Eye Of The Beholder

Eye of the beholder

Esme laid in bed with her feet propped up as the gentle breeze from the open window blew her deep red hair onto her forehead. she giggled when the playful strands tickled her nose and lip. She turned to glance out the window, her bright green eyes sparkling in the sunlight. She saw a dark green mini van pull into the driveway and sat up excited.

"Daddy?"

Hopping out of bed in a hurry, Esme took to the stairs to meet her guest at the front door, or rather jumped into his arms when he stepped over the threshold. Her father, with hair just as red as hers, wrapped his arms around her tiny figure and lifted her into the air.

"Daddy I'm not a child any more." said Esme giggling. 

"But it's been so long. I missed my little girl."

"I'm not your little girl anymore. I'm your 18 year old girl."

"I know baby. Doesn't mean you can't still be my little girl."

He gave her one last squeeze before letting her down. She smiled excitedly.

"So what did you bring me."

"Oh just this."

He pulled out a beautiful red camera and some rolls of film.

"It's beautiful..." said Esme gawking at her gift. She grabbed it and immediately placed a roll of film inside.

"Say cheese!"

She pressed herself under her fathers arm and took a picture of them both.

"Thank you daddy. Thank you so much."

"Your very welcome princess."

Esme ran off to take more pictures. She stumbled through the forest snapping pictures of fallen trees and small patches of moss that grew along side the river. She took pictures of the leaves, every shade and every size. She took pictures of the tiny fish that jumped most suddenly from the brook and she took pictures of the beautiful afternoon sky. As she adventured, she enjoyed the way her dark blue gown floated most heavenly behind her in the gentle breeze. She enjoyed the feeling of the warm summer sun on her face, enjoyed it so much that she hadnt noticed how dark it had actually gotten. She picked up her last roll of film from the grass and headed back to the cottage. She danced in the tall grass as she remembered the songs her father used to sing to her as a child before he went off to join the war. She would give him a big hug when she saw him just so that he'd know how much he'd been missed.

"Nana open up!" she yelled through the screen door smiling. She could smell the fresh baked biscuits cooling on the oven top and could hear the fresh corn boiling on the stove. 

"Nana open up! I'm ready to come inside!"

She knocked first lightly, then harder as time went on, as time went on without any sign of her Grandmother.

"Daddy! Daddy are you there!"

There was no answer.

Since there was no other way inside, Esme ran to the back yard and pulled up the screen that lead to the basement. She promised herself to fix it later. 

"Where is everyone?" said Esme, looking around nervously. She couldn't remember the last time it had been that quiet, not even before her father left home. 

"Should I take the corn off the stove Nana?"

Esme searched for the light switch.There was no answer, not until moments later when she heard someone fumbling or rather falling. She looked to the origin of the noise, the linen closet and stalked toward it. 

"Nana did you lock yourself in the closet again." she said smiling. She gently pulled on the handle and it opened almost suddenly it seemed to reveal a tiny blond boy who had seemed to be about her age. He squirmed, now laying against the carpet gasping for air through his taped mouth. His hands were bound behind his back. Esme stepped back surprised and watched him flail around on the floor. She was at a loss for words but figured he had many.

"Who are you?" said Esme, carefully removing the thick piece of tape from his mouth. He screamed and she held her hand over his mouth.

"Shhh! I don't think I'm supposed to know your down here."

"Please! Please untie me." he pleaded.

"I don't think I'm supposed to."

"Please! I beg you!"

"Where did you come from?"

"Please please just let me go! I don't want to die."

"Okay okay!"
 
Esme grabbed the big hedge clippers from the floor and snipped the thick rope holding the boys hands together. He immediately staggered away.

"Wait! What are you going to do?"

"I have to get back home!"

"Over here!" Esme whispered.

Esme helped the boy out of the back window and climbed out behind him.

"Where are you going to go?"

"To the police!" he said storming away.

"No wait please! They'll arrest my daddy!"

"I don't care!"

"Wait no!"

Esme followed the boy into the woods until she could go no longer. 

"Wait!" she yelled behind him. Admitting defeat, she hurried back to the house to clean up the mess she and the boy had made. She stacked all of the linen most neatly in it's designated spot, wiped up spots of the boys blood and then hurried to her room and jumped in bed, pulling the sheets up over her head. Her chest heaved uneasily up and down. She had just helped a strange boy escape from her linen closet and she was panicking. She was panicking in response to what her father would say or do when he found out. Since she was a child she had known about her fathers side job as a pocher, a penny pocher or person and even sometimes persons that kidnapped and sold children for close to nothing on the market. In return, they usually got promotions and gifts and sometimes invitations to exclusive parties, but her dad had made a job out of it, a career even. 

When Esme heard the front door creak open she snuck out of bed and crawled underneath. She could hear her father creeping through the living room and down the stairs. She knew for sure that he had given her Nana money to "go do something nice" like he always said.

"Please don't go down stairs. Please don't go down stairs." Chanted Esme. She could feel her mind wandering back to her childhood. Back to days she spent hiding from her father. Days she spent whole nights underneath her bed crying. She put her hand over her mouth to keep from breathing too loud. After a while her fathers foot steps got closer and closer. He knelt down stealthily beside her bed.

"Esme honey."

Esme was silent.

"Esme did you meddle in the basement again? You know full well that you aren't allowed."

"I didn't know you were still doing it, still...kidnapping kids."

"Well we've talked about this before. I'm helping these children, getting them out of disfinctional homes."

"Then why tie them up? Why lock them in closets?"

"Now you listen to me. Why I do the things I do is none of your concern hear me?"

"But I should be concerned! A boy fell out of Nana's linen closet!"

"You shouldn't have been meddling down there Esme."

"Dad please stop. Please stop doing this it just isn't right. I dont like it when you leave for a long time. You were gone enough during the war."

"This is a part of my job and you are child. Don't go meddling in my business  you hear me? You hear me Esme."

Esme sniffles to stiffle her cry.

"Yes." she responded Reluctantly. Her father got up to leave.

"I don't want to see you out this room you hear me."

He slammed the door behind him.

......

Under the bed is where Esme slept that night and the following morning she awoke to the same silence she remembered from the previous night. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and tried to recollect the previous nights happenings. She slowly edged herself from underneath her bed and sat on her bottom. Her gown was brown from having laid on the floor the entire night.

"Nana is breakfast ready?" said Esme still wiping the sleep from her tired eyes. She stood up and walked slowly into the hallway. Her stomach growled noisily. 

"Nana?"

She was used to the sound of her grandmother whistling familiar tunes in the kitchen while she cooked. She was use to hearing the sound of bacon crackling on the stove and the clink of the frying pan as her grandmother flipped her favorite chocolate chip banana pancakes. She sniffed the air and there were no familiar scents present.

"Nana!" called Esme. She hurried down the stairs, but slipped on the linoleum floor in the kitchen.

"wha-"

Esme looked down to find that her feet and knees were now covered in red. Everything was covered in a thin layer of red and it had even seeped through the tiny cracks in the floor. 

"Nana?"

Esme held her hand over her mouth when she saw her grandmother lying face down in a pool of blood just near the stove. She turned to hurl, soon realizing that both her hands were covered in blood as well. 

"Looks like we missed one."

Esme turned to find the origin of the voice. A tall man in his late thirties stood over her, his long black coat blowing in the wind from the open door. 

"Think we should get rid of her too?"

Another man stepped forward much shorter and thicker than the other. Her adjusted his trousers and smiled.

"No, no let's keep this one. We can use her."

Esme, still eyeing her grandmothers lifeless body, buried her head in her hands and gagged when she further smeared the blood on her cheeks. 

"Grab her and put her in the trunk. We'll talk it over on the way there."

The short, stumpy man grabbed Esme by her forearm and then hauled her over his shoulder with ease.

"Nana!! Nana!!" Esme screamed, finally back to reality enough to realize that her grandmother was dead and not coming back. That the woman she knew and loved for 18 years had been murdered in cold blood.

"Help somebody help!"

The taller man slapped a thick piece of duck tape over her mouth and around her wrists as she struggled, flailing and kicking ferociously. 

"knock her the fuck out!"

"yeah." said the stumpy guy. Her held her up to his eye level and pulled his fist back.

"Ugh man I can't hit a kid. Shes just a kid."

Esme screamed through the tape now understanding how her fathers little blond captive felt.

"You fucking punk."

The taller guy quickly stepped up and punched Esme hard in the nose. She went limp.

......

"Wake up! Wake up!"

Esme's head lolled back.

"Wake up bitch!" 

The man standing atop her emptied a bottle of ice cold water over her head. Esme gasped for air, couphing up any water that had seeped into her nose.

"Stand her up."

Esme noticed the man to be one of the guys from before. He was shirtless now, his chest sweaty and black with soot. Two other guys came up beside her and lifted her under her arms. Esme tried hard to keep from vomitting. She could still smell her grandmothers blood.

"where...where am I?" asked Esme. Her voice was slurred and inaudible. She tried to stand up.

"Here she is. We found her at the McQueen household. If we found her earlier we would have killed her. Her father must have left sooner."

A tall blond guy, lean from head to toe and covered in black silk sat atop something similar to a pedestal.   His eyes, dark blue and endless, glowed in the low light. His face was strong and defined, the space under his eyes dark and weary. 

"Check her from head to toe."

The man motioned to the back and out of the shadows stepped two women wearing only tiny thong panties. There breasts were exposed but their faces were covered in black silk, long strips of it that dangled past their shoulders. Esme looked up and admired how dark and soft their skin looked compared to the icy whiteness of, what Esme decided, was their leader. 

Both the women lifted Esme up and laid her down gently on the cold marble floor. Esme tried to sit up.

"Hold her still." one woman said to the other. Esme was held in place by the woman's surprisingly strong arms. She was held just under her arms so that they were pulled taut and were impossible to move.

"What are you doing?" sniffles Esme, still not back to reality enough to understand what was going on. 

"Sorry sweety, but you'll get use to this after a while. Soon youll be lifting your skirt on your own."

The woman slowly pulled up Esme's gown revealing her pink panties. The sudden cold startled her.

"You have no right!" shouted Esme. 

"Youd be best to relax." said the woman.

"Wheres my daddy? Daddy!" 

A man standing behind the fiasco slapped a piece of tape over Esme's mouth, something she was just recently familiar with. 

"Don't hold your breath."

The woman ran her hand the length of Esme's body feeling around for any abnormalities. She lightly pressed against her stomach and then reached down into her panties, her other hand fondling Esme's breast. 

"Almost over."

Esme held her breath as the woman entered a single digit into her vagina, slowly pressing and poking. 

"She's a virgin." the woman shouted. "Her skin is Firm, her breast are perky and free of lumps. She's perfect. The best we've seen in a while."

The man sitting before them like a king smiled. 

"Good good. Take her to holding."

Esme rolled onto her stomach when she was aloud release and let her tears seep into her now disheveled gown before she was hauled away again. A light blue pill was shoved into her mouth.

"You'll need it if they want to try you out first." one of the men chuckled.