Allie’s body began to ache all over as she reached her apartment. She took a minor pain killer and fell asleep, sprawled out on the bed. When she woke up, she was very sore, but she wanted to run her errands anyway. She put on some fresh jeans, a t-shirt, and a jacket. She slid on a pair of boots and grabbed her purse, on the way to the store. As she moved her hand, a burning sensation shot up her arm. She grabbed her arm back and looked down at it. A spiraling burn had appeared down her arm from her hand. She quickly went to the bathroom and wrapped it with a bandage and then went on her way.

At noon, her cell phone rang. “Hey, Allie!” said her friend, Jessy. “I was wondering if you’d like to meet for dinner tonight. I haven’t seen you since last semester!”

“Sure, Jessy. Where do you want to meet?”

“I was thinking Tomato Café.”

“Sounds good to me. What time?”

“Six; to miss the dinner rush.”

“Okay, see you then.” Allie hung up and sat down on a nearby bench to rest. She stood up after a moment and walked to the grocery store. After getting everything she needed, she walked back to her apartment and then turned around to meet Jessy for dinner.

Jessy embraced Allie in a warm hug. “I’ve missed you so much! I mean, it was fun and all in LA, but it wasn’t the same without you!” She pulled back and looked at Allie. “Are you okay? You look sick or something.”

“I’m fine,” Allie said quickly. “I just got to bed late last night, that’s all.”

“Oh. Okay. Shall we order our food?”

“We shall.” Allie grinned. This was an inside joke between the two girls. They made plans to eat lunch together in two days. After they ate, Allie went home and looked at herself in the mirror. She looked awful. It was amazing Jessy didn’t say anything else. Allie crawled into bed and fell asleep, her wrist beginning to throb underneath the bandages.

The next day, Allie slept until noon and was still tired. She felt sick. An idea came to her head – her mom was a doctor, so she would go to her house and get her to check her out. She slumped out of bed and called her mom. “Hey Mom, it’s Allie. What are you doing now?”

“I’m just hanging around. Sammy and your father are having a ‘Daddy Daughter’ day. Why? Are you okay?”

“I just wanted to come over,” Allie lied.

“Yeah, of course! You’re welcome here anytime – it is your house, too.”

“Okay, I’ll be there in twenty minutes.” Allie hung up and put on some jeans and a long sleeve shirt with an embroidered pattern on it. She laced up some knee-high boots and pulled on her jacket. She walked out the door, her phone in her pocked with her wallet. She walked down the street, noticing it was really cloudy. Shadows hid the dark alleyways she was passing. She shuddered and pulled her brown, official-looking leather jacket tightly around her. She glanced down one of the alleyways and saw a flower. This was very odd to Allie. She approached the flower and knelt next to it, examining the brilliant petals.

Suddenly, an arm hooked around her neck. She could not scream. She struggled out from under her attacker’s grasp. She faced the man to see him pulling out a knife. She knew that if she ran she’d be dead. She didn’t stand a chance with him. “What do you want?” she asked in a small, squeaky voice that was foreign to her.

“You have to come with me,” he said in a deep, gruff voice.

“Why?”

He didn’t answer. Instead, he lunged at her. She struggled against him, resulting in a deep cut across her forearm, through the leather jacket. She cried out in pain. The man grabbed the collar of her jacket and she managed to squeeze out of it. He tossed it aside and she remembered that her phone and wallet were in the pocket. The man pinned her to the ground and held the knife to her throat. “I’ll make this easy and tranquilize you now. Don’t scream; I wish to take you back with me alive. They are expecting you alive.”

She squirmed under his grip and the knife cut into her shoulder and part of her neck. He knocked her in the side of the head with the hilt of his knife – causing her to lay back into her own pool of blood in the sidewalk, knocked out. The man picked her up and disappeared, leaving only her jacket, wallet, and cell phone.

Hours later, her mom began to freak out since Allie had not shown up. She called Allie’s phone but got no answer. Nervous, she grabbed her jacket and headed out to Allie’s apartment. Allie had sounded ill on the phone, maybe she got so sick that she couldn’t come. But Allie was polite – she would’ve called. On the way to her apartment, Sharon saw something in one of the alleyways. It was a brown jacket identical to the one she had bought Allie last Christmas. She got closer and noticed a pool of blood seeped into the sidewalk. With shaking hands, Sharon took out her cell phone and called the police.

They were there in minutes. “Ma’am, can you tell me what happened here?” asked a young female officer.

“No. I came across this on my way to my daughter’s apartment.” She was trembling and pale now. “I noticed the jacket is just like one I bought for her last year. She loves to wear it when it’s cold.”

The officers inspecting the scene pulled the cell phone and wallet from the jacket. “It’s a female, twenty five, named Allison Fraine.”

Sharon went white. The female officer grasped her shoulders. “You should sit down.” She led her to the cop car and opened the door, letting Sharon sit on the edge of the seat. “Do you know this young lady who was identified?”

Sharon nodded slowly. “She’s my daughter.”

Allie woke up with a headache. Her wounds were dressed and she was on some sort of cot. She sat up slowly, tasting blood on her lips. A nurse came to her side, offering a glass of water. “Where am I?” she asked.

The nurse just nodded and walked away. Allie sighed and looked around. The man who had taken her was sitting on a cot across from her, bruised and beaten. He met her gaze and stood up, walking over to her. “How are you feeling?” he asked.

“Why do you care? You’re the one who put me like this,” she snapped.

The man frowned and shook his head. “Allison, I just wanted to bring you here. I never intended to hurt you.”

Allie did not like it when people called her Allison. “And why are you so bruised and beaten?”

“Because we were attacked on the way here; you’ve been knocked out for three days. We think that they broke your leg, but we’re not sure. We were waiting to see if you would wake up.” He ran his fingers through his hair.

“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to snap. I just am a little antsy after being knocked out and taken to a place unfamiliar to me.”

“I can understand that. I promise you, though – you were brought here for a reason.”

Allie sighed and shook her head. “That’s what everyone says about everything. ‘There is a reason this,’ or ‘there is a reason for that.’ It just drives me crazy!”

Everyone was staring at Allie now. She blushed and adjusted her position and pain shot up her leg. “What?” asked the man.

“It’s just my leg.”

He looked down. A nurse came over and looked at her swollen leg, muttering something about getting the doctor and rushed away. She came back with a female doctor in a white coat. The woman leaned over Allie’s leg. “Yeah, it’s broken. The most we can do for it right now is put it in a cast or splint and send you on your way. I know you have places to be. The stitches are dissolvable, so you don’t need to come back for those. The leg, I’d say about six to eight weeks. Or longer. We just need to check and make sure it grows back alright.”

“We can do that,” the man said.

Allie just sat there dumbly, staring at the window in mock boredom. She really had no say in this as a foreigner herself. The doctor told her to lie back as he put the splint on. She did and he left to fetch the supplies to make the splint. When she got back, the nurse held Allie’s leg down to keep it straight. It hurt, but Allie did not struggle.

“I’m just worried that those wounds are going to get infected.” The doctor folded her hands, done with the splint.

“Give her the antibacterial. Just in case,” suggested the nurse.

“I think you’re right. Would you get them for me? I need to make sure this splint is right.” The nurse left and came back with a little tray of plastic wrapped sterile supplies. She cleaned the skin near the dressed spots and injected them with a bacteria fighter. Allie bit her lip but did not react.

When all was finished, she sat up in bed and brushed her fingers through her curly blonde hair. Though she loved the color, she hated the curl. It was too thick and too curly to be like the fashion models she saw in magazines. Plus her nose was too big and her lips just weren’t that perfect. Allie didn’t really like to wear makeup, but all her friends told her she should.

Allie was startled out of her thoughts when the doctor began talking to the man. “You may leave today. Yes, she can walk on the splint. If it cracks or comes off please come back ASAP. Go ahead, but don’t forget to come back in six or eight weeks.” Allie could not hear what the man was saying, so this was all she heard.

The man stood and thanked the doctor. She left to attend another patient and the man faced Allie. “All right, let’s go. We’ve got a long journey ahead and we mustn’t waste any more time.” He got Allie to her feet and walked out. Allie followed, limping.

They walked out into the woods and Allie got the feeling that she was getting dehydrated quickly in the burning sun and frying heat. The shade was welcoming, but it was not lasting. At one point, she collapsed but had to get back up. She licked her dry, cracked lips and looked up at him. “Never caught your name,” she muttered.

“Just call me X,” he replied, supporting her back and neck.

Allie gathered all her strength and forced herself to keep walking. “I’m fine. Just a little hot.”

X shrugged and kept going alongside her. Allie was so exhausted it felt like she was sleep walking. She could barely keep her eyes open. “We’re here,” announced X.

Allie opened her eyes long enough to see the large mansion. “Wonderful.”

And then she collapsed – blacked out.

Jessy called Sharon when Allie did not show up for lunch. Sharon asked to meet her instead and told Jessy everything that had happened, tears running in torrents down her high cheek bones and perfect chin. Allie had always envied her mother’s beauty – in which she inherited none. She looked elegant and beautiful even now, sobbing like this. Jessy looked around her in shock. Her friend was possibly dead and there was nothing she could do about it.

She felt awful for Sharon, going through this and all; but she just sat there awkwardly and said nothing. A policewoman met with them at the restaurant. “Jessy, can you tell me anything about Allie that could play part into why she was kidnapped?”

Jessy looked up for a moment. “No. She was kind and friendly to everyone. I never knew a person that she met that didn’t like her. Are you sure that the blood you found there was Allie’s?”

“Yes. The lab tests came back this morning. It was indeed her blood.”

Jessy sighed. “I honestly couldn’t tell you the tactics for anyone to want to kidnap or murder her; unless it was money or some kind of sick joke.”

The policewoman nodded and wrote something down in her notebook. “Thank you. I know this is difficult for you, so we will let you and Sharon know as soon as we know anything.” She stood and left. Sharon blew her nose and Jessy patted her hand.

Sharon had Allie’s phone out on the table. It buzzed, alerting her that it had received a text. Jessy picked it up and didn’t recognize the number, so she opened the phone and read the text. “Sharon, it’s Allie,” she gasped.

It read:

“Hey guys, I just wanted to let you know that I am safe. I cannot tell you where I am, but I just wanted to let you know that I am safe.






Love,












Allie”

Jessy read it four or five times, wide-eyed. Sharon began to cry again. “She’s alive!” Sharon said.

Jessy hated to be pessimistic, but that message could’ve been sent from anyone. Sharon and Jessy left, feeling confused and hopeful. They went their separate ways and went on with life as usual.

Allie relaxed her muscles as cold air blanketed her. She was moved into the air conditioned building and given water when she woke up. She drank it all too fast and ended up spewing it all out, but she was refreshed. X walked over to her when she had lain back down. “We really need to go. There are people waiting and things to do.”

Allie groaned, but she agreed. Her thoughts wandered to the life she had just left behind. She missed her family, Jessy, and Will. Will was the boy who went to school with Allie and they had gone out several times and really enjoyed each other’s company. They had never gotten serious, just went out to dinner or a movie or something like that.

She had wanted to hug Will one last time, but there was no way for her to change the past. X led her through a series of hallways, ignoring her worsening limp. “I sent a message to your cell phone, of which your mother has possession. They know you are safe.” He paused, then, “The phone it was sent from was promptly relocated.” He smiled slightly at her then straightened his back and looked ahead with the same blank expression Allie had seen since she had known him.

They walked-slash-limped for a very long time, but soon they came to two large double doors. X opened one and Allie followed him through them and limped into a vast room with a handful of people. They all turned to them, staring at Allie. Whispering broke out among them, eyes transfixed on her. Allie shyly followed X through the room, trying not to make eye contact with anyone.

Just as she was about to make it across the room, someone reached out and grabbed her arm. They pulled the bandage off to reveal the burn marks from the leaf Allie had picked up. Allie struggled against the man’s grip, but to no avail. The woman next to him grabbed on for a closer look and her nails dug into Allie’s arm. X did nothing to stop them.

Allie cried out as the woman’s nails broke skin. Blood seeped through the cuts and the woman looked at her arm maliciously yet hungrily. Everyone crowded around her and she lost sight of X. They were all shouting excitedly. It seemed as if the room held more people now than it had when they arrived.

Allie felt as if she was stuck and couldn’t move. The people pushed around her and she fell off of her feet. They closed in tighter and Allie closed her eyes, wishing for someone to come to her rescue. “Back up! We don’t want to crush her!” shouted someone. Everyone reluctantly backed away and cleared a path for the old man. He approached her and she stood up on shaky legs, pain shooting up the one in the splint.

“Welcome, Allie, to Ardhi Yetu, which, is Swahili for ‘Our Land.’ We don’t speak Swahili, but our land was named by its founder who did. I understand you taken here under hostile conditions, for which I apologize. You were Chosen under harsh circumstances, but in any means, you were Chosen. And –-”

“Wait, Chosen? What are you talking about?” Allie asked, confused.

The man raised his hand in an obvious intention to strike her. Allie slumped back, awaiting the impact. “A warning; don’t interrupt me again.” He sighed and dropped his hand. “As I was saying, you were Chosen, nonetheless, and you shall play your part contentedly.”

He opened his mouth to say more, but Allie was still too confused to take heed of the warning.“But I have no idea what you’re talking about! How could I possibly play my part?!”

He brought his hand across her face and she fell back, a red mark appearing on her cheek. Blood dripped from her nose and a tear leaked from her eye. “I’m sorry,” she muttered. “I won’t do it again.”

The man huffed, nodded, and droned on to her about being “Chosen,” but Allie ignored him and pretended to listen, mainly thinking about her home – all that she’d left behind. “Do you have any questions?” the man finally asked.

“Yeah; when do I get to go home?” Allie asked, barely audible.

The man laughed and the room exploded with hysteria – giggles and snorts and just plain laughter. At her. One began to scold her, but the man caught his eye. “You will go home if you obey what we tell you to do and do it well. Got it?”

“Whatever it takes,” Allie remarked, hardly audible. The man smiled and stood back. He seemed to direct the people, as if he was their evil leader and they were the minions. He motioned for them to leave and told Allie to go out and meet a servant who was going to take her to her room until further notice. Allie did as she was told until she was out of his sight. Then she ran for it.