Taken

• Rebecca Jenkins, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2014

Rain slowly fell down the glassy pane of the window as tears fell down her face. In the quiet, in the stillness, the dark was her enemy. Then the storm hit. Thunder boomed and lightning struck, making her cower and hide from the sudden flashes of light. The room was cold and eerie, chills ran down the girl’s spine. For hours and hours she sat there, her face as pale as a ghost. The screech of the tree branches down the window terrified her and her eyes burned, reflecting the fear deep within her. Every sound made her jump. No teddy to hold, no book to distract. They had taken her. They had torn her from her mother’s arms as she screamed for help. They held a gun to her head. She was ordered not to move a muscle, not to say a word. They hit her father, yelled at her little brother. She could not stop them as they lifted her away from the ground. They pushed her, hit her and whipped her. Her clothes were ripped and her face bloodied and dirty. Her sins were none. So why did they choose her? They dragged her out onto the street. Crowds of girls, hundreds, she recalled. Piled onto trucks, blindfolded and driven into the night. She was surrounded by screaming, crying and yelling. Gunshots rang out through the night. They were taken. Then the trucks stopped. They pulled her off the truck and she fell hard, her legs numb and weak. She was hungry, in pain and wishing for home. Where were her mother and father? Was her family safe? Had they been taken too? She dragged herself forward, following the others. Strange men cursed at her, telling her to move faster. Slowly she stepped, one sore foot forward at a time. So hungry and so tired. But she did not stop, for fear of what they would do. She saw innocent girls fall on their knees. She did not want to be next. They pushed her into a room, all by herself. It was small and dark apart from the window in the corner. Rain slowly fell down the glassy pane of the window as tears fell down her face. She had been taken, but it would not stop her dreaming of seeing her family, of being happy and of being free.