I remember walking terrified, through the alley, sirens blaring and red and blue light flashing. Shivering, bleeding, but still trying to run. I wanted to run from the past but mainly the man that caused all the trauma. I usually do not want to talk about this incident, but now I have to, court orders. No one believed me at first. I was kidnapped. I had no hope, I thought this was the end. It felt like everyone gave up, including me. Glad to say that I am talking about this story now, instead of the local news or family who would lie about it.

July 12th, 2015, at 11:27pm I went missing. It was a warm summer day, and I was out with friends the whole day. I had a weird feeling, like something bad was going to happen. I told my closest friend Clara about it, and I asked if I could stay the night. She said no because she was “busy” and had other plans. I dreaded going home; I was scared something was going to happen. 11:15pm I arrived at home and my mom told me to take the trash out. I went to my room and changed into my pajamas. I was wearing a light pink tank top and black sweatpants. 11:24 pm I went to take the trash out. There was a blue SUV sitting at my neighbor’s house. They went on vacation. I walked back into my house and told my mom, and she said it was nothing,  and did not think it was weird, so I went back out. As I was pushing the trash bin to the end of the driveway, I saw someone out of the corner of my eye, but I continued doing what I was doing. 

It all happened so fast. The man came out from around the corner and grabbed me. I was screaming, but no one was around. He threw me in the trunk of this car and sped away. I was laying in the trunk, cold and crying. The man drove for hours. I thought to myself, “why me? What is so special about me that this man wants me?” We finally stop, and he opens the trunk. AlI I saw a huge, torn down, old white building. He drags me in and then shoves me into a dark room. He whispers “are you hungry, because I can go make something.” I whispered back “no.” Then he left me alone for the rest of that night. Throughout that whole night I could not sleep. I woke up the next morning with bruises and cuts all over my body.  He told me he was leaving to go to the grocery store. This was my time to escape. As soon as I heard his car leave, I started looking around to see if I could find anything.

As I was looking around the room,  there were a couple of doors, but they were all locked. While looking I found a vent that led to another room, so I decided to take it. I crawled through the vent, and I saw a bright light. This vent led to the garage room.  There were a couple of cars there, but they were locked and no keys to be found. There was a dog door, but I was worried it was not  big enough. I tried and crawled through the dog door and started running. Since I was in the trunk, I couldn’t remember which directions we took, where we went, how far we went, or where I was. I started running, and then I saw street signs. It felt like the drive took forever, but I was actually only 45 minutes away from my house. While running, I believe I saw the blue SUV that took me. I hid behind an ugly, pointy bush.  I was shaking, worried that he saw me. The car slowed down but never stopped. I was sweating, and out of breath from running so far. I got to my doorstep, and everyone was just looking at me, like I did something wrong. 

“Oh my god, what in the hell is wrong with you?”, “Why would you run away in the middle of the night!” screamed my mother’s boyfriend. I told him I didn’t run away and that I was kidnapped by a man in a blue SUV. He gave me an awkward stare and didn’t believe me.  My mom ran out through the door asking where I was. I told her that I was kidnapped by a man in a blue SUV and I described what he looks like to her. She looked at me in disgust, as if I was lying or describing a relative.  I went inside and started looking up this man on every police website, but no luck. I locked and closed my windows and doors and went to sleep. 

Later on that week I had to go to school. I told my friends what happened, and you can tell they didn’t believe me. They said nobody posted about me or anything. There was a rumor going around that I ran away and that I didn’t want to live here anymore. That’s not what happened, and I wanted to tell the truth and get the truth out there. Now one thing I didn’t want to do was go through the school, but it seemed like my only choice. I talked to the counselor, and she brought a policeman in. I called the police, and they knew exactly who I was talking about. This happened to plenty of other girls. I told them that there was nobody else in that building. It was just me. There were no screams. There were no weird smells. It seemed to be just me there.

A couple days went by, and the police went to the building to check it out. There was nothing there, not a trace of anything. That man didn’t leave anything behind. You could tell this wasn’t his first time, and surely not his last. Later on that week, people started to believe the story more and more. My parents on the other hand still did not believe me as much. They just thought it was an excuse for me to run away, or because they did not want to think their “little girl” was kidnapped.