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SECOND GRADE CLASSROOM ANNOUNCEMENT :
"A Story (3)" |
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That ringing made him startle. He ran, with his heart in his throat and grabbed the phone: “Hello, hello shouted Gary, who is speaking? “ and again “Hello, Jennifer, is it you Jennifer ?†Silence. Then a sigh, a click and the telephone communication was interrupted. (Lucrezia D.P.) Gary was confused, a series of questions, like blows took possession of his mind.He had to sit down on the armchair. He was exhausted. What did the two notes mean? Who had put them there? But above all, who was sighing on the other end of the line ?Gary wanted answers, but the tiredness was stronger than his determination.His eyelids, second after second, became heavier and heavier and then: darkness. (Simone C.) When he woke up it was midnight. He had slept for 5 hours at least. He was still on the armchair and his head was aching, but he knew he couldn’t wait another second. He tried to calm himself down and think about what to do. Then,a flash : he had placed video cameras outside his house anly a few months before when a thief had tried to break into one of the windows. "How stupid I am" he thought. "Why didn’t I think about it before?â€. He went to his office room to watch the videos on his computer and as soon as he started to examine the first shots, he couldn't believe his eyes. ……(Federico T.) There was a man, a gunshot and then: darkness. The man had shot at the camera and nothing else could be done. Fortunately, the other camera was still working, so Gary could see that the man wore a black hoodie and a white mask with written on it: “deathâ€. He vanished in his apartment for more than half an hour. When he came out, he saw the man pulling his wife harshly, while he threatened her with his gun. Her head was bleeding. Then he saw her stumble and faint. With one corner of his eye the man noticed that there was another surveillance camera, but this time he didn’t shoot at it. He looked straight to the camera, made a grin and lifted up the body of his wife with only one hand. That was all he could see. Gary was petrified. Who was that man? Instinctively he rushed to the front door and locked it. He spent the entire night wondering about what was best to do, till he fell asleep, exhausted. The sun was high when a telephone ring woke him up. (GIORGIO B.) He ran to the phone with his heart in his throat. He picked it up and a cold voice, without any particular accent, but very deep and cavernous said: "Inspector! Listen very well to what I’m going to tell you: your wife is with us. If you want to see her alive again, reach the supermarket in the mall near your house; there you will find a rest room; go to the first door on the right of the men's room . Behind the toilet you will find the instructions to follow". Gary, quickly memorized the instructions and shouted: “Give me evidence that my wife is alive!" " You will have it, don't worry "; then a CLICK.(Lucrezia D.P.) He had to go, otherwise he didn’t know what could have happened to his wife.The only thing was that he didn’t know how to get there and with what! He thought about taking a gun, but what if they would have discovered it? He didn’t want to think about it, but he knew if something went wrong, at least he could protect himself and his wife with that gun. He was on his way to the the supermarket with his jeep, when he had a brilliant idea: he put a small camera on his glasses so he could have recorded the face of the men. He parked his jeep next to the supermarket. He was about to go into the rest room when (Federico T.) The phone calls, the video, the supermarket, the unknown boy and now the mask. Gary wondered what else could have gone wrong at that point. But then, he remembered the second strange call he had received, saying: "Go to the door next to the men's room. Behind the toilet you will find the instructions to follow.You will have your wife, surely." One thing he was sure: he wouldn't have seen his wife so soon, but he couldn't but go. Strangely, he reached the room without any other strange events. He went into the room cautiously, pointing his gun towards everything he could see. Then, he finally reached the toilet and took the note. When he saw what was written there, his face became red, then purple, then white. It was as if he couldn't breathe. Three simple sentences were written on that sheet: "Too late . This is my revenge, miserable man. She is and WILL be MINE!" At that moment Gary realized everything: Steven, his wife's first crush...(Mattia A.) He was desperate. He couldn’t even think about what that men could do to his wife.â€If he lays a hand on my sweet Jenny, there will be no place for him in this world any longer, for sure â€. When he arrived home he noticed that on the table there were still that phone number and the drawing of the padlock. "What could those mean?â€- he thought-“if I only……,o my god, now I realize, that’s, that’s Jenny’s writing. So Steven didn’t draw it, Jenny did.†“She was clearly trying to give me some clues. Maybe the phone number isn’t a phone number but the key of the padlock, but ...what padlock?†Now Gary knew at least what those drawing meant. He needed to find out something about Steven, but now it was 3a.m. . He was too tired and needed to put some thought into this with a fresh mind.While he was taking off his jacket, the note that he had found in the bathroom fell and he noticed that there was something written behind the noteâ€PARKER INDUSTRIESâ€.Parker was the surname of Steven, he could remember Jenny mentioning it. (Federico T.) He was too tired to do something, so he put the note on the bedside table and went to bed. He woke up abruptly and watched the clock. It was 8:32. He felt upset because he had had a strange dream about a woman locked up in a cell by a padlock. However, he decided to search some info about Parker industries, so he turned on the pc and searched on Google “PARKER INDUSTRIESâ€. He clicked on the first link: www.parker-industries.com. It was like an old website. He scrolled down to see the footer of the site: “last update:03-08-2012; 238 Summit Ave, Mantua Township, NJ 08051, USAâ€. He thought: “I know this place, it’s no too far from here!â€. So, he put the jacket on with all the notes he had, wore the belt with the gun and drove until the address he read. There was a ruined building, like an industry, with an enclosure around it. He parked the car and thought: “she has to be hereâ€. He searched a way to enter in that building and he found a big hole on the enclosure. He put an hand on the gun and entered in the external courtyard. In front of him there was a crumbling door, like an emergency exit. He hardly opened it and saw a big flight of stairs. Instinctively he started to climb with a hand on his gun. Suddenly he heard a moan. It came from above. He quietly kept going up the stairs until the top floor: a large room full of PC. At the end of the room there was a grey door, consumed by rust. He pulled the gun from his belt and approached the door. “Yes, the moan came from inside the roomâ€. He tried to open the door but there was a padlock with some letters written above: “APRRKE†He took out the notes from his jacket and put the note with the words “PARKER INDUSTRIES†next to the other one with the number. The number was: “359289â€. He searched into the pocket of the jacket and find a pen and wrote the number under the written “PARKERâ€. He understood: “P=3, A=5, R=9, K=2, E=8, R=9â€. I quickly inserted the correct number in the padlock: “APRRKE†became “539928â€. once unlocked the padlock , the door opened: Jennifer was gagged and tied with a rope to a chair. Gary immediately removed the gag from his mouth, cut the rope and released her. Jennifer started crying but Gary took her by the hand and went towards the stairs. They ran until the door but outside there were a few armed men including Parker. Gary peered outside and saw that the men were looking away so, he took Jennifer, and crouched, they went to the car. They got on the car but suddenly some rifle shots hit the car. Gary turned on the car and immediately went away from there. He told her to call the police and saw a car ran after them. Gary quickly turned right and the car behind them crashed into the guard rail. Finally, their nightmare ended, Steven was dead and could not hurt them anymore…. THE END |
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FRANCESCO S.
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