I felt my way along the wall until I reached the door. I carefully opened it, turned right and slowly headed up the stairs. I needed to get to the back of the closet in the room down the hall. I knew they would be starting their search soon.

I finally reached my destination, located the laundry shoot and climbed in. It was a bit of a tight squeeze. I guess I filled out a little since I used to play here as a kid. There must have been some water damage down below me as the stench of mildew permeated my sinuses and it was everything I could do to keep from sneezing. At least I could rest a little here in the shaft. The foot holds we had made years ago while playing hide and seek, had not been repaired. Mark caught hell for that when his dad discovered it. To his credit, Mark never did tell his dad that I was the one who made the holes.

These guys had been after me for several days and it felt like I was being corralled into this location, but for the life of me, I had no idea why. I knew I wouldn’t be able to stay there too much longer. The calf muscle on my right leg was already starting to burn and I knew that I would not be able to support myself much longer.

“Mr. Swenson, we need you to come out quietly. We mean you no harm.”

In the back of my head I’m thinking, “Yeah, right.” They had gone to an awful lot of effort to get me here, but why?

They were still outside the house, it would not be long before they made their way in. It sounded like there were three of them. Too many for me to take on in a direct attack, but maybe I could pick them off one at a time. I could hear them checking all the doors and windows for an easy entry, but this old house had been sealed up pretty tight for about ten years.

I thought it interesting that they were also wishing to not make a lot of noise, I am assuming to keep from drawing attention to themselves. Somebody was trying to pry open the back door. At least that would get them in at the basement level. Eventually they would head up stairs after clearing the basement. Once they were on the third floor I would be able to drop down and make my escape. But escape to where?