The Grabber

Any Way The Wind Blows

The mid-autumn breeze was chilled. Dried leaves scattered around the cage. Some even taking a seat on the cold, metal bleachers with interest in the game.
"You got it, Finney," voices broke the serious silence that settled on the field.
"Come on my boy, Bruce," others would cheer. Andrea sat quietly towards the top, away from the crowd. She was never one for sports, but it beat being home. She watched in silence as Finney pitched the ball towards the batter, Bruce. He kept his eye focused. Finney raised his arm and gave it a quick spin of a pitch. Bruce swung. Strike.
"Mind if I sit here?" A confident voice broke Andrea's concentration.
"Be my guest, Bec," she chuckled as the blonde girl sat next to her.
"How's it going, Andrea? I thought you hated sports," she smiled. Andrea shifted her gaze to the game as she sighed.
"

I've never been a fan, but..." she glanced at her friend with a knowing shrug. "It's nice to be out and about." Rebecca nodded as she looked at her shoes. She was the only one who knew about Andrea's home. The two of them were closer than friends. They were practically siblings. They told each other everything, with trust not even a worry.
"That makes sense," she finally spoke. She looked up at the sound of a crack and applause. "Finney has a good arm, damn. Almost had him."
"Yeah," Andrea muttered. In all honesty, Andrea didn't understand most sports. Possibly due to lack of interest. She watched as Bruce ran around the bases with a smile.
"Well, my time here was short. I was just passing by. I have homework to catch up on, but.." Rebecca stood as she dusted her jeans. "I'll see ya tomorrow. Be safe." Andrea let a light smile paint her face as she nodded.
"I will, don't worry." She stood to hug her friend. "You know I'm so grateful to have someone like you in my life who cares this much," she said softly.
"So am I," Rebecca smiled. She slowly pulled away from Andrea as she held her hands. "Be careful. Not just at home, but on the way, too. I'm sure you've seen the papers." Andrea nods, a chill running down her spine. "Love ya," she says as she releases Andrea with a smile.
"Love ya!" Andrea waved as her friend left. Luckily her home wasn't too far from here. She hoped Rebecca had safe travels. It was always a worry on her mind.

...

As the teams showed their sportsmanship, Andrea parted from the ball park. She had nothing but her small backpack with books and paper, which she made sure had no loose articles of its own. She didn't want to risk anyone being able to grab her from them. Not with the missing cases on the rise.
The walk home was long and quiet. The crowd lingered at the game. Perhaps most of them were family. The leaves crunched under Andrea's shoes. It was a sound she rather liked. It was wondrous to hear silence. With constant yelling in her household, she enjoyed getting out into the open silence. Her mind began trailing on to the wonderful things she noticed in nature. Birds relaxing anywhere they saw fit, grass that was a bit long, just swaying in the slight breeze. The beautiful, partly cloudy skies. She was so drawn to the beauty that she nearly stumbled into a telephone pole dressed in different colored papers. Her eyes focused on a missing child poster. She slowly shook her head with a sigh.
"Jesus... Don't remind me," she said to herself. She took a look at the other papers before moving past the pole.

...

"I'm home," Andrea called into the void of yelling. "Not that anyone cares..." she muttered. She locked the door behind her and turned to the stairs. Her parents were arguing again. As usual.
"They've been fighting all day," a voice said non-chalantly from the couch.
"What is it about this time?" Andrea asked as she looked towards her older brother. He may have only been a year older, but he acted as if she were many years younger. Perhaps it's just a thing older siblings do.
"Who fucking knows. I stopped trying to figure it out ages ago." Andrea watched as Michael drew in his notebook. He was quite the artistic one. He had more of an abstract style that Andrea honestly had come to love. It was like seeing the world through a different lens. One that was much better than this one.
"I guess they're in their room then," Andrea sighed.
"Yup." Andrea's room happened to be right beside theirs. The walls were thin, so she could hear everything. That is, if she didn't have her music on all the time. "Good luck getting past without them asking where you've been."
"Surely they couldn't have noticed. They've been at each other's throats."
"You would think so, but they notice when their precious daughter is gone."
"You and I both know they don't pay that much attention to us." Andrea headed up the stairs quietly with her bag drapped over one shoulder. Her brother's gaze not leaving his notebook. As Andrea reached the top of the stairs, the arguing roared on. It was too muffled to tell what was being said. Their door was closed. Andrea just focused on getting to her room as quiet and quickly as possible. She had every creaky panel memorized. She knew just how to angle her body to make as little noise as possible. It was clear she had practiced this many times before.
"As if the electric bill wasn't enough, you just decide to get yourself fired! That will fix everything, won't it?" Andrea could hear her mother as she got closer to the door. She slowly became more focused on the conversation than her own movements.
"I didn't get fired on purpose, goddammit, I told you, they had to let some people go because of their budget!"
"And you think we have room in our budget for this?"
"I think you should just shut up if you're not going to listen to me!" She froze. A thud made Andrea's blood run cold. Her dad had just struck her mom. As the silence between the two grew, Andrea tried to stay as still as she could, praying they didn't leave the room.
"You just hit me, you fucking bastard," Mom said softly with rage. Andrea sighed, not realizing she had been holding her breath. She pushed on quietly.
"Then don't you ever talk to me like that," her dad grunted. "When I tell you-" Andrea froze as the creak of a board she didn't pay attention to broke their argument. Her body trembled. She thought fear would be a normal feeling for her by now, but every occurance only felt more new.
"Stop right there, young lady," her father's voice boomed through the house as the previously closed door had been thrown open.
"Goddammit," she breathed. She slowly turned around to see her father looming over her. The slight image of her mother on the floor just behind the door scared her more.
"Just where have you been? School was let out hours ago!"
"I was... at the game..." she said softly.
"What?" Her father demanded.
"I was at the baseball game," she spoke louder. She gasped as her father grabbed her chin and pulled her face upwards.
"Look at me when I'm talking to you! Did you tell us you were going to be there?"
"No.."
"Huh!?"
"No!" He harshly let go of her face, causing her to slightly stumble backwards.
"You better tell us the next time you decide to go anywhere else besides school! You think you're just old enough to make your own choices and do your own things?"
"I'm almost 18! A legal adult!"
"I don't care if you're 23! While you're still here in my house, you live by my rules! Is that understood?" Andrea tried to walk away with a sigh, until her father grabbed her arm and pulled her closer to his face. "I said, is that understood?"
"Yes! Let go of me!"
"I shouldn't let you go this easy," he grunted as he pushed her away, causing Andrea to collapse on the floor. "Next time, I'll let the Grabber take you and see if you'll listen after that!" The door slammed as her parents' argument from before changed its subject. She heard footsteps coming from the stairs as she tried to stand herself back up, wiping away any tears that decided to break through.
"Are you alright?" Her brother asked as he came closer.
"I'm fine," she muttered as she turned to go to her room. The door closed rather harshly. Michael decided to give her some space as he went back downstairs. He felt angered by his father's actions. He glared at their door before finally retreating to his drawings.

...

"Any way the wind blows doesn't really matter to me," Andrea softly sang along. She was so glad she had this album. Sure, she shoplifted it, but music was her comfort. She saw it as a way of helping someone. That someone being herself in this situation. Everyone talked about this album. Well, anyone who liked rock music. Andrea loved rock. She had many different cassettes that she either was gifted, stolen, or someone else had stolen them for her. A few of them she had bought from what little money she found on the streets. Was she a criminal? Of course not. No one ever caught her. That's how she saw it, anyways.
She sat up from her bed to look out her window. There was a telephone pole close enough for her to see what was nailed onto it. Missing posters, as usual, among ads and scams. She sighed. Where were the missing kids? How did no one see the Grabber? No one knows who he is.
"He's gotta be nearby," she thought aloud. "How else would he get away with the kids so quick and undetected?" She looked past the pole as something caught her eye. A black van with teal letters that spelled "abracadabra" slowly drove down the empty street. As it came closer to her house, it slowed to a stop. Andrea quickly ducked out of sight. She didn't know of any magician around town. She hadn't seen any posters for one arriving either. She stayed quiet and out of sight until she heard the sound of the van easing on the gas once again. Slowly, her eyes peered over the window sill and gazed into the streets. No sign of any van. She sat back up with a small sigh of relief. She shook away the incident and thought back to the topic she was thinking of before.
"It's clear the Grabber doesn't want to be caught," she said as she glanced to the missing posters once more. "So he has to be able to cover his tracks. If he lives nearby, he would have to seem like everyone else so no one gets suspicious of him..." she looked back to the street with a curious eye. "Which means he wouldn't want to stand out."