Raven sat down in the seat designated for her. A crew member came up and kept brushing her hair and dabbing more make-up on her face, and she had to shoo him away. Taking a deep breath, the interviewer came up and shook her hand.

"Hello Ms. Alexander, I'm Kenneth Smith, and I'll be conducting your interview. So what I want you to do for me is to just tell me the whole story, from the beginning. That's all, but if something becomes too painful, we can stop at any time. All right?"

"Y-y-yes sir." Raven said nervously, but inwardly cursed herself for sounding so pathetic. Mr. Smith just smiled.

"O.K. now, lets go back to the beginning a couple days before your kidnapping. What was going on at that time?"

"Well…."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

FINALLY!! School was out. I'm free at last. Lila Tess looked back laughing and smiling.

"Come on Raven!! Let's go celebrate! Oh! I have a better idea, lets go to the mall and see what kind of attention we can attract." I just smiled and agreed. Lila was the more flamboyant partner of our friendship, and wasn't afraid to share her opinion to anyone.

Walking into the mall, it was full of people bustling around loaded down with shopping bags preparing for the long Texas summer months ahead. Lila and I walked to our favorite milkshake shop. I ordered my usual, double chocolate with oreos on top.

Slurping happily at our usual table, we watched as some guys walked by. Lila put on her "face" as I always called it, What a flirt, smiling slightly she batted her eyelashes just enough then turned to me as if we were having a deep conversation.

"Which one do you think is the cutest? I'm thinking the tall one…but the shorter one with blond hair isn't bad either. Oh! So many choices." She kept complaining. But I wasn't really paying attention, for one particular set of eyes had caught my attention.

Vivid green eyes held mine, the facial features were hard and rigid. And gave off a very masculine aurora, which I was very intrigued by, the light brown hair on top was short cut, and what I could see of his body looked as if it was made of stone. The kind of body only many people dreamed of having. He looked as if he were a soldier. But the voice of a teenage boy broke my concentration.

"Does your friend there have a problem or something??" I looked up and flushed. Grinning sheepishly I ducked my head down, too embarrassed to actually make eye contact with the person who was talking once again.

"Rave, are you coming? I said I was going to go walking with my new friends, are you in?" I looked at Lila, and finally found my voice.

"Yeah sure, I'll come. I need to find a new shirt, so lets stop at my favorite store while we're walking." As I got up, I looked to see where the mysterious guy was, but he wasn't there, typical. But as I walked with Lila and the new guys, I saw those eyes again. Looking, staring, all the way into my soul almost. Silly girl, I thought, he's not interested. He obviously has a staring problem or you have something on your face.

During this little war between myself, I looked back to where he was, and saw him walking across to where we were walking. And also the whole time we walked, talked, and shopped I noticed, just casually, that he seemed to be there too. Brushing it off, I didn't see the need to mention it to anyone else, but I later learned that that was a bad choice to have made.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"So that was your first encounter with Mr. Riley?" Mr. Smith asked.

"Yes, it was. But it definitely wasn't the last. I saw him a couple other times before my kidnapping."

"I see, please continue."

________________________________________________________________________

The next week, Mom asked me to go to the grocery store to get a couple of items she had forgotten. Grabbing a cart, I began my hunt so I could go back home as quickly as possible. While shopping, I felt like I was being watched. Looking around carefully on both ends of the aisle, I didn't see anyone. And went back to my search for the cheapest feminine necessity.

Once again, the feeling came back, trying to outsmart my stalker. I looked up quickly and saw, none the less, the guy from the mall. This time standing up looking casually at body wash. Giving him a look up and down I saw just how large he really was. An easy six inches taller than me, and twice as big. I looked back down at the package I had in my hand.

Quickly throwing it in my cart, I all but ran to the check-out line. The old cashier lady looked at me skeptically over her thick rimmed glasses. I just looked back with a look on my face saying, "Are you going to check it out or will I have to?".

Walking to my car, silently cursing the stupid old lady that was checking out my items, because she took so long, I didn't realize that until I had gotten into my car that there in front of me across the way was the same guy staring once again into my eyes.

And I began cursing him too. What does he have a staring problem?? Ugh! Why does everything have to be such a problem with people. First the lady goes slower than Christmas to scan all my five items. Then some freaky guy is looking into my soul! What did I do to deserve this??? I mumbled that all to myself on the way home. But sadly, once again, I was blind to see that I was being followed.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"He followed you home?" Smith interrupted.

"Yes, he did. I didn't see him until I had already pulled into the driveway, and was getting out of the car. He was driving slow enough for me to see his face."

"And was that the night he took you?"

"No, it's not. That was the first time I had seen him drive by my house. He didn't take me until the next week. When I was at a party actually."

"That's right. O.K. well lets skip to the night of the party then. Please tell me about all of it."

________________________________________________________________________

"Rave!!! Get your butt down here! We have to go, I promise your lusciously curly brown hair that is always perfect, looks absolutely fine." Lila screamed, although she was just in the room next to me.

"All right, all right quit your screaming. The neighbors are going to think something is happening to you."

"Well hurry up. Weston expects us in like five minutes. We got to go!"

"Yes ma'am! Lets hit the road."

So we were off, getting to the Weston's house didn't take as long as Lila made it out to be. But whatever. Weston was my best guy friend, the best one a girl could ever have. We had known each other since before we could walk. And tonight was his turn amongst the neighborhood kids to hold a party at his house.

A couple hours later, I had to make an ice run. I'm not one for big parties, so I was willing to leave. Walking to Mrs. Wilma's house down the road, I knocked on the door explaining that I was there to pick up the extra ice she was holding for us. She left me at the door and went inside the house to go get my request.

The feeling of being watched again crept on me. I looked around quickly and saw a truck that I hadn't noticed before. It was him. I tried to stay calm, I wasn't going to start freaking out. Taking the ice, I started to haul the five pound bag back to Weston's house.

Then I heard the sound of a car door shutting. And I quickened my pace. The sound of footsteps behind me. Crunch, crunch, crunch. My heart started to pound in my chest as I tried to control my breathing. All of a sudden, BAM!…black.