Kidnap at 9 p.m.

By Nia Terrier

One night, three teenage friends decide to sneak out while the parents are out. Then on their way home, they unexpectedly get kidnapped one by one and locked in a basement in the middle of nowhere with no help for weeks. As the days go on and the nights get worse while they're trapped, they soon begin to realize that there's more to this house and their messed-up kidnappers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Newman Springs Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 10, 2022
• ISBN: 9781638815051

Book preview

KIDNAP

at 9 p.m.

NIA TERRIER

Copyright © 2022 Nia Terrier

All rights reserved

First Edition

NEWMAN SPRINGS PUBLISHING

320 Broad Street

Red Bank, NJ 07701

First originally published by Newman Springs Publishing 2022

ISBN 978-1-63881-504-4 (Hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-63881-505-1 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

It was raining heavily. The sky was dark, and all I could hear was thunder in my ears and the rain pouring down. I stared at his grave. It was empty and alone. I didn’t know what to say… I didn’t know what to think. My heartbeat was louder than my own thoughts. I took a deep breath and began.

*****

Hey, Nia, are you ready to go? I heard Olivia whisper to me from the end of the hall. I finished tying my shoelaces and got up. I walked out of Olivia’s room and peeked around the corners of the halls. I tiptoed my way over to the closet and grabbed my jacket.

This is going to be great! As soon as I put it on, I sneaked toward the stairs. I peeked down the steps and saw Olivia waiting around the corner from downstairs.

I then excitedly ran down the stairs toward Olivia. I can’t believe we’re sneaking out! I excitedly cheered.

Olivia covered my mouth with her hands in a panic. Shh! Nia, you’ve got to be quiet. I nodded superfast, and she took her hands off my mouth.

Olivia and I quietly snuck out her back door, where Angel was waiting there looking nervous and hesitant. G-guys, is this really smart? she nervously asked.

Olivia put her hand on her shoulder to reassure her, It’s going to be fine. Olivia calmly explained, We’ll go to Burger King real quick and be right back before anyone knows we’re gone. Come on.

Angel sighed but smiled while trying to be confident. All right, fine, Angel finally agreed. Let’s hurry, though. It’s already eight o’clock.

We carefully began to walk into the trees behind Olivia’s house. She lived on a hill, but it was always slippery. After walking through the trees, we saw the sidewalk and streetlights leading a path to our destination. We began to follow the streetlights as we walked on the sidewalk. It was dark, and we could hear the sound of someone’s dog barking in the distance as well as the sound of our footsteps. It was quiet…

After walking for a while, we saw some stores still open, like our destination, Burger King. It was connected to other buildings, too, like the Laundromat and a car-parts store. We stood in front of the Burger King for a few minutes or so. We were so nervous to go in. But we eventually went inside and felt nervous again, but Olivia stayed confident. Using up all the money our parents gave us to order pizza, we ordered three large burgers, three small fries, and three large drinks.

It was so cool, and none of the employees even suspected anything! We talked and talked and lost track of time. As we were talking, I put down my cup and looked at Angel and Olivia. OMG, guys, nobody can know about this. If they do, then we’ll be in so much trouble, I told them while still having a lot of adrenaline in my body.

Angel nodded and agreed while still having a bad feeling about the whole thing. She put her hands on her cheeks and mumbled anxiously, What were we thinking? Our parents will kill us.

Olivia rolled her eyes sarcastically and picked up her phone. OMG, it’s almost nine. It’s getting late. We should probably get going. I nodded and began to finish my soda superfast. We cleaned up our mess and left.

We walked out and looked ahead at the direction we came. The streetlights would guide us home. Not like we didn’t know how to get home; we just liked following the lights. We weren’t really worried. We were staying over at Olivia’s house, and her parents were out. She told us that they wouldn’t come home till midnight and her little sister was a deep sleeper.

Olivia and I were talking about drama at school, video games, and anime like we normally do. Angel was listening to music with her earbuds and playing her games on her phone. She normally does that and was right behind me. I checked on her every once in a while to make sure she was close. Then after three minutes, I stopped checking on her.

We weren’t really paying her any attention, and Olivia and I kept talking about actors we liked. Hey, Angel, who do you think is better? Be honest this time, I asked while waiting for a response. I heard nothing. Angel? I called out to her again but louder. Olivia kept walking, but I stopped in place for just a moment before turning around…

Angel was gone. Nowhere in sight, not in the distance, nothing. It was like she…disappeared. Olivia and I thought she might have gotten lost or was walking slow. We didn’t want to start panicking for no good reason. We turned around and began to walk back to the Burger King while calling her name out loud. We got to the Burger King, and she was nowhere in sight. I walked back in and looked around. The employees were on their phones, so I checked the bathroom, empty. I came back out and saw Olivia waiting for me as she was trying to stay calm. I could tell she was panicking on the inside. We began to walk again and call out her name.

It was ten minutes later, and there was no sign of Angel. It was about almost 9:00 p.m. We started to panic. How about this? Olivia suggested. We split up and set a timer for five minutes. We call each other when you find Angel or if something happens. If not, then we’ll meet up by the Burger King again. She sounded desperate, like we had to find her no matter what. I didn’t like the idea. You never split up. Splitting up means you die.

L-let’s just call the police, I nervously suggested.

Olivia grabbed my shoulders and looked me in the eyes. Nia, she said gravely, I’m sure she’s just lost. We can find her and go home and laugh about it. What if she is near us? Then calling the police would be dumb, and they’d bring us home, and we’d get in trouble. I wish I’d called the police right then and there.

I sighed desperately and gave in. Fine… In five minutes, call me, I told her. Olivia smiled with relief and hugged me. Olivia then went the other way. We split up, and we were planning to call each other soon. As I was walking, I kept checking the time every second, five minutes to nine. I gulped and felt a sense of fear in my body. I closed my eyes for a second and prayed that we could all go back home and be okay. I couldn’t wait anymore and stopped to call Olivia. My fingers were trembling out of fear as I rushed to my contacts. I urgently called her and waited as my phone was dialing.

My phone rang and rang, and I waited impatiently. After waiting in the silence, it then went to voice mail. That’s not like her. She usually sends a text when she’s busy or answers, and she can’t be busy, because she’s supposed to be keeping in contact with me right now! Now I’m really alone, aren’t I? I started to breathe heavily and hysterically.

I walked around mindlessly like a zombie in the night.

What do I do? What do I do? Do I search for them or call home? Do I go home or wait?

I was terrified by my own thoughts and alone. I then began to run in one direction. I kept running out of fear, and I kept looking behind me as if someone was chasing me. I was panicking so much and breathing so hard that I could see my own breath.

Then…I stopped running. I got my head together for just a second and looked around. Nothing but a streetlight above me. What…am I doing? I took a minute to just ask myself that. I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down. I gripped my phone in my hand tightly and held it to my chest. It’s okay… Just breathe, I quietly told myself. After calming myself down for a bit, I took a small step forward to continue my search for my friends. As I did, I heard a crack and saw some light under me. Did I step on a stick? I looked down and saw Olivia’s phone on the ground. I cracked it? No…it was mostly cracked already. Who broke her phone? She would never do this…

I picked it up curiously. Why would she just drop her phone? She’s too attached to the phone, and she needs her phone to contact me unless…something happened to her. I looked up and called out into the darkness. I called out, Hello? Angel…? Olivia? Nothing. Are you two pranking me right now? I asked in denial. I-it’s not funny. It was quiet and cold. I put my phone away and looked back down at Olivia’s phone and saw the time. Nine o’clock—suddenly, a pair of hands went over my mouth.

Ah! I cried. I dropped Olivia’s phone and began to claw and scratch at the grip of this person. I tried to pull away, but this person was too strong! I scratched their hands and started to panic. I could see them from the corner of my eye; it wasn’t Olivia or Angel! I muffled through their hands and kept scratching their hands in an attempt to escape their grasp.

Shut up! Stay quiet! I heard the man who was holding me yell. Definitely older than me. He moved his hands away from my mouth quickly and grabbed my arms tightly so I couldn’t escape. I began to tug away, but they had a tight grasp on my arms and were determined to hold onto me. I tried running away but couldn’t! I then shouted out loud to the top of my lungs, "Help! As soon as I did, he reached in his pocket and quickly grabbed something. Before I could cry out again for help, I heard a cocking noise and felt something near my head, a gun. Stop screaming! I said shut up, remember?" he reminded me with a sturdy voice.

I slowly closed my mouth, and I stopped struggling out of fear and stood paralyzed as I was too afraid to even move. What should I do? Do I just follow his orders?

He waited a second and then said, Good. He used one hand to hold one of my arms tightly and the other to hold the gun to my head. He quietly but quickly pulled me down the street. My feet just followed while almost stumbling as we took each step. In the distance toward the darkness, I saw a van. It looked old, and the paint was tearing off. It was white but looked dirty too. He began to pull me over to the back of the van. Once we got to the back, he let my arm go but kept the gun toward my head. I didn’t dare to move.

He then opened the back of the van while keeping his eyes on me. I didn’t want to look him in the eyes. This can’t be happening! As soon as he opened the back door of the van, my eyes widened in shock when I saw Olivia and Angel with duct tape over their mouth and in the corner! Their hands were tied up too! They began to muffle loudly, but I couldn’t understand anything!

He then put away the gun in his pocket and then felt around my body. I was paralyzed in fear as he felt around my body. He then found my phone and my remaining dollars I had from when we ordered food. He grabbed my phone and threw it to the ground, breaking it into two as the front screen landed on the ground and the other glitched and cracked.

He gave it one last good stomp just in case, and the screen was black and just pieces. As I was looking at my phone terrified, he grabbed my money and put it in his pocket. He then pushed me in there, and I got a glimpse of him. His shadow was a young adult I’ve never seen before. Before I could do anything, he slammed the door shut.

Angel, Olivia, and I sat in silence. We didn’t talk or move, as we all were scared out of our minds. We listened to see what he had to say or what he was gonna do. We heard footsteps going to the front of the van and then the door opening, then the sound of the door being closed roughly, then the sound of the van starting up. Then the van started to move. It was silent, and all we could hear was the wheels of the van moving.

After a minute or two, I quietly crawled my way to Olivia and Angel to remove the duct tape and tried my best trying to untie their ropes, but it was tight. After a few tries, I got Oliva’s off. We then moved to Angel and worked together in silence to take off the rope. After a few minutes, we got it off, and she rubbed her wrists to relieve the pain.

I looked around and didn’t see anything in the van. The back of the van and the front were divided by a wall. I crawled over quietly to see if the door handle was unlocked for the back of the door. I grabbed the handle and tugged and pulled on it. Locked. Of course. What was I thinking? I looked around, no windows. All we can do was sit in silence and wait, wait and hope that we would be okay and have a chance to escape. I had to think of something, fast. I quietly crawled to the front of the van, and I put my ear on the wall of the front of the van.

As I listened in, I heard, When we get out, grab one of them. I’ll grab two of them.

Wait… That didn’t sound like the guy before.

Okay.

That was him! Wait… That means…there’s two of them? My heart started to beat faster than my own thoughts. Angel was trembling and silently tearing up. Olivia was frozen in shock. I looked around. There has to be a way out. I crawled over to the door handle again and moved it up and down in a panic. What do I do? What do I do?

My heartbeat was getting louder like it was about to punch out of my chest. Why couldn’t we have just called the police or stuck together? Why couldn’t we have just stayed home and listened to our parents? Why… The van then came to a stop.

Our heartbeats stopped as well. We heard footsteps coming to the back of the van, and I didn’t want to see them. I wanted to go back in time, I wanted to—

The back door opened, and we saw two men. There was the guy who grabbed Olivia, Angel, and me. Then we saw a middle-aged man or an old man to be exact.

The Old Man smirked cunningly and grabbed Olivia by the hair since she was the closest to the back door. She tried to pull away from his strong grasp, but he grabbed her and trapped her in his arm. Olivia screamed as she tried to punch back and break free. Angel screamed in fear and tried running past them, but the guy quickly grabbed her arm before she could get past him. He pushed her to the Old Man’s direction, and he picked her up by the back of her shirt while still managing to hold Olivia in his other arm. I backed away in a panic, and the guy sighed and climbed up the van. Don’t touch me! I demanded with a shaky voice. He ignored me and grabbed my foot. I kicked him away, but he dragged me out. I struggled as much as possible as he was dragging me out the van. Once he got close enough, he grabbed my wrists and held my arms up, so I was defenseless. Let me go! I demanded as I was hysterically breathing out of fear. He ignored me again as he pulled me out of the van. I tried to resist as much as possible, but he dragged me out and began to pull me toward the house.

I looked up and saw an old house. The color was faded, and the wood from the roof was falling off, but overall it was in good condition. It reminded me of the Old Man for some weird reason. I still tried to kick and hit the guy while looking for a way to break free. Olivia was strong. She worked out here and there and even went on walks every day, but she couldn’t do anything to break free from the Old Man’s grip. We weren’t strong enough, and they weren’t even trying! Angel was still in shock and scared and tried pulling away while tears still ran down her eyes. I tried pulling apart the guy, but his grip was strong. I saw the house even closer. We were surrounded by woods. We were far from home. The area wasn’t familiar.

When they forced us inside, I could see one big area to the right where the kitchen and living room were connected. There were three rooms on the left while we passed. They dragged us forward to the end of the hall. There was a dark wooden door that was old. The Old Man opened the door, and we saw a deep basement. They pushed us down the stairs. Enjoy your stay! the Old Man teased. We tumbled and fell on the cold basement ground. We heard the Old Man laughing till they shut the door and locked it. We all got up in pain, and small bruises were on us. I turned to Olivia and Angel. We have to get out of here, I told them immediately.

Of course, we do… B-but how? Angel asked while already losing hope. We thought, and I looked around. The basement was small. Not tiny…just small. There was a bucket by the stairs, and the stairs were old. The stairs were stone-hard but had cracks, and the whole basement just…didn’t smell right. There was some dry blood on the walls and ground. I went over to the bucket. It didn’t smell right either.

Olivia scoffed disgustingly. Oh God…please don’t tell me that’s our toilet until we get out? I picked it up, and Olivia looked away in disgust. Ew! Don’t pick it up! She cried. I tossed it away and wiped my hands on my jacket.

Angel sat down and was trembling in fear. Olivia walked up the stairs and tried opening the door. She moved the knob around and groaned. Locked. She kicked the door in a rage. You better let us out! she ordered while yelling. Nothing. It was all hopeless. She gripped her fists up and banged on the door.

I ran up the stairs and grabbed her. Stop. You’ll anger them. One of them has a gun, I warned.

She sighed. Olivia and I made our way down the steps and sat there next to Angel. We sat in silence and drowned in our own thoughts about what would happen next. What do we do? Angel asked, breaking the silence. We all looked at each other. Before I could say anything, the basement door opened. We had chills up our spines and backed away. The Old Man came and looked at us. We were trembling. He looked at us, and soon the guy came dragging a chair with him. It banged on the steps as he dragged it carelessly. The guy put it down a few feet away from us. The Old Man sat down on it.

I didn’t know what to think or say. We all stared at each other as we waited. So how are you, ladies? the Old Man finally asked in a gentle voice. We said nothing. The Old Man snapped his fingers a few times. Ladies? Are you deaf or something? I asked you a question. I felt around the ground behind me and felt a broken piece of stone from the broken ground. I gripped it and threw it without looking. It hit the guy on his eye.

Ow, what the heck! He grunted in anger. It didn’t exactly hit his eye but above it. Blood slowly appeared.

The Old Man looked at him. That wasn’t very fair. You should go and take your revenge.

I backed up and realized what I did was really stupid. Angel whispered to me, Nia…what did you do?

I-I’m sorry, I mumbled to her.

He touched the blood from his face and looked at his fingers. He licked it off, and The Old Man sighed and just said, Ew. He came over to me and pushed Angel away from me, and I started to back up.

No, don’t back up! he yelled. You’re brave enough to throw things at people, so don’t be afraid now! He grabbed me by the collar of my jacket and balled up his other fist. After a few seconds, he released his fist and dropped me. He then backed away. He stood beside the Old Man and crossed his arms.

The Old man pouted. Aww, nothing? I was so excited. I grabbed my chest. My heart was beating so fast.

The guy shrugged and mumbled, It…it doesn’t matter.

The Old Man laughed and patted him on the back. You’re right, we don’t want to ruin any of them yet, anyway. That scared us. The guy walked over and sat on the basement steps and tapped his foot while looking around. The Old Man looked at us and gently told us, We’re going to have some fun around here, ladies. You’re sitting around wasting your life. I don’t want some fifteen-year-old boy touching you, lovely ladies. It’s just cruel. He laughed at what he said, and we were creeped out and shaking in fear.

What do we do? That guy is blocking the stairs, and can we even get past this old man?

Olivia asked the Old Man curiously and in fear, W-why are you keeping us here?

He turned his head toward her and smiled. Don’t worry about that, he told her. Maybe if you listen well, I’ll let one of you sleep with old feisty over there. Did I mention he was a biter? The guy rolled his eyes sarcastically. The Old Man laughed and looked at us. I’m joking. Take a joke, okay? the Old Man sighed with a smile and warned us, Try not to scream. If you do, I’ll grab my belt, and trust me, you don’t want to see me angry with my belt. I’m getting old, and loud noises like pretty girls screaming for their lives hurt my ears.

The Old Man got up, grabbed his chair, and walked toward the steps. Let’s go, Adam. The guy got up and followed him. We watched them, and then the Old Man left. The guy looked at us. Hope you have a wonderful night at your new home. Bye-bye. He waved goodbye and left while locking the door. Was he being genuine or taunting us?

We let everything sink in. Olivia smiled and put her hands together. Okay…so that guy is named Adam. We can tell the police when we escape.

Well, let’s think of something to escape, I suggested. Maybe find something to fight back with… I don’t know. Maybe gang up on them.

Hmm…what do you think, Angel? Olivia asked Angel. Angel was curled up to herself and not talking. She didn’t even say anything. I went to her and put my hand on her shoulder.

You okay, Angel? I asked calmly.

Angel’s body started to tremble. Then she