Innocence Taken

Chapter One

Darkness. Darkness everywhere, that was until she heard it, an annoying sound really. 'Where is that annoying buzzing coming from?' ran through Ella's sleeping thoughts. Once she started to become aware of her surroundings, the sleeping girls eyes opened, groggily. There, laying on her night stand in her view point was the source of the constant vibration. A few minutes had gone by and the young girl hadn't made a move, hoping whoever it was would give up. "Oh for fucks sake," Ella groaned, reaching for her phone after about the sixth call. The person bothering her this early in the morning clearly wasn't going to stop until she answered.

Living alone had been a blessing and a curse. After the thirty minute phone call with Ella's mother, which included a bunch of yes's and okays on Ella's end, she decided that she wasn't even going to try to go back to sleep. Heading toward the bathroom to shower, Ella noticed an old knickknack of her grandmothers laying on the floor perfectly sat up and right next to the dresser it was once sitting on. "Must've knocked it off." She shrugged and proceeded with her morning routine. Shower, wash her face, get dressed. Today, she was going to go window shopping, only because going in the store meant she would most likely buy something and looking at her bank account number she couldn't do that anytime soon.

Bug was snuggled up in her blankets still snoozing away once she returned to her bedroom. "Bug! Wake up! It's time for walkies !" She said in a high pitched singing tone. As soon as the word "walkies" came from the girls mouth, the short legged, tan and white Corgi shot up and started wiggling around like crazy. Ella attached Bug's harness and leash to him and headed out to the front door, grabbing her phone and keys to toss into her purse as she walked outside, or more or less was pulled aggressively outside by the small pup who thought he was bigger than his petite size led on. She locked the door behind her and hurried down the stairs with the little impatient ball of fluff. Once the warm air hit Ella's face she smiled and sighed, today was going to be a good day even if she had to force it to be that way. Determined and excited she made her way down the sidewalk toward the busy streets with Bug.

An hour had gone by, and the twos energy had seemed to be drained as they were now on their way back home. Bug, panting and Ella, less smiley than she was when they began their adventure. Finally, at the apartment, Ella, not thinking about the door being locked grabbed the knob and turned, but to her surprise it opened with ease. She looked around frantically for a second, no one was in the hall and it hadn't looked like anyone was anytime recently. "I could've sworn I locked this door," she mumbled to herself with a frown etched into her forehead. Walking inside, she made sure nothing was missing and brushed it off as just forgetting. "I'm losing it, Bug." She said with a small laugh as she took the leash and harness off of the pup. Although, she couldn't shake the feeling of the weird incident, Ella proceeded to fill Bug's water and food bowl before finding herself something to eat.

Hours of binge watching Netflix and a half a bag of sour cream and onion chips later, something she did a lot of on her days off, Ella found herself becoming tired, but she knew she couldn't go to sleep now, she would be up most of the night. Grabbing her phone, she noticed an unknown number had texted her along with her best friend, Shane. Ella decided to reply only to Shane's sweet attempt to get her to go out tonight, ignoring whatever message the stranger had sent. "What could it hurt, right." She said aloud to herself as she typed quickly asking Shane for a time to meet. Glancing over at Bug next to her, who just tilted his head slightly at her words, she thought she had seen something move in the eerily dark corner of her living room. Jumping up from the couch she flicked on the lights, but nothing seemed to be there in the empty space. "I really need to get out of the house before I go insane." Ella mumbled to herself. A sudden ringing from her phone made her almost jump out of her skin, heart pounding she looked at the lit up screen only to realize it was Shane FaceTiming her. Holding her hand over her chest while calming down she answered the call "You scared the shit out of me, you goober!" She exclaimed, before Shane could even say a word. "Well hello to you too," He chuckles, pushing his reddish brown hair back. "So, I was thinking ice cream and then dinner." He jokes, his adorable smile seeming to make Ella feel much more safe now. She had always found Shane crazily attractive, but unfortunately for her case he had a wonderful boyfriend, Ryland. "Don't you think we should eat dinner first?" Ella asked.

After making the plans with Shane and Ryland, who randomly popped up in the middle of the call, Ella decided to go change into something a little more appropriate for dinner. Examining herself in the mirror, she nodding, happy with her appearance. Flowing dark red hair, that reached the middle of her back, high smooth cheek bones with sprinkled freckles over them, and bright blue eyes all went perfectly with her outfit. Black skinny jeans and a black flowered shirt that fell off of both shoulders, showing just the right amount of skin. As Ella slid on her sandals she heard a knock at the door and grabbed her purse, rushing out to answer it. To her surprise no one was out in the hall. Frowning she takes her phone from her purse and texts Shane, asking him how far away he was. When Ella gets a response, she hurries back inside, locking the door behind her. She had always been skeptical of everything and the weird things happening to her today was only making her anxiety spike. Shane was ten minutes away, so who could that have been at the door? 'Was someone playing tricks on me? Or stalking me? What if they try to kill me?' All these thoughts scrambled around in Ella's already unsettled mind. "Okay, El calm down." She whispers to herself, taking a slow deep breath.