Adopted

▲ 14

Immediately after this happened Mark called the police and my family gathered in the living room after we locked all of the windows and doors and pulled down all the shades.

We had no idea what to do so we just sat in the living room with the tv on, scared and unsure.

The police arrived 20 minutes later and Mark and I explained what happened. An officer named Keeler spoke to us about what to do. She had dark hair and gray eyes,  along with an atmosphere that made her seem mysterious or suspicious. She probably just seemed that way because I was on edge from what happened,  and I felt like anyone could have been a suspect. There was one defining feature about her that I randomly noticed. In the middle of her arm, well about an inch or two from her wrist, she had a strange birthmark in the shape of what looked like the letter W.

Her and her partner did a perimeter check before they told us there wasn't much they could do for us. Their investigation team was working on tracing the account back at the police station, and they would have an officer come by to check around the house every hour. Otherwise we were to stay inside with the doors and windows locked at all times, and if we were going to leave, we weren't supposed to go anywhere alone.

An hour or so later I was lying upstairs on my bed, as weariness began to make my eyes heavy with sleep, I slowly began to zone out. Mark and Jackson were lying on a blow up mattress in one corner of my room, while Joey slept on the ground next to my bed. If they weren't in my room, I'd never have been able to sleep, but somehow their presence was just comforting enough to give me peace of mind enough to fall asleep.

The next thing I knew I was in a dark room, with nothing but a cold metal bench, and a chain connected to my ankle, linking me to the bench which was bolted to the ground. The ground was dirt, the soot grinded under my finger and toenails and caked on my feet and hands. The room smelt damp, and stale like I had been there forever.

I began to try and pull myself free by yanking on the chain, but of course it didn't work. Suddenly,  I froze as I heard a shuffling sound followed by the grinding sound of metal against metal. A bright light then flooded the room as a door in the corner flew open and someone walked in.

Screams. That's all I could hear as someone grabbed my shoulders.

Then I woke up, still screaming.

"Mason! Mason! Its okay! It was just a dream!" Mark said as he shook my shoulders to wake me up.

"So-sorry. I...I had a nightmare..."

"Its okay," Mark said as he hugged me. "Its over now."

All of a sudden my bedroom door swung open and light flooded the room.

"AHHHHHH!!!" I screamed as I threw my blanket over my head.

"Mason, its just mom and dad."

"Oh."

I shimmied out from under the blanket.

"Sorry for frightening you, but we have a suprise for you." My dad said.

Then my mom appeared from around the corner holding a small gray and white puppy in her arms.

"We thought he might give you a bit of peace of kind."

"Thank you so much!!" I screamed as mom placed him in my arms.

I whispered to myself "I shall call you Frederick."

"Well we'll leave you alone for the night, sleep tight." My mom said as her and dad walked out and closed the door.

As I pet Frederick and rocked him in my arms, mark sat on the bed next to me.

"Mason, I have a question for you."

I looked at him warily.

"Okay..."

"Before when you were having your nightmare you kept screaming 'no! Don't take me! But who was trying to take you?"

Breathing in slowly, I mentally prepared before telling him, knowing he would laugh or think it was just a coincidence or something.

"It was my kidnapper...it was officer Keeler."