I don't know how I'm going to get home. Worse yet, I'm alone. And I have to avoid that man behind me...
Oh, hi! I suppose you want to know who I am. My name is Adelaide. My friends just call me Ads. I'm fourteen years old. I'm book smart. But I'm not very smart in the concept of life.
You probably want to know how I got to that terror. Let me tell you. It all began a few weeks ago...
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I was logging into my computer. I was finally fourteen, and that meant I was allowed to go on chat websites. I could go on Facebook, plus a cool chat site, ChatCity (Not a real chat site.) There was a room just for the school, but anyone anywhere could go on it. I was excited.
I opened to the front page of ChatCity, and clicked Sign Up. I created a username, Ads13, and a password, which I'm not going to tell you.
Anyway, I created my profile. I had barely gone back to the home page when I got a friend request. Some guy, fourteen like me, named James, wanted to be my friend. He was really good-looking, too, which of course got my attention. I was, after all, a fourteen year old girl.
Over the next few days, James and I got to be good friends. He told me things about his family. He told me where he lived. He lived really close to me.
He started asking those kind of questions about me. Just as I was about to press send, I remembered something my mom told me.
There are people out there that want to hurt you. They would love to lure you out of the safety of your home to kidnap you, hurt you, or anything else they might want. Never tell anyone where you live. Don't tell them your birthday, your full name, or anything about your family. Keep your personal information safe. If you don't know them in real life, you don't know them online.
No, I thought. James is a real guy. I know everything about him. He's nice, and I would love to meet him in real life. He's my friend. He would never hurt me.
And so, I pressed send.
He asked if I wanted to meet in real life. I told him of course. He told me to meet him in the alley next to the department store. He gave me specific instructions.
A few days, I followed them. I went to the alley, and stayed there. Eventually, a grown man showed up.
"Hello, Adelaide." he said.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"Well, you know me as James." the man said. "But others know me as Charles."
I turned around and ran. And that's how I got into the situation I'm in now.
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I don't know how I'm going to get home. Worse yet, I'm alone. And I have to avoid that man behind me...
James, or Charles, I guess, is following me. I'm running towards my house as fast as I can. The problem is, he would have to be stupid to come alone. There must be others here. I'm still running as fast as I can, but I'm running out of breath. There's a stitch in my side. I'm slowing down.
I can see my house. I'm almost there. Maybe he won't catch me. And then, I just have to keep everything shut and locked until Mom and Dad get home. You see, they're out of town. They should be back tonight.
Charles steps out from behind a tree. I skid to a stop and turn around, but they're all around me. There's nowhere for me to go.
"Didn't your mother ever tell you not to give out where you live?" he asks.
"Y-yes." I stammer.
"Then you must simply be stupid." Charles muses. "Well, this is fun. I'm going to give you thirty seconds. Run. Get in the house. Lock the doors. Close the windows. Do whatever. But there are people around the house. That's the only place you can go. Time starts now. Walk fast."
I run down the street to my house. I know this is what he wants, but I can't help it. Some hope is better than none at all, right?
As soon as I'm in the house I make sure every door and window is locked. Then I hurry into my bedroom and barricade the door and window shut with my furniture. And I have a lot of heavy furniture, so I should be good.
I've just barely dived under the bed when I hear someone banging on both the front and back door, and every window in the house. As I cower and tremble with fear, I hear a window downstairs smash. Someone's in the house.
"Adelaide?" I hear Charles's rough, scratchy voice call my name. "I know where you are. A dresser won't keep me out."
I stay silent, closing my eyes and praying that he'll just go away. No such luck.
The door to my bedroom opens as easily as if there was nothing there at all, and I see some thick, heavy, black rainboots walking closer to my bed.
Charles grabs me by my hair and drags me out from under my bed. Lifting me off the ground, quite literally, by my hair, he holds me close to his face. I feel several hairs part ways with my scalp.
"You should have just come." he mutters. "Then I would've taken you alive. Maybe even returned you, eventually. But I'm flexible. I can take you dead."
The last thing I ever feel is a sharp pain in my stomach. The last thing I see is the glint of a sharp blade, and Charles's dirty, ugly face. And the last thing I ever hear is Charles's cruel laugh, and my own scream, before the world goes black, and I never see, feel, or hear again.
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