The Capture

The Capture(Nathan Hoffman) The Capture
The boy hustled across the street, and walked quickly down the road in my direction. He looked like he was running from some invisible monster. He kept looking over his shoulder and scurrying from one trashcan to the next, trying to stay hidden. As he approached me, I decided to stop him. I wanted to see what troubled him. I called out to him as he crouched behind a blue mailbox, “Hey, can you come over here? I need someone to help me carry my bags up to my apartment.”
“Only if it’s not too far away,” he replied.
“It’s this building right here. I’ll pay you if you want. Or if you’d like some food?”
He agreed, and we went up to my apartment. He sat my bags down on the counter after I cleared some space for them, and I started cooking some dinner for the two of us. I almost could not contain my curiosity as to why he was so scared, but I waited until we sat for dinner. He fidgeted the entire time I cooked the soup I bought earlier. When the soup was finally done, I gave him a bowl and he devoured it like this was the first time he had eaten in days. From the look of him, my estimate seemed about right. His black hair was greasy and, his clothes were tattered and dirty. He saw me staring at him and questioned me.
“What’re you starin’ at me for?”
“I’m just trying to figure out why you looked like you were running away from something or someone earlier,” I confessed.
He looked at me strangely and muttered, “I wasn’t running from anyone.”
“It’s ok. You can tell me, I won’t tell anyone.”
“If I tell you, you could be in danger so I don’t know if you really want to know,” the boy said.
“I can deal with whatever comes my way, I’m not afraid of what might happen to me.”
“Ok, if you’re sure…”
“First please tell me your name, I’d like to know that first,” I commented.
“My name is Billy. And this story is really long so it might take a while.”
And so he began his story. It really was quite long but very interesting. By the end of his story I became scared for his life, and mine. But I am getting ahead of myself, back to his story.
“It all started when my dad died and my mom got remarried. I never liked my step-dad, even before they got married,” he started.
“Why not?” I interrupted.
“I don’t know really. I just had this feeling about him. He didn’t like me much either.”
“Sorry, continue please,” I encouraged.
“Okay. Well everything went well for a little while, that is until my step-dad, Jim, got a visitor. The man had a long, black trench coat and looked really creepy.”
“Creepy?”
“Yeah, I don’t really know how to describe him other than that he was creepy looking. He was really pale and had long hair and was just creepy in general. Anyway, this guy talks to my step-dad and they both keep glancing at me the entire time. After he left, things started getting weird. My step-dad stopped talking to me, except to yell at me and tell me I was worthless. Eventually I had enough and tried to run away.”
“What happened when you ran away?”
“I started seeing these people following me wherever I went, and there were a couple times where someone tried to kidnap me I think. They were like shadows following me wherever I went.”
“Do you think it was your step-dad who had you followed? Or what? Why didn’t he just have them bring you back?” I questioned.
“Well I’m not really sure, because I’m still running from them.”
I offered him some more soup. He took it and gulped it down. As he was doing that, I went to my phone and made a call on my cell phone. I asked him, “How does you telling me this put me in danger?”
“Well when you stopped me I was running from a guy who was trying to kidnap me or kill me or something. I’m not really sure what he was planning on doing.”
“So you came up here with me when you knew someone was trying to kidnap you?”
“Yeah?” Billy questioned.
“It just surprises me. I thought you’d be smarter than this.”
“What are you trying to say?”
Just then someone banged on the door, trying to get in my apartment. I went to the door and let them in. Billy looked incredulous as I let his step-dad and three other hired guns into the apartment.
As they took Billy away, he looked at me and said, “I trusted you.”
“Well you shouldn’t have. You lasted this long by not trusting anyone, why did you decide to do it now?”
“I just wanted someone I could talk to. Human contact. And now I’ll never trust anyone again.”
“Alright, take him out now,” I said to the hired men.
Jim turned to me and thanked me for helping me catch Billy. He approached me a few days before, and told asked me for my help. Apparently Billy hung out near my apartment every day, and Jim needed someone Billy didn’t know to corral him until he could come. Jim showed me Billy’s medical records and showed that Billy was mentally unstable and needed treatment. If that is true, I will never know. I feel bad about it though, Billy really trusted me.