The Bag

Tim was gathering up his stuff before class ended. Everyone was socializing, talking about their plans for the weekend, or gossiping about who got suspended for what. But not Tim, the only thing he wanted to do was talk with Grace. He liked her and they’d been friends for about year now. The bell rung and everyone pushed and shoved to get out of the room, Tim didn’t mind, his train didn’t show up for another hour. He tried to look for Grace but she went home sick so he just went and waited for the train.
Every day Tim saw something strange...today it was a man standing by the entrance to the station. He was tall and well built, he was wearing jeans and a leather jacket. His face was decorated with scars, you could tell he had seen his fair share of fights. He didn’t look that much more different than half the people he knew, but there was something about this guy that made him stick out. Tim was looking at him intentively when all the sudden the mystery man c***ed his head and looked straight at him. Tim was shocked, he didn’t know what to do. As soon as Tim was about to look away a train disrupted the mystery man's stare. Tim didn’t hesitate to board the train, he sat down in the seat right next to the door and let out a huge sigh.
Tim walked in the door to his Grandma's house, he called out his Mom’s name, then his grandma’s. No one responded, he walked into the kitchen to grab himself a drink. On the door to the fridge was a note Tim’s mom had left for him. She said that her and Grandma went out shopping and they would be back later. Tim left the note on the door and stopped to look at all the pictures on the fridge. There were a few of him at his 8 birthday party, and some of him as a baby. Then he noticed some that seemed to have a part that was ripped off. One in particular was his mom holding him when he was just born, she was laying down in the bed with him in her arms. On his mom’s shoulder where the picture had been torn, there was a hand on her shoulder. It looked like he was wearing a gold ring. Tim shut the fridge and went to watch T.V. on the couch. He was watching Netflix and he slowly drifted away into a deep sleep. He woke up a few hours later when his mom and grandma walked in the door. It was kind of late and Tim didn’t feel too good so he kissed his mom and grandma and went to bed up in his room.

The next morning Tim woke up late so he was rushing to throw on any arrangement of clothes he could find. He bolted out the door, he sprinted across the street without looking and suddenly someone slammed on their brakes and honked at him. He turned at looked at the driver...it was the man from the train station. Tim sprinted away as fast as he could. Who was that guy? Tim barely made it onto his train as the doors were closing.
The rest of the day went by pretty normal, people pushing and shoving, couples making out, freshmen being stupid etc. Tim had to stay after school to take some pictures for the year book. He went to the Varsity Football game to get some action shots of the team. The game finished late so Tim was going to have to wait for a later Train. Tim got to the train station and sat on the bench, his train arrived. He sat in the same seat every time. He pulled out his phone and started texting his friends when he noticed someone sit down in front of him. He looked up and made eye contact with the person...It was the mystery man! He was wearing dark clothes and he had the same bag as Tim. The man asked Tim who he was? What he was doing? Why he’s doing it? Before Tim could answer him, the train stopped. The doors opened and more people boarded, as people were passing through the aisle Tim got up grabbed the bag at his feet and escaped off of the train as the doors were closing. The mystery man turned and stared the boy down as the train went away. Tim got off sooner than his usual stop but he didn’t care, anything to get away from the mystery man. Tim walked home the rest of the way, the whole way home he was trying to figure out who the mystery man was.

Tim was walking up the steps to his house when he noticed that his backpack seemed heavier than usual. He walked in the house and sat down on the couch. His mom came in and sat down next to him. He wanted to tell her about the mystery man, but he didn’t want to put more stress on her...so he decided not to tell her.

Tim told his mom good night and went up to his room. He took his backpack with him and threw it on his desk. The bag made a loud thump. Tim walked over to the bag and opened the bag. Inside was a huge pile of cash! Tim stood over the bag speechless. All he could think was how did he acquire such a large amount of money? Then it hit him...the mystery man on the train had the same bag as him, he must have accidentally taken the wrong bag when he escaped from him on the train. He was scared, he didn’t know what to do. Was the man going to kill him, was he going to kidnap him. He didn’t know. Tim decided that the next morning he would go to the train station and wait for the mystery man to show up so he could return the bag and apologize for stealing it.

Tim woke up the next morning and waited at the train station. HE was sitting on the bench looking around waiting to see if the mystery man would show up. Then suddenly everything went black. Tim woke up duck taped to a chair and a bright light shining in his face. His head was throbbing and he could see a shadowy figure in front of him. The figure kept yelling at him WHO ARE YOU? WHO DO YOU WORK FOR? The man punched him in the gut after every question. Tim would just tell the man that it was an accident, he didn’t mean to take it. The man finally stopped beating Tim. He asked him what his name was. Tim told him his first and last name, the man froze. He turned and looked at him, he asked what his mother’s name was. Tim told him. The man walked around the room for a little while, he walked back towards Tim. He leaned into Tim’s ear and told him… “Hello son”