10 Miles Nothing

"This is what I want to wear and I'll wear it!"

"Maribel Cerroni Sledger! You shall change this instance!"

"MAKE ME!"

A typical home, a typical problem, and one of those sleepless nights once again. The terrible argument of mother and daughter raged on. Mr. Sledger came home that night with a blistering migraine coming home from a straight 16 hour work session, hoping that he could get some rest, apparently he came home to something different. Jr. was in tucked in bed, heavily sleeping throughout the whole commotion. He was deaf you see, he slowly lost his hearing due to a untreatable disease where his ear drum slowly disintegrated due to uneven heat coming from the nerves. It was treated to not to further conjure any other body part, and so he couldn't hear anything else since it disintegrated. As the now three-pronged argument raged on, the family was unaware of what's about to happen. Stationed outside we're three masked men along with two others. A Plan was ensued among them. The other trying to loosen the rope that binds his wrists, while the other laid motionless assuming the person was knocked out. They owned the van that was now being utilized by the masked villains.

"Ready?" asked a masked man

"Are you kidding me? Your asking me that?" – questioned a heinous syndicate

"…"

"It's for them, don't worry we'll make it through this" – asked the masked man towards the other masked man.

"Let's go ladies, come on" – Exclaimed the heinous one

The first two stormed the house while the other one watched over the two owners. The two surrounded the house but stealthily regrouped at the back door where one of the syndicates lock picks it. Carrying a handgun the masked man stormed the house and searches for whoever was inside, finding the arguing family, he threatens them with the handgun while the other signals the other masked man left in the van to come in along with the two hostages.

"Please don't hurt us, I beg of you, if it's money you want—"

"Shut the F*** up old man" responded the masked man towards the begging father

The masked man rounds the family unto the basement and restrains them in an inescapable position unto the poles that was there, the two others were restrained there as well. He orders the other two to search the household if there were anyone else who they didn't restrain. The two splits up and while the other searched the first storey of the house the other searches the second floor. He finds the boy asleep in his bed, deciding to merely leave him alone and he seemingly hid something below his bed, opened the window with a note by the other side of the wall and left.

"1st floor is clean" – proclaimed one of the masked men

"Where's Ray?" – asked the heinous one

"2nd floor cleared, no one's up here" – Ray said

"Mutha F****** Ray, almost thought you bailed on us there, could've took your brother's head if you did." – said the heinous one sarcastically causing the two unease.

"I'm kidding. What? Can't anyone take a joke these days?" – looking to both of the siblings, "but if you dare do anything that would jeopardize this mission, I will put a bullet through you Big A** heads, Now let's entertain the audience shall we?" – exclaimed the heinous leader

The family during that moment was worried about Jr. hoping they wouldn't find him and trying to find a way out in the process. The two other hostages had bags over their heads, the other seemed unconscious, and the other one itching to get out, murmurs could be heard coming from it. The basement door opened up as the masked syndicates made their way in positioning themselves in front of the hostages.

"Sorry to bother your beautiful evening, not to confuse you, we are not robbing you, we just want something from Mr. Detective over there." –pointing towards Mr. Sledger. " I need something of you, and you'll give it to me or, you know the drill, you give it to me, no one gets hurt, you don't I blow your head off and… you know drill." –closer inspecting Mr. Sledger's face. "So what do you say?"

"Okay, just please don't hurt my family." – answered Mr. Sledger

"Alright, that's what I want to hear." – unlocking Mr. Sledger's restraints in the same time. "Take him to the 2nd floor, it's better up there." – ordered the heinous one towards his partners.

With a bit of tense " The 1st floor should be great, most of the rooms upstairs are locked anyway." said Ray.

"Most?" questioned the heinous one towards Ray looking at him in a suspicious manner.

Stuttering a bit. "Yeah… well" interrupted by the heinous one as he rushes upstairs.

The masked syndicate cuffs back the restraints on Mr. Sledger and immediately made his way upstairs trying to be convinced by Ray that there's nothing upstairs. The masked man grotesquely opened all the doors which caused them to break, where he finally reached the boy's room and he finds him there.

"You f****** liar" – said the masked man angrily towards Ray, grabbing him by the collar violently and drags him down to the basement.

"Your brother's a fool" – exclaimed the heinous one pointing a gun towards his head

"Please stop, he just doesn't want the kid involved" – cried the other masked man

"Say GOODBYE, BRATHA!" – shouted the syndicate

"Sorry, Bro…" – Ray's last words towards his brother as a gunshot impaled him through his brain causing his body to roll down the stairs.

"Why?..." – uttered the despaired man

Shrieks, cries, and despair filled the atmosphere, the family tried to shield their eyes from the event but apparently they had to witness it. The other masked man dropped to his knees, taking off his mask revealing his identity to the family. The heinous one made his way upstairs to try and restrain the boy but he found a man in shooting position firing direct fire. He took cover before the door's wall. The man managed to close and lock the door. The heinous one shot at the knob to release the lock and enters finding the boy and the man gone, he rushed towards the window but finds the two rushing towards a car. Flickering blue and red lights came about the horizon.

"S***!" said the heinous one barricading the windows as well as the 1st floor entries.

The despaired man seemed to be paralyzed there. Wondering what could have happened if he didn't involve his brother in all of this. The one he took care of, now gone… Despair rolled in, guilt, no sign of grief… A chance was founded by Maribel to attempt to turn the fallen syndicate unto their side.

"He killed your brother, are you just going to sit there and do nothing?" – asked Maribel

Stuttering "I … ca… can't do anything …" – said the despaired one

"Yes you can!, Grab a gun and shoot that guy! – suggested Maribel

"I told you, I can't do anything, he's…. he's got.." – interrupted by the heinous one calling him to help him barricade the house. "I'm sorry brother…" – he told his fallen brother before assisting his brother's murderer, leaving a gun inside an old fleur de lis styled box hoping that they would plan an escape.

As the family planned an escape strategy, the father suggested that he would utilize it when all of the sudden, the conscious one managed to get chew her way through whatever bounded her mouth as well as removing the bag that was over her head.

"No, we wait." – she said with a passive tone.

"Kerrigan? How are you involved in all this?" – a surprised answer by Mr. Sledger

"I don't know, I was knocked out cold when I was out from the building." – explained Kerrigan

"So what do we do?" – questioned the wife

"We got to know what this guys knows, wake him up before we retaliate." Looking towards the unconscious figure, "While we were in the van we were transported in, I heard him stating to stay calm, it'll all be over, he knows more than I do." - explained Kerrigan.

"So why doesn't he just wake up then?" – questioned the wife.

"I don't know…" – responded Kerrigan

"Don't you think he's dead? He heard Gunfire, he heard us scream, and if that doesn't wake him up, doesn't that mean he's dead? – questioned Maribel

"He spoke to me, I assure you that, there must have been something I didn't see." – explained Kerrigan.

As their conversation continued, The Sledger household was barricaded inside and the house's perimeter was surrounded by cops. Detective Jimmy Kudo, a friend of Mr. Sledger, was the one who called 911 and came to the boy's rescue. He was called by an anonymous caller hours ago but heard no one talk in the other end. He felt that it was a prank call but decided to trace the call anyway in a surprise that the call came from the Sledger household, A "miss dial" he figured, but he went anyway. He made his way to the porch only to see a man being dragged down, suspicions occur so he called 911 for back up and tried to find another route inside the household. He made his way around and noticed the open window, he climbed his way up using the plant stokes (those that lead the plant veins into a specific location.) and found a note stating that he takes the boy and take him to a safe location there was more to it but he heard a gunshot that staggered him causing him to drop the note. Realizing that there's no time to recover the note, he climbed immediately inside and woke the boy doing sign languages to tell him to climb down and run to the nearest vehicle. Jimmy took a shooting crouched position and shot a couple of rounds as he heard someone approached, he closed and locked the door immediately to buy time. He and the boy were safely enclosed inside his car as the cops were quick and surrounded the house. He asked if he was alright through sign languages and he responded yes and asked where his dad was, Jimmy didn't respond back as he wondered what was going on.

"Make sure we cannot be flanked anywhere you don't want anyone to get hurt do you?" – the heinous one asked with disgust

"…I'll do whatever you say, just please don't –" interrupted once again by the heinous one who said "Then we start this now."

A call suddenly rang from the home phone, the heinous one immediately answered it.

"We want detective Jimmy Kudo on the line, we're only doing negotiations with him"

"Slow down there, well I'm..-"

"I Don't give a F*** who the f*** you are just get me that B**** Kudo on the line"

"I'll get you Kudo, we just got to make sure the hostages are safe"

"You want to know how the hostages are?" – drops the phone and asks his partner to transfer the hostages to the upstairs bathroom. "Leave that woman here ." –pointing at Kerrigan

" Well inspector, unless you get me Kudo, I'll be having such a wonderful time with his wonderful, wonderful daughter."

"Alright, alright," – turning to a nearby officer. " Get kudo from treatment over here, hurry."

Jimmy realized a cop was on his way to his car, he got out immediately telling Jr. to stay there, and made his way towards the phone line. He was also warned about his daughter being in captive.

"You bastard!. Get my daughter out of this, this is between you and me."

"You got a lot of nerve just busting in and out of a syndicated area."

"Get my daughter out now!."

"I want a hummer V2 black, in exchange for a hostage."

"What?"

"I want a hummer now, or your daughter dies for it."

"Fine, I'll have it for you in a few hours."

"You don't expect me to wait that long don't you?"

"Let me talk to my daugher"

Holds the phone to Kerrigan's head "Dad, don't worry about me, Pena, Ju-" Pulls the phone back.

"10 minutes Kudo, 10 Minutes." – hangs up right after

"wait!-… he hanged up…" – looking towards the inspector beside him, "Get him a hummer v2 black, make sure it's rig with the most invisible tracker. We got to know where it's going."

"We're just going to give it to him?"

"There are hostages downstairs, I could tell."

"Well alright then Kudo, you solved the most unsolvable cases, I guess this is all on you."

The inspector nodded, making numerous calls for the request that had been made. He pondered who the person in the other line might be, he might be a criminal but he knew him. In the moment of the negotiation, the hostages were relocated to the nearby bathroom. The bathroom had enough room for the four hostages, comfortable for all of them. The three was untied of their restraints, but the unconscious one remained restrained. The plan cannot be done without Kerrigan so they decide to create a plan B.

Mr. Sledger: "Now what"

Maribel: "Mom, Dad, if we don't make it through this.—"

Mrs. Sledger: "Don't speak like that honey, of course we will."

Maribel: "… okay… but just to let you guys know… I'm sorry.." tears begin running down her eyes

Mrs. Sledger: hugging Maribel "it's okay honey."

Mr. Sledger: hugs daughter as well

…: "On my count everyone run as fast as you can out of here, Understand?"

Mr. Sledger: "How could we trust you?"

…: "I only want to get out of this more than you guys do… but it's your choice if you don't want to.

Mr. Sledger: "okay… but who are you?"

…: "Mind untying me first?"

Mr. Sledger: unties the man's restraints

…: "The Name's Sly… Nice meeting you guys…"

Maribel: "What are you doing here?"

Sly: "Back at you… but right now here's the plan."

Meanwhile, in the living room.

"…Did you make sure it was done?

"Yeah…" nodding the same time

"… alright then… Hopefully this works… sorry about your brother man…" placing his hand upon his partner's shoulder.

"… His your brother too… we had too… have no choice…"

"…Well alright… let's just get this started…" grabbing all their equipment and making their way up.

The culprits made their way up, the other with a gun and the other one with a backpack on. The hostages inside seem to have their plan on hold and ready to initiate once the culprits open the door.

"…everyone ready..?" Sly asked and everyone nodded.

As the culprits opened the door, a towel rod came swinging out of nowhere. The first culprit managed to dodge the attack but the second one go hit with the rod instead. Sly tackled the culprit unto the wall, while signaling the other hostages to storm outside. Everyone stormed out but Kerrigan seemed hesitant. While everyone made it safely outside causing the other cops to storm in, Kerrigan found the culprit lying on the ground, Sly was nowhere in sight. The bathroom was clear, the basement, he was nowhere to be found in the building.

The hostages were interrogated right where they we're getting treated. Jimmy finally was reunited with his daughter. Kerrigan told him about the culprit, she mentioned his identity being Sly. As the body bags we're being brought to the ambulance, Jimmy wanted to study them. He made his way to the first body bag. He carefully unzipped the bag to see whoever was in there. To the revelation of the bag he still doesn't seem to remember anything. Kerrigan asked some cops to find the all the sudden missing hostile. Jimmy still pondered throughout the case.

A day after the case Jimmy made his way into his office, drinking his daily coffee, and paperwork, it was another usual day. Kerrigan visited that day to check on his father.

"Hey Dad,.."

"Hey… what made you drop by?"

"Can't a daughter just visit his dad without requiring a reason?..."

"I guess not…"

"Hey dad," sitting down on a chair

"Yeah?"…

"Have you found anything on the "missing' person?"

"I don't think so…"

"Well alright then Dad, nice portrait by the way…"

"Portrait what portrait?"

"The one right there?" pointing at the portrait behind him

"SWH… what the-"

A sudden bomb blew off, killing everyone on the building, even causing half of the building to collapse into mere rubble. Medics found nothing, even further search found no one alive. THE END…