The Secret Manuscript (14 page)

Ben did not
take the risks he was facing lightly, and with each passing minute,
the stakes escalated even further. With his heart rate elevated,
his legs trembling, and his sweaty hand gripping the heavy-duty
flashlight, Ben slowly ascended up the stairs to where the bedrooms
were. His breathing was stifled as if there were a heavy weight
pressing down on his abdomen. He felt he could vomit at any moment
if he paid even the slightest attention to it. Blocking it out, Ben
ignored the discomfort. With each step, he inched closer to the
sleeping robber.

On the top
floor, Ben made a revelation he had not previously considered.
Peering into the guest bedroom, Ben realized at that moment the
robber did not live alone. Fortunately, the roommate was not home.
Had that not been the case, the mission would have been twice as
dangerous. It was a beginner mistake not to consider the
possibility of more than one person being in the house, and Ben
knew he had just received another stroke of luck. If he wanted to
keep it that way though, he needed to hurry as the roommate could
return at any moment.

Since there
was no way of knowing for sure which of the rooms belonged to the
robber, Ben had to check them both. For obvious reasons, he began
with the vacant room. He entered the guest room and searched it
thoroughly. As quietly as possible, he opened every drawer, rifled
around the closet, and lifted up the filthy mattress. There was no
sign of the money anywhere. That only left one other place it could
be.

The door to
the master bedroom was closed. Ben paused for a moment and took
several deep breaths to calm his nerves.
Okay, you can do
this,
he said to psych himself up. Standing on the other side
of the door, Ben pulled his shirt up and over his nose to conceal
the bottom half of his face. Carefully extending his hand, Ben
placed it gently on the door handled and gripped it tightly. With a
slow and steady turn, he pushed his way in. He had no idea what
would be waiting for him on the other side, but expected the worst.
For all he knew, there would be a guy on the other side holding a
gun to his face.

The dim light
from a streetlight poured in through the window, creating an eerie
ambience. It allowed Ben to see a lone body stretched out on a
tattered single-sized mattress. Ben slithered in undetected like a
ninja, then tiptoed across the room. Ben’s laboured inhalations
were muffled through his shirt, which actually made him breathe
heavier.

Now standing
at the side of the bed, Ben watched the robber sleep. He began to
question why he was there — a thought that had occurred to him more
than once. It was a fool’s errand, but at this point, it was one he
was committed to. The only thing left to do was to follow it
through until the end. Ben gripped the flashlight tightly, raised
it above his head, and took a small step forward. When he shifted
his weight, the floor creaked and the robber’s eyes popped
open.

Since the
window was at his back, Ben’s silhouette was perfectly visible. The
robber wasted no time jumping into action. In one fluid motion, he
sprung out of bed and kicked Ben in the stomach, knocking the wind
out of his lungs. With great force, Ben launched backward and
crashed against the window. The impact caused him to drop his
flashlight and keel over in pain. On his way down, Ben clutched a
fistful of curtains and ripped them from the pole.

The robber
immediately jumped on Ben and tried to wrap him up in the drapes,
which had inadvertently fallen on top of Ben. A tussle ensued,
during which Ben managed to rise back to his feet. The robber was
able to land a few solid blows on Ben’s midsection before losing
his balance and stumbling backwards. In that time, Ben saw a brief
window of opportunity to stage his attack.

With some
distance between him and the robber, Ben charged forward and
tackled the robber onto the bed. Ben swung recklessly and landed a
few shots of his own. Stunned, but not hurt, the robber came back
with a vengeance. He overpowered Ben and reversed the position so
that Ben was now on his back. While mounted on top of Ben, the
robber clasped both his hands tightly around Ben’s throat and
leaned all his weight into him. Ben’s legs bucked and kicked
desperately as he squirmed. During the struggle, Ben even tried to
pry the robber’s hands off him, but nothing worked. Ben was not a
fighter and had no business being in that exchange. It was never
more apparent to him than in those last few moments before he was
about to be choked unconscious. There was no telling what the
robber would do to him if he went out, though he was quite sure the
robber would not be inclined to call the police. It was absolutely
imperative that Ben free himself.

Ben did not
recall reading the part in the story where he gets strangled to
death, but he knew it was certainly a possibility. After all, Ben
had proven before that situations in the story could be altered. In
those final moments that the life was being squeezed out of him, he
thought about what a terrible mistake he had made. He recalled what
had happened to him on his date with Vanessa and thought this
debacle was one he may not be able to walk away from.

The robber’s
grip was so tight that it was both crushing Ben’s windpipe and
pinching the two main arteries in Ben’s neck, cutting off the blood
supply to his brain. Ben began to feel faint and his vision started
to tunnel. He only had a few more seconds before the lights went
out. He made peace with the fact he was about to die and said his
last prayers.

Just then, a
large crash occurred outside the bedroom window, which
serendipitously reversed Ben’s misfortune. Outside on the roof,
Santa Claws the cat was on the prowl. The chimney crown was the
object of his investigation. As cats are known to do, he thoroughly
inspected this strange and indeterminate object that was resting
haphazardly against the side of the chimney. As it turned out, the
cat swatted at it a few times and dislodged it from its resting
position. In a thunderous crash, the large metal crown tumbled down
the roof, causing all kinds of ruckus. Once it reached the edge of
the roof, it became airborne for a brief moment before crashing
down on the back porch.

The burglar
jolted in surprise. The distraction caused him to loosen his grip
enough to allow Ben to cling to life.

With every
ounce of energy in him, Ben made a concerted effort to free himself
from the grip of death. In an act of total desperation, Ben sunk
his teeth in the robber’s arm and chomped down as hard as he could
until the robber let go. Ben followed that up with a punch directly
into the robber’s groin. The robber stumbled back in agony,
enabling Ben a chance to scramble to his feet. Still lightheaded,
Ben stumbled out of the room and disappeared from the robber’s
sight.

The robber let
out a ferocious roar and then equipped himself with an aluminum
baseball bat that he had stashed under the bed. With the bat in
hand, he took off after Ben.

Ben had darted
into the adjacent bedroom and used his black clothing to hide in
the darkness. He was leaning up against the wall and breathing
heavily. The blood flow was restored and was circulating to his
brain. Within a few seconds, he was feeling much better. He could
hear the snarling grunt of the robber as he came closer. Ben was
absolutely terrified and had no idea what to do. He was trapped
with no means of defending himself. He closed his eyes tightly as
if somehow he would be magically transported far away to safety,
but his nightmare was far from over and he had no one to blame but
himself.

By the time
the robber rushed out of the room, he had no idea where Ben was. He
stood at the top of the stairs and listened. That was when Ben used
the element of surprise to emerge from his hiding place at full
charge and shove the burglar down the stairs. In a violent
commotion, the burglar tumbled down the stairs like a chimney crown
on a steep roof. Ben immediately rushed down the stairs after him
and began to pummel the robber with relentless fists of fury.

Once the
robber was noticeably dazed, Ben scrambled for his backpack and
ripped it open with jittery hands. Reaching into the bag, he pulled
out a long piece of rope and tied the robber up with it. He then
took a roll of duct tape and used it on the robber’s hands, feet,
and mouth to ensure the robber could not escape. Lastly, Ben
slipped a pillowcase over robber’s head and tied a knot in the back
to obstruct the robber’s vision.

Ben went back
upstairs and returned to the bedroom. This time he flipped on the
light switch and the whole room lit up. He walked over to where his
flashlight was and picked it up off the floor. For the next few
minutes, Ben frantically searched the entire room. He used his
logic and prior burglary experience to quickly go through the
entire room. He first checked the back of the sock drawer, then
under the mattress, then in the closet. He knew there was a strong
possibility the money was hidden in the closet, and he was not
about to leave without it.

Ben went into
the closet and started pulling everything out — clothing, boxes,
shoes — it was all taken out and thrown onto the floor. Once the
closet was empty, Ben shone his flashlight all around. Given that
he was no stranger to finding secret stashes, he had some ideas of
where to look. In the back of the closet, Ben noticed the carpet
was curled up a bit. He knelt down, and with both hands he pulled
the carpet back to reveal a wooden floor with a large hole in it.
Ben picked up his flashlight and shined it into the hole. Inside
the small makeshift chamber were stacks of money and piles of
jewellery.

Jackpot!
he thought. The very sight of all that treasure
made him salivate. Ben opened up his backpack and started shoving
everything in. When he was done, he stood up and slung the backpack
over one shoulder and proceeded out of the room. The bag now had
some considerable weight to it, which excited him. He could not
wait to go home and count it.

On his way
out, he flipped the light switch off and then bounced down the
stairs with his newly acquired bounty in tow. The robber was still
lying at the bottom of the stairs, right where Ben had left him.
Although Ben had not known it at the time, the flashlight, rope,
and multi-purpose tool he had stolen from his old apartment
building came in handy for a home invasion. A part of him wanted to
untie the robber just so he could get his rope back, but figured it
would be his last home invasion, and he would have no other purpose
for the rope. Besides, he had just stolen thousands of dollars in
cash and prizes so the rope was a justifiable loss. Ben patted the
robber on the head before fleeing into the night.

It was nearly
3:00 a.m. when Ben arrived back at his house. Despite the hour, he
was not tired at all. In fact, he was elated and riding a natural
high. He wanted to wake Kyle and tell him everything that had
happened, but instead he ran down to the basement to count his
loot.

He accessed
the hidden passageway in the fireplace and ran down the corridor to
the secret room. He quickly punched in the ten digit code, which he
had by now committed to memory, and then entered the room. Like a
kid coming home from Halloween, Ben dumped the contents of his bag
all over the floor. A mound of cash and jewellery spilled out in a
pile around his feet. Ben had not seen so much money before in his
life. He got down on the floor and began rolling around in the
money, swiveling his arms and legs as if he were making a snow
angel. With both hands, he pinched wads of bills and threw them up
in the air and watched them rain down on him. In that moment, he
could not have been happier.

After he was
done wading in the loot, he gathered it all up along with all the
jewellery in a big messy pile and began to organize the money into
neat stacks. When he finished counting it all, there was a total of
$8,130.00. As for the pile of gold jewellery, he did not know
exactly how much it was worth, but given his recent experience in
selling gold, he estimated the value to be over a thousand
dollars.

After a long
and exciting night, he was now coming down from his high. Almost
instantly, his exhaustion kicked in and depleted any desire he had
to stay awake. He let out a big yawn before getting up and exiting
the room. He locked the door behind him and trudged upstairs to
bed.

In the
morning, Ben was woken by a loud knock on the door. He ignored the
first few, but after persistent knocking, he dragged himself out of
bed and made his way downstairs. Peering through the peephole, Ben
noticed two well-dressed men. Judging by their suits and long
trench coats, he knew they were not the city building inspectors.
Still groggy, he opened the door.

“How may I
help you gentlemen?” he greeted them, rubbing his eyes.

“Are you Ben
Owen?”

“Yes.”

“We’d like a
word with you please,” the two detectives said as they flashed
their badges.

“What’s this
about?” Ben asked, trying to suppress his nerves.

“May we come
in?”

Ben hesitated
a moment, but then complied.

“Sure, come on
in?” he said as he swung the door open and stepped aside, allowing
the two men to enter.

The two
detectives entered the house and followed Ben into the living room
where they could all sit down and talk. One of the officers looked
around, while the other one took a seat on the couch.

“So, what’s
this about?” Ben asked.

There were a
few reasons why two detectives might be at his house, none of which
would produce favourable outcomes for him.

“Where were
you yesterday at 3:00 p.m.?”