There was a small parking lot at the side of
the road, about three miles from the students' home where our fight had
taken place. This late at night, the dark spot between trees and bushes
was completely deserted. I stopped my car there. I lit a cigarette with
hands shaking so badly that I nearly dropped the lighter. I tried to
calm myself, but my thoughts were racing. What the fuck had I done?
I
had allowed that fucking bitch Hannah Gehringer to ruin my life. And
how it had amused her! All the hate I felt for those above me - all the
rich girls and spoiled princesses, all those fuckers with powerful
families, all those snobs with that awe-inspiring kind of entitlement
that made them undoubtedly believe that they deserved everything that
life just endowed them with - welled up and I smashed a fist so hard
against the steering wheel of my car that I nearly broke it.
I
muttered 'fuckfuckfuck' without pause. Now that the adrenaline was
beginning to wear off I felt how hard Gehringer had kicked and punched
me. I got my cell phone out of my pocket. I began to dial. I would call
the cops and get this over with fast. There was no other option. I could
already hear that Gehringer was weakly moving in my cars' trunk and I
needed to do something. Why had I even put her in there? Calling an
ambulance as fast as possible would have been a much, much better idea.
Then, just as I had my finger already on the 'Call'-button, my phone rang. The timing was unbelievable.
It
was an anonymous caller, which means no number at all was shown. I
didn't have friends who would call me without ID and it was much too
late at night anyways. For a moment I hesitated, then I answered the
call. I was just about to tell the caller that this was a really bad
time for a conversation with me, but before I could speak a male voice
on the other end of the line already said:
"Good evening Jennifer. I trust that Hannah is still in your trunk?"
I froze. My heart pounded so fast and so hard in my chest that I was sure I would suffer cardiac arrest any second now.
"Well,
since you don't answer I'll just assume that she is still in there. And
that is very good, Jennifer. Do not release her. You hear me? Hannah
will do everything she can in order to take revenge. You may already
have noticed that she isn't a very balanced individual."
I didn't
know what to say. The caller sounded not unfriendly and very calm. He
could as well have been talking about the weather.
"Who are you?" My voice was so coarse that I could barely understand myself.
"You
expect me to tell you my name?" Now the caller sounded a little amused,
but he still didn't seem to be fucking with me. For all I knew he
sounded like a nice guy who was just having a pleasant conversation. It
was too surreal to believe. "Well Jennifer, I can't tell you my real
name. But I am not with the police, and I am not going to inform them
about what you did either. So you don't have to afraid of me."
"I'm..." I cleared my throat. "I'm going to inform the cops myself. I don't know what the fuck else I could do."
"Well,
I would like to make a proposition", the caller said smoothly. "I would
advise you to not call the cops, instead check if you have tape or rope
in your car. If you don't, get some. Then open the trunk and tie Hannah
up until she can't move a muscle, and bring her to a safe place."
My eyes widened. "What the fuck... *are you crazy?*"
"Not
any more than you. You know what, Jennifer? You can call me Pete. And
here is what you need to know: I was hired by an interested client to
keep an eye on Hannah, report on her activities and... prepare for
further instructions. In the past weeks I saw you quite often in front
of her house. I got curious and collected some info about you as well."
His voice became more sympathetic when he added: "I know about Thomas
and what happened to him, and I assume that he is the reason for your
obsession with Miss Gehringer."
"Yeah..." I nodded. Talking to
Pete somehow made me feel a little better. My pulse was slower now, and
steadier. Behind me, in the trunk, Hannah produced some slightly louder
noises than before, but right now she could wait. "Yeah, Thomas was a
good friend."
"His file says that he suffered brain damage when
he overdosed. He's going to need a lot of care and therapy if he's
supposed to get a chance for full recovery, even if he wakes up. Does
his family have that kind of money?"
"No. They don't have that kind of money. In fact", I added, "they have no kind of money whatsoever."
"Do
you want to earn ten thousand dollars, Jennifer? What you do with the
money once you have it would be solely up to you. But I figure you might
be the kind of girl who would help Thomas' family with it."
I
shook my head in disbelief. "I know that I already asked you if you are
crazy. I'm sorry, but now I would like to know if this is a joke."
"No,
why should it be a joke? Essentially, you have done something that I
would eventually have been paid to do: You have kidnapped Hannah. So you
have done my job for me. And it's not as if you have a bad conscience
because of that, do you? She thinks you are a fuckup, Jennifer. A lot of
people look at an alt girl like you from a family as yours and see her
as a fuckup. If you turn yourself over to the police now, *you will
prove that you are a fuckup*. And you will remain a fuckup for the rest
of your life. Is that what you want?"
"Of course not. But I can't kidnap a girl, I just..."
"But
you already did kidnap a girl", the voice said. "And, as you may agree,
there are few people deserving this more than Hannah Gehringer. You
think have already discovered what kind of an individual she is. But you
have no idea how sadistic and cruel she really has been towards others.
She is only 24 years old and has a big career in front of her, and she
will damage many people more in her life if she gets the chance. So make
sure she doesn't get it."
I felt like someone who is gong
insane. I had lost my orientation completely. Or had I not? How much
worse could things get for me?
"Are you sure that no one saw what I did on that street?"
"Positive.
The police is not looking for you or Hannah at all. I am monitoring
their channels. And the small street on which you two had your fight is
as empty as it was before. At the moment, no one knows that she has been
kidnapped. And when they find out, they will not draw a connection to
you. You have been very, very lucky. So don't waste that luck by calling
the cops now."
"I..." I rubbed my hand against my forehead, then
pinched the bridge of my nose. A major headache was incoming. "I have a
roll of duct tape in my glove compartment."
"Very well. Let me
give you some tips about how to handle this. And Jennifer: Let me also
give you a piece of very important advice."
I asked him what that
advice was and he told me. And then, still not sure what weird kind of
movie my life was just turning into, I took the tape and got to task.