Mightier than the Sword - part 5

Chapter 20

Natasha and Anna were on their respective beds, Natasha was sat at the pillow end, with her knees tucked up to her chest, whilst Anna was lay on her side, facing Natasha and fully stretched out.

‘Can’t say I’m a big fan of this kidnapping plan,’ Natasha said.

‘Me neither, it’s definitely not what I signed up for,’ Anna replied. ‘But I really don’t think we can start getting too precious with our principles and morals, considering what we’ve already done.’

‘I know we’re murderers already, but this is definitely different. This may be a spectacular case of hair splitting but I got involved with this plan because I wanted to kill a particular type of person, not random innocent people off the streets,’ Natasha’s eyes became moist and she pulled her knees in a little tighter.

‘One thing being in this gang has taught me is that there are seriously few genuinely innocent people.’

‘Maybe not totally innocent, but I still think the vast majority don’t deserve to die,’ Natasha said, followed by a little sniffle.

‘This is starting to turn into a philosophical debate and I’m way too close to insane to be having one of them,’ Anna said and got a little laugh out of Natasha. ‘One thing I will say is we’ve made our bed, now we have to lie in it.’

‘Don’t ever think you’re not free Anna,’ Natasha said and made prolonged eye contact.

‘Once again, way too deep for a crazy person. All I know is I won’t be free if I’m in prison, and I reckon staying with the gang is my best chance of staying out of there right now,’ Anna said as she sat up on the bed. ‘If you’ve got some crazy plan, you will let me in on it won’t you?’

‘Scott’s the one with all the plans, I’m just saying we shouldn’t stop thinking for ourselves,’ Natasha replied. ‘Come on they’ll be waiting for us downstairs.’

The two ladies made their way downstairs, where the four male members of the gang were indeed waiting for them.

‘Are we all ready?’ Scott checked.

The gang all made various gestures and verbal responses to communicate that they were ready.

‘Excellent,’ Scott said. ‘Remember, we aren’t looking for anyone in particular, but we are looking for people out on their own. I want this to be done with as little fuss as possible, without drawing any attention to ourselves.’

‘And here’s me thinking you were craving the attention of the cops,’ Anna said.

‘If that was the case I’m sure we’d all be locked up by now,’ Scott replied quickly.

‘Maybe,’ Anna reluctantly conceded.

‘Don, you’ll do the driving tonight, I might want Justin to help with the snatching.’

‘Fair enough,’ Don replied. ‘As long as I’m the one that gets to kill them in the end, you did promise that remember,’ Don checked with Scott.

‘Yes Don, the job of chief executioner is still yours,’ Scott replied.

‘In that case give me the keys to the van and we’ll get started,’ Don said after clapping his hands together, then holding one of them out expectantly.

Don followed driving directions from Scott, keeping them in quiet areas on the outskirts of the City centre. It was late at night, pitch black and there weren’t many people out at all, after over half an hour of driving they hadn’t seen anyone that was on their own.

‘What about this guy?’ Don said, full of enthusiasm, pointing at a young man who was walking towards them on the opposite said of the road.

‘Looks perfect,’ Scott said. ‘Pull over, then we’ll wait for him to walk past and then Justin and I will jump out and grab him.’

Don did as he was told, then Justin and Scott got out of the front of the van. ‘Slide that side door open for us,’ Scott told Anna as he was getting out of the van.

Justin walked quickly, following the man and catching up to him. Scott followed about ten paces behind. Just as the man was about to turn round to see who was following him, Justin kicked the legs from under him, causing him to land on his back, with a resounding crunch as his head hit the pavement. Justin quickly punched him in the face and then with the help of Scott dragged him into the back of the van. Scott jumped into the back of the van and Justin back into the front, then Don accelerated the van away from the crime scene.

The back section of the van had six seats in it. Anna and Scott dragged the kidnap victim onto the back seat, he was still very much in a daze from Justin’s earlier actions, but as they put him in the seat he did start to offer resistance.

Natasha was sat in the seat in front of him, holding Ronny’s handgun, she pointed the weapon at the victim. ‘Struggling really isn’t a good idea.’

‘Not at all,’ Anna added. ‘Besides, most guys would love to be tied up by me,’ she said as she held up some rope and then tied his arms and legs to the seat.

Nearly another half an hour went by before they saw anyone else sufficiently vulnerable. In a remote area, away from any houses Don spotted someone.

‘Now what is a pretty young thing like that, doing walking alone at this time of night?’ Don commented on a young lady walking down the narrow road they were on, heading in the same direction as them.

‘She’s perfect,’ Scott said as he peered through the windscreen of the van whilst leaning on the front seat.

Don went about a hundred yards past the girl and then pulled over. Justin, Scott and Anna got out of the van and faced the young lady who continued to walk towards the van, she was walking quickly but uneasily on high heeled shoes, looking down at the ground as she walked. When she got within twenty yards of the van she looked up, saw the van and the three figures dressed all in black, in complete contrast to her short white dress. She stopped in her tracks when she saw them, at first she looked at them with mostly confusion and wariness. After a few moments of looking at them she started to shake her head and tears started to roll down her cheeks.

‘Oh no, no, not me,’ she said with a quivering voice as the head shaking became more vigorous. She then turned and started to run away, kicking off her shoes as she went.

‘I’ll go,’ Anna said and set off sprinting after the young lady. Anna’s quick, athletic running style caught up with her in only a few yards. When she felt that Anna had caught right up to her the teenager slowed down and started to cower. Anna grabbed one of her arms and turned her round so they were face to face.

‘Oh God no, please no,’ she said with her teary eyes closed and a quiver in her voice.

‘Listen to me,’ Anna spoke as if she was a disgruntled parent who had just found her child smoking for the first time. ‘If you make any more noise, I will kill you right here, right now. If you’re quiet there’s definitely a small chance that you’ll survive, so how about you play the odds sweetie?’

Anna held onto the arm as she walked the tearful, but quiet girl back to the van.

‘Good work Anna,’ Scott greeted her as she got back to the van. ‘Put her in the back next to the other one, and we can head home before anyone notices her.’

Anna led her into the seat next to the first kidnap victim, then picked up some more rope.

‘I really don’t think we need to tie this one up,’ Natasha said to Anna, as Ronny slid the door shut from the inside and Don set off driving back to the house.

‘Yeah I’m sure you’re right,’ Anna conceded, but kept hold of the rope.

‘What’s your name honey?’ Natasha asked her.

‘Melanie,’ she said, amongst sobs and sniffles, as she looked down at the floor.

‘How old are you Melanie?’ Natasha asked.

‘Seventeen.’

‘Melanie, what on earth were you doing out here in the middle of nowhere, all alone at this time of night?’ Natasha wondered.

Melanie wiped her nose on the back of her right hand. ‘I was at a party with my boyfriend, he was driving us home, we got into an argument, I told him to stop the car and let me out.’

‘And he did?!’ Natasha checked with wide eyed incredulity.

‘Sounds to me like you’ve not chose a good boyfriend,’ Anna said. ‘He ever tie you up?’ Anna asked as she held up a piece of rope.

‘No,’ Melanie said, shaking her head as the tears began to flow.

‘Nothing good about this guy at all from what I can see,’ Anna replied.

‘Try not to be too scared Melanie,’ Natasha said, then shook her head at her own comment.

‘Yeah, go to your happy place,’ Anna added with a smile.

Julia was at home that night, but she still couldn’t stop working on the case. Her dining room table was covered with notes, she was pacing around the table, over and over again. Even though it was a little after eleven o’clock post meridian, she got out her phone and dialled Luke, she needed to talk to someone, and she knew it was most likely that Luke would still be up.

‘Hey Julia,’ Luke answered the phone in a buoyant manner.

‘Oh good, you sound awake, thought you would be,’ Julia replied.

‘You know me, always the night owl.’

‘Not interrupting the flow of creative juices am I?’

‘No not at all, what’s on your mind?’

‘I’m having a particularly insomnia like night tonight, I’m sure you can guess why.’

‘Still no luck catching the serial killers?’

‘No, although we have made a few breakthroughs, but knowing there are six of them and knowing most of their names, really hasn’t helped us.’

‘Anything in particular bothering you tonight?’

‘On the latest taped message, he did leave a bizarre clue, will probably lead to nothing, but I thought it might be the sort of thing that you could solve.’

‘I’m going to take that as a compliment and ignore the possible reference to me having a similar mind to a serial killer.’

‘Please do. Anyway here’s what he says; my first clue is that I think you’ve been looking for me in the wrong place, in fact we are staying somewhere that has been alternatively famous for descending on the massive jump for the human race.’

‘That Scott Thatcher is one weird guy.’

‘I think we’d already established that much,’ Julia replied.

‘Yeah I’m sure you have. That all you’ve got for me?’

‘That’s the only thing in particular.’

‘Oh okay, I should probably go then, I really should get some writing done tonight, but I will definitely work on the clue too.’

‘Oh all right, I’ll let you go then, thanks for the chat.’

‘My pleasure as always, sorry I couldn’t be more help.’

‘I’m sure you will be, bye,’ Julia said.

‘Bye.’

Chapter 21

The gang got back to the house, with their two hostages. Justin dragged the male hostage by the arm as he followed Scott into the house. Whilst Natasha held Melanie’s hand and guided her in through the door.

‘Excellent night’s work,’ Scott enthused once all of them were in the house. ‘Put them upstairs in the spare bedroom. Give them a bed each and tie them to it. Anna and Ronny went with Justin and Natasha as they lead the hostages to the spare room. Once they were in the spare room Justin tied the man to one bed, and Natasha tied Melanie to the other.

‘I think Scott wa-wa-wants us to ga-ga-ga-gag them too,’ Ronny said, then he detected a non-existent smirk on Melanie’s face. He lashed out at her, slapping her across the face with the back of his hand. Melanie let out a gasp, partly out of pain, partly shock.

‘What the fuck are you doing?’ Natasha asked, as she put herself between Ronny and Natasha.

‘She was la-la-laughing at me,’ Ronny said as he backed away.

‘No she wasn’t at all,’ Natasha said. ‘You really need to sort out your paranoia.’

At this point Scott entered the room. ‘What’s all the fuss about?’

‘Ronny just slapped Melanie for no reason,’ Natasha said.

‘How many times do I have to tell you Ronny, if you want to be part of this team, you need to be able to control your anger,’ Scott said, shaking his head as he walked up close to Ronny.

‘I’m sorry, I just sn-sna.’

‘Oh I know, you just snapped,’ Scott interrupted. ‘That’s a coincidence, because my patience with you has just snapped too. Somebody please kill this pointless human being.’

Without hesitation Justin grabbed Ronny’s head from behind, twisted his head forcefully, until in make a resounding cracking noise.

‘That’ll do it,’ Anna said as Justin let go of Ronny, whose lifeless body collapsed in a heap on the floor.

‘Natasha gag these two, Justin get him out of here,’ Scott said as he gestured toward Ronny.

Don entered the room, looking to see what the commotion was about. ‘Oh my God, is he dead?’ Don said as he dropped to his knees next to Ronny’s body, and put both hands to his own face.

‘I had no idea you were so close to him,’ Scott said.

‘I don’t give a crap about him,’ Don said as he stood back up. ‘But if somebody was going to die I wanted it to be me to do the killing.’

‘Sorry you missed out this time Don,’ Scott said.

‘I can’t take this waiting around anymore. I need some action,’ Don said. ‘Sorry boss, but I’m going see if I can make it on my own.’

‘Your choice,’ Scott said as Don walked out of the room and headed to the bedroom he’d shared with Ronny, to get some of his belongings.

‘You sure about letting him go?’ Anna asked Scott.

‘I don’t think he’ll last five minutes on his own,’ Scott replied. ‘But we’re no weaker without him.’

‘I’d go as far as to say with are much stronger without him,’ Anna said.

‘Exactly. You help Justin carry Ronny down to the cellar for now,’ Scott told Anna.

‘Sure, I get all the cool jobs,’ Anna said as she picked up Ronny’s feet and Justin picked him up from under his shoulders.

Scott followed them down to the cellar, leaving Natasha to do the gagging. As she put the gag around Melanie’s mouth she whispered into her ear; ‘If you make a fuss, they’ll kill you, keep quiet and don’t be any problem to them, and there’s a good chance you’ll survive.’

Natasha repeated the whispered advice to the male hostage as she gagged him.

Later that night, Natasha was lying awake on the bed that had been hers for the duration of her stay in England, she hadn’t changed from what she had worn for the nights activities. Anna was fast asleep in the bed next to her, a state Anna had been in for a couple of hours or so. Natasha glanced at the digital alarm clock that was on a table between the two beds, the brightly coloured display told her that it was a little after two o’clock in the morning. She got off the bed slowly and quietly, picked a mobile phone off that bed side table and her handbag from by the door, then crept out of the room, making virtually no noise. The near silence of her movement continued as she walked to and into the room where the hostages were being kept. Natasha putting the light on in the room caused both the hostages to stir from their, understandably light, sleep. Without any delay Natasha took a picture of each of them on her phone, then turned the light off and headed to the bathroom.

Once inside the bathroom Natasha locked the door, then reached into her bag and pulled out a large pair of scissors and a bottle. Natasha stood in front of the sink and looked into the mirror, then started chopping away at her hair, continuing with the scissors until her hair was about four inches long all over. Once she had finished the cropping of her hair, she reached for the bottle.

About half an hour later Natasha came out of a completely clean bathroom, with her hair looking playfully messed up and bright blonde. She walked slowly back to the room she shared with Anna, put a pair of boots on, taking great care to make no noise, then grabbed a small rucksack that was by the door, took one look at Anna, and headed for the door.

‘You not going to say goodbye?’ Anna whispered as Natasha turned her back.

Natasha stopped still, produced a little smile and turned round. She walked back towards Anna’s bed, then crouched down by it.

‘I was going to, but then I remembered how cranky you are when you’ve just woke up,’ Natasha whispered.

‘I hope you know what you’re doing sweetie.’

‘I know I definitely can’t be a part of this anymore.’

‘And this escape plan is a one person only deal?’

‘I’m sorry, but yeah, I need to do this on my own.’

‘That’s cool, not sure I’d be good at the whole life on the run thing, I’d really struggle with not drawing attention to myself.’

‘You’re definitely an attention grabber,’ Natasha replied then produced another smile. ‘Thanks so much Anna, I really don’t think I could’ve got through all this without you.’

‘My pleasure sweetie, you look after yourself.’

‘I will do, you too.’

‘I get the feeling that this thing is going to be over soon one way or another, you’ve probably going to come out of it better than I do.’

‘Whatever happens I know you’ll be able to deal with it,’ Natasha said and put one of her hands onto one of Anna’s. ‘Really should get going now.’

‘Yeah you should, but don’t I get a hug?’ Anna replied then flashed her best smile.

‘Of course,’ Natasha said and the two of them hugged. ‘Thanks for everything,’ Natasha said.

‘Like I said sweetie, my pleasure,’ Anna replied as they broke up the hug. ‘Now get out of here.’

Natasha turned and headed of the door.

‘Oh Natasha,’ Anna said, still whispering, Natasha stopped at the doorway and turned back to face Anna. ‘Love the hair.’

Natasha made her way slowly and quietly down the stairs and out of the front door. It was a cool, dry night, the stars were out in full force, Natasha couldn’t help but glance up at the sky after closing the front door behind her. She set off walking, not knowing where she was heading, all that mattered was that she was heading away from that house.

Chapter 22

Scott

Scott sat facing the two police senior police officers who had conducted the job interviews that day.

‘First of all we’d like to thank you for coming in Mr Thatcher, and thanks for hanging around all day,’ one of them said as he held Scott’s application form in his hand.

‘No problem,’ Scott said with trepidation, not liking the tone the officer was using.

‘Sadly it’s a no from us though.’

‘A no?’ Scott said quietly and his jaw dropped.

‘Afraid so.’

‘What do you mean no? What was wrong with my application?’

‘Nothing was wrong with it as such, we just always have a high calibre of applicants and you don’t quite make the grade.’

‘Don’t quite make the grade? Nobody would ever work as hard as me at this job.’

‘I don’t doubt that for a second, everything in your application and your references indicate that you have a great work ethic.’

‘So why the hell won’t you employ me?!’

‘Sooner or later hard work just isn’t enough, you have to be capable too. If they gave me the head coaching job at the 49ers nobody would work harder than me, doesn’t mean I’d do a good job,’ he said and looked over at his colleague and smiled.

‘You think this is funny?’

‘Not at all, but you have to realise it’s not the end of the world. I know of a few malls that are advertising for security positions, you’d be perfect for them.’

‘Mall security? Are you fucking kidding me?’ Scott quickly got up out of his chair and marched towards the door. When he grabbed hold of the door handle, he stopped and without turning to face the officers, spoke quietly: ‘You will regret this decision.’

When he got back to his apartment Scott headed straight to his bedroom. He tore into his room with a frenzied attack, launching things from one side of the room to the other, books, DVDs, a chair and even his television set, he ripped up all his clothes apart from those that were black. Then he sat down at his laptop, one of the few things that survived the demolition. He logged on to the internet found a chat room and started looking for some late night chat. After finding one he needed a user name, looking around at the DVDs on the floor, one of his boxing DVDs caught his eye, using the nickname of his favourite boxer he logged in as ‘The Hitman.’ His opening line was:

“Is anyone else out there completely pissed off with this crazy mixed up society?”

Justin

Out on another one of his midnight prowls, Justin had taken to making his walks include as many trips down dark alleys as he could manage. Other people populated the streets at that time, most were trying to avoid trouble, a few were looking to cause it, Justin was just looking for trouble.

A little before two o’clock in the morning he found just what he was looking for. A young lady was being beaten by a man who was not much older than her. As soon as Justin saw him punching and kicking her Justin set off at full speed towards him. The man heard Justin approaching and set off running in the opposite direction. Justin didn’t look at the victim, he kept on running, chasing after the attacker. Within fifty yards or so the attacker acknowledged that he wasn’t going to out run Justin, so he stopped and turned to face him.

‘Let’s see just how brave you want to be,’ the attacker said to Justin.

‘Let’s see how brave you can be, picking on someone nearly your own size.’

‘You really want to get hurt trying to protect a stranger?’

‘No, I just really want to hurt you.’

The attacker swung first with a wild right handed punch. Justin avoided that easily and responded far too quickly for his opponent to do anything about it, within a second Justin had landed a stinging punch to the ribs with his left hand and a vicious kick to the outside of the right knee, with his left foot. The punch caused the man to double up in pain and the kick created a horrible snapping sound and sent the man to the ground. Justin forcefully stamped on that right knee as the man lay face up on the concrete. The scream of agony was music to the ears of the female victim. Justin grabbed the mugger by the throat and picked him up, holding him up, even though the mugger couldn’t put any weight on his left leg. After pushing him back until he was against a wall, Justin put his face within an inch of the mugger’s and spoke quietly.

‘I’m sure you’ll believe me when I tell you that I could easily kill you in a second or two. Fortunately for you there’s only one thing stopping me, not being sure I’d get away with it.’

Justin threw the man to the ground and the screams of agony continued, Justin walked back in the direction of the female victim. She was crying, barely standing and trying to straighten out her clothes.

‘Thank you,’ she said between sobs as Justin walked up to her.

Justin just kept walking.

Natasha

In a graveyard there was only one human being that was still drawing breath. Light came only from the almost full moon and was coming through draping Willow trees, slightly illuminating the whole graveyard. A thin mist sweeping across the ground added to the unearthly atmosphere. It was in the early hours of a Saturday morning, on the outskirts of Los Angeles. However for the person walking around the graves it was in effect still just late on Friday night. Unable to sleep, Natasha had been lying on her bed, her mind was absorbed by the thoughts of her sister. So she walked the two miles from her family home to the graveyard wearing nothing more than the skirt and T-shirt, that she had been lying on her bed in, to protect her against the cold night air. When she got to the area where her sister’s grave was Natasha flicked on her torch so she could inspect the tombstones in order to find her sister’s. When she got to her sister’s grave, dropped to her knees and began to cry uncontrollably. After a minute or so of doing nothing but crying Natasha stemmed the flow of tears and took a few deep breaths, then started to talk.

‘Please forgive me sis, I know you wouldn’t want me to do something like this, I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do,’ Natasha’s voice became progressively weaker as the tears reappeared, only with less gusto as before. ‘I don’t even know if I’m doing it for you or for me. But after what happened to you I just have to do something,’ Natasha added in amongst sobs of tears, sniffs of the nose and deep breaths.

Natasha rose to her feet and began to walk slowly out of the graveyard and back home, switching off the torch as soon as she got back up on to her feet. As she was walking through the gates of the graveyard a young man was walking past the gates with his Rottweiler. Slightly startled by there being somebody else walking around at that time, then he took one look at Natasha at was put at ease by her waif like figure and youthful good looks.

‘Hi. It’s an awesome night isn’t it? I love walking around at this time, it’s so peaceful,’ he said.

‘Why do some people presume that complete strangers are interested in talking to them? Please just leave me alone.’

He was taken aback by Natasha’s angry response, he looked her in the eye for a few seconds, smiled. ‘You fancy me don’t you?!’

Now it was Natasha’s turn to be taken aback. ‘You’re messing with the wrong kitty at the wrong time so for your sake leave me alone,’ she gave him a steely glare and set off walking once again.

‘Okay forget about any notion of me coming on to you, but you really shouldn’t be walking around this area on your own at this time of night, or any time come to think of it,’ he said as he walked after her.

Natasha stopped walking and slowly turned around to face the persistent man.

‘And I suppose you’re going to protect me are you?’

‘No I wouldn’t protect you, Satan would do that,’ he replied and gestured to his dog.

‘You have a dog called Satan?’

‘Don’t worry, I’m not a Devil Worshipper or anything. I just thought it was a cool name for such a big, powerful dog.’

‘It wouldn’t have bothered me if you were. I suppose I can’t stop you walking with me until I get home.’

‘So you trust me then?’

‘No not really, I trust your dog.’

‘You won’t trust an average guy like me, but you’ll trust a 120 pound Rottweiler called Satan. You must have had a bad experience with a guy somewhere along the line.’

‘That’s really none of your business, and if you are going to walk me home don’t expect a conversation, you can talk but I won’t be listening.’

‘Wow, there’s a lot of anger wound up inside you, I’m feeling sorry for you already and I don’t know what’s happened to you.’

‘Just shut up and start walking,’ Natasha said and quickly turned away from him and began to walk briskly home.

Natasha definitely had the full attention of this man and he looked at her as she walked away from him. He had a strong feeling that there was something more to Natasha than being a young head strong girl in a bad mood, he tried to think what could have happened to her for her to be so at odds with life. It occurred to him that it could be one of an infinite amount of things so he wasn’t going to work it out himself. He set off to follow her home to make sure that this young lady got home safely. During the forty minute walk he tried to get Natasha to open up to him with a few questions of varying subtlety. The most response he ever got was a little smile by way of acknowledging his persistence, as Natasha walked purposefully home without ever looking at him. Just before they got to Natasha’s house they were confronted by a man in his mid thirties who was obviously severely under the influence of alcohol. He staggered towards Natasha and looked as if he was about to reach out and grope her, as he made some blunt verbal advances. Natasha quickly reached to the back of her skirt and pulled out a can of Mace spray.

‘Get away unless you actually want to be blinded!’ Natasha demanded in a strict tone that belied her frail look.

The drunk staggered back with his arms raised. ‘Okay, okay take it easy,’ he stood still and allowed the two of them and the dog to pass him. ‘Talk about icy and frigid,’ he muttered just before they quite got past him.

Natasha, still holding the can in her hand, quickly turned to face him and viciously swung her hand so that the can hit him in the face. He staggered back until he was up against a wall and Natasha took another quick fire swipe at him, making an equally resounding contact in almost exactly the same area of his face. The man with the dog took a brief moment to react to the situation, as he was so surprised by Natasha’s actions. Before Natasha could land a third blow he pulled her back and well away from the drunk.

‘You stupid bitch!’ The drunk screamed then began to advance towards Natasha.

He was pushed back with one hand by the other man. ‘Just leave it mate, you’re not seriously going to take on one sober guy, a Rottweiler and a crazy girl with a can of Mace now are you?’

‘You’ll pay for this, I’m going to sue!’

‘Believe me mate you won’t even remember this in the morning.’

Natasha was already walking off up the street, her companion for the journey jogged for a little bit to catch up to her.

‘Are you all right?’

‘I’m fine, I just hope he isn’t.’

‘Actually you’d have done more damage if you’d kept you’re arm a bit straighter and punched from the shoulder rather than that wild swinging motion.’

‘Hilarious, I must be due to laugh any second now.’

‘I always seem to misjudge my audiences.’

For the next five minutes walking until getting to her house there were no more questions for Natasha. When she got to the gates of the drive to her house Natasha stopped walking and turned to the man and his dog. She bent down to stroke the dog and play with its ears, which it loved. Got back up to her full height she said, ‘Thanks for walking me home, you’re obviously a decent person who’s almost put my faith back in the human race.’

‘That’s gotta be good.’

‘Almost,’ Natasha emphasised, gave him a smile and walked towards the front door of her house.

Before she closed the door behind her Natasha looked back towards the end of the drive where the man was still looking at her in a more puzzled manner than ever. She looked at him blankly then closed the door.

Anna

Anna came out of gym changing room one Saturday night and headed for the gym’s own cafe. After buying herself sports drink, a smoothie and some sushi, Anna found a table in a corner, as far away from anyone else as possible. As soon as she sat down she gulped down the sports drink, threw the empty bottle in a nearby bin, then got a magazine out of her gym bag for her to read as she took far more time over the sushi and the smoothie than she had over the sports drink. Within a couple of minutes of Anna sitting down a young man walked over to her table.

‘Hey, I’m Brad, you mind if I join you?’ He said even though Anna was making no attempt to make eye contact or acknowledge his existence in anyway.

‘If you must,’ Anna said without looking up from her magazine.

‘I noticed you in the gym,’ Brad said as he sat down opposite Anna at the small, circular table.

‘Must be comforting to know that your eyeballs are in full working order,’ Anna said as she turned the page.

‘For the sake of my ego I hope that is one hell of a magazine.’

Anna did manage to look at Brad and even produced a slight smile. ‘Please don’t let me affect your ego, you really are just hitting on the wrong girl at the wrong time.’

‘Clearly nothing wrong with your ego, you’re assuming I’m hitting on you,’ Brad replied with a smile of his own.

‘Oh okay so what do you want to do? Compare work out strategies, swap our beliefs on which is the best sports drink, share philosophies on the best way to refuel after a work out?’

‘Didn’t say I wasn’t hitting on you, just that it was good to see you’re confident enough to see it as the only possibility.’

‘Oh so you are hitting on me, that must be why I’m getting goose bumps, have this wonderful butterfly feeling in my stomach and can’t help picturing our wedding.’

‘Sarcasm on a girl is so sexy.’

‘Oh God, are we at the over the top compliment stage already? What else are you going to make me blush with?’

‘I don’t suppose there’s any point in me saying how impossibly gorgeous I think you are.’

‘None whatsoever.’

‘Probably not even worth me mentioning how impressed I was by your workout, and that I don’t think I could’ve kept up with you during some stages of it.’

‘Definitely not.’

‘If you ever want a gym buddy.’

‘Already got one thanks, Mr Ipod, perfect guy for me, can turn him on whenever I want and much more importantly I can turn him off just as quickly and as soon as I do, he leaves me alone.’

‘One really bad boyfriend, or a few bad ones?’

‘What?’ Anna asked.

‘I’m wondering what exactly has made you the way you are right now,’ Brad said as he leaned towards Anna.

‘This the part where you impress me with your sensitive insightfulness?’ Anna replied and leaned right back in her chair.

‘I’ve given up on impressing you, right now I’m just trying to figure you out.’

‘I preferred it when you were trying to get inside somewhere other than my head.’

‘I always think it’s much better when I get inside both.’

‘I’m sure you do, but in case you haven’t noticed the invisible barrier around me and the “leave me the fuck alone” facial expression I wear so well, let me tell you plain and simple, leave me alone.’

‘I will do, but strikes me that you need a friend, if you ever want me to be one, I’ll be around the gym most weekends.’

‘That’s so comforting to know.’

‘That’s cruel, now you’re trying to turn me on,’ Brad said with a little smile and a shake of his head as he got up out of his chair. ‘Enjoy the sushi.’

‘I will do, good luck in your search for a sarcastic stunner.’

‘You’re a dying breed,’ Brad said then turned and walked away. Anna got back to her sushi, smoothie and magazine.

About half an hour later Anna made her way out of the gym and started the short walk home. Waiting for her outside the doors of the gym was Brad.

‘Oh please be kidding,’ Anna said as soon as she saw Brad, whilst continuing to walk home.

‘The only reason I waited for you was to show you that I wasn’t just hitting on you because I hit on dozens of hot girls every week, in the hope that one or two would respond positively to my advances and that I don’t mind which one or two it was,’ Brad said as he walked along side Anna.

‘Thanks so much for making me feel special.’

‘You see if you use sarcasm all the time it becomes less sexy.’

‘Right now, that works for me,’ Anna said as she continued to walk along, looking straight ahead and not at Brad.

‘It’s a good job I’m thick skinned, otherwise I might start taking this personally,’ Brad said with his little smile.

‘In all seriousness, you really shouldn’t take this personally, none of this is a reflection of how trust worthy you are, it’s all about how untrusting I am.’

‘Hang on a second there, we’re nowhere near the trusting stage yet, I don’t even know your name. All I’m looking for is some sort of acknowledgement that we could meet up again sometime, maybe just in the gym or in the cafe, and the two of us can have a chat.’

‘So all you want to do is chat?’ Anna said, still not breaking her stride.

‘For now yeah, that’s kind of how it works, two people get chatting, see if they like each other and if so in what way, just as friends or something more.’

‘Oh yeah I think I’ve heard about that.’

‘Anyway here’s my number,’ Brad said and went to put a piece of paper in Anna’s hand.

‘Don’t fucking touch me,’ Anna snapped and pulled her hand away.

‘It’s only a piece of paper,’ Brad said and went to put the paper in Anna’s hand again.

‘I said don’t fucking touch me!’ Anna shouted, stopped dead in her tracks, turned to face Brad and landed a vicious and expert punch on his jaw.

Brad staggered backwards, held his jaw and groaned in pain. ‘What the hell?!’

Anna got right up close to him and landed another punch, this time right on his nose.

‘Jesus Christ, you crazy bitch!’ Brad said as the blood started to come out of his nose.

Anna grabbed hold of Brad by the collar of his leather jacket with both her hands, and pulled his face right up to hers. ‘I’m the crazy one? You’re the one who can’t take no for a fucking answer,’ she said then put her right foot behind his left foot and forcefully pushed him over onto his back. She then got on top of him and started throwing more punches with her right hand to his face. As she punched she was talking.

‘I’m the crazy one? You think women only exist to do exactly what you want. You think we are only on this planet to satisfy your every need. You treat the woman you’re supposed to love like a slave and like absolute shit. If that makes me the crazy one then I don’t want to be sane, she deliver six punches whilst she was talking, then she stopped, but remained on top of Brad.

‘Who are you talking to?’ Brad mumble through his bloodied lips, broken teeth and cracked jaw.

‘Not as much fun when you’re the one being dominated is it?’ Anna said before launching into another three punches. Then she suddenly stopped and looked at the bloody mess she had created, she jumped up off Brad, looked around to see that no one had witnessed her attack then ran home.

Anna got home, her heart racing and she was shaking a little. She went to the bathroom to wash her hands, the knuckles on her right hand were cut and bruised, she stared at them for a while then stared at her face in the mirror above the sink. After a few minutes of staring at herself Anna went to her bedroom, got her phone out and called Caroline, who didn’t answer, so Anna was left to leave a message.

‘Hey Caroline, it’s only Anna, I could really do with...........erm.......look the thing is....oh God you know how I hate leaving messages, I was only ringing to see if you were free for one of our catch up chats and obviously you’re not, no big deal, I’ll catch you tomorrow.’

Anna went to her kitchen, grabbed a bottle of vodka, a bottle of coke and a glass then headed back to her room. She mixed herself a drink, then switched on her lap top, found a few chat rooms on line and looked for anybody to talk to.

Don

Don stood in the office of his commanding Army officer, an officer who was fixing Don with a steely glare that meant he had Don’s full attention.

‘Private Burton, the worst part of my job is when a soldier under my charge fails. Because I think that means I have failed, plus I hate to see a potential soldier go to waste.’

‘How can you say I’ve failed Sir?’ Don said, stood very upright, looking straight ahead over the seated officer.

‘You must have heard the saying three times is enemy action?’

‘Sir, yes Sir.’

‘This is the third time you’ve assaulted one of your fellow soldiers.’

‘Sir, he started it Sir.’

‘That’s not what all the witnesses say. Anyway in all the cases of violence amongst this troop there has been one common denominator and that is you.’

‘Sir, surely you need that aggression to be in the army Sir?’

‘No you need a controlled aggression and an ability to follow orders, both of which you are sadly lacking in. From the reports I’ve had on you from your moments in the field you are a soldier with a lust for violence and killing, who is extremely difficult to control. Perhaps I should have got rid of you sooner. I’ve heard several people say over the years that the army is full of people who are there purely because they want to hurt people and get away with it. I’ve always strongly refuted those claims. Now I have you stood before me. Of all the reasons I had for cutting someone from the army, I never thought I’d have to cut someone because they had too much of a love of violence.’

Ronny

Out walking by himself along the streets of Los Angeles one Saturday night, Ronny was slowly making his way home, at a time when most of his peers were out in bars or clubs. Every now and again he liked to walk the streets on a Saturday night, partly to see what he was missing out on, and partly to make him feel some slight sense of belonging. On this night Ronny was approached by a young man and woman walking in the opposite direction. Both of them were wearing black leather jackets, black tops and black jeans and the woman had black make-up on and her revealing top showed off three tattoos. Ronny was intimidated by their gothic look and was desperately hoping to walk on by without any interaction. Much to his horror they actually stopped and asked him for directions to some Nightclub. Ronny was so panicked he didn’t really hear the name of the nightclub but he was sure he wouldn’t know where it was located.

‘I’m, sor-sor-sorry, I don’t, kn-kn-know, where, that is, sor-sor-sorry.’ Ronny started breaking out in a sweat and along with his now racing heartbeat.

‘Wow that is one hell of a stut-stut-stutter,’ the man said and laughed unashamedly.

‘Bet you have the ladies queuing up for you,’ the woman continued the mocking. ‘That voice is so se-se-se-sexy,’ she added with an elaborate pout before joining in with the laughter.

‘Do you ever think about just not talking at all?’ The man wondered. ‘Try pretending your mute, being mute is way cooler than that stutter.’

‘Can you imagine him trying to talk dirty to a girl? I’d probably end up kissing him just to shut him up, actually no I’d just slap him and leave.’

‘Seriously man, try the mute thing. Can’t possibly be any more embarrassing that you are right now,’ the man said then laughed some more right in Ronny’s face.

Ronny felt a rage boil over inside him and he swung a wild, but not powerful punch, which landed on the side of this man’s head.

‘What the fuck?!’ The man shouted then grabbed hold of Ronny’s shoulders and head butted him.

‘Kick his stuttering ass baby!’ The woman shouted.

The man punched Ronny in the stomach and Ronny collapsed to the floor, where he was kicked forcefully in the stomach several times. First it was the man doing the kicking then the woman took her turn with her high heeled boots. Both of them were laughing as they kicked.