
CAPTIVE IN HIS OWN HOME
Prologue
Jay was a very lucky young man. He had won the Lotto shortly before his 18th birthday (just as he was finishing high school) and was set for life. He was a quiet, shy young man who liked to be alone so that he could enjoy his hobbies in peace, and thanks to his newfound wealth he’d be able to indulge his hobbies as much as he wanted to. Looking forward to a lifetime of peace and quiet, he bought a nice cabin at the end of Wilderness Road; miles from his nearest neighbors and surrounded by scenic beauty. Now without a care in the world, Jay settled in to engage in his favourite pursuits of reading, writing, drawing, and music.
But others were envious of his good fortune and sought to take it for themselves. On the summer before Jay’s 20th birthday, they made their move…
Chapter 1
From the age of 11, Mitch was what used to be known as a juvenile delinquent. He was always getting in trouble: window peeping on girls, shoplifting whatever he could quickly stuff into his pockets, shaking down smaller kids for their lunch money, beating up smaller kids just for fun, and so on. When he was 13 he lured a 10-year-old boy out into the woods, tied him up, and tormented him for an entire day. However, the younger boy’s concerned father found his son after a careful search and thrashed his tormentor before having him arrested.
Mitch served a few months in juvenile prison before being set loose on Society again. He progressed to more serious crimes, and spent more time inside juvenile prison than out of it. Finally, at the age of 15, he held up a gas station and beat its owner with a tire iron before a second employee he had not seen came from behind and overpowered him. After that, Mitch was sentenced to juvenile hall until he should turn 21.
Mitch was not a particularly large individual; perhaps 5’ 7†and 140 pounds. But what he lacked in size he made up for in viciousness and cunning, and he was a virtual kingpin among the other juvenile offenders in his dormitory by the time he turned 17. Then, with three years to go on his sentence, he laid his plans to escape with his three closest chums.
Ben (aka “Big Benâ€), 20, was the bruiser of the bunch: 6’ 4†and 220 pounds of muscle and bone. Not much brain however, but that was fine with Mitch; Ben let Mitch do all his thinking for him and did whatever Mitch told him to like a favorite lapdog. He was the one who collected Mitch’s debts (aka protection money) for him; those who paid found their lives reasonably free of harassment; those who did not found themselves getting beaten up by Ben when they least expected it.
Rod, 19, was about 6’ 0†and had a swimmer’s build. Anyone who got on the bad side of Mitch by being unable (as opposed to unwilling, which was Ben’s department) to pay protection money could expect an unpleasant encounter with Rod shortly after - and usually they made amends the humiliating way or the painful and humiliating way. After a while, everyone without money chose the humiliation up front to avoid overloading the clinic by their own urgent need to be there. The humiliation up front usually involved receiving a quick and private visit through the front door; any resistance meant the other way, which involved an even less welcome visitor thrusting their way in through the back door. Few people wanted visitors through the back door! Having quite a bit of money himself, Rod paid Mitch well for the privilege of abusing other juvenile inmates on a nightly basis.
Charles, 16, was the fourth trusted member of Mitch’s inner circle. He was 5’ 10â€, well-built, and probably the best looking of the four. He had a reputation of pure viciousness that exceeded even Mitch’s when he was convicted of beating a drunk almost to death. Charles had not so much as touched the man, but was simply a runaway who was at the wrong place at the wrong time and was convicted of something he had not done. He was not at all the vicious type, but fortunately for him he was a good actor; when he wound up here in spite of his innocence he managed to pass himself off as being as tough as they come. This fooled even the normally observant Mitch, who invited Charles to be a part of his inner circle. Charles joined only for fear that refusing might lead to a less pleasant meeting with Ben or Rod further down the line; whereas as a member of the inner circle he was immune to Mitch’s ‘taxes’ in any of its forms.
Mitch and his three cohorts planned and executed an escape plan that was so fool-proof that no one else ever found out just what it was or how it worked… and so no details of it are available. Suffice it to say that one day they were miles outside of the facility before the absence of any of them was discovered and reported.
Mitch had read about Jay’s good fortune in a newspaper. He’d known Jay slightly before he dropped out of school to embark on his life of crime, and knew that Jay was not large or strong, was very much a loner (and therefore unlikely to have friends or visitors), and was easily intimidated. He learned where Jay had moved to and after his escape he went straight there with his three fellow escapees. They arrived at Jay’s house after dark so that their approach would be unseen. There Mitch’s plans hit a snag; Jay kept his doors and windows locked to ensure his privacy and security. It was deemed impractical to simply try to force their way inside; Jay might be able to call for help in the interval, and in these days of cell phones merely cutting the phones lines wouldn’t suffice. Though isolated, this cabin was still within cell-phone calling range.
Charles was sent ahead to the front door to help pave the way. With his good looks and innocent-seeming nature, Charles was able to distract Jay’s attention when he answered the doorbell long enough for the other three to close in and force their way through the door. Jay was physically fit and a good wrestler, but he was smaller than any of his attackers save Mitch, and only one against four (or five if you counted Big Ben twice) in the bargain. He was quickly and easily overwhelmed.
Mitch’s group had managed to swipe some rope somewhere along the way here, and once Jay was subdued and lying on the floor, he found his hands and feet efficiently bound and his yells of protest stifled with a gag made from Mitch’s own shirt. Jay was still putting up a futile struggle when he was dragged to a kitchen chair, forced to sit in it, and then tied securely to it by his shoulders, arms, torso, thighs, shins, and ankles. Even then, he tried to squirm free, but a hard backhand slap to his face made him finally realize the futility of his struggles. Jay then sat quietly in the chair to await further developments.
Jay was soon to discover that he was now the unwilling host to the Houseguests from Hell.