Taken | Emmi Butler

seven

Emmi

Everyday, I sneak a little time on the TV, trying to figure out just who the little girl is. I've gotten good at guessing when Daddy will be back, so he hasn't yelled at me like he did last week.

I don't know much about the girl, just that she looks a lot like me. The volume has to be on low, so I don't disrupt any other people in the hotel. Besides, of Daddy found out I changed the volume, I don't know what he would do.

Really, I just want to know her name.

Her story.

Where did she come from?

I quickly reach for the remote when I realize that Daddy will be home soon, pausing in my tracks when I see the headline rush across the screen.

"Emmi Butler, missing from Pocatello, Idaho"

Emmi?

That's her name?

Ignoring how familiar it sounds, I shake my head and finally turn the TV off. I shove the remote back in the nightstand, trying to wrap my head around what I just saw.

Emmi.

Emmi Butler.

Why does it sound like I know the name?

She looks just like me, too.

Wait...

Am I Emmi?

It can't be! I'm Julia, I've always been Julia.

Daddy says so.

In a rush, I turn the TV back on, aware that I'm taking a huge risk.

I lean very close to the TV, trying my best to hear what the news people are saying.

"Now nine year old Emmi Laurie Butler has been missing for over a year, abducted on her birthday from the Pocatello Water Park. Her parents, Shay and Colette, have been fighting for more information, but the case hasn't gone anywhere. The police have gathered no entail at all. Please call the Pocatello Police with any further information."

There's a number that goes across the bottom of the screen, and I try my hardest to stuff it in my brain.

Pocatello?

Water park?

Shay and Colette?

All of the words sound familiar, which terrifies me.

Why do I know it so well?

What's wrong with me?

I'm not Emmi.

I can't be.

Right?

I glance to the phone in the corner of the room, then back to the TV. If I used the phone, Daddy would kill me. I shut the TV off for good, making sure everything in the room is calm.

My head?

Its spinning.

Shay

"They just put up another news segment," I tell Colette, while we wait for the kids to wander into the kitchen.

"It's not going to do anything," she tells me, pouring milk into a cereal bowl. "It's been fourteen months, Shay, and they've found absolutely nothing."

"Who knows," Shay sighs. "Maybe fourteen is our lucky number."

Emmi

I try to get my head to stop spinning, but it's no use.

Everything I heard on the TV keeps swirling in my head, and it's making me crazy.

I glance around the room to the phone, again, biting my bottom lip.

It's there. Right there in the corner of the room.

The number's in my head.

I could just do it.

I want to do it.

Something, some random little voice in my head, is telling me to pick up that phone and dial that number.

So I do.

Shaking, I punch in the ten digits in my memory, feeling millions of butterflies swarm my stomach.

Someone picks up on the third ring, "Hello?"

"Hi..." I trail off, not sure what to say. "I...I think I'm Emmi Butler."