By Zack Lester

Tim looked at the watch strapped to his wrist. It read 12:17 am, seventeen minutes later

than he had discussed with his partner of seven months, Kevin.

"I'll give him until 12:30 but if he isn't here by then I'm going in alone." Tim told

himself as he crouched in the shadows outside the large off-white three story house on Maple

Street.

#

Tim never intended to become a thief, in fact, until a year and a half ago he is what you

would have called a "model citizen". He graduated college with honors, married his high school

sweetheart, and was on the "fast track" to becoming the lead Engineer at his hometown steel

plant. In his eyes he was living the dream, until his life spiraled out of control. It all started one

day two summers ago when his wife told him that she wanted to "go out and find herself".

Apparently, she decided the best way to do that was by running off with her Yoga instructor,

Ted. A week later, Tim's boss called him into his oversized office to inform him that he was

being laid off, effective immediately. The next couple of months were a blur to Tim. He had

gone to several "you're too experienced, you don't have enough experience" interviews, but they

weren't leading him anywhere. After each interview, Tim would find himself at a local dive bar,

called the Dusty Dog, as a means to drink away his problems and ponder how his life had turned

so quickly. During one of his late nights, Tim overheard two other patrons bragging about the

shady dealings of their past as well as the plans they held in their not too distant future.

"That's an interesting idea, but the exit strategy will never work. If I was going to

plan…" Tim said, not realizing he had spoken out loud.

"What did you say?" the larger man said boring holes right into Tim's eyes.

"Excuse me?" Tim said, feeling the color drain from his face.

"You said something!" the gruff man said as he stood and started walking towards Tim

with both hands clenched into fists.

Tim quickly scanned the bar looking for the nearest exit but it was too late. The man had

already pushed him off the stool he was sitting on mere seconds before.

"I'm going to give you one more chance to tell me what you said and what you heard

before I force this bottle down your throat!"

"I swear I didn't hear anything! Just let me go and I'll leave!"

Without saying another word, the brutish man grabbed Tim's beer bottle and shattered it

on the bar top.

"OK! OK! OK!" Tim screeched. "I said your exit strategy won't work!"

The man stopped in mid-swing and looked at Tim with equal parts confusion and interest.

"What do you mean, it won't work?"

"Well, for starters, you can't just leave your getaway car running right outside the

house."

"Shut up!" the man said as he threw Tim back to the floor.

"No really, it won't work." Tim said as he picked himself up and dusted his pants.

"Oh yeah, smart guy, exactly what would you do?" the second man, still seated, said.

Tim considered his options, but he knew if he didn't at least try to appease these men,

there was no way he would be getting out of the bar without a great deal of pain.

"Well first I would ‘case the joint' out for a while. Isn't that what you all call it?"

At that, the larger man started towards Tim again until his partner stopped him.

"Let's hear what he's got to say, and then you can teach him to mind his own business."

Tim continued, "You have to watch the family for a while. You know, make sure you

know their schedule. Do they have a security system or motion lights? What about a dog? How

close do they live to their neighbors? How's the view of the house from the street? If someone

happens to be driving by could they see you? How is the weather going to be?"

"How is the weather going to be? What does that have to do with anything?" both men

said.

"Well for starters, rain means footprints." Tim said trying to figure out why he was even

going into such detail with these men.

The strangers looked at each other and then back to Tim.

"Get out of here before I change my mind." The seated man said.

Tim quickly grabbed his jacket and headed for the door without looking back. As he

drove away he couldn't help but replay the events back in his mind.

"I can't believe that just happened!" he said as the bar disappeared in his rearview mirror.

Suddenly a smile crept across his face and a laugh escaped his lips. "That was actually pretty

cool."

The next few days Tim watched the news, in a strange mix of excitement and

disappointment, waiting to see if the two men he had met in the bar were now in jail for a

robbery they tried to commit. He saw plenty of robberies and muggings, some unsolved, but

none with familiar criminals. As time passed, Tim pushed the events of that night out of his head

and continued with unsuccessful job search.

After his latest job rejection, as he eventually started calling them, he found himself

standing in front of the Dusty Dog once again. Looking through the grimy front window, he

scanned the bar, and once he was sure neither man was currently occupying a seat, Tim entered

the front door and made his way to the bar. While he was taking his final drag on his third beer,

he felt a firm tap on his right shoulder. Tim almost did a real life spit take as he turned to see the

smiling face of the man that never left his seat that fateful night.

"I've been looking for you Einstein." The man said not letting the smile leave his face.

"Einstein? What are you talking about?"

"Einstein. You know, like that smart guy. That's what I'm calling you from now on."

"You mean Albert Einstein? Wait, what do you mean from now on?"

"My friend you are my new partner. You can call me Kevin." The man said as he held

out his hand for Tim to shake.

"What in the world are you talking about? I'm not going to be your new anything. And

you better not let your oversized friend hear you say that." Tim said as he stood from his bar

stool.

"Why don't we talk for a while?" Kevin said as he forcefully pushed Tim back onto his

seat. "The man you saw me with last time is an idiot and he's no longer my associate. After you

left the bar, we had a ‘friendly' discussion. I thought we should try things your way, he did not.

Let's just say he won't be working for a while."

"Won't be working? Wait, don't tell me." Tim said trying to hide his trembling hands.

"You're right, you don't need to know that."

"I'll go to the police!" Tim said raising his voice.

"That wouldn't be a good idea…for you." Kevin said as he placed his hand back on

Tim's shoulder.

"What do you want me to do?" Tim asked taking a deep breath, not really wanting an

answer.

"All you have to do is make and help me carry out our plans. Everything we get will be

split right down the middle, 50/50. What do you say, deal?" Kevin said offering his hand to

shake again.

"I have two questions. Do I have to kill anyone and do I have a choice?" Tim said as he

rubbed his forehead with his hand.

"You can kill someone if you want." Kevin said with a laugh, "As for the other question,

no, you don't have a choice."

"So when do we start?" Tim said reluctantly shaking Kevin's hand.

Over the next seven months Tim and Kevin pulled several jobs, each getting bigger than

the last. Kevin would locate their next target, Tim would make all the plans, and they would both

would commit the crime. At first, Tim would feel so horrible for what he was doing that guilt

would keep him from sleeping for days at a time; but as with anything else, as time passed and

the payout got larger, the guilt slowly went away.

One week ago, Kevin picked the house on Maple Street as their next target. Based on

Tim's requirements, Kevin saw this house as the perfect target. When Tim drove past the

residence for the first time, he couldn't believe his eyes. It was the perfect opportunity. Not only

was it the largest house on Maple Street, there were several large trees in the front yard blocking

the view to the street. What Tim saw next made him laugh out loud. Sitting in the driveway, was

a large moving van. This was the Golden Goose, the Holy Grail, the "insert phrase here" to him.

Where most would see just a moving van, Tim saw the prefect cover. A moving van means easy

to grab boxes, and their very own getaway ride.

Over the next few days Tim "cased" their target every chance he got and each time he

became more excited about the upcoming opportunity. He discovered that each evening the

family of three, father, mother, and young daughter; would leave the house and they wouldn't

return until late the next morning, while the moving truck sat, unmoved. He also noticed that

there didn't seem to be any security anywhere to been seen.

"Here's the shirt you're going to wear." Tim said tossing the black moving company shirt

and hat that he had made on Kevin's lap.

"What's this for?" Kevin asked while inspecting the shirt.

"This is what we are going to wear this Thursday night, when we rob that family blind."

Tim replied with a laugh.

"Why would we wear these?"

"Why do you think?" Tim said with a frustrated sigh. "If someone does happen to see us

carrying boxes out of the house, they'll just think we are movers."

"I knew I made the right choice." Kevin said with a laugh and a shake of his head. "So,

what time do you want to do this?"

"The family leaves the house every night at 9:00 and they don't come back until 8:30 the

next morning." Tim said as he scratched his beard. "Let's meet at the back of the house at

midnight. That gives us time to call it off if things don't seem right. We'll plan on getting out of

the house by 4:00 am, before any of the neighbors are waking up for work the next morning."

For the next few hours Tim went over every detail of his plan with Kevin. Tim went over

where Kevin should park his car so no one would notice, how they would enter the house, where

they would take the moving truck, even how they would get back to their vehicles. There was not

a single detail left out of the plan.

#

Tim stood, stretching his legs, and looked down at his watch again to see that 12:30 am

had already come and gone.

"I knew this was going to happen eventually." Tim said through his gritted teeth. "I'll do

it myself. If Kevin thinks for a second that I'm going to split this with him, he can forget it."

Slowly and quietly, making sure to stay in the shadows, Tim crept towards the French

doors leading to the basement of the dark and empty house. Each step he took towards his goal,

Tim felt his adrenaline rise and heart quicken. As Tim placed his hand on the doorknob, he felt a

pain in his hand that caused him to pause for a moment. Taking off his glove and inspecting his

hand with his flashlight, he saw a small pinprick of blood coming from the palm of his hand.

After wiping the blood on his pant leg, Tim turned his attention to the doorknob. Inspecting the

knob in the glow of the flashlight, he noticed what appeared to be a sharp piece of metal slightly

bigger than a thumb tack extending out of the center of the golden sphere.

"Come on man!" Tim said to himself as he put his glove back over his hand and turned

the doorknob more carefully, "The sooner you get this started, the sooner you can get out of here.

I'm going to kill Kevin if I ever see him again!"

Taking a few more steps into the darkness and shutting the door behind him, Tim

suddenly realized how easy it was to get into the house. He wasn't actually expecting the door to

open allowing him to waltz right in to the house, but he was so busying giving himself a pep talk

he didn't take the time to notice.

"Something about this doesn't feel right." He said barely above a whisper while his eyes

adjusted to the darkness around him.

He was about to turn and walk back out the door when he heard a shuffling noise directly

to his right. Tim pulled the flashlight from his pocket and aimed it in the direction of the noise,

only to see a closed door leading to another part of the basement. Against his better judgment,

Tim started towards the disruption not knowing what he would find.

"This is so stupid. If this was a scary movie, I would open this door, see nothing, and

close it again just in time for the killer jump out and kill me." He said with a laugh as he opened

the door.

Tim took several steps forward as he scanned the room with his flashlight, stopping the

light on a blue plastic tarp covering what appeared to be a large chair. The shuffling noise that

led him to this room now became painfully obvious. The tarp was being blown on from an air

vent extending from the silver duct work above his head. Letting out the long breath he hadn't

realized he'd been holding, he strode closer to further inspect the tarp. Picking up a corner of the

blue plastic to get a closer look, he noticed it was randomly splattered with splotches of dark

purple paint. The flashlight in one hand he touched one of the purple spots with his gloved

fingers only to watch it smear smoothly across the surface.

"They must have been painting, but I don't think I'd choose that color. A little dark for a

room, if you ask me." He said as he laid the plastic back in its place, rubbing his gloved hand

across his forehead. "Crap! I forgot about that paint. I'll bet I just wiped it all over my face."

Tim carefully took the glove off his right hand, making sure he didn't somehow leave his

trace in the room, and wiped the liquid off his skin with his finger tips. Shining his flashlight at

the residue on his fingers, he realized it was actually crimson red, not the dark purple he had

previously thought.

"Wow that looks like blood." Tim said as he held his finger tips close enough to smell.

Suddenly the smell of death was everywhere, filling up the room and causing his head to

spin. Quickly putting his glove back on Tim turned, trying to find the exit he desperately needed,

only to trip over a leg of the covered chair and fell to the floor in a heap. Holding the flashlight,

unsteady in his shaking hand, Tim pointed the light in the direction of his fall to see what could

only be described as a life sized doll bound to a wooden chair peeking out from under the plastic.

"What in the world is that?" Tim said as he stood covering his mouth.

With each step towards the grotesque form, more details came into view. The figure had

been given the makeover from hell. A long blond wig framed a makeup painted face frozen with

a look of pure terror etched on the features. The lifeless arms and legs of the doll were bound to

the chair with leather straps so thick no person could ever break free.

"Why would they need to strap a doll to a chair?" he started to ask himself when the

reality of the situation hit him like a ton of bricks. This wasn't some mannequin, some adult

sized doll. It was a flesh and blood human being. A human being that had been tortured and

stripped of life in a nightmarish way, and to make matters worse, the longer Tim looked at the

lifeless body the more familiar the face became.

"KEVIN! Kevin? Are you ok?" Tim asked even though he knew the answer before he

even asked the question.

The puzzle Tim had unknowingly thrust himself into, suddenly snapped together. "What

have I done? I should have realized. This was all too perfect." Tim said, closing his eyes and

running his hand through his sandy brown hair. "I've got to get out of here."

Turning off his flashlight and letting his eyes adjust to the darkness once again, Tim

quickly retraced his steps towards freedom and safety. Having made it back to the portal of his

escape, Tim turned the door handle only to find that, the door he was sure had left unlocked, was

now firmly bolted in its place. Feeling his panic and heart beat rise into his throat, Tim

desperately groped for the lock that was keeping him prisoner. His discretion waning with each

passing second, Tim clicked on the light in his hand to aid in his search but to no avail. The bolt

keeping him in place was nowhere to be found.

Abandoning all hope of finding the latch, Tim raised the solid torch over his head,

preparing to smash his way through the glass when he heard a blood curdling laugh somewhere

above him in the darkness. Turning to see where it came from, a bright light enveloped him from

above instantly reminding him of the old cop shows he watched as a child. Shielding his eyes

with his free hand and squinting through tears that blurred his sight; Tim could only make out the

silhouette of what appeared to be a man and a woman.

"Two in one night, that's a new record." The deep voice of the man rained down over

him.

"Please let me go and you'll never see me again. You can even call the cops. I just want

to get out of here." Tim said as he raised both hands above his head.

"I suppose you saw the play room?" the female voice said in response.

"The what? Oh, yes, I'm sorry. I promise I won't say a word to anyone. Let me leave and

you won't have to worry about a thing. No one knows I'm here and I promise I won't tell

anyone. And your daughter…" Tim said as he suddenly remembered the little girl he had seen

with them.

"What about her?" the male voice said with a chuckle.

"What if she sees this? You wouldn't want to do that to her, would you?"

Tim could see the silhouettes turn to look at one another, and hope filled his chest that

maybe he struck a chord, until booming laughter filled the room.

"I don't think we have to worry about that. It isn't our playroom." The man said.

Tim suddenly felt the urge to retch as he bent forward with his hands on his knees before

collapsing completely to the floor.

"Oh dear. It looks like you won't be going anywhere. You see, we've been watching you

for a while. We were expecting you a little sooner but your friend gave Susan a nice toy to play

with until you were ready. Thankfully there was still enough sedative in that needle attached to

the door knob you pricked your hand on when you entered our home. It took a little longer than

expected to fully work, but better late than never I suppose." The shadow man bellowed.

With the last bit of strength Tim had in his body, he raised his head to see the small curly

headed girl standing in front of him clutching a stuffed teddy bear, wearing a smile that chilled

him to the bone. The final ounce of energy left his being; he closed his eyes and took his last

breath as the child's giggle danced around his body, crushing his will.

The darkness overtook him.

End