"No matter how dreary and grey our homes are, we people of flesh and blood would rather live there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful. There is no place like home."

L. Frank Baum


A young girl sat in the corner of a dark room, knees pulled right up to her chest. A light flickered on and off illuminating the small square room momentarily. She was a mess. Her two pigtails, once perfectly tied, were straggling down the back of her neck. She wore only jeans and a t-shirt which were ripped and torn from a struggle with her assailant. Although it was late and she was tired, her eyes would not close. The cold southern nights made the air in the room feel colder than it should have been, signifying another day was up. Three days. It had been three days since she had been taken from outside a bar in Louisiana.

As much as she wished it, and my had she tried, she was not home. The walls were not covered with old yellow paper, only bare cement. Instead of fraying at the edges, the wall dripped with water that could be mistaken for muck which gathered in a puddle at her feet. There was only one entrance, which meant only one exit. One exit was all that was needed, but being tied by a chain round her ankle to the wall behind, she wasn't going anywhere.

A sound clattered down the hallway. She did not flinch or look up, her head stayed in her hands as would a small child who was scared about the monster in her closet. It was only a matter of time. An empty shackle sat in the opposite corner, its previous owner long gone. She had been dragged kicking and screaming with broken fingernails from where she had clawed to try to escape. Normally the girl would have been a fighter but she was also a scientist, she knew when things just weren't going to work.

A jangle of keys echoed in the distance, the corridor otherwise silent. The girl let out a sniffle, she had accepted her fate. The key was placed into the lock and turned. Light streamed in from the corridor as the heavy door was pushed open. With her last bit of strength the girl looked up. Smudged mascara made a black ring around her already red and puffy eyes. She grabbed the silver locket around her neck and grasped it tight. The design started to imprint in her hand but the pain went unnoticed, too much was already hurting for her to care about something so small.

A man of average height and heavy build stood in the doorway. He grinned at her revealing his animal like teeth. As he moved towards her the girl didn't move a muscle. He stopped a couple of paces away from her and crouched down. The girl lifted her eyes. With vision still only partially adjusted to the light, she was met with an amber glare. A glare that wasn't human. She tried to shuffle back but the wall was already behind her. With a lick of the lips he let out a small chuckle revealing the blood still left on his teeth.

"There is no place like home. There is no place like home." she muttered to herself closing her eyes once again. "There is no place like home..."

A gunshot rang out in the distance. She heard the amber eyed man flop to the ground in front of her. She went to scream, but nothing came out.