-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Dawn, Amerie and I have been kidnapped, rather embarrassing really, even though we had been doing things correctly. But they used some kind of gas that knocked us out very quickly, so quickly that I had no time to call for Sky. Now we are chained to the wall in the dungeon of this castle with rusty old shackles. However, they are still very strong and are holding us in a standing position.
This will not be comfortable for sleeping, that’s for sure. And, we all have tape over our mouths, preventing us from calling Sky. Do these people know about this way I can call for help? That would be a bad thing. I tried communicating with Kat to let her know we are okay for now and why we can’t call for help. Kat then told us why we had been kidnapped.
If it was just me I would say no to the exchange, but because Dawn and Amerie are involved too, then I would be okay with it. But, I also told her she could make the final decision and I would be in agreement with it. Just then two men came into the dungeon and brought some light with them, and a camera. One of the men, named Brutus, was quite a large man, and he certainly looked strong.
Then after 30 minutes the voice returned in the main museum room. “Katherina!” said the voice and Kat turned around quickly. The voice laughed this time. “I knew it was you Katherina, everyone thought you had died a long time ago. Then a man named Toledo said you were alive and one day he killed you. But I see he didn’t quite do it, since you are still very much alive.”
“He did kill me,” said Kat, “and my body lies in the grave to this very day. One day I came back from the grave to kill Toledo, and I did it too.” “You don’t look dead to me Katherina, it is all just a bluff to fool your enemies.” “Then explain this,” she replied, and she disappeared. She then reappeared further down the room. “A good trick Katherina, but it means nothing to me.”
“Who do you know that can move that fast?” she asked, “You just don’t want to admit that I’m a ghost.” “I do not believe in such fairy tales, it is just trickery, nothing else. Now, about your friends, here is a picture of them for you to consider.” A large picture showed up on one of the walls, showing all 3 of us. But my face was rather bruised and puffy from my beating earlier from Brutus.
“I want to hear Steve say something,” said Kat. Brutus ripped the tape from my mouth and told me to talk. “Sky,” was all I said. “Does that satisfy you, dear Katherina?” said the voice. When the voice added dear Katherina, it made Kat remember something from long ago. “Yes, that satisfies me,” she said. “Do you know who I am, dear Katherina?” he asked.
“Yes, you used to be my father,” she said. “I am your father!” he said sternly. “No, I do not have a father any longer,” she said calmly, “my father died a few years ago, as far as I’m concerned.” “I always considered you to be the most intelligent of my children,” he said, “but instead you have turned out to be the most stupid, annoying, ugly creature born to us! I want your answer, will you get my friends out of prison or do Steve’s two girlfriends need to be beaten too?”
“We will not do what you want,” replied Kat, still calm. “Then watch Brutus with your two friends,” he said. However, while he was talking, Sky and Angel arrived in the dungeon after I had called. However, they remained invisible at the beginning. “Have you heard of the curse of this castle?” I asked the men. “What curse?” asked Dmitri.
“If you look up at the ceiling and can’t see the sky, then you die,” I said. Dmitri looked up, then back at me. “Well, I’m still alive,” he said, “that was a stupid curse.” Suddenly he got a shocked look on his face, then fell to the floor, dead. Brutus went over and checked him. “He’s dead,” said Brutus, “like the curse said.”
“Another part of that curse says that if you are in the same room as someone who dies, then you will be eaten by a lion,” I continued. “Well, that is plain dumb,” he said, “how is a lion going to get in here.” “Ask the lion,” I said. Brutus turned and there was this huge lion staring at him. “Well, bullets will stop him easily enough,” said Brutus. But his gun would not work, then it got so hot he had to drop it.
Then the lion pounced on him. Sky remained invisible and came over to me. “Pretend you are breaking the shackles,” she said, giggling. So I did, but she did the work. “Hey, he’s breaking those shackles,” said another man, “and that lion sure finished Brutus in a hurry.” “Lion?” said the man, “What are you talking about? Have you been digging into those drugs?”
“No way, not me,” he said, “but there was a huge lion in that room and it killed Brutus. Dmitri died from something else.” “Get down there and stop them from getting away!” said the man. So the other man went down to the dungeon with 2 other men, but by the time they arrived, we were gone. “I don’t know how they got away, we never saw them in the tunnel,” said Percival, “maybe your daughter is a ghost.”
“She was talking to me, you idiot,” he replied, “but something strange is going on around here, and I don’t like it.” Meanwhile, Sky and Angel had taken us back to the hotel. Angel stayed behind and Sky went back to the museum. She left Dawn and Amerie with me also, plus Chloe, Caleigh, Colette and Rochelle. Ginger, Moonbeam, Frisky and Azura, from the cats, also stayed with us.
Caleigh was massaging my back, my face was sore and badly bruised and I just laid there thinking about this case. I wonder if that man really is Kat’s father? It is possible. But what is he doing here? And what kind of plans does he have anyway? There were a lot of drugs in those boxes, and he was a major drug dealer before when I put him in prison.
That was the reason Katherina hated me so much and tried to kill me. Angel had gone to get us some food and just returned with Aasta and Sigrid. “Your favorite,” said Angel, as she handed me my hamburger and fries. I could eat the fries, but the burger was too hard to bite with my face the way it was. “I think it might be better if I go home,” I said quietly, “I’m just being a big problem here and keeping too many of you tied up here guarding me.”
“None of us are complaining Steve,” said Aasta. All of them said the same thing. Meowy meow.= Might have same problem at home too. “Azura is right Steve,” said Angel, “hmm, if you are not eating your burger, I will, and you can have my fries.” “They had enough guns and ammunition to outfit at least 30 men,” I said, “and they might have more guns and ammunition elsewhere in that castle.
They have something big planned.” “Yes, a gang war perhaps?” asked Chloe, “He is involved in drug dealing again, he might want more territory.” Chloe had a good thought. Whatever it is, this might be hard for Kat to deal with…
To Be Continued.
©2025 Steve McLeod.
I had been on the phone with Cristy and she had given me more, and very important, information about the present museum directors. What was puzzling is why they hired us. They must have known we would find out about them and what happened to the previous directors. Also, why hire us and then warn us to quit and go home or we would be killed. This did not make sense to me.
Anyway, after talking with Cristy I decided to talk with Jennifer and I told her what had happened. “Steve, this could be serious,” she said, “I want you to talk with Samantha. However, I will ask her not to call you back right now. I will get her to call you right away.” “Okay, I will do that,” I said. Samantha called back in about 15 minutes and we talked a bit. I told her exactly what had happened, including hitting Aasta.
“Hmm, to me that doesn’t sound like the “Nowhere” coming back,” she said, “especially since you feel fine now. Perhaps it was another type of laser weapon that was used on you. I will talk it over with Carolyn, Melissa and Hannah and see what they think. But please keep to your new schedule and don’t overdo it. I will talk with Aasta too, she may have noticed something without realizing it was important.”
“Good idea,” I said, “and thank you, I feel better already.” After this it was time for me to go back to the museum again. Angel and I got in the car and off we went. As we traveled along the road we came to a steep drop off on my side of the road. “That’s a long way down,” I said to Angel. Right then there was an explosion at the front of the car and we were heading over the edge.
I called Sky immediately as we went over, tumbling and crashing all the way to the bottom! Then the car exploded in a big fireball! “Woooeeee! What a ride that was!” exclaimed Sky. She was kneeling on the ground and I was lying with my head on her lap. Angel was standing next to us and looking up that steep hill. “We will have to carry you Steve,” she said, smiling.
“Actually, I’m quite comfortable right here,” I said. “Ha! I’m going to tell Jennifer that,” said Angel. “Jealousy,” said Sky, “it would be different if our places were changed.” “Hey, watch that,” said Angel, blushing. “Stop it you two,” I said, “we should call for someone to come and pick us up.” “That would take too long,” said Sky, “hold my hands you two.”
We did so and were suddenly in the parking lot of the museum. In we went and Kat asked what happened. She knew there was a problem since Sky disappeared. “Hmm, Mandar might not be happy,” said Kat, “that was a rented car.” “It also means we have to check our vehicles every time we want to use them,” I said, “now, did you check the offices?”
“All but one,” said Kat, “and that must be the one with the secret door into that room. However, the director that uses that office came by and has stayed in it, telling us that we can’t search his office or he will call the police.” “Too bad for him,” I said, “let him call the police, our contract says we can search anywhere we like.” So, Kat led the way to his office and he had the door locked.
I knocked and told him to open the door. There was no answer. “Catalina, open the door please,” I said. She put a small amount of explosive around the door handle and after a slight explosion, the door handle blew right off the door. We opened the door and the director was sitting on his chair at his desk. I thought he was just ignoring us, until I turned his chair around. He had been stabbed and was dead.
The oddest part was that he was one of the four who had opposed our coming here. He was not one of the men that Carine had seen in that secret room though. The man and woman directors that Carine had seen in that room were quite ‘friendly’ with each other. Both were married, but not to each other, so I asked Cristy to look into that for us. It was easy to see where the small door was located, right behind the desk.
The desk moved aside easily, revealing the door. Kat went in first, then Carine, then Sky and I went in followed by a couple of the girls. It was a fairly large room and it had a desk, chair, table, a small bed and several boxes. Those boxes contained guns and lots of ammunition. There were two large boxes full of cash, both Euros and US dollars. In another corner of the room were more boxes, full of drugs.
I asked Melanie to look at those boxes. “There is a lot of money wrapped up in those drugs,” she said, “I mean, we’re talking millions of dollars worth. They must be ready to send it out to dealers over quite a wide area.” From inside that room it was easy to find the door leading into that tunnel. Plus, there was another door which lead into a narrow passageway, so we decided to follow it.
Well, I didn’t go along this time but two of our ghosts and four other girls went along, plus 2 cats. I went back out into the museum and decided to check some of the other display rooms, even though the girls had checked every room already. But sometimes it’s good to go over things anyway. “Where did Steve go?” asked Sky. “He went off to check through some of the smaller rooms,” said Aasta.
“By himself?” she asked. “No, Dawn, Katresa, Amerie, Suzette and Alizea went with him. Plus Azura, Moonbeam and Ginger.” “Oh, that’s okay then,” said Sky. After a little while Aasta went looking for me and the girls, since we were spending a long time in one particular room. When she got there she immediately sent out an alarm. Sky and Angel were the first to arrive.
Katresa, Suzette and Alizea were lying on the floor, as were the cats, but Dawn, Amerie and I were gone. Sky was about to ask why I didn’t call for her, but she stopped herself, realizing that someone might be listening to them. She then brought a scrambler out of her backpack and turned it on. “Okay, safe to talk now,” she said, “some kind of gas was used to knock them out.”
“Someone wants Steve out of the picture,” said Angel. “I would say this is the third attempt,” said Kat, “and this one succeeded unfortunately.” “Yes, and something is preventing Steve from calling me,” said Sky, “likely the gas still has him knocked out too, so hopefully once he’s awake, he will call.”
“Yes, and I think they are still in this castle,” said Kat, “there is obviously another tunnel from this room, we need to check for it.” Meowr.= Door here. “That was quick,” said Kat, “now to open it.” Then they heard a voice from the main room so they went out to listen. “If you want your leader and his girlfriends back alive, then we want our friends out of prison and we will make a trade.
If you try to rescue those 3, then we will kill them. Give it some thought, you will hear from us again in 30 minutes.” The four ghosts got together to talk, so they could do it privately. “We will have to wait for Steve, or one of the girls to call my name,” said Sky, “then I can rescue them.” “Yes, for now it is all we can do,” agreed Kat…
To Be Continued.
©2025 Steve McLeod.
