An Unsettled Past

by C. L. Brees

  “I hope you know what you’re doing,” she said, as her body tightened up in fear.

  “You worry too much—I’ve got this covered.”

  Alex reached over towards the stone with his leg and began rubbing the rope tied around his ankles.

  “You know, you’d probably have better luck if you just burned the rope off with the fire,” she said as she rolled her eyes.

  “Well, in order to do that, I have to get closer to the fire,” he said sarcastically back.

  “Grr, I could just strangle you right now. However, in light of our current situation, I’ll wait until you get us out of here,” she said as she picked up her side and edged as close to the fire as she possibly could.

  The warm, blazing fire burned away as Alex reached his hands as close to the fire as he could. Once he was able to get close enough, the rope slowly caught fire and began loosening its grip around his wrists enough that he was able to remove it.

  “I did it. I got the rope around my wrists off. Give me a second and I’ll be over to help you as soon as I’m done,” Alex said as he could feel Amy behind him begin moving her legs around.

  “It really worked?”

  “Yeah, I’m a little burnt, but it’s a small price to pay to regain your freedom,” Alex said as he finally stood up and made his way over to Amy.

  He removed all of the rope and threw it on the floor. He rushed to aid his best friend with haste. He loosened all of her ropes and helped her to her feet. They stood there for what seemed an eternity, scanning the room for a possible exit. Alex noticed a small window along the south facing wall. He hesitated for a moment. Was the window large enough for the two of them to escape from? And even if it was large enough, could they escape without being noticed?

  “Do you think we’ll be able to get out that window over there?” he asked.

  “At this point, I’m willing to try anything. However, we are going to need to step on it—who knows when they will barge back in here.”

  “Well then, why the hell are we just standing here gawking at each other? Let’s go.”

  They both rushed towards the sole window in the room. He reached for the lock and unlatched it as quietly as he possibly could. Sliding his fingers along the bottom of the window, he yanked upwards as the seal popped and it slowly raised up. He turned his head, glancing at Amy who was impatiently pacing in place.

  “Hurry up! I don’t want them to come in and find us,” Amy whimpered as he continued to lift the window.

  “I’m working as fast as I can here. You need to take into account that you and I have both been beaten pretty badly. Furthermore, can’t you see that I’m still bleeding from my head?”

  “I can see that. We’re going to have a lot more done to us if we stand here and argue.”

  He looked out the window towards the ground. The drop was no more than six feet. He propped himself up onto the sill and climbed out, jumping towards the ground. Amy followed suit and wasted no time lifting herself up and jumping out onto the cold, snow covered ground beneath her.

  They looked around the unfamiliar surroundings. The only thing that was visible all around them was a darkened forest. He looked over at her; she was turning around, frantically looking for an escape. Hesitant of what to do, he grabbed her forearm and yanked her along with him as he began running towards the tree line that lay in front of them. The only thing that was racing through his mind was the thought that any place was better than standing outside the cabin, exposed and only making it easier for the kidnappers to recapture them.

  He ran with everything he had inside of him, only turning his head once to look back at Amy. “Just keep up with me. I have no idea where we’re going, but I do know that we aren’t staying anywhere near that place.”

  “Not a problem. Just keep running wherever your little heart takes you. Make sure, though, that we don’t run back towards that dreaded place.”

  Only three miles from the cabin, Carol and Heather drove along the single lane dirt road. The snow was falling softly, and the roads had begun to ice over. Any wrong move and the SUV would careen off the roadway into either a forest full of Colorado blue spruce’s or off of a cliff.

  She considered her options; did she want to die peaceful and quickly, or did she want to die slowly and suffer as her vehicle tumbled down a never ending cliff? Whatever she decided she was going to do, she would have to do it quick enough to not allow Heather to stop her.

  She contemplated death and wasn’t sure if she was actually ready to give up her life. She glanced over at the passenger seat. Heather had let her guard down a little as she glanced out the window. The gun was no longer pointed at her, and better yet she wasn’t wearing her seatbelt. She anxiously began mumbling under her breath, took one final look at Heather and yelled aloud. “I’m not going to let you get away with this, bitch! Dear heavenly father, please forgive me for what I am about to do, but I have no other choice! I must save my son!”

  Heather looked at her, gripping her gun in her hand—she was confused about what the commotion was. Just as she realized what was happening, she reached out for the steering wheel. It was too late; Carol had already pressed the accelerator to the floorboard and had swerved right towards the trees. The SUV veered off into the forest and came to an abrupt stop as it slammed into a large pine tree.

  The crash produced an ear piercing sound of twisting metal and shattering glass that echoed throughout the desolate forest. A few seconds after that impact, steam began to rise from the vehicle. The engine had been pushed inward and was sitting on Carol’s lap.

  The inside of the vehicle was calm, and there was no movement from Carol who had huge lacerations upon her face, not to mention an engine sitting in her lap. Heather met an even worse fate as she was thrown through the front windshield. She landed about twenty feet into the woods where her lifeless body was wrapped around a large diameter tree.

  The smoke quickly filled the air around the accident site, but the silence remained. It was quickly interrupted as a voice rang out in the quiet night. “This is OnStar. We have detected an airbag deployment; Dr. Jones, do you need medical assistance?”

  After about a minute without a response, the voice repeated, “Dr. Jones, are you able to hear me?”

  There was still no response from the vehicle. “Dr. Jones, I am working on determining your location, and I will send help immediately. Your vehicle has also been flagged by the Denver Police as stolen; I’m alerting them to your location.”

  12

  About a mile up the road, Mike was steadily driving along the same single lane dirt road as Carol and Heather were. But being so far ahead, he didn’t hear or see the crash that took place. The only thing that was on his mind was saving his boyfriend from the dreadful predicament that they found themselves in. Mike had no idea what he is driving into; all he could think about was how he was going to save them. He thought back over all the good and bad times he had with Alex over the past two years. Granted things weren’t always great—truth be told though they were sometimes downright awful. But he never considered that he wasn’t the perfect fit for Alex. The two just always seemed like they were spiritually connected at a deeper level than anyone could ever have imagined.

  He was suddenly catapulted back to reality from his pleasant thought. Up ahead he could see a shadowy figure waving fervently through the blinding snow. Whoever it was had a look of panic on her face. As he drove further towards the figure, he quickly realized that it was Brandy waving him down.

  He was perplexed and thought to himself, did she escape? Where are the others at?

  Mike slowed his SUV down as he approached her and stopped. He unlocked the doors so she could climb in the front seat with him. She quickly hoisted herself up into the passenger seat, as Mike reached into the back seat to grab a blanket to keep her warm. Just as he moved his hand, he felt an overwhelming sense that something wasn’t right about this situation. “What in the hell are you doing out here? Where are Alex
and Amy at?” he inquired with a sense of panic in his voice.

  “I have no idea where they are. They’ve vanished into thin air, but you’re going to help me find them,” she deviously said as she pulled a gun from her hoodie pouch and aimed the barrel directly in his face.

  “I should have known you had something to do with this. Sort of strange that you show up right in the middle of chaos. It’s been what, a year since you last saw Alex. Why now? Why are you doing this?” he asked.

  “I give you credit; you would have made a great detective with all of your why questions. Too bad you aren’t going to be around long enough to see that day come,” she said as she cocked her head to one side.

  Her eyes weren’t the same eyes that he had looked into just a few hours before. It was like her personality switched from sweet and innocent to psychopathic in an instant. He sat there confused, but he wanted answers—answers to explain what was going on. He mirrored her response and cocked his head to the other side and looked her straight in the eyes.

  “Well, since you seem to have already made up your mind, I think the least you can do is answer a few of my questions,” he demanded, not breaking eye contact with her.

  “Just drive! I’ll answer whatever questions you have as we continue on.”

  “First question: who else are you working with? Funny how Heather disappeared suddenly. Is she your accomplice?”

  She laughed and looked him dead in the eyes, “Oh, you’re referring to my sister, Anja.”

  “Who?”

  “Heather is my sister Anja. Don’t look so shocked, Mike. We’re just here to retake what is rightfully ours.”

  “Tell me, what that is exactly? This has nothing to do with Alex, so why are you involving him in this fiasco?”

  “We had to get closer to Carol—oh right, Denise.”

  “Who’s Denise? You’re making absolutely no sense to me whatsoever.”

  “Oh, I don’t believe that for a minute. You’re seriously going to sit here and tell me that the two of you have never talked about his past?”

  “You keep bringing up the past. I obviously don’t know what past you are referring to. Enlighten me; fill me in on what you’re talking about. All I know about Alex’s past is that his father was killed in the line of duty when he was five, he used to live in Colorado Springs, and that his mother has always been a surgeon,” he said abrasively. “What else is there to know?”

  “Oh, where shall I begin? First, it was because of Alex’s father that my father was sent to jail. Did he do bad things? Yes, lots of bad things. However, so did Alex’s father. During my father’s first month in prison, he was murdered by another inmate. My mother was so distraught over everything that happened, she committed suicide when I was nine. Anja and I were both separated and sent to live in different foster homes,” she recollected. “I went to a home in Woodland Park. The family was nice, but they were exceptionally poor. Anja, on the other hand, was sent to Grand Junction to live with a wealthy family. I should have been the one to be with the rich family. They eventually moved to Ridgewood Hills, but she’s so slow about these things. I tell you, if it had been me who was sent to Ridgewood Hills, they would have been killed a long time ago,” she exclaimed, waiving the gun around like a toy.

  “I’m sorry that you had such a bad life, and maybe Alex’s father was a horrible person, but it doesn’t explain why you and Heather, I mean Anja, kidnapped all of us,” Mike barked as he squinted his eyes tight.

  “It doesn’t need an explanation. Since I can’t get my revenge on Alex’s father, I will take it out on the remaining two from his family,” she said as she chuckled under her breath. “They took money from my family, and I want what is due to me back!”

  “I don’t think you’re going to get away with any of this. I am sure that the entire Ridgewood Police Department is out looking for all of us right now,” he said as the road ended at a barren cabin. “And what about Heather’s sister, Kelli? Did you have something to do with that also?”

  “She was too nosy for her own good. She found out our plans—she was planning on going to the police that afternoon after school ended. I had to take care of the problem before our plans were completely ruined.”

  “You are one amazing actress. You had us all fooled into believing you were nervous about being involved in all of this, when in fact you were just getting more information on Alex.”

  “I’d agree with you there—I didn’t want to get caught. I really didn’t want to have her taken out, but once I knew that problem was fixed, I was right back to my plan of destroying Alex’s perfect world.”

  “You are one sick, twisted bitch.”

  “That’s enough out of you. We’re here. Pull over there,” she exclaimed, pointing to a clearing near a stack of firewood.

  Mike slowly inched his truck to the area in which he was instructed to park. The SUV came to a halt, and he saw out of the corner of his eye that there were two large men standing in the door frame. Their broad bodies blocked almost all of the light being emitted from inside the cabin. Mike looked at them as his jaw dropped. Just when he thought he might have a fighting chance to overthrow Brandy, those hopes were quickly dashed when he saw them standing there.

  He always felt that he could outsmart anyone—that’s how he was trained in the academy. He sat there in the driver’s seat, hoping to think up something fast to remedy the situation. All he could do was surrender to whatever they had planned for him, but he was keeping his optimism alive that the opportunity to break away would happen.

  They sat there in the front of the Escalade as the two men marched towards them. She looked at him with hatred, pointing the gun directly at his chest. She jabbed him and shouted an order at him.

  Popping her door open she angrily grunted, “Get out and don’t do anything stupid.”

  Stepping out onto the freshly powder packed driveway he replied, “I don’t plan on doing anything irrational. Remember, you have a gun pointed at me. It’s doubtful that I’d make it far before you shot me dead.”

  “Shocking—maybe you’re not as stupid as you look.”

  “I suppose I’m not.” he sarcastically replied as he was grabbed by the men.

  Racing around the front of the SUV, she laughed, “It’s just a routine weapons check. You understand.”

  “I can assure you that I have no weapons on me. I knew something wasn’t right when I received that call.”

  The older man confirmed, “He’s clean.”

  Mike suspected that these had to be the two men who were involved in the 7-11 robbery. The accent, the subtle smell of tobacco lingering on their breath, their brazenness—all very unique traits.

  Mike was snapped from his recollection by the sensation of a sharp, pointed object being jabbed into his back.

  Jabbing harder into his back she demanded, “Move.”

  “Look, bitch, I’m not going to run anywhere! So you can calm your ass down and stop trying to injure me.”

  “I need you to shut up and only speak when you are spoken to. And when you do speak to me, you will keep your answers short and direct, without any whining involved.”

  As they approached the door, the soft yellow glow illuminated the perimeter of the front porch. Mike was edgy and unsure of what he was about to walk into. He pondered whether Alex and Amy were even still alive. His uneasiness was mixed with a sense of relief that he could soon be reunited with Alex. The past month had been extremely grueling on his emotions since the breather that they took. The instability of their relationship and the emptiness he had felt while Alex was angry with him lit an underlying determination to rekindle the old flame to where it had been before everything went awry. They would have to make it out of this predicament alive for any of that rekindling to happen.

  Quietly in his head, he prayed that if God were to save them that he would make a laundry list of changes about himself: God, if you can only spare us, just this once, I promise I’ll be a better boyfriend. I’
ll be a better person to those that I encounter every day. I’ll devote more of my time to those around me who matter the most. I really just need you to hear me right now.

  Once inside they immediately walked towards a closed door at the opposite side of the small, run-down cabin. The frigidness in the air sent shivers down his spine. The more aggressive man approached the door and flung it open violently. The more passive man was ordered into the room first, only to turn around quickly after entering.

  “They’re gone,” he declared with panic in his voice.

  “What in the hell do you mean, they’re gone?”

  “Here, have a look for yourself,” he said as he waved his hand inward towards the room.

  They all rushed into the room, and the only thing left was the dwindling flame of the fireplace and two empty chairs that once held Alex and Amy confined. She looked up just past the fireplace towards the lone window in the room. The blue and white plaid curtains flapped in the wind that blew in from the outside. Dumbfounded, they stood there looking at one another for several seconds. Brandy became enraged.

  “You idiots! How did you let this happen? I gave you one task—just one—and then you let them escape.”

  “Screw you. I stood at this door the entire time. Don’t you think I would have heard them escaping?”

  “Whatever. When did you see them last?” “Maybe twenty minutes ago. Possibly thirty…I’m not sure.”

  “You two, split up and find them. They couldn’t have gone too far in this snowstorm.”

  “What about him?” the man asked as he pointed at Mike.

  “He’s coming with me.”

  Everyone rushed from the cabin and staggered back outdoors into the snowstorm that was only accelerating more as the minutes ticked by. The two men took off in one direction, leaving Mike and Brandy together. They hastily approached the back side of the cabin, just underneath the window that served as their escape route. The faint outline of footprints was barely noticeable in the snow, which had been falling at a steadier pace over the last half hour.