Word: obstreperous

 A bit of a warning for you, this one's a bit more gory than normal.  Not as bad as some other stories out there, but still.  Just, you know, don't ready it with kids or anything like that.

obstreperous

[uh b-strep-er-uh s]

adjective

1. resisting control or restraint in a difficult manner; unruly.

2. noisy, clamorous, or boisterous:

obstreperous children.

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“Let me go!”  Shelly screamed.  She flailed around, doing her best to escape the grip of her captor.  Her fists and feet bounced off the large man’s chest and back uselessly.  She knew she wasn’t strong enough to escape from the two large men, but she could at least make life as difficult as she could for them.

                “Why didn’t we tie her up when we got her?”  Asked the man who still had his hands free.

                “Because you forgot the rope.”  Said the one holding Shelly.

                “Oh, right.  So, uh, why didn’t we drug her?”

                “Because you forgot the drugs, idiot.”

                “Uh, right.  Sorry.”  The brief conversation caught Shelly by surprise.  They had obviously been planning this for awhile, and one of them was dumb enough to forget important things like rope.

                “You’re kinda dumb, aren’t you?” She said.

                “Tell me about it, kid.”  The man holding her said.  “I gotta deal with this all the time.”

                “I’m not that bad.”  The other man said.

                “Yeah you are.  I mean, seriously, who forgets rope when you’re kidnapping someone?  Seriously, you didn’t even need to bring a lot.  She’s a little kid.”

                “Hey!  I’m ten year old.  I’m not a little kid.” Shelly said, only slightly offended.  She was however, decently observant for someone her age.  She noticed the man who held her turning to face her.  She took a slow, deep breath in and held it.

                “Trust me, you’re a little kid.”  He said. 

Shelly turned to face him and their eyes met.  Shelly smiled slightly and screamed in his face with every breath of air her small lungs had in them.  The sudden outburst shook her captor a bit.  She regretted it wasn’t enough to loosen his grip on her though, but she could tell it at least made him stagger a bit.  It didn’t take long for him to recover though.  He shifted her small body higher up onto his shoulder and squeezed her with the arm that held her in place.  Shelly winced in pain.

“Don’t do that again.”  He said. 

Shelly growled and promptly resumed thrashing around as much as she could from her awkward position and screaming with all her might.  The large man rolled his eyes and resumed walking.  The two men took Shelly into an old apartment.  Bits of pipe, metal rods, loose wires, planks of wood, and other bits of junk, trash and debris littered the room.  Shelly continued her attempts at resistance even while she took in her new surroundings. 

“Oh, shut up already.  You’re annoying.”  Her captor said.

“Hey, I got something that’ll make her pipe down.”  The other man said.  He went to an old, rotting desk and pulled something out.  He approached his partner and shoved something into Shelly’s mouth.  It was something sweet.  She reached up and pulled it out of her mouth.  The familiar sight of a lollipop was oddly comforting.  She popped it back in her mouth, figuring it was better than nothing.  “See?  Kids love candy.”  The man said.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.  Just get some rope or something.  I’ll just keep her here.”  The other said.

Shelly looked at her captor and then at the piece of candy in her mouth.  An idea came to her mind.  It wasn’t a pleasant one, but it would get her out.  She steeled her nerves and pulled the lollipop out of her mouth.

“Man, your partner really is dumb, isn’t he?”  She asked, turning to look at the man who held her. 

“Yeah really.”  He said.

“So, um, why’d you kidnap me anyway?”

“Your dad’s got a lot of money, and we’re gonna keep you until he gives us a bunch of it.”

“Oh.  That doesn’t sound good.  I don’t think I like that very much.”

“Yeah, well, you’re not supposed to.  Now, are you gonna shut up, or do I have to make you?”

“Probably the second.  I mean, mom and dad always say something like that, and that’s what they do.  Of course, what they do usually involves TV and stuff.  Do you have a TV here?  Or a computer or something?  That’d be fine to.”

“Oh would you just shut up already?”  The man said in anger.

He turned to face her.  That was what Shelly had been waiting for.  She took the lollipop and jammed it into the man’s eye.  Blood oozed out of the wound, and a thick jelly like substance oozed down the stick and onto her hands.  The man screamed in pain and fell to his knees, dropping Shelly in the process.  She watched as the man pulled the stick out of his face, with his eye still stuck to it.  He screamed even louder.  Shelly was so fascinated by the sight that she didn’t notice the other man coming up behind her.

He grabbed her by the waist and lifted her up, turning to face him.  Shelly almost didn’t hear what he was saying.  She didn’t even notice when he shook her around.  All she saw was another avenue of escape.  The man now holding her had made many, many mistakes.  Forgetting equipment was one.  Giving her the lollipop was another.  the third was that he hadn’t removed her acrylic nails. 

She smiled and waited for him to bring her closer to his face, within arm’s reach.  When he did though, her hands lashed out.  Her plastic covered fingernails dug deep into both of his eyes.  He screamed in anguish as she felt the insides of his eyes.  As blood and ocular jelly oozed down her fingers, two thoughts entered her mind.  The first was that they felt nothing like peeled grapes, as her mom had led her to believe.  The second was that she liked the feeling quite a bit.  Not the eyes, per say, but rather the feeling of the man’s life in her hands. 

She quickly removed her fingers, a flipped the eyeballs to the floor.  Her feet hit the ground as the man let her go.  Shelly turned to the door, knowing she could no leave whenever she wanted.  But she had a better idea.

                She looked around the room.  Most of what she found there was too heavy for her to lift.  But a few to the smaller bars of metal were within her range.  She grabbed one of them and went over to the first man, who still clutched his bleeding eye socket.  His remaining eye looked up at her in panic as she raised the bar.  It was the last thing he saw as the bar penetrated deep into his head.  The sound of his brain squelching around in his head and the feeling of hot blood splattering on her skin was, to her, intoxicating.  A wide grin crossed her young face as she picked up another bar and headed up to the now blind man.

When Shelly finally left the rundown apartment, she had a wide smile on her face.  Before, whenever someone asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, she had always answered an actress.  Now she had a very different career path in mind.

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Don't say I didn't warn you, right? I admit this one's a bit more...disturbing than what I normally write, isn't it?  I know I've done action and violence and stuff plenty of times in the past, but not quite the same as this.  I probably won't be writing anything quite like this in the future, but as always, it depends on the word, I suppose.