Chapter
41
Back in the waiting room, Megan sat next to Nick, icy cold
with fear. In the past hour, she had
been more afraid than she had ever been before in her lifetime. No, wait, that wasn’t quite true. As Megan sat there, deep in thought, a memory
came to her. A memory of something else,
something that had happened a long time ago.
What had happened? She thought
hard, but she couldn’t answer that question.
All she knew was that whatever had happened, she had been scared. Terrified, like she was now.
But what was it?
What had happened? Something had
happened. She knew it had because she
could remember that icy fear, like the one that clutched her now. But what had caused that fear? If only she could remember.
And then, slowly, it came back to her…
***
Rain poured, as an old, black car drove down a nearly
deserted road. It was early evening, but
it was much darker than it should have been, for the sky was covered in dark
storm clouds, hiding the sun.
The car had been driving for a long time, so long, that
Megan, who lay tied up in the back, could not keep track of how much time
passed. All she knew was that she was
cold. And hungry. And most of all, scared. She wanted her Mommy with her, but her Mommy
was nowhere to be found.
Her Mommy had been in an accident, the man had told
her. He had been sent to take Megan home
from preschool, because Mommy could not.
But he hadn’t taken her home at all.
Instead, he had slapped her across the face, tied her up, and thrown her
into the backseat of his car. Then he
had climbed into the front, along with another man, and they had driven
away. They weren’t driving Megan home,
that she knew. Her home was close to her
preschool. These men were taking her
somewhere, far, far away. Far away from
her preschool, from her home, and from her Mommy.
After so long of lying there, unable to move or even
scream, waiting for the horror to end, the car finally stopped. Megan lay still and waited to see what would
happen next. Would the bad men hit her
again? She was afraid to find out.
The men flung open one of the backdoors. “Have a nice trip, little one?” one
asked. He was the worst of the two, the
one who had hit her and tied her up. The
other man was silent.
The first man dragged Megan out of the car and effortlessly
picked her up. He carried her under his
arm, and she did not struggle at all.
She was too weak, too tired, not to mention too scared to fight
him. Instead, she just let him carry
her.
The man carried her into a building, one that was dark and
cold and stinky. Megan hated it right
away.
The man dumped her onto a bed, an old creaky, musty
bed. Megan was still tied up, so she
couldn’t even try to escape.
“We need to call the boss,” he said, turning to the other
man. “Let him know we got the kid. He’ll probably want to come over to make
sure.”
“Yeah,” the other one agreed absently. “You wanna call?”
“Jesus, Curt, I have to do everything around here!” the
first man exploded.
“Sorry, Dan,” Curt said.
“I’ll call him.”
“No, no, I’ll do it,” Dan muttered. “You’d probably just screw it up
anyway.”
He left the room, leaving Curt alone with Megan. Once Curt had made sure his companion was
gone, he turned to the helpless little girl that lay on the bed, looking so
terrified.
“I’m sorry,” he said softly. “I’m so sorry.”
Megan looked up at him with wide, hazel eyes.
“I didn’t want to do this, but I needed the money. I know, I know, that’s no excuse. But I’ll try to make it up to you. I won’t let you get hurt anymore,” Curt
whispered, trying to comfort the child.
It was true, he hadn’t wanted in on this scheme at all. But he was in a desperate situation. He was broke, unable to support his family,
unable to pay his bills, unable to buy food for himself. His family had left him, the state was
threatening to take his house away, and he had been nearly starving. But then Dan had come along, and with him,
this offer.
He and Dan were supposed to kidnap a little girl, Megan
Peter, from her preschool, somewhere in California. And then, they were to kill her. If they did, they would get a million dollars
each from the man who had hired them.
He and Dan weren’t exactly sure why the man wanted the
little girl dead. He hadn’t really told
him his reason, only that her existence threatened his career. That didn’t make much sense to Curt. He knew the man was some kind of singer, but
Curt had never heard of him. He must
have been somewhat popular though, for the man was filthy rich.
At first, Curt had objected. How could he kill an innocent little
girl? But he needed the money. He needed it desperately. Dan had agreed to it, and so, hesitantly,
Curt did as well.
It was a mistake, he realized that now. But it wasn’t too late. He had kidnapped the child already, but he
didn’t have to kill her. Maybe he could
let her go. He knew Dan would never let
him do that though. Dan wanted his
money, and he wouldn’t get his money until the job was done. But… then again, the boss was gone a
lot. He didn’t want to stay in the house
where they were keeping Megan much, mostly because he was afraid of getting
caught there. So maybe, just maybe, they could get away with not killing her,
just getting rid of her and telling the boss that they had killed her, and then
they would get their money, and things would be okay again.
It was perfect. All
Curt had to do was convince Dan to go through with it, for he knew he would
never get away with it on his own.
Just then, Dan came back into the room. “Hey, Dan, we need to talk,” Curt said right
away, leading Dan to the corner of the room farthest from Megan. And then he began to tell Dan his plan.
***
After much consideration, Dan agreed with Curt. He was not a very nice person himself, but
even he had enough conscious to know that killing was wrong, especially when it
was an innocent six year old. If he
could still get his million without having to kill her, it would be even
better.
“Listen, Curt, the boss said we’re to kill her tonight,”
Dan said. “He doesn’t want her here for
too long.”
“Will he be here tonight?” Curt asked.
“He said he’ll be over in about an hour to check on her,
and then he’s leaving for the night. He
doesn’t want to be hear when we kill her because he’s afraid of getting
caught,” Dan replied.
“So we leave with her tonight?” Curt asked.
“Yeah,” Dan said.
“And how do we assure him that she’s dead?” Curt asked.
Dan thought for a moment.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I mean,
if we really did kill her, how would we assure him we did it then? He doesn’t want to be anywhere near the body,
he said, and he wants us to get rid of all evidence. He didn’t ask us to bring him any proof. I think he’s just gonna trust us.”
“This makes it too easy,” Curt said, laughing
slightly. “Well, I guess all we have to
do now is wait for him to get here, and when he leaves, so will we.”
***
The boss arrived close to an hour later. He was dressed all in black and wearing sunglasses, trying to keep his identity
hidden as much as possible.
“Where’s da kid?” he asked when he entered the house.
“She’s back here, boss,” Dan said, leading the boss back to
the small bedroom where they were keeping Megan.
Megan looked up as a man entered the room. He was wearing black pants and a black
leather jacket, as well sunglasses. He
also had a black bandana on his head. It
covered most of his hair, but Megan could see a few light, curly strands poking
out from underneath it.
The man snickered evilly when he saw Megan, tied up on the
bed. “Good job, dawgs,” he said to the
two men. “You be gettin’ yo pay
tomorrah, when da job’s done.”
Dan nodded. “Sure
thing, boss,” he said. “We won’t fail
you.”
“You bettah not,” the boss said. “If anyone finds out dat dis kid even exists,
mah whole career could end!”
Curt wanted to ask him why, why the existence of one little
girl could end his career, but he said nothing.
He just wanted the boss to leave so he and Dan could get themselves and
the girl out of this mess.
“Well, I gots to be getting’ outta here now,” the boss
said. “I’ll be back tomorrah mornin’ to
pay ya.”
“Okay,” Dan said.
“See you later.”
The man nodded and turned around, ready to leave. But then he stopped and turned back around to
get one last glimpse at Megan. It was
then that he removed his sunglasses, and Megan finally got a good glimpse at
his face. But then, suddenly, without
warning, the boss raised something big and heavy over his head and struck hers
with it. Her world went black, and from
that moment on, so did her memory…
***
Justin! It was
him! Megan remembered now. It was all clear to her now. Justin Timberlake was the man who had been
responsible for her kidnapping. He had
been the one who had hired those men to kidnap and kill her.
Of course, the men hadn’t killed her. She didn’t know what had happened to
her. She remembered Justin hitting her
and going unconscious, but then there was a gap. The next thing she remembered was waking up
in a hospital. She figured that while
she was unconscious, Curt and Dan had taken her to the hospital. She remembered Sammy telling her that she had
been found lying unconscious outside of the hospital. They must have just left her there and
split.
Megan shook her head, trying to sort out her thoughts. It was hard for her to accept the fact that
this had all really happened to her. She
had suffered amnesia from the blow to her head, and the memory of everything
that had happened before that point had vanished. But it hadn’t been gone entirely this whole
time. Megan knew that seeing Justin
again had to be what triggered it. It
was his face. That face was what had
triggered her memory and allowed to remember a part of her past that until then
had been lost in the depths of her mind.
***