Last Seen in San Diego.

“Kellin wake up, please wake up.” Someone whispered beside me. The pain in my head only grew more painful as I slowly gained consciousness. My eyes fluttered open, vision still blurry. “Oh my god, you’re alive. I was so scared.” She cried, throwing her arms around me as she pulled me into a tight embrace. I politely pushed her back, not in the mood for any kind of contact. I rub my eyes, focusing on the girl in front of me recognizing her as my friend Tay.

“Tay? Wh-what happened?” I ask warily. She glances up at me, her watery eyes meeting mine. Her composure told me she was about to break in any second, it only scared me more. I opened my arms wide, signaling for her to come close to me. I was scared at the moment so I can only imagine how she is feeling. Her head laid on my chest, my arms wrapped around her waist, soothing her.

“I don’t know. I can’t really remember anything but him taking me. I was walking somewhere when he hit me. All I can remember is being thrown in the back of the truck and waking up when he threw you in.” She whispered. I let my fingers graze across the bruise on her cheek. I wondered if my mom was looking for me, same with Tay’s parent’s. I felt up my pockets looking for my phone, not surprised that it was nowhere to be found.

“Tay, you don’t happen to have your phone do you?” I ask, it wasn’t possible but it was a shot in the dark. She lifted herself out of my embrace, checking inside the back she brought with her. After searching through it for a minute or two, she pulls out her phone. This man obviously doesn’t think correctly. I grabbed it from her hands, looking at the screen. 50% Battery, No service found. I groan, it was no help. We wont ever get service, and I highly doubt the place he’s taking us has service either. “No service and your phone is slowly dying.” I say, handing her phone back to her. “Do you have a knife or sharp hair clip that I could use to undo the lock?” She shakes her head no. ‘great’ I mutter, throwing my head back.

“Where do you think he’s taking us?” she asked, I could tell she was starting to panic again. “We have to get out, I can’t stay in here. I need to breathe!” She said, pacing back and forth. She fell against me once the van had come to a stop. I heard the door slam over my increasing heartbeat.

“Tay, lay down.” I told her, but she shook her head crawling towards the back door. “Tay come back over here, you need to pretend to be unconscious!” I demanded but she didn’t listen. I heard the footsteps get closer and before I could pull her back it was too late. The doors swung open, revealing the masked man who took us away from our families. I took a moment to look at our surroundings, we were located in a vast deserted place, no where to find help. He grabbed her, pulling her out of the van.

“Please let us go! We won’t say anything. I’m begging you please.” Tay cried, but he only pushed her hard against the closed door.

“Don’t touch her!” I yelled at him, jumping out and pushing him off of Tay. We could’ve took this chance to run away but what was the point? We were in the middle of nowhere, there wasn’t even a building we could hide in or behind. It was an empty land, he was bound to catch us again. I could only imagine what the damage could be if we were to do that. He walked over to me, hand around my neck blocking my air passage. It was getting harder for me to breath but I tried to fight back. I had a few punches and kicks but my body started to grow weak, my walls were closing in. I could faintly hear Tay screaming at him, begging for him to stop. To my surprise he did. I dropped to the floor, coughing violently, trying to get air into my system. Hot tears streamed down my face as I tried to lift myself up, but I was too weak to do so. I guess he figured that since he picked me up, throwing me in the back of the van with Tay once again. He locked the doors, before leaving us in solitude again. I began to feel uneasy when the car started up again. I crawled up into a ball, crying my eyes out. Tay stood on the opposite side from me, which I appreciated a lot. My breathing started to slow down after a few minutes which to me wasn't good because since I wasn't panicking, I was becoming sleepy and there was no way in hell I wanted to give that man the satisfaction of doing something to me while I was asleep. I looked over at Tay who was already sleeping, which I don't know how she could. Probably the crying has her all tired out. I move close to her, pulling her next to me.

This whole trip I've noticed I've been doing the same actions I've always done to Kayley whenever she was scared or upset. It was my natural instinct to treat Tay the same way too, I consider her my sister so it wasn't that hard to care for her. I tried to keep myself awake but I was failing miserably. My eyes started to close as I felt myself start to doze off. I started having no hope at all, there was no way this man was letting me out of this alive. I started thinking of ways I could try to escape, all but one seemed ridiculous. I moved away from Tay and headed towards the back door.

I remembered watching this movie where this girl was trapped in some creep’s trunk and she kicked out the vehicle’s headlights, sticking her hand out and waving it at any drivers who could see it. I kicked and kicked and kicked until I was successful. I took a peek out the small socket, already seeing that my plan was going fail. There wasnt any sign of other human life to save me. No cars, no people, no animals. Nothing at all. At that moment, I gave up all hope on getting out of this.

I returned to my spot, having all these thoughts run through my head. I couldn’t help but start to tear up again. I missed my mom and Kayley, I could only imagine how they are right now. My mom sounded scared enough on the phone, I think this is what she was trying to warn me about. I sighed, I know deep down they will never see me again. I would never be able to see my sister grow up or beat up the guy who breaks her heart. I would never get to finish my life, as well for Tay. This man is going to kill us, if not immediately then he will leave us to die. There’s no escaping something like this, it’s that clear. Look at those other people who were taken, all five never returned. It’s been a year and they weren’t found, that gives me so much hope. My freedom is gone.

“Tay wake up.” I gently shake her. I didn’t want to wake her up but right now I needed to be with someone. My thoughts were haunting me and I needed to talk to her, to anyone. “Tay please.” I whispered. She grunted before lifting herself up.

“What happened? Are you okay? Did he do anything to you?” She asked a bit panicked, her voice still groggy.

“No.” I shook my head. “I just want to talk, I can’t fall asleep.”I told her, hoping she would understand. She nodded, her eyes trailing to my escape attempt earlier.

“Uh, what happened?” She asked, pointing to the hole.

“I tried to see if I could get anyone’s attention, there was no sign of any help. I’m surprised you didn’t wake up with all the noise I was making.” I forced a chuckle. She gave me a sad smile before crawling over to me, sitting in front of me.

“Do you think we’ll get out of this?” She asked, I quickly shook my head. There’s no point of living in a fantasy of hope. Things like that never come true. This isn’t some movie where someone will come and save us, we’re done for.

“Tay, we’re not going back home. We never will.” I told her bluntly. My eyes focused on the floor as if it was the most interesting thing ever. She went to speak but remained silent. I started feeling nauseous, the truck started moving slower and it made me feel uneasy. “Tay.” I warn her, grabbing my stomach. Her eyes widen before she runs over to her bag, taking her phone out before handing it to me. I take the bag from her and empty the contents of my stomach out. She holds my hair back, rubbing her hand up and down my back as I continued to vomit into her not so blue bag anymore. The van slowly came to a stop, causing me and her to share glances before moving away from the door. Just as last time, faint footsteps came from outside before the door flew open. The only difference was that the man wasn’t empty handed this time. He rushed over to me, grabbing me first. I was too weak to fight back against his strong grip, so I didn’t bother trying. His grip tightened around my wrist as he put a bag over my head. He threw me to the floor when he was done, going to do the same to Tay. I tried to breathe but it was restricted by this bag. I felt myself starting to hyperventilate. Tay’s cries for freedom were slowly muffled as the bag was slipped over her head. He lifted me up from the floor, grabbing my arm and leading me towards somewhere.

Well Kellin, you lived a good life. You were a good kid, you had an amazing family, amazing friends. They’ll all miss you but they’ll eventually move on. “I love you mom and kayley.” I whispered to myself. ‘This is it’ I thought when he stopped moving. ‘Time to die’ I took a deep breath as I awaited for the pain, but it never came. Not even a slight pinch in case the freak was into lethal injections. I heard a loud door slam and some hushed murmurs. I felt myself dozing off, the lack of air was making me light headed. I could hear small footsteps walking towards me, I tried to keep my eyes open but I was failing. I was too weak for this. The last thing I remember was the bag being taken off and a bunch of strangers staring at me before I blacked out, for the second time today.