Taken (SLOWLY RE-UPLOADING)

No Turning Back

When Clay had finished telling me his account of the story of my life, we waited patiently for Dylan to come back upstairs to tell us that the coast was clear.

However, that moment never came.

"Something's wrong, something is so wrong and I know it." Clay, pacing back and forth in front of the bed, was having a major anxiety attack. Even though he was supposed to be used to this, this was his first time being "out" on the job. The other days he worked, he was studying up on my case file, spending every single second trying to determine the best way to find me and get me out.

"Hey, calm down! We just need to trust that Dylan knows what he is doing and-"

My hoarse voice was cut off mid-sentence by a loud buzzing noise from Clay's phone.

Clay, with his phone already in his hand, went silent as he read whatever message he had just received.

"Oh shiznit, they've got him. They have Dylan. We have to leave, right now. Gather your stuff -- if you have anything to gather, I mean -- and we're gonna have to jump out of the window."

Banging on the door interrupted me gathering the zero percent of things I owned in the tiny, minimalistic room. "Hey, open this door right now, or I'm gonna have to break it down! And if I do that, there will be fatal consequences!" A voice I didn't recognize spoke on the other side of the door. "Shh," Clay shushed me in the faintest of voices, basically on the level of mouthing his words, and motioned to the large oak dresser. I got the memo as I pulled from one side while he pushed on the other, and we almost made it to the door when the guy behind it shot at the knob and somehow forced his way in.

"WINDOW, NOW!" Clay exclaimed as he picked up the broken mirror and gave it to me to break open the glass. I never turned around once as I heard the men scuffle behind me and more than one gunshot go off. I trusted that Clay would be able to get out safely as I pushed the window, breaking the glass and sliding down the side of the roof. I ran to

Not really having anything to gather, I picked up the already broken mirror from before and pushed it against the glass of the window beside the bed. I closed my eyes as glass practically exploded from the broken window and shattered right in front of me. Clay pulled his hood over his head and took a washcloth from the bathroom. With it, he wiped away all the loose pieces of glass that could harm us while we were trying to escape. Clay had climbed out of the window as quickly and quietly as a mouse and I waited for the signal, a catcall whistle, so that I could escape also.

I heard our signal and carefully put one leg out of the window, then the other right after, and was on the roof in no time. I saw Clay down below and he held out his arms to catch me. Earlier, he had told me in all his life of catching his sister when they were younger after climbing trees in their backyard, he had a lot of practice and had not once dropped her before. Even though I had just met him about thirty minutes earlier, I trusted him. He was trying to help me escape, so what else did I have to lose, especially after already being raped and tortured?

I sat on top of the roof and slowly slid down, so as to not make any noise and be in the vicinity of Clay's arms in order for him being able to catch me. Although my heart felt like it was going to burst in my chest at any second, I felt better being outside than in that house. This was my one chance to get away from my kidnappers, and I was not going to let fear get the best of me while escaping.

I held my breath, both of my arms crossed and holding each other, as I fell. I made sure to be as still as possible in order to fall in the right place. For a few seconds, I was terrified. However, I also felt free. I was doing things I had never imagined I would do, and I finally knew more about myself than I ever would if none of this had happened to me.

I fell perfectly into Clay's arms, and luckily, the moment wasn't awkward for too long. I hid the blush forming on my cheeks beneath my long hair as he set gently set me down on my feet on the grass. I mumbled a thank you and we rushed toward his car.

We hopped in and I didn't even get the chance to buckle my seatbelt as he turned the car around and headed down the empty dirt road away from my kidnapper's house. The sun was slowly falling into a beautiful orange, pink, and purple sunset as we drove off. If it weren't for the situation I was in, I would've thought that this was just any old normal day. It occurred to me that, just because my world stopped, it didn't mean the world around me stopped, too. I could have died in that house and yet the sun would keep rising in the mornings and setting in the evenings as the moon finally took its place each day and night. Terrible things would keep happening to Dylan until we saved him while a child started their first day of school. It was just crazy how the world kept turning while people died and, at the same time, new babies were being born. Thinking about it blew my mind, and changed my perspective on life itself; it keeps going, so we needed to also.

We were going to save Dylan as soon as we possibly could. As soon as we got to the city, as soon as I met my real father. As soon as all these other things happened, we'd be back at the house. The house where inhumane things have happened and would continue to happen unless we stopped them soon. Just knowing that my chances of being saved like this were literally one in a million, yet it still happened. I was still alive and breathing. A little bruised, but don't we all have some scratches as we head down the point of no return? As we glide through life, nothing stops. We have choices; to stop with it, or to continue on. To go, or to stay. And this time, I wouldn't let life wait for me to die anymore. No, I was going to change my outcome, no matter if the sun came up tomorrow or not. If life continued, why shouldn't I?

"We have to save him, Clay. He saved my life so as soon as we get to New York, we need to head back before they change their location. Or worse, before they kill Dylan."

And with those words, I was determined to make it happen. I didn't care about the people I needed to get through. I would destroy the entire earth and everyone living on it if it meant I could save Dylan's life. He saved mine, so doing this was the least I could do for him, right?