~ Criminal Company ~

by

Naomi Chapman

Fran started to turn to look at Jake. She shook her head no. Jake pulled her over to a chair and shoved her down. She looked up at Jake with tears in her eyes. She knew he set her up. She knew the past few hours had all been a joke to him.

“But..”

“I know you didn’t seriously think that all of that was real did you?” Eli taunted.

Jake didn’t say a word. He wasn’t smiling or laughing, but Paul was. Fran looked from Eli to Jake. Fran started to get up. Jake shoved her back into the chair. Paul quickly tossed some rope at Jake. Jake caught it and tied her hands behind her back.

Then he glared at Paul. The way he threw the rope was as if he was testing Jake to see if he would actually do it. That pissed Jake off even more. There was defiantly going to be a fight between them and Jake didn’t care how mad Eli got about that.

“We need to talk,” Eli said to Fran.

Fran didn’t say a word. She was too frightened to speak. She knew what Eli was going to do to her. She just wanted to get it over with. She was so embarrassed that she fell for Jake’s lies. Everyone had to have known what happened and were laughing about it.

“You seem to have a lot of pictures of me. It looks like you are stalking me. Tell me Fran. Why would you be doing that?” Eli asked.

Eli’s voice was calm. He sounded nice and patient for right now. That was all about to change.

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” said Fran.

“Really? Because I think you do. This is your camera right?”

Fran looked at the camera that Eli had placed in front of her. She said nothing.

“See we got some pictures developed from it. Who do you think the pictures were of?” Eli inquired.

Fran still didn’t say a word.

“Let me refresh your memory. They are of me and that bothers me,” Eli said.

Eli nodded to Paul. Paul placed some pictures in front of Fran. She looked at them. There were pictures of Eli, his parents, Paul, Mark, Brian, Sam along with a few pictures of Fran and her family.

“That is you right and these are pictures you took? Right?” he questioned. “See, I had some people break into your house while Jake there was nice enough to distract you for them. I trust he showed you a good time.”

Fran was silent.

“Answer me damn it! I would really like to know why you’re so fucking obsessed with me.”

Fran looked really scared. Eli’s voice was no longer calm and nice. It was angry. Tears were streaming down Fran’s cheeks. Eli grabbed Fran’s hair and pulled her head back. Then he put a knife to her throat. Sam turned her head.

“You were going to blackmail me weren’t you?” Eli asked.

Fran didn’t reply.

“Was it money?”

Fran still didn’t reply. Eli laughed.

“I don’t pay blackmailers. I kill them!”

Eli cut her throat. Blood gushed everywhere. Eli tossed the knife onto the table and walked away. Brian and Mark walked through the door and stopped. Jake was still standing behind Fran’s body. Everyone was silent. Brian and Mark could feel the tension in the room and didn’t want to stay there so they hurried to get rid of the body.

Eli walked over to Sam and sighed. She was frightened as she looked up at him. Her heart was pounding. She feared he was going to kill her next since she had hired Fran. She looked for Paul hoping he wouldn’t let Eli kill her.

“Do me a favor,” he said.

“W-what?”

“Don’t hire anyone like that again.”

“I-I didn’t know.”