• The Loss of Bonbon

    The night was filled with more than one haunted scream when Ann lost Bonbon.

    Ann and Bonbon soaked in each others gaze after doing their math homework, this wasn’t the last time that they would see each other, or was it. Ann’s mind was swimming with things other than math homework when Bonbon broke the gaze and solemnly said, “I had better get going.” He got out of the chair and walked over to where his jacket was on the counter.
    Ann dropped her stare. Why did he have to leave now? She glanced at the clock on the wall, it read 10 o’clock pm. “I guess it is getting late, I will call you tomorrow for plans to do on the weekend.”
    Bonbon walked to the door of Ann’s house, “See you tomorrow.” He slowly opened the door and walked out.
    Ann put her math homework back into her backpack and sat down on the couch. She stood up suddenly and opened the blinds to see where Bonbon was. She peeked out and couldn’t see him jogging through the park that bordered one side of her house. Where was he? He was never usually this fast. Ann walked out of the house towards the trees in the park, she still couldn’t see Bonbon. She ran onto the gravel path that lead straight to the middle of the park. She jerked to a sudden stop; there was something on the ground. She looked down and right after she saw it the night air was filled with a shrill scream.


    Bonbon awoke with a scream that broke the silence of the dungy room he was in, his leg felt as if there were a million piranhas biting it and he couldn’t move it. He bent his body so he could see the damage that was done to it. When he brought his hand back from inspecting his leg he was horrified to feel an enlarged bump in his leg, he also saw that his hand was now covered in crimson red blood.
    Who did this to him, he remembered someone old, with a cane. It was coming back to him now; the attacker was someone who had hit him in the leg and then his head. The old man was skinny and was carrying a cane with him (that must have been what hit him on the head), he had a small beard trailing down his face which even in the night could be seen to be silver.
    A passionless quivering voice called from within the dark room, “So, yare came back to the living, did ya?” He talked in a weird accent Bonbon had never heard before. Bonbon decided not to move a muscle; to pretend he was still passed out, it worked. “Aye, so ya don’t want no company do ya now? Fine, ya shall beam at me later.” Bonbon detected that a door was being closed and he was all alone. He suddenly pulled forwards and opened his eyes, what happened to Ann!?


    Ann had already called the cops and they were searching the park for Bonbon. There was so much blood covered on the path everyone thought he was dead. Ann didn’t want to believe she had lost him forever and that he was dead. If she knew Bonbon, he would have put up a fight and not gone down easily from a loss of blood, although it was a lot of blood. Who usually walked around on nights that were dark and scary? Ann ran and got a pen and paper from her backpack. She wrote down all of the neighbors that bordered the park. She spent most of three hours figuring out who was normal or creepy; she even went door to door to see who looked like they were conspicuous. She stopped at many houses on her walk around the park to look for Bonbon. One house she couldn’t help but to shudder from when the man answered, he looked about as old as a dinosaur. His face was scrunched up into a ball and his eyes where nothing more than little slits. He was tall and skinny, and had hair and a beard that were silver. Ann slowly peered into his house and couldn’t see a thing at all. There was no light in there, almost like he didn’t want people knowing he lived there.
    “What do ya want?” His voice sounded haunted. She had never heard a voice like his in her life.
    “Umm…. I’m really… sorry. I lost my dog… and was wondering if… you had seen it?” Her voice was breaking because she felt extremely unsecure.
    “No.” With that the old man shut the door and Ann was left standing on his doorstep. This man was weird and definitely a suspect on her list of creeps who lived around the park. She had to tell the police of this man, he must have something to do with Bonbon missing.


    Bonbon could hear a slight rapping on the door. The floorboards above him moaned with weight being put on them. He listened intently to what was being said. The old man was being rude to someone, but who was that someone? He suddenly recognized Ann’s voice. If it hadn’t been for the gag the old man had put on his mouth only a short while ago he could have yelled and let her know that he was in the house. He was still in pain because of his leg but decided he should make noise so that Ann would know he was there. He started to shake his body, rocking it from side to side. Nothing worked; he realized he was in to much pain to move. He heard the door bang and thought that Ann had been shut out, or she was a new victim. In the dark room he couldn’t tell if it was day or night and didn’t know how long he had been gone for.


    Ann had asked for the police to check out the old man’s house but it didn’t happen because they weren’t going to start to accuse people of kidnapping him and they didn’t think that anyone lived in there, there were never any lights on. Ann was sure that the old man was hiding something; the only problem would be to get him away from his dungeon of a house so she could snoop around and see what he was hiding and if he actually had lights installed. She found another paper and started to draw sketches on the back of it. She would make the old man leave his house by tying money onto a string that could be pulled away to look like it was flying on the ground. Everyone wanted more money right? Ann didn’t know if this would work or if he would even fall for the trick but she had to try, and she had to try right away.
    Ann jogged into the middle of the park and wrapped a string around one of the trees, one end of the string was in her hand and the other was stuck to the fifty dollar bill she had for bait. She walked up to the old man’s house and dropped the fifty on his doorstep. She went into the bushes beside his house and pulled her end of the string just to see if it would pull away from the house. She gave a little jerk and the money moved just as she had planned, perfect. Ann ran to the door step and knocked as loud as she could without breaking the door down. She jumping into the bushes and watched as the old man came out of the house. He looked around and then stared down at the steps. He took the bait. He bent over to pick up the fifty and Ann pulled hard on the string so the money would move away. If she didn’t get it moved far enough before she entered the house she would get caught and wouldn’t have a chance to check out his house. The pull worked wonders. The money started to skid along into the middle of the park, the old man took off after it, intent on getting that money. For an old man, he could sure run.


    Bonbon heard another loud knock at the door and the boards groaned once more. He listened again to see if Ann was back but couldn’t tell. The door never shut but he did hear footfalls. What was going on? He looked around the room, should he try and make noise again? Bonbon started to rock again on his bed, this time each time he rocked the bed was hitting the wall. He had made a noise! He froze in shock when there were footsteps descending down the stairs, either the old man was falling down the stairs or someone had found him! He saw a beam of light appear under a slit in the door. Feet cast shadows over the new light he saw. The door slowly opened, someone’s head was peeking through and this was obviously not the old man. He could make out a girl’s face with brown hair, and she looked scared. It was Ann! “Ammm…Hmmpp…” He couldn’t manage a word yet, but had tried to tell Ann to help him.
    A sweet voice filled his ears, “Bonbon!” She rushed to his side.


    Ann staggered into the room where Bonbon was. He was lying on a bed and had a gag in his mouth. She reached for the gag and pulled it out and flung it across the room. “Are you ok?!”
    “Oh, of course. I was just kidnapped, tied to a bed, and gagged, I’ll be fine. ” Bonbon’s sarcasm was heard thickly. A slow smile crept across both of their faces; they were both going to be fine now.
    Ann helped Bonbon out of his cage of a bed and slowly looked him over. She suddenly realized that his leg was covered in crusted blood. She stared horrified at his leg. There was not only crusted blood but a large and unnatural bump in the middle of his calf. “Your leg looks likes it’s… broken.” Ann’s face went rigid. “Lean on me and I will help you out of here.”
    Bonbon cautiously stood up on his good leg and leaded against Ann. He wasn’t a heavy person but she suddenly realized that there were stairs that they had to go up to get out of the house. She opened her eyes wide at that very second. Where was the old man? Hopefully he was still occupied with the fifty in the park.
    They cautiously made their way up the stairs and out into the evening air that was the color of a candy sunset. Ann glanced at both sides when they were out of the house just to make sure the old man was not going to trap them. He wasn’t there, thank heavens. Ann made Bonbon walk a little faster towards her house. She didn’t want to be caught by the old man.
    The police were still surrounding the park beside Ann’s house because they will still searching for Bonbon. She started to walk slower so Bonbon could catch his breath and so his leg wouldn’t hurt. What a mistake. The old man was walking briskly towards the two of them from Bonbon’s side. Ann looked at Bonbon; she didn’t want to lose him again. A high pitched scream came from Ann’s mouth, “HELP!” Bonbon was shocked and fell forwards taking Ann with him. The police saw the old man running behind them yelling profanities and telling Ann to let go of his boy.
    At the very moment that the old man was within an arm’s length of grabbing Bonbon, the police came rushing into the scene. They took down the old man and put him in hand cuffs. Ann and Bonbon watched as he was pushed into the police car.
    “Kids, I don’t know if you know this but that man was wanted for more than one kidnapping in the last year. Thanks for helping us catch him.”
    Ann swallowed a lump in her throat. “You’re welcome” both Ann and Bonbon said at the exact same time.


    They watched the police cars drive away one at a time, the last car to leave was the one with the old man in it. Bonbon swerved around to face Ann directly, “So what are we going to do this weekend?” Both Bonbon and Ann burst out laughing and embraced each other in a bear hug.
    Through laughing Ann sputtered. “I have no clue.”