Ransom: Chapter One

 Shari Curtis. Those two simple words were Daniel Taylor’s first thoughts as he jumped off the skyscraper.

Daniel found it strange that those words, more specifically that name, were what he first thought of as his feet left the roof. But then again, that name, and the person to which it belonged to, had also been in his mind for the past few hours. Actually, longer than these past few hours. More like these past few months.

Daniel hurtled towards the ground. He was still pretty high up. He estimated that he would fall maybe another five or seven seconds[1] before his body would slam into the ground.

Another seemingly out of place thought popped into his mind.

‘I wonder if I should’ve at least tried to talk to her...’

He pondered it for a moment.

‘Nah, what’s done is done. But technically, I didn’t do anything at all. Nothing is what I did. Nothing is what I said. Nothing is what I can do to change any of this.’

Nothing, nothing, nothing.

Oh well. His loss.

Colors and shapes blurred together into a gray splotchy color as he whizzed passed them, hurtling downwards.

He didn’t really notice.

His mind was still on her.

The ground started to come into view, still a few more seconds away before he would smash into it and die.

Finally, Daniel wondered if he should try to stop his fall.

Nah, not yet.

So, he kept falling until he could see the double yellow lines of the New York City highway.

Daniel twisted his body and angled towards the building he’d jumped from, and found himself lower to the ground than he had originally expected.

‘Nice,’ he mused, ‘find yourself thinking about girls, and now you’re hurtling towards the ground.’

No matter, this one would just be closer than usual. Daniel focused his thoughts on reaching the building before he would reach the ground. He flew into the wall but he’d stretched his arm and extended it towards the building.

His hand connected and started to stick.  He slowly slid down, but he was still going too fast.  He was only thirty feet above the ground.

He might not make it.  

He pushed harder into the wall and pulled his feet against the wall, hoping desperately now to slow his descent.  

Daniel was starting to slow down, but not fast enough.  

Twenty feet until impact.  

Still he kept sliding.  

He felt no pain despite his speed.

Ten feet.

Daniel then angled himself into a crouching pose, against the wall, and pushed his feet against the window with all his strength.  

He spread his arms in front of him as he soared away from the building.  His last desperate attempt of survival had diminished his speed, but was it enough?

He knew he only had one last option.  

Daniel stretched out his right hand and shot a web line from his wrist and it glided into the opposite building.  

But it was too late.

His body collided violently with the ground.  

Daniel knew then that he wouldn’t survive.  

His body flailed for a second as he rebounded about seven feet back into the air.  

Too bad he hadn’t landed on a car.  

He flopped back onto the ground and rolled for a second.  Then his carcass stopped in the middle of the street as cars stopped and honked at his now lifeless corpse.  

He had died.

A ‘Game Over’ screen flashed on the TV in front of Daniel.  

Daniel shifted his position on his couch and selected ‘Retry.’  

Spider-Man restarted in the Financial District of the virtual map in New York City[2].  

He could have shot a web line a few seconds earlier and saved himself, but that was too easy.  Not much fun there.  The Spider Man 2 game had become way too easy for him.  After all, it was at least five years old and he’d been playing it for no less than three years.  

He welcomed anything that could be challenging.  

Daniel paused the game and looked around his house.  

It was quiet, empty, silent.  

His parents weren’t home, and Daniel would be alone for twenty-eight days.

Allan and Lisa, his parents, had left last night at about eleven for the airport.

They were going on a two week business conference that started on the eighteenth and ended on the thirtieth. From then until June fourth, they were ‘second honeymooning’ as his dad called it: This was why he was glad he did not have to go. And as if that wasn’t long enough, their church was also having a conference from the fifth all the way to the twelfth. Of course, no children allowed. Daniel didn’t mind. His sleep, guitar, and video games had been neglected this summer and they all required his attention. The only problem with this was his selection of video games. Spider Man 2, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and older games like that didn’t hold his attention any more. He had mastered them all. Why not play Halo 3, Reach, Modern Warfare, Black Ops, or Gears of War on X-Box Live? Simple: he didn’t have one.

That bothered him, but his parents were like that. God forbid any video game be rated M in this household. Daniel got used to it, but never really liked it[3].

Daniel sighed and surveyed his quiet, lonesome house. If he were a different person in different circumstances, he should have been overjoyed the fact that there were no parents looming over him. But, he wasn’t. Usually ‘normal’ people would invite a bunch of people over, yet he had not. Daniel was only fourteen, and didn’t have any friends that would party.

For a moment he felt sorry for himself... but then he didn’t. He had gotten used to ignoring his emotions and feelings.

‘I guess that comes at this age... I wouldn’t have been able to do that a few years ago.’

Other things had come to him in these past few years. Such as his appearance. Daniel had hit one major growth spurt, along with smaller ones, within the last three years. Unfortunately, during his growth spurts, he did not grow outwards. In other words, he was a stick. Apparently, he was drastically underweight, according to Wii Fit, since he was 5’ 10” and only one hundred and fifteen pounds[4].

‘Meh, what do they know?’

It’s not like the game programmers are doctors... ‘Oh, wait... my doctor told me the same thing last time I was there.’

Well, it’s not like he would die of being underweight or malnutrition.

His stomach rumbled. Daniel got up, now hungry thinking about malnutrition.

Suddenly, he felt dizzy; his vision clouded. Daniel stood still as his vision narrowed and clouded until he could see only directly in front of him.

‘Whoah.’

He had been sitting down way too long.

Normally he would have slept in until sometime past noon, but for some reason he had woken up at around eight. He then got up, ate a Pop-Tart, and read a note from his parents saying how sorry they were that they had to leave, that they’d be back on June 12th, they loved him, were proud of him, etc., etc., etc.

Daniel thought about what had woken him up that early. He’d had a... bad dream. Not a nightmare, just a bizarre, slightly chilling dream.

Usually, Daniel could never remember any of his dreams, mostly because they were never strange. They were just dull, pointless dreams.

But this one...

It started, as best as Daniel could recall, with him running. It was warm. A slight breeze blew over him, cooling his sweat. He was running through almost a type of forest, or in the woods. He didn’t know why, just that he could not stop. Was he running for his life? He couldn’t tell. He only knew that something bad would happen if he stopped. He knew why he was running in his dream, but the knowledge vanished when he awoke.

Trees, rocks, plants, everything flew past him as he dashed through the woodland. He bounded over a rock, landed on his feet but fell to his hands. Pain had shot up his arms, but he’d ignored it and just kept running.

Suddenly, he came to a clearing. There were two ways to go. Indecision plagued his mind as he slowed. Right or left? His heart roared in his chest. Daniel slowed to a stop and put his hands on his knees, finally realizing that he was panting and coughing violently. He kept looking left to right, trying to figure out where to go. Where to run.

A noise slowly filled his ears in his dream. It started it out quiet, but gained in volume. Daniel was petrified when he first heard it. Twigs and grass were crunching and snapping behind him.

Footsteps. And they were running towards him.

An ice crept into his veins that turned his sweat cold[5].

The footsteps were getting closer. The brushwood snapped under the feet that pounded over them.

Daniel surged forward, further into the clearing, a new sense of urgency and terror fueling him on. He should have turned, but he couldn’t. Forward was the only direction he could think of.

Behind him, the footfalls were getting louder. And closer. Soon, the sound of crinkling grass behind him grew closer. Dread was Daniel’s blood

now. The feet were close behind him. Too close. Daniel dared not look back: he was afraid of what he would find. Daniel’s feet were moving faster than he thought he could run. The clearing turned back into a forest in about twenty feet. If he could make it, there was hope.

He could hear heavy breathing. Was it his? His eyes widened when he realized it was not his; it was coming from behind him.

It was a ragged, throaty breath. Almost like the mucus filled his stomach to his throat. 

The clearing was now only ten feet. He would make it! Daniel saw the perfect place of entrance; directly in front of him. It carried no more than five feet past the wood line after a flat rock raised a foot above the ground, than abruptly turned left. He could lose whoever was chasing him!

Daniel could hear his feet pounding a little off rhythm, to the woods. He was losing his footing! Daniel struggled to stay upright, but then he heard the pursuer getting closer. Probably close enough to touch him.

Daniel struggled forwards. He was practically at the threshold to safety!

Suddenly, he felt something collide into his back. The chaser pushed him! Daniel pitched forward. He did not even have time to stretch his arms in front of him.

Despite the speed he fell at, everything was clear. The grass, the occasional twigs and branches, were all as clear as if he was not moving. And then he saw it.

The elevated rock.

Daniel was headed straight for it!

It was close enough that he could see the dew on top of it, glistening peacefully.

His head slammed into it.

An intense wave of pain exploded briefly in his mind as Daniel gulped air and shot upright in his bed.

Daniel then looked around, assuring himself it was only a dream.

It had taken Daniel five minutes to coax himself out of bed and into the kitchen. After that, he settled onto the couch and started playing Spider Man 2.

Daniel looked back at the TV. The pause menu still filled the screen. He walked to the pantry and looked around. His parents had refreshed his stock of Ramen Noodles, TV-Dinners, and microwavable burritos before they left. Then they reminded him that they did not want him to sit around all day, gouging himself with unhealthy food. ‘Healthy alternatives,’ AKA leftovers, were abounding plentifully in the fridge. Healthy for who? Certainly not his tongue.

Oh well. If he ran out of food, his parents had asked one of the neighbors across the street, an elderly couple with the last name of Remmings, to call and check on him every day or two.

Luckily, Daniel would not be alone the entire time. His parents had also arranged for friends to come over, for him to go to friends, sleepovers and stuff like that, but they came every few days. So he would still be alone for a few days at a time. But he did not have a huge amount of friends. This was one of Daniel’s conceived problems.

He was homeschooled[6].

But the friendships that he had were stronger than most. They were more brothers than friends. They could sit around and do nothing, and not feel awkward. They argued and fought over dumb things, but mainly jokingly. Hurling insults, jokes, and pranks at each other really made them more like brothers[7].

Besides, he and his friends weren’t what everyone thought of when they picture a homeschooler.

The standard idea of a homeschooler were what Daniel and his friends called, ‘The Homeschooler Stereotype,’ and they defined it as:  “The idea that all homeschoolers wore button-up or plaid shirts, complete with ties, every day with khaki or dress pants along with very old white sneakers. Also that they love school, have no sense of humor, no social skills, completely isolated and sheltered, not allowed to do anything fun, could not see any PG-13 movies, only listened to classical music, drove in old model mini-vans, and always, always, always, had a dumb and giddy look plastered on their face[8].”

Daniel chuckled, knowing how wrong it mostly was. There were homeschoolers that Daniel knew that fit, and most likely created, the stereotype. He felt kind of sorry for them, but it was like they did not notice they were stereotyped. But he and his friends wore jeans with holes in them, modern T-shirts, Converse shoes, listened to rock and hard rock, saw movies and cracked jokes like everybody else. Difference was, they were usually more mature, thought a little more logically, and thought long term. Most of them knew what they wanted to do, knew how to start doing it, and where to go to do it.

Daniel chuckled again. He and his friends were all far cries from the Jeremiah Wallom’s[9] of the world. Jeremiah Wallom was a perfect example of the ‘typical’ homeschooler. Daniel met him a few years ago at his old church’s Sunday School program, back when it was still called Sunday School. Jeremiah would always be the first one there, with his giddy look, and the last one to leave, still giddy looking. Daniel guessed that Sunday School was his only social outlet. Jeremiah would sit there, quietly, in his chair, old Bible inside of a kiddy Bible sleeve. A flighty smile would always be plastered on his face. He

would always be the first, and usually the only one, to raise his hand to answer a question.  Jeremiah never really made conversation with anyone, and he would not join in on any group conversations either.  

Daniel snorted[10].  He could easily see how the stereotype formed.  

He grabbed a Ramen Noodle Yakisoba.  Spicy Jalapeño Cheddar.  

He walked over to the sink, ripped the plastic covering off, and filled the plastic container with water. 

Well, Daniel wasn’t one hundred percent nerd-free either.  There was one thing that still set him off from normal.  That would be his relationship status... pure bred single.  

That was probably the one thing he did not like about homeschooling: girlfriends.  

He was fourteen, and one-hundred-percent-no-doubt-about-it-bon-a-fide single[11].  

It was not like he didn’t want to have a girlfriend.  It was more like: he didn’t know how to get into a relationship, didn’t know practically any girls, and how no clue how to talk to them.  All of these are necessary.  

Lacking all of these brought Daniel to his current situation with Shari Curtis.  

She had joined the church that Daniel’s family had just switched to, only a few months after they had.  Daniel had just made a friend there, a boy only a year younger than him, and her first week she made friends with everyone there... except Daniel.  That wouldn’t have bothered him much but there was only about twenty total kids in the youth group. 

For a while, it seemed that she liked him.  Daniel would feel eyes on him while he’d been talking with his friend, turn around, and there she would be watching him.  Immediately, she’d look away.  A minute later, the same thing would happen.  Then again, and again.  This made Daniel greatly uncomfortable[12].  So uncomfortable that he couldn’t talk to her... it was just way to[13] awkward.  Then Daniel slowly noticed that he was starting to like her.  She had a great personality, very nice, kind, and funny from the conversations that Daniel could overhear.  

The only times they’d come close to talking was in group conversations, which he had to join himself, and they were more like one word conversations on his part.  Yeah, he wasn’t the social wiz.  

The looking, glancing, and eye-contact-avoiding had been going on for about three months now.  

Daniel wasn’t planning on initiating contact... he wanted to see how long it would go on[14].  

‘It’s not like I don’t want to... I don’t know how.’

He suddenly realized he had been standing in the kitchen, zoned out, for a few minutes. Daniel mentally shook himself out of his nomadic thoughts, and walked towards the microwave. He placed the Yakisoba container in the nuker and entered in five minutes.

Daniel went to the couch and forgot about it.

He un-paused the game and started swinging around the city.

The microwave beeped five minutes later, and Daniel got up and checked it.

Instantly, the water that boiled over touched his skin. Daniel pulled his hand away as the water burned his fingers.

He winced as he brought the container to the island. He shook his hands, trying to cool them down.

‘Why the crap is it so hot?’

Daniel walked to the trash can and pulled the plastic covering.
”Microwave for 4 min.”

Oh. ‘Crap.’

‘I guess one minute makes a difference.’ He had no idea how right he was[15].

Daniel left it on the island to cool.

He strode over to the couch, intending to let his in-between-breakfast-and-lunch snack cool.

He reached his hand down and grabbed the Game-Cube controller, but as soon as he picked it up...

“Ding-Dong.”

Daniel looked at the door. The blinds next to the wooden door were drawn shut.

‘Good. At least the salesman won’t know anybody is here.’

Or, it could be the occasional Jehovah Witness. Possibly the local scouts.

‘I’m not in the mood for overpriced cookies... don’t I already have some in the pantry?’

Daniel reminded himself to check after the ringer left.

He waited a few seconds.

Still, no footsteps walked away.

Feeling slightly more alert, Daniel stole over to his room, which provided a line of sight directly in front of his house.

He parted the horizontal blinds slightly.

‘Odd.’

A four door, white, windowless van sat parked across the street. A label on the side of the van read, “Rondale’s Electricians.”

Knocking radiated from the entry room as Daniel paced out of his room. Daniel had dealt with salesman before. They were persistent, and often came

back if you did not answer them. If you unfortunate[16] enough to answer them, they were extremely difficult to get rid of.

The sound of rapping on the entry door started again.

Something was wrong. The knocking was slightly harder and faster.

Daniel crept to the TV and turned it off.

Something was very wrong.

Adrenaline slowly slinked into his bloodstream.

The steady thuds on the door slowly changed into a banging. And it was getting faster.

Daniel jolted.

The door knob turned.