Black Leather by Larry Payne (e ink manga reader .txt) 📕

Sherry Carson stepped out onto the stoop of the brownstone and was greeted by the morning sun as it peeked over the horizon. Not having enough time for a full workout, she decided a short jog this morning would have to do.

    She grimaced as she stretched out the muscles in one leg and then the other. She adjusted her headset, turned up the volume of her Sony Walkman and jogged down the steps onto the sidewalk. With Kool and the Gang blaring in her headset, she jogged toward the park. She waved at the paper boy who threw a paper up the steps of the nearest brownstone as he rode by.

Taking a quick peek at her sports watch, she turned down the asphalt trail that wound through the heart of Riverfront Park. She would have just enough time to shower and get to work.

As she rounded a bend in the trail, the bushes exploded into motion. Sherry barely had time to react before the black clad figure delivered a blow to the left side of her head, the numbing impact knocking her on her back. The black leather mask bending over her was the last thing she saw before the sea of darkness engulfed her.

Sherry's eye's fluttered open, her throbbing head reminding her of the attack in the park. Unable to move, she realized her wrist and ankles were tightly bound and she was gagged with tape stretched across her mouth. She moved only her eyes and determined she was in the back of a van. The high back of the driver's seat prevented her from seeing the driver. Tears of frustration welled up in her eyes and, suddenly, she wished she'd done her karate workout instead of jogging.

She felt the van make a right turn and looked up through the tinted skylight. Tree branches flashed by and the crunch of rocks under the tires told her they had turned into the woods on a dirt road. But where? How long had she been out? How far had they gone?

Sherry struggled to free her wrists bound in front of her. The van stopped and she struggled harder when the black leather mask peered around the driver's seat. The black clad figure slid between the seats, grabbed Sherry by the front of her sweatshirt and with one well-placed punch, sent her back into the darkness.

When Sherry opened her eyes again, it was dark and the van was quiet. She managed to roll on her left side and sit up against a wall of the van. A faint shaft of moonlight came through the skylight allowing her to assess her situation. Her wrists and ankles were bound with gray duct tape and she assumed the duct tape was also across her mouth. Frantically, she looked around the van for anything that would aid an escape. She lifted her hands to remove the tape from her mouth when the side door of the van suddenly slid open..

"Have a nice nap?" asked the raspy voice from under the leather mask. He reached into the van and grabbed a handful of Sherry's hair. He dragged her through the door and deposited her on a sleeping bag next to a campfire.  "It's time to get acquainted."

Sherry held her breath as her captor pulled a knife from his jacket pocket. He moved his thumb and a 6" blade suddenly appeared on the handle. He leaned over, cut the tape from Sherry's ankles and returned the knife to his jacket pocket. He slid out of his jacket, tossed it to the ground and started to unbutton his leather pants. Sherry saw her window of opportunity. 

She drew her legs back toward her and kicked out with as much force as she could muster toward her captor's knee. The sickening crack told her all her hours of training had served her well. The leg bent at an unnatural angle, the leather mask muffling her captor's cry of anguish and agony.

Sherry reached up and ripped the tape from her mouth. She gnawed at the tape binding her wrists and quickly freed herself. Shaking the pins and needles from her hands, she walked over to her fallen captor who was sliding backward toward the van. She stamped her right foot down on his injured leg, drawing another howl of agony.

"You're never goin to hurt anyone again," Sherry said through a clenched jaw. She unzipped the bottom of her sweatpants, removed a .38 caliber revolver from the holster strapped to her calf and pointed it at her former captor. The captor had suddenly become the captive. "You're under arrest you scumbag," she said. "We've been looking for you for a long time." 

The eyes behind the leather mask suddenly got wider.

"You have the right to remain silent," Sherry started, "anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you can't afford one, one will be provided for you. Do you understand these rights?"

The man in black leather looked at Sherry without saying a word. Sherry thumbed back the hammer of the .38.

"Do you understand these rights?" she asked again, wanting to just end it right here.

Again, no answer, just the eyes peering at her from behind the leather mask. Sherry fired a round into the ground above her prisoner's head and thumbcocked her weapon again.

"Yes," he finally screamed.

Sherry sidestepped toward the van, keeping her weapon leveled at her prisoner. She opened the passenger door, grabbed a roll of gray duct tape on the floor and returned to her prisoner.

"On your face," she said. With great difficulty and pain, her prisoner rolled over.

"I need a doctor," he said, just before Sherry put her knee in the middle of his back. She pulled his arms behind his back and wrapped the duct tape around his wrists several times. She unzipped both sides of his leather mask and removed it. She rolled him onto his side, made a fist and with all the power she could muster, hit her prisoner on the left side of his face.

"I owed you that one." Sherry pulled off a piece of duct tape and stretched it across his mouth. She grabbed her prisoner under his arms, dragged him to the van and with a mighty yell, she threw him up through the open door. She wrapped the duct tape around his ankles, making him cry out again. "Enjoy the ride," she said and slammed the van door.

"You're going to have quite a shiner there," the Emergency Room doctor said to Sherry after examining her. "You shouldn't have any lasting effects, though. And a small piece of advice. From now on, jog with a partner."

"Thanks, Doc. I'll find one," said Sherry with a smile.

Sherry came out on the stoop of her brownstone. The sun was just starting to peek above the horizon. She stretched for a couple of minutes and then adjusted her headset.

"Ready to go, Brutus?" Sherry got a loud, baritone bark in reply. The big Rottweiler led Sherry down the steps and onto the sidewalk.

Text: Larry Payne
Editing: Larry Payne
Layout: Lawrence Payne
Publication Date: 07-19-2009

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