Abused

Chapter 1

You never know if or when danger lies ahead of you. Like today. It was a hot Tuesday afternoon and I was walking to my house, not far from Carl Hayden, when a red Honda Civic truck pulled over and a man -looking like he'd be around eighteen or nineteen years old-, with sandy looking hair color and grey eyes came out, grabbed me by the arm and started to drag me to his truck. I tried pulling away from him with all my might, but it was useless. He held up a blade and brought it up to my throat, hissing, "Shut up if you don't want to die!" Whimpering, I nodded and got in. After a couple of minutes, my phone rang and just as I reached for it, he barked, "DON'T ANSWER IT!!". I did as I was told, afraid of what he might do if I answered. "I-I need to go to the bathroom." I told him as we passed by a Circle K. "No. You can go when we get to my house, but I'll be at the door, you got that?" I nodded. My phone rang again. I was desperately wanting to answer, but I didn't. The man glared at me, and I lost hope. I caught a glimpse of his ID name: Nate Conners. I whispered his name, and he turned to me, saying, "What?"

"N-nothing." I answered quickly.

"Good."

We stopped at a two-story house behind a convenience store, far from where I lived, close to Carl Hayden. Some of the houses were abandoned. The first thought that appeared in my mind when I got off was Run! , but I couldn't move my legs. "Stay right where you are." Nate said, with a long piece of rope, coming towards me. Trembling, I obeyed as he tied me up. "That should do it." He said on the fourth knot and lifted me off the ground, his arms underneath my legs. "W-why are you carrying me?" I asked him. "So that you won't try to escape." He replied in a calm but hard voice. Once we were in, he placed me on the couch. Then he pulled up a chair for himself.

"Okay, I have a few rules you're going to have to obey. First of all, give me your phone." I never trusted other people to use my phone. "Why?" I answered, my voice steady and calm.

"I don't want you calling your parents or the cops, that's why."

"It's in my back pocket." He flipped me onto my side and grabbed it. "Second, I want you to be at the kitchen table at 6:30 pm sharp. No more, no less. Understand?" I nodded, with fear in my eyes. "Third, you are to go to your school, like any other day. But if you see any of your relatives, don't talk to them. Every day, I will put a little chip on your ID and it will record everything. I will check it at the end of the day."

"What if it got lost?"

"It will be attached onto your ID."

He growled a bit, making me flinch. "Fourth of all, when it's the weekend, I'll take your phone with me. And you will stay in, at all times. I don't want you out of the house unless you're watering the plants. After that, you are to directly go back inside. Do I make myself clear?" "Y-yes sir." I said, weakly. "Good." Nate got up and patted me on the cheek. I shivered, not knowing what to do. Then, at one point, he showed me my room. It was just a simple room with a dresser made out of wood and a bed made out of metal, the mattress bare.

For the next couple of days, Nate was a bit nice to me. We would sometimes have pizza. He bought one or two movies. He would let me go outside for a bit. He would sometimes let me use my phone (under his watchful eye). And he gave me fresh clothes, because the ones I wore were dirty. So we went to the store.

Then, there were days when he got upset. He would beat me whenever he had a bad day at work, or when I talked to Gloria, my cousin. I mainly tried to be on his good side, avoiding his blows, and spent some time watching movies. There was this one day he had beaten me up so badly, he had regretted doing it. We were just watching the T.V. and right in the middle of his favourite show, a news report came on, mentioning me with the captions, TEEN MISSING SINCE TUESDAY AFTERNOON LAST WEEK. Nate glared at me. I knew I was dead. I told Gloria what happened. Nate growled, "What the hell did you do?"

 "Nothing!"

He grabbed me by the shirt. I yelped. He turned off the t.v., then led me to my room. "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU FUCKING DO?!" He yelled in my face, slapped and threw me on the ground. "NATE, I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING, I SWEAR!!" I screamed, tears in my eyes. "IT'S BEEN OVER A WEEK SINCE YOU KIDNAPPED ME!!" He slapped me with the back of his hand. "DON'T EVER TELL ME THAT!! SUCH LIES!!!". He got down to the floor, beating me. Leaving me on the ground bruised and in pain, he walked away and said harshly, "You can come out when you've learned to keep your mouth shut." and locked the door.

Hours later, he came with a bowl of something really good. I woke up to see him crouching down next to me. "Shh, it's ok. Look, it's your favourite," He smiled weakly.

"Spaghetti." I said, getting up, but with all the pain he gave me, I slumped back down. I started to cry, saying that I wanted to go home.

He stroked my cheek, and I had to admit, it felt really good to be stroked by a stranger. I wondered how long it would be when Nate finally gave me my freedom back. I thought about my parents and two sisters and how they were worried about me. Nate started feeding me. Not bad.. I thought, swallowing it. "Look, Anna," -that was the name he had given me after one of my drawings on my ID because my original name felt lame to him- "I'm so sorry I beat you up earlier. I had a very bad day at work and I took it out on you. Can you ever forgive me?" I was unable to look at him in the eye. Sniffling, I nodded. "Thank you." He said, getting up and leaving the bowl of spaghetti with me, in case I got hungry again. He closed the door behind him and walked away, leaving me in the dark and empty room.