Kidnapping

Kidnapping

A Chapter by Mariah Mcintyre

At first I was happy to be free, to be out on my own, but I soon realized it wasn’t much nicer out here than it was in there. The streets didn’t seem as busy all of a sudden and on the side walks shady people stared at me curiously wondering what I was doing out so late. It was actually quite late indeed, and if my parents knew I was outside I know I would be in really big trouble, who knows how hard my mother would hit me then. The thought made my skin burn and I winced the thought away.

I began to walk faster now, feeling eyes on me across the street as a man walked in the same direction. I didn’t turn to look at him, but I could see him out of the corner of my eye watching me. I was unsure if he had any intention of following me, but I would find out because my corner was coming up and I would need to cross the street. I should have been used to people staring at me, after all people had been since I left my house less than a few minutes ago, but he watched me differently. He didn’t just watch me, he stared.

My heart beat fast as I waited at the crosswalk, he was waiting on the opposite side. His face shrouded under a hat hidden in a jacket, but his eyes peeked out, looking at me. I refused to make eye contact as I watched him through the glass of a barber shop in front of me, my back to him. I looked myself over once seeing my dirty blonde hair cut short just under my chin, a haircut my mother had scolded me for a day earlier. My eyes looked their usual dark olive green especially with my black hoodie accenting them, but what caught my attention was the small stream of blood that had earlier crept down from my eyebrow, now a dry line. I refused to look at myself after that so I watched the cars passing by each like a blur of color rushing past me making my hair swing and my neck cold, though I‘m sure the hairs on the back of my neck had already been there.

The light changed and the cars stopped, so I turned around giving the man a clear view of me as I took a step into the damp street. I still only looked at the cars making sure there were people inside that would be watching over me as I walked. I felt my heart jump when he passed next to me, I only knew because I could feel the breeze he made walking by. Relief took over though as I reached the other side of the street, now feeling safe away from that man and whatever he may have been thinking.

I knew instantly I must have been overreacting. It was the adrenaline from being out of the house for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. I could feel my hands shaking in my pockets and my breath more heavy than I had noticed before.

I could see the park from here, straight ahead, green and inviting. Even from down the street I could see it was unusually deserted. The air was cold and refreshing, the smell of the recent rain still lightly covering the breeze. Puddles were scattered along the uneven concrete and small patches of grass and weeds peeked through the cracks.

I quickly crossed the intersection and entered the park. I wasn’t sure where to go from here but I continued walking anyway until I ran into the big oak tree. With not one thought I climbed up easily to the near center where people wouldn’t be able to see me and rested there. It was even darker behind the branches, but the rays of light that shinned through made a nice sort of night light. I found few branches cluttered together and decided I could lay there.

The tree seemed strong enough to hold my weight easily so I hoped it would be alright to sleep, but when I shut my eyes I knew I wouldn’t be getting any sleeping this night.

There was too much on my mind to sleep. Where would I go after this? I can’t just sleep in a tree forever someone would see me and call the cops for sure. Maybe I could stay at a friends house, I’m sure Daniel and Alejandro wouldn’t mind, and Renae’s mom would be more than happy to let me stay a night or so.

But then what would I do? This isn’t as easy as I had thought it was going to be, but there was no going back now. That was the last thing I would do.

 

Surprisingly I got a few hours of shut eye the next morning but spent the rest of the day pondering what to do next. I figured my parents wouldn’t start looking for me, expecting me to come home, but being out in the open was too big a risk. They could be out for a walk to secretly look for me and then actually spot me, and I didn’t want that.

I wasn’t so sure if I wanted to get any friends involved ether, they probably wouldn’t understand. Even if they did I just have a gut feeling I need to do this on my own. I am tired of being protected and shielded from the world. Being free was like tasting the sweetest fruit I’d ever had and licking the icing off a cake all at the same time along with the feeling of stretching after a good nights sleep or getting a well deserved massage. It’s like all of that put together in one big bucket of freedom! It made me feel alive for the first time in my life, like I was unstoppable and impervious.

Those thoughts are what drifted me to sleep early in the night the next day. I hoped that tomorrow I would be able to leave the tree and get plane tickets somewhere far away where I could start my new life. I was ready to leave everything behind for good, and I welcome everything new. I didn’t expect I’d have to welcome it so soon.

 

Jolting awake it was still nighttime, but I could tell some hours had passed. Oddly I hadn’t had a nightmare, yet something about my surroundings frightened me. I didn’t trust it feeling like at any moment something was going to pop out and kill me. I closed my eyes shut and counted in my head hoping the feeling would go away but it didn’t. I could almost hear my heart beating against my chest, only scaring me more.

The things that lurk in shadows aren't really there. It's only in your head. It's only the adrenaline running through your veins. It's just your fear of being alone... that's all. Just go back to sleep now... breathe...

Suddenly I heard the branches above me crack and it’s like my heart stopped! My throat swelled shut and my eyes stared at where the sound had come from knowing no bird or squirrel could have broken a branch. It's a strong tree... branches don't just break like that...

Mustering up all the courage in my being, I spoke, “He…hello?” I screamed in my head No one is there, no one is there! It’s just an old tree that’s all! No one is there!

It was silent. My heart beat returned slowly, my breathing close behind. It was nothing, I knew it, just scaring myself that's all.

I closed my eyes and lay back down trying to forget it ever happened, but something made my heart stop yet again.

I froze...my eyes still closed, refusing to believe what my ears heard. The branches, closer to me this time, had snapped and now a slow steady breathing replaced the sound. The thing is that, I wasn’t breathing. I could feel my lungs burning as I held my breath as if time had stopped. I couldn't breathe... my lungs wouldn't allow it, so horrified my body refused to function.

I could hear it getting closer and closer to my face and just as I began to feel the hot, wet air against my skin my eyes shot open and I sprang back nearly falling out of the tree.

I clutched the trunk realizing that I should scream, but my throat was still swollen and the sound wouldn’t come out. My eyes shifted around me searching for the danger or threat, and then they rested on a startled person across from me next to where I had just been laying.

His flushed face, two scars spread across his right cheek, deep and white, I realized that beneath his long brown hair glowing eyes stared back at me. I began to stumble thinking to escape, but felt the branches edge behind me. I was to afraid to turn my back on him if even for a second, so instead I opened my mouth the let out the scream I had delayed for so long, though in reality it had truely been only half a second since I laid in front of him, eyes closed.

Just as I opened my mouth, he jumped over to me and wrapped his hand around my face. His hands were rough against my skin and I felt the tips of his fingers wipe the old blood off my cheek. My hands were clutching his arm, trying to pry it off me, time sped up twice as fast as normal now keeping pace with my pulsing heart. He didn’t even seem to feel me struggling, so I tried to elbow him, only to have him catch my elbow in his other hand just before it had stabbed him in the gut.

I knew that it was hopeless now because no matter what I did he found a way to stop it and his strength made it like trying to move a brick wall. I began to sob letting my knees buckling beneath me, my mumbles just barely audible through his large palm.

I heard him suddenly sigh as he held me up, my feet now dangling in the air. He had one arm around my waist and the other still cupping my mouth, while both of mine lay weakly at my sides like vines from the tremendous tree that was him. He carefully turned my face to look over my left shoulder and I prepared myself to hear the sound of my neck twisting, my eyes wincing and my body clenching, ready for the bone crunching noise...but instead his head leaned over the same shoulder and after lifting his hand for not even a fraction of a second he blew his hot breath into my face yet again, only this time it burned.

I was about to try and scream again but my throat began to sting all the way down to my lungs where a fire seemed to ignite inside me. My head began to hurt as my brain pushed against my skull wishing to escape, but only escaping to a sudden darkness that came quicker than the man himself.

 

I slept dreamlessly, unaware of anything and everything, almost as if I were dead. I wasn’t though, my heart was beating and my lungs kept breathing, my body was functioning but my mind was off. Then just as quickly as it had been turned off, it was turned back on like a switch had been pulled and now everything was light again.

I found myself lying on a bed, in an unfamiliar room. The walls were covered in old wallpaper and the ceiling looked damp and moldy. The realization of what had happened took me over in a panic. My head ached like a sledge hammer had smashed it in leaving a gaping hole behind. I lifted my body hearing the dirty old bed creak, the screatching noise echoing through the hole in my brain.

The room was mostly empty other than a couch and broken TV set which was covered in a blanket of dust. I crept over to the door of the room and turned the knob, my hand shaking, unsure what to expect outside.

Already my mind had concluded that I had been drugged and kidnapped by that man with horribly unpleasant intentions and knew I had to escape since I was alone. The question was how.

The door was unlocked and made surprisingly no sound as I exited into the hallway of what I now recognized as a motel. The same wallpaper lined the walls in the hallway and lead me to the front desk which was left unattended and covered in cobwebs. My footsteps sounded like car crashes as they fell and I prayed to God that they were silent to anyone else that might be listening, but they weren’t.

Just as I reached for the door outside a man appeared in front of me, almost out of thin air it seemed. His face was cold and serious, a rough pair of hazel eyes glaring at me as I was about to scream. He was different than the man from before. Worse.

Before I could let out the wail I'd been holding back for who knows how long now, his hand covered my mouth and had me back where I had left off last night. I struggled again and tried to pull his hand away, but he carried me back down the hall. I heard him kick in a door before he threw me to the ground inside another room where my hands caught my fall.

I backed myself against the nearest thing I could find, trying to crawl away, tears sprang from my eyes and I hiccuped out pathetic cries of mercy.

The door shut behind him and he stood in front of it like a bouncer, only ten times more threatening and dangerous. His face never changed, but he crossed his arms letting out a grunt as he watched me stare at him terrified.

“David, stop scaring the poor girl! She has a right to be frightened enough as it is.” My head twisted up to my right, where the guy from before sat on the end of a bed looking at the man, I now knew as David. He then turned to me and gave a half-hearted smile trying to seem friendly. I crawled away my back meeting the wall again and my knees curling closer to me in fear. “Please don’t be afraid. Honest, we aren’t going to harm you.” He cooed making me confused and unsure, still shaking uncontrolably. “I’m sorry I scared you last night, and took you here, but you must believe I had good reason.” I didn’t believe him though, not for one second did I even take in what he had to say. “I do suppose you have a right to be scared, but truly we won’t cause you any trouble. We just need to ask you a few things and then you may leave, back to where you came from,” He smiled again, “I promise.”

After contemplating what he had said, rehearing his words over again in my head all I could do was nod and hope he was telling the truth. His voice did sound sincere, but how could I trust him? I wiped the tears from my cheeks, though they didnt stop slipping down.

“Ok, so what’s your name?” He asked first, sounding like someone who just wanted to simply make conversation. Though the question from this stranger made me feel sick to my stomach. “Your full name.”

“Kaitlin Marie Rother.” I spoke. My voice was crackly and low like a whisper.

“And what are your parents name?” This made me feel even sicker. My eyes grew wide and my face felt cold like I had relived a bad memory.

“I don’t know.” I whispered.

“How do you not know your own parents name!?” David shouted, taking a step forward.

“Because, I was adopted!” I snapped, surprising myself along with both of them. My face had turned hot suddenly and sweat joined the rest of the moisture on my skin.

“And you never knew who your parents were?” The boy asked now, looking almost kind and concerned, making me stare suspiciously at his bright olive eyes, searching for the truth.

“No.” I let my head drop down, no longer able to look at them.

“Damnitt!” David spoke, also examining the ground. “Without the name of her parents, we can’t be sure if we are right. We need to track her real parents and then if our guess is proven wrong, then she may go.“ Quickly he turned and left the room, slamming the door behind him. I stared at it… they are going to track down my parents?

“Kaitlin.” The boy said softly. I turned to look at him pleadingly. “You can’t leave, well not yet.”

 



© 2009 Mariah Mcintyre


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Reviews

Hmmm...I felt this went a little too quickly. There wasn't enough emotion, enough fear of being kidnapped and it lacked detail. Maybe describe how Kaitlin feels when she first wakes up, the struggle that ensues. Also tell about how she feels when she's taken to the room by David and what she thinks in that room. It just seemed too rushed and I'd like to feel a lot more then I did. I want to feel the same amount of emotion that was in the first chapter. Good work! :)
Pepper...

Posted 15 Years Ago



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Added on October 29, 2008
Last Updated on June 18, 2009


Author

Mariah Mcintyre
Mariah Mcintyre

san diego, CA



About
I started writing here at the age of 16 and now years later, at 26, I'm back to rediscover my creative outlet. Thanks for reading and rating :) more..

Writing