*Ding Dong*

A few minutes after the doorbell had rung, 19-year old Melissa Stevens came running down the stairs. Melissa was a young woman, recently graduated from High School. She had recently been accepted to a nice private university in another state, which she was planning on attending in the coming fall semester.

Near the bottom of the stairs, Melissa paused a moment by a large mirror, hung on the wall nearby, to check her appearance. She smiled, flashing a mouth full of straight white teeth, the end result of several awkward months of braces back in middle school. The teenage girl reached up and brushed several strands of light blonde hair out of her face. Melissa’s golden hair hung down below her shoulders. Along with her green eyes and fair complexion, it was no wonder the young woman had had no shortage of guys asking her out when she was in school.

The one unfortunate thing was the outfit Melissa had on, that afternoon: a long, shapeless red t-shirt, white shorts and tall white socks. Melissa’s parents were out for the day. She was planning on staying in today and she wasn’t expecting company.

Whoever was at the door hadn’t gone away while Melissa had been fiddling with her hair. The doorbell rang again. With a sigh, Melissa turned and hurried to the front door. “Hello?” She said cheerfully, opening the door. She looked around with a puzzle expression, not seeing anyone.

“Down here, Miss.” A voice said. Melissa looked down just in time for a cloud of gas to burst into her face. Everything went blurry. The startled girl squealed as she lost of her balance and began to fall over. She was unconscious before she hit the ground…

***

“Come on, hustle it girls!” The coach called out. The older woman jogged alongside the crowd of teenage girls attending her Summer Soccer Training Camp. It was still early in the morning. The sun had just risen into the sky, so it wasn’t scorching hot yet. Never the less, by the end of their workout, the girls were sweating from pushing it. The coach was a firm believer in training her girls hard, so the actual games wouldn’t seem so bad.

Two of the girls walked over to the stands, where the group had left their water bottles. With a sigh of relief, Jane opened her water bottle and swigged greedily from it. Her close friend Tammy was nearby, enjoying the slight breeze that had picked up.

“Hey Jane!” Tammy said, after a moment.

“Yeah?” The girl replied.

“Where is Beth? I don’t see her anywhere.”

Jane thought a moment. “I remember her running to the locker room, to use the restrooms about half an hour ago. I don’t know if she came back…”

“Girls!” The coach called over to them. “This isn’t a gossip group. Get your butts moving! We’re doing drills so take your positions!”

“Yes Coach!” The two called back. Dropping their water bottles, they rushed to rejoin the other girls practicing kicking the ball downfield…

…“MMMPPPHHH!!!” Beth sobbed into her gag as she was lowered into the trunk of the car. The teenage girl had just stepped out of the locker room when someone attacked her, knocking her out with some sort of car. She’d come to only a few minute ago to find herself a helpless captive.

Beth lay on the floor of the trunk. Her hands were pulled behind her back, her wrists crossed and lashed together with rope. More rope circled her chest, pulling the front of her jersey tight against her ample chest. Her legs were bound at the ankles and knees with more rope.

“MMMPPPHHH!!!” The young girl screamed as loud as she could. It came out barely more than a whimper. Tape covered the young woman’s eyes and mouth. Her cheeks bulged. A pair of athletic socks had been stuffed in her mouth to keep the frightened captive quiet. She shook her head, her long blonde hair, tied back in a ponytail, shaking left and right, as she squirmed in her bonds. The young woman sobbed as she heard the truck slam shut over her head. A moment later, the car started and began driving, carrying her away…

***

“You wanted to see me, chief?” Agent Lisa said, walking into the office.

The chief was sitting at his desk. He stood as she entered. “Agent Lisa.” He said, his voice gruff, but friendly. “I have a special assignment for you. Please be seated.” He motioned towards the chair in front of the desk. As the young woman sat down, he sank down into his chair as well.

Lisa waited, sitting upright in the chair. Lisa was a strikingly pretty woman, 23-years old, though she had a youthful, innocent look to her that made her look much younger. She wore her light blonde hair long, down to her shoulders. Today she was wearing a dark blue suit that suited it. It matched her eyes.

After a momentary pause, the chief spoke again. “Over the last week, we have had a number of odd disappearances. Four young ladies, all of them in their late teens, from wealthy middle class families and all of them blonde. Do to the frequency of these disappearances and the similarities between the victims, we are assuming them to be the work of a single kidnapper…or several kidnappers working together. Thus far there have been no witnesses to the abductions nor has forensics turned anything up.”

“What do you suppose is the motive for kidnapping these girls?” Lisa asked, concerned.

The older man shrugged. “Could be a number of things. It might be the work of a serial killer, one who chooses to target young blonde females. On the other hand, the families of the victims all have some money, so ransom could be a possible motive, though thus far none of the families of the missing girls have receive any sort of ransom demand. Another possibility could be white slavery. As you know, there are places in the world where a pretty young blonde woman is a valuable commodity.”

“And where do I come into this?” Lisa said, with a smile. “Though I think I can guess…”

The chief smiled back. “Well, obviously, you are a match for our kidnapper’s typical victim. You’ll run as our bait, with a radio transmitter hidden in your clothes, and try to attract his attention. If he follows his usual pattern, he should abduct his next victim within a day or two…”

***

“hhhllllllpp!” Amanda groaned as she heard the trunk lip pop open. The teenage girl lay curled up in the bottom of the trunk. Her hands and feet had been bound together, forcing her into a tight hogtie. The captive girl squirmed, kicking and bucking as she felt someone reach down into the trunk and grab her. The rope connecting her wrists to her ankles was suddenly cut. She groaned as the pressure bending her backwards was suddenly released. Her limbs ached as she finally straightened out. It had been at least an hour, if not longer, since her abductor had placed her in the trunk, after kidnapping her from her bed in the night.

Amanda was lifted out of the trunk and she was carried away somewhere. She couldn’t see anything through the tape blindfold over her eyes. The teenager whimpered, hearing chains rattle. Somewhere not far away, another captive girl, no, several captives, sobbed through their gags. Amanda was set down, not far away. Her captor did something with the ropes binding her legs together. A second later, something began to pull on them, lifting her feet into the air. Amanda squealed as she was roughly hoisted into the air, hanging upside down.

As she hung there, swaying back and forth, Amanda heard a man whispered quietly to himself, “Not much longer now. I only need a few more girls…”

***

Agent Lisa sat at the café table, sipping at her overpriced drink. The agent had been sitting there for the better part of an hour, to be seen, hopefully by the ‘Blonde Nabber’ as the press had dubbed the kidnapper and attract his attention.

Since Lisa had been given this assignment, two more girls had gone missing. Lisa wondered what had happened to them. Where they still alive? There were plenty of distraught families in the area, wondering what had happened to their daughters. She didn’t know whether finding out the truth would bring them comfort or only further misery.

With a sigh, Lisa decided she’d been stared at by every man in the café enough for one day. If the kidnapper wasn’t among them, this all might have been wasted effort. Today, Lisa had dressed in a slinky blue dress, to contrast her long blonde hair, let down for today. She was wearing dark stockings with heels. She waved for the bill, dropped some money on the table, got up and walked out.

“Maybe he doesn’t go for the sexy type…” Lisa thought to herself. “Tomorrow maybe I’ll try for the ‘innocent schoolgirl’ look; skirt, blouse, pigtails…” It was a hard task, getting into the mind of an unknown kidnapper, trying to predict what sort of look would be most likely to make her his next target, but she knew unless she could catch his eye, it would only be another innocent girl who fell into his clutches next…and another and another until he was caught.

Lisa walked to her car and got in. She had just turned the key when the agent heard a sound in the seat behind her. She turned around just in time to get a face full of knockout gas…  

***

Hours later, Agent Lisa woke up in the kidnapper’s lair. The young woman groaned, shaking her head. It ached from whatever drug her attacker had used to knock her out. As her senses returned to her, the young woman noticed several things: one, she was lying on the hard, cold stone floor of what was obviously a dungeon. Two, her hands and feet had been bound tightly with rope. And Three: Whoever had kidnapped her had taken the opportunity, while she was unconscious, to strip her naked, except for her stockings. Lisa groaned. “So much for my radio tracker.” She thought, hoping her backup had managed to notice her abduction and follow her.

Lisa heard a number of miserable sobs coming from nearby. Leaning over, she could see, through an archway, several of the kidnapped girls. They were hanging in midair, tightly bound and gagged. Just then, the young woman heard the sound of footsteps as her kidnapper returned. A second later, the man came into view.

Lisa’s first reaction was how short her captor was. He couldn’t have been more than four feet high…at the most. Secondly, that everything about him, from his dress to his pointed beard, made him look just like a leprechaun. Thirdly, he had the most evil grin Lisa had ever seen plastered on his face as the short man advanced on his newest captive.

“Let’s get you raised up, shall me?” The man said, grabbing a rope hanging from the ceiling. It took Lisa a moment to realize, that the rope he held ran up to a pulley. It came down again, where it was tied off to the bonds around her feet. “It’s almost time for us to get started!” The man said, hauling on the rope with surprising strength. Agent Lisa groaned as she was lifted up into the air…