Air Raid: A Short Story

“If you found out that the Japanese are planning an air raid in this community, would you completely abandon it? Remember, no one in the town would believe you. You would be on your own,” I said.
“Dude, there is no chance that the Japanese even know about this place,” my friend Andy replied.
I sigh. “Just answer my question dude,” I said.
“Since the Japanese don’t even know about this, we don’t need to be thinking about it!” Andy insisted.
“Ok, ok,” I said to shut him up. Andy generally opposed my “What if” questions. He always said that they drive him crazy, but I did it a lot anyway because I knew it got on his nerves. Recently, he had not been acting, well, normal. Even after all of these years of our friendship, he still didn’t invite me to his house, but up ‘til then, I had always let it slide, but not anymore.

“Is there a reason I can’t come to your house?

I want to come one day!” I yelled, standing up to Andy. What he said, surprised me.
“Maybe sooner than you think,” he revealed. What? Was this a new attitude? He had never done this in the past.
I had to get a straight answer from him so I asked a different question. “How many more days will I have to wait before I can come to your house?” I figured he would have to give me a specific answer. I was wrong.
“Fewer than you think,” he remarked again in his matter of a fact tone. I was getting angry. If I couldn’t get a straight answer out of him, then I would ask for a straight answer.
“Andy, give me a date of when I can come over to your house,” I said confidently because I knew that Andy couldn’t avoid this question.
But instead of answering my question, he asked his own question. “Is there a reason why you want to come to my house?” Andy was my friend. There was no reason he should have been avoiding my questions.
I was getting suspicious, and so I blurted out. “Can I come to your house? If not, then just tell me why. You're not trying to keep things from me are

you?”
“Of course not! I would never!” he sounded offended.
“Okay. I accept that you are not trying to hide anything from me. But still; is there a reason I can’t come to your house?” I was getting impatient for the straight answer.
But instead of answering my question, he said, “You wouldn’t want to come to my house if you'd seen it.” I would try to pry a good thorough answer out of him. In fact, if I continued to persist in getting him to answer my questions, we would probably be in the park all day. Oh yeah, I’ll tell you where we were right then. Right then, we were at the park.
The park was a lot nicer than everything else around it because our town spent years planning a big renovation for things like the park, the roads, and the streets overall. After they invested a lot of the money into the town park, their fundraising support went down and they had to cancel the project. And since this place was nicer than the rest of the places in this town, the park was where Andy and I hung out. I wanted to go there so badly because about four months ago, Andy told me his family was wealthy. So, I wanted to go to his house to get a taste of what it’s like to be rich. But, I guess that was a lie that his family was rich.
It was getting kind of late now, so we started to head out. While we were on the road, we came across a new maintenance shed, and I wondered what was in it. Andy stopped and started to talk to a neighbor just as I went to explore the shed. While walking up to it, I was very tempted to go inside. After examining it for quite a while, I noticed that the door was unlocked. As I was walking in the shed, I was staring at the weird variety of objects on the wall: gasoline tank (not weird), bundles of rope (not weird), but strangely, four padlocks (a bit weird) and finally, a tiny door key (very weird, not to mention, a old, and wacky, key). At the bottom of the stairs, I saw a petite, locked up door. Some part of me decided to go in there, but the other part kept me from going in. I knew that I really wanted to go in. I was about get back out of the shed after I took one last look at the place. Oh no! My heart was pounding. I was pretty sure I had just seen the small doorknob turn right in front of me. I grabbed an old chair off the floor and jumped on the chair. Then, I took the the key from where it was. I was getting off the chair and then I heard BOOM! A second later, I found myself on the ground, and Andy bursted in from the door behind me.
“What happened!?!” he shouted, “Get out of here! Why are you in here? GET OUT OF HERE NOW!!!” Even though he was my “best friend,” he had no right to boss me around. So, I had to give him a huge shove.
“What’s your problem?!” I yelled as I shoved him. “Just because you are my friend, doesn’t mean you are in charge of me!”
Andy got really mad. He shoved me back really hard and stormed out while slamming the door. I ran up the stairs and tried to open the door, but it would not budge. Then I remembered, the key! It must be a master key that opens the little door and this door. I tried to look for it, but it was too dark to see. Luckily, I did find a flashlight sitting on a little shelf near the ceiling. Once I got it, I turned it on and looked for the key. It took awhile, but I eventually found the key and got out. I started to go home and suddenly I felt that someone was following me. I picked up my pace and got home safely. After I ate dinner, I said goodnight to my parents and started to go to bed.
After a long time trying to sleep, I looked on my nightstand and I saw the key that shined in the moonlight. I instantly knew that I was going to go to the maintenance shed that night, and neither Andy nor anyone else was going to stop me. I ran out of my house, got on my bike and rode down our street to the shed. Even though I was very tired, I was up and alert due to my determination. Finally, I was there. If it was dark before, then it must have been pitch black later. Luckily, I still had the flashlight from the shed. Now I could see everything; the tiny door; the assortment of objects on the wall, and the shelf. Now, I had to go through the tiny door and see what was inside of it. If it’s just a bunch of useless tools then I’m going to slap myself and go home, I thought. I opened the door and crept inside. Clang! It was just a bunch of tools. Dang it! I used the small key to unlock the door. I started to see the doorknob turn again so I backed up to the wall.
“A new victim?” questioned a ghostly woman floating through the air. She headed straight for me from the tiny little door. She was one of the kidnapped victims that stayed inside the door ever since she remembered.
“A v-victim of what?” I asked.
“Why the kidnapping of course,” said the woman. When she started to tell me the story, more ghostly victims that were kidnapped came out of the little door. The woman told me the story, and from then on, things changed. Andy and his father were given jail time for paying kidnappers to kidnap people that knew things Andy’s father didn't want them to know about him. Andy’s father liked to keep secrets. He liked to take valuables from richer people's homes, and he pays the kidnappers to kidnap the kids that are home alone without their parents with them. Andy’s dad wanted his kidnappers to kidnap those kids so they would not go snitch on him. I finally realized why Andy didn’t want me to be inside the shed in the first place, it was to protect him and his father from getting caught. After all, who wants to go to jail? Unfortunately, Andy had to go to jail with his father because sometimes he sneaked in with the kidnappers and took valuables for his dad. The kidnapped victims returned back to their own childhood homes, and were taken care of. I was wondering from then on as well, why did I not see them before? After they all went away, everything was good from then on. It was also hard for me because of Andy. I kind of missed the friendship we had, but at the same time I had just found out how bad Andy was. But when I thought about it, I realized I could find a way better friend than Andy.