The Abduction, Part One

‘You wan’ one?’ mumbled George, as he masticated a large piece of pepperoni pizza around his open, black hole of a mouth. Grease dripped down his stubbly chin and onto his grubby jeans.

‘What?’ replied Lenny who was between bites of his very own cheese pizza.

George pointed to the cooler in the back of their silver people carrier before he swallowed hard and grabbed a beer. He wiped he grease off his mouth with his sleeve and once again said ‘you want one?’ pointing his eyes in the direction of the green glass bottle whose condensation rolled from its neck to the dirty hairy fist that held it.

Lenny looked at George with disgust, yet gladly took the bottle off him. ‘Cheers’ he offered after he used his yellow decaying teeth to take the cap off. George reached back and took another beer opening it with the bottle opener that was attached to the car keys and held it up. As the neck of their beers clinked, George stuffed another piece of pizza into his cavernous mouth, Lenny smirked and said, ‘here’s to happy hunting!’

‘Mmmph’ George replied grease once again exuded from the corner of his mouth.

Lenny smiled his crooked smile and took another bite of his lunch looking out the window at the large red bricked building whose gates they were parked outside of. He looked at the sign on the wall which read:

‘Sister Mary Frances School for Girls’

Lenny licked his lips and swallowed hard before he took a long loud gulp from his beer. ‘Aaahhh’ he mumbled unbeknownst to himself. He threw the remainder of the pizza into its box and got comfortable in the passenger seat. He took a napkin from the glove compartment to wipe his mouth before he pushed his seat back as far as it would go so he could put his feet on the dashboard.

Lenny had mousy brown hair that was usually a hot mess, but because today was special, he had brushed it. He had also shaved for the occasion and put on cologne. You could tell he didn’t do that often because, by the smell of him, you could put money on the fact that he used up half of a bottle of old spice. He was as giddy as a child on Christmas morning.

 

Lenny looked over at George who had just stuffed the last piece of pepperoni pizza into his whale of a mouth. George, obviously, had no table manners when it came to pizza. Lenny would argue that there was no etiquette when it came to food with George full stop. No food came to waste with someone like George around. Lenny dubbed him as a glorified bin. There was more than half of Lenny's pizza left, and after he took the empty box in front of George, flinging it into the back of the car like a Frisbee, he put his plain cheese in its place. George looked at the food and then at Lenny. He felt he needed permission to eat it.

‘Go on’ Lenny encouraged, and once again, George had grease that dripped down the side of his mouth.

As he chewed, George’s top lip curled. ‘What’s on this again? He asked Lenny.

‘Plain cheese’ Lenny answered his eyes glued to the gate of the school.

‘What time is it?’ Lenny mumbled more to himself than George before he looked at the clock on the dashboard. ’15:45, great, just fifteen more minutes’

‘Wha?’ asked George, the last of the pizza in his mouth.

‘Have you finished that already?’ Lenny asked with disdain.

‘I wa ungry’ replied George. He swallowed, making a gulping sound, followed by a long swig of beer to wash it down.

George examined the beer, and when he realised it was almost gone, he reached back instinctively for another one.

Lenny grabbed his arm and shouted ‘NO! I need you to have a clear head for this one!’

‘But Lenny’ George moaned, ‘there’s only one mouthful left.’ He held the remainder of his beer up to the light as if to prove he wasn’t lying.

‘I know!’ Lenny closed his eyes and nodded his head ‘but it’s your seventh beer today!’ Lenny saw George’s chest push out in horror and quickly added, ‘not that I’m counting, not that I’m counting!’ George started to relax once again. Lenny put his hand on George’s left arm, looked him in the eye and pleaded, ‘for me buddy? Please. I really need you level headed today.’

George looked at Lenny’s hand, then at his face, and back to his hand once more. It’s not often that Lenny would touch George, nor George Lenny, so he knew he really meant business. He pulled his arm away because he felt uncomfortable, finished the rest of his beer, and went to throw it into the back. Lenny stopped him.

‘It might smash!’ he scolded. ‘You don’t want number six to cut herself now do you?’

‘Fine!’ replied George, as he went to get out of the car in a huff.

‘Where are you going?’ Lenny shouted after him, taking his feet off the dashboard.

‘To drain the hose’ George replied in a vulgar tone.

‘They’ll be out in 10 minutes!’ Lenny shouted from the open window.

George was obviously upset with Lenny, because he replied with his middle finger in the air as he hopped over a wall and in to some poor unfortunate’s garden. It was a nice neighbourhood and when George was gone Lenny imagined him pissing on a kid’s dolls house, or some freshly laundered clothes that hung on a clothes line. He secretly hoped that George got too close to a rose bush and got his dick pricked by the thorns.

‘How dare he give me the finger!’ Lenny mumbled under his breath. He would usually deem that unacceptable, but he really needed George to do his best for him here. He saw him jump back over the wall stopping to pull up his fly swayign as he went. ‘Oh this can never be good’ Lenny sighed, and rubbed his temples. Lenny himself had three beers and couldn’t have imagined having any more. He regretted the fact he bought that twenty-pack.

George was on his way to the wrong car when Lenny beeped the horn and shoved his head out the window to shout, ‘it’s this one you gobshite!’ George looked up, and saw Lenny start to get out of the vehicle, so he changed course and got into the driver’s seat.

‘You ok buddy?’ Lenny asked concerned.

‘Of course I am’ George hiccupped, ‘why?’

‘Do you want me to drive?’ Lenny offered with concern.

‘Don’t be silly’ George replied confused. ‘Why would you want to drive?’

Lenny bit his tongue and changed the subject. ‘It's getting packed here now isn’t it?’ Lenny of course referred to the area in which they had parked outside the school. Mothers had stopped their cars anywhere and everywhere there was space.

‘What are you looking for in a ‘sixth’ this time Lenny?’ George asked curiously.

‘I’ll know when I see her!’ Lenny replied and licked his lips.

 

Three deep beeps filled the air, followed by the hustle and bustle of eight hundred girls in a red and black tartan skirt down and a black coat exit the gate. It was a crisp November afternoon, and most of them had hats on which made things more difficult for Lenny to decide which girl was ‘THE’ girl. He liked them to be between the ages of 12 and 16. He didn’t care for the alternative type or the sporty type. He had had these types before and wanted something new, something different. George didn’t mind what type of girl it was just as long as she finished the set.

 

George and Lenny were a pair of narcissistic psychopaths. They had been hunting humans for eleven years. As the girls exited the school some got into the cars with Mummy dearest, others walked in groups. Lenny had his eyes peeled for that special someone he longed for.

‘No, not her, or her, or her’ he said under his breath.

George just looked at the type of cars that picked the girls up in, and the pearls and cashmere the mothers wore, in awe. He was actually embarrassed at his dirty, old, grey people carrier and regretted not washing it when he got diesel earlier.

‘We look out of place’ he thought to himself. He became sober as the volume of girls started to turn into a trickle. The cars vacated the pickup area just as quickly as came.

‘C’mon Lenny, they are nearly all gone’. George looked in Lenny's direction, then towards the gate, and back again.

Lenny was deep in thought, his lips moving as if he was in turmoil with himself. With a furrowed brow, his eyes went from girl to girl. He noticed George encourage him to choose in the corner of his eye, but until he noticed her he didn’t know she was the one. He fixated and stared at a short girl, whose skirt trailed along the ground. She had stopped just under the schools sign to take something out of her bag. Lenny leaned his elbows on the dashboard, his eyes squinting as he struggled to see that she had taken out a pair of headphones and her phone.

She had a red woolly hat on, which she took off after she had fiddled around with the headphones. The hat revealed blood red hair with blue tips down to her shoulder. George noticed Lenny stare at this girl. In George’s mind she wasn’t their type but he didn’t really mind which girl Lenny choose. George leaned over the steering wheel intently; he also squinted at the girl who put the head phones on before she replaced her hat. They had never had a girl like her, and when George saw Lenny lick his lips, he knew that was the one.

Before Lenny said it, George went to move from where they were parked, but they were blocked in by a redhead in a BMW who was in deep conversation with the blonde in a Mercedes. He couldn’t maneuver the people carrier around them, so he rolled down his window, as the girl in the red hat took out a cigarette to George’s surprise. He looked at Lenny once more.

‘That one’ Lenny pointed. ‘I want her!’

 

‘Sorry ladies but can we get out please?’ George asked the women in the poshest voice he could muster. The red head lifted her index finger to silence him. She glanced at him in disgust and continued to talk to the blonde.

George could hear the proud mothers gloat over their children’s success.

‘My Gwyneth got 98% in her biology exam today, didn’t you Gwyneth?’ the red head smiled and looked towards her daughter, who was in the front seat.

George could see from through the windows of the BMW that Gwyneth wasn’t the only kid in the car. There were 2 younger boys who were playing on phones strapped into the cream leather seats in the back of the vehicle.

‘My Valerie scored the winning goal in her football match last night’ the blonde piped up.

‘Excuse me ladies but I have to get out!’ George said with haste in his voice. He noticed the girl had nearly finished her cigarette.

‘In a minute’ the redhead replied with repusion as she looked at George with his greasy hair and greasy shirt. 

‘NO!’ George said strongly. ‘I need to get out now.’ Both women looked outraged at the gall he had to talk to them like that. ‘Now!’ George ordered.

‘Do you have a daughter at this school?’ inquired the blonde with a snobbish tone.

‘Yes!’ George said without putting any thought into his answer.

‘Really? You?’ the redhead said in disbelief. ‘What’s her name? My Gwyneth might know her, after all she is a prefect.’

George could see her pride shine at that last remark.

‘Just move!’ Lenny shouted over George as the girl in the red hat was starting to walk away from the sign towards a nearby housing estate. Lenny put his hand on his gun that was in his waistband, but George signaled for him to leave it where it was. The less attention they drew, the easier it would be. He started the engine and tried to meander around the cars by mounting the footpath. There just wasn’t enough room, so he deliberately reversed into the BMW. The redhead went to get out of her car, but George gave her a menacing look. Going forwards once more he bumped into the Mercedes. The sound of scratched paint drew attention to the three cars.

‘Ok, ok!’ the redhead put up her hands, whilst the blonde rang the Gardaí.

‘Now Lenny!’ shouted George and signaled Lenny to take out his gun.

Lenny reached over George and pointed it at the blonde. ‘Put the phone down!’ he ordered.

‘Sorry I was mistaken’ they heard the blonde say into the phone before she hung up.

‘Now move!’ Lenny shouted with authority in his tone.

George smiled as he saw the two women start to panic. They started their cars in unison and drove to the other end of the pickup zone. Lenny put his gun away and both Lenny and George high fived each other just before George sped off. Their types screeched as they drove in the direction of the girl Lenny wanted, but she had vanished.

‘SHIT!’ screamed George.

‘Where did she go?’ asked Lenny. He was fully aware that George didn’t have the answer.

Lenny grabbed his head and screamed ‘NO!’

‘It’s ok Lenny’ George tried to reassure him. ‘We’ll find her.’ He sped around the pickup zone and into the adjacent cul de sac.

‘She’s probably in one of these,’ George gestured to the large red bricked houses. He got to the end of the cul de sac and saw a gap in the wall. That was a problem neither of them had encountered before.

‘Fuck!’ Lenny screamed and banged his fist on the dashboard, his stomach felt as if he had missed a step on the stairs.