Kidnapped and Bound for Hell

by Philip R Benge

  **********

  Bourbon berated Sybil for not keeping him fully appraised of their enemies positions, but finally apologised to her when told the reason why, the constant repetition of the Lord`s Prayer would throw him off also.

  Bourbon now turned to Rochelle and told him what was required of him prior to the ceremony, and like the good servant that he was he followed his orders to the letter. If their troublesome trio were still going to make an appearance, and Bourbon knew that they would, they would have to come across the garden at the rear of the house. Rochelle was stationed on the roof of the chateau with his brand new rifle fitted with infrared sights. It was a SIG Sauer SSG 3000 sniper rifle with a night vision scope and a silencer. He bought the silencer to stop the local police from investigating his activities, especially when in the UK. He used it when out hunting at night, his favourite time of day. Darkness had descended upon the estate and he swept the tree line for signs of their elusive foes. It was getting ever nearer the time for the satanic ceremony, and Rochelle was getting impatient to re-join the other members of the coven. Finally, his infrared scope picked up a man moving slowly from the woods and towards the chateau. He quickly lined up his rifle on the man and fired his deadly weapon, all that was heard was a small cough but his target collapsed to the ground dead, for the bullet had entered his heart. Rochelle smiled and then continued his search as his riflescope soon picked up another approaching man who was unaware that a sniper was already targeting him. Rochelle grinned as he squeezed the trigger and gave a small laugh as he saw the man fall to the ground. This man was not dead but he soon would be. Rochelle should have gone out to inspect the two bodies but he had too much respect for the accuracy of Rob`s pistol. If neither man was Rob then going across the garden at night to inspect the dead bodies of Rob`s two friends would be suicide. No, he waited for the last of the three men to make his appearance, the ceremony didn`t start for another hour so he had time to spare. In any case, he was beginning to enjoy his night vigil.

  A third man moved out from under the protection of the trees but to Rochelle`s extreme annoyance he zigzagged across the garden, and just as he thought he had him the man dropped down behind a stone statue. For a moment the man stayed hidden behind a massive figure of Poseidon, and then he moved quickly to his right and entered the large vegetable garden that provided the house with much of its fresh vegetables. The man had dropped down behind a veritable wall of French beans and stayed hidden from Rochelle`s view, but he didn`t mind for he had ample time to wait for his prey to make his appearance.

  What had made Rob drop down behind the cover of the bean canes, and saved his life, was a stray moonbeam; it had escaped from behind the cloud that had obscured it up until that moment. The moon beam had reflected off of Rochelle`s rifle, and this had warned Rob of the presence of a sniper high above him on the roof of the chateau. He decided to take a chance and fake his death; either that or he would have his unknown assailant chasing him down even as he attempted to rescue Christina and Cassie. He pulled out two of the bamboo canes and broke one in half. He then used some of the string used to train the beans up the canes to tie the canes into a cross. He then took off his jacket and hung it on the cross; all he needed now was a head to get shot. He now crawled four feet along the path to a melon patch, for seeing their large fruit had sparked the idea behind his plan to cheat death yet again. He chose a nice round one that was about the right size, and then he returned to his cross. Rob now pushed the melon down onto the top of the cross, now he had himself a decoy. Rob held his decoy up by the bottom of the cross and moved it slowly out of the cover provided by the beans, he hoped that his decoy would fool his attacker into believing it was a real man. Rob kept moving the head of his decoy behind the uppermost of the beans, this was so the sniper hopefully wouldn`t see that it wasn`t the head of a man that he was training his sights on. He smiled as he saw the rifle swing towards him, then he heard the cough of the rifle through the stillness of the night and heard the rifle bullet as it ploughed through his leather jacket to disappear behind him. Rob moved his decoy slowly to the ground, but ensuring that it was mostly hidden from the view of the sniper, this was to ensure that he wouldn`t see through the trick that had been played upon him. Rochelle would never know how close he had been to success, but for a stray moonbeam. Rob looked at the hole in the centre of his jacket and swore, for this was his new one.

  Rochelle had smiled grimly as he had taken aim and gently squeezed the trigger, his smile broadened as he saw the man collapse back behind the bean canes. Rochelle stayed looking down at the vegetable garden for a minute but then he shrugged, it had been far simpler than he had expected. Rochelle stood up and walked away smiling from the roof terrace and back down towards the temple in the cellar. He was going to enjoy tonight.

  Rob stayed behind the safety of the beans until he saw the giant move out of sight. With his assailant gone, Rob took his jacket from the decoy and moved forward towards the chateau, ever watchful for signs of another hidden watcher. His purpose was to climb up a tall creeper to the first floor and enter through an open window, once inside it all depended on whether fate was still on his side.