The Witness

Chapter I

"HELP!" I hear someone scream. The voice sounds like it's coming from a boy - a teenager, fourteen or fifteen, by the sounds of it. "HELP! Hey, HEY! Put me DOWN! HE-MMPH!" He yelled a few more times; then, his voice became muffled, as if someone had clamped a hand over his mouth. My mind was made up in a second - I had to help this boy. I climbed out of my sleeping bag and stood under the overhang at McDonald's, waiting for the boy's screams to come again.
"Hush, honey. You keep screaming, and I'll be forced to do something I'll regret." The female voice that followed the boy's screams made my blood run cold. The way she calmly threatened  him, reminded me of the way my mom's murderer threatened me.
*FLASHBACK*
"Mommy?" seven-year-old me called. "Mommy, where are you?" My mom wasn't in the kitchen, or the garden, or the basement, or anywhere in the house, that I could see. Where was she? Suddenly, there was a loud BANG. It sounded like it was coming from upstairs, so I ran up the  spiral staircase as fast as my little legs would carry me. Once I reached the landing, I turned right, towards my mom's bedroom, and kept running. I yanked open the door to my mom's bedroom... but it was empty! I scanned the room, once, twice, three times, and my mom was nowhere to be seen. As I was about to turn away, I heard it - gasps and groans coming from my mom's walk-in closet, sounding like someone was struggling. "M-m-mommy?" I stuttered as I crept towards the closet door. The grunts became more agitated after I called for my mom, but I kept creeping forwards. Finally, I reached the door, and slowly started turning the knob... and immediately, a hand reached out and grabbed my arm, pulling me ino the closet and shutting the door behind me. My hands were roughly pulled and tied behind my back with a thick rope, and tape was clamped over my mouth. My eyes soon adjusted to the darkness of the closet, with just enough room to comfortably fit my mom, the intruder, and I, although "comfortable" wouldn't be a word used to describe this scenario. A woman, dressed in all black with a hood obscuring her face, was hunched over me, fixing the bonds on my hands, digging them tightly into my skin. Behind her, my mom had tape over her mouth, and her hands were chained behind her to a weight that was pushed against the wall; tears were in her eyes as she struggled towards me. A whimper escaped my lips, seeing my mom in this distraught form, but the woman in the closet just stroked my head, my mom making a strangled noise in the corner, clearly not happy this stranger was touching her only daughter.
"Shh..." the stranger whispered as I cowarded under her touch. "Quiet now. It's time to do what I came to do to your mother," the stranger murmered, pulling a dagger out of its sheath. The blade wickedly reflected the sliver of light shining through the cracks of the closet door. "And if you try to prevent this from happening, or don't behave..." The stranger started inching the dagger towards my neck, despite the strangled sounds coming from my mother, and she eventually had my back pressed against the wall, the blade digging into my throat. Then, she turned towards my mother.
*FLASHBACK ENDS*
That scene keeps popping into my head, even though it happened six years ago. Tears begin to form in my eyes, but I quickly blink them away; this is no time for weakness. I must help this boy. I run towards the voices.