Them

Janelle quietly slipped back into the US. She assumed a fake name and a whole new appearance. She wasn't worried about being recognized enough to stop her from seeking the revenge she had thirsted for for over a decade. So she closed up her little cottage just off the beaten path in Montenegro and told a few people she was in touch with there that she was going on vacation. When asked where, she lied and said she was going to Spain. Janelle had familiarized herself with the dark web. Because she was slow to catch on, it took her some time to learn the ropes. She realized it would be okay if she had to ask other people around her some questions about it, because once she did what she planned to do and then returned to Montenegro, she would be untouchable. The only way she would be at risk was if Montenegro decided to create an extradition treaty with the US, and that seemed unlikely. It was worth the risk, and to be honest, the excitement thrilled her. She became giddy with excitement when she thought of Boris and Lauren's reactions once they realized they'd been kidnapped, held hostage, and tortured with no clue whatsoever as to what kind of an outcome she had planned for them. She knew it would be smarter and safer not to leave any witnesses, but if she did that, they couldn't live to suffer the horrible memories she was eager to supply them with. The tricky part would be abducting them and then releasing them in a way that would allow her to get out of the country before they could tell anyone what she had done. She’d need some help. The time she had to deal with Boris had amounted to years, but she wasn't willing to spend that much time in the US, of course. She was thinking more along the lines of the month she had spent in the hospital with Boris and Lauren playing with her peace and sanity. She felt her fists clench at the thought of the way they had so casually lied to her and had made her squirm with discomfort as they intensely scrutinized her, never giving her an ounce of respect or privacy. She considered renting an older house with a basement that was relatively secluded for a month. She still had plenty of money and planned to temporarily soundproof the basement to a degree by shoving acoustic tiling in the casement windows. Just because the place she had in mind wasn't overly close to any other houses, that didn't mean anyone outside the neighboring houses or walking down the street couldn’t hear them when they got loud. She just hoped no one would stop by and ask questions or notice the tiles in the windows. From what she had been told, however, the owners would be in Florida, and that was why they were renting the place out. As she feared would be the case, she was asked why she wanted to rent such a house if it was supposed to be just her. She explained that she was fascinated with large old houses. In reality, she hated old places. She was a modern freak. Also, the three guys she hired from the dark web were going to be staying with her to help her manage her unwilling house guests after they kidnapped them. Under the bogus name of Sophia Caldwell, she booked the place for the month of December. She figured this way: it would be too cold for most people to be outdoors, and they would be preoccupied with the holiday season. She figured this would also hit Boris and Lauren even harder, not to be able to be with their loved ones for the holidays. With her hair bleached blonde, she boarded the plane, hoping to make it into the country without being recognized. Her ID was fake, and she had had minor cosmetic surgery to alter her face a bit. The rest was up to the people she had hired via the dark web. She worried that she may have been ripped off and that they wouldn't come through for her, but the research she did suggested that they would very likely make good on their word and keep their end of the bargain because that's how they continued to get business in the future. If all they did was rip people off without doing what they were hired to do, then no one would hire anyone to do anything anymore. She often wondered why that didn't apply to the police. How did they expect anyone to ever believe them and be compliant in any way if all they did was bullshit people? Again, she gave out a loud peal of laughter when she thought of what she was going to do to Boris and Lauren. There were more of them that she wouldn't mind torturing, but they were definitely at the top of her list. She would show them what it was like to be lied to about serious issues, and she would show them what it was like to be living in a fishbowl with no consideration or privacy whatsoever. She would show them that just because they were in law enforcement, they weren't gods. She would show them what could happen to those who decided to play God with other people's lives. She would show them that their actions did indeed sometimes have consequences. She would show them that they weren't invincible and they weren't above the law. She had tried to see things from their point of view and asked herself...what if she had been the cop? And what if the person in the hospital bed had been suspected of more than one murder? How would she treat them in that case? Well, perhaps it would be similar to the way she was treated, but that didn't change anything. Regardless of what she was guilty of, she had still been lied to and made miserable for a month while she was in the hospital recovering from the effects of being held hostage in a cult compound, along with seeing her friend tortured and murdered. Despite all she'd gone through and the fact that she had saved countless lives by reaching out to Boris, all this had seemed to go totally unnoticed. All they cared about was getting legal revenge on her. Well, now it was time to get hers. Rage and determination filled her. Hell, even the media made a joke out of the nightmare she’d been through with slanderous articles titled: On the Run and in a Jam? Call Your Probation Officer!