I shift around in my bed until a sudden ‘thud’ wakes me up. My sleepy eyes fluttered open to see where in my room the noise came from. With nothing in sight, I sit up but I cannot wander far from my bed. I look out the window, thinking about where my father could be at the moment. Still sleeping? I wouldn’t know. I jolt as my old wooden door flies open fast. A woman charged me and pulled me away from the window and shut the blinds.

“I told you to stay away from the window!” she screamed with a crack in her voice. She raised her hand to hit me when she dropped the newspaper she was carrying. She froze. The front page looked familiar, not as if I read it before. I looked down to see what was on the cover. It read ‘Missing: Girl Abducted From Her Home’.

I looked up at my mother, “Mom. I thought you told dad I was here”. I tried to unchain my shackles with my shaky hands.

That girl on the cover was me.