Mile six. Go Leah, go. My heart was pumping through my chest, my breath was becoming shallower and shallower, but I could see my house, it was coming into sight. I couldn't give up now. With my last reserve of strength I powered through a heavy rock song beating into my ears, sprinting all the way to the driveway of the monstrocity of a house I live in. Practically limping I stumbled in.

When I got in something felt off. Did I really leave my cell phone on the couch, even though I could've sworn I put it on the table as I was leaving to begin my run? Weren't the curtains opened? I tried to shake the thought out as I slid the elastic out of my thick brown hair. Hair that Seventeen magazine lovingly describes as "relaxed", the hair that definitely isn't straight but also doesn't venture into the wavy or curly category either. I looked in the mirror at my paranoid grayish-blue eyes, my athletic body tense. I took a deep breath and tried not to think about it.

After a shower and changing into a soft pair of jeans and a worn t-shirt, it happened.

A hand clamped down over my mouth and another grabbed me around the waist. I kicked desperately as I was lifted into the air and tried to scream, but it was too muffled to do any good. I tried to get a decent look at my captor. He couldn't have been over 18 from the fevered glances I managed to get. But he was strong. He was silent as he carried me, still thrashing around desperately. I was thrown into the back of a maroon van, and the door was slammed and locked behind me. I was immersed in complete darkness.

I couldn't help it. I started to cry on the spot. I pulled my knees against my chest and rocked back and forth, trying to calm myself down. But I was in a state of complete and utter panic.

And that's when I came face to face with Jason McCann.

Everyone in the Nevada area and probably beyond had heard of Alex and Jason McCann. The school they went to couldn't have been twenty minutes away from mine, and kids knew kids who knew kids. The whole thing had been a fascination for weeks. What I couldn't understand was why I had been dragged into it now.

"Crying won't really help you much," Jason said darkly. He had opened the door of the van and slid in next to me, carrying a flashlight and handcuffs.

"I hope you're not planning to use those on me," I snapped, turning away from him.

"There's not really a lot you can do about it though, sweetie," he said. He clicked the flashlight on and climbed on top of me, effectively weighing me down as he clicked a cuff on one wrist, then wrapping the chain around a bar before clicking the other one in. "These things always come in handy. Stealing from cops never really has much of a downside."

"Besides the whole karma thing," I said.

"Karma's a load of shit," Jason said, still on top of me, his hair falling onto his face. I could see he had a black eye. Curiosity overtook me but I figured he didn't really want to talk about it.

"I don't know, seems pretty reasonable to me," I said. I'd gone from crying to carrying on a conversation with Jason McCann in about four minutes. "It's like everything has an equal and opposite reaction, you know?"

"Kind of explains what I do. They killed my brother, I'll kill them," Jason said.

"Whoa now, who are you killing?"

"The cops that killed Alex," Jason's face softened for a fraction of a second. "He was the only person I had, the only person in the entire world. And they killed him like he was a monster."

"I'm sure they were just doing their jobs..."

"Bullshit," Jason interrupted, but didn't elaborate on this thesis. Instead he finally got off of me. The bar that I was chained to was low enough so that I could lay down without being extremely uncomfortable. I tried to make that a positive part of this situation.

The van started up and began to rumble along. I knew that we were leaving my house, my home, probably my town. I started to cry again, a deep, silent cry.

"I'm not happy about this either, but the money your father will give us for a ransom..."

"What?" I exclaimed. "You can't do that!"

"Actually," Jason said, looking down at me, "I'm doing it right now. Like or not, your family's loaded, and we need money for supplies." He absent-mindedly traced circles on my leg with his index finger. "We're just going to keep you with us for a few days, and once daddy pays for you we'll let you free, no worse for wear."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "I can't say it'll be the same for you."

Jason laughed humorlessly. "You're spirited," he said, climbing on top of me again. He lifted up my t-shirt and began trailing slow kisses on my ribcage. I was absolutely still, holding my breath as goosebumps pricked on my skin. "I love this control I have over you," he breathed, hot. The temperature of his breath mixed with the wet spots left by his kisses, and I shivered involuntarily.

"Jason," I heard a voice say. "We gotta talk you about something." I looked up. It was the guy who grabbed me, I'm sure of it. Jason began to get off me, but before he did, his hot, aroused breath whispered in my ear.

"We'll continue this later, baby," he said. He sucked on my earlobe for a second before getting up and following his friend, where they spoke in hushed tones. I was left alone, wondering what that moment meant. And even if I sort of well, liked it.