Chapter 1 Acquiring Jacqui part 1

Chapter 1

Acquiring Jacqui

Lenny smiled his crooked smile and took another bite of his moreish triple decker BLT sandwich. He was looking out the windscreen of the 2007 silver Mazda 5 seven-seater vehicle at the large red bricked building. He read the sign on the wall:

‘Sister Mary Frances School for Girls’

Lenny smacked his lips and took a long pull from his beer. ‘Aaahhh’ he mumbled unbeknownst to himself. He threw the remainder of his lunch into the paper it came in, leaned over the glove compartment, took out a napkin and wiped the mayonnaise off his mouth. He started to get comfortable in the passenger seat by pushing his chair back and put his feet up on the dashboard.

Lenny was a clean-shaven man with dark hair that was always brushed to perfection and deep green eyes. He always looked well turned out in a shirt and pants. He had his favourite, old spice cologne, on for the occasion that was in it. He rubbed his hands together. Lenny was as giddy as a child on Christmas morning.

‘Wha ime are ey ou? George asked, from the driver’s seat, his mouth full.

‘4pm’ Lenny answered. He was well practiced at translating George’s grunts. Lenny’s eyes were glued to the gate of the school.

‘What time is it now?’ George asked more coherently after he swallowed his food with an audible gulp.

‘Do you have to eat like that?’ Lenny asked with a scowl, disgusted at his sidekick’s table manners.

George shrugged his shoulders and stuffed his mouth once again.

Lenny mumbled more to himself than George as he looked at the clock on the dashboard:’15:45, great, just fifteen more minutes!’

‘Wha?’ asked George, the last of the sandwich being masticated around his mouth.

‘Haven’t you finished that yet?’ Lenny asked with revulsion.

‘I wa ungry’ replied George, this time with the rest of Lenny’s sandwich in his mouth. He took a 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!’ startling not only George but himself as well. Lenny never shouted; he saw it as a waste of air.

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, and the pair were mightily uncomfortable.

‘I need you to have a clear head for this one buddy!’ Lenny pleaded, before letting go of his partners’ arm.

‘But Lenny,’ George moaned in a sing song tone like a school child, ‘there’s only one mouthful left.’ He held the remainder of his beer up to the light as if to prove he wasn’t telling a lie.

‘I know!’ Lenny closed his eyes and nodded his head, ‘but it’s your third beer today!’ George gasped and pushed his chest out horror stricken. Lenny quickly added, ‘not that I’m counting, not that I’m counting!’ with his hands up like he was being arrested for something.

When George started to relax once again, Lenny met his eyes ‘for me buddy? Please? I really need you levelheaded today!’ Lenny spoke to George as if he were a boy. He was much smarter than his best friend and partner in crime and needed to assume the parental role more often than not.

George finished the rest of his beer and went to throw it into the back. ‘DON’T!’ Lenny stopped him once again. ‘It might smash!’ he scolded. ‘You don’t want number six to cut herself in a beer bottle now do you?’

‘No,’ replied George softly bowing his head.

Dead silence filled the car in spades like crickets for seven minutes.

 

‘You ok buddy?’ Lenny asked concerned just before the bell rang.

‘Of course, I am’ George feigned a smile.

Lenny bit his tongue as three deep beeps filled the air followed by the hustle and bustle of eight hundred girls, in a red and black tartan skirts down to the ground, exit the gates like ants.

‘What are you looking for in a ‘sixth’ this time Lenny?’ George asked curiously making bunny ears out of his fingers forgetting his scolding.

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

 

Lenny was having difficulty deciding which girl was ‘THE’ girl.

He liked them to be underage. He usually 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.

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 more sober as the volume of girls started to turn into a trickle. The cars vacated the pickup area just as quickly as they 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.

Lennys gaze was fixated on at a short girl, whose skirt trailed almost down to the ground. She had stopped just under the schools sign. She took something out of her bag. Lenny leaned on the dash board, his eyes squinting, as he struggled to see that she had taken out. It was a pair of headphones, her phone, and a packet of cigarettes.

She had vibrant rainbow coloured hair 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 chose. George leaned over the steering wheel intently; he squinted at the girl also who put the head phones before she lit a cigarette.

Before Lenny said it, George went to move from where they were parked, but they were blocked in. George maneuvered the car around a BMW and a Mercedes Benz. 

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

Their tires 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 few steps on the stairs.

 

George sped the car around and hurried to see if he could find the other end of the hole in the wall.

‘You stupid idiot,’ Lenny screamed at George. ‘Why didn’t you check here for this?’ he gestured behind him towards the wall.

‘I’m sorry Lenny’ George apologised profusely, even though it wasn’t his fault. Lenny had never thought to check for a gap either, yet because George was a submissive soul, he took Lenny's criticisms to heart. He felt it was as much his fault as it was Lenny's and he tried to rectify the situation.

To quote Captain Jean Luc Picard of the Star Trek Enterprise, George screamed ‘evasive manoeuvres!’

 

George dodged and navigated the road like a daemon possessed. Finally, he found the other side of the wall, but it was too late. The gap opened up to a cluster of housing estates. Lenny kept his eyes peeled but was not hopeful at that stage to find the girl.

‘We’ve lost her!’ Lenny screamed loudly.

George nodded in agreement. They went up and down the rows of houses and bickered back and forth as they went.

‘I give up’ sighed Lenny after they had been looking for over an hour.

George once again nodded in agreement, so they went to go on the road home.

‘The girls will be wondering where we are,’ Lenny said referring to the other five girls they had captive back at their enclosure.

 

Lenny shouted ‘wait!’ making George jump out of his skin.

‘Is that her?’ Lenny thought out loud. He pointed to a small red hated figure walking a dog. Lenny started to beam with joy when he saw the rainbow hair come out of the bottom of the hat.

George sighed with relief. He had passed the girl and Lenny looked back just to make sure it was her. They locked eyes.

‘Assume the position’ Lenny ordered as George turned around a roundabout to double back on himself and pulled over.

In unison they both got out of the car, George got into the back as Lenny got into the driver’s seat.

There wasn’t any traffic. The road was deserted.

‘What about the dog?’ George asked wanting to be prepared.

‘What?’ asked Lenny confused.

‘the dog. What do I do with the dog?’ he asked again.

‘Kill it if you have to!’ Lenny barked. ‘I just want the girl!’

 

George slid the door to the rear of the vehicle open. ‘Ready’ he said and gave Lenny the signal to hit the gas.

Lenny slowly advanced towards the girl before he screeched to a stop just in front of her. The abduction was quick and seamless. Lenny and George were pros at it at this stage. George grabbed the girl by the waist and pulled her in the door of the car. He had taken out the seats in the back before leaving the farm to give himself more room with his catch. He had taken her before she even knew what was happening.

The dog, a Jack Russell, had a harness on him and ended up in the car as well.

‘Get that dog out! And close the door!’ Lenny yelled.

The girl screamed and wouldn’t let go of the lead. The dog went to bite George.

‘George!’ Lenny screamed in panic. ‘the door!’

George panicked and took a knife out of its ankle holster. He cut the lead in half and drop kicked the dog out of the vehicle. It made a loud yelp, but it meant George could close the door. The girl screamed uncontrollably. Just as the lock clicked and Lenny sped away George turned the knife to her. She recoiled as far as she could, her mouth open but no sounds would come out, like she was under water.

Lenny started to drive properly and shouted, ‘everything ok back there?’

‘It will be in a minute’ replied George.

 

George could hear the faint sound of music. When he realised the girl had her headphones on under her hat he took the both of them off with one swift tug and threw them with such force against the side of the car that they smashed and ceased to emit that awful noise that came out of them.

George grabbed her by the hair and screamed into her ear ‘shut the fuck up!’ With that her screams died down.

‘Now’ George said to himself as he calmed down. he began to let her go. He took black cable ties out of his pocket and explained that he was about to tie her wrists and ankles together.

She looked up at him doe eyed and nodded. She couldn’t have been more than 14. She was covered in metal. She had a nose ring, a tongue stud, and her eyebrow was pierced, not to mention all the holes in her ears with loops coming out of them. She was perfect, not like any other they had ever had before.

As George bound her legs together, she spat at him. That was the one thing George hated more than any other. He wiped the spit off his eyebrow and looked at her with a menacing grin. She tried to recoil further but her back was against the door of the boot.

George on his hands and knees crawled up to her and made a sound that could only be described as a growl. She followed his lead and whimpered. He continued by tying her wrists together. He took out his knife again, rubbing it against her wrists, up her arm and over her shoulder until he reached her neck.

‘Will I?’ he asked.

She shook her head no.

Lenny was oblivious as he focused all his attention on the road.

As the girl shook her head the blade scraped her skin and a tiny droplet of blood trickled onto her black school jumper. The tears poured out of her wide brown eyes and down her cheeks.

‘You have beautiful skin’ George continued. ‘It would be a shame to have a scar wouldn’t it?’

She nodded her head in agreement. George dragged the blade up her neck, over her jaw, and onto her cheek. He then turned it sharp side up and smiled as he made a slice action against her skin. She cried out in pain; blood poured from the wound. George put away the knife once more and took a look at her.

 

‘Mmmm’ he pondered and looked at his handy work. ‘Yup,’ he smiled, ‘you need stitches.’

The car moved onto a bumpier road.

George took out a dirty handkerchief and tried to wipe the ever-flowing blood from the wound.

‘Oops’ he feigned remorse. He put his hand over his mouth dramatically and said, ‘poor baby!’

Out came a silver box from his pocket. It contained a curved needle and normal black thread. No matter how many times George wiped the wound it still bled. He turned on the overhead light turned her head towards the light before he threaded the needle. He lay the squirming girl down so he could put a knee on her breastbone to keep her steady.

‘This is only going to hurt, well…’ he smiled sadistically, ‘only a lot!’ he let out a loud cackle before he punctured the girls face with the needle and thread as she screamed.

‘Everything good back there?’ Lenny enquired.

‘Yup’ was the answer he got in return. He knew well what George was up to as he looked in the rear-view mirror that had been adjusted so he could see into the back of the car. ‘I’ll let him at it.’ Lenny muttered under his breath.

The girl squirmed and screamed. George became frustrated by the noise. He placed the needle beside the girls’ head and, with his knee still on her chest, and reached over to the drink’s holder in the door of the car to pull out a roll of duct tape. He ripped off a piece and as he went to cover her mouth with it. Her eyes bulged as the tape descend in the direction of her open mouth. George could feel a warm liquid touch his free leg. The girl had pissed herself.

With the screams now muffled, George’s head could focus on the task at hand – he needed to fix her face. Once again, he went to stitch the gaping hole on her cheek. After he wiped it with the saturated bloody cloth so he could see what he was about to do, he took the needle off the floor of the car, beside the extra cable ties, and inserted it into the other half of the open wound, adjacent to the one he had already put in prior to the duct tape. He pulled the thread through the cut and tied it tightly with the only knot he knew how to do. He bit the end of the thread off with his teeth, his face millimetres from hers. She passed out from the ordeal. He repeated the process five more times before he was finished.

 

He took his knee from the limp girl’s body and crawled to behind driver’s seat; his hands covered in blood. ‘She’s out!’ he said to Lenny who instinctively opened the glove compartment and took out the bottle of smelling salts. He rolled his eyes as he handed the bottle back to George.

‘Thanks pal’ George gratefully took the bottle off him. He then crawled back to his unconscious captive as Lenny put on the radio. He knew what George had done to the poor girl and smiled menacingly.

‘Kill her’ he shouted back ‘and I’ll kill you!’

George looked at his catch and mumbled to himself ‘yup, gonna leave a scar!’ with a wide grin on his face. He lifted her head and put the bottle of smelling salts under her nose. She immediately woke with a start, her screams muffled by the duct tape, as she looked up to a dirty, unshaven, scruffy man who smiled down at her. He had one of the most evil, hazardous smiles she had ever come across.

‘You’re awake then’ he said to her. ‘Lenny it worked’ he shouted towards the front of the vehicle and got thumbs up from Lenny who feared that George was having all the fun.

They had been driving for 40 minutes and moved onto a rougher surfaced road.

’20 minutes out’ Lenny shouted back at George who didn’t hear him because he was too focused on what he was doing.