My heart is racing. I can hear the blood pounding in my ears. My whole body hurts, but the only thing I can think of is the man that is running behind me with a gun pointing at my head.

Before all of this happened I was heading off to work, a small ice cream shop near my house. It’s not that I hate my job, it’s just so boring. I am just working there so I can save up some money before I go to college. I walk into the shop and as usual there is a screaming little kid. Don’t get me wrong, I love little children, but when you are around them for more than two hours four times a week and all they do is whine then they get annoying. The ice cream shop is quite cute though. It is one of those places that makes you feel like you went back in time to the 50’s. It has the red sparkly chairs and an ice cream bar with the little bar stools. You know the typical 50’s little diner.

I have lived in the same small Texas town for years, and everybody knows me. I don’t mind that, but sometimes it would be nice to just have some privacy. Anyway, I am not your typical small town girl who talks to everyone and is always happy. I am more of a quiet person. It’s not that I don’t like people, it’s just I enjoy my own company. Everyone around here kind of gets that and leaves me alone. I love my family though. I have a sister and she is eight. Even though little sisters are supposed to be annoying, Emma is not. She is like my best friend, and I would never let anything happen to her. I always bring her home a scoop of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream from work. We just have that good of a relationship.

I know something that most girls my age should not have the responsibility to know. Knowing this information has made my whole life different. I know who has kidnapped my best friend. The catch is no one else knows. Not my family, her parents or the police. I can not tell anyone because the killer blackmails me. He sends me a text every week reminding me if I tell anyone then I will be next.

It has been really hard on me. Her parents and the police try to look for her. I don’t even want to say his name, but I will. His name is Allen Rogers. He works at a hardware shop. I have met him once before he kidnapped her. I remembered him because I could feel that something was off. He looked normal, acted normal, but something about him just gave off a weird vibe. He knows a lot about me. He knows that both of my parents have full time jobs and does not get home till six every night. I don’t even know how he found out where I live. I never even told him my name.

A month ago, I was walking to my car and Bella texted. It said “HELP”. I thought maybe she was just joking around or something. I replied “stop” she did not ever text me back. I got a little worried and I knew that she would be at the sandwich shop. That is where she worked, I headed down there and all of a sudden a car comes swerving around the corner. I could not believe my eyes when I saw Bella in the car screaming. The driver looked me straight in the eyes. He then went around to the back of an ally. I called 9-1-1. I told them what happened. They said that they will be on there way. I started panicking. At first I thought that I should go and try and follow the car, but I can’t he saw me. He would know what I looked like. I heard the sirens screaming their way down the streets. One police stopped in front of me and the four others raced down the street in the direction the car went with my best friend in it. The police asked me a few questions, but it was really hard to answer them. All I wanted to do was get in my car and go chase after this horrible man. I knew that I could not though. I can still feel the panic, and fear all going on at once. Is has never really left me.

Two days after the incident I get a text message from Bella. My heart raced so fast I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I opened the message and it says, “If you want to see your friend again you will not tell any information to the police. If you do you will end up where Bella is right now. Don’t think that I don’t know where your house is because I do. Everything that I need to know about you is on Bella’s phone. There is no way to hide from me. If you do as you are told then nothing will happen to you.” My face turned red with fear and anger and I started to cry. The first thing that raced through my mind is, does this mean that Bella is alive? Then I started to panic. He knows what I look like and where I live and basically who I am. The worst thing of all is my life is at risk. The choice is either saving my life or my friends.
The next week I quit my job and all I did was go from school to my house. I never saw anyone, but I knew he was out there. I got a text message reminding me everyday of what my instructions were. On Friday I decided to text him back. I said,”Is Bella dead?” I was so, so nervous for the response. He replied “No, but you know what will happen to both you and her if you tell anyone any other information about me,” This was a relief and a disappointment as well. I was relieved that she was alive, but then I knew that if I did not tell anyone about the messages or any other information about him that would help the police track her down we would both be gone.

Three weeks went by and he now texted me more than twice a day. I kept asking him the same question and he kept giving me the same answer. On Saturday afternoon I was tired of this cycle. I was tired of everyone thinking of me as the girl who does not talk, who sits in the corner and keeps to herself. I knew that this decision could change my life forever. I demanded myself to save Bella. I raked my brain and tried to think of a way that I could save Bella without having to go to the police. A light bulb went off in my brain and I had a brilliant plan. Bella has a tracking device on her phone. I am the only one with the password because we had this school project that involved this app. I typed in the password and sure enough a little red light started to blink. Allen was only a few blocks away. I know where he is now; I need to figure out the plan.

My dad owned a handgun. I have to do it. I have to do it for Bella.I am going to track him down. If I am going to make this work then it will have to be a really thought out plan. I stayed up for hours watching criminal shows to get an inspiration.Step one of the pan. I am going to track him everywhere he goes. I am going to have to understand his schedule. I can not mess anything up. It will be difficult to track him while he is tracking me. I will have to be very careful. I also do not want to get too close to him. I don’t want to see him until I am ready. After doing this for about a week I am going to have to pick the location. It needs to be around people if I need any help or get into any trouble. My disadvantage is that he knows where I am at all times. I could use that as an advantage though. I could lure him in so that he would be at the location I wanted him to be at. He won’t know that I know where he is. As long as I keep acting scared I think that he won’t suspect anything. I can’t let too much time go by or who knows what is going to happen to Bella.

It is March 23rd and today is the day that I am going to kill my best friends kidnapper. I have chosen the location I am going to make him follow me to the ally in the back of the ice cream shop. Everyday at 4:30 Someone comes and empties the trash. If something goes wrong someone will then be out there to call the police.

As I headed to the back of the shop I suddenly had a bad feeling at the bottom of my stomach. The thought has always been in the back of my mind. What if he kills me before I have a chance to kill him, or what if I freeze up and can not kill him. I always put those thoughts in the back of my mind. I have to do this for Bella. I would always think of Bella, but what if I die. I could not do this to my family, to my friends, to myself. Then I could not live with myself if I knew I could have saved Bella. I can do this. I have to do this.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket. He was close less than a mile away. I got behind the trash can and waited. Why did I have to choose this location? It’s bad enough that I am going to have to kill someone, but it has to smell bad while I do it. I heard the gravel crunching as his car passed slowly by. I thought that maybe he was just going to keep going, but then I heard the car stop. Then I heard the dreadful sound of the car door opening. I knew that it was time, but what is about to happen next surprised me most of all.

“I know you're here, and I know what you are going to do,” he yelled out hysterically.

I did not know what to do should I get up, should I just stay here until he leaves or worse finds me. It was like my feet were stuck to the ground and I had no way of moving them. Suddenly I stood up. To be honest I really suprised myself. I pointed the gun at him.
“Where is Bella? I am going to shoot you if you do not let her go,” I screamed trying not to show the shakiness in my voice.

“You're not going to shoot me. Bella is in the car but I am not letting her go unless I can have you,” he said.

As he said this I had an idea. I would say that he could take me in return of Bella. I would then walk over to him. When I got close enough I would shoot and run as fast as I could to the car.

“Ok you can have me, but you better let Bella go,” I said a little more confidante this time.

As I got closer and closer I could feel the adrenaline rushing. It was now or never. When I got close enough I pulled out the gun and shot. I ran so fast I nearly stumbled over my own feet. When I turned round to my surprise I saw him coming after me with a gun. I missed I can not believe I missed. I looked around to try and find a getaway. I did not have any time. He could shoot at any second. I spotted his car, and the door was still open. I don’t know if the keys are in there but I had no other choice I jumped in a slammed the door shut. The keys were in the car! I have a chance to live. Right when I turned around he shot but missed me by an inch, but now there is no back window. Glass was everywhere. I locked the doors and slammed on the gas. I did not know where I was going but I had to get away from him. I could not go to the police because he still had Bella. I have risked my life this much I am not going back now. When I got far enough away from him I noticed that there was a gps and the last location was on the screen. It was an address of a house pretty far away.

Thirty minutes later I was almost at the destination. I was only a few blocks away when my heart started racing again and my hands started to get sweaty and I felt like I was going to throw up. I did not really think anything through yet. Everything that I just did was actions of panic and adrenaline. What if Bella is not in the house, and what if there is someone else there that could hurt me. How was I going to get in the house? But then I have to ask myself what if Bella is in there hurt and dying, or even worse dead. I have come this far just to give up? I have to go and save her, or at least try. I don’t have much time though because Allen could have gotten a cab by now and is on his way.

I pulled up next to the house. It looked like a decent normal house. They did not have a fence though. I could use that to my advantage. I am going to sneak in the backyard and hopefully the door will be unlocked, but that will be a miracle. I snuck across the yard and into the backyard. There was a sliding glass backdoor. Of course it was locked, but it was glass and I can break that easily with a rock. The only problem I have now is I don’t know if anyone is home. So I then went to look in some of the back windows. All the lights were off in the what I am guessing is the living room. I slowly walked over to the next window. There was one lamp on in the kitchen but I am hoping that someone just forgot to turn it off. The last window was very small. It had a black curtain over it. You could see the light seeping out from underneath it. Either Bella is in there or someone else. I made the decision to go for it. I did a quick search of the backyard and found a good sized rock. With all my might I threw it at the glass door. I found myself letting out a scream. I quickly and carefully ran through the opening. Just to be on the safe side I went into the kitchen and grabbed a knife. I would have felt more comfortable with a gun but I must have dropped it while I was running away. I know that the little window was on the right side of the house. I started looking as fast as I could. Thats when I heard the scream that made you want to crawl into a hole. I knew that it had to be Bella. I just hope that she was not screaming because of someone else. I followed the sound of the scream and thats when I found a door that was locked. I screamed, "Bella are you in there? It's me Callie,"

"I am here but hurry he will be back any second!" she screamed pleadingly

"Ok i am coming. Hold on I have to figure out how to unlock the door," I said.

My mom told me once that if you get a toothpick and wedge it in the lock sometimes it will unlock it. Well I did not have a toothpick and I don't have time to look for one but I do have a bobby pin. I yanked the pin out of my hair and slipped it through the keyhole. After a minute of twisting and turning the door opened. It opened! It's going to be ok. I grabbed Bella by the hand. She looked awful. He hair looks like it has not been brushed in weeks and her eyes are all puffy from crying. We raced down the hall and right when we got to the shattered door Allen jumped out of the bushes.

"You think that you are so smart. That you can outsmart me. Well now look who has the gun. You can either do what I say or I will shoot you," Allen said with a smirk on his face.

I did not say anything. I knew that whatever I would say would just get me into more trouble. I still had the knife in my back pocket. Could I really kill someone? I don't have time to think about this. It is either his life or ours.

"Now you will both turn around and go back down to the room. Don't try and pull any funny business because I will have a gun pointed at you the whole time," he said.

I knew it was now or never. I turned around my self so it would look like I was turning around to follow his instructions. I grabbed the knife and stabbed him in the leg. I knew this would not kill him but it would make him fall. Right as he fell to the ground in pain I grabbed the gun from his hand.

"Now you better do what I say or I will kill you this time," I screamed. I gave Bella my phone without taking my eyes off him and told her to call the police. A few minutes later I heard the screaming of the sirens. Finally a scream that I do want to hear. The police took Allan away and I never saw him again. When my parents drove up I was scared and relieved all at the same time. They ran up and hugged me. They did not let me go for a long time. They were so proud of how brave I was. Bella was rushed to the hospital for dehydration. Other than that she was going to be ok. Bella and I have a friendship that is different than all others. I saved her life and we both will never forget that. I truly believe that we will be friends forever.