Shattered But Not Broken

Chapter 1

I was walking down the pavement sidewalk with my head down, still petrified of what happened a few nights before. My mother had passed away and I didn't know what to do. I was too sad and scared to talk about it to anyone. My father passed away shortly after I was born with leukemia, so I couldn't talk to him. So I was left with nobody

I was looking around at my surroundings, admiring the day and the warm breeze. It felt good that there weren't many people in sight because I just needed some alone time right now. There was only a group of four kids, who looked about my age, walking a few yards away from me.

I'm the kind of person who is always observant of her surroundings because I have seen too many movies where people get kidnapped or even killed just because they weren't paying attention when they were alone. I would always tell myself, Jessica, you would do great in those movies because for the most part, you are observant.

I started drifting away from my surroundings because I was thinking about my mom and how we used to go on walks together. It was a good place to relax. I would come here sometimes by myself to escape from life whenever I felt frustrated or unsettled. And since I wanted to escape from people right now, I came here. I also kept thinking about where I was staying for the passed few days. It didn't feel like a home but the people there were doing their best to try and find me a good home with a loving family since I don't have any family left and no friends, i'd have nowhere to go.

A few moments passed and I started to look around again. The pavement led to a field. Since it was summer, California was hot, especially in Calabasas, where I lived.

I was wearing a pastel orange, short sleeved shirt with one of my pairs of acid washed denim jean shorts.

I kept getting the feeling that was being followed or watched, but when I looked around, there still wasn't anybody around except for the kids I saw earlier, but they were farther away now and probably wouldn't be able to see me if they turned around. Maybe it was my mom watching over me.

In front of me were woods. I hated woods.

There was a gust of wind and the trees rattled. I heard a twig snap. I jumped, but then came to my senses. I reminded myself that I should stop being so paranoid about stupid things like a twig snapping. It was probably just an animal anyways.

I kept walking until I heard another twig snap, closer now but not right up on me. I didn't look into the woods that time but I did decide to start heading back. I looked at my swatch and saw that it was about 1:30pm.

I heard another twig snap. I got a little freaked out at this point so I decided to jog in the other direction, back to where I was staying but a voice stopped me in my tracks.

"Hey little lady." A deep voice said.

I swung around and looked into the woods. I didn't see anything but then my eyes met something behind a huge rock. I saw the head of an older man peaking at me. The man was probably in his mid forties and he had an evil grin on his face. I could tell that he was missing some of his teeth and was probably a rag considering the kid of dirty clothes he was wearing.

"Whatcha doin' here all alone near the forest?" The man asked in a creepy, menacing tone. He sounded like he was the type of person that would kidnap kids and use them in all the wrong ways.

My first instinct was to scream. Maybe the kids I saw earlier could hear me and come for help. "HELP!" I yelled as loud as I could. He was probably a child predator.

Most people would think that I should run but I was already frozen in fear. I haven't been in this sort of situation before.

He slowly moved away from the rock he was hiding under to reveal his whole body. He had on old, raggedy clothes and had a camera dangling around his neck. He was probably taking photos of me. That's disgusting, I thought. He slowly pulled one hand out of his pocket to reveal a gun. He pointed it at me.

I stood there, frozen in fear and didn't know what to do. I'm dead. I thought to myself. That's it. I'm gonna die right here, right now.

"It's okay little lady." He said. "I won't hurt you, as long as you do what I say and don't tell anyone." He walked towards me. "You got that?"

I couldn't answer, I was still thinking of a way to get out of this situation.

"I'll keep you safe." He said as he tightly gripped my arm and pulled me towards him.

A few more seconds went passed and I realized what he was trying to get me to do. I had enough strength left in me and I was fed up with this nonsense. He can't do this to me. I gathered up enough saliva in my mouth and spit directly into his cold, dark eyes. I yelled, "Don't touch me you dirty pervert," as I yanked my arm out of his wrinckly hand and made a run for it. I ran a few feet an I thought I could actually get away from this creep.

That was until I heard a bang and a sharp, unbarable pain shot up my right leg.

I screamed in agony as I fell to the ground. I managed to take a look at my leg. That dirty bastard just shot me. I felt like I was dying. I was in so much pain.

I glanced over at the woods and saw the man running away.

"HELP!" I screamed. "HELP!" I knew that no one would hear me but it was worth a shot. I had to be strong.

I looked back at my leg and saw blood pouring out of the wound. I clenched and but my lip as I looked around. I saw a few people running towards me. Maybe they were coming to save me. "HELP!" I yelled, hoping they would hear me.

I dropped my head back to the ground as I was loosing all of my senses. Between my blurry vision, I could see the people come up to me and kneel beside me, one of them screaming for help.

I just waited.

My eyes fluttered shut and my body went weak.