his right pocket and grabbed a few marbles. He made sure to keep them apart to not make a sound. He threw them in the air. Ken heard the marbles as they hit the floor and aimed his rifle and shot in the direction of the marbles, which was by the window near the big closet. It was the break Ben needed. Ben quickly came up to Ken seconds after Ken fired and swung the axe directly into Ken’s midsection. Ben let go of the axe as Ken stumbled backwards with the axe deep into his stomach before falling on his back. His body is frantically moving in pain. Ben walks over to Ken’s body. Ben pulls the axe right out of Ken’s body, which was deep in Ken’s stomach with no remorse. Ken let out a loud sigh.
Ken could see nothing but evil and hate in Ben’s eyes. Ken screamed “Please! Don’t do this!” The words were screamed as the axe came down lightning fast onto his upper chest. Ben dug the axe in deeper as he watched Ken’s eyes get bigger as his pain quadrupled.
“You are one sick fuck! May you rot in hell, bastard!” Ben exclaimed. He then walked over to the dresser near where he was hiding at. There’s a small sack of marbles, which is the same sack where Ben got his marbles from. Ben grabs the sack of marbles and walks over to Ken’s body. Ken is still barely moving. Ben drops the marbles from the sack all over Ken’s body. Ken puts the sack back on the dresser and then leaves the room.
Chapter 12
Ben lied on his hotel bed with no shirt on, all stretched out revealing his six pack abs. He has the television on but his eyes are concentrated on the ceiling. Next to the television is the duct tape that Ben stole from Lanshore’s house, because it had his fingerprints on it.
Ben quickly got to a seated position when an announcement came on the news. “A very strange, twisted story but a true one tonight as a bus driver by the name of Ken Lanshore was found murdered in his home tonight. However, Lanshore had a young boy locked up in his basement and is believed to be responsible for three children’s death as well as the three children that are still missing. The boy ‘Chris’ is now safe and back with his family. Chris’s family does not look at the man that killed Mr. Lanshore as a villain, killer, or murderer but instead, a ‘hero.’ ”
The news reporter puts the microphone in Chris’s mom’s face. “I want to thank the man that is responsible for getting my boy home safe to me.” Chris’s mom wept in sadness and joy after saying those words.
Ben was in complete shock. “You have to be fucking kidding me!” Ben said out lout at the television.
The news reporter began speaking again. “There was a $30,000 reward for information leading to the whereabouts of Chris. The mother claims that if she ever finds the man responsible for killing Mr. Lanshore that she will gladly pay the man double the reward.”
The news reporter has now given Chris the microphone. “The man was very tall and wore a black hat,” said Chris.
“Stacy Willow, reporting live from channel 6,” said the news reporter.
Ben got off the bed and turned the television off. Ben had a confused look on his face as the phone rang.
“Hello,” said Ben.
“Hello, hero,” said Jack.
Ben quickly recognized the voice of Jack’s. “Hey, fuck you!”
“Whoa, calm down. Everyone is proud of you, man. The boss was in all smiles about it. You’re a fucking hero,” said Jack somewhat loudly.
“My problem was, I could have killed an innocent man,” said Ben.
“C’mon now, you know that man wasn’t innocent. Hell, you freed a kid, saving his life in the process,” said Jack.
“Well, yeah, I know he’s guilty now, but I didn’t know up to the point of finding that boy in the basement! I need to fucking know beyond a shadow of doubt that I’m killing a true criminal,” said Ben.
“Calm down. I get all of what you are saying. Look, Ben, as I told you before, the people you work for have connections. We will never throw you ever into a situation where you kill an innocent person. And if by some chance they do, I guarantee you, that they will pay you double for the damages,” said Jeff.
“Damages? We are talking about a human life for crying out loud! This is something that we can’t go around guessing on,” said Ben.
“How about you get some sleep, and I’ll call you in a few days,” said Jack.
“Look, asshole, all I want is my $50,000 for the job being complete, and then that’s it for me,” said Ben.
“You’re going to have to take that up with the boss,” said Jack.
“Fuck you!” Ben shouted loudly on the phone and then slammed it down.
Ben is seated directly from Henry.
“So, what brings you back? I was told you no longer wanted to work for me?” Henry asked.
“Well, I had three weeks to think it over. I was just a little shaken up. I may have been trained to kill people in the Army, but that man was the first person I’ve ever killed. Not to mention, up ‘till I found the boy, I thought that there was a good chance that the man in ‘question’ may be innocent,” said Ben.
“Listen, Ben, our job is to do the research, your job is to kill,” said Henry.
“I understand that, I was just afraid of potentially killing someone that may be innocent,” said Ben.
“Listen, Ben, you need to trust us a bit. If you hesitate while out on a job, it could get you killed,” said Henry.
“If not for the man’s flashlight and the middle upstairs room having light problems, I would be a dead man. Another concern of mine is, I really would like transportation,” said Ben.
“You would be surprised how many hit men screw up their first time out and get arrested, hurt, and even sometimes killed. We try to do the best research we can when picking out the best trained killers, but sometimes things just don’t work out, and I think sometimes it has to simply do with bad luck. As far as transportation is concerned, you’ve received $100,000 in the past month. You should have plenty of money for a car. We supply travel arrangements, and we will pay for your gas as long as you show us the receipts. We, however, do not buy cars for our employees. Maybe if you had been an employee of ours for five years, maybe in a case like that, we would make an exception. But in your case, you are on your own with that one. We prefer you drive a car for sure, that way we don’t have to waste time shipping your gun to you in the mail,” said Henry.
“So, when do I receive my next kill?” Ben asked.
“I’ll send you some paperwork on a new ‘hit’ in a couple of weeks. Go enjoy yourself!” Henry exclaimed.
Ben tipped his head holding the tip of the hat and got up from the chair and walked to the exit door of the boss’s office.
Ben is at a car dealership looking at five prized cars all priced over $20,000. A salesman with a nametag of “William” came up to Ben.
“Can I help you find something?” William asked.
“Yes, I would like to see some of your newest and finest Toyotas,” said Ben.
“Follow me,” said William.
Ben followed William closely behind into the front door of the dealership. They walk up to a 1997 Toyota Supra with a sign on it that says “$40,000.”
“Would you like to take this car for a test spin?” William asked.
“You bet your ass I do!” Ben said excitedly.
Ben waited and looked over the paint exterior of the car while William went to retrieve the car keys. Ben glanced at some of the other nice and expensive Toyotas as William made his way back with the car keys.
William handed over the keys. “Enjoy!”
Ben drove slowly out of the car dealership and out of the parking lot before really hitting the gas pedal. Ben d
rove 80 mph in a 55 mph zone. He floored the breaks every so many minutes. He really enjoyed the flow of the car.
Ben sat across from William. “I’ll buy the car for $32,000.”
“Let me check with the staff to see if we can get it down that low for you,” said William.
Ben took his hat off and began studying the office as William walked over to an office three doors down. He noticed a photo of William with his wife, two daughters, and son. The boy is wearing a hunting hat, and the two daughters were wearing dresses. William entered the office with a big smile on his face.
“I hope you didn’t miss me too much,” said William, still with a huge smile. “I got excellent news for you! Your negotiation price has been accepted.”
William began typing figures in his calculator. “With title and tax, your total will come to $35,457.”
Ben pulled out his checkbook and wrote a check for the amount of $35,457 and handed William the check. William began punching in information in the computer, and then handed Ben paperwork with information with matters regarding to the car.
“Thank you and congratulations on the new car!” William said excitedly.
Ben grabbed his hat off the counter and put it on. He then grabbed the keys and left the building in a hurry.
Ben has taken his boss’s advice on enjoying himself. He spent the evening driving his car all over town with his sunglasses on. He then spends a couple of hours at the fair walking around and riding rides such as the Ferris wheel and merry-go-round. Later in the evening, he goes to a fancy restaurant and orders himself an expensive bottle of champagne. He had quite the evening, despite him spending it all alone.
Hitman's Journey Back in Time Page 10