Taken

Chapter 6

RIKKI

September 7, 2013 7:00 a.m.

"Rise and shine, sleepyheads," called Jacque as he barged into the bunkhouse. "I brought your breakfast. I also brought five of the things you asked for." He set the breakfast, consisting of bread and water, and five of the things we asked for, a broom, duct tape, rubbing alcohol, band aids, and a flashlight, on the small round table in the corner.

"Eat up because Jase and I will be back here in ten minutes and whatever you haven't eaten will be taken away. Then the real fun will begin," said Jacque with an evil grin. Then the man left the bunkhouse.

"Bread and water, are you kidding me!" yelled Adam, outraged, as he examined the things on the round table. "Hey, this flashlight doesn't even have batteries in it! These guys really are evil!"

"Hey, at least we actually get food and part of the things we ask for. Most kidnappers wouldn't even give us any food, let alone five items of our choice, but I think that somehow all of this is part of an evil plot for money," I said with a hint of suspicion. "Now, we'd better eat up or else we aren't going to get to eat. If the men are going to make us work, we'll have to clean up the bunkhouse in our spare time." Adam and I ate the rest of our breakfast in silence. The bread was pretty stale and the water tasted like copper. Gross.

"Adam, now when Jase and Jacque come they'll probably make us do a lot of work or torture us or something," I said firmly. "You have to stay strong no matter what these men do, okay?"

"Okay, I'll try my best. I'm scared. I don't want to be hurt. I wanna go home," said Adam with a quivering lip.

"I want to go home too, buddy. I really do, but we have to be strong until somebody finds us or we escape. Our ten minutes are almost up, so get ready."

Right on cue, the men entered the bunkhouse. Jacque had changed out of his janitor's outfit and was now wearing a red plaid flannel shirt, overalls, and work boots. He looked like a farmer. Jase was now wearing a lime green American Eagle shirt and another pair of jeans. He looked like an Abercrombie model. Man, that boy was hot.

"And now the fun begins," said Jase. "Dad and I are going to have you two paint the inside of your bunkhouse."

"Here's the supplies," said Jacque as he set a can of paint and a bag of painting stuff on the floor. "You two will have to peel off all of the wallpaper before you start painting. Oh, and you'd better be done by the end of the day or no supper. Have fun and don't die from the paint fumes!"

"This is pointless. Why are you making us do this?" I asked confusedly.

"Hey, if anyone's going to ask questions, it's gonna be us. Now get painting," growled Jacque.

"Seriously, this has no point. You could at least have us do something useful," I said annoyedly.

"Shut up and get to work or I'll hurt you!" yelled Jacque.

"Sheesh, anger issues," I muttered under my breath.

"What was that?" asked Jase.

"Nothing," I spat. "You may leave now."

"You'd better start showing us some respect or else you're life's gonna  be miserable," said Jeff. Thankfully, the men left the bunkhouse before I could get myself into more trouble.

"Those men are really stupid if they think that leaving two kids in a closed room with wet paint is cool," I stated as I shook my head.

"Well, this is going to be fun," said Adam sarcastically.

"We'd better get to work if we want to be done by the end of the day. I'll start on this side if you start on that side," I said as I pointed at the different walls in the room.

"How do I take the wallpaper off?"

"Like this," I said as I peeled a corner of loose wallpaper off of the wall.

"Okay, I get it now," said Adam as he mimicked me.

"Now let's try to work quickly so we can be painting in about an hour," I said. "I hope we can get this done. If we don't, I don't think the consequences will be very good."

After that, Adam and I didn't say much to each other. We just tried to work as quickly and as carefully as we could. We finished peeling off the wallpaper in about an hour and a half, according to the clock on my iPhone.

Then we had to start painting the walls. In the bag we had gotten from the men were two paintbrushes and two large rollers. There was no painter's tape or anything to open up the paint can.

"How are we going to open up the paint can?" asked Adam.

"Um, let's see if we can find a loose nail in here or something," I replied. We both got on our hands and knees to find a nail. Finally, after about ten minutes of vigorous searching, Adam exclaimed, "I found one!"

"Good job, Adam! Now we can open the paint can," I said. After about three minutes, I managed to pry open the paint can.

"Yay, now let's get to work," said Adam.

We both got to work painting the inside of the bunkhouse. The paint the men had given us was a turquoise color. It was actually quite pretty. After about an hour of nonstop painting, Jase came back to the bunkhouse.

"It's time for lunch. Here you go. Remember, you only have five more hours to finish painting."

Adam and I decided to take a little break for lunch. All we got was bread and water, again. Or at least I thought that was all we were going to get. Right before Jase left, he winked at me and tossed Adam and me a few oranges.

Well that was strange, I thought to myself.

After Adam and I finished eating, we got back to work. When we had taken our lunch break, I was two-thirds of the way done with my first wall and Adam was halfway done with his first wall. If we kept working at our same pace, we would be able to finish painting by the men's deadline.

After another two hours of painting, I was two-thirds of the way done with my second wall and Adam was one-fourth of the way done with his second wall. When I finished my second wall, I climbed onto the top bunk and began painting the ceiling. After Adam was done with his second wall, he climbed onto the top bunk and started painting the ceiling, too. Believe me, that took a lot more balance than it sounds. By the time the men returned to the bunkhouse, we had finished painting.

"Nice job, kiddos, I didn't think you could do it," said Jase as he examined the room.

"Here's your supper. It's just like your lunch, two mere slices of bread and coppery water. Absolutely no source of important nutrients, ha! You can have the rest of the night to yourselves. What am I saying? Of course you can't have the night to yourselves. That would mean we'd be letting you do whatever you want and go where ever you want. No, you two have to stay in this building and do nothing. Have fun," said Jacque. With that, the two men left.

It still bugged me how the young man looked so familiar but I couldn't remember his name. That guy was extremely hot, too.

This isn't right, I thought to myself. Why would an attractive guy like him be a kidnapper, and even if he is a kidnapper, why would he give us oranges if his dad didn't know about it?

"Rikki, what are we going to do now?" asked Adam. His question snapped me back to reality.

"Why don't we try to clean up the bunkhouse now," I suggested. "I'll sweep using the broom, and how about you use the duct tape to patch up the holes in the house?"

"Okay, sounds good," said Adam. He was such an obedient little trooper.

First, I went and swept in the bathroom. Then I removed the cobwebs in the bathroom with the broom. After that, I went and swept in the living room/bedroom and removed the cobwebs in there as well. By the time I was done sweeping, Adam had finished patching up all of the holes in the walls and floor. Adam had also shaken out our dusty sheets.

"Great job," I said to Adam. "Now I think it's time for bed." And with that, we climbed into our beds and went to sleep. I had no idea what morning would bring, but I sure as heck knew that the darkness would bring on nightmares.