Decisions, Decisions

The scuffing of tennis shoes on the basketball court fill my ears as I dribble the Basketball down the lane ready to go for a layup. This was it, the last shot to win the state championships for girls’ high school basketball. All of a sudden, a large girl about two feet taller than me stepped in front of me, feet not yet planted. I charged right into her wall-like structure and went flying back. EEEEEKK! The referee’s whistle shrieked out at the girl who stepped in front of me, indicating a foul. My head spun out of control, sending me into a daze.

“Amber! Amber!” I could hear coach calling out my name. “Come on get up! I know you can!”

With all my strength, I lifted up my body from the hardwood floor and looked across the court at my teammates who looked worried. “I’m fine! Let’s finish this!”

The crowd roared, sending a rush of adrenaline through my body. EEEEEKK! The whistle blew again when the referee handed me the basketball at the free throw line. It felt as though the world had come almost to a stop, but was still moving at a slow pace. Each starting dribble felt like it took ten seconds each. The crowd was silent as I released the ball and sent it straight through the hoop. I had scored a point and now the score was tied 69-69. The crowd went even wilder than before. As the referee handed me the ball, all I could focus on was if I, Amber Knight, a 15 year old girl who’s passion is Basketball and Volleyball, could win the State Championship. I dribbled the ball twice, found the center line of the ball, noticing the familiar grooves, and shot. The basketball landed on the rim and twirled around the basket for what seemed like an hour. Finally, it rolled through the net, sending the crowd into a joyous cheer.

“You did it, Amber!” My teammates shouted from the bench, now running towards me.

“OOF!” I yelled from the impact of the dog-pile from my teammates. They yelled and screamed for me, cheering my name. For a sophomore, since nobody had broken my shot record for 3-pointers and free throws, I was probably the best athlete in my school, Sullivan High School. I was a new student this year, but made plenty of friends the first few days of school. My 16th birthday is tomorrow and my friends are supposedly throwing me a surprise party, since my ignorant parents won’t. All because they “don’t have money”, “don’t see the big deal about a sweet 16”, and I “don’t appreciate the things they do for me”. That seems completely ridiculous to me! They won’t even let me visit my friends at my old school because “they just live too far away”, when my mother promised me that I could visit them once I get my license to drive.

On my way back home from our celebration for winning the State Championship, I walked to Meramec Park, a park in Sullivan, Missouri where there are plenty of camping sites, attractions, and activities. I lived about 1 mile north of Meramec River and the high school was about one half of a mile away. At the river, it was peaceful and quiet, probably the best place to fish too. Once I got there, I saw that there is nobody in sight, so I slipped off my tennis-shoes and step into the shallow river, letting the cold water rush against my bruised and sore ankles. I let out a sigh of relief and slowly waded deeper into the water, keeping in mind the deep sinkhole right in the middle of the river.

SPLUNK! I heard what seemed like a person running through the water behind me. “Run!” It sounded like my friend who I play volleyball with, Halie Ross. When I turned around, I saw her running toward me with tears streaming down her bright-red face. I looked at her with a confused expression at first, but then I saw the very large male figure running after her. He seemed to be about 7 feet tall and was very muscular. I noticed an object reflecting across the water. He was holding what looked like a meat cleaver. A sudden fear spread through my entire body, dragging me the opposite way of the charging murderer.

“Run, Amber!” Halie screamed.

“I’m running as fast as I can, Halie!” I shouted back. It was extremely difficult to run in the rushing water. I looked behind us to see that our pursuer was no longer chasing us, but had just disappeared.

“He’s gone!” I told Halie once we reached the other side of the riverbank. We sat down, exhausted from running for our lives. “Can you explain the whole ‘guy with the cleaver’ thing? I mean seriously! What is going on?” I interrogated her.

“Well I was walking home from your basketball game and this huge man stepped in front of me and told me to find Amber Knight, you, and to come with him. I asked him who he was and he said his name was Rafael, but that was the only information he would give me. I told him that since I don’t know him that I wouldn’t go anywhere with him and neither would you. That’s when he pulled out the cleaver. He grabbed my arm, with gloves, and shoved me into a dark van swearing that he would get you too. I was so scared that when he opened the door again for me to be ‘transferred’ to another vehicle, I ran! We had pulled up by your house and there were about two other guys besides Rafael heading up to your door. Your family wasn’t there hopefully!”

“No, they were at the Mexican restaurant down the street from school,” I informed her.

“Good! Anyways, while I was running, I looked behind me and saw that the van had crashed and the two other men were dead. Rafael was chasing me with the cleaver so I hollered at him, “Didn’t your mother ever tell you not to run with sharp objects?” He had an evil smile on his face, so I ran even faster. About a minute later I ran into you.”

“Wow. I don’t know what to say,” I tried to get words to come out of my mouth.

“Well we should be safe for n-,” Halie stopped talking and stared behind me with a dangerously pale face, almost as if all of the blood drained out of her body. I knew what she was looking at when I turned around. Rafael was standing behind us with a deranged look on his chiseled, scruffy face.

“Ladies, I would advise that you come with me or one of you will die immediately,” he stared at me and it felt like he was looking through me with his almost black eyes. Halie got up and started to run but then collapsed as if her legs were pasta noodles. Rafael walked past me, knowing that I was smart enough not to run. He picked Halie up by her long brown hair and she screamed, flailing her arms and legs, trying to free herself. When she did this, she whacked Rafael in the nose, making it bleed. He grunted and then swung her against a rock, knocking her out cold. He looked at my breathless body as I slowly fainted from the amount of blood on Halie’s head.
******

I woke up to a damp, cold, and stone floor. It was very dim as I lifted my hand heavy, cold hands to see them covered in blood. I checked myself to see if I was bleeding, only to find a steel chain hooked to my waist, chained close by me to a metal pole.

GROAN!! I heard a sickening sound from a different corner of the room. I squinted my eyes so that I could see who or what made that terrifying sound, only to see Halie lying on the floor with her hands tied and waist chained as well. There was blood all over her body, and the floor, which is what made it so damp.

“Halie?” I called to her. No answer.

GROAN! This time I knew it was Halie because it was louder and she moved her limbs.

“Amber?” She called back to me. Panicking, she shouted, “Where are we?”

“SHH! I don’t know! But we sure aren’t going anywhere soon,” I said in a hushed voice.

“W-w-what do we do?” She stammered.

“Nothing, absolutely nothing. He’ll kill you if you try to run away. That’s what happened to Kayla,” a girl’s voice called from another corner in the room. Her voice was dry and squeaky, like she hadn’t had anything to drink for days. Halie and I both jumped at the voice because it was so familiar, almost as if it were someone we knew.

“Bailey?” Halie asked with tear-filled eyes.

“Yeah, it’s me,” She answered roughly.

“Where have you been?” I questioned her. Bailey was my best-friend last year. We had sleepovers every weekend until she disappeared one day before school. Bailey explained to us what had happened to her. Her parents had left for work and she was waiting for the bus, when out of nowhere, a gloved hand closed over her mouth with an odd tasting flavor. She tried to defend herself but her legs went limp and she blacked out.

“This is how I woke up: legs tied, wrists bound, and waist chained. I had no idea what happened until I woke up next to my sister, Kayla, with the same trapped body. She explained what happened and I started freaking out. She promised we’d get out and when she tried they caught her and shot her right in front of me. I have given up on life, even though they feed me. I just stopped eating and drinking, and soon enough, I will die. They drugged us so that we can be trafficked. Do you know what that means?”

“Yes.” Halie and I answered at the same time. Nobody needed an explanation. What happened next was incredibly fast and out of sight. Two men grabbed Bailey and Halie and dragged them out of a metal door that I never noticed. One man scanned the room to find that my feet and hands were not bound and ordered me to follow. When I stood up, I noticed that there was a needle in my arm sending fluids into my veins. When the man wasn’t looking, I yanked it out and stuck it in the pony tail holder that remained on my wrist. He handcuffed me to Halie and we were lead to what seemed to be a dressing room for prostitutes. The man unlocked our handcuffs and pushed us into the clothing-filled room. He told us to find something and put it on. Halie shakily picked up a ruby-like dress with slits in it to make it show skin. I followed her and picked up an eggplant colored dress with the back completely showing and the same for the stomach. After about 5 minutes, the man came back in the room and pulled us down a dark, narrow hallway and pushed us into another room with Bailey and 6 other men. The men were scruffy and looked like they were very wealthy. Only one thing came to mind when I saw them. We were dressed as prostitutes to be sold to these men. Two of the men looked at me with evil grins and stood up. They walked towards me and Halie and grabbed hold of my waist, leading me away from my dear friends. I started to look around for escapes but the men were holding me so tightly, it was hard to breathe. When we turned a corner, I saw two other men with Halie. She of course was stubborn and fought. One of the men pulled out a gun and put it to her head, threatening to kill her.

“No!” I shouted for her. Halie mouthed to me that she was sorry and then kicked the man’s knee, making the gun go off and killing her. I screamed for her. She was gone and all I had left was Bailey, whom was red-faced and tears were streaming down her face. The men shoved us back into our original rooms and chained us back up. It wasn’t until 5 more minutes when another man came in and shot Bailey multiple times because she had tried to escape while in the room. My heart was aching and I was losing all desire to live. I saw a very small opening in the room. This was one of the biggest decisions of my life. If I decided to run and I was to be caught, they would kill me. If I was to stay, they would probably kill me sometime else. I had nothing to lose, so I slid out of the chains because I was still blood covered and slick, lightly crossed over to the window and climbed out. I latched the door tightly, not wanting to look at Bailey’s dead corpse. When I turned around, I found that I was only a few miles from my house. I took off running, finding huge posters with my face and descriptions of what I look like. Then I saw my parents’ phone number, regretting my ever hating them. I kept running until I reached the police station. The policemen stood there staring at me in my slutty outfit, now torn even more to shreds. I yelled at them to help but all that came out was a dry shriek. I needed water. As soon as I had scanned the room, I located my parents in tears. I touched their shoulders and they turned, finding my blood-covered body. They screamed and told the police about how I was their daughter and they rushed me to the hospital. Apparently, the men had drugged me so badly, that I was lucky to have been at the hospital within the next hour or so. If not, I would have been dead anyway. My parents did everything to protect me after I told them everything. The men were found and put in jail for 100 years to life. My parents gave me an even better-than-expected sweet sixteen birthday party and then everything turned out fine, except for the fact that both of my friends had been killed right in front of me. My life was going to be horrible and I was to be mentally scarred, but I was alive. That is all that matters now.