Vacation

1

The vacation in 2000 changed my life. I was eight years old and my family took me around the world. My friends always said I was spoiled. As an eight-year-old I didn't know what that meant. Until, I had lost it all.

We were in Canada at the time. They showed me the Niagara Falls. The path was crowded. People everywhere looking for someone or something. Then I lost sight of them. My parents were missing.

The last thing I remember my mom saying was something about the bathrooms. I ran to the closest one I could find. I looked everywhere but found neither of them anywhere. One thing was off though. One of the stalls at the end had a bit of the top broken off... How could that have happened? I kept looking almost crying now.

They weren't at the entrance. Not at the food section. Not looking at the falls. I was a lost eight-year-old girl going by the name of Hope at the time. No one noticed me. No one helped me.

Not too long after I had given up I heard a strange noise. It was slightly familiar. Almost like a firework. But instead of two cracks, one sounding the firework going in the air and the second it explodes, there was only one. Fallowed by a bunch of loud screams.

Screaming of women. Yelling of men keeping the families together. The crying children of all ages. The next and only thing I saw... Would be the sea of scared, once happy people, coming straight at me. The first thing I did was find the closest building. In this case it was sadly the bathrooms.

The bathrooms smelt terrible. But I climbed to get away from the others. I climbed on top of the toilet, stepped on the toilet paper dispenser, and onto the broken wall. From there I had to find a hiding place. I could feel something wasn't safe.

I looked carefully scanning every wall. To my left was a high small window with curtains. I reached but it was too far. The loud cracks were getting closer. At a last minute thought, I jumped. I barely had the window. I was too weak to get all the way up though. Luckily the place was so crowded I could step on someone's head to help get up the rest of the way.

I closed the curtains and heard the cracks just on the other side if the glass. At that moment I remembered glass... Is see through. However, this one seemed blurred and I could hardly see out of it. It was so high up no one ever bothered cleaning it apparently. I held my breath as a door burst open. The cracks were right on the other side of the curtain.

I held my breath. Tears went running down my face. The inside of my mouth began to bleed as I bit down on the inside of my cheeks. "I can't get caught here." I thought to myself "not while mommy and daddy are looking for me" so I sat and listened for hours. Listening for that one call of safety. Listening intently for someone to call out the name 'Hope'. But it never came.

After hours of silence I allowed my cries to be heard. I was the only one who heard it though. I didn't know what happened to everyone else. I didn't want to know what happened to everyone else. I peeked out the once deep blue curtain. I threw up.

The once crowded bathroom was empty. Not a soul left. There was a sea of corpses. A sea of red staining blood. Too much for an eight-year-old. Too much for anyone to see. I closed my eyes to hide the scene, but the red was staining even my thoughts.

I knew I would have to get out of there. So I jumped from the window and made a splash. The worst splash. The window was at a crazy height so when I landed it made me crumple to the ground. I ran out as fast as I could. The sun was blinding me. I was in there from early morning to now what seemed to be bright noon.

I laid down and looked up at the sky. The beautiful, non-red sky. It made me slightly happy. Then all went black.

When I opened my eyes there wasn't a blue sky anymore. There was a face. "DA..." It wasn't him. The man who I thought came to my rescue wasn't real. This was someone different. Someone I didn't know. "W...who are you?" I crawled away as best as I could while partly laying down. "STRANGER DANGER!" I yelled as loud as I could. But who was left to hear me? Who was left to save me? Who?

"It's ok. I'm a friend. I will take you to a new family." The man talked in a gentle voice.

"I DON'T WANT A NEW FAMILY! I WANT MY FAMILY. I want my old life" I felt tears come to my eyes.

"I'm afraid that doesn't exist anymore. Now come with me before those bad guys come back. Come with me and you will have a new and better life." He took my hand and helped me up before I could answer. So I went with him. I went with him hoping for that new and better life. Where I won't be abandoned and left for dead.

The man showed me to his car. The man showed me to my car. The car my parents drove. I slowly backed up. My jaw drops.

"What wrong?" The man asked confused.

"Th... That's my car..." I stuttered every word.

"Shoot! This wasn't supposed to happen. But I guess that can't be helped." He allowed the evil in his voice to show as he pulled out a gun and pointed it to me. "Get in the car." The man spoke slowly and clearly. Without thinking I jumped in the car in fear.

"Wh... Where are we going?"

"That's a good question but I can't answer it." He was no longer trying to hide the evil in his voice. "But I will keep my promise of a new family, probably not better though"

The trip was long but I was scared to talk. Scared to move. I did nothing for hours. Scared of the 'what ifs' going through my head.

After hours of silence. We made it to our destination. "The forest? What's so important about it?" I thought to myself.

The man got out first an opened my door. I began to get out and he grabbed and tied both my wrists together. He pushed me to the ground. I scraped my knee and held back the tears as best as I could.

"Follow me." The man said in his powerful voice. I looked up at the man. My face now dirty and about to cry.

We walked past a few trees and into a cave. The cave grew dark and after about thirty tiring minutes I saw a light ahead of us. As we got closer I could start to tell what the light was. It was a fire. When we finally got to the fire the cave opened into an underground city. It was amazing.

I ran ahead forgetting the situation of why I was there. I ran ahead laughing and found myself at the edge of a cliff looking over the incredible city. To both sides stairs went down to the city.

"Is this my new home?" I looked up to the man now behind me.

"Yes, it sure is... Hope." The man smiled and looked into the distant city.