Moving
“Liam! Pack up, we’re leaving in a few minutes!” My mother yelled from downstairs. I was in the middle of a video game, so I responded, “No, I’m in the middle of a game, let me finish,” I grumbled. My sister walked into the room and unplugged the console. “Come on Liam, we need to get going!” She yelled in my face. “Fine…” I said grumpily.
I packed all my essentials and got in the car. Our new house was all the way in Washington DC, far away from our house in San Francisco. The ride was dull, past a few scenic routes, sure, but dull nonetheless.
We stopped at a cheap motel for an overnight stay. “One room, please. Any will do,” Mom said. “That’ll be $15 ma’am. Room 18,” The receptionist said, with a little excitement in her voice.
The second I saw our room, I knew why the receptionist had been excited. The room was tiny and filthy. The motel definitely got little business. I suggested we go to another motel, but dad said that we’d already paid, and there was nothing we could do about it. To pass my time, I went to the bed and attempted to sleep. The only problem was that the bed was as hard as a rock. “Mom!” I exclaimed. “I can’t sleep on this!” She touched the bed and gave me a questioning look. Then I motioned for her to sit on it, but the second she did, she screamed. My guess was that a stiff bed wasn’t all that scary, so I asked her what was wrong. “There’s a cockroach on the bed!” She said. I sighed and took it in a napkin, and threw it out the window. Finally, she calmed down, and we all tried to go to sleep. Mom, dad, and my sister slept on the bed, while I slept on the floor, which to me felt better than that bed. I heard my parents saying, “Kathy, stop kicking us!” All night long, so I mostly laid wide awake all night, staring at the ceiling.
The New House
When morning finally came, we quickly got out of the motel and got back into the car. This time it was a little more interesting. We went by a few mountains, got to drive on one, and just and we got to see the beach, which I so wished we could go to. But we finally parked our car in a driveway. This was the first time I’d seen my new house, so when I saw it, my jaw dropped. It was significantly bigger than our old one. We also had a few neighbors, which was nice because our old area in San Francisco was in the middle of a forest, so I had no friends. The house was blue and gray vinyl, with lots of windows, and one more thing that I couldn’t see. I moved towards the silhouette of it, and my face went white with excitement. It was a deck! I ran in through the front door, and when I saw the inside, all my doubts about this place vanished. The inside was more… everything than the outside. It had a huge living room that was basically the entrance, a kitchen if you walked through a doorway, which had glass sliding doors that led to the deck. I opened the doors and ran out onto the wooden expanse. Our outdoor furniture that we had on our old porch was moved here, and the deck had an amazing view of the backyard.
That night, I slept in my new room with excitement and thoughts to ponder. “What will my new friends be like, assuming I don’t screw it up?” I said aloud, unaware of my sister standing at the door. “You probably will, Liam,” She retorted. “Leave me alone,” I said, annoyed. “Have it your way,” She said, and left as quick as she’d come.
That night I slept peacefully. It had been a long day, so when I woke up the next morning, I saw my alarm clock had been ringing for two hours while I was asleep. “What the…” I said groggily. I shut it off and went downstairs for breakfast. The dining room was amazing, with velvet curtains, a high ceiling, and a glass door to our backyard. Man, our house is rocking the glass door style, I thought, with a little smirk on my face. I was too fazed by the house that I didn’t even notice that my family wasn’t at the table. I assumed they were just shopping, so I made my breakfast and ate.
The rest of the morning passed by with me exploring the house and checking out the backyard. My parents and sister came home at about 3 in the afternoon. “Finally!” I exclaimed. “We were shopping,” She said. “Why the smug look?” I inquired. Dad walked out of the room. “Well… We got a little something for the whole family to enjoy,” She smiled. “Okay..? What- where is it?” I asked, puzzled. Just that moment Dad came back into the room, and I saw something walking behind him. “What is- A PUPPY!” I exclaimed, overjoyed. I’d wanted a puppy since I was a kid, and finally I had one! “Golden Retriever, two months old,” My sister stated. That day went by in a flash, the puppy, the new house, everything was so amazing.
The next morning was my first day of 6th grade, and I was excited, somehow. When the day came, a bus drove us to the building. I had two words after dismissal: inhumanely boring. The day was a blur of math, science, history, subjects like that. Normally schools would have no homework on the first day, but I had a stockpile. I came home to the noise of my dog, who I’d named Bailey, barking. I said hi to my family, p “Mom, can I go outside?” I asked. “After you finish your homework, sweetie,” She chided. Ugh, why can’t I just go outside? I thought. I finished my homework in three hours, and this was only the first day. I couldn’t bare to imagine how much homework lay ahead of me.
For the first time in a while, I tried to make friends. There were two other houses exactly like mine in the neighborhood. I knew for a fact that children lived there because I’d seen them playing outside at the playground not so far from here. I walked over to the first house and rang the doorbell. Ding-dong. A few seconds later, a boy about my height opened the door. “Hi, my name is-” I was cut off by the kid. “Who are you?” He demanded. “I was saying that my name is Liam, I’m the kid who just moved in next door. I’m kinda socially awkward, so let me get to the point. Wanna be friends?” I asked, with an awkward smile on my face. “Um… Okay?” He looked confused. “What’s your name?” I questioned. “It’s Benjamin, but my friends call me Ben,” He said, smiling. It turns out we got along pretty well. All of a sudden, he asked, “Do you want to see if Ava can come out?” “Sure!” I responded. He introduced me to Ava and introduced Ava to me. We had a good time outside.
Taken
The days went on like this, boring school days, fun weekends. A few weeks after I made friends with Ben and Ava, something strange happened while we were outside. It started off pretty normally, Ava, Ben, and I were playing some games at the playground. “Tag! You’re it!” Ava tapped me on the shoulder. Ben ran to the opposite side of the field, and I ran after him. “Get over here!” I yelled. I ran as fast as I could, so I didn’t see the root ahead of me. The next thing I knew, I was on the ground, body aching everywhere. I saw a gold ring in front of me. I touched it to my finger. It was cold and moist, and for some reason, I was intrigued by it. I put the ring to my nose and inhaled. Then, I started feeling dizzy, the world around me spun. I saw my friends running towards me, in panic. Then, the world went dark.
I woke up in a room with no windows. Just solid, concrete walls and a still mattress. There was a note posted on the mattress. It read, Enjoy this sip of water, it’ll be your last. There was an arrow pointing up. I looked in the direction and saw a sip of water in a plastic bottle. It was clearly contaminated, so I just opened it and spilled the water on the floor. This was obviously not going to be my last sip of water… Right? I was enraged. Who did this to me? How? Where am I? Those were all questions I had in my mind. The rest of the day was filled with nothingness. All I did was lay in bed. I had no idea where my friends were, and I was worried about them.
A few days passed. I was ready to accept I wouldn’t survive, I’d never see daylight again. But in the corner of my eye, I saw a faint rectangular outline. It was the door! I thought excitedly. I now had hope, now I just need to find a way out before I starved to death or died of dehydration. I spent the rest of the day listening to the other side of the door, hoping to hear a sign of human life. After what seemed like hours, I finally heard footsteps, coming towards my room. Then they stopped. I moved back and pretended to be asleep, but the person moved a little to the left, and I heard the creaking of an opening door. I pressed my ear to the door again. Thud! Something hit the ground, something heavy. I heard another pair of footsteps go to the right, and do the same thing. Realization dawned on me. They were coming for me too! As if to confirm, someone stopped right in front of my door. I lay down on the mattress, eyes closed.
Resisting
I felt someone touch my shoulder. It was a tall, angry-looking man. “Follow me,” He said in a gruff voice, beckoning to the knife on his waist. I did not want to mess with him, so I obliged. When I walked out of the room, I looked to my right. I saw a battered Ben. He had bruises all over, and his eyes looked sunken as if he hadn’t slept for days. I winced just looking at him. To my left, I saw a rather unhurt, and perfectly healthy-looking Ava. She looked back at me, a serious look on her face. “Liam! He-” I heard Ben’s voice say, desperate. The man who was leading him punched him, and he instantly passed out.
“Where are you taking us?” I demanded. “To the boss,” They said boss so ominously, an adult would have wet their pants. I looked at Ava, she looked back, and slightly nodded. We silently made a plan. “So, what do you guys do for a living?” She asked our captors. “We take kids from their homes,” Her captor said, looking pleased with himself. “So,” Ava nodded her head toward the man in front of me. “What’s your name?” The man in front of me said, “My name is Han-” I cut him off with a side-kick to the back. He gagged, and I took that moment of weakness to knee him in the crotch. While I was doing that, Ava threw her captor on the floor. “Not so tough now, are you?” She teased. When the man pulling Ben saw what had happened to his partners in crime, he took his knife out of his sheath and bellowed, “YOU’LL REGRET THAT!” He charged straight for me.
I was frozen. I knew this would be my last moments. Or so I thought. Ava jumped in at the last moment and ran into the man. He slammed into the wall and went out cold. His knife flew out of his hand and nearly impaled his gut. “Heh,” Ava smirked. “Fun,” I stared at her in amazement. “What? I’ve been doing Karate since I was two. Now find me something sharp,” She said. “You’re not going to… you know…” I said. “No, of course not! I’m not that cold-hearted,” With the reassurement, I took the knife from the ground and handed it to Ava. She started cutting open all of the mens belts. “I know it’s somewhere,” She muttered. After a few minutes, I gathered the courage to ask Ava what she was doing. “I overheard the person taking Ben talking to the man who took me. They said there was some kind of key-card needed to get out of this place,” She said. Eventually, she gave up. “There’s nothing here,” An idea came to my head. “What if they were leading us straight to it!” I exclaimed. She gave me a questioning look. I further explained, “If anyone has the key, it’s the crime boss. We can pretend we’re still being held captive, get into his office unnoticed, and take it. We’ve got to go straight into the lion’s den,”
First, Ava tried to wake Ben up. “Ben. Ben!” She yelled, sounding as calm as someone can be who has every chance to die in the next few minutes. Still, pretty calm. She felt Ben’s forehead, and her nose scrunched. “He probably has a concussion,” She stated. “Wow, Ava. You can knock people out with ease, stay calm under stress, and have medical experience. I’m just the boring sidekick,” I muttered. “I heard that!” She told me while going in the general direction the criminals were taking us. We did our best to act battered and broken while dragging a seemingly lifeless corpse with us. We walked towards the most heavily guarded area we could see, which was probably the boss’ quarters. Ava did the talking. Again, what was I? “Sir, we were told to come here by three guards. They said the boss needs us alone, no guards,” The story seemed so real, man was she an expert at lying. The men walked away without a second thought. “The problem with criminals,” she whispered to me, “is that they have no intelligence whatsoever,”
While I was gathering the courage to open the door, Ava did it with no second thoughts. Who’s the one with no intelligence now? I thought to myself. “Ah. I’ve been expecting you. Your names are?” He asked, putting on a polite act. “Ava,” Ava said. “The person next to me is Liam, and the person he’s dragging is Ben,” Then she added, “Give us the key-card,” I read the nametag on the crime boss’s shirt. Hi, I’m… Abigor! So, that was his name. “Abigor, we’ll make you,” I said as threateningly as I could. “That’s just cute,” He retorted. “GUARDS!” He screamed. To no surprise, nobody came. “What have you done to my guards!” He roared and charged straight at Ava. She just sidestepped, and Abigor rammed straight into the wall. “So much for a crime boss,” She remarked and stepped on the body. I checked his pocket. Conveniently enough, a plastic card with an ID number and a picture of Abigor was in there. “Now it’s time to get out of this place,” I said in as cool of a voice as I could muster. “That was pathetic,” She smirked.
I heard a groaning sound on the ground. Ava instinctively stomped on Abigor to put him back down, but it wasn’t him. I looked behind me and saw Benjamin was conscious. “Ben-” Ava cut me off, and said, “We have no time to explain, just follow us,” Ben immediately got up, and acted as if he hadn’t been out cold this whole time. He followed me and Ava. We found a map posted inside Abigor’s quarters, one that showed us exactly where the exit was. We got out of the room and headed straight for it. While we were walking through the barren hallway, a guard spotted us. “Hey!” He yelled. Very conveniently for the criminals, there was a big red button that said, Emergency Alarm! He broke the glass and slammed it. Shoot! My mind screamed at me. Despite all of this, Ava looked incredibly calm. We made a run for it. All the guards and criminals knew where we were. We were so close yet so far from the outside world. Then they couldn’t do anything, otherwise, they’d be arrested. There were knives flying past our heads, guards trying to catch us. We were too fast for their old bodies. “Losers!” I heard Ben taunt. We were almost there, and from what I could see, we were in a city. We would be safe. Then, a man stepped in front of the exit, but I was too slow to stop myself. My head ran straight into the handle of his knife.
Back Home
The next events were all a blur. I vaguely remember us escaping, Ava doing most of the work. The next thing I knew, I was in a police helicopter. “Ughh…” I groaned. “Liam!” Ava was teary-eyed. She hugged me, as did Ben. “T-the knife. You headbutted it right out of the man’s hand, and it cut your head,” She said, showing me her reddened hands. “We’re going back home,” Ben said, a smile on his face. The police landed the helicopter on the DCP Helipad, and the police drove us back home. When our parents saw us, everyone cried. Our parents went on and on about how much they worried about us, we went on about how much we missed them. Not too long after we all had settled back in, the press came to all three of our houses. We told them about our experience and the dangers of these people. Also what we gained from it. We gained unbreakable friendships.
