Kidnapped

Chapter One

Mack, casted as Alexa Bledel, is shown above.

"Mack, I don't understand. Aren't you excited?" My mom asked as she searched for the winter clothes she kept stuffed in the back of her closet. Here in Miami it didn't get cold often, so clothes like scarves, coats and boots weren't really needed. Although many people still wore the stuff when the weather would drop down to around 50-60°F.

My family had just surprised me with a trip to New York for my 17th birthday. Winter break had just started, and, as it always does, it started off with my birthday, the 19th of December. My parents had scheduled a tour at NYU, my dream college, where I'd just recently applied for, and decided to make a trip out of it. Don't get me wrong, I was super excited and eternally grateful. There was just something bothering me. Like a feeling. It felt like I was foreseeing something that would happen. But something bad. I couldn't figure out what it was though. It kept me up all night.

"I couldn't sleep last night.." I had told my sister, Rosemary, earlier that morning while we were munching down our cereals. She raised her eyebrows and smirked.

"Too excited?" She asked, while stuffing a spoonful of Fruity Pebbles into her mouth.

"No..it's.." I stopped, unsure of how to explain my confusion, "I had this weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. Like, I-I feel like something is going to happen." I stared at my cereal. Cap'n Crunch. I moved my spoon in the cereal back and forth, around in circles. I wasn't very hungry.

There was a long pause. It was probably only a couple seconds, but it felt like hours.

"Well, I mean," Rosemary finally broke the silence, "something is gonna happen! You're going to see your dream college!" She exclaimed, with a bright smile on her face. She did that a lot.

I gave her a small smile and considered explaining to her that she misunderstood, but decided against it. I already knew how it'd go. I'd tell her that it was negative feeling I felt, she would call me a Debby Downer, and I would apologize, admitting she was right.

"Um, yeah." I said. "I guess I'm just really excited." I smiled and picked up my bowl, taking it to the kitchen to wash. Rosemary was my 14-year-old sister. Not my therapist. If I had a problem, I had to go to the closest thing I had to a therapist. Mom.

Which is what I was doing now. Talking to my mom. She wasn't like most mothers. She was cool like a friend would be, but disciplined as much as an average parent would, if not more.

"Of course I'm excited! I just don't know why I'm getting this strange feeling.." I paced back and forth in her room. Everyone else was packing but I'd already done that last night.

My mom bent down looking in her closet, searching for something.

She then peered her eyes at me and sighed. She straightened up and walked over to me, pulling me into a hug.

"You're probably just worried. I get that way all the time." She pulled away and said in a lower, sad tone, "You're getting older now. It's normal for you to feel that way. Just pray to God, and ask Him to protect us. Calm down, okay?" I nodded and hugged her again. She was right, I did feel worried. Maybe I was just being paranoid.

But, my mom's advice didn't calm me, like it normally would. I still felt that thing bothering me. It was like I had an itch on the inside of my stomach, I couldn't reach it, couldn't stop it. And it was annoying me by the minute.