It was April 1, 2012, and my family and I were outside playing at the park. Never in a million years did I ever think that I was going to get kidnapped. It was a beautiful and exciting day. I remember I was playing on the swings and I came over to the play set with slides. I saw a gate so I went down there. I tried to figure out how to open it. Then finally I opened it and then closed it. I ran back up to my mom who was sitting on a bench. The swing set was on the left of the play set while the gate was to the right and down a hill. A man and his “kid” came up from the fence. He looked very young from what i saw because he had a hood on and I couldn't see his face. His kid was on his shoulders and she didn’t look happy. The guy looked a little scary and someone you wouldn’t want your kid going towards him. My mom went to the swing set because my brother was over there and she needed to check on him.

The man walked over to me and asked me if I could show him how to open the gate. I said yes because he looked like he needed help. I knew I wasn’t supposed to go with strangers. I opened the gate and he grabbed my arm in a tight grip. Everything in the world then slowed down. I remembered seeing my whole family, childhood, and life flash before my eyes. He said he knew everything about me.

He started dragging me down the creek and I just kept screaming. I saw my mom struggle to open the gate and her chest presses against the gate yelling. The man just kept running while I was tripping and trying to run the other way and trying to un grip his arm. Before I knew it he had thrown me in his car along with the little kid. I was screaming at him punching, scratching, and choking him while he was driving. I saw my moms car behind us but he kept driving faster. I saw she was on the phone with the police. She told the police the drivers license. Soon he lost my mom and we were in the middle of nowhere.

I found a paper and a pen so I wrote on it. I said “who is he” and gave it to the girl. She wrote back how he had kidnapped her too and how she doesn’t know who he is. She said she has been with him for a year. I asked her what her name was as well. She said her name was Rylie and she was 7 years old. I told her that my name was Sarah and I was 11 years old. We talked on paper for about an hour and it began to get dark.

He stopped at a really old and disgusting motel. I put the pen in my shorts just incase I needed it for something. He told us to get out and follow him. We started walking holding on to each other for dear life. We ended up right outside of the entrance when he talked into this weird looking rock. I had no clue what he was saying or what he was doing. Suddenly the doors opened. We followed him and Rylie whispered “just wait till you see this”. I tilted my head in confusion, realizing that she has been here before. We walked up 3 flights of stairs. Then he took a couple of turns until he stopped in front of a room. The room number was 374 and it had a towel in front of it. He picked up the towel and did something with it. I remembered the numbers on the motel and wrote them down on my hip so he didn’t see it. Somehow the door opened and we walked in.