Chapter 3: Next phase.

Once they were home, David went over to the barn and called down to the two kids in the root cellar.

"You guys doing OK down there?"

"Yeah, let us out you bastard," Tony called out.

"Hold onto your shorts, it will be a little while, and use the time to work on your manners and attitude."

David then went back to the house and checked on the rooms in the cellar where he would be keeping them.

The room he would use for Ellen was the same room he had used for Sharon/Danielle. The bed was still secure and the cable running from the ceiling was in excellent shape.

He went into one of the other rooms and set up a similar arrangement for Tony. He wanted to keep the two both apart and together.

Going back to the barn, David rolled the ATV off of the hatch to the root cellar and went down the ladder. He surveyed the scene, and it appeared that the two, while both scared and angry, had basically obeyed his instructions. None of the storage jars or shelves were broken.

"Ellen, I want you to stay put for a few minutes. I need to get Tony situated."

"Tony, stand up, we are going to the house." He then helped Tony stand and assisted him in getting up the ladder. He sat him on the ATV and they drove over to the house in silence.

Once there, David led Tony down the basement to his room and had him sit on the bed. David looped the steel noose over his neck and tightened it so that there was a little slack (enough for a finger). When he was certain that it was secure and that Tony could not unfasten it without any tools, he stepped away from the boy.

With the boy well secured, he cut the cable ties holding his hands behind his back, and re-secured them in front, so that he would have some use for them.

"Tony, here are the rules. You are going to be my guest down here until I can figure out what to do with you. I may turn you in to the sheriff, I may just knock the shit out of you, I simply haven't decided yet. While you are here, you will get fed, you will have water, and a place to use the bathroom. You will not speak to me unless you are spoken to. You will remain civil at all times. Any attitude, any mouth, anything less that full cooperation, and you will lose privileges. Show me a good attitude, show me respect, and you will gain privileges, such as hot meals, the opportunity to take real showers and the like."

"Do you understand?"

Tony glared at David but then found himself mumbling "yes."

With that, David brought in a bucket with lid.

"This is your toilet. There is even toilet paper inside. I advise you to keep the lid on it when not in use."

He dragged in a second, heavier bucket. This is your water supply. Use it for washing and for drinking. It will get refilled every three days. If you waste it, it will not get filled up earlier.

"When I come down the stairs, I want you standing beside the bed with nothing in your hands. Do you understand.

Again, Tony felt himself nodding yes.

The Law of Unintended Consequences

Tony listened intently as he heard the man bring Ellen downstairs and put her in a room down the hall from where he was currently imprisoned. It was hard to head, but the instructions begin given to Ellen seemed to be the same as what he had just received.

He was fucked.

If he got turned over to the cops, they would find out that he was an escapee from Juvenile Detention three states away. He couldn't go back there - getting butt-fucked every time he took a shower. This guy who had him now looked mean and was probably upstairs planning on doing the same thing to him.

He wished he had some good drugs so that he could make this place go away. He gazed up to the ceiling and an idea came to him.

He stood on the bed and could just about reach the cross-beam where the steel cable around his neck was hooked. Even though his hands and feet were cable tied, his plan began to take more shape.

He undid his thick leather belt and slid it out of his pants loops. "Stupid bastard, this will show him," he thought. He coiled up the loose cable and using his belt secured it to the cross beam, standing on his toes until the cable was taut, and then stepped off of the bed into space. He belt held, and in a few minutes his kicking stopped, as did his attempts to catch a breath of air. He never heard Ellen calling out to him in a soft voice.