Snatched by Probability

The probability of getting kidnapped is 1 to 610,000. You are more likely to get struck by lightning, twice. So you can imagine my surprise when I find myself being threatened at gun-point.

It was a sunny and perfect day in California. I don’t want to say I had a perfect life, because I didn’t, my family had problems and they tried to hide them. Just like every other family did, it wasn’t anything new.

“Hey Taryn, you ready to go?” my sister calls out to me in question. I smiled and thought of the trip ahead of us, we were going to Reno for a week to clear our heads. My sister, Haley, was a junior, and I was a senior.

“Hell yeah! Just let me make sure I didn’t forget my wallet.” I do a quick check of my room. It was white on two walls and purple on the other two, there was an open window above my bed. The sky was cloudless and it was a perfect temperature. I saw that I wasn’t missing anything, so I walked out the door. My heels were clicking on the floor. My tan legs were popping out under my shorts. It was a peaceful day. My parents were out at one of their parties they liked to go, just to keep appearances. “Okay, I’m ready. Let’s hit the road! You want to drive first?”

So we set on the road, we did a search on the fastest way to get there so we would have more time to relax. It was going to be fun; nobody else we knew was going to be there except the family we were going to visit. It would be nice not to worry about it.

“I can’t wait till I’m a senior.” Haley sighs dramatically and smiles at me while she starts the car and pulls out of our long driveway. All I can think of was all the reasons she shouldn’t want to be one, but I’m sure the list wasn’t very long.

“And I wish I could repeat my junior year, trust me, you’ll miss it.” I barely made it through last school year; my parents had to convince them. It scared me because I would’ve been the laughing stock of my grade. But apparently it meant that much more to my parents. I don’t know what they did exactly, and I’m glad. I probably wouldn’t have been able to look the principal in the eyes again.

“Oh, I seriously doubt that! I’ve gotten okay grades, I’ll pass.” She knew that wasn’t what I was talking about. She just laughs it off, enters the highway and regulates her speed to the nonexistent traffic.

The next few hours, like the small details of how long she drove before we switched, I couldn’t remember. So I’m skipping to the part where we make a quick stop.

I had to pee, and I kept telling Haley that, but she wouldn’t stop. She just kept poking fun until I told her I’d just pee in the car. She finally stopped, pulling over to a small gas station where only one car was parked, a truck. Haley pulls out her phone and I watch her click a few buttons before putting the phone up to her ear.

“Shit! I have to go call Aaron.” She gives me a ‘you know you can’t be mad at me look’ before walking around to get service. I know this sounds wrong to say, think, or whatever, but by the turn of events; it should have been Haley who was kidnapped. She was the one walking around, occupied, without a care in the world. I feel awful for thinking that, but all I was doing was going to the bathroom.

I walk into the gas station’s mini mart and sneak past the guy at the cash register casually. If this was the kind of stupid place to not let you use the bathroom unless you bought something, I definitely didn’t want to get caught and have to buy something.  Once I’m sitting on the toilet taking care of business, I hear the door open so hard it slams to the wall. After the person closes the door, I hear a tiny click that tells me the door is locked.

“Ha-ha, very funny! Get out of here Haley. . .” I trail off as I inch over to the left and look through the crack. I can see a man through the long sliver of crack. He was tall, sinewy, but he also had a broad chest and he was all muscle. I noticed he also had a bandana folded up and tied around the bottom half of his face. I was working up a scream when he pointed a gun at me. A gun. What was I supposed to do? Scream and get shot anyways? No way. So I got up slowly like he motioned and came out of the stall.