Forgive the Godfather

7: Linda in captivity

Linda became awake in a dark room. She lay very still, her heart hammering violently against her chest, and she realized that she was sweating profusely. She couldn't remember how long she'd slept. She had no idea of the time.

Vaguely, Linda tried to recollect her thoughts having overcome her initial fear, which had engulfed her upon her arrival at the house.

Her blindfold had made it impossible for her to take a look at her surroundings. Although her hands were not bound, she could not bring herself to attempt to untie the blindfold. She was scared out her wits, this left her numb, and dumb.

Linda recoiled when she thought of how the van had picked up speed, swerving from left to right, and the faint police siren, and how the van had almost toppled on its side. Her thin hope, which had hung on the sound of the approaching siren, of being rescued by the police, evaporated as the wailing sound of the siren faded and died away.

She remembered the girl's nervous laughter when they all realized that the police were not coming after them.

Linda also remembered the van coming to a halt and the door being pushed opened. The man who had blindfolded her with the black cloth, and whom she presumed had sat beside her in the bumpy ride, who had taken hold of her arm as she stepped out of the van and began to lead her up the short steps to the front door.

"Wait," Linda said. "Where am I? where are you taking me?"

"Be quiet, just move." This had come from the girl who poked the short barrel of a gun to her side.

"We are getting inside the house now," the man who blindfolded her said, and then added, "there are steps, so watch your step."

Linda gingerly put one foot on the first step, and then another step, and then a third. She had counted three steps. Still holding her arm, the man had steered her through a door that she guessed was the front door.

She had heard footsteps, a door opened.

"We are going inside a room now," the man said.

"There is a door."

"Wait, where are you taking me? What do you want from me?" Linda kept asking.

"Be quiet, you are asking too many questions," the girl said harshly.

The man had gripped her arm tightly and pushed her roughly through a door. "Sit down on the bed and rest your feet," the man continued to speak. "We are not going to harm you. We are only interested in your father's money. As soon as he has paid us, we will let you go. So keep quiet and lie down on the bed, okay?"

Linda's legs made contact with a bed. She fumbled for the mattress and sat on the edge of a bed. She was confused. Was she being kidnapped? Or did her father owe these people money therefore they had grabbed her to make sure that her father paid them their money?

Who were these people? How did they know she was going to the hairdresser's? Perhaps they had been following her around for a long time before they now seized her?

Nothing made sense to her, except the fact that she'd been kidnapped and they were demanding for a ransom. Linda would have been shocked if only she knew how much these people were demanding from her father.

As she lay on the bed, sweating, her eyes masked by the blindfold and her faith hanging in the balance, she heard the sound of the door being opened.

Moments later, a male voice said, "Is she sleeping?"

"Why not ask her?" a female voice said. Linda immediately recognized the voice as belonging to the girl with the gun.

"I'm thirsty," Linda said, her voice dry.