I watched as the second hand move quickly around the clock. However it isn’t fast enough for me. Why is history class is the longest class of the day? I can barely stay awake, watching the time pass is killing me. I groan to myself, plopping my arms across my desk.
Finally after what seems to be forever, I’m finally released from my class. I raise my arms up in joy. It’s the weekend. I can’t wait to get out of here.
I swiftly exit the university, making my way home. I’m always so excited for my walks home alone. It gives me time to think. I look up at the sky and notice that there aren’t any clouds in my line of sight, so I decided to take the scenic route home. Taking a deep breathe in, I flashed a thank you smile at the sky. This is going to be one great walk home, I thought to myself.
I quietly hum to myself as I tread across the cobblestone road, listening to the soft sounds of my footsteps. I can tell I’m smiling like a fool to myself, but I don’t really care. I look around at my surroundings if there is anyone around me, noticing my idiocy.
I’m around Viewmount Park. But there is something strange going on. The park is usually very populated with people however for some reason it’s practically empty. It’s a bit too quiet, even for me. The sounds of the birds chirping, the laughter of people, and the screams of the children playing their little games are gone. All that is left in the park is the faint whistling noise the wind makes as it passes through the trees. I swear a one point I even saw a tumbleweed pass through. I shrugged and proceeded down the pathway. It’s just my imagination, I re-ensured myself.
There’s an empty feeling at the bottom of my stomach. Something is wrong. But I shake my head and ignore it. It’s probably just my stomach telling me I’m hungry. I continue on my path home, ignoring the sinking feeling that I get with each step.
To my relief I see a figure in the distance sitting on the park bench. Well at least there are some people hiding around this park. I just can’t see them. Or so I thought. As I approach the bench, I can hear a strange noise. At first I thought it was really heavy breathing. But as I got closer, the noise got louder and clearer. The noise sounded like sniffles. I quicken my pace towards the bench, the sun made it hard to see who was sitting on it, but I figured that I could figure it out when I got there.
To my surprise, it was a small child crying on the bench. “Hey, little guy. Are you lost?” I asked tilting my head to get a better look at him. The child nodded slowly, tears still falling from his eyes. “Where are your parents?”
He shrugged. He had stopped crying, but he still was sniffling pretty hard. Every now and then he would take a deep breathe in and resume to sniff.
“How long have you been here?”
The child shook his head. “I…don’t… know…” He sniffing, he wiped his nose against his sleeve.
“Hmm, well this is a problem.” I sat down on the bench beside him. My body suddenly felt heavy, like a boulder. The sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach was getting heavier. My chest felt constricted, it was making it hard for me to breathe normally. I couldn’t understand why. There’s something strange about this, as hard as it was I chose to ignore this. It’s just a little kid. What could go wrong? I reasoned with myself.
I looked at the child. He didn’t seem to be hurt anywhere. He was well clothed and looked healthy. “Are you hungry?” The child shook his head. I sighed and stared at the floor. I left my cellphone at home this morning. I scowled in annoyed of my lack of responsibility and bit the inside of my mouth out of frustration.
“What’s your name child?” I looked at the child once more.
“It’s Tommy.” He replied. Tommy reached in to his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. He had finally stopped crying, and with steady hands he handed me the paper. “Mommy told me if I was ever lost, I should give this paper to whoever found me.”
I took the paper and unfolded it. It contained an address. “Is this where you live Tommy?” I asked him. My throat suddenly became dry. The dryness of my throat made swallowing my spit hurt.
Tommy nodded. “Can you take me back home?” I thought about Tommy’s request for a few moments. Sighing, I accepted his request. A huge wave of anxiety hit me. I shook it off quickly and started to walk to the address with Tommy. I didn’t try to hold his hand while taking him back home. I just trusted that he would keep up with me.
Upon reaching the intersection of Cherrylane Road and Apple Grove, I got a long cold chill, sliding down my spine. The sky was getting dark. Clouds filled the sky, blocking out the sunlight. Tommy had slowed down behind me a few minutes ago, but he always kept within my arm’s reach. He was a very loud walker so it was easy to know he was close behind. I stopped at the intersection to wait for Tommy to catch up. I wanted to get him home before it started to rain. After a few seconds I noticed that Tommy wasn’t beside me, so I looked behind me to see if Tommy was just tying his shoe or something.
Emptiness punched me in my gut as I realized Tommy wasn’t behind me. “Tommy?” I called, thinking he was just behind a bush. I waited for a few seconds. I got no reply. “Tommy?! “My voice became hoarse as I shouted for him.
My dry throat didn’t help at all. Son of a, where did that kid run off to? I quickly backtracked the way we had gone, looking around for any people to question. My pulse quicken.
“Tommy?!” I shouted once more.
Off in the distance near a tree, I spotted a familiar red sneaker. I ran towards it. I could hear my heartbeat pound from the adrenaline. Panting, I stopped by the tree with the little sneaker and looked around. Picking up the red sneaker, I noticed that it was still warm; Tommy had to be nearby. My heart dropped; he was nowhere to be seen. I stared up at the tree, thinking he climbed up it. Nope, no dice.
A nearby bush rustled. I snapped my head towards that direction. “Tommy?”
Out of nowhere a strong arm wrapped around my head and a white fabric was quickly placed over my mouth. Startled by the hostile hold placed upon me, I had dropped the red shoe. I tried to scream as loud as I could, hoping that someone would hear. However the cloth made it hard for my screams to be heard. Not that there was anyone around me at the time.
I tried to kick and punch the strange person behind me. My flaring body parts met air. I became more frantic. I used my hands to claw the hand away from my mouth. I kicked behind me hoping to injure the kidnapper. It was a useless attempt.
I screamed again, only to have them muffled by the fabric. I continued to claw at the hand. The person behind me had to be a man. Or a freakish tall, strong flat chested women. Whoever it was, they really wanted to kidnap me.
“Did we get her?” A man appeared from the bushes. He was in a grey three piece suit.
“Not yet.” Replied the man behind me. “She’s a fiery one.” He laughed.
I tried to bite him, thinking that my teeth could break the fabric barrier. I continued my muffled screams. My vision was getting blurry and everything around me seemed to slow down. My kicks were getting weaker, and weaker. I could barely keep my arms up anymore. Everything turned to darkness.
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