The Abduction of Regan Emmett

Regan awoke the next morning not realizing she had even fallen asleep. She didn’t have any dreams, it was just a pitch black nothingness overpowering her sleep, as if she was dead. At least that’s what it felt like. She looked around her, noticing she was sleeping on the dirty molded bed that she was supposed to get rid of, but never managed to. She was tired from her long journey, but didn’t think she would unwillingly pass out. It had taken her a minute to collect herself, and move from the bed. Her neck was stiff and her clothes were all contorted, she looked like a hot mess, as if she was gang banged by twenty different men. She felt like a disaster and immediately got up to take a shower.
As she got in, she remembered the previous evening she had went into the next town over to buy some shampoo and conditioner. She opened up the caps and smelled the fruity scent that was given off, a pleasant smell that made her happy whenever she was feeling down. Green apples and Cherry blossom, her favorite smells. She stepped into the shower and let the cold water hit her back, she gasped at how cold it really was, but since it was a rundown home, there was no hot water, at least not for the time being, so she had to make do with what she had. She stood under the water until she got used to the cold and held herself tightly, arms wrapping around her stomach and clenching her eyes shut, and started sobbing uncontrollably. She tried being strong but something inside of her knew what she did was wrong, having this horrible pit in her stomach about stealing her father’s money and running away only because what they were saying about her were true. She had nothing going for her, she had no job, no money of her own, she was an adult being treated like a baby and she felt disgusted in herself. The first city she thought of, resided 4 people of which most were long gone and dead, except for an older woman who could die any minute and two hobo men living somewhere deep in the woods, only coming out once in a while, but never into the city. There were residents living in a couple houses but they were always done, grandchildren and great grandchildren bought the homes so they wouldn’t be demolished but they never claimed it to be their permanent residence. It reality, Regan was all alone, all because she couldn’t do anything on her own. She thought of how successful she could be if she turned out like her sister, Sabrina. A detective, whose sole purpose was to bring justice to people, to save people, to make people has a calmer sense of mind, but when it came to Regan, all Sabrina did was bring her down, and it worked.
She tried stopping herself from getting too worked up, there wasn’t anything she could do to take it back, and she knew her father would never forgive her for the pain she’s caused her family. Running away was bad enough, stealing her own father’s wallet and money was worse. He took pride in everything he accomplished, all the money he worked hard for, gone… Regan’s anger took over, a side she hated showing, but it was a side many people knew too well. She was always one for making people pity her, but not anymore, she knew she couldn’t turn back time, she could now only make a proper future for herself. It was time to get a job.

She opened up her eyes again, the bright light from in the bathroom almost blinded her, from how long her eyes were closed, she looked out of the small window in her bathroom to catch the natural light, which wasn’t even as bright as the one in her bathroom. She saw the trees swaying in the wind and the tumbleweeds moving around in circles, getting caught on mailboxes and old shed doors. She looked over by the woods and noticed there was a pathway on the eastside. It looked as though it had just recently been made and she assumed it had been made by the two men she saw the previous day. She wondered how often they really came around, she had heard rumors that they never come out of the woods, but she saw the with the old woman, being friendly and helping her move around when she needed guidance. So they couldn’t have been all that bad, or were they? As she began to look away, getting ready to turn the shower off, she saw from the corner of her eye a figure standing just below her window, maybe 15 feet away at most, it looked like a dark figure and she hesitated before looking, maybe it was just a mailbox, but as she looked over, her eyes widened. There he was, standing there, looking up at her window, which was half cracked and broken, and there were no blinds covering the inside, she was half exposed. He grinned at her with that same wicked smile he flashed before when they encountered one another. His eyes were sunk in like he hadn’t slept in weeks, his hair was in a clumped up mess, which he kept in a messy bun. He wore a black torn tank top this time with the same black ripped skinny jeans that he wore when she first saw him. It was the gothic looking fellow, he kept staring at her with those dark eyes, like a black hole sucking you in to oblivion. She tried ducking but the fear had struck her, why was he staring at her while she was showering? Before she could move away from his sights, she saw the other guy as well, running up to him, trying to force him away from her home, but he wouldn’t budge, it took all of the other man’s force to pry him from where he was standing. Regan could hear him cussing the goth man out, telling him to back the fuck off and to leave her alone, as if he was talking to a baby who wouldn’t leave their parents alone for more than five minutes, but he finally managed to pull him off, without looking up at her himself, they had disappeared and she was left wondering what had just happened. She was shaking, and slowly slid herself down until she was curled up in a ball inside the bathtub. Was this what she had to look forward to? Being stalked by a crazy gothic man and his rocker friend? She didn’t know what to do or how to handle this sort of thing, since she had never been through it. She once lived in a neighborhood where everyone was friendly, and never had any mean feelings towards anyone, it was once a peaceful time, but Regan knew moving into a ghost town had its downs, this happened to be one of them.
She crawled her way out of the tub, not knowing whether or not someone else was watching her and she didn’t want to take any chances being seen. She threw on a robe and hustled her way into the bedroom, closing the curtains and leaving the lights off, the sun bringing in just enough light, so she could see what she was doing. She felt hunted, but Regan being the woman she was, wasn’t about to let anyone get in her way of why she came to Thurmond in the first place, to get away from the drama, and she wasn’t about to let some weird men stop her from living her life. She looked through her suitcase, trying to find something to wear. She found a cute black long sleeved shirt with a fine white collar, and her black ripped skinny jeans she had recently gotten for her birthday, along with her loafers. She looked at herself in the mirror, it was no wonder the goth man wanted her, she was probably everything he longed for in a woman, but she didn’t have much else to wear, and this was her everyday wardrobe. She threw her long light brown hair in a messy bun and walked downstairs into the kitchen to make breakfast. She had forgotten to eat the night before, being as tired as she was, she forgot to do a lot of things, but today was the day of making up for wasted time.
She put in her earbuds and played some music to block out any other unwanted noises, and to take her mind off of what had happened just minutes before. She made pancakes and eggs and the smell of the food filled up the entire house, what an amazing smell it was, all these scents brought back memories she often felt sad about, even the smell of fucking pancakes made her sad. She put the spatula down and took a deep breath. The lyrics of the current song weren’t making it any better. She needed some fresh air, and decided maybe it was for the best to take a drive somewhere, instead of moping over pancakes. She took her car keys out of her purse and put her purse on the busted up love seat in what appeared to be the living room. She headed towards the front door when she saw a shadowy human like figure standing at her front door. She stood still for a moment, hoping it wasn’t the creepy man who was staring at her, but then shortly afterwards, a gentle knock echoed through the door. She ran over to her purse and took out a small pocketknife she kept in case of an emergency, she was hoping she would never have to use it, but in cases like this, she was grateful to be prepared. She slowly made her way over to the front door, and began turning the rusty knob. It was loud and creaked like it wanted the world to know it was being opened, she grunted and knew there was no turning back now, and just decided to fling it open, before stepping back a few paces. In front of her stood one of the two men, the rocker guy. He was facing the opposite direction, but she could tell it was him from the tattoos on his arms. He looked back when he realized she opened the door, another cigarette dangled from his mouth, but this time he took it out and threw it on the ground, wasting what was still a whole cigarette.
“Hi, you’re the new chick, right?” He started off strong, making Regan want to punch him in the throat for being too forward.
“Maybe?”
He chuckled before holding out his hand, they were dirty and looked like pure construction worker hands. “I wanted to properly introduce myself, I saw you yesterday pulling out, and thought I’d make myself known so you weren’t frightened of me. I’m John, and you are?”
She folded her arms and refused to shake it hand, noticing that he grabbed another cigarette from his pack and lit it, not letting his sight go from her.
“Regan…”
“Gorgeous name, for a gorgeous girl…” He winked. “Tell me, Regan, you’re not shy are you? You look like the shy type.”
“No, I’m not shy, I just prefer to not be stalked by your friend is all.”
“Oh, Ogre? I’m sorry about him, yeah he um… Hasn’t really seen a woman in years, I think he forgot what a pretty girl looks like. He meant no harm, and no he isn’t mentally retarded, he just uh, likes looking at hot chicks.” John laughed as he puffed on his cancer stick, he looked like a man who smoked 5 packs a day but didn’t give a fuck about his health.
“Yeah well, thanks for pulling him away, it is common courtesy not to watch someone as their showering.” She huffed.
“Maybe you should invest in some blinds.” His eyes narrowed.
“I don’t think that is any of your concern! No respectable man stares at a woman while their taking a shower.”
“Okay, but was I lookin’?”
“I was referring to your friend…”
John didn’t speak for a moment; it was an awkward silence that made Regan cringe. What was this man’s motive?
“Why did you decide to move to Thurmond? This is no place for a sweet girl like you.” John finally broke the silence; Regan could finally breathe again.
“Personal issues back at home, needed freedom, away from people.”
“Oh trust me, I get the freedom part, and the not wanting to be around people, but then again there are plenty of other places around the world, other than this fucking dump.” John looked concerned, weirdly enough. He started walking a little closer to Regan, now standing on the first step of her front porch. All she wanted to do was get in her car and drive, but she felt trapped.
“I like the mystery of this place.”
“Mystery? Isn’t no mystery, this is dangerous territory, you should probably leave, you never know what could happen when you least expect it…” John stepped back down from the step, and moved to the side, seeing that Regan wanted to leave. He didn’t stop her, she ignored his remark and headed to her car.
“Guess I’ll find out for myself won’t I?” Regan sarcastically smirked before getting into her car and driving off. Not even looking back or into the rear view mirror to see if they weren’t watching her go off. She wasn’t going to be intimidated by anyone, not John, not Ogre, his creepy friend. Not anyone. This was her time to live it up, her way. She was prepared to do whatever it took to show everyone she wasn’t the same little shy girl from Atlanta.

WELCOME TO GLEN JEAN
She made her way back into the little city, which was packed with children making their way to school, adults were making their way to work, she saw Ahniah greeting and waving goodbye to the kids who passed her. Regan tried parking as close as she could, attempting not to run over the kids and adults who didn’t give a shit to cut in front of her, Ahniah noticed her immediately and waved her down.
“Regan! You’re back!” Ahniah cut through people, hurrying her way over to Regan who wasn’t even out of her car yet. But Regan seeing a friendly face made her heard warm.
“Oh hey Ahniah! Good t’see ya.” Regan hopped out of her car and greeted Ahniah with a gracious hug. It was good to see a happy face around town, maybe she should have moved to Glen Jean instead.
“You as well, how’s it going? Sorry we had to cut our meeting short last night, we do have a curfew here, 6:30 is early but we had some things happen a few months ago that scared the town and since then I decided it was for the best everyone went to their homes before the sun goes down, makes them feel more protected.” Ahniah brushed her hair out of her face, the wind blew hard today.
“No worries… Oh, um I wanted to tell you something, it's kind of import-"
“Babe!” Regan was interrupted by a scream from none other than Officer Andrews himself. He ran up to Ahniah and kissed her hard, like he hadn’t seen her in years.
“Hi babe, you remember Regan, yes?”
“Of course! How’s it going, Ms… What’s your last name?”
“Emmett, but please you call just call me Regan.” She chuckled, as they shook hands once more, he gleamed with delight as he looked back at Ahniah.
“I got a call today about a murder, so I gotta go deal with that shit. Always on my days off do I get called in for drama like this.” Officer Andrews said that as if it were a joke, which stunned Regan. A murder? Aren’t policemen supposed to take those seriously.
“What happened this time?” Ahniah’s expression looked emotionless as well, what was going on?
“Some bullshit about a guy’s head getting chopped off by a machete, guess someone wasn’t having a good night, but the suspect disappeared, headed north from here. I gotta go trace him down.” Officer Andrews huffed out a raspy sigh and placed his hand on his forehead. “Headaches for fuckin’ days, lemme tell ya.” Officer Andrews gave a wave to Regan and darted off into his car, where more officers were waiting. Ahniah looked over at Regan, who was clearly confused.
“I know you’re thinking we don’t care, but honestly stuff like this happens more than you think.” Ahniah gently took Regan’s shoulder and started guiding her on a walk. “Glen Jean might be a peaceful community, but the towns guarding it, well not so much. Most towns are abandoned, but there have been a few murders in the last couple of months, men taking kids to the towns and killing them because no one is around to see it or hear it, and they think since it’s abandoned no one goes there, but that’s not true.” Ahniah stopped speaking for a moment. They stood just outside the police station. “Giuseppe takes time out of his day to scope out abandoned towns for that purpose, James too. But it’s not always just policemen who find the bodies.”
“Urban explorers?” Regan cut in.
"Yes, exactly.. But enough about that. Wasn't there something you wanted to tell me?" Ahniah looked back at the station, seeing Officer Duval walk out, his uniform jacket was off and over his shoulder, exposing a tight white T-shirt and a gold chain, untucked and his boots looked dirty, like he got dressed in a hurry. He looked up and saw both Ahniah and Regan standing there speaking and rushed over to them.
“Hope I’m not interrupting, seems you two are in deep conversation. What's up?” Officer Duval smiled widely at Regan, who returned a smile back. “Hi, Regan. Nice to see you again.”
“Hi, Officer.” She began, before looking back at Ahniah. "Anyway, I was saying, I needed to tell you something important.. Those two men I saw, that live in the woods, well this morning as I was taking a shower, one of the guys, the gothic looking one, he was watching me shower, dead watching me.. Creepiest thing I ever saw." Ahniah and James' face turned red.
"This morning?" James asked.
"Yeah, but the other guy with him dragged him off.." Regan crossed her arms, feeling uneasy.
"Well! I mean he is a creepy fuck, I wouldn't think too much of it, men will be men, just don't pay those assholes any attention, the less you see of them the better." James gently placed a hand on Regan's shoulder, trying to assure her that nothing was going to happen to her.
"Thanks, Officer. I appreciate it." She smiled, her hand resting on his.
“I feel we’ve gotten past the point of ‘officer’. Just call me James.” She nodded, as he looked at her, almost with admiration. He thought she was gorgeous, like a Giselle. He looked around to hear other officers yelling at each other to get in their cars so they could go, and some hollered out to James, but he payed no attention. “Look I was wondering if maybe you wanted to grab a drink or something, tonight?” He firmly asked her, no sugar coating it, which made Regan tempted. She loved a gorgeous man who took charge and went after what he wanted. Being the anti-social she was back at home, she wasn’t usually interested in seeing anyone, but starting a new life meant meeting new people, and James was definitely a charmer.
“Sure, I’d love to.” Regan grimaced. Ahniah clapped, happy to see Regan and James getting to know one another. Ahniah knew how hard it was making new friends, and meeting people, and Regan looked more shy than anyone Ahniah ever met.
“I’m so glad we’re all friends now, maybe one night we can all grab some dinner together?” She asked Regan, James was also waiting for an answer.
“Yes, it’s a plan, for sure.” Regan nodded fiercely. James pulled out a card from his pocket, his telephone number was placed on the back. “It’s my personal number don’t worry, and uh... I don’t usually give this away to people, so..” He glanced at her, she felt happier than she’d been since moving out of Atlanta. Was this a date?
“Here’s mine too. Just in case, ya never know when I may need some help.” His eyes grew wide, flirting 101. He took his phone out and placed her number in it. “I’ll be using this.”

“DUVAL! GET THE FUCK OVER HERE, WE GOTTA GO MEET WITH ANDREWS!” He overheard his boss screaming at him from behind, which only meant one thing.
“Duty calls.. Gotta run, but I’ll.. I’ll call you later on. Have a good one.” James winked at her, before running off. Ahniah just stood there, being the third wheel.
“You’re going on a date, already!” She clapped.
“No. No! It’s just a friendly outing is all, it’s good to meet people, especially when you’re living in a town with literally no one around.” But Regan knew better, this was I fact a date, and she was excited. “Anyway, I better head back home, I have some things to take care of.”
Ahniah nodded and hugged Regan calmly. She was happy to have a friend in Ahniah, she needed someone like her in her life. Someone who was like her in many ways.

LEAVING GLEN JEAN, PLEASE COME BACK SOON

She was officially back in Thurmond. Pulling onto the dirt road and back to her 3 story home. She saw Marilyn once again sitting outside, sipping on her tea, with the obnoxious John helping her feed her two cats, he put the bowls down and looked up to see Regan pulling in, she tried to avoid him, but he was persistent.
“Howdy neighbor!” He waved roughly.
She didn’t respond. She grabbed her keys and started unlocking the door.
“Awe, come on don’t be like that, Regan!” He sarcastically pouted. She rolled her eyes and went inside, slamming the door shut behind her. She could hear his laughter from outside, what a smart ass.
She didn’t care about how stupid her neighbors were, she had more important things to look forward to, like seeing James that night, she was ready to get her drink on with a cute guy, and getting to know someone who she might actually for once be compatible with. Maybe this was her chance at finding true love, although she didn’t want to get ahead of herself.

Night fell quick, it seemed to have fell more and more quickly each night, she lay on her couch in the living room, the only three seated couch that looked less damaged than the rest. She stared at the ceiling, picturing a better life, when she heard a ding on her phone.

Text from: James
Hey, there. It’s James, I’ll be working late, we had a huge case today. But if you’re up around midnight, I promise we’ll still have a wonderful time.
Regan glistened, she was willing to stay up as late as possible for this one chance of happiness, even though she was tired, she was ready for this. She got up and went upstairs to find some appropriate clothing, and saw a cute red dress she wore for her high school prom, which lucky for her still fit. She lay it out on her bed for when it was time to get ready, and lay across the bed, looking up at the dank broken down ceiling. Why was everything such a disaster in this home?

THUMP
THUMP

Regan jolted upward, a loud thumping noise was coming from her window. The curtains were down and she couldn’t see but she could sense that something was out there, but what could be hitting her window on the second floor?

THUMP
THUMP

There it was again… She wasn’t prepared for what happened next. Nothing could ever prepare you. She went downstairs and threw the front door open, knowing if it was John and Ogre, she would open a can of kick ass on them, she wasn’t in the mood for their games.
“Okay, John if you’re the one hitting my fucking window, enough is enough!” She held her pocketknife close, opening it up in case shit got real. There was no way she was going down without a fight.

“Hello?” She called out, her voice cracking. But no one was there, maybe she was just imagining things. Maybe it was just a tree branch or the window being so old, the wind was moving it.
She stood in her place for a moment than started walking back towards her front door, when she heard rustling from the bushes next to her house, along with whispers. She knew this time; things were about to get really bad.
“I have a knife, so try me!”
That’s exactly what happened.

BANG!
Out stepped Ogre, the crazy gothic mad man, holding a shovel. He knocked her to the ground, and she was out cold, and next thing he knew, he was dealing with dead weight, and everything went dark.

The next morning, when Regan awakened, her eyes were groggy, her head was pounding, she took her hand and placed it on the back of her head, a huge lump was newly placed there. She couldn’t make out much, her eyes were still heavy, she felt like she had just recovered from being plastered, and drugged at the same time, although she didn’t remember going out with James. Oh shit… James, what happened?
Her eyes started coming back to their natural vision, she rubbed them gently and looked around, it was pitch black, and not familiar to her at all. She looked down at her body, her ankles were tied by thick rope, and so were her hands. Her hair was down and a tangled mess, she was dirty, sitting on a nasty mattress that look like it came from a horror movie.
She looked up, seeing a man standing in front of her but it was hard to make out who it was at first. He was in the shadows, leaning against the wall, his arms crossed, but his evil chuckle made the whole room go eerie.
He finally stepped out, and without question, she knew who it was. John.
He kneeled in front of her, brushing a single hair strand from her face.

“Well hello darling, welcome to my home.”