Prank Gone Wrong Ryan slipped through the crack in the door which led him into an empty kitchen. Everything was silent- all he could hear was his own heartbeat and heavy breathing. He was nervous, but the chance of escaping made it all worth it. He lowered himself to the ground next to a wall. On the other side of it was a horrifying kidnapper. At that moment, Ryan thought about how he got into that position. Ryan hated going to 7- Elevens. Simply because of John, the old stinky homeless man. He often sits outside beside the entrance where he begs for money from people exiting and entering the place. Though he doesn’t really do a good job at it. John once threatened a passerby that he would strap a lady’s child to a firework and then launch it. What a funky guy. Strangely, he wasn’t at the 7-Eleven this time. Probably off scrummaging through trash to find his lunch for the day or maybe he got kicked out of the place again.Ryan decided to ignore it and walked right into the 7- Eleven.That day he was greeted by a new employee.“ Hello!” the man said. “I’m Aaron. I recently moved here. If you need any help inside or outside of the store , just call me up anytime and I’d be happy to help!” He handed Ryan a piece of paper with a phone number on it.

“Are you that guy who sold ice cream to little kids on the streets?” Ryan asked. “What? No! I’m just a 7- Eleven employee. What would I be doing selling ice cream to children?” Aaron seems to not like children that much which concerns Ryan as he is eleven years old (A child). Ryan put the piece of paper in his pocket and walked away in fear. He quickly grabbed the things he came to the store for and threw some money at Aaron. “Hey! Come back!” He called after the child. But Ryan thought the opposite. He planned to never go there again. He rushed into the parking lot where his dad was waiting for him in a vehicle . Ryan swung the door open, jumped into the car and slammed the door shut. He stopped to catch his breath only when Aaron was out of his sight. “Was that the new employee? Homeless man John has been talking about him since yesterday.” Ryan’s dad said.“I got the groceries. Please may we now leave.” Ryan said in between breaths. Moments later, they rolled up into the driveway of Ryan’s friend’s house. “Jimmy!” Ryan jumped in joy. “Ryan!” Jimmy greeted him back, “We are going to have the greatest sleepover of all time!”. “Wait, is that Aaron?” Ryan asked.

“Oh you mean our mail man?” “HE IS YOUR MAILMAN?!”. Aaron slowly approaches them with a stack of papers in hand. “Hi! Take this newspaper,” He said with never blinking eyes and a smile so wide, the corners of it reached his ears. They all waved Ryan’s dad goodbye as he drove off in his car. Ryan practically dragged Jimmy indoors to avoid Aaron. They soon forgot about him though. They had something up their sleeve- a plan more important than anything. A reunion of an old friend that will come with a surprise. “Ryan, wake up!” Jimmy whispered to a half-asleep Ryan.“We need to meet Dan’s parents at the bakery, remember?”. As soon as he heard those words, his eyes became wide open. He sprang up and bolted to the bathroom to get ready. Jimmy chuckled.He noticed the newspaper laying on the bedside table. It was a missing poster. “The Disappearance Of A Mailman”. While strolling through the town towards the bakery, Ryan starts talking to Jimmy about Mr. and Mrs. Baker. “I heard my dad talking to Mrs. Baker once. She said that she is no longer in love with Mr. Baker and that she suspects him of falling in love with someone else.” “That sounds like a sad romantic film.” Jimmy comments. They both can’t help but feel bad for the couple. The bakery they were going to were the Baker’s.

They hadn’t made enough money from the bakery that month.It was going to shut down soon. But for a completely different reason. “Quick,hide!” Jimmy hushed Ryan. They crouched down behind a corner out of view of any savillions. Jimmy peeked around it and looked at the bakery. They had talked to Dan's parents beforehand about this prank. The plan was for Ryan to jump into the trunk of their car and surprise Dan. “Now!” Jimmy said as he made a hand signal. Ryan sprinted towards the bakery and got a glance at it before swiftly getting into the trunk through the passenger side. He saw his old friend, Dan, there at the shop checkout talking to….. wait, is that Aaron? That guy is either an overachiever or a stalker for sure. Ryan ducked down to avoid anyone noticing him. Suddenly he heard heavy footsteps coming towards him. They got louder and louder until he heard the same door he got in from open again. Two large figures got into the car. Along with a tiny child eating some candy in the back seat. As Ryan was about to jump out and activate a small party popper he had on him, one of them spoke. “Let’s get out of here. We can’t let anyone know about this.” It was a deep voice. It sounded muffled like they were wearing masks. It sounded nothing like Dan’s voice. Nothing like his mom’s or even dad’s voice.

At that moment, Ryan had a groundbreaking realization: He wasn’t in Dan’s car. Ryan stayed still, his hands covering his mouth. The car had already started and it was moving down the street at a high speed. He didn’t try to escape. All he wanted was to stay undetected. He was scared of the people who were minutes away from discovering and terminating him. The people who were in the front seats of that car. After what felt like hours, the car slows to a stop at a house in the middle of nowhere. They rolled up into the garage and the entrance closed. The two masked men got out first then took the kid from the car and brought her indoors. Once they got into a different room, Ryan immediately jumped out from the car through an opened door. He sneaked inside and tip-toed his way up the first staircase he saw. The entire upstairs was a bedroom. There were two beds, one bathroom, a closet and one big covered up window. Ryan’s best bet was hiding in the closet so he got in. Then he heard someone slowly coming up the stairs. His heart rate was through the roof. He pushed himself as far back in the closet as he could as the footsteps continued.

The men must have heard him going up the stairs. Or perhaps they knew from the beginning that he was in the car. “Hey! The kid is crying! Can you calm her down or something?!” The man downstairs called. The guy who is halfway up the stairs sighed. “I’m coming….” He groaned. Then there was a sound of something snapping. Ryan had pushed himself so far back into the closet that he had broken something in it and revealed a secret compartment behind. Luckily the men didn’t notice the sound. The space was small enough for Ryan to crawl into, but too small for adults to get in. Ryan tried to stand but his head hit the ceiling. He tried to spread his arms sideways but the walls stopped him. In the square room was a shotgun and a lot of trash bags. He opened one one of them and found some clothes. In that bag was a mailman uniform. He opened another and found some casual outfits that could fit him. Then he noticed a safe in the corner of the room, blocked by the bags. The safe had a six digit number lock. At first Ryan tried out random numbers, but then he tried birthdays of the people he knew. Then one of them worked. It was Mrs. Baker’s birthday that unlocked the safe. He remembered it because he and his dad had attended her birthday party a few days earlier. Though Mr.baker wasn’t there for it.

Inside the safe was a key and a yearbook. He opened it and found lots of names he didn’t recognize. But on the very last page was Mr. Baker’s name. The portrait of the person beside him was crossed out with red crayon. The text below Mr. Baker’s name quoted the word: “Stop” Soon, the men fled the house, presumably to find dinner. Ryan crawled out of the secret compartment effortlessly. He slowly creeped down stairs and into the kitchen. He found some bread from Mr. Baker’s bakery on the counter and ate it. He looked out the window and detected some movement. Ryan moved closer to the window and squinted his eyes. Outside, in the backyard of the kidnapper’s house, was John the homeless man. He was running around in panic. It looked like he was attacking something. But the homeless man soon got out of view before Ryan could ask for any help. He ran to the front of the house to try to get out, but the doors were boarded up. Aaron was also outside collecting the garbage bag. Ryan had come to the conclusion that he was definitely a stalker. As much as Ryan hated him, he still tried to get the attention of Aaron but failed as he was too far away. Ryan wasn’t strong enough to break any windows. Plus, they were tinted, all of them were pretty much one-way.

He gave up the escape attempt and continued to explore the place. The downstairs had a main area, a kitchen and a living room but there was one room he had not entered- the basement. The door to the basement was locked and required a key. He remembered the key in the safe upstairs and used it on the door. Inside, at the bottom of the stairs is an asleep child. It was the same child that got into the kidnapper’s car. She woke up the moment she heard the door open. Tears started to well in her eyes. Ryan tried to calm the child down as much as he could and introduced himself to the girl who is now known as Mia. In the room were some old boxes, a camera stand and a baseball glove. Mia was asked about what the kidnappers told her. She answered that they just have been recording her holding signs. Which gave Ryan the idea that this is a ransom. Then the front door creaked open, interrupting the conversation. Three men shuffled into the house. It was the two kidnappers, but they came back with a guest. The door to the basement was in the main area, but so is the front door so Ryan needed to wait for them to go to the living room then make his way to the kitchen. The people in the house scattered around to hang their coats on the rack by the front door, to find snacks in the kitchen and to get some newspapers.

Finally, they all went to talk over some tea in the living room. Suddenly, there was a loud noise coming from outside the house. Everyone turned to look at the window of the living room. That was Ryan’s chance to go to the kitchen. Running on tiptoes, Ryan made it to the kitchen. He sat behind the island counter and opened a cupboard to look for food. Sadly, there were none. Pft, greedy kidnappers. He stood up and looked around. There was a phone by the microwave. Ryan leaped and grabbed it. He knew that he could not get out alive, even if he called the police. They would take too long. So he dialed his dad’s phone number and called it. He pressed the phone close to his ear and waited. RING RING RING! Suddenly, a phone started ringing in the other room. While Ryan was still trying to process the information, the call was accepted and the ringing stopped. “Hello?” His dad’s voice said. Ryan could not only hear his dad through the phone but also in the house. His heart sank. Ryan couldn't move nor speak. He just stood there motionless. “Dad?” he asked cautiously. Ryan’s dad realized that Ryan was in the house. The number that called him was his friend’s phone, but he was in the living room with him.

Ryan finally mustered up the courage to hang up on him and ran up stairs. He didn’t care anymore if the kidnappers spotted him. “Hey! Come back here!” One of them said, Ryan crawled into the hiding space in the closet and blocked it with the safe he had opened earlier. He could hear a man banging on the back wall of the closet but recognized that that was the voice of Mr.Baker. He dialed 911 and informed them of the situation. Calling the cops in front of your kidnappers probably isn’t a good idea but this was the only thing he could think to do at that moment. He called everyone he knew and told them what was happening. He was thinking of who to call next and what his last words would be. Ryan reached into his pockets and pulled out a piece of paper. It had a phone number on it. He knew exactly what it was. At that moment, there was a sound of police sirens. It was the most wonderful sound Ryan had ever heard. At the same time, someone walked in. “Come on, we need to leave now,” he said. Mr. Baker agreed and went to the garage. The person sat in front of the closet. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t actually going on a business trip. I got fired a month ago but I couldn’t bring myself to tell you. So, I resorted to other ways of earning money- illegal ways. I know that I did something horrible and I can’t undo it. I’m sorry.” Said Ryan’s dad.

As the police came into the room, Ryan removed the safe from the compartment entrance and watched his dad get arrested. He didn’t resist. He only smiled apologetically while handcuffs were slapped onto his wrists. Ryan explained who he was to the police as he got out of the closet. And smiled when he saw Aaron in a police uniform among them. After that, he went to live with Mrs.Baker and Mia got back to her parents. Mr.Baker got caught immediately when he went downstairs. Ryan’s dad got interrogated and admitted that he had kidnapped many more before Mia. He also ratted out his partner- Mr.Baker. John the homeless man turned out to be the one who caused the loud noise outside of the living room window. He claimed that it wasn’t on purpose and that he was just chasing a cat but Ryan thanked him anyway. Aaron was suspicious of Ryan’s dad ever since he got into town and had been stalking him all week. Aaron was actually the guest the kidnappers brought home. The police sent him in to talk to them to find out if they were bad people. And the trash bags filled with clothes in the secret compartment were actually the ones of previous victims Mr.Baker kept.

Author’s note: I like writing stories because you can live out your wildest dreams in them. Or you can use it to spread a message. This one though is purely for my own entertainment. After reading Sherlock Holmes The Blue Diamond, I felt an urge to write a mystery story, so here it is! I reused the setting from it and tried to sprinkle in some clues for the reader. Did you guess the culprit correctly?

Blurb: An innocent prank quickly turns into a deadly ransom situation when Ryan gets trapped in some kidnapper’s house with no way to escape.