In the Heat of the Moment

11

The little boy sat alone silently observing the crowd of noisy sweaty children. The fact that he only arrived there four days prior only increased his timidity and quietness and so he sat isolated, embracing his legs that he had drawn up to his chest.

He cursed his mother for leaving him alone on the playground with those cruel, rowdy children unsupervised, and the little girl who had dragged him off to play; but ended up abandoning him to play with dolls elsewhere. Why did the world have to be like this?

He was morbidly afraid, and sensing the danger that had manifested itself amongst the crowd of children, he tried to go to his ‘safe place’.

In the first two days they had teased him because they thought he looked a lot like a little girl and he was too frightened of them, of everything actually. On the third day though, he was unfortunate to be greeted by Tommy Aiden, the playground bully who stole a toy his nanny had given him and his light up sneakers his mom had bought because he Tommy thought it looked cool. Just thinking about the previous day made him shiver and embrace his legs even tighter.

It was at that moment that he realized the object of his thoughts was staring intently in his direction with a scowl. In fact, he had managed to approach him soundlessly and was standing in front of him. The little boy nearly had a heart attack.

“You have something that I want!” shouted Tommy pulling him off the bench by the front of his shirt. “Better have it too!”

The little boy squeezed his eyes shut whimpering and willing himself to speak.

“Well?” asked the bully impatiently.

“M-My m-mother d-didn’t give me any m-money today,” said the little boy wide eyed.

“Wrong answer!” shouted the bully. “You know what this means, don’t you?”

The little boy gulped.

“DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!” shouted an unfamiliar voice. “Touch him and you’ll regret it Tommy!”

Tommy was blocking the source of the voice. The bully turned his head to see who the culprit was and the little boy hesitantly opened one of his eyes.

“And what are you going to do about that Jake Polinsky?”

His saviour, the owner of the voice, made himself visible.

“This,” he said landing a punch so hard in Tommy’s face he could literally hear the bones cracking. The little boy gasped, eyes wide in both shock and horror as he saw the blood streaming down his tormenter’s face. Jake looked apathetic or disinterested in the whole thing. Tommy cried out, dropping the little boy who in turn scrambled behind a tree nearby and hid.

“Plan to stick around for more?” asked Jake cracking his knuckles. Tommy began to sob with his hand over his face.

“I’ll get you for this Jake Polinsky!” he cried between sobs running away.

It was less than two minutes later when the little boy heard the crunching of leaves approaching him, coming to a complete stop near his head. He could see a hand reaching for him through his peripheral vision and he grasped it, allowing the person to pull him up. It was Jake who stared at him for a minute.

“Th-thank you,” stammered the little boy so softly, Jake had to strain hear him. Jake cocked his head observing him.

“All the other kids were right,” he said. “You really do look like a girl.” Jake laughed an annoying laugh and for the first time the boy frowned.

“I do not!” protested the little boy wondering if he saved him only to bother him too.

“Do too!” snickered Jake. “How old are you anyway? Six?”

“N-No,” frowned the little boy. I just turned eight today.”

“Happy birthday! I turned nine two months ago. What’s your name?”

“C-Colin Lombardi,” said the little boy timidly.

“What are you going to give me for saving you Colin?”

“I-I-I…I don’t know,” said Colin mortified. “Wh-What do you want?”

“A girlfriend and you look like a girl, so you’ll just have to do.”

“Wh-what?”

Before the little boy could say anything Jake pulled him into a kiss. By the time he pulled away, the little boy was calm and unmoving with tears freely flowing down his face. Almost immediately the child begun to sob, then cry a little louder.
It was Jake’s turn to look confused and a little mortified.
“What?” asked Jake. “What’s wrong with you?”

The little boy began to cry very loudly; and Jake, who had never know then particulars of rape, or the effects of rape on an eight year old who had suffered for hours at the hands of his two thirty something uncles, and spent every holiday with his brainwashing, abusive Nazi grandfather panicked and ran away.

That is what happened the first time I met Jake Polinsky. If there was ever someone I would call my worst nightmare it would have to be him, with a hundred and one valid fucking reasons to support it too. Thinking about it right here and now, a part from a few “unexpected circumstances” and the lies fed to me by my fellow murderous sociopath Heather Emma Foxon, who you met previously in chapter four. I can tell you as a fact that he was one of the major elements which helped turn my plans into an almost complete disaster.

You see, Jake was the son of two crazy gun-obsessed ex-mercenaries (at least I think they were mercenaries) who lived a few houses down the street from Jason. I vaguely remember him having an older brother for some reason when I was younger, but my guess is that he had either gone into the military himself ( again assuming the parents really were mercenaries ) or ditched his crazy family at the first opportunity he got.

Jake, however had somehow grown up differently. I had never met anyone as cocky and attention obsessed as him. He stole cars; and sold weed, so it was not uncommon for the cops to turn up at his house every once in a while. He was the ultimate charming, irresistible, adrenaline junkie bad guy and only I knew or suspected he also worked as a hit man sometimes, since I could see everything that went on in this neighborhood from my balcony, and even then, I knew I wouldn’t have been able to see him if he didn’t want me to. Yes, Jake Polinsky was that good…

It wasn’t any of that that rattled me about him though. It was the fact that Jake Polinsky had an unhealthy obsession with me; which sometimes made me the frightening sociopath, terrified beyond words.

By the time I was thirteen, I, Colin Lombardi began to change into something darker. Puberty had transformed me into something more than the shy little eight year old I arrived here as. Tommy Akin had…disappeared one day and the bullying automatically stopped. As for physical changes, I was going through my growth spurt, and even though I was a lot taller I was still skinny and feminine looking; but I had made myself an oath that I would work on my body, so as soon as I turned sixteen I would be bigger and stronger…

Jake on the other hand had not stopped noticing me either. He was fourteen, and it was already more than obvious that he would be a dark haired god, a charmer, heartbreaker, and a troublemaker when he grew up. It was also very obvious that Jake Polinsky did not get over me. Ever since the incident with him and me when I was eight, he’d keep his distance though still haunt me with a stare so intense and penetrating it would make me shiver. He didn’t say anything. He never did; but I always knew what he was feeling. I knew every thought and dream that went through his complex fourteen year old mind and it managed to both thrill and scare me.

When I was sixteen he had become my official stalker, and there was no shortage of calls to the police from my beauty obsessed mother; who had somehow managed to convince herself that Jake wanted to rape her. He would sit in the locker room at school waiting for me after all the guys from wrestling had finished and I was the only one left, and follow me to and from school everyday in his car. By the time I reached seventeen he was camping out beneath my window waiting for me to show up, and I was waiting patiently for him to leave and forget about me. I had even begun to fear that one day I would find him in my room waiting for me and there would be chaos to follow. It was unnerving, annoying and frightening, since even though I had gotten bigger, a little muscular and stronger, Jake was still ahead of me by far, and I knew that if he ever decided to try anything I would be almost powerless or worst of all, by some stroke of bad luck he would discover the evidence of what I was…

As soon as I turned eighteen it appeared that Jake finally lost most of his interest and, moved on to other more “important” things. I could still see him watching me at a distance, almost in deep fascination sometimes, as if every move I made took his breath away; but he no longer followed me obsessively, or camped beneath my bedroom window or sometimes rang my phone just to hear my voice which made me have to change my number five times. He had left me perplexed, relieved and a bit disappointed, since he was the only one who seemed to really take interest in me; but as I said before, when you’re someone like me, risks or one simple mistake can mean the lethal injection or the electric chair; and I’m not ready to go. No, not yet…

Of course, you must be impatient by now, and wondering what Jake Polinsky, my stalker has to do with any of this. Well, let me just remind you of what I stated before: that asshole’s presence had a lot to do with my plans going haywire and if it wasn’t for mere wit, then I would probably not be writing this today. You see, it was originally supposed to be six guys, me included who would help me carry out my plans to kidnap Espen. There was Tobias, who was in charge of hacking into the gate and alarm system, Jason who was in charge of swimming, Garrison, whose primary role was to keep Jason in the game, Ross, who was in charge of misleading forensics, creating distractions and leading any cops on a wild goose chase, and Devereaux, finally, whose role was to provide any…protection or weapons we might need as well as a video that he told me would definitely lure Espen straight home after the concert.

The thing is, the morning after the meeting with Jason, Garrison and Tobias I had woken up with one of the biggest surges of excitement and anticipation I had ever felt. I felt that things really would go smoothly and in just a small amount of time I’d be buried deep in my Espen and have him screaming beneath me. I literally lept out of bed early in the morning, spent a very long time in the shower singing and dancing and then made myself a huge breakfast. Today was the day I’d confirm my plans with Ross and Devereaux, the final two members of our little group; and then we’d all begin working our asses off to make this perfection.

Ross and Devereaux were two friends who were always hanging out inside the music store; and from the first time I came up with my plans, I immediately came to a decision that I would most definitely need them so everything could go through flawlessly. They were both rogues with a stroke of genius, who just happened to hang out with my nightmare Jake Polinsky. I realised that once we were going to kidnap someone so famous and powerful, I had to push aside my pride just a little bit more, since we were most definitely going to need distractions for the cops and I needed that video.

That day, as soon as I finished doing some things at home I headed over the music store to talk to them. Some hip hop song had just finished playing and Infant Altar’s song ‘Five Day Massacre’ had started. I had been in a very good mood before, but just hearing the sound of Espen’s low sultry voice in that song tripled my excitement and made electricity shoot to my groin. Whoever was playing the music played three more Infant Altar songs after that, and I found I was having it very hard to concentrate once I was speaking to Ross and Devereaux. I also made a very very silly mistake…

I was so distracted and aroused; I was using most of my concentration to speak to Ross and Devereaux about the plans; and did not think anything of being cautious. We all stood in an area where anyone could pass by escaping our vision or hide behind one of the shelves and listen until we had finished speaking. That’s why I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard a familiar voice speak behind me right after Ross and Devereaux left. It didn’t take me long to recognize whose voice it was, but as soon as I did I felt my heart fall into my stomach. I turned around slowly trying to wipe the horror off my face; and as soon as I did my eyes met a calm looking Jake Polinsky leaning coolly against a shelf toying with a lighter. I could have killed myself for being so stupid.

“We want in,” he says calmly. His lips are curved slightly upward and I can see there is someone partially hidden behind him.

My face twists into a scowl and I begin to walk away. I can hear his footsteps following me.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I grumble; but my heart is pounding in my chest. By now, I think the other person behind him has left, since I can only see him; and hear his footsteps. I’m alone now. We’re alone and I can feel the fear pulsating through me. I’m thrown completely off guard as he suddenly grabs me by my shirt and holds me up against one of the shelves kissing me roughly. I push hard against his chest growling. My eyes are shut and I’m breathing heavily. His other hand encloses around my throat and constricts, but his kisses continue. My hands move from pushing at his chest to trying desperately to push away his hands at my throat, but almost as quick as he started he stopped and pushed me away.

I lay on the floor coughing and gasping for breath. Jake yanks me upward by my hair. I know he is looking at me but I keep my eyes tightly closed.

“You’re still afraid of me, aren’t you?” he asks, suddenly beginning to lick and bite my neck. “Open your eyes.”

“I was never afraid of you. If you try that again I’ll cut more than your dick off.”

He laughs that evil wolfish laugh only he alone has and almost exactly I remember why I hate him so much. I want to erase all that cockiness that he struts around with day after day; and prove to him once and for all that he can’t command me or hold me down one day and fuck me. I’m nearly bursting with anger knowing what he just did, knowing that it’s his way of saying he still wants me and would take any time he wanted to; but I’m not his plaything or his puppet to control and will do anything just to prove it to him. I’ve seen his pets, and knows he likes taking people just as violent or worse than me…

“Let Niccolo and me in and I won’t bother you again.”

“I know you and Niccolo. You’re both a bunch of sneaky assholes. Why would you I take your word that you’d stop haunting me after all these years?”

His evil wolfish laugh sent a chill through my body.

“Let Niccolo and me in and I’ll keep my mouth shut.”

My eyes narrowed. Maybe this was my chance to finally get rid of Jake Polinsky? The thing was, if I added two more people it would make things all the more complicated. The less people and complications, the easier things would be; but Jake wasn’t anywhere near as naïve as the rest of these idiots, I thought so getting rid of him would be a task upon itself. I smiled, I love challenges.

“Sure,” I said. “Why not?”

It was the dumbest mistake I had ever made, because I never thought that Jake would have something up his sleeve for me too…






Of course, by now some of you must have noticed that the story is being told in the past and present, whereas the detectives are searching for Espen in the present and Colin is going about his planning in the past.

As for lividfire’s question about Espen’s twin: I’m trying my best not to be very cliché and I don’t want to give out any spoilers so just read on and see if he has to do with any of this, and if so what.

Please be patient with me. The slash will soon come flooding in; but I only want to get certain things out of the way first.

Last but not least, Maldoger it’s nice to know you have still been following my story. I haven’t forgotten about you dear. : )

Now, PLEASE REVIEW! Good ones, bad ones, anything goes! : D