The Kidnapping of Miranda (unfinished)

A Hole in the Wall

John got threw the bathroom door and locked it behind him. The kid picked a good place to hide. A bolted door and a small window in the corner of the bathroom was all John needed for the perfect escape. He quickly got out his cellphone and called Kurt to tell him to bring the Suburban to the back of the gas station. Chris was only out for a minute, but when he woke up, it was to extreme pain on his lower right side. He looked to see a bullet hole threw his pajama pants, and blood seeping his clothes. He looked at John, "You shot me! You shot me you...."

Chris went on and on in curse words while John was ignoring him on the phone, until Chris was loud enough that he just shouted, "Shut up!" and pointed the gun at his head, "Do you want me to shoot you again?" That stopped Chris, but he was still hopeful. He figured that since his blood was on the ground now, that whoever broke into this place to find him not there, would know that he was there and that he was bleeding and needed medical attention. Fast.

~~~~~

Kurt was still standing in the doorway when John called just a few moments later. "What?! What is your problem?! You know we can't take care of that! ... Ugh, fine I'm coming but I'm not going to clean anything up, that's your mess to deal with...." Miranda wondered what had happened. Was Chris alright? Did he call the police? Did he get free? She was still sitting on the raggedy couch when Kurt turned around and told her to not move a muscle or that Jose would hurt her. So that was his name.... She nodded and watched him rush out the door to save John from whatever disaster he didn't want to clean up.

Jose turned to her after a minute of smoking and finally flicking the butt over the balcony. His body looked relaxed, but his eyes told Miranda that he was in a hurry. "Were you kidnapped?" he asked. "No, I'm John's girlfriend." she said sarcastically, "Why do you think I arrived in a cooler?" That's when Jose moved closer, and Miranda winced, afraid of what would happen. "Look, don't worry, I'm going to help you," he bent down to untie her feet.

Miranda was confused, why would the guy helping John, help her? "I'm John's half brother, and I'm sick of covering up for him." Jose answered her mentally asked question. "Does that mean he's done this before? Kidnapped kids, I mean." Jose nodded and pulled the rope away from her ankles, "Yeah, he's kidnapped five kids for ransom already, and he's always gotten away with it. I was always a safe house for him, but not anymore. All those kids he kidnapped, ended up dead the night after they got home. To cover up evidence, I guess."

Miranda was shocked. The feeling of finally being free of your captor and then getting murdered. That was going to happen to her too if she didn't escape. Jose finished undoing her hands and stood up. "I found a hiding place though, it's in this building, and John would never find it." Miranda stood up too, and followed Jose back to the kitchen, where he found a cutting knife and brought it back to the sofa. "Here's the plan." he said, "Let's say I went to the bathroom, and I told you that if you moved, I would kill you, and while I'm taking a dump, you hop to the kitchen, and cut yourself free. After that, you just run out of the apartment to find the hiding spot, okay?"

Miranda thought it over, rubbing her wrists together. It actually wasn't a bad plan. She decided to trust this Jose, "Okay, where's this hiding place?" He smiled and turned to the door, "Follow me."

~~~~~

Kurt raced to the back of the gas station where he could here the cop sirens from only a few blocks away. He jumped out of the drivers seat letting the car run, and raced towards the small window in the wall. "John, where are you?" he whisper-yelled, looking up. John opened the small window, reaching his hands up on his tiptoes and said, "Good, you're here. Okay, now I'm gonna lift the kid through the window, and you're gonna catch him, alright?" "Yeah, whatever, now just hurry up, the cops are coming." Kurt replied.

Chris, hearing this news, wasn't too thrilled about it. "What?!" John started to pick him up, bridal style, while he protested and was constantly, 'ow'ing and 'ouch'ing. John started to stand on the waste-high sink that was near the corner, and positioned Chris' feet toward the window. Chris for sure thought he was going to get dropped, so he cooperated. Kurt on the other side of the wall had his hands up, ready for a kid to drop down to him, but it wasn't that graceful.

John ended up shoving Chris out the window in one push, resulting in Chris hitting his head on the top of the small window, John nearly falling off the sink, and Kurt somehow on the ground in a heap with a 15-year-old sprawled on his back. "Get off of me." Kurt grunted, and sat up to see blood all over Chris' pants. "Oh, God," he gasped and picked up the kid and put him in the back seat of the suburban. Closing the door, he heard a thump, and turned around to see John on the ground.

"You could've waited for me to catch you." Kurt said with his eyebrows high. "There's not enough time," John explained as he got up, unharmed, and brushed the dirt off his black sleeves, "The cops are already in the front, let's go," and he jumped into the passenger seat.

~~~~~

Miranda was led down the hall to the very last door on the left from Jose's apartment. The door opened easily, and Jose led her into an empty living room. There wasn't anything but an old queen size mattress leaning against the wall in the whole apartment. "See the mattress?" he asked pointing towards it, "Behind that, there's a hole cut into the wall. It's connected to a closet next door. Don't go in there unless you have to hide from John or Kurt, and don't let the people living there see you. I'll come back with food later, and I'll try to get the boy here too, if...."

Jose trailed off letting Miranda contemplate all the possibilities of what could have happened. "I have to go," he said and walked to the door. "Thank you." Miranda whispered before he shut the door, and they made eye contact, having a telepathic agreement of sympathy. Then the door was closed.

~~~~~

Kurt narrowly avoided a cop racing to the scene, and went a longer way back to the apartment in case the police were looking for a black Suburban out front. When they parked in the apartment parking lot, they rolled up Chris in a blanket pretending to bring in carpet for an apartment. Chris was still in pain, and still losing blood. He thought that he was going to die from bleeding at this point, but he was being dramatic.

Being laid on the oddly empty couch, Chris wondered where Miranda was, but so were John and Kurt. "Where is she?" John asked, angry, looking around and seeing the knife and ropes on the floor. "Did you let her go?!" he yelled furious by now. Jose, who was a great actor from all his years of lying and being a gangster, knew exactly what to say to John, "I don't know, I went to the bathroom, came back, and she was gone. It's not my fault." John didn't know if he should believe in Jose or not, but out of brotherhood, he did. "So you didn't go out looking for her?" "No, I did as soon as I got off the toilet, I looked all over the building. Couldn't find her though, probably ran to the police at the gas station by now."

Jose was creating a diversion, if he got John and Kurt out of the house again, he could get the girl the food she needed and the boy some help. "I think you should go look around yourself, I mean she could be anywhere by now." Jose suggested, and John agreed, "Yeah," he looked warily from Jose to Kurt, "Let's go look on the streets, Kurt. Jose, do something about this kid, and if you see that girl, I want you to keep her here this time, alright?" "Fine," Jose squinted his eyes at John and nodded. "Okay, I'll call you if I find her," John said and walked out the door, gun in hand.

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