My story is a pretty interesting one. Of course, it didn't start out that way. It started out like any other girl's life. I was born to a rich and successful couple, who had decided to try their hand at parenting. I was, perhaps, spoiled as a child, but to me, that was the way things were. I didn't think anything of it. Nothing too interesting happened in my early childhood. I was practically raised by our housekeeper, Myra. Um, yeah, that's about it. Oh, except that I had a dog once. As it turned out, my mom was allergic, so we had to give him away. Other than that - nope - pretty ordinary. I was just your average teenage girl... Well, okay. Maybe I was a bit shallow. And immature. Alright, I was. Both. But what teenage girl isn't? Especially a teenage girl with very rich parents.

The interesting part of my life arrived suddenly; without warning and unexpected - like countless other days.

I got off the bus without stopping texting my best friend Gabbrielle. We were talking about how totally unfair the pop quiz had been that creepy Mr. Glencoe had given us in World History II class. I mean, really, how was anyone supposed to know some of the stuff on that stupid quiz?

I started walking in the general direction of my apartment - not really paying much attention - and kept texting Gabby. I never looked up. Why would I? I'd walked the same route hundreds of times.

We were having a pretty intense conversation. It had changed from History to the much more interesting topic of Damien, the hot new guy from California. He was in three classes with me, and four with Gabbrielle. And he talked to her today. We were both pretty excited. After all, Damien was the hottest guy in our senior class.

I stubbed my toe on a particularly big crack in the sidewalk.

Naturally this alerted me to my surroundings. I looked up to feel the blood freeze in my veins.

What I saw was totally unfamiliar.

Somehow, I had ended up nowhere near my apartment. I must have gotten off the bus at the wrong stop in my distraction.

I should have noticed the growing darkness! Wherever I was, streetlights seemed to be an endangered species. The buildings were all tall, windowless, and made of brick. There was a shop here and there, but the shops' windows were broken or boarded up, and I didn't feel like going into them.

Everything seemed ominous.

A man dressed in black that looked like he could have been a mass murderer sneered at me as he walked by. He was missing several teeth.

Scenes from horror movies I'd seen flashed through my head. This was the kind of location that those things happened! People kidnapped, robbed, raped, brutally murdered, and/or left to die a slow painful death!

Ew. That does not sound pleasant.

I shuddered and abruptly turned around and started walking back the way I'd come.

I looked up at the sky. What time was it?

I glanced at the clock on my phone and felt a mixture of surprise and a scare. There was no way that I'd been texting Gabby for a solid two hours! I should have noticed the time slipping by! Of course, I'd also been talking to Jeremy and Cassandra and Tanya... still! Two hours?

That meant that it was 6:00.

It was early November.

Which meant that it was it starting to get pretty dark.

My anxiety level seemed to increase with the growing darkness.

Well, I couldn't wait around here in the dark for something horrible to happen to me!

I took out my cell phone again to call Myra or the police, whichever one I would need. But then I saw a very scary looking man - at least I think it was a man - with piercings dripping from his ears, his nose, his eyebrows, his lips, and even his tongue. He (?) had spiky blue hair that stood on end in high, foot-long spikes.

He was leaning against a brick building and leering at me.

He was smoking something that didn't smell like a cigarette.

I didn't like the way he eyed my now-lit up phone. I slipped it back into my pocked as nonchalantly as I could.

I could hear my heart thud in my head; it's speed increased as I neared the creep. But I had to get passed him - I had come from that direction!

Again, I felt like I was in some horror movie; I could almost hear the creepy music playing in the background.

I picked up my pace.

I couldn't resist squeezing my eyes shut in my nervousness as I passed him. I felt a shiver go up and down my back. Then I thought I felt breath on the back of my neck, and I couldn't resist looking backwards.

To my utter horror, the man had stood up, stomped out his smoke, and started to stalk me.

I pulled out my phone again, this time to call 911. But before I could push '9', the creep had begun to sprint towards me.

I screamed and started running, but my pursuer was faster than me; he quickly caught up. He tore my backpack from my shoulder. I let him have it and continued to run as fast as my strength would allow. The adrenaline in my system allowed me to run faster than I ever have before, but Blue-Head was still faster.

"Stop!" he yelled. I still wasn't sure if 'he' was a actually a guy or not, but I didn't want to find out that much at the moment, and I kept running.

"You jus' makin' it worst for youself! I'm in ah good mood righ now, but if you keep runnin it aint gonna stay that way!" he continued to yell. His (or her) voice was rough and scratchy sounding.

"I'll call the police!" I shrieked.

I seriously regretted not taking gym that year. I was totally out of shape and the guy was practically treading on my heels. I was panting and had a stitch in my side, but my pursuer was apparently not even the slightest bit winded; I heard him laughing.

"Tell you what, I'm goin' tuh be real nice. I'm goin' tah say, gimmie the jacket, phone, and any money you got, an' than you can go on ur way real nice and pleasent," he said loudly. He sounded amused, "Call the police, and you'll be dead before they get here."

I gulped.

"You may be wondrin why I'm bein so nice. Mostly it's acuz I'm in a good mood and plus you look so damn helpless. Usuly I'd see that as an opportunity, but, as I said, I'm in a good mood."

I slowed down, partly because I couldn't keep running, and partly because I was considering his offer.

I had no reason to trust him, I knew that, but taking this chance was better than just letting him mob me and leave me dying in the street, right? Or, if he was a guy, rape me. Maybe, this way, there was a chance I would walk away from this relatively unscathed.

I stopped.

"Fine!" I snorted. I tried to sound indignant. I don't think it worked. I was still very out of breath, and shaking from fear.

I tossed my phone, backpack, and jacket over to Blue-Head. Losing my stuff wasn't a big deal really, my parents could just buy me a new ipod nano and cell phone. They wouldn't care. They traveled a lot, and out of guilt, bought me whatever I wanted. The only catch was that I had to stay out of their way. That wasn't too hard. They were so rarely around, I would never have a chance of getting in their way.

Maybe I'd get a detention for losing my homework.

Maybe I'd get a lot of detentions. One from every class.

I could imagine telling my teacher what'd happened.

"A gangster stole my homework." Yeah right. At least it was a step-up from the classic excuse, "My dog ate my homework.", though it wasn't too high of an upgrade.

The real problem was losing my only way to call home.

At least Blue-Head was happy. He smiled a creepy, toothless smile and casually walked in the opposite direction from me with his loot.

I felt relieved.

Almost.

I was still alone and lost in New York City at night. And in a bad neighborhood too.

I walked on.

I shivered.

I regreted giving up my coat. It was starting to get pretty cold, even with a sweater and shirt underneath.

I could see my breath.

Whatever road I was on didn't have any cars going by in it, so I couldn't try hitchiking or anything. Not that I would want to hitchhike in any cars that would go through here.

Luckily, nobody else approached me, even though I passed quite a few misshapen, shabby, and unfortunate beings.

Well, I thought, this is what I get, I guess, for wanting an adventure.

This morning I'd come up with the whole plan: something exciting would happen to me that night. I had wanted a break from my totally boring life. I'd yearned for it. I'd even pictured myself in the dark with something spinning around me so fast... well, now maybe it'd be my life spinning around me.

It was dark. Something exciting (but not in the good way I'd assumed) was happening to me. The old saying, 'Be Careful What You Wish For' rang in my mind.

Eventually I came to a tiny space between two buildings that I could slip through.

I did, but I had to go sideways.

The only reason I went through the crack was because I hoped that on the other side of these buildings would be a familiar street - or one with people, at least.

I could see a light at the end of the crack.

'The light at the end of the tunnel' - how ironic.

I was shaking, partly form the cold, and partly from fear.

I felt compressed - like a sandwich - between the cold bricks of the buildings on either side of me.

Finally, I plunged out of the crack, wishing with every fiber of my being that I would end up on a busy street.

I saw a streetlight. Nothing more. I tried to continue towards it but something stopped me from going anywhere.

I didn't see anything blocking my way. But something - crazily enough - something seemingly invisible prevented me from moving forward. It was as if a glass wall stood in my way.

I could still see the streetlight - until it suddenly went out.

I started to panic.

I took a step backwards, but something stopped me from going backwards too!

This was not good - I was claustrophobic.

I tried to go to one side and then the other, but something stopped me from going either way too.

I was trapped in an invisible box.

I started screaming.

Whatever was blocking my way was smooth, hard, and cold. As I said, just like glass. The thought - the hope - that this would be as fragile as glass suddenly occurred to me.

I started to pound on the surface in front of me as hard as I could with both my hands balled up into fists.

I didn't stop screaming.

I felt like everything was surrounding me, pushing on me from all sides; like I was a caged animal in a zoo. And the cage was getting smaller.

Soon the walls would render me totally incapacitated; I swore the walls kept getting closer!

That was I always how felt in small, enclosed spaces.

This was worse because I couldn't even see what I was enclosed in!

My stomach lurched and I started to sweat.

My head spun.

My breath came heavy and hard; I stopped screaming.

I suddenly realized that my invisible box was moving, and moving at alarming pace. My eyes rolled back into my head as I slumped to the floor of my box, but, unfortunately I stayed conscious.

Author's Note: If you're reading this for the first time, please note that I'm re-writing this right now, so if the next chapter really really sucks, (worse than this) you'll know that I didn't get that far in the re-writing. If you're reading this for not-the-first time, I'm sorry, but when I rewrite it, I think it deletes your reviews... SORRY! But thanks for the reviews in the first place!