Over Again

        Prologue

          It’s the same dream ever night. We are playing in the same living room with the same game of cards.  The aroma of cinnamon, my mum’s favorite, fills the room like it does every fall.  It is just him and me, yet I don’t remember his name, I just remember his green eye and chocolate curly hair. Our parents are at a party down the street, they told us they wouldn’t be too late.  We are all alone, or that’s what we thought. The door’s handle starts to shake. “Mel run” he whispers in my ear.

            He takes my hand as we run upstairs and hide under my bed. We hear guys running downs stairs, where we once were. The sound of glasses break fills up the house. They start to run up the steps. “Where are you” the scream. The boy’s arm wraps around me as assurance we will be okay, but he was wrong. Grabbed from under the bed there was two men were wearing ski mask so we couldn’t see their faces. We tried night to break apart, but I was ripped from his arms and they knock him out. I scream “HELP ME H….”

             I wake up sweating on the cold basement floor; I look up at the clock which reads 2:56 am. Every night I have the same dream less details each night and wake up at the same time. I won’t be able to fall back asleep so I stare at the ceiling until they come down to get me. I know I have been here long, I am fully developed, I have boobs and every month a get Mother Nature’s special gift, I just don’t know how long. Is anyone out there still looking for me, does anyone even remember me? Most times when people get kidnapped you hear about the horrible things that are done to the kids, but for me I can’t complain that much. Sure I am locked in a basement with chains on my ankles, I have to clean every single day, and I get beat up a little bit but I have never been sexually touched except once.

It was around the time I first got here, I was scared out of my mind and thought they were going to kill me.  It was 2:56 am as I woke up from my normal dream. I never used to have ankle bracelets keeping me from moving around the basement. There was a small window leading to the backyard, which was fenced in. That day when I was picking weeds I noticed a small hole through the tall wooden fence to the neighbor’s yard and decided today would be the day I would get out. I pushed the window open and was able to escape with no problem. As I made my way to the hole, I planned out that I would knock on the neighbor’s door and finally be home. What I wasn’t excepting was the neighbors huge Rottweiler that sleeps in the back yard. I wasn’t breathing as I tried to fit through the hole when the wood cracked and that was it. The dog came running to me barking waking the man up. He ran out as I tried to still get away and pulled me back through the hole. The feeling of my stomach and arms dripping still gives me chills. He brought be back down stair to the basement and locked my wrist and ankles which spread my legs apart. Pretty soon my clothes were ripped of me and the rest of that night was a blur, but I know it happened from the blood that stained my pants the morning I woke up. When he came down that morning he didn’t seem angry, I thought it would change how I was treated. He told me, and to this day I still remember that very morning “Try that again and there will be more where that came from.”  From this day on I have just obeyed him and nothing I can’t handle has happened.

It is about 7am and I am getting ready for the Man to come downstairs and unlock me out so I can start my work for the day. I wait looking at the stair for him to come down he is never late.  It is not 730am and still nothing as I wait patiently.  I hear more than one person up stairs and loud voices talking. He never has company over, what is going on. I stay quiet and listen carefully

“Sir, we would like to take a look downstairs we have a search warrant” a man with a really deep voice said to the Man.

“There is nothing down stairs so I wouldn’t bother looking” the Man explained as he talked I got the chills.

Is that a police officer asking to look downstairs and I took a second to think, “HELP ITS MELANIE TEASDALE I AM DOWNSTAIRS HELP ME!”

I keep screaming and yelling when I hear someone come running down the stair yelling for back up. It was the police officer with the deep voice, he came running to me and I was in shock. All I can do is stare at him while he is talking to me asking question, but nothing can come out. I look at my ankles and he immediately removes the chains wrapped around me. I stand up and just jump into the officers arms realizing this is the first human being I have seen in years. I feel warm tears strolling down my eyes on to his uniform. He holds me tight telling me everything is going to be alright and I am safe now. I pull out of the hug to notice several officers in the basement taking notice of what was my home for these past years.

“Officer,” everyone stopped and looked at me “What year is it” I softly asks

“Melanie sweetie it is 2013, it’s been 10 years since you have been missing” and I blacked out.