“Long day at work.” Brian sighed. “Long day.”
“Come sweetheart.” she was seated on the couch watching TV but had clicked it off as soon as Brian stepped into the house. She patted on the floor between her legs and he didn’t hesitate to situate himself below his wife.
He leaned back against her body, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath in. Leighanne kissed him on the forehead and began to play with his hair, her fingers dancing gracefully through his dirty golden locks. “Tell me all about it.” she whispered.
“I’d rather not.” he replied. “I just want to stay right here in your embrace… we’ll talk about it some other time.”
“Wanna take this to the bedroom?” she asked.
Brian chuckled, “Frisky aren’t we? I don’t think we should leave Baylee all alone, who knows what havoc we’ll be greeted with.”
“Don’t worry about that… he’s in his room sleeping. Plus, I’m not frisky, I was just thinking we’d take this to the bedroom so we can just relax… I’ll start up a warm bubble bath for you to soak your body in, we’ll lie in bed together in each other’s arms and just stare at each other for all I care. Whatever you want to do baby I’m all for it.”
Brian sighed again, as if really contemplating the choices over. All of a sudden he rose up off the ground and swept his wife into his arms, carrying her upstairs and towards the room. Surprised by his sudden action, she began to laugh at the way her husband was acting.
“Shh,” he whispered. “You’ll wake Baylee.”
He nudged the door open to their room and had placed her down upon the bed. They began to kiss passionately for a while when Leighanne finally stopped him. “Let me go get the bath running.”
“No, that can wait.” he whined, pulling her down on the bed again and snuggling up close to her. “Just stay here, we need a reason to get clean anyway. Lets get dirty.”
“Brian Thomas Littrell.” she laughed. “Where is my husband and what have you done with him?”
Just as they leaned in towards each other to kiss, they heard a loud crash that caused them to jump back.
“What the hell was that?” Brian silently asked.
They both got up from the bed and made their way out of the room, carefully looking over the banister to see what had caused the noise. As their eyes continued to roam they noticed that the window near their door was broken and there was shards of glass everywhere.
“Baylee.” Leighanne whispered as she began running down the stairs.
Brian followed suit, but he stopped at the shattered window, a brick with a letter attached to it capturing his attention. He picked up the brick and had dusted off the shards of glass, seeing “LITTRELL” written on the envelope in bold. He looked up at the window again and looked at the gaping hole the brick had created. He assumed that someone had just driven by and had thrown this brick at their window.
“BRIAN!!” Leighanne screamed.
Brian quickly turned towards his wife’s voice and ran over towards Baylee’s room to see why she was screaming. Once he got there he frantically looked around to see what the problem was, all he seen was Leighanne on the ground curled up by Baylee’s bed, clutching his blanket close to her. There was no one else in the room except for his wife and him, so why was she screaming? That was the problem though, there was NO ONE in the room except for him and Leighanne, Baylee was gone.
Brian turned around and began searching in the closet, hoping that maybe when he heard the loud crash he ran into his closet to hide.
“I looked in there already Brian.” she cried.
But Brian wouldn’t stop, he walked out of the room and began wailing his name, hoping that he would hear his son reply to him, but there was nothing but silence.
“Baylee!” he bellowed. “C’mon baby, answer me… it’s daddy.”
When he returned to Baylee’s room again, he seen Leighanne standing there, tears staining her cheeks. “It’s no use Brian… he’s gone.” she said as she literally broke down crying.
Brian quickly made his way over to her and caught her in his arms before she collapsed to the ground. They both sat on the ground for a while, Leighanne crying and screaming in Brian’s shoulder while he just sat there letting reality set in, his son was really gone. He remembered the brick that he was holding in his hand. He looked down at it and unwrapped the string that tied the envelope to the brick. He ripped the envelope open and out popped a folded note.
In regards to the broken window, I am truly sorry for shattering it. I hope you guys can find it in your heart to forgive me.” ‘Broken window? He wants us to forgive him for a freaking broken window?’ Brian thought to himself. ‘What about my son?’ “In regards to your son, I’ll have you both know that he is in safe hands. We are very sorry for rudely interrupting your guys moment of intimacy, you guys may resume if you wish. I’ll be sure to contact you guys frequently to allow you guys sufficient amount of time to talk with your beloved son, feel free to contact me at 548-6949. In closing, I’ll leave you with the very words your son had said; ‘bye mommy and daddy!’
Sincerely, Paul”
Brian crumpled up the note in his hands. He let it fall from his hands and had rose from the ground, making his way over to the living room. Meanwhile, Leighanne remained on the floor and picked up the crumpled piece of paper Brian had left on the ground.
Brian returned and handed the cordless phone over to Leighanne. “Call 911 and give me the phone back when you’re done.”
“Did you know about this?” Leighanne questioned him.
“What?”
She got up from the ground and roughly shoved Brian away from her, throwing the crumpled piece of paper at him. “Who the fuck is Paul? What the hell are you doing with this letter Brian? Do you know who’s doing this?” she screamed.
“You think I’m apart of the reason why are son was kidnapped?” Brian fired back. “I can’t believe you would think that Leigh. That letter was attached to a brick that they threw at our window.” Leighanne continued to glare at him, as if accusing him for being the reason why Baylee was gone. He sighed, “Look, I need you to call 911 and then give me the phone when you’re done.”
Without saying another word, Leighanne dialed 911. Brian picked up the crumpled letter and began to read it again, why would someone leave their name and number after they committed a crime?
“They’re on their way.” Leighanne said as she handed him the phone.
Brian nodded and grabbed the phone. He opened the crumpled letter once more and looked for the number. Once he found it, he punched the digits into his phone. It began ringing, and with every second that passed by a sickening anticipation grew within him. Finally, someone answered the phone and he was greeted by nothing but silence.
“I knew you’d call.” a voice finally said after what seemed like forever.
“Where’s my son?” was all that Brian asked.
“He’s here with me… like I told you in safe hands. He says he misses you guys dearly, but I promised him things that took his mind off of you guys.”
“I swear to God, if you hurt him…”
“Hurt him? Who said anything about hurting the kid? You have got to be one sick bastard to ever hurt a child… like I told you before, he’s in safe hands, nothing is gonna happen to your kid.”
“Then why the hell are you doing this? Why did you take our son? What do you want, is it money or something? I’ll give you whatever the hell you want, just please give us our son back…”
“Brian, do you forgive me?”
He fell silent for a while. “What do you mean do I forgive you? You have my son you sick bastard!”
“I’m not talking about that… I mean, about the whole window situation. I’m truly sorry for breaking your window like that, I just didn’t want to leave you guys empty handed or anything. I felt that it was necessary of me to leave something behind for you guys, a name and number and such. It would’ve been pure torture for me to just enter your guys house, take something or in this case someone that belongs to you and leave you with not even a trace. Believe me Mr. Littrell, when the police arrive there and scope your house out, they will not find one single trace of evidence left behind. The only thing that would be out of place is the broken window, the open door and disenabled alarm system.” Brian had forgot that when the crash happened, their alarm system didn’t even go off to alert officials. “Other than that, everything is clean as crystal.”
“I’m asking you one more time, what is it you want?”
“Look, I’d love to stay and chat but I promised Baylee that I’d do something fun with him, and that’s exactly what I’m gonna do. Would you like to say something to your son before he goes?”
Brian remained silent as he heard Paul hand the phone over to his son. “Hello?”
Brian literally gasped. “Baylee?”
At the sound of her son’s name, Leighanne quickly jumped up and ran into the living room, putting it on speakerphone. “Baylee baby?” she cried. “Sweetie, this is mommy and daddy.”
“Hi mommy, hi daddy! I miss you guys, but Uncle Paul is gonna take me somewhere fun. When we get back I can tell you guys all about it, okay? I love you mommy and daddy.”
Leighanne began to cry even harder, “I love you too baby…”
“Baylee, listen to me…” Brian began but stopped when Paul’s voice came on the phone.
“Well, we’re gonna go now. I’ll be keeping in touch with you guys, and like I said don’t worry and stress over this too much… your son is fine and he will be for the time being. Until next time, toodles Littrells.” and with that the line went dead.”
Leighanne continued to cry as she pushed the speakerphone off. Brian clicked the phone off and had let it slip out of his hands, watching it as it fell to the floor. He looked up at his weeping wife and slowly made his way towards her. At first she backed away, but Brian opened his arms and had embraced her, and she couldn’t do anything but to fall into his arms and cry in his chest.
“Baby, look.” he whispered. “I can’t have you falling apart on me like this… I need you to be strong for me sweetheart… if not even for me, then for Baylee.”
“How can I be strong? This man has our son Brian… he has our baby.”
“I know Leigh, but I’m gonna get him back. Look, he’s took our son away please don’t allow him to take you away from me too… I need you baby… please?”
She fell silent for a while. After a long pause she finally looked up at him. “Brian?” she whispered, wiping away the tears that trickled down her face. “Get our baby back.”
Brian nodded, “I’m gonna do whatever it takes to get him back to us, I promise.”
