Chasing Demons

Prologue

June 21st, 2012

The afternoon sun beat down on the local field, two blocks from eight-year-old Charlie Bruskin's home. Charlie and his pack of gangly, 3rd-grade friends were out playing baseball in the heat like they did every summer day. The batter hit the ball into the woods, and Charlie ran after it as he had done numerous times before. Only this time, he didn't come back out.

A predatory man wearing all black was in the woods watching. He had been watching the boy from his van for a very long time now, waiting for the perfect chance to claim Charlie as his next victim.

The man picked up the ball as Charlie approached. He knelt down and grinned at Charlie, who smiled shyly.

"You like baseball?" The man said softly, looking around to see if anyone was near.

Charlie smiled, confidently this time, He loved baseball and was excited at the possibility of showing off his knowledge of the sport with an adult.

"You know, I got a book of signed baseball cards and a signed baseball by Jackie Robinson."

Charlie's jaw dropped with awe. Jackie Robinson was his favorite player-his idol.

"Do you wanna see them?" The man said, inching closer to Charlie.

The young boy bounced with joy. "Yeah!"

"It's in there. Come on, come see," the man pointed to a van that was lurking on the side of the road.

Charlie hesitated for a moment. His mother's frequent coachings on "stranger danger" echoed in his brain. She had told him how you should NEVER talk to people who you don't know or go with them anywhere no matter the situation or circumstances. But the man seemed nice, and Charlie really loved baseball, so ignoring his mother's advice, he followed the man to his car.

The vehicle reeked of an odd scent that Charlie couldn't quite identify, but before he could say anything about it, the man put a cloth over Charlie's mouth. A harsh chemical began to fill his nostrils as he fell unconscious. Then the man tossed him into the van. He put duct tape over Charlie's mouth and duct-taped his arms and ankles once he got inside. With one last look down the road to see if anyone had witnessed the kidnapping, the man jumped into the driver's seat of the car and drove off two hours north till they came to a long pathway that led to an abandoned home. By the time they got there, Charlie was awake, alert, and beyond terrified of what was going to happen.

The man put the van in park. Charlie felt as if life was in slow motion as the man unbuckled his seat belt and hopped out of the van. He opened the side door and Charlie could see only his silhouette against the late evening sun. The sky was pink and orange, and Charlie wanted nothing more than to be watching the sunset from his house, with his family. He wondered if they were looking for him.

"Now I'm gonna cut your legs loose so you can walk and if you try to run away I will kill you and your parents you understand me?" These words snapped Charlie back to reality.

Charlie nodded, now in silent tears.

The man pulled out a pocket knife from the back pocket of his black jeans. He was drenched in his own sweat. Perhaps wearing all black on a hot summer day wasn't the finest idea.

He cut Charlie's legs free and pulled him out of the van. When he went to shut the door, Charlie jerked himself away from the man and started to run. But the man ran after him, jumped on top of him, and kneed him in the back, so hard Charlie's spine cracked.

"I told you not to run!" The man shouted, his face visibly red from rage.

Charlie's body went limp, and he didn't bother screaming. No one would hear him. No one would care, he might as well be dead already.

The man pulled Charlie up by his shirt and seized his arm so tight it started to turn purple. Then he led him down a small dirt road that was not visible from the main street. They walked for only about 10 minutes, but to Charlie- it was hours.

The house was old, to say the least. It looked as if it could collapse at any moment-----the man used his key to lock the house from the inside. Then he dragged Charlie into a secret hidden room underneath the floorboards.

When they got into the room, the man took off all the duck tape and ordered Charlie to strip off all of his clothes and put them into a black trash bag.

Charlie did as the man said and stood bare before the man shivering, but it wasn't because he was cold.

The man pulled out a pair of loose sweatpants from a wooden dresser and handed it to Charlie. He ordered him to sit on an old mattress on the floor in the corner of the small room. Then he grabbed the black trash bag and went up the stairs. Locking the cellar door behind him.

He went outside to burn both his own, Charlie's clothes, and the van to destroy any evidence of the boy that might have been left behind.

Charlie got up and frantically ran around the room looking for an escape. He ran up the stairs and banged on the cellar door shouting, "Let me out! Let me out! I wanna go home!"

The man walked back inside around two hours later.

Charlie backed up against the wall when he heard the cellar door unlatch and footsteps.

"I wanna go home!" Charlie cried.

"Shut up!" The man shouted.

The man gradually approached Charlie while he took off his belt.

"What, what are you gonna do to me?"

"I told you to be quiet!"

Charlie gulped as tears sprung in his eyes.

The man smirked. "If you do everything I say and be a good boy I won't kill you."