ROGUE

By

Oliver Eig

 

 

Venice

Los Angeles

 

 

The Simpson family arrived at the Erwin Hotel in their limousine. “Are you sure it’s safe to be here?” Billy’s mother asked in a worried tone.

“It’ll be fine, Rebecca,” Billy’s billionaire dad Alex Simpson assured. They walked down the corridor of the hotel with an air of authority and clout.

 

Billy was nervous about the arrogance of his parents, especially his dad. It could get them in trouble someday. They checked into the hotel and settled into room 13. They started to watch their favorite TV show Arrow. Mainly because the main character is a billionaire and Alex likes to look at the stupidity of others.

 

“Oliver Queen is so stupid!” when Alex exclaimed this, it took all of Billy’s might to not yell out hypocrite. They finished their show and fell asleep with haste from their long journey. Billy woke up to the aroma of perfectly cooked bacon and hipster music playing from his dads ipad micro 10+ (being a billionaire has its perks). “Well, son, I think that you and me should go to the Venice boardwalk to get some good father-son time in on this trip.”

 

“Ok dad,” Billy said simply. He wished his parents would stop giving him so much attention. It made him feel different from other kids. He and his dad get into the car and Billy looks out the window and sees a black cat on the sidewalk staring at him with irregular piercing green eyes. He thinks that this might be some sort of message of bad luck. His dad starts the car and begins to drive to the boardwalk. “Bla bla bla dla bla bla bla,” is all Billy heard from his dad on the car ride to the board walk. They are both anxious to get to the shops to buy stuff and sell stuff.

 

“Here we are,” Billy’s dad said, exhausted. They got out of the car and walked to the water. They passed people with nose piercings and tattoos, one guy looked like he was reading a story on his arm. As they passed the locals, people started to look at them, wide eyed. “This is what happens with fame and money,” Billy mumbled. They turned to get to the boardwalk, ignoring all of the people as they go. “Let’s go to the west side, it’s more quiet there,” Billy whispered into his dad’s ear. He nodded and soon enough they found themselves jogging to the west part of the busy boardwalk.

 

It was quiet at the west side, all right. There was a pawn shop and a candy vendor. Billy thought it was very peaceful. “I like this. Ok, I’m going into the pawn shop to give up my best gold finger ring. Stay put, Alright?” said Billy’s dad in a worried tone. “Sure,” Billy said with a weak smile. His dad walked into the pawn shop with his ring in his hand, a devious smile fixed on his face. Billy’s stomach growled. He looked around and saw a lone candy vendor. He walked up to him and put $4 on the counter. The guy handed him a wrapper of M&M’s. He started eating them.

After a few minutes he started to see funny. He felt woozy. He turned around just in time to see the bag being thrown over his head.

 

 

5 minutes later…

 

 

Alex walked out of the pawn shop. “So, Billy, I was thinking we could go to the east side to go get some -” He looked around and saw that Billy was gone, not a trace. Except for the fact that the candy vendor left. His jaw dropped. “Oh dear God.” He said, terrified. “What have I done?”

 

 

END OF PART 1

 

 

BILLY

Billy woke up in a haze. The darkness was terrifying him. When he blinked, his eyelashes hit the painted canvas with a scratchy noise. His palms were sweating furiously. He tried to move his hands around but they were bound together by something plastic as far as he could feel. He was moving, bumping and tossing around in solitary confinement. Suddenly, the bag was pulled off of little Billy’s head and he was staring into the face of the candy vendor. He was skinny with tattoos covering his body, he also had dirty blonde hair with a sunburnt face. “Where are your parents?” he said forcefully.

“I don’t know.” I replied coolly. SMACK. He slapped Billy so hard it stung. “I said, where are they?”

 

 

ALEX

 

“Honey, we have a situation. Billy has been taken.” Alex Simpson reported into his iphone 20.  “Should we tell the police?” Rebecca replied, alarmed. “No, I bet this lowlife wants a ransom. If the police get involved, he’ll probably kill Billy.” He growled. “Stay at home, I will find this guy and bring him back, dead or alive.”

 

BILLY

 

“I honestly do not know where my parents are!” Billy cried, frightened. “But, if it helps, their phone number is 917-494-6882” He panted desperately. The candyman punched in the numbers on his smartphone. It rang and he picked it up. He took a 9 millimeter pistol out of his pocket and pointed it at Billy, gesturing that he should answer. “Hello, this is sort of a bad time for spam because I have just had a family crisis,” Alex Simpson said through the telephone doubtfully. “It’s me, Billy,” He said, choking over his words. “Oh my god where are you? Can you come back home, I thought you were taken!” Billy’s dad raved. The candyman took the phone and said into it, eyes staring directly at Billy. “I have your son, and if you want him back alive, transfer 4.5 billion dollars into my account on paypal. Don’t even think about tracking me down because after you transfer the money I will pick it up at the bank, delete my account and give you your spoiled brat of a son back,” The vendor hung up and announced, “Now, we wait.”

 

ALEX

 

So many thoughts jammed into Billy’s dad’s head that he could hardly see straight. He paced back and forth and finally found a plan. Now it was his turn to laugh. His son’s kidnapper had underestimated his physical capabilities. He took out his phone and activated his kid tracker app. When Billy first got his cell phone, he installed an undeletable app onto it that would track him if he ever ran away or got lost. It was located at 212, Speedway Avenue. He ran all the way there with an afraid dad pace. He stopped to catch his breath outside of the building 212, and he took out his throwing knives and whispered to himself, “Lets do this…”

 

BILLY

 

Billy took this awkward waiting silence to his advantage. He looked around to examine his surroundings. His captor must not of thought that he could get away from him because he did not stop him from looking. Billy seemed to be in a narrow tenement with a bed, a computer with paypal set up, and a table with some sort of blueprint on it. He looked up and saw a lamp and a vent. There was no chance that he could get up there and climb through the vent without the vendor grabbing him first, he thought glumly.

 

ALEX

 

Alex ran up to the wall and start chipping into the brick with his razor sharp knives. He locked his feet into the ledges that he created with his blades. Then he kept on climbing until he reached a window. He put one hand on the sill and used the other to put away the knives. Then he opened the window and heaved himself inside with a mighty grunt. He looked around and saw a vent in the wall so he took one of his knives and cut into it to make a circle big enough for him to squeeze into. He hoped that it would lead him to Billy, since he heard moving downstairs. Alex pushed himself in and started to squirm.

 

BILLY

Billy kept on staring at the vent, trying to figure out a way out without alerting the man until he heard a THUMP, THUMP, THUMP. This caught his captors eye and he started to look up. “Oh, its probably just a big rat or something like -” As the vendor was saying this a knife shot through the vent and caught itself into his neck with a sickening thud. His dad slid out of the vent gracefully and said, “Boy, what a creep.” “DADDY!!” I hollered as I embraced him with glee. “I missed you so much.” “Billy, there’s something I need to tell you,” He said in a serious voice. “What is it?” Billy replied. “I am part of a secret organization called The League Of Assassins.

 

 

END OF STORY 1