• The Kidnapping.



    Erika was walking down the sidewalk on the streets of New York. It was late and there were buildings all around, towering over her. Sky scrapers everywhere as far as the eye could see. She was running, running from home, not for good of coarse, she just needed time to think. She and her mother had just been in an arguement which wasn't uncommon, but still... Anyway, things were said and both parties had done some things they weren't proud of and then, she ran, she grabbed her coat and ran out the door as fast as she could. Erika was to flusterd and angry that she didn't realize where she was, Harlem, the very worst part of New York. She walked until she was right at the heart of Harlem and by the time she realized where she was, she didn't know where to go anymore. She stood, scared and alone, she wished she hadn't left home, she wished she was back with her mother in her warm house, safe and sound in her own room, but, she wasn't.
    She stood, right in the middle of an alley, not knowing what to do when, 'tap... tap... tap..' she herd foot steps, she froze not moving a muscle and then again 'tap...tap...tap...' went the foot steps again, they were closer now. Erika began to shiver in fear, she turned around slowly 'tap tap tap' they were faster now and even closer then before. She started to back up, but, something stopped her it scared her and she tried to scream but, she couldn't there was something covering her mouth! A hand! it was a hand! She tried to scream again but nothing was coming, not so much as a sqeek. Before she knew it, she was out of breath and feeling dizzy, she fainted from lack of oxygen. The man who's hand was covering her mouth put her in the back of a white van and drove off into the night.
    When she woke up she found herself in the back of a van, all tied up with tape covering her mouth. The doors to the back of the van opened and a bald man with a dark brown beard pulled her out and slung her over his shoulder, she pretended as though she was still unconcious. He carried her into what looked like an old cheescake factory, though, it was quite obvious to anyone who had a nose that it was surely and definatly no longer a cheesecake factory, anymore. It smelled like rotting garbage and there were traces of rat waste wherever you looked, it sickened Erika, her stomach churned and it would have felt as if all of her insides would be quite visible in a few seconds. Once they were inside the man threw her down on a dirty matress with some of it's springs sticking out of the cushoning, then he walked off towards some men across the room holding guns. Her eyes were still closed but she could hear them, clearly.
    "Hey Greg, got any new ones today?"
    "Yep! right over there." he pointed
    "Woah man, you caught yourself a good one, she's cute!"
    "Yeah. I figure she'll fetch a pretty good price."
    Erika kept her eyes closed until she was sure that he was gone and then she sat up and looked around. There were matresses all around, much like the one she was thrown onto, and each matress had a girl much like herself on it they were everywhere, the oldest of them could only have been a few years older then herself. Suddenly, she realized, she'd been taken to a slave trading camp. The girl sitting next to her turned around as Erika sat up. She held a hand out to her with a smile
    "Hello, the name's Victoria. Nice ta meet'cha"
    "U-Um....Hello....my name's...Erika"
    "Erika? Okay! Got it!"
    "Hey um...Victoria-"
    "You can call me Vicky."
    "Okay...Vicky, tell me, these men, this place, can you tell me what you know about it?"
    "Well, I've only been here for a little while, but you see those two over there by the door? The one on the left is Bobby, he's not real bright but he's real strong so you gotta watch out for him, and the one on the right is James, he's the one with the brains usually he's on the computer in the back room but sometimes he comes out. And that guy over there by the bathroom, that's Marcus, he's usually pretty nice to us sometimes he sneeks us food, I mean the good kind not the mush they give us. And the guy that just brought you in that's Greg he's the leader's right hand man and he does all the dirty work."
    "Well, who's the leader?"
    "No one knows...we've never seen him before..."
    "Really? Surely someone's seen his face?"
    "Well, maybe, but all I know is that when they say you're gonna go see the leader after you walk up those stairs you never return."
    "I see...."
    She stared at the ground for awhile in deep thought then she realized someone was watching her, she looked up, a boy a few years older then her stood by a wall several meters away. He wore black skinny jeans and black belted boots, he wore a black shirt with a teddy bear with it's head cut off on it and over that he wore a black jacket with belts all over it, he had black eyes and jet black hair in a sort of 'emo' style, it was spiked in the back.
    She turned to Victoria
    "What about him? Who's he?"
    "Him? He's the leader's son, his name is Cane. He's not around much but when he is he doesn't talk at all, ever. He really is a strange guy."
    "Oh, I see...." So he's the leader's son...