Chapter 1
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I was sitting alone in the cozy living room of the farm I had inherited from my grandmother. It was pouring outside, and I was stretched out on the sofa, reading a book. I was certainly not used to living in the middle of nowhere, on a small farm in Idaho with a handful of cows and chickens. My grandmother has passed recently, and I was packing up her things and sorting out her last requests over the summer before heading back to New York for university.
The doorbell rang, startling me out of my reverie. I was immediately wary. A remote farm 2 hours away from the closest town was not where you would get visitors in middle of the night. It was pouring outside as well, with the wind howling through the trees. I grabbed my can of pepper spray and inched towards the door. I was 5 foot 8 - tall for a woman, with a slender build. I was reasonably athletic but would be no match for a hostile intruder at the door.
Peering out of the window, I stopped dead in my tracks. At the front door were 2 faces I had hoped I would never see again in my life.
Chloe and Allie.
What the fuck were they doing at the farm?
My mind raced, as horrible memories of high school came flooding back to me. I had grown up in a small town about 2 hours from the farm. Chloe and Allie had been my biggest tormentors in my teenage years. I was much larger then; Dealing with my parents' divorce at 14, I had turned to food for comfort and ballooned in size, becoming noticeably overweight by the time I started high school. I actually had a decent group of friends at first, and people generally had left me alone - until Chloe and Allie joined the school. 2 years my junior, they were everything I was not back then - pretty, popular, and mean. They mocked me, ostracized me, called me "Snorlax" after the pokemon. Eventually people started avoiding me to escape their wrath, and I had finished my remaining years in high school isolated and alone.
One of my worst memories was when they paid a guy, James, in my class to ask me to prom. I had said yes, gotten excited, bought a dress with my mom, gotten my makeup done. He picked me up from my house, and we had turned up at prom together. The moment we walked into the hall, Chloe, Allie and their friends surrounded us and started laughing. James turned to me and said words I can still remember - "Did you actually think anyone would want to go to prom with a whale like you?" Chloe and Allie had filmed the incident, putting the video on social media, and it was seen by everyone in our town. I was 17 at the time and genuinely felt like my whole world was ending.
High school inevitably ended, I got a great scholarship to study at NYU and moved as far away from that little town as I possibly could. I had gotten into running, shed the weight, and looked pretty good now if I could say so myself. At 5'8 I was slender with long legs, C-cup breasts and a slim waist. Running had toned me up, and I was a far cry from what I looked like in high school.
I peered out of the window at Chloe and Allie. They were drenched, seeking shelter from the rain under my porch. My grandmother's farm had been my only safe place during high school, as my mother and I would visit almost every weekend. Chloe and Allie's presence was an insult to my memories of the farm, and I felt a flood of anger wash over me. I wrenched open the door, still holding my pepper spray.
"Can I help you?" I asked with hostility, waiting for the glint of recognition in their eyes as they realised who I was. It never came.
"E-excuse me miss, our car has broken down about a mile away, we have no reception a-and we were hoping to borrow your phone if possible? We've been walking in the rain for about a mile, there aren't any cars passing by.."
They hadn't recognised me.
"What are you girls doing out here at midnight?" I asked. A part of me thought this was some elaborate prank they were pulling on me, some way to humiliate me again.
"Um, we're on a roadtrip across the country, we took a wrong turn and the car broke down. We waited for hours but there were no cars passing by. I'm Allie by the way, and this is Choe," stuttered Allie. I grimaced. Trust them to get lost 2 hours into a roadtrip.
"How long more do you have to drive? It's going to take ages for a mechanic to get out here and fix the car."
"We were supposed to get to Boise tonight, b-but we're taking a month to drive to the East Coast and back, so there's no rush," said Chloe. "W-would you mind if we used your phone and waited here for the rain to stop?" They still hadn't recognised me, and as I gazed down on their faces, I noticed that both were a good 4 - 5 inches shorter than me. A plan started forming in my mind. It would be an absolute shame if I didn't take some advantage of the situation - these girls had tormented me for years, didn't know who I was, and had stupidly revealed that they were going to be gone from home for a month. I reckoned they wouldn't be missed for a while - this was probably their idea of a "fun trip" before they started college.
"Yeah, come in." I held open the door and they walked into my living room, looking around. They visibly relaxed once they were inside. The house was extremely cosy, wooden furniture and rugs everywhere.
"D-do you mind if I use the bathroom?" Chloe asked. Bingo, I thought.
"Right over there," I pointed down the hallway. "Let me switch on the hallway light for you." I quickly stepped into the kitchen and out of sight, grabbed a serrated knife, slipping it into the back of my trousers.
Chloe headed to the toilet, and I quickly turned to Allie. "You're Allie right? The phone's over in that room." I led Allie to the basement, still holding my pepper spray. I had to act fast. I opened the door to the basement. Upon upon seeing the steps leading to the basement, she turned around, confused. Without hesitation, I sprayed the pepper spray into her eyes and kicked her down the stairs. Before she could scream, I covered her mouth and held the knife to her throat.
"We're in the middle of nowhere, and no one knows you're here. I suggest you do what I say." Allie didn't even struggle as I tied her hands behind her back with some hemp rope, and tied her feet together too. I gagged her with some spare fabric I had in my basement. Hearing the toilet flush upstairs, I quietly headed back up to the living room.
I pulled the same pepper spray and knife trick on Chloe as she stepped out of the bathroom. She yelled and put up a struggle, but I didn't really care about the noise anymore. Allie was subdued and we didn't have any neighbours around for miles. I eventually managed to overpower her (with a few bruises to show for my efforts), and dumped her unceremoniously in the basement as well. I checked that they were both tied up properly and gagged, then removed their cellphones from their pockets. I then locked the basement door, barricaded it shut with my wardrobe and left the house.
Their car was the last loose end to tie up. I drove out with my truck, slowly through the rain, and it wasn't long before I found their car. I towed their car, driving further into the wilderness. There were many deep water bodies that a car like this could be deposited in, and never be seen again. I left their phones in their car as well, put a rock on the accelerator and watched it slowly submerge into an unnamed lake, off a dirt road, surrounded by deep forrest and shrubbery.
Then I made my way back to the farm.
