I say, “Our friend is not here, but it was not his choice to leave. He was taken away.”
Ivan frowns, “Like, he was kidnapped?”
I tell them, “Look at the pile of sneakers by the front door, What do you see?”
Aiden says, “Like always, I see six pairs of sneakers. Five pairs are around size thirteen and one pair is about a size eight. What’s the big deal, Owen?”
I say, “Come on guys. Enzo has been living with us for three months now. You know his routine as well as I do. He only has two pairs of shoes and one of them is strictly for in the house. He never wears that pair outside. What shoes are there on the floor?”
Wyatt’s eyes widen, “Those are his outside shoes.”
“So?” says Cooper.
Wyatt was right before. I do feel like punching him in the face.
I sigh, “Enzo isn’t here. I looked everywhere. But guys… His phone is here. His chemistry book is open on the couch. His wallet and keys are in our room. His car is parked out front. The wrong shoes are by the door. The enchiladas are in the fridge… Guys! Don’t you see?”
They are starting to. They’re beginning to believe me.
Aiden says, “No one goes out anywhere without their phone. Not on purpose.”
Ivan agrees, “He wouldn’t even leave his book out like this. He’s the neat freak.”
Cooper asks dumbly, “So, where is he? Who would take him.”
Wyatt gives him a shove. His brain has caught up to where mine has been for five minutes now. “It was your idea to steal that stupid trophy, you fucking moron. Now those guys stole our friend!”
Ivan cracks his knuckles, “Let’s go get him back!”
~~
We don’t really have a plan, but I guess that makes sense since we don’t know what to expect. Is Enzo on the first floor? Is he locked up in a bedroom? Is he restrained in some way? Is he alone or is he being guarded? If guarded, then by how many? Are all six of those assholes home?
We’ll have to do whatever recon we can upon arrival and take things from there.
We cautiously approach the house and we can hear muffled shouting and screaming as we get closer. We look through the first floor window. All five of us are in shock at the sight before us. Enzo is half naked and being tortured by all six of them. His face is crimson red and he is screaming bloody murder. He is in absolute agony. Tears come to my eyes and my fists clench.
Wyatt’s hand grips my shoulder, “We’re gonna save him.”
Some way, somehow, my brain kicks into action. I tell Ivan, Cooper and Aiden to go around back. This house is the same layout as ours. There is a back door in the kitchen. I tell those three to go bust it down and make as much noise as possible while doing it. Three or four of them will go see what happened and when they do, you beat the shit out of them. Meanwhile, Wyatt and I will bust through the front door and handle the ones who stay behind. We’ll grab Enzo and get the hell out of here.
It’s an admittedly rough plan, but time is of the essence. I send those three on their way just as there is an even more terrifying scream coming from inside the house. It’s Enzo screaming, “NNNOOOOOOOOOOO!” Wyatt and I look through the window again and see that one of those six assholes is tugging on the drawstring of Enzo’s sweatpants.
We rush to the door and hope that our three idiots get in place quickly. We hear the crash we were hoping to hear and we count to three before busting through the front door. Only two baseball assholes stayed here with Enzo, still pinning him down by the wrists and ankles. Fortunately, his pants are still in proper place.
The two guys release Enzo when they see Wyatt and me standing in their living room, looking down at them. They jump up. I am vaguely aware of the sound of a fist fight coming from the kitchen, but I can’t worry too much about that right now as we have guys out here to be concerned with. Wyatt and I dance around these guys a little and start to jab at them like boxers. The one closest to me takes a big swing that I easily duck. On my way back up, I deliver an uppercut blow to his gut. It wasn’t properly centered and he doesn’t crumble to his knees. I have no idea how Wyatt is doing with his guy, but it is at this moment that I realize Enzo is no longer on the floor where we found him. As a matter of fact, I don’t see him anywhere. And then I take a blow to the chin.
Enzo:
As week as I feel from two hours of tickle torture, I know I need to help my friends. With out me, it’s five against six. I know that basketball players are better athletes than baseball players, but this is a baseball house. In addition to having an extra number, two of them went into the kitchen with bats. I saw Owen and Wyatt bust through the front door, so I can only imagine that Aiden, Cooper and Ivan are outnumbered and unarmed in the kitchen. I force myself up off the floor and grab a bat for myself from behind the couch. My friends came to my rescue. The least I can do is lend a hand and even things up.
I run into the kitchen and find that one of their guys is already on the floor, effectively neutralized. Unfortunately, two of the remaining three still have baseball bats in hand and Ivan, Cooper and Aiden look worried. My presence has not yet been noticed by anyone on either side, so I sneak attack one of the batboys with a crushing swing to the right arm. There is a crunch and the dude drops like a sack of potatoes. I am particularly pleased when I realize that he was the one who was pulling at the string of my sweatpants. I was already being violated, but that asshole was willing to go as far as sexual assault.
The remaining five people in the room all become aware of my presence at the same time. The baseball guys are closest to me and they start to descend on me, one with a raised bat in hand. But my guys are on it. Cooper rips the bat out of batboy’s hand, casts it aside and wraps a protective arm around me while Aiden and Ivan each tackle them to the floor. A few openhanded palm strikes and they’re both down for the count with no permanent damage done.
I hear fighting coming from the other room and I run back to see what’s going on.
Owen:
It was only a glancing blow and it had little effect on me. I pop him gently in the nose and he folds like a lawn chair. I look over in Wyatt’s direction and he’s got his guy on the ropes as well. He delivers a knee to the groin and the guy is done.
I turn to see Enzo, still barefoot and bare chested, walk out of the kitchen holding a baseball bat. He is almost comically small in stature compared to the other eleven men in this house right now, but he looks like a warrior. He looks like a superhero.
I rush to him and he drops the bat. I grab him in the biggest bearhug, lifting his feet off the ground and he squeezes me back. Aiden, Cooper and Ivan all enter the room and none of them appear to be injured in any way. When I set Enzo down, Cooper picks him up again. As he squeezes Enzo, he tells Wyatt and me, “He saved our lives. We took the first guy down easily enough, but two of the three behind him had baseball bats. We had nothing. We didn’t know what to do. Then this guy snuck in and slugged a grand slam. He took down that big fucker.”