It's Ok to Cry

He was staring at the boy, tied up to a chair with duct tape over his mouth.

A smirk came onto his face. Today was the day. Today was the day he’d become a rich man and they’d see that he didn’t care about that stupid job that he got rejected from.

He took a few steps around the boy, the wood floor creaking slightly under his feet from being so old, and the boy stirred a little.

He was hunched over slightly from sleeping in the chair. His eye a little puffy and he could see some blood dried on his face from the hits he received last night for his stupid idea of helping that damn cop. He’d never do that. Unless he wanted to get hit again.

He turned around, deciding to go make some food for himself. The kid would be fine. It was after all, going to be over within less than 12 hours.

As he made his way up the stairs he turned around when he heard muffling noises coming from where he previously was looking.

The kid was awake now, looking at him with wide eyes, well, as wide as they would go from the one looking like it was swelling up and he couldn’t stop the smile from seeing his wrath affecting the kid.

He turned back around to ignore him and started his ascend up the stairs to go make himself some breakfast when the kid made the noise again.

He let out a heavy sigh and turned back around and his demeanor changed.

He wasn’t the cold sadistic person anymore. He actually felt bad for what happened to the kid, despite the fact he didn’t know why. He didn’t know why the kid was tied up to the chair. He didn’t know why his mouth was taped shut and why it looked like he had tear stains on his cheeks. He didn’t know why his eyes were bloodshot and when the boy nodded his head he looked down at his own hands to see two of his knuckles broken open and scabbed over already. He didn’t know what the heck was going on, but he knew that whatever it was, wasn’t good.

He quickly ran to the kid when he heard a muffled cry from him.

“This may hurt a little, but…” the man trailed off while slowly ripping the tape off of the boys face.

“I have to pee.” the boy said once all the tape was off of his face and he moved his mouth around to get it to loosen up.

“Sure. No problem.” the man quickly said, getting work on the knots that were underneath the chair and then around the boys hands that were tied around the back.

“So what school are you from?” the man asked while the boy rubbed his wrists from where his restraints were holding him in place.

He looked at the man before him with a confused and angry look in his eyes before saying, “You should know. You kidnapped me from school!”

The man looked completely surprised before an appalled look came on his face. “I did no such thing! How could you accuse me doing that?”

“Whatever loony. I need to pee.” the boy stated again while getting up from the chair.

The man just looked at him, completely confused and yet upset that he would accuse him of kidnapping him. Then again, he didn’t understand why the kid was even here in his basement, tied up to a chair. But…the kid had to pee. Deal with one thing at a time.

“I’ll show you to the bathroom. Then you got a lot of explaining to do.” the man said and then extended his arm forward to the boy to have him go first up the stairs.

The boy looked at him for a few seconds, completely lost and somewhat scared that the man who kidnapped him, the man who had hit him 14 times last night, would be this….out of it the next day.

It must be a guilt thing or something….

“So what’s your name?” he heard the man ask from behind him as they walked through the kitchen. He noticed a knife board off in a corner of the counter along with a sink full of dishes and a whole bunch of sticky notes all over the place. On the counter, on the cabinets, on the refrigerator. It seemed like the guy put notes anywhere that would catch his attention.

“Frankie.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you Frankie. I’m John. The bathroom is up this way.”

Now Frankie was really confused. The man was acting like a completely different person than he was the night before and the whole day yesterday. How could it be the same man, and yet….not be the same man?

Nonetheless, he followed the man up to the second flight of stairs and noted more sticky notes all over the place. In the living room, in the hallway, on the back of the front door.

This man…is so incredible weird!

“Here you go. I’ll be right downstairs. I’m making….hmmm…eggs and bacon sound good to you?” the man asked while they stood outside one of the doors.

“You’re going to feed me?” Frankie asked, even more confused than before. He just couldn’t wrap his head around how weird this guy was. How different he was after a nights sleep. It was so incredible strange.

“Well of course I’m going to feed you silly. You are after all a guest in my house.”

“But guests come willingly and are able to leave whenever they want.” Frankie pointed out, his will to use the bathroom gone from trying to figure out what was wrong with this man.

“You can leave whenever you like. Just stay for breakfast and explain to me why you were tied up in my basement. That’s all I want to know. Anyways, I’ll be downstairs cooking.” And with a small smile, the man turned around and left, making his way down the stairs as Frankie looked at him even more confused before entering the bathroom.

As the man made his way down the stairs, a bright and cheery smile on his face despite the fact that he was so confused as to why there was a random stranger tied to a chair in his basement, he noticed the newspaper laying on the floor in the hallway and picked it up to put it on the little side table he had.

Placing it on the table in the hallway, he looked up and saw his reflection in the mirror, only, there was a yellow sticky note stuck to where his eyes and nose would be in the reflection and read it quickly.

Don’t let the kid go. He’ll turn you in to the cops.

He sucked in a breath before turning around to see the kid running down the stairs heading straight for the front door.

And that’s when he changed again. He was angry. He was cold. He was malicious. And he was pissed that the kid was about to escape.

“Stupid John.” he mumbled under his breath before lunging towards the boy and pinning them both down towards the ground, the kid underneath.

“What are you doing John? You told me I could leave whenever I wanted to.”

“John’s not here anymore.” the man said back to the kid, struggling to keep him still pinned down. “Mark’s here now, and you’re not going anywhere.”