Tiger's Eye Snare ~ FINALE

September 23, 2017

Tiger's Eye Snare ~ FINALE

In Taryn's POV

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Claire had been here for a few days now. The two of us fight a lot but we get along pretty well.

We were sitting out on the lawn in the early evening, talking.

Claire still hadn't let her bag out of her sight.

Her weird behavior about it with Kit made me even more curious.

"Hey, Taryn? You said you are a Christian and you believe in God and stuff, right?" Claire asked.

"Yeah," I answered, "Why?"

"Well, you guys said that God can forgive sins, right?"

"Right." I said.

"But...well...what if it's something really bad?"

"Well, if your willing to repent-" I began.

"What does that mean?" Claire interjected.

"It means to turn from your sin and stop." I said. "You can't stop on your own, though. God has to help you."

"But what if you can't stop? Like someone threatens to hurt you if you don't do something you know is wrong." Claire asked.

"Then you have to make a choice between what God says to do or going with the crowd." I answered.

Then I abruptly got up and walked away, letting her think about what I said.

She seemed to be thinking when there was a strange noise.

It seemed to be coming from her bag.

'That's odd.' I thought, 'I'll watch and see what it is.'

So as I stood and watched Claire took a cell phone out of her bag.

'I didn't know she had a phone.' I thought.

Then I felt something smash into the back of my head.

As I lay on the ground I saw someone standing above me, then I blacked out.

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In Claire's POV

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I was thinking about what Taryn said when I heard a sound I had hoped I would never hear again.

I began to panic.

I tried to calm myself down.

"It's OK." I said, "He's got nothing on you right now. You can just say no."

I took my cell phone out of my bag and set it on my lap.

One more deep breath and I hit speaker phone.

"Agent Inches." I said.

I could almost hear his smile it was so big.

"I've got another job for you." he said.

"I already told you, I won't do it again. You don't have anything on me." I answered.

He chuckled.

"The long lost sisters, brought back together by fate." he said mockingly, "What a perfect time to find her. I was hoping it would be like this when I got rid of her all those years ago."

"No. Please." I said.

"You know where to find me." He said then he hung up.

Now I didn't have a choice. I would have to help him...

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There it was. The place I always met him.

It was after dusk, but the moon was bright.

My legs were shaking.

"How am I ever going to get out of this?" I said out loud.

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In Taryn's POV

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As I slowly came awake all I could think of was how my head hurt.

Suddenly I realized I wasn't on the ground anymore.

I looked around the room I was in.

It seemed quite large.

Perhaps the inside of an old cabin.

I had assumed I was alone, until I heard a noise.

I looked around the room to see where it came from.

I saw a man leaning against the wall and looking through a backpack.

I could hear money rattling in the pack. A lot of money.

"Who are you?" I asked.

He slowly smiled and set the bag down on the ground.

"Hello, Taryn." He said.

"How do you know my name?! What's going on?!" I cried.

"I see Claire hasn't told you much. Trying to protect you by keeping you ignorant. Too bad it won't help." He snickered.

"Claire? What do mean? I don't understand." I said.

"Don't worry. I'll let Claire explain it when she gets here." He said with a smile.

Soon we heard soft padding footstep coming into the cabin.

"Claire!" the man exclaimed, throwing his arms out in a welcoming gesture. "So good of you to come! You must introduce me to your sister!"

Claire looked at the floor while she said, "Taryn, this is Tiger's Eye... my boss."

"No. No, that isn't true! Is it?" I spoke quietly.

Then Tiger's Eye spoke up. "Oh Claire! you forgot to tell little Taryn the story!"

"Do you want to know what happened? What really happened?" She asked directly to me.

I wasn't sure, but I nodded anyway.

Claire turned away and with a sigh, she began.

"It was ten years ago...we went on a camping trip. You were three and I was four. Mom and Dad had already figured out how good I was with computers. They didn't really keep it a secret.. the wrong people heard about me. That night you didn't just wander away, Tiger's Eye... took you. Mom and Dad had been on his trail for months, he kept robbing banks, and they guessed it was him. They went after him but you were already gone. He had taken you to an orphanage to get you out of the way. He took mom and dad...and told me if I didn't help him... that I would never see them again. He said just one job and he would release them... all I had to do was transfer 1,000 dollars from the bank to his account... but job after job and it was always one more...till he got rid of them." Claire said quietly.

"No... you didn't..." I whispered.

"She did! And all she has to do is one more job and you can go free!" Tiger's Eye said.

"Claire, you don't have to do this..." I said.

"I'm sorry..." She whispered.

"You know what to do." Tiger's Eye said motioning to the table.

Claire sat down and pulled a laptop out of her bag.

"How much this time?" she asked.

He had an evil cat like grin.

"Oh, only a million." He said with a chuckle.

I didn't know what to say.... what was there to say.

Not long after Claire shut the laptop and stood up.

"I-I'm done." She mumbled.

"Good." Tiger's Eye said, grabbing the laptop and his backpack, "Now go sit in the corner with your sister."

Claire came and sat beside me while Tiger's Eye took her cell phone out of her bag.

"I wouldn't want you calling for help." he said, waving it at us.

He seem ready to leave when he changed his mind and turned to us.

"Have you ever heard of a Tiger's Eye snare, Taryn?" He asked.

When I shook my head he smiled.

"Well, a Tiger's Eye snare is when you promise someone something and keep it just out of there reach, so that they'll continue to do what you want. Once you're in one of these traps it's quite difficult to get out." He said kindly.

Then suddenly he dropped the act and became serious.

"You know what happens next, right Claire?" he said, moving towards the door.

"Yes, we'll stay here for three hours to give you time to get away and then you'll give the police an anonymous tip as to where we are and you'll call me when you have another job." Claire answered.

"No." He said as he took a box of matches out of his pack, "See Claire you know the routine to well. I thought I would switch it up make it interesting."

He struck a match and dropped it into the dry leaves on the floor and as the flame burst up,he shouted "Have fun!" and he disappeared.

"What do we do now?!" I asked Claire.

"Nothing." She said, "There's no reason to try."

"Then let me finish what I was saying before." I said, "Jesus, came to earth and lived a perfect life. Then He sacrificed himself for us, to cover our sins."

"But how could God forgive me?" Claire asked hopelessly.

"Claire, He can and He will. "If you confess with your tongue that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God Raised him from the dead you shall be saved." I quoted.

"But to confess that Jesus is Lord doesn't just mean saying the words, it means you need to change, to repent." I said over the crackle of the growing fire.

"How?" Claire shouted, as the fire reached up to the roof.

"If you truly mean it, all you have to do is asked God to forgive your sins and save you." I said solemnly, hoping she understood how serious this was.