"It all started a couple years ago," she began, looking down at her hands,
"I was a senior, valedictorian, accepted to Yale, daughter of a
millionaire, you know, all that good stuff. I had been dating my boyfriend
Richard since 9th grade, he was a year older than me and already attending
Yale." She smiled as she thought of the boy
"Ok, I don't quite have time for your life story, and frankly, I don't wanna hear it. So let's try answering the question at hand...what are you doing here?" Alan retorted a tad annoyed.
"I'm getting there, geeze! Ok, where was I? Oh yea, so things are going great until some day my dad starts getting these freaky blackmaily type letters. Actually, they were more like threat letters. We tried to call them in but they couldn't be traced so after a few months we began to just ignore them.
"Big Mistake! Soon we got a package and in it was a video tape. And, oh god! The things that were on that tape!!!" suddenly she buried her face in her hands and began crying.
Alan didn't quite know what to do in this sort of situation; most guys wouldn't, so he just sort of stood still.
Laini had always been uncomfortable crying in front of other people and quickly tried to conceal her face while she wiped away the flowing tears.
"I'm sorry," she said between sobs, "I'll get back to the story."
"It's ok, take your time." Alan replied as he sat across from her, took her hands, and flashed her a compassionate smile.
"Thanks, but I'll be fine." She said smiling back at him with her amazing eyes now glazed over with fresh tears.
"The tape...ok. On the tape was a home video of the torture and murder of one of my father's business associates and close friends. It was disgusting the things that they did to the poor man, God rest his soul, and we were utterly mortified by the whole experience. But one of the most frightening things came at the end of the video, when the killer addressed my father and me directly. Somehow he knew everything about us, especially about me.
"You see, my mother died in a bank robbery shooting when I was five so my father was everything to me, and vice versa. Well, even after all of the letters and the speech he gave us we still weren't sure about what he wanted from us so we continued to ignore him; only this time we hired FBI agents as personal body guards.
"Again, not a good idea. Since there was no way of tracking this bastard down he was still out there and it wasn't long before we received another tape. This time it was one of the teachers from my school; we didn't watch more than 10 seconds of it before we fast forwarded to the end to see if there was anything else this freak had to say to us. And, of course, there was. Only this time was a tad more helpful than the first time; he gave us a reason for the madness, you know, a motive. Unfortunately, it was a rather lousy one.
"He told us that the only reason he was doing this was because he liked to watch our family suffer. He began to tell us how he had hired the robber who shot my mother and how it was him who had been constantly trying to run us off the road many years before. It was clear this guy had some sort of grudge but in order to stay untraceable he didn't mention it at all.
"Well my father and I were royally freaked out because we realized there was no way to buy ourselves out and we had no clue who this psycho could be. So we hired more security and watched our backs for almost two years. During a lot of this time Richard stayed with us and tried to comfort me. Oh my god, look at the time! Well, to make a long story short.."
"Too late." Mumbled Alan, though slightly intrigued by the story.
"We got a few death threats and many aimed at me, so they replaced me with a body double for a few days to distract our stalker and drove me out here to hide out. I couldn't tell anyone cuz I don't want it getting out that I'm here, you have to swear that you won't say anything! I only told you in case you were gunna rat me out to the coaches as a form of blackmail or something. Please promise me you won't tell a soul!!"
She told most of her story while looking at her hands which were still in Alan's but as she spoke the last words she looked up at him, eyes glistening with tears about to overflow.
With an entirely sincere face, and his own small tears welling up, he nodded and brought her hands up to his lips.
Slowly, she took her hands back, wiped her eyes and took another bite of her sandwich.
"How long have we been here?" Alan suddenly asked, straightening up.
"About an hour and a half." Laini replied as she looked at her watch with a mouthful of food.
"Double shit" Alan said as he ran out of the mess hall.
"Bye!" Laini called after him with part of her sandwich falling out of her mouth.
"Ok, I don't quite have time for your life story, and frankly, I don't wanna hear it. So let's try answering the question at hand...what are you doing here?" Alan retorted a tad annoyed.
"I'm getting there, geeze! Ok, where was I? Oh yea, so things are going great until some day my dad starts getting these freaky blackmaily type letters. Actually, they were more like threat letters. We tried to call them in but they couldn't be traced so after a few months we began to just ignore them.
"Big Mistake! Soon we got a package and in it was a video tape. And, oh god! The things that were on that tape!!!" suddenly she buried her face in her hands and began crying.
Alan didn't quite know what to do in this sort of situation; most guys wouldn't, so he just sort of stood still.
Laini had always been uncomfortable crying in front of other people and quickly tried to conceal her face while she wiped away the flowing tears.
"I'm sorry," she said between sobs, "I'll get back to the story."
"It's ok, take your time." Alan replied as he sat across from her, took her hands, and flashed her a compassionate smile.
"Thanks, but I'll be fine." She said smiling back at him with her amazing eyes now glazed over with fresh tears.
"The tape...ok. On the tape was a home video of the torture and murder of one of my father's business associates and close friends. It was disgusting the things that they did to the poor man, God rest his soul, and we were utterly mortified by the whole experience. But one of the most frightening things came at the end of the video, when the killer addressed my father and me directly. Somehow he knew everything about us, especially about me.
"You see, my mother died in a bank robbery shooting when I was five so my father was everything to me, and vice versa. Well, even after all of the letters and the speech he gave us we still weren't sure about what he wanted from us so we continued to ignore him; only this time we hired FBI agents as personal body guards.
"Again, not a good idea. Since there was no way of tracking this bastard down he was still out there and it wasn't long before we received another tape. This time it was one of the teachers from my school; we didn't watch more than 10 seconds of it before we fast forwarded to the end to see if there was anything else this freak had to say to us. And, of course, there was. Only this time was a tad more helpful than the first time; he gave us a reason for the madness, you know, a motive. Unfortunately, it was a rather lousy one.
"He told us that the only reason he was doing this was because he liked to watch our family suffer. He began to tell us how he had hired the robber who shot my mother and how it was him who had been constantly trying to run us off the road many years before. It was clear this guy had some sort of grudge but in order to stay untraceable he didn't mention it at all.
"Well my father and I were royally freaked out because we realized there was no way to buy ourselves out and we had no clue who this psycho could be. So we hired more security and watched our backs for almost two years. During a lot of this time Richard stayed with us and tried to comfort me. Oh my god, look at the time! Well, to make a long story short.."
"Too late." Mumbled Alan, though slightly intrigued by the story.
"We got a few death threats and many aimed at me, so they replaced me with a body double for a few days to distract our stalker and drove me out here to hide out. I couldn't tell anyone cuz I don't want it getting out that I'm here, you have to swear that you won't say anything! I only told you in case you were gunna rat me out to the coaches as a form of blackmail or something. Please promise me you won't tell a soul!!"
She told most of her story while looking at her hands which were still in Alan's but as she spoke the last words she looked up at him, eyes glistening with tears about to overflow.
With an entirely sincere face, and his own small tears welling up, he nodded and brought her hands up to his lips.
Slowly, she took her hands back, wiped her eyes and took another bite of her sandwich.
"How long have we been here?" Alan suddenly asked, straightening up.
"About an hour and a half." Laini replied as she looked at her watch with a mouthful of food.
"Double shit" Alan said as he ran out of the mess hall.
"Bye!" Laini called after him with part of her sandwich falling out of her mouth.
