“Are you really certain you saw lights up around here, Sarah?” Christina complained. The 15 year old girl shivered as a gust of cold night air blew over her, rustling through her skirt. She pulled her black jacket tighter around her body against the cold. “Why did I ever let Sarah talk me into coming out here tonight?” she wondered to herself.

“Of course. It’s not much further.” Sarah said, excitedly. Even though she was only wearing a short skirt and a light blue top, she didn’t seem bothered by the cold, too excited to notice. “I saw it yesterday, while I was looking at stars through my telescope and I checked against tonight. Someone is definitely doing something down here.”

“You know, no one has lived around this area for years. These farm houses are all deserted.”

“Exactly!” Sarah replied, practically jumping with energy. “That’s why it’s such a mystery!”

“Fine.” Christina said with a sigh. Typical, she had to be best friends with a girl who thought she was Nancy Drew… About ten minutes ago, she’d been woken up by Sarah, calling her to tell her she thought she saw people moving around the old Wilson Farmstead. Against her better judgment, Christina had allowed herself to be talked into biking down here in the middle of the night for what she was certain was a wild goose chase.

The two had parked their bikes at the fence that marked the edge of the property and had climbed over the wooden rails to continue on foot through the scrub. Christina yawned, wishing for her warm bed and wishing she’d told Sarah to stuff it back when she had the chance. Sarah, of course, was practically skipping along, eager for the prospect of a mystery to solve.

All of a sudden, Christina was able to make out a faint glow, through the branches of the low trees around her. As the girls got closer, she saw the light was coming from an old, run down barn at the bottom of a valley. A large truck was parked out in front of the barn, with its back to the barn doors. The two girls slowly crept forward, until they could see several men moving around, moving things from the barn into the truck.

“See!  I told you I saw something!” Sarah said, grinning.

“Yes, now keep quiet!” Christina hissed. “We don’t want them to spot us.” She lay flat on the ground, hoping they weren’t spotted.

“What do you think is in those boxes, Christina?” Sarah whispered excitedly, raising her head up to get a better view. “Drugs? I bet it’s drugs…or maybe it’s stolen jewels! Wouldn’t that be exciting?”

“Yeah…yeah. Get down before they see us.” Christina said, tugging at her friend’s arm. “As soon as they’re not looking, let’s sneak away and get the police.” Right now, she was regretting forgetting to bring her cellphone on this crazy trip. She knew Sarah’s parents had taken away her cellphone as well, for flunking a math test last week.

“Ok…” Sarah replied, not listening to her friend. “You wait here. I’m gonna see if I can get a little closer, see what they’re up to down there.”

“No Sarah. Wait!” Christina whispered anxiously, but her friend had already risen to a crouch and hurried down the slope of the hill towards the barn. Christina groaned, debating whether to run after her friend. Now more than ever wishing that’d she’d never agreed to come on this crazy trip, Christina crawled forward, after her friend. She’d almost made it to the barn when she suddenly heard Sarah cry out. A second later, one of the men emerged from the barn. He was holding the squirming teen off the ground with one arm wrapped around her chest. His other hand was clamped tight over Sarah’s mouth, muffling her cries.

“Hey boss!” The man called out. “I found this girl snooping around in the back of the barn. What should we do with her?”

“Don’t know…” another crook, who had to be their leader said.

Christina trembled with fear, seeing her best friend captured. Her only hope was to try and get away, call the police and hope they could rescue her. Slowly, she began to squirm back up the hill towards the woods, trying to get away. With any luck, they wouldn’t notice her until she was well away…

All of a sudden, one of the rocks came loose underneath Christina’s feet. The teenage girl struggled to keep her balance. She managed to keep from falling back down the hill, but to her horror, the rock triggered half a dozen smaller rockers to slide noisily down the hill. Down below, the leader of the crooks turned, hearing the commotion.

“Is someone else up there? A friend of yours perhaps?” He asked Sarah. The frightened girl shook her head, going pale. Her eyes widened in fright as the man reached into his jacket and pulled out a pistol. Pointing it at her, the man called out, “Hey! Whoever is out there, come out with your hands up! Do it now, or I’ll kill this girl!”

Christina groaned. She didn’t have any choice. Reluctantly, she stood up, raising her hands above her head. Slowly, she picked her way down the steep hill. At the bottom of the hill, she was met by two of the crooks. Immediately, the teenage girl was seized. Ignoring her feeble protests, they dragged Christina back to the barn. The men had already bound Sarah’s hands behind her back with rope. A white cloth was tied over her mouth to gag her. From the muffled grunts coming from the young girl, they’d stuffed more cloth into her mouth to keep her quiet. Christina soon found herself tied up the same was as her friend.

“That’s the last of the shipment, boss.” A man said, poking his head out of the barn. “We’re just finishing up covering our tracks. We can move out anytime you want.”

“Good.” Their leader said. “Let’s just take care of our two little snoops first.” He nodded to his men. Christina and Sarah whimpered into their gags as they were marched into the barn, glancing at each other, eyes wide with fear.

Inside, the men quickly added to the girls’ bonds. Their legs were lashed together, at the ankles and knees with rope. More rope was looped around their arms and their chests, forming makeshift harnesses around the captives’ torsos. The last loop of the harness was left loose.

Meanwhile, one of the crooks had climbed up into the rafters of the barn. He threw a long strand of rope over one of the stout wooden beams running horizontally across the roof of the barn. Another man grabbed the free end and threaded it through the final loop of Christina’s harness. The rope was run back up into the rafters, over the next one in line and back down, where it was threaded through Sarah’s harness. After throwing it over one last beam, four of the crooks grabbed the two ends of the rope, two at each end, and hauled on them. The two teenagers squealed into their gags as they found themselves lifted into the air. The ends of the rope were tied off, leaving them hanging in midair.

“Maybe this will teach you snoops to keep your noses out of other people’s businesses.” The leader of the crooks said. “And don’t worry…I’m sure someone will be along to free you two…eventually!” The two friends whimpered into their gags in fright as the men left. Outside, they heard the sound of the truck slowly driving away into the night…