1KIDNAPPED!
THERE WERE NO seismic quakes, horrendous storms, nothing suspicious at all to warn Kelcie Murphy that she was about to unleash the greatest evil the world has ever known. Only a field trip to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
She’d been suddenly moved back to Boston last week, to a group home as miserable as the last nine, and it was her first day at yet another new school.
The bus ride was filled with the usual awkward smiles. Kelcie did her best to remain invisible, choosing a seat in the very back, and slinking down, pretending like she was asleep.
A slimy spitball struck her nose.
The boys across the aisle laughed, waving at her, trying to get her attention.
“Hey … Red?” one of them called.
Kelcie wiped the spitball off with her sleeve, hoping they’d move on to someone who cared, but they didn’t.
A wet straw poked her cheek. “Hey. I’m talking to you. What’s your name?”
“Asher, you’re so disgusting.” A girl with brown pigtails and flower overalls in the seat in front of Kelcie glanced over her shoulder, rolling her eyes. From the smirk on her face, Kelcie could tell she didn’t actually find him disgusting in the least. She spun around, smiling. “Your name’s Kelcie, right? I was behind you when Mr. Katz took attendance.”
Kelcie nodded. She pressed her sliding sunglasses up her nose, leaning the back of her head against the window, hoping the cool glass would ease the pounding in her skull. Kelcie’s head hurt, all the time. A dull ache that never went away. Bright lights and stress made it exponentially worse. Before tests, her eyes always felt like they were going to pop out of their sockets. It was why she never did very well in school. The pain made it hard to concentrate on anything but wanting it to go away.
“Sinusitis,” the first doctor had said.
“Vertigo,” the next diagnosed.
The last doctor was a different kind. He told her it was all in her head. Basically, she was nuts. After that, Kelcie stopped complaining.
“I’m Jenna. This is Susan.”
The blond girl next to Jenna saluted.
“I like your jean jacket. Looks vintage,” Jenna said, sliding into a gasp. “And that necklace. Can I see it?”
She reached out to touch Kelcie’s most prized possession. The necklace was the only thing of importance she had on her the night she was found. It was nothing special. A simple silver charm, a branch from a tree, but it was the only link to her past.
Kelcie recoiled.
Nobody was allowed to touch it.
Jenna took the hint. She lowered her offending hand, giving Kelcie an unwanted sympathetic smile. “Sorry. Um…” she hummed. “Want to be in our buddy group? We have room for one more. Has to be three.”
“No, thanks.”
“Why not?” Susan asked. “Someone already ask you?” Her expression was one of extreme disbelief.
“No.” Kelcie looked out the window at the piles of dirty snow.
“Then why not?” Jenna sounded insulted.
Kelcie looked back at her. The truth was that for Kelcie, friends never stuck. They found out she was in foster care and lived in a group home, or worse, their parents did, and then they blew her off. Said crappy things behind her back. That hurt way worse than not having friends.
So she lied. “I like being alone.”
* * *
KELCIE WAS THE last off the bus, the frigid air seeping through her jean jacket and hoodie. As she slung her backpack higher on her shoulder, a woman fell in step behind her.
Kelcie glanced over her shoulder, seeing a silver BOSTON’S FINEST patrolman’s badge on the woman’s lapel. Snow-white hair in a bun, a baseball cap, her hand gripping the top of a baton, the cop tossed Kelcie a lopsided sardonic grin that raised the hairs on the back of her neck. Police gave her the heebie-jeebies. Grilled for hours more than once for things she didn’t do, and a few things she did, Kelcie never took it as a good sign when they came too close. She picked up the pace, scooting around bodies until classmates surrounded her.
The museum was busy and loud, with loads of parents with strollers and other classes roaming around. Kelcie slowed her pace, walking several steps behind the rest of her classmates, hoping they’d forget she was here.
“Stay with the group,” someone called from up ahead.
She hung her thumbs on her backpack strap and stared at the blue veins running through the polished white marble floors as they jolted up a few flights of stairs, through an echoey muraled rotunda, and into a room that transported them into ancient times.
There were Egyptian pharaoh statues, chiseled stone tables with hieroglyphics, cabinets of jewelry from ancient Greece and Rome. It was all nice enough, but what Kelcie found in the next room was way more interesting.
Shields, swords, spears, knives, and staffs hung on the wall, all at eye level, all begging to be touched. Kelcie checked to make sure the room was empty, then ran her finger over the grooves on the pommel of a long sword. The placard said it was Viking.
Another glance over her shoulder told her she was still alone, her classmates’ conversations and laughter wafting from the other room. The coast was clear. Kelcie set her backpack down. A thrill ran through her, shifting her pulse into overdrive as her fingers hovered over the grip. She knew she shouldn’t touch it. Knew she would probably get caught, but that never stopped her before. Her lips curled into a mischievous grin as her fingers wrapped around the cold metal grip. The steel blade was so heavy it took two hands to lift the sword off the rack.
She lunged, thrusting the tip at a round wooden shield, careful to stop before it struck, then pivoted, taking a wild swing, almost cutting Elliott Blizzard’s head off.
Kelcie dropped the tip of the sword, stabbing the marble. “What are you doing here?”
Elliott was Kelcie’s assigned social services caseworker. She only heard from him for two reasons: she was moving again, or she did something wrong. It had only been a week ago that he brought her to Boston. She had a bad feeling this wasn’t another one of those visits.
He wasn’t in his usual navy-blue suit. He was dressed entirely in black, black turtleneck, black pants, as if he were going to rob a bank. All he needed was a black ski mask.
He frowned, taking the sword and returning it to the rack. “We have a serious problem and by we, I mean you.”
His spiked dark hair and thin brows lifted on the word you.
Dread weakened Kelcie’s knees. She was in trouble, but why? How? It had only been a week! “What problem?”
The temperature felt like it dropped ten degrees as the police officer from earlier stepped into the room.
“You’re going to need to come with us,” she said.
“Why?” Kelcie backed up, bumping into the shield.
The cop used two bony fingers to pull off Kelcie’s sunglasses.
The fluorescents hit her like a bolt of lightning. Kelcie blinked, wincing, waiting for the explosive pain behind her eyeballs to settle down, but her nerves only made it worse. She looked up through hooded lids at the officer, finding intense black eyes glaring down at her, so dark in fact Kelcie couldn’t see pupils.
“Can I have those back, please?” Kelcie reached for them.
The cop shook her head, putting them in her pocket. “The woman who runs your new group home, a Mrs. Belts, reported her wallet and several pieces of her jewelry missing this morning.”
“Mrs. Belts?” The heavy-set woman hadn’t said two words to Kelcie since she moved in. This made no sense. Kelcie shoved her hands in her sweatshirt pocket. “She’s wrong.”
The officer picked up Kelcie’s backpack, sliding the strap over her shoulder, like she was going to keep it. “You need to come with us.”
“Why? I didn’t take anything!” The last time something like this happened, Kelcie went willingly, was acquitted, but still ended up in juvenile hall until Blizzard could find another place for her to live. She could run. In the crowded museum, she could easily lose the cop and probably Blizzard, but if she did, Elliott would never bail her out again. He would abandon her, like her parents did. She couldn’t afford to lose him too.
Jenna and Susan bopped into the room, giggling. They sobered when they saw Kelcie cornered.
“What do we have here?” Susan goaded.
“Should I get Mr. Katz?” Jenna asked.
The cop pulled a pair of handcuffs out from her belt, sending Jenna and Susan bolting out of the room. Kelcie crossed her arms, hugging herself, shaking her head.
“Those won’t be necessary, Officer Grimes, will they, Kelcie?” Blizzard asked, setting a firm hand on her shoulder. “Come. Now.”
Kelcie nodded. “Okay.”
With Kelcie sandwiched between Blizzard and Officer Grimes, they went down the stairs, but turned right, heading farther into the museum.
“The exit is that way,” Kelcie said, shooting her thumb over her shoulder.
“The car is parked in the back. We’re going out by way of the basement,” Grimes explained.
That sounded ominous. Was Mrs. Belts waiting for her with some made-up evidence? Kelcie ground her fingernails into the back of her clasped hands in her pocket. She was going to end up at the station, or worse, juvenile hall again.
Every school group they passed gawked. Fingers pointed. Teachers shifted their students, pressing them against the walls, moving out of the way.
Humiliated, her head aching beyond belief, Kelcie raised the hood on her sweatshirt and lowered her eyes to the floor, hoping that, at the very least, she would be able to leave Boston. Having been abandoned here, Kelcie should’ve known bad luck would follow her the minute she returned.
It wasn’t until Officer Grimes shouldered an exit door with a sign on it that said Employees Only that Kelcie’s internal alarm bells first pinged.
“We’re not supposed to be back here. Why can’t we go out the front and walk around the building?”
“It’s fine, Kelcie.” Blizzard tossed her a placating smile. “Just do as you’re told.”
Kelcie had no reason not to trust Elliott Blizzard. He had never lied to her before. In fact, he was the most frustratingly honest person in her life. So, you were abandoned, he said the day they met. You will not only survive this, but be stronger for it. Some of that was true. Kelcie learned to take care of herself, never to depend on anyone for anything, but that didn’t mean she liked it that way.
Grimes padded along with authoritative, determined steps, as if she knew this museum inside and out. She led them through a maze of short corridors, passing several small offices, garnering confused stares from museum staff.
“Excuse me!” a man called as they rushed by. “Are you lost?” he hollered. His chair squeaked, swiveling, and his footsteps plodded after them, but not before Blizzard forced Kelcie to take a sharp left, and then another into a supply closet.
“We’re going the wrong way,” Kelcie exclaimed, stopping. “Wha—”
Grimes slapped a hard, frigid hand over Kelcie’s mouth as Elliott hoisted her off the floor. Stunned and panicked, Kelcie thrashed, yelling muffled cries for help, but the man’s steps passed right by.
“We’re not going to hurt you,” Elliott whispered into her ear.
Officer Grimes’ frosty breath tickled her other ear. “Unless you don’t cooperate.”
Was she being kidnapped? Who would pay ransom for her? The only person who cared if she lived or died for the past eight years was the one holding her hostage! Maybe this was a nightmare. She would wake up on the bus, covered in spitballs, with the word loser scribbled in permanent marker on her forehead. That had to be it … but still.
Kelcie struggled against Blizzard’s impossible hold when Grimes poked her head out the door. They swapped hands over Kelcie’s mouth as Grimes gave the signal that the coast was clear, and then they were on the move.
Across the hall from the closet was another door. Heavier. Thicker metal with a plate beneath a tinted window that said KEEP OUT. Grimes plowed through it with gusto. As soon as Blizzard was on the other side of the door, he kicked it shut, and hoisted Kelcie over his shoulder, pinning her legs.
Beyond the door was a steep stairwell. The only light came from fluorescents in the hallway seeping through the door’s tinted window, leaving the landing and a few of the descending steps visible in haunting, muted shadows. Beneath that, nothing, only pitch black. Nightmare or not, Kelcie wasn’t going down there!
She screamed. The high-pitched sound bounced off the walls, echoing in the cavernous stairwell. Twisting, flipping, bending, beating his back, Kelcie tried every imaginable way to break free, but failed miserably. Blizzard was too strong and refused to put her down. She was trapped.
“Scream all you want. No one can hear you now…” Grimes laughed, pulling out a flashlight as they started down into the bowels of the museum. With every stifled scream from Kelcie, Elliott only jogged faster until the stairs ended.
A tubular light turned on. Motion detected, Kelcie assumed. They were in a windowless tomb enclosed by concrete walls that looked built to stand up to a nuclear attack. It was dead quiet except for faint squeaks and scratching Kelcie suspected were rats running along the pipes spanning the low ceiling.
They stopped outside a huge round door made of reinforced steel at least two feet thick with a combination lock and large wheel. A vault, and the door was ajar.
Kelcie wrestled so much, Blizzard finally set her on her feet, but didn’t let go. “Kelcie! Calm down!”
“Get control of her,” Grimes snarled.
Kelcie swore she saw fangs! This isn’t real! It’s impossible! She stomped on Elliott’s shiny black leather shoes, grinding her heel into his toes. His grip loosened enough for her to rip free. She took off running, but only made it to the bottom of the stairwell before Elliott somehow raced around her, blocking her path.
Kelcie held her hands up, backing down the stairs. “How did you do—?”
Blizzard cut her off, spinning her around, grabbing hold of her upper arms. “Listen to me. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. But I promise that if you do what you’re told, you will have the answers you’ve been looking for since the day I met you. You will find out who your parents are.”
Kelcie stretched, trying to get him off of her. “You’re lying. If you knew who my parents were, you would’ve told me a long time ago. You know how important that is to me!”
“Maybe I would or maybe I wouldn’t…” Blizzard let that sink in. “Maybe you’ve been kept clueless for a reason.”
Kelcie’s heart sank into her shoes. This was a nightmare … but what if it wasn’t? What if…? It didn’t matter. There was no way she was going into that vault, not without a fight.
Blizzard must’ve seen the mutiny in her eyes, because the next thing she knew he was hefting her off the ground again. He suffered scratches, brute force pummeling, anything Kelcie could inflict on him, but it wasn’t near enough to stop him from carrying her back down the damp tunnel, over the threshold, and inside the vault. Then, Grimes slammed the door shut behind them, plunging them into total darkness.
Copyright © 2022 by Erika Lewis
