“How do I get into these situations?” Meredith thought as she contemplated her present predicament: the short curvy brunette sat with her back against the brick wall of the basement beneath the old, abandoned house. The teen’s wrists were crossed behind her back and tied with rope. More cols of the same wrapped her upper arms and torso, trapping them together and squeezing above and below her breasts, stretching the fabric of her turtleneck sweater against them. Below, her legs, out in front of her, were lashed together at the ankles and knees. Completing her bondage was a strip of cloth tied tight between her teeth, holding in a second, wadded up cloth which did an excellent job of muffling her frantic cries. She struggled, but it was quite apparent she wasn’t going to get out of this predicament anytime soon.
The young brunette was not alone in her bondage. Spread around the dark, dingy basement were at least half a dozen other teenage girls. They were all bound and gagged the same as Meredith. Most were dressed in street clothes like her, others were in their pajamas and a few rather less than that. The girls put up a constant drone of muffled “mmpphh’s” which had, thus far, failed to bring rescue.
For Meredith, it had all started the day before at school when her best friend, Charlotte had run up, excitedly. “I think I know what’s happened to the missing girls!” She exclaimed.
In the last week, at least four girls had gone missing from towns in the area. The first had been Tanya Harris who’d been walking home late from school due to staying to work on a class project when she vanished into thin air. A couple days later, in a different town, the Parker sisters, Polly and Hannah had been left at home alone for the evening only for their parents to come back to an empty house. Then on Saturday Sarah Andrews’ empty car had been found in a ditch along the road she’d been driving back from a party the night before, two of its tires punctured and flat.
The local police and sheriffs had started combing the area looking for the missing girls and the ones responsible, without much luck. It was obvious a professional kidnapper was at work in the area, but who they were, and what plans they had for the girls they had abducted no one knew for sure. But Charlotte had a theory.
Meredith listened as Charlotte explained how she had found out that each of the missing girls, living in different towns, going to different high schools, nevertheless had something in common: all of them had had a class with a particular substitute teacher, a certain Mrs. Sherrod.
“You think she’s our kidnapper?” Meredith asked, a little incredulously. The picture Charlotte had found from the woman’s professional page showed a demure, mousy haired woman in her 30s. She looked familiar somehow, but Meredith couldn’t put her finger on just how. “I’m not even going to ask how you got all the information…but if you’re so sure about this, why not go to the authorities?”
The redheaded teen pouted. “I tried. I spoke to Sheriff Baker but he said I was wasting my time and I should give up the amateur detective gig!”
Meredith could easily imagine that. Sheriff Adam Baker had had it out for the girls for a few years now, ever since he’d caught them out after curfew snooping around the Middle School looking for evidence the PE Coach was secretly a vampire. Since then, they’d crossed paths with him in a few other misadventures. “So what are you going to do then?”
“We are going to show him up for once!” Charlotte replied, stressing the first word. “Mrs. Sherrod is subbing for Mr. Blake’s Bio class. If my theory is correct, someone from one of those classes will be the kidnappers' next target.”
“Like, say, Kimberly Wade?” Meredith supplied the answer easily enough. The senior was widely considered the hottest girl in school. No kidnapper could resist.
“Bobby Cooper shares that class with her. I’ve asked him to let me know if anything happens between Kimberly and the sub. After school, the two of us will watch her and see if anyone takes the bait.”
“Fine…but only because I think nothing is going to come of this…” Meredith reluctantly agreed.
That afternoon, the two teens were sitting in Meredith’s old car, parked in a small side street. Bobby, unsurprisingly, had been more than willing to spend 3rd Period Bio watching the hottest girl in school instead of paying attention to the lecture. Among everything else in his report was a promising tidbit: Kimberly had been complaining to one and all, quite loudly about how her car was busted and her parents wouldn’t lend her one of theirs that day so she had to walk too and from school. The substitute, Mrs. Sherrod had definitely noticed, as she’d had to tell Kimberly to quiet down so she could start the lesson and then later on, busted the girl for texting in class, making her stay late after school for detention.
“There she is!” Charlotte said, pointing. Coming around the corner was the tall blonde girl, dressed in a fuzzy jacket, short skirt and boots. “If anything happens to her, it’ll be here.” Meredith could understand her friend’s confidence. This side street was the perfect spot for an abduction. It ran between two rows of houses, with both facing away from it. Furthermore, many of the houses were short-term rentals, currently empty as it was out of season. Beside a couple empty cars, not to mention their own, it was deserted apart from the teenage girl taking a shortcut home.
“Keep low, out of sight!” Charlotte warned, crouching low in her seat as she watched the street. Kimberly kept walking, engaged with something on her phone. Suddenly, from one of the supposedly empty houses a figure, dressed in a dark brown leather jacket and loose jeans with a ski mask pulled over their face, stepped out onto the street, running up behind the teen. Kimberly remained oblivious to everything beyond the screen of her phone until she was suddenly grabbed. A cloth pad was pressed to her face with one hand, while the other wrapped around her arms and chest, holding the girl down. Kimberly started to struggle, kicking her long legs wildly, but it was already too late for her. After a minute, she went limp in her attacker’s arms. Keeping the pad pressed to her face, they dragged their victim back to the house and out of sight.
“That wasn’t Mrs. Sherrod.” Meredith said. Though the figure had been disguised, it was quite obvious they had at least a foot and a half over the diminutive substitute teacher.
“Maybe she’d got a partner who carries out the actual abductions based on what she finds out.” Charlotte replied, undaunted. “That way she has a perfect alibi. But still, we guessed it would be someone from one of the classes she subbed and that was correct.”
The teen waved for Meredith to get down again. Back up the street, a van pulled out of the house the kidnapper had dragged Kimberly into. It slowly pulled down the side street, passing the car with the two teens, seeming not to notice them. Reaching the end of the side street, it paused, waiting for an opening in the traffic and turned out. As soon as it did, Charlotte shot back up, telling Meredith to start the car. “Follow it! This could be the best opportunity to find out where the kidnapped girls are taken!”
Meredith, who’d been about to protest, reluctantly started the car and drove after the van. They reached the corner in time to spot it down the road, turning at another corner. As she did her best to follow, without being noticed, Charlotte got out her phone, to call it in.
“Sheriff Baker! You’re not going to believe this!” She began. Meredith didn’t hear the other side of the conversation, but she couldn’t help but grin, imagining the look on the sheriff’s face as they proved him wrong.
As they got further and further from town, it soon became obvious to the girls where Kimberly was being taken; the old Oldham House. It was out in the middle of nowhere, built by an old recluse and left to rot when he’d died. Kids went in on dares from their friends, teens used it occasionally as a place to smoke pot or drink and fool around. Every so often, there were calls to finally just tear the place down, but as it lay on unincorporated land between the various towns, all of them kept hoping another town would foot the bill.
“How have the police not searched here yet?” Meredith asked.
“I thought they had.” Charlotte replied. “Maybe the kidnappers moved in after the authorities already swept the place.”
Meredith parked on the side of the road, a short way back and the girls got out and crept forward on foot. “This is crazy…” Meredith said, shaking her head. “We’re sneaking up on a known kidnapper.”
“Relax…the police are already on the way.” Charlotte reassured her. “Sheriff Baker said he would see to it. We’re just going to keep an eye on things, make sure the kidnapper doesn’t run off…”
After walking for a few minutes, they got to a point where they could see the crumbling old house, through the trees. Parked out in front of it was the gray van. The marked figure was standing in the open side door. As they turned, the teens saw Kimberly thrown over one broad shoulder. The kidnapped girl was still unconscious, and had her hands and feet tied with rope. After shutting the van door, the kidnapper went into the house.
In the woods, Meredith and Charlotte waited a moment, then Charlotte whispered, “I’m going to circle around, so we can watch the house from both sides.” Then, before Meredith could say anything, the teen took off, disappearing into the trees. Grumbling to herself, Meredith waited, wondering when Baker and the rest of the cops would get here.
Eventually, she couldn’t wait any longer, crouched in the cold underbrush as the sun slowly set. A flash of movement and a flash of light in one of the dark windows gave her an excuse to creep forward, hoping to get a view of what was going on inside. It was a low window, likely looking into a basement. Crouched beside the dark portal, Meredith peered inside.
The basement was dark, but for the flickering beam of a flashlight held in the hand of a dark figure. At the moment, it was pointed at Kimberly. She’d awoken and was clearly distressed by her predicament. The teen struggled against the ropes binding her, ropes her captor was busy adding to with relish. In the corners of the flashlight’s circle, Meredith could make out two more girls, bound the same way as Kimberly. Unlike her, though, they’d eventually given up trying to escape and sat in their bonds quietly, heads bowed low in misery.
As the kidnapper stood, turning the flashlight around the room, Meredith caught brief glimpses of more girls sitting or lying on the floor, all bound and gagged prisoners. Though she wasn’t able to get a full count in the brief moments, it seemed to the teen that most, probably all of the missing girls were being held captive here. Good, now if only Sheriff Baker would hurry up and get here…
Caught up in the scene through the window, Meredith didn’t notice the figure sneaking up behind her until a cloth pad was clamped tight over her mouth and nose. She gave a muffled yelp of surprise as harsh chemical fumes flooded her nose. Frantically, she clawed at the gloved hand holding the pad to her face, but it was already too late. Everything went dark…
When Meredith regained consciousness, she was dismayed, though not surprised, to find herself a bound prisoner. She groaned, straining at the loops of rope which wrapped her body from ankle to shoulder in unyielding coils. Whoever had handled the ropework knew what they were doing, that was for sure.
Craning her neck, the teen realized she’d been brought down to the basement. She was now an unwilling part of the frightening scene she’d been watching mere minutes before. Around her, the other kidnapped girls grunted and moaned, some calling for help, or begging for mercy or just expressing their unhappiness at their present predicament.
“How do I get into these situations?” The teen thought, miserably. It was terrifying, knowing she had fallen into the clutches of a ruthless and very skilled kidnapper. Meredith did her best to keep calm, reminding herself that the police already knew about this place and were on their way. Not to mention Charlotte was still around somewhere.
Just then, she heard the sound of a door swinging open, followed by footsteps coming down the stairs. This set off a fresh round of muffled sobbing from the captives, to which Meredith added her own frantic grunts. Rolling over, she caught sight of the stairs and the group of figures coming down it. For a brief moment, Meredith’s spirits surged as she recognized the uniform and features of the man at the head of the group. It was Sheriff Baker!
Then, the teen noticed the limp figure slung over the bigger man’s shoulder, her ankles and wrists bound with rope. Coming behind him were two more figures, one the burly masked man who had kidnapped Kimberly and behind him the shorter form of Mrs. Sherrod. When the three reached the bottom and Sheriff Baker set down his burden, Meredith got one final shock: the girl he’d brought down was Charlotte! She was unconscious, doubtless chloroformed the same way Meredith had been. As the trio of crooks finished binding and gagged the redhead, the same as the rest of their prisoners, they talked amongst themselves.
“Yeah, she ran right up as soon as I drove in.” The crooked Sheriff was saying. “Didn’t realize anything was wrong till you got her with the chloroform. You’re just lucky the call went to me and not one of the other stations, Sis.” He told Mrs. Sherrod.
“Do you think we ought to pull out now?” The other man said. “With these two, we’ve got more than enough now. Sellin’ em will bring in plenty of cash.” With the other captive girls, Meredith moaned in terror at the words ‘sellin’ ‘em.’ “I just don’t like sitting here, all our eggs in one basket, waiting for something to go, especially with all these cops sniffing around.”
“You let me worry about the other cops, Dave.” Sheriff Baker replied. “As far as anyone on the force is concerned, I checked this place out already and didn’t find anything. Next week, we’ll have a chance to slip out of the county undetected northward. From there, it’s only an hour to the coast where we can have the boat come in and collect the girls from us. Till then, better to lay low where it’s safe.”
“And in the meantime, there’s a couple more girls I want to bad…” Mrs. Sherrod said with a wicked grin. “Starting with a cute little blonde named Rebecca Saunderson at Oak Grove High…” The three departed, discussing plans to add to their collection of innocent victims.
Meredith, meanwhile, squirmed and crawled awkwardly over to where Charlotte lay. The other teen eventually came to, giving a frightened cry as she found herself and her best friend bound prisoners.
They were in quite the predicament. No one knew where they were, apart from Sheriff Baker who had turned out to be in league with the kidnappers and could ensure no rescue was coming. From the sound of things, if the girls couldn’t find some way to escape themselves, in the next couple of days, they and the rest of the kidnapped teens would be shipped off overseas and sold into bondage.
With determination driven by fear, the girls started to struggle…