Chapter 4
There's a horrible buzzing sound in my ear, I open my eyes and turn off my 6.30 alarm. I lay there all sleepy for a second then everything hits me at once like a bullet to the brain. I’m terrified and I have no idea what to do? I decide to try and go to school as normal to see how things unfold.
As I approach the front gates Karl's dad is there, which isn’t a good sign. Karl's dad can be a nasty piece of work if crossed so I always make sure I'm polite to him as he's one of those people, if you say one wrong thing he could flip like a Tasmanian devil on steroids. He's a large bloke and can't imagine many people being able to take him on.
'James!' he says in his deep voice, 'Karl's gone missing, when did you see him last?'
'Yesterday Mick, we went out for a bit and then went our separate ways.'
'Where did you go?' Mick isn’t the bloke you want to lie to, however I can't say anything I'm too scared.
'We went over to Trine Lake for a walk, on the way back across the field he left to go home, I assumed he was there.'
'He didn’t come home and we can't get hold of him on his mobile!'
'Gosh ok, I have tried to call him a few times myself but strangely couldn’t get hold of him, thought he lost his phone or something.' Slightly nervous as Mick looks me up and down trying to work out if I'm hiding anything from him.
'Well if he hasn’t turned up by lunch time we're getting the police involved, I bet he's run off with that darn girlfriend of his again.' To my knowledge Karl doesn’t even have a girlfriend if he did I would be the first to know. I don’t tell Mick this and just leave him think that so he doesn’t worry too much.
'Yeah maybe you know what he's like, if I hear from him I'll let you know or get him to call you as soon as possible.'
'Thanks James, make sure you do, once the police are involved they will probably want to see you so make sure you tell them everything.'
'Will do Mick,' as he walks away I call over to him, he turns round. 'I'm sure he's fine try not to worry.'
'Thanks James, speak to you later.' He walks off down the street head slightly bowed, I can tell he's worried about Karl even though he treats him like shit at times.
I sit in first period - Maths, thinking about Karl hoping he's ok. I'm still at the point assuming the worst-case scenario. I find it hard to concentrate so dismiss myself from the lesson and head to the school canteen.
The school canteen is large and is where all the skivers hang out. It's adjacent to the main school gates and spot someone hanging around outside. I take a closer look and notice it’s Ray. I exit the canteen and walk towards the main gates trying to stay out of sight from any teachers.
Ray spots me walking over to him and charges towards me, he looks angry, I start to panic flinching on his approach.
'James!' he shouts, 'we need to talk'. Looking at Ray I notice he has a swollen eye.
'What happened to you?'
'Never mind that, I had a call.' There's a slight nervousness to his voice, a tone I didn’t expect from this guy.
'Who from?'
'Come on, follow me!' Ray walks off at fast pace, I struggle to keep up tagging behind.
'Where are we going?'
'You'll see!'
'Look, tell me what's going on Ray!' he turns round aggressively.
'The BMW you took belongs to some bad ass people mate, they called me up!'
'Why did they call you?'
'They used Karl's mobile phone!' I froze with fear.
'Why call you?'
'I was the last number he dialled, I'm not best pleased you guys stole the wrong car and now the three of us are in a sticky situation.' He turns and continues walking fast pace I follow this time with no more questions. How does he know about the car?
We eventually reach the field where we crossed after burning out the Fiesta. Ray jumps over the fence and walks across the field. I stay put and my gut is turning over and over not giving me a good feeling at all. He turns round,
'James, fucking follow me now so we can sort this out!' shouting loud. I say nothing and climb over the fence.
We finally reach the other side and I notice the remains of the burnt out Fiesta, surprised it's still there. We walk past, Ray still not saying much to me at all and get the impression he's getting fed up with all my questions.
I feel nauseous, my guts are screaming to not go any further. I stop frozen on the spot as I see three men get out of a van in the distance. Ray grabs me, slings me over his shoulder and walks me over to the three men. I kick and shout for him to let go but he is just too strong. As we get closer to the van one of the shifty looking men opens the rear doors to the van and Ray throws me in like a rag doll. The door slams behind and I'm in pitch black. I can hear voices, one was obviously Ray's.
'Told you I'll find him,' says Ray.
'Good man Ray, knew I could rely on you!' in a deep husky accent. I here footsteps then the doors close at the front of the van with the engine starting instantly.
The van is now moving, the driving is erratic throwing me round in the van. I bang my head on the side causing me to go dizzy. I decide it's best to lie on the floor. Feeling terrified I pull my mobile out of my pocket and dial Mick’s number. There's no answer, I dial again and again in desperation, if anyone could help it would be Mick. After many attempts I give up to save some battery and place my phone down my pants. I then lay there thinking about my mum and sister hoping they're ok which upsets me slightly.
After about twenty minutes the van comes to a halt and the engine is switched off. The rear doors fly open to reveal two shifty looking men standing staring at me. In the background I can see I'm in some sort of warehouse and couldn’t help but think I'm going to die.
One of the men grabs my right foot yanking me out of the van, the back of my head slams on the floor cutting it wide open, the pain is intense. He continues to drag me across the floor of the warehouse with no concern for my safety or the fact that I'm in pain. This guy is like a bear pulling me along the floor with ease. I then suddenly get thrown into some sort of pit about four meters deep landing on my back, luckily onto something soft but still knocks the wind out of me causing me to scream out in pain and gasp for breath.
After a few seconds I come too, I look up at two men looking down on me. I feel like I now have no control over my life and its now in their hands. One of the men has a look of power on his face I can tell instantly he's the boss. He mumbles something to one of the other men but I couldn’t make out what it was. Then out of nowhere the opening to the pit closes leaving me in complete darkness.
I lean up holding out my hands in front of me, its pitch black I can't see my hands. The darkness feels cold piercing my skin. I feel around on the floor, it's moist and slippery. There's a musky smell in the air, which feels thick forcing me to breath deeper to get the oxygen in. I move around and feel the walls that also feel moist and slimy.
After a while my eyes begin to adjust to the darkness, I can just about see a faint hole in the enclosure to the pit. I sit down against the damp mouldy wall, pull out my mobile and use the light to look around. The flooring is covered in blankets, I get the impression I'm not the first person to have been put down here and these guys make a habit of this. I’m scared to death, as I fear I have messed with organised criminals. The Mafia springs to mind by the way the men’s attire in their posh black suits, sunglasses and basically where I've ended up.
Unfortunately there's no signal where I am. I stretch my arm up as high as I can in an attempt to obtain a phone signal but nothing. I begin to feel sorry for myself, sit back down and start to sob praying to get out of this alive. I can't believe I was so stupid to steal that car. Only someone ridiculously stupid or someone completely terrifying would leave the keys in their car like that and obviously we chose the latter.
Several hours have now passed and things have been silent until now. I can hear a lot of screaming and banging. All of a sudd
en the pit opens, the light burns my eyes causing me to look away. There's laughter in the background like all this is some sort of game. A dark man leans over the pit, his eyes look evil. He has a smug looking grin on his face and I somehow knew immediately I would probably die soon.
'So you think you can steal one of my cars and get away with it, do you?' His voice was deep and powerful with aggression forcing his words out.
'N, no sir!' scared to death of what might happen to me.
'Well I can tell you one thing boy, no one has ever crossed me and lived to tell the tale, how old are you child?' his words evaporate my chances of hope.
'I'm sixteen sir, I'm sorry!'
'Sixteen, a little baby then and you thought you could take me on did you?'
'N no sir, we were just messing around, I'm sorry!'
'Sorry, ha-ha why does everyone I put in your position say sorry?'
'Sir please let me go?'
'What's your name boy?' completely bypassing any question I ask.
'James.'
'Well James I do hope you said bye to your mother when you left the house today?'
'Yes sir.' I'm too terrified to ask any more questions.
'We have your friend Karl, he told us where you live lucky my boy Ray found you otherwise your mum would have had a nasty surprise.'
'Karl? Where's Karl, is he alive?’
'Let's just say he's having a long lie down' chuckling to himself.
'Sir, what have you done with Karl?'
'No more questions child, all your answers will be with you soon.' The pit doors then slam shut hard with the noise of the iron banging the concrete causes the pit to shake.
Once again I was in complete darkness with the thought of Karl's death and soon I will be joining him. Ray betrayed me, brought me to these animals and now I'm going to die for joyriding a monsters car, how stupid of me.
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