6. "Tell A Story That Begins With A Ransom Note."

To whom it may concern,

I have kidnapped a woman and I am going to kill her.

If that concerns you, please read carefully.

The fact that you are reading this means that you are either in or around Time Square, as that is where I dropped this note. The date at the time I dropped it was February 23, 2015. It may have taken a matter of days for you to pick this up, or a matter of seconds. Either way, it does not matter.

I am located at the Manhattan Auto Repair Shop on the corner of West 45th Street and 11th Avenue, five blocks from where you are right now. I have the woman tied to a chair in a backroom and I am waiting patiently for someone to come claim her. As you are the person who picked up this note, that "someone" has now effectively become you.

I have decided to keep this woman alive for one week, that is until March 2, 2015. You will have until then to come claim her. If you do not come by that appointed date, then she will die. For every day that you waste, she will lose a body part.

If you call the police and they show up to the shop, she will die. If you come and bring anybody with you, then she will die.

If you come by yourself, as I would ask that you do, I will not harm the woman anymore and I will not harm you. Both of you will simply walk away.

Now the question comes of what it is that I want, to which I answer with a simple response:

Nothing.

I do not want anything out of this situation. I do not want any kind of monetary reward for this woman's life nor any kind of material object.

What I want is to see if you will come.

If there is no woman, which is a thought that I am sure has crossed your mind, and this whole note is just a pack of lies, then you may drop the letter and continue about your day. However, in the off chance that this is real, which I assure you it is, then come March 2nd, you will be alive and she will be dead, and you will wonder whether or not you contributed to the murder of an innocent person.

If you want to know anything about this woman that you are sacrificing so little for, then I can tell you that she is not anyone special. She is middle-aged, average looking, and she does not exude confidence or any other qualities of note. She is just a random woman. Someone who I picked off the street. The same way that I could have picked you. Or your mother. Or your daughter.

What I can tell you about myself is that I do this regularly. If you do not come to this woman's aid then she will be the ninth woman that I have had to kill in the past six months. Something else that I can tell you is that I do not enjoy doing this. However, I continue due to the hope that in my persistence, someone will show me that the human race does still have some humanity to it.


So, I leave you with this choice: Drop whatever you are doing and come possibly save a life, or lay down this note and silently hope that someone braver than you picks it up next.

Whatever you decide, it is a choice that you will have to live with. But please decide quickly.

The woman wants to live.