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The Night of the Abduction

C asey watched the headlights in his rearview mirror, making sure Nicole was behind him.

He’d ignored the chime of his phone. He was sure Nicole was calling to inquire why they weren’t headed to Coleman’s.

The phone’s ringtone—“Sweet Home Alabama”—was a melodious contrast to the crying and pleading from the girl in the backseat, bound and hooded, who went on in hysterics about her father. Casey turned the radio louder.

When he reached their destination, he jumped out pushed open the cast-iron gates.

Nicole yelled something through her open window but Casey did not acknowledge her.

Instead, he climbed back into the Buick and turned into the darkness, following the winding road for several minutes.

Finally, bathed in blackness and isolation, he stopped the car and shifted into park.

Nicole stopped behind him. The girl’s cries had begun to die down, the sedative finally taking effect.

He quickly slammed his door and walked to Nicole’s car.

“Where are we? This is creepy.”

“Trust me,” Casey said, sitting in the passenger seat of Nicole’s car. “What I have planned is better than the shed at Coleman’s.”

Nicole looked around at the abandoned homes with no lights. “Think she’ll be able to find her way out of here? I mean, where the hell are we, anyway?”

Casey ignored the question. He needed to give the ketamine a little longer. He turned the radio’s volume louder.

“What did you think of my technique?”

“I think you’re sadistic,” Nicole said. “Is she freaking out?”

He didn’t want to talk about the girl, so he slid a hand onto Nicole’s thigh. “So it turned you on?”

“Sort of,” she said. “When do we screw with her?”

Casey looked at his watch. “Twenty minutes.”

He leaned over and bit Nicole’s earlobe.

They frolicked in the car, unaware of the sedan parked down the way, lights extinguished with the driver watching from the darkness.

The man grew impatient as his body burned with anticipation.

His delivery had arrived. A new girl. One he planned to love and care for more than any other.

But his thrill of this night was overshadowed by the pulsing vessel in his neck.

The Buick Regal was not alone. A second car had trespassed into his secret world of Stellar Heights.