Chapter 48: Mr. Saturday Night Special

Unkown Location, Unkown State (2001)...

Tearful blue eyes awakened surrounded by the unwelcome darkness of an empty room as a tiny six-year-old girl set about getting to know her new surroundings once the effects of the chloroform wore off and she found herself alone in an unsavory and unfamiliar place. A good deal of fear coursed through her young body as she attempted to make sense of what happened to her. The flickering of recollective fragments of her limited young memory of going out to a carnival with her parents and having a good deal of fun with various games and rides before everything took a turn for the worst following a trip to the portapotty. More tears streamed down her tiny cheeks as she began to believe that it had been her fault that her parents had not come back for her.

She wasn't too keen on the company she was forced to keep in the form of the blonde woman that she'd run into at the carnival and the silent man who often glared at her with disapproval whenever she drew back from him. There was something bad about them and despite being six years old, the small redhead had known it. She had not a single clue as to how she was going to get back home. She often wondered if her parents were even out looking for her as her small mind couldn't rectify how two bad people could be able to steal her right from under their collective noses if they had truly cared for her.

The blonde woman had been quite a mean person, she was always looking upon her with disgust and barely concealed annoyance.

She was always one with the smark remarks and torrent of putdowns no matter how scared or sad the redhead girl seemed to be. The man was always quiet, he never really said a word to her unless he had to, and seemed to be a lot nicer than the blonde when he gave her food and water. He had even allowed her to cry a little over the shifting of her fate following the loss of her parents.

The tiny redhead sighed as she wiped the latest round of her tears from her pale cheeks and huddled with her knees pressed against her small chest in the farthest corner of the strange and slightly cold room. She was still wearing the same outfit from the day she'd been at the carnival and as a result, it had been a source of comfort for her due to being the only thing she had left of her life before being taken.

The silent man with eyes of the darkest blue entered the room without a word startling the little girl as she looked up at him. He seemed to be angry about something or another as he stepped further into the room than he had previously.

"Time to go," he said his tone having a hint of bitterness and fury that caused the girl to tremble in fear.

Slowly, the little redhead girl got to her feet and the angry man glared at her.

What she had not been privy to was the fact that someone had recognized her from the pictures on the news about a missing child. That, someone, had more than a few questions for the angry man who had been guarding her and the incident escalated to dangerous territory in the form of the angry man putting a bullet in the inquisitive man's chest and leaving him for dead as his blood pooled around him. The angry man dragged his body into the room and tossed him onto the floor before turning his attention to getting the girl ready to move to a new location to remain one step ahead of the police who had been looking for them.

The man was quite tall as he loomed above the frightened girl with his less-than-appealing attire splattered with blood from his altercation with the concerned other man who had taken it upon himself to investigate the suspicion of the missing girl's whereabouts.

"Get a move on." demanded the angry man in short blunt words.

Slowly the redhead moved terrified of what her angry captor would do to her if she had not cooperated. She could see him staring at the body of the dead man and gasped in horror as she too ended up seeing it. The man was younger and his face was contorted in a mask of agony despite all the life begin gone from his formerly dark brown eyes.

The little redhead was about to burst into tears when the angry man suddenly grabbed her in a swift and violent manner as he once more placed his large hand around her mouth stifling her screams as she took in the full view of the dead body.

"Shut your mouth!" demanded the angry man as he gripped the struggling and terrified little girl. "You shut your mouth or you will be the cause of more people getting hurt."

She seemed to freeze at the notion of this when the angry man pulled what looked to have been a junk pistol from his pocket, it was more than likely the very gun he had used against the now-dead man and it made the little redhead's life flash before her young eyes as she stood staring at the dead body and the pool of blood around it.

"You just keep quiet and I ain't gotta keep using Mr. Saturday Night Special to fix your mistakes," growled the angry man still gripping the redhead girl and the gun at the same time. "This body here is because of all the noise you've been making and it finally got someone's attention, too bad he didn't turn out to be the hero in the story that he wanted to be."

The redhead girl's baby blue eyes widened in fear as more hot tears streamed down her cheeks.

"You do as I say when I say it and don't cause no trouble and there won't be no more bodies." insisted the angry man.

Having little to no choice in the matter, the redhead girl nodded in agreement to do whatever the man had told her as her fear of the bodies and the possibility of "Mr. Saturday Night Special" taking another life kept her in line.

The angry man seemed more at ease. He had known the meaning of true terror and it seemed now the little girl had too. There would be no more trouble out of her if she could help it and that was just fine by him.