The Kiss of Judas

Suspense Stories | Feb 19, 2013 | 12 min read
40 Votes, average: 3 out of 5
Suspense Stories

The Kiss of Judas

Jason Baker
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The scrawny teenage boy shoved Olivia, still bound, gagged, and blindfolded to the ground. In the brief moments before impact she tried her best to brace herself. The landing was rough but not nearly as bad as she'd anticipated.
She had no clue where they were, the teen had wrapped duct tape over her eyes before throwing her into his vehicle, but the ground here was soft and wet. From the slimy grit that was now smeared on her cheek, she assumed it to be all dirt.
"Man, where is he?" The kid hissed to himself. She assumed he meant the guy who had been with him earlier. Although she hadn't seen the other man, after her hands and eyes had been taped up, she'd heard him enter her apartment and speak.
He had not gone with them.
Olivia had not recognized her attacker, granted, the only glimpse she'd caught was when he had shoved her daughter out of the front doorway of her apartment and ran inside, tackling her. He wasn't very big, but neither was she. Plus, he had been jacked up, obviously not used to committing such a crime. She could tell by the way his voice had quivered a bit when he'd asked where her bank card was.
If he's doing this strictly for cash then boy, won't he be disappointed, she thought.
Olivia was a Health Care Aid. She made enough money to live on and support her daughter, but that was about it. However, since she and Josie had come to the mutual decision that it was time for her to move out she had managed to save a little more than usual, but not much.
The thought of her daughter brought more despair. She had come by to visit, and hadn't even made it through the door before those men came charging out from behind the stairwell. God only knew what that other man had done to her.
Footsteps approached and she tensed up. She had no idea what this young man had planned, but the feeling that these were her final hours kept seeping into her mind like a dripping wound.
"Don't make any noise, I still have the gun." The teen sputtered.
My mouth is taped up you idiot, how could I make any noise?
She felt an absurd urge to laugh. The fact that some kind of sense of humor was still intact surprised her.
A flash of white light suddenly appeared where the darkness of her sight had been and a stinging sensation tingled across her brow. She had to blink a few times before she realized he'd ripped the tape off.
They were in a cave. Dank, stone walls surrounded them and the distant sound of dripping water came to her. She wondered why she hadn't heard it before.
As things began to waver more into focus her location came to her, Lubbocks Cave, a hang-out spot for the local "going-nowhere" teen crowd. Although she had never actually been to the place before, she knew a lot about it from Josie.
The boy stood nearby holding a revolver aimed at her in one hand and wadding the tape with his other.
He knelt down beside her and put the barrel to her forehead. Olivia squeezed her eyes shut and began to sob. She hated the sound of it but it couldn't be helped. She did not want to die here in this festering hole in the ground.
"How much is on the card?" He yanked the tape on her mouth back enough that less than half of her dry, cracked lips were exposed.
The idea to start screaming came to her then and while she wrestled with it in her mind the boy made the decision for her. He slapped her hard across the face with his free hand, rocking her head back and causing dots to appear in and out of her vision.
"Answer me!"
Olivia knew this was a moment that could change the momentum a bit. If she gave him the real amount, he would most likely get angry or not believe her. However, if she lied, she could buy some time. Although she knew this, her fear had caused her to feel submissive to her captor. It would be impossible for him to know how much she really had in her savings, but a part of her inside screamed that if she lied he would find out and that would be the end.
"Now!" He shouted.
"I don't have anything, just a few hundred dollars. I swear. Please just let me go." The emotional roller-coaster going on inside of her simply wasn't going to allow for any ingenious lies. She was to afraid and just wanted to be home in her apartment safe. Maybe getting around to finally dusting off her mothers' old record player and seeing if it still worked, an idea that had came to her that she'd been putting off for some time now.
If I get back I swear that is the first thing I'm going to do.
"Don't lie to me. You work in a hospital or something right? I know you got money."
How does he know where I work?
"Check the card and see for yourself. I don't work at a hospital I work in Home Health Care I really don't make anything. My pin number is 0176. Please."
The teen squeezed the gun and his arm began to tremble. His mouth clenched shut so tight that his lips paled.
Her mind scrambled for ways to survive. The idea of kicking him and running occurred, he had been in a hurry at her apartment because she'd screamed when he ran in and in the rush had never bothered with securing her feet.
That idea was quickly crushed. His gun was aimed directly at her. She would be Swiss cheese before she hit the floor if any sudden movement was made.
This is it, oh Jesus.
She closed her eyes and in that moment truly believed that this was it, she was going to die here feeling her own tears creating tracks by sliding through the crud that was now caked on her face from the ground.
"Damn it!" He stood up and turned. She looked up and got her first real glance at him.
He wore dirty jeans with a multitude of chains and metal rings hanging from them. The black shirt with some metal band stamped on it he was wearing looked like it had never seen a washer or dryer either. In the face, he looked like any normal kid. Not some hardened criminal that could kidnap and hold a gun to someone like this.
He began to pace around the cave, his greasy, curly hair swishing across his forehead as he turned.
"Please, whatever is going on, just forget about it and let me go. If you need money or some kind of help I will do what I can. I swear I won't go to the police just let me go."
Seeing him and how young he was had lifted some of the fear off of her. He was no longer a voice with a gun, and he hadn't shot her when she was so sure he would. He had become humanized in her mind and that made him easier to deal with.
Perhaps even able to have some sense talked into him.
He stopped pacing and glanced at her. She felt her spirits lift when his face gave away what he was thinking. Whatever this was, something had gone awry, and now the victim was offering a way out with no cops.
He was considering.
The sound of car tires crunching over gravel echoed into the cave.
The boy jumped and turned his attention to the cave entrance.
Her spirits dropped and her stomach sank like an elevator with a snapped cable. Someone had stumbled upon them, and now he would panic and kill them, and her.
I was so close.
The tears turned on again, fear and desperation again crashed over her insides like a high tide.
The engine outside turned off and a car door slammed. She kept her eyes on the kid, expecting him to finish her at any minute. Yet, he stayed frozen where he stood.
A shadow cast across the wall, a tall mans silhouette.
It was the man from earlier who had been with him.
"Where is she?" The voice iced her blood. The teen had seemed nervous, but whoever this was sounded deadly calm.
The kid pointed the gun in her direction.
"I got her man. But she don't have no money. Your girl lied to us man!"
The man entered the cave. The sound of his boots sloshing across the floor toward her brought her near panic.
He stepped out of the shadows and knelt beside her.
She recognized him.
She wouldn't have known who he was by only his voice, she'd never spoke to him, but she had seen him once.
Things began to click together in her mind.
Something that kid said, he said ‘Your girl lied to us.'
A spark of anger jolted through her then. It wasn't a long and drawn out feeling, like her fear, but a quick, hot burst.
She knew exactly who this mans "girl" was.
The man gripped her shirt in his fist and raised her to a sitting position.
He glared at her for a moment then turned to the kid.
"You took the tape off?" He sounded furious.
The teen's eyes grew.
"You weren't here man! I didn't know what to do! I just, I didn't think about it! But I asked her about that card man, and she told me there was like nothing on it."
The man gave him a look that warned of future repercussions.
"You know what that means we have to do right? She's seen us."
"No please, I won't tell anyone, please!" She began to blubber and the man shoved her hard to the ground, taking her wind. Her sobs became half gasps.
"Go to the car and open the trunk." He threw a set of keys to the teen who now looked absolutely terrified. After giving her one last look, he turned and ran out.
She rolled to her side, ready again to face the inevitable.
It was over now.
Something sharp pierced her hand and she winced and rolled over. A sharp rock was jutting out of the ground.
If that creep wasn't in here I could just cut this tape on that and run away.
Through the fear, the anger again resurfaced, a new voice inside that was not pleading or afraid. It seemed to rise above the blubbering mess that had overtaken her thoughts.
You're not out of options yet, but the longer you sit there and do nothing the more power you are giving them over you, now react, do something.
"How much do you want?" She began speaking without knowing exactly where she was going with it.
The man, who had produced his own pistol now and was checking it, turned to her.
"The hell you talking about?"
"You want money right? That's what your friend said. You can have it all I don't care. Just please don't kill me." This had been all about deception, she realized that once she'd recognized the man, and realized the whole set up. That ball of anger that was starting to grow more by the second was telling her it was time to do some deceiving of her own.
"Thought you didn't have any money?" He cocked the gun and approached her.
"Little too late to try and lie to save yourself now ain't it?" An evil grin came across his face.
"I'm not lying. I told your friend how much I had."
"Yeah, a couple hundred bucks. Not enough."
"But that isn't what I told him."
The man tensed. She had him where she wanted.
"You better start talking sense."
"I have five grand, I told him that. I even gave him the code, why don't you just take it and leave me? I'm not calling the police I swear."
The look in his eyes told her the plan had worked. This whole plan had obviously been concocted without much thought, she could tell that by how they were acting. Also, these were not bright people. These were the drop-outs, the middle class wannabe outsiders. The seed that one of them may be out to screw the other wasn't hard to plant.
"He asked you for the card number?" He spoke slowly now, a murderous anger was being held back, she could almost feel it coming off of him in waves.
"Yes."
The teen ran back into the cave then.
"Okay I got it. Let's move the bitch."
The man turned to him.
"We should get the money before we kill her, only she knows the code."
The teen looked confused.
"Forget that man, I told you she doesn't have any money. She said so herself."
The man raised his pistol and aimed it at him.
"What are you doing dude?" The teen stumbled backwards, wanting to run but knowing he couldn't.
"You really shouldn't have done that Jake."
Jake Matthews, she knew the name. Had never seen him, but had heard the name plenty. The anger welled up inside more at the thought of it. It was beginning to overtake her other emotions, she understood that soon she was going to react, whether she wanted to or not.
As the man walked to Jake, she began sliding the tape up and down the jagged rock. Jake had done a poor job of wrapping so it wouldn't take long.
If they see you doing that you're finished.
The voice of reason was begged her however, the voice of anger silenced it with one quick thought.
And If I just sit here?
"I didn't do nothing man, what are you talking about?" Jake took another step back.
"Don't move again. You got the card number. You were supposed to wait for me before you did that. Then you tell me she has no money? You were going to take it and leave us here to get caught right? That's what went through that bong smoked brain of yours right?" The man spoke fast, his voice rising.
Jake shook his head furiously.
"No, dude, she told me herself! I didn't ask for it, I swear!"
The tape was almost loose.
Please, think this through more or wait until a better opportunity!
Reason was becoming much weaker.
I'm making my own opportunity now.
"What were you gonna do then Jake? Call it in? Tell the cops that we left Josie at the house to cover us in case someone called in because that dumb broad screamed?" He waved his hand in her direction, but was too caught up in the moment to look at her.
Hearing her daughters name silenced all thoughts, and allowed rage to win the inner argument.
She clenched her fists and yanked them in opposite directions.
The tape ripped.
She pulled the sharp rock out of the ground, and charged the man, Scotty Carroll, her daughter's boyfriend, with a shriek.
The cave was small, and that was what saved her. The distance between them was covered quickly, and he only had time to turn before she slammed the rock into his eye.
It went all most fully through. Adrenaline had gave her a strength she wouldn't otherwise possess.
She relished the look of disbelief on his face as he dropped to a knee.
Jake, frozen in shock, watched as the woman kicked Scotty in the gut and grabbed the gun from his hand.
Scotty shouted that he was blind, his voice high and girly now.
They were his last words.
Olivia fired two rounds into the side of his face that he could still see out of. His body slumped violently to the ground.
Jake, having forgotten his own gun tucked into the waistband of his pants, raised his arms.
"Hey, I didn't want to do this. Josie man, that chick is crazy she said-"
That was as far as he got.
Olivia pulled the trigger over and over, screaming at each report, each loud bang seeming to feed the rage inside of her.
When it was over, she dropped the gun.
It was quiet now. The only noise the dripping of water she'd heard earlier far off in the depths of the cave.
Still barefoot, she walked outside and inhaled the fresh air. It was a crisp, fall evening and being this far out in the country, she had a beautiful view of the starry night sky.
She closed her eyes and tilted her head back, wanting the air and sounds of the night to fill her.
It was hitting home that she had survived.
As she began to walk she reflected on the past. Two months ago, she had argued with Josie about her new boyfriend, Scotty. Scotty was a known drug dealer and troublemaker in the small town they lived in. She did not want her daughter, who had been in and out of trouble herself, getting involved any deeper with that crowd.
But Josie had just turned eighteen, so it didn't matter what mother said anymore. An agreement had been made for her to find a place of her own.
The night she'd left, there had been a look in her eye. At the time Olivia took it as nerves at having to be out on her own but looking back now she knew what it had really been, hatred.
This near-death experience had cleared a large mist that was covering something very obvious in her head.
All the arguments they'd had since Josie had turned twelve and wanted to start running the streets, since Josie started getting into fights at school and coming home reeking of booze, cigarettes, and pot, all of them seemed to solidify in her mind now.
Josie's anger and rage had seemed to increase daily throughout those years and Olivia had simply not understood where it went wrong.
She thought about all the nights she would lay awake trying to figure out how her own daughter, who at one time had been a smiling little girl who enjoyed bows in her hair and coloring books, was shaping into someone completely different. As a parent, sometimes facing what your child has become, whether it was fault of your own or not, is just too hard to do. Her own denial of what Josie had become through the years had led to this.
Why Josie would think she had a grand stash of money hidden away she didn't know, but that hardly mattered now.
The final link in the chain of Josie's anger had been broken.
She had survived.
As she glanced up again at the blanket of stars above, she remembered the night Josie had left. Before walking out the door, she had turned and kissed her on the cheek, saying goodbye mom.
Her heart had swelled then and in that moment she'd wanted to erase all the bad years between them, but Josie had turned and walked out, leaving Olivia to stare at the blank, wooden door.
That door closing between them seemed very appropriate now, and she pondered it as she felt the ground under her bare feet go from grass to pavement.
That blank, emotionless object shut between them, like Josie's anger, could not be reasoned with.
It simply did its job of keeping the world out.

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