An Eye for an Eye

Author's Note: I know, haven't been around in awhile. Let's just say my offline life has been crazy busy and leave it at that. :)

Anyway, while this is a Halloween story, it's

not

part of the Literotica Halloween contest. This story was published here a few years ago for that contest and I didn't think it would be fair to submit the same story a second time. Thought I'd put it up this time, just for kicks. And just to let people know I'm still around. :)

Hope you enjoy it and have a safe and happy Halloween!

* * * *

"Halloween is tomorrow, Steve. It's been a year, you gotta get over this," his ex sister-in-law told him as they sat outside Starbucks. It was an unusually warm day for late October.

"I won't ever get over this, Marie. It's my fault Diane is dead. If I would've just listened to the cops, she'd be here now."

"I don't know how many times I have to tell you, it's not your fault." Marie took another sip of her Pumpkin Spice Latte. Her thoughts drifted back to the day, nearly a year ago when her younger sister's life was snuffed out before her time.

* * * *

"I can't believe I won the costume contest, Steve!" Diane's excitement filled the car while they drove home from her company's annual Halloween party.

"Baby, you had the best costume there. I knew you'd win as soon as we walked in." Leaning over, he stole a kiss from kiss his wife while they were stopped at a light.

Steve took his foot off the break slowly, pressing it down on the gas pedal when the light turned green. He coasted through the intersection then began to pick up speed once more.

"Marie looked pretty good as a female pirate."

"Yeah, but nobody could top a zombie bride, sweetheart. Everyone loved your costume."

"I think I'm gonna put the five hundred I won in the bank. We're all caught up on our bills. We can save it for when we need it."

"Do whatever you want to with it, Diane. It's your money. I think you should splurge and buy the laptop computer you've been wanting."

"Well, maybe—" Diane trailed off, looking out the window as they drew closer to their home.

When Steve turned onto their street, they both saw several police cars with their flashers going. The closer they came, the better they could see. It was a shock when they realized the cop cars were parked in front of their house! Steve rolled down his window cautiously when he approached his driveway. He motioned for one of the officers and offered his ID, which was quickly returned.

"What's going on?" Taking his ID back, he waited for the officer's response.

"It seems someone broke into your house, Mr. Anderson."

"Okay, but what's with all the cop cars—and the ambulance?" Steve watched the ambulance drive slowly past and pull up into the driveway.

"One of your neighbors saw what was going on and when he went to investigate, he was shot by the intruder."

"Who?" Diane leaned over her husband to join in the conversation.

"Roy Barker." The officer squatted down to be level with her.

"Is he gonna be okay?" Steve's concern was apparent.

"Yeah, we think so."

"Oh my God! This is terrible, Steve."

Steve turned and laid a comforting hand on his wife's shoulder. He spoke to the officer without looking away from her.

"Officer, can we go inside yet?"

"Not at this time, sir. The intruder got away and we believe he's still in the area. The risk of him coming back and harming you or your wife is very high."

"So what are we supposed to do?" Diane looked at the officer with tears in her eyes.

"Is there anywhere you can go ma'am? Family perhaps?"

"I suppose we could give my sister a call." Diane pulled her cell phone out of her purse.

Steve spoke with the officer for a few more minutes then handed him a card with his cell phone number on it.

"You'll let us know when it's safe to return?"

The officer nodded before Steve put the car in gear and headed toward his sister-in-law's house, unaware of the fact they'd never actually make it there.

"Marie said she could put us up in the guest room, Steve." Diane slipped her phone back into her purse and leaned back against the headrest.

"That's wonderful, sweetheart, but what about clothes? We're going to look awful funny wearing our Halloween costumes to work tomorrow. Not that my beautiful wife doesn't look fetching in her zombie bride costume." He leaned over and pretended to nibble on her ear.

Giggling, she slapped at him. "Isn't Wal-Mart in Howell open twenty-four hours?"

"Yeah." Steve had a pout on his face, making it clear she'd disrupted his fun.

"Then we can grab something there since it's on the way."

"Okay. But I'm gonna hit Burger King first though, I'm starving. Does my sexy 'zombie' want anything?"

"A Diet Coke is enough, I'm not near as hungry as my hunky firefighter is."

It was fairly late in the evening and with the long line at the drive-thru, Steve decided to go inside. It looked relatively deserted.

"I'll be right back." After giving her a quick kiss, he exited the car, leaving the engine running.

"Okay."

She laid her head back on her seat and closed her eyes, tired from the long day and the excitement of the Halloween party. A few minutes later, she heard the door open but didn't open her eyes. Holding her hand out to him for her drink, she expected to feel the cold surface of her drink.

"Where's my Diet Coke?"

When Steve didn't answer her and the car began to move, Diane opened her eyes. She opened her mouth to protest when a man wearing the popular Scream mask revealed a large gun. Handling the car and gun with ease, he barked out a warning.

"Just keep your pretty mouth shut and you won't get hurt."

"Who are you? Where's my husband?" Diane struggled to open the passenger door.

"No! You ain't going anywhere, bitch!" Cursing, the man grabbed her arm as she was about to jump from the car.

"Let me go!"

Her scream filled the interior the car. Hitting and clawing at him, she froze when he shoved the gun against her temple. With a shake of his head, he adjusted the mask she'd nearly knocked off his face.

"Shut up! Just shut your damned mouth!" He sped down the road, one hand on the wheel, the other keeping his gun pressed against her.

"What do you want from me?" Tears slid down her face, ruining the carefully applied Halloween makeup.

"I want you to shut up and quit your damned blubbering."

* * * * "It's a dark gray 2005 Dodge Intrepid, Officer. License number 8CGX49." Steve pressed the phone tightly against his ear and listened to the clack of keys on the other end.

"How long did you leave the vehicle unattended, sir?"

"I was only gone for five minutes. I stopped to get some food for me and a soda for my wife. When I came out, my car and my wife were gone."

"I need to place you on hold for a moment, sir."

"Hurry it up, man! My wife is in that car!" Steve knew he was being short with the man but fear was eating at him. He needed his wife back, now. The "muzak" played in his ear. He drummed his fingers on the top of the trashcan and cursed the delay. With a click in his ear, another voice came through the phone.

"Sir, this is Detective John Starlington. The dispatcher said you don't have a description of the suspect?"

"No!" Steve's shout drew stares from an elderly couple who were exiting their car to come inside the restaurant. "I already told him when I came out, my car and my wife were gone!"

"Sir, calm down, please. I know this is frustrating and you fear for your wife but I need you calm if we're going to help her."

Steve closed his eyes and listened to the officer. Saving Diane was the most important thing, not yelling at an officer for doing his job.

"I'm sorry, Officer Starlington."

"I have the information you gave the dispatcher. Your name is Steven Anderson?"

"Yes."

"All right, Mr Anderson, we've dispatched officers and they're already en route to your location."

"Thank you! I hope you've got someone out looking for my car."

"Yes sir, we have officers in the area and they've been informed of the situation. With the recent attack at your home, we're concerned it might be the same person who broke into your house."

* * * * Pulling into the driveway of what looked to be an abandoned mobile home, the man motioned for Diane to get out of the car. She stumbled out of the car, and stared at the broken windows and unkept yard. Her captor reached in the pocket of his jacket and pulled out his cell phone.

Keeping the gun pointed at Diane, he dialed quickly and brought the phone to his ear. "Yeah, I'm here." There was a long pause as he listened to the person on the other end. "Will do." He flipped the phone closed and put it back in his pocket. "Let's go." Pressing the gun to the small of her back, he gave her a shove. "Don't try anything funny. I won't hesitate to shoot you."

Diane turned her head slightly, trying to get a good look at him, but he pushed the gun further into her back.

"Eyes ahead and keep walkin'."

She stumbled when she reached the steps. A cry escaped her when he reached down and pulled her up by her hair. The air was driven out of her when he pushed her up the steps and she slammed her into the side of the trailer.

"Damn klutz."

With the voice no longer muffled, Diane figured he'd removed the mask and that was the reason why he didn't want her looking at him.

"What do you want?" The need to understand why she'd been taken built inside her.

"Your husband has something that belongs to a—colleague—and he wants it back."

The man slipped a key in the knob and turned. "I'm sure you're the one thing he'd be willing to give it up for. We're going to make a trade. So if you do everything you're told, you'll go home unharmed."

Diane wondered exactly what it was her husband had. She didn't know what he was talking about. As far as she knew Steve wouldn't have anything that would get them into this kind of trouble. Keeping her body turned from the man, she slid her hand inside her purse slowly, intent on finding her cell phone. She could dial 911 and hope they traced the call.

"Ah, ah, ah." The man knocked her hand away and took her purse from her. He tossed it out the door. "You didn't think I'd make it that easy, did you?"

Between the darkness of the mobile home and a hood pulled over his head, the man's face was concealed. She situated herself on an old lumpy sofa. She tried to get a better look at him, only to have him turn away from her and head to what Diane thought was the kitchen.

There was only one small lamp on an end table next to the sofa, but as soon as the she turned it on, the light burned out. She cursed. The brief flare of light had only shown bare floors and no other furniture. The musty smell in the air was overwhelming and she knew if she made a run for it, the sagging parts of the floor would more than likely cause her to trip on her costume.

She tried another angle when her captor returned. "Look, I'm sure if you tell my husband what he has of yours, he'll gladly give it to you. There was no need to kidnap me."

"Don't you think we already tried that, lady? He refused to give it up."

"What is it you want from him?"

"He witnessed something he shouldn't have and taped it. All we want is the tape, but he refused to cooperate; now we've given him an ultimatum."

"Which is?" She swallowed as the knot of fear tightened in her stomach.

"Isn't it obvious? In exchange for the tape, we let you go unharmed. If he refuses, you die."

* * * *

"So you're telling me you've been getting threatening phone calls and you never reported them, Mr. Anderson?" The officer looked up from the tablet he'd been writing on.

"Yeah, I assumed it was just someone playing a joke. Until they told me they'd killed the woman who they'd raped in the alley, then I remembered the video I had taken of the incident."

"Why didn't you turn the video in immediately?"

"I did. I even got a nice note from a detective telling me the quality of the video off my phone was so bad it was inadmissible and they couldn't use it. When I got the first call, I explained I couldn't give them what I didn't have. I never dreamed they'd kidnap my wife." His shoulders slumped.

"Do you still have the video on your phone?"

Steve shook his head. "But I do have it at home on my hard drive. I sent it to myself as an attachment to a text message."

"With any luck we can ID the suspects off of it and find your wife before they hurt her." The officer snapped shut his notebook. "Come over here and pull up your email. You can access it from there, I assume?"

He nodded. After pulling up the attachment on the sergeant's desktop, he stepped back. The sarge hit a few keys to send it down to the lab for analysis.

"In the mean time, what do I do?"

"You do nothing, let us handle this. Go to your sister-in-law's and we'll contact you when we hear anything."

"I can't sit around and do nothing. This is my wife we're talking about here. There's no telling what they'll do to her. I don't know if I can live with myself if they've already hurt her in some way."

"You can't think like that, Mr Anderson. Why don't we go grab a cup of coffee?"

Steve nodded. On their way back from the small break room with their cups, another officer stopped them.

"Hey, Sarge, Jennings got a couple of good screen captures from the video, he's running the images through the computer right now."

"Thanks, Boyd, let me know when he's got a positive ID." The sergeant turned to Steve, smiling before he spoke. "See? A break already. Why don't you head to your sister-in-law's? Quite frankly, you look like you need a hot shower and sleep."

Steve nodded his head at the sergeant. He gave the impression he was going home when he really wasn't. He was going to borrow Marie's car and find his wife. He refused to spend even a single night without her. The only crinkle in his plan was where to start looking.

* * * *

After he told Marie what was going on and the lack of progress by the police, she willingly offered the use of her car. At first she wanted to go, but Steve asked her to stay near the phone in case the captors called. He'd had the phone company forward all calls to her number. Aside from that, he didn't want to worry about both her and Diane.

He made a quick stop at Wal-Mart to pick himself up a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, tossing his firefighter costume in the back seat. He drove back in the direction of the Burger King where his car was stolen from, and went from there. He questioned people inside, asking if they'd noticed anything suspicious from earlier. When he struck out there, he followed the route back toward Marie's house.

He stood next to Marie's car in the parking lot of the only gas station between his house and hers. He'd shown a photo of Diane to the woman behind the counter and she said she didn't recognize her, but she did mention seeing someone driving a gray Intrepid wearing a mask pass by as she was pulling into work a few hours earlier.

She told him the direction the car was headed and Steve got into the car and headed in that direction. He drove for what seemed like an eternity when in reality it was only about half an hour. He saw his own car in the driveway of an old run down mobile home. Parking about a hundred yards away, he cut off the engine and headed toward the trailer on foot.

He knew he could access the video from any computer and use it as a bargaining tool to get his wife back unharmed. He just didn't plan on telling Diane's captors the police had already seen it and were closing in on finding out who they were.

* * * *

"You just won't shut up will you?" Diane's captor pushed her back against the couch.She struggled and pushed at him when he pulled her to her feet and set her down harshly in a small wooden chair he must have found in the kitchen. He pointed the gun at her again. It had the desired effect; she stopped struggling and let him wrap her hands in duct tape behind the chair. After wrapping both ankles to the legs of the chair, he stood up and covered her mouth. Diane's heart beat furiously in her chest.

The man's hood had fallen off and she got a good look at his face. His eyes were a steely gray and he had three scars down his left cheek, looking like someone had dug their nails into his face. His teeth were yellow and rotting and his breath smelled horrendous. He was a hulking man, standing probably around six foot three with a stocky build. If she'd been afraid before, she was now petrified. Somehow she didn't think he was going to let her walk away after seeing his face.

"That oughta keep you quiet." He tossed the tape on the couch and dragged the chair into the kitchen. "If you're husband's a smart guy, he'll come through and I'll let you go." He took a seat at the small table in the kitchen.

Diane struggled with her bindings, wincing at the pain they caused when she tried to pull her hands loose. She knew it was useless to try and escape. Even if she could get loose, this maniac would probably kill her before she had a chance to get out the door. She figured it would just be best to sit and wait for help to arrive, which she hoped would be soon.

She turned her head in the direction of the small window in the kitchen when she thought she heard a noise outside. Her captor must have also heard because he stood with his gun drawn and looked out the same window. When he saw nothing, he sat back down at the table, setting the gun beside him, but keeping his hand resting on the handle.

Diane looked again after the man sat down and saw Steve peeking in the window. He made a shushing gesture with his finger and she glanced in the direction of the front door, indicating he could slip in there unnoticed.

Steve took his wife's cue and walked slowly up the dilapidated steps to the door, pausing and taking a deep breath before he put his hand on the knob and turned it slowly. The man left it unlocked and Steve pushed the door open, stopping cold when the door made a loud creaking sound in the quiet of the night.

"What the fuck? I knew I heard something!" The man rose to his feet and rushed to the door when heard it open. He saw Steve peek around the door and kicked it closed, sending Steve tumbling down the stairs.

"Asshole!" The curse reverberated through the night air.

"Let her go and I'll give you what you want." Steve pulled himself up off the ground, not bothering to brush off the dirt from his pants.

"You had your chance for that, shithead. It's not gonna be so easy now."

"If you just come with me, I'll get the video for you." Steve stepped on the first step then stopped when the man pointed his gun at him.

"Not yet. Before we go and get the video I'm going to have some fun first. I bet the only way you can shut her up is by gagging her with your cock. I think I'll try it. I deserve a reward for listening to her yap."

"I'll kill you if you lay a hand on her!" Running up the stairs and tackling the man to the floor, Steve vented his fury. The gun fell from the man's hand while they wrestled and Steve grabbed it, only to be nailed in the crotch. Curling up as agony washed over him, Steve was vaguely aware the other man retrieved his gun.

The man pointed it at him before grabbing Steve's collar and dragging him into the kitchen. Diane watched with horror while the scene unfolded before her eyes.

"Now you get to watch your wife wrap those pretty little lips around my cock, asshole."

The man pulled the tape off her mouth before grabbing a fist full of her hair with his free hand. He laughed when she cried out in pain. "You make another sound and I'll blow your head off, bitch. You got me?"

Diane nodded with tears in her eyes, glancing at Steve who was still reeling from the pain in his groin. He was curled up on the floor beside her, his eyes closed, holding his crotch. As the pain subsided, Steve pulled himself to his feet then lunged for the man, only to be met with the barrel of his pistol again.