Scarlette was downstairs watching TV with her new puppy, Max, when
she heard a knock at the door. She was home alone and she was told not to
answer the door, but she decided to answer it anyways. She tried to look
out the peep hole, but the man at the door had a hat on and had his head
tilted down so she couldn't see his face. When she opened the door she saw
that the man also had a briefcase in his hand as if he was selling some new
product. But there was something very suspicious about this man.
Scarlette had had many door to door salesmen come to her door before, but
this one was in someway different.
"Yes?" The 14 year old girl said with a bit of attitude about it. "If you're selling something, I'm not interested," and Scarlette started to close the door, but the man stuck the briefcase into the door to prevent it from shutting.
The man giggled a bit then said, "I'm not selling anything, I'm here for you!" At that point his face turned to a scowl.
Scarlette didn't understand until the man pulled out a gun and simply said, "Follow me, or get shot. Don't bother screaming either, I'll shoot you and run, simple as that." Scarlette then felt very faint and the last thing she remembered was her mom saying to her, "Scarlette, remember not to open the door to anyone, and I mean it."
When she awoke, Scarlette was in the passenger's seat of a car with a horrible odor to it. "Whe, where am I," she said quietly, half to herself.
"You're in my car. Don't you remember anything? Stupid girl," Said the man Scarlette had opened her door to back at her home. Then Scarlette remembered everything. Every word that was spoken came flooding back into her memory and she had to close her eyes the pictures in her mind were so vivid.
"Yah, I remember that you took me away from my house, let me go or I'll scream for the police to come!" Scarlette yelled with tears starting to come down her cheeks."
"So you don't remember everything do you? I have a gun remember, if you don't shut up by yourself, I'll make you shut up!" He picked up the gun quickly and pointed it toward the frightened girl. Scarlette gasped and then silently nodded and lay back in her chair and tried to remember the date and maybe try to judge what time it was, since the car she was in was old and had no clock in it. Then she remembered that it was March 25, 2001, a Sunday. She looked at the sky and judged it to be around 2:00 in the afternoon, though it was hard to tell because it was slightly overcast. If she was right and it was 2:00 her parents wouldn't be home for another four hours because they were shopping and told her they would be back at 6:00.
Scarlette then decided to look around the car and try to judge what kind of guy her kidnapper was. She saw a picture of a woman about 20 with a baby in her arms. She wondered why the man had her picture in her car and who she was. She couldn't see how the man could have a wife or even a girlfriend with his temper.
The odor seemed to be stronger now and Scarlette suddenly realized that it was alcohol. She hoped the man had just gotten drunk and when he came to his senses he would return her. But no, she thought, this kidnap must've been planned out; because how else would he have known Scarlette would be home alone at that time?
Little did Scarlette know, her kidnapper's name was Joe Schumacher, and he was a serious alcoholic with a very bad anger management problem. Joe kept mostly to himself and almost never went outside. Some of his neighbors didn't even realize that anyone lived in his house. He was always either out getting drunk at the local bar or at a strip joint.
Scarlette was so busy chewing on her shirt sleeve nervously that she forgot that she should look outside to see where she was going if she could escape. She was so happy when she looked outside the car she almost screamed! They were in a very nice neighborhood with big luxurious houses all around. She knew that most of the time nice people lived in neighborhoods like this and that someone would figure out that she was kidnapped and save her.
The car suddenly started to slow down and pull up to one of the nicer houses on the street. Joe looked at Scarlette and said, "Do you like this house?"
"Well," Scarlette said nervously, afraid to say the wrong thing, "it looks very nice."
"Good," Said Joe, "because your gonna have a little friend come and join you from this house. When I go up to that door, your gonna stay here like a good girl, unless you want to get hurt really bad," said Joe pointing to the gun that was tucked under his belt.
Scarlette managed to squeak out a little, "OK" but anything more than that seemed almost impossible after having her life threatened again. She looked out the window of the car helplessly towards the front door of the house and she saw a cute boy about her age with brown hair and beautiful hazel eyes answer the door in the same rude manner that she had just about an hour before. When Joe didn't even have to pull out the gun and the boy did not faint as Scarlette had done, but obediently followed behind the man looking around him with a helpless look in his eyes, but not the same look as Scarlette had in hers. His look was of sad helplessness. Scarlette wanted to know what was going on and why he didn't look the same way as she did, but she wasn't about to ask any questions.
When the boy got in the car he sat in the seat behind hers and just looked down while silent tears ran down his cheeks. When Joe got into the drivers seat he said to the boy, "This is Scarlette, her parents died in the car collision also. Scarlette, this is Sean, his parents were also killed during the car collision." The boy looked up at Scarlette but only for a second and Scarlette could not distinguish what the look in his eyes was. She looked at Joe with a confused look in her eyes, but the way Joe looked at her she knew she was not to say a word about the story Joe had made up to get Sean into his car.
In no time they were driving rather fast again down the highway and Scarlette wanted in someway to tell Sean that his parents weren't dead, but that Scarlette and he were being kidnapped. She thought desperately about it but could come up with nothing. Then she remembered she still knew some Morse code. She hoped that Sean also knew it and that Joe didn't know why Scarlette was tapping. Scarlette tried very hard to communicate to Sean the word kidnap then her name and his name, but it seamed that either he wasn't listening or that he didn't know Morse code.
Scarlette gave up after trying to communicate this message three times because she knew it was hopeless. She thought for another way and then remembered if she looked into the side mirror on the car at a certain angle she could see the back seat where Sean was sitting. She shifted into a new position where she could look into the back seat better, but when she saw Sean, he was still looking down with silent tears.
She was alone in trying to get them out, and she had no idea what to do. All she could do was wait for someone to find them and rescue them. She looked out the window again as silent tears streamed down her face.
She sensed Sean looking at her so she wiped her tears and looked forward again. She felt a hand on her shoulder and knew he was trying to comfort her. She reached up to her shoulder and held his hand as she started to cry again, knowing that she may never see her parents ever again. She wished she could just run into their comforting arms.
Scarlette became lost in a dream world of her and her parents and didn't realize how much time had passed until they reached their final destination. During the time she was daydreaming Joe told Sean that his parents weren't killed and that Sean would have to listen to every word that Joe said because if he didn't Joe would kill him. She could tell that Sean was scared, and that he still wanted to look strong for her protection.
The car pulled up to a 1 story old beat up looking house. It wasn't in a big neighborhood; in fact it looked as if it was the only house on their street. Then Scarlette thought of something, what if Joe had kidnapped even more children and had them all hidden in his house? There couldn't be more than 5 people living in the house because it simply wasn't big enough.
When the walked up to the house, Scarlette and Sean were both very scared, and they held hands as they walked up to the new place that they would be living in for now, until they could escape.
When they got to the front door of the step, Joe unlocked the door and had then go in first, so they couldn't run behind his back. The first room was what looked like the family room. It had an old beat up couch with a TV that was pretty new looking, so Scarlette figured that it was stolen. She could see that the house was not big at all and that down the hallway there were only two bedrooms and one bathroom. To their right was the kitchen, which seemed to be barely as big as a bathroom. Then Scarlette thought of something, if there were only two bedrooms, which would mean that Sean and she would have to share one. This made Scarlette very uncomfortable and she shifted her wait away from Sean.
Joe then grabbed them both by the sleeve of their shirts and rather violently showed them down the hall to their room. Scarlette was right; they would have to share one. The room had no windows for them to escape out of and Scarlette also noted that the door had a lock on it. Then Scarlette knew they would be locked in here until they were found, or until something else happened to them.
Joe told them that they were to live here until he got the money from their parents for giving them back. He told them that if they made any unusual noise they wouldn't see they're parents or anyone they knew ever again. He also told them that they would get one meal a day and that he didn't want to spend too much time or money on them, so just to be good. They were allowed to use the bathroom once in the morning and once before they go to sleep. Then Joe left them in the room alone and for the first time Scarlette noticed the room. It was fairly small with bunk beds and only one dresser. There was no closet and the only way out of the room was the door that had just been locked.
Scarlette started to panic and was about to cry when she heard Sean's voice very calmly say, "Don't worry, we can get out of this alive." He came over to her and put his arm around her like they were old friends. Scarlette didn't understand how he could be so calm about all of this that was happening. She looked at him and for the first time realized that she did know Sean. He had been in her 4th grade class when they were still just children. They were never really good friends but Scarlette had a feeling that she would get a chance to get to know him now.
Scarlette wished desperately she could see out the window so she could try to judge what time it was. She scanned the room looking at anything that might convey what time it was. There was nothing. Nothing on the dresser, nothing on the ground. But then she saw it. Sean had a watch on! 'It's a miracle' she thought. She grabbed Sean's wrist and looked at the time. It was 6:12. Her parents had just gotten home if they were still on time. They may have called most of her friends to see if she was over their house also. They must know by now. She was missing and maybe the police were already after her. She hoped they would hurry and find her.
"Yes?" The 14 year old girl said with a bit of attitude about it. "If you're selling something, I'm not interested," and Scarlette started to close the door, but the man stuck the briefcase into the door to prevent it from shutting.
The man giggled a bit then said, "I'm not selling anything, I'm here for you!" At that point his face turned to a scowl.
Scarlette didn't understand until the man pulled out a gun and simply said, "Follow me, or get shot. Don't bother screaming either, I'll shoot you and run, simple as that." Scarlette then felt very faint and the last thing she remembered was her mom saying to her, "Scarlette, remember not to open the door to anyone, and I mean it."
When she awoke, Scarlette was in the passenger's seat of a car with a horrible odor to it. "Whe, where am I," she said quietly, half to herself.
"You're in my car. Don't you remember anything? Stupid girl," Said the man Scarlette had opened her door to back at her home. Then Scarlette remembered everything. Every word that was spoken came flooding back into her memory and she had to close her eyes the pictures in her mind were so vivid.
"Yah, I remember that you took me away from my house, let me go or I'll scream for the police to come!" Scarlette yelled with tears starting to come down her cheeks."
"So you don't remember everything do you? I have a gun remember, if you don't shut up by yourself, I'll make you shut up!" He picked up the gun quickly and pointed it toward the frightened girl. Scarlette gasped and then silently nodded and lay back in her chair and tried to remember the date and maybe try to judge what time it was, since the car she was in was old and had no clock in it. Then she remembered that it was March 25, 2001, a Sunday. She looked at the sky and judged it to be around 2:00 in the afternoon, though it was hard to tell because it was slightly overcast. If she was right and it was 2:00 her parents wouldn't be home for another four hours because they were shopping and told her they would be back at 6:00.
Scarlette then decided to look around the car and try to judge what kind of guy her kidnapper was. She saw a picture of a woman about 20 with a baby in her arms. She wondered why the man had her picture in her car and who she was. She couldn't see how the man could have a wife or even a girlfriend with his temper.
The odor seemed to be stronger now and Scarlette suddenly realized that it was alcohol. She hoped the man had just gotten drunk and when he came to his senses he would return her. But no, she thought, this kidnap must've been planned out; because how else would he have known Scarlette would be home alone at that time?
Little did Scarlette know, her kidnapper's name was Joe Schumacher, and he was a serious alcoholic with a very bad anger management problem. Joe kept mostly to himself and almost never went outside. Some of his neighbors didn't even realize that anyone lived in his house. He was always either out getting drunk at the local bar or at a strip joint.
Scarlette was so busy chewing on her shirt sleeve nervously that she forgot that she should look outside to see where she was going if she could escape. She was so happy when she looked outside the car she almost screamed! They were in a very nice neighborhood with big luxurious houses all around. She knew that most of the time nice people lived in neighborhoods like this and that someone would figure out that she was kidnapped and save her.
The car suddenly started to slow down and pull up to one of the nicer houses on the street. Joe looked at Scarlette and said, "Do you like this house?"
"Well," Scarlette said nervously, afraid to say the wrong thing, "it looks very nice."
"Good," Said Joe, "because your gonna have a little friend come and join you from this house. When I go up to that door, your gonna stay here like a good girl, unless you want to get hurt really bad," said Joe pointing to the gun that was tucked under his belt.
Scarlette managed to squeak out a little, "OK" but anything more than that seemed almost impossible after having her life threatened again. She looked out the window of the car helplessly towards the front door of the house and she saw a cute boy about her age with brown hair and beautiful hazel eyes answer the door in the same rude manner that she had just about an hour before. When Joe didn't even have to pull out the gun and the boy did not faint as Scarlette had done, but obediently followed behind the man looking around him with a helpless look in his eyes, but not the same look as Scarlette had in hers. His look was of sad helplessness. Scarlette wanted to know what was going on and why he didn't look the same way as she did, but she wasn't about to ask any questions.
When the boy got in the car he sat in the seat behind hers and just looked down while silent tears ran down his cheeks. When Joe got into the drivers seat he said to the boy, "This is Scarlette, her parents died in the car collision also. Scarlette, this is Sean, his parents were also killed during the car collision." The boy looked up at Scarlette but only for a second and Scarlette could not distinguish what the look in his eyes was. She looked at Joe with a confused look in her eyes, but the way Joe looked at her she knew she was not to say a word about the story Joe had made up to get Sean into his car.
In no time they were driving rather fast again down the highway and Scarlette wanted in someway to tell Sean that his parents weren't dead, but that Scarlette and he were being kidnapped. She thought desperately about it but could come up with nothing. Then she remembered she still knew some Morse code. She hoped that Sean also knew it and that Joe didn't know why Scarlette was tapping. Scarlette tried very hard to communicate to Sean the word kidnap then her name and his name, but it seamed that either he wasn't listening or that he didn't know Morse code.
Scarlette gave up after trying to communicate this message three times because she knew it was hopeless. She thought for another way and then remembered if she looked into the side mirror on the car at a certain angle she could see the back seat where Sean was sitting. She shifted into a new position where she could look into the back seat better, but when she saw Sean, he was still looking down with silent tears.
She was alone in trying to get them out, and she had no idea what to do. All she could do was wait for someone to find them and rescue them. She looked out the window again as silent tears streamed down her face.
She sensed Sean looking at her so she wiped her tears and looked forward again. She felt a hand on her shoulder and knew he was trying to comfort her. She reached up to her shoulder and held his hand as she started to cry again, knowing that she may never see her parents ever again. She wished she could just run into their comforting arms.
Scarlette became lost in a dream world of her and her parents and didn't realize how much time had passed until they reached their final destination. During the time she was daydreaming Joe told Sean that his parents weren't killed and that Sean would have to listen to every word that Joe said because if he didn't Joe would kill him. She could tell that Sean was scared, and that he still wanted to look strong for her protection.
The car pulled up to a 1 story old beat up looking house. It wasn't in a big neighborhood; in fact it looked as if it was the only house on their street. Then Scarlette thought of something, what if Joe had kidnapped even more children and had them all hidden in his house? There couldn't be more than 5 people living in the house because it simply wasn't big enough.
When the walked up to the house, Scarlette and Sean were both very scared, and they held hands as they walked up to the new place that they would be living in for now, until they could escape.
When they got to the front door of the step, Joe unlocked the door and had then go in first, so they couldn't run behind his back. The first room was what looked like the family room. It had an old beat up couch with a TV that was pretty new looking, so Scarlette figured that it was stolen. She could see that the house was not big at all and that down the hallway there were only two bedrooms and one bathroom. To their right was the kitchen, which seemed to be barely as big as a bathroom. Then Scarlette thought of something, if there were only two bedrooms, which would mean that Sean and she would have to share one. This made Scarlette very uncomfortable and she shifted her wait away from Sean.
Joe then grabbed them both by the sleeve of their shirts and rather violently showed them down the hall to their room. Scarlette was right; they would have to share one. The room had no windows for them to escape out of and Scarlette also noted that the door had a lock on it. Then Scarlette knew they would be locked in here until they were found, or until something else happened to them.
Joe told them that they were to live here until he got the money from their parents for giving them back. He told them that if they made any unusual noise they wouldn't see they're parents or anyone they knew ever again. He also told them that they would get one meal a day and that he didn't want to spend too much time or money on them, so just to be good. They were allowed to use the bathroom once in the morning and once before they go to sleep. Then Joe left them in the room alone and for the first time Scarlette noticed the room. It was fairly small with bunk beds and only one dresser. There was no closet and the only way out of the room was the door that had just been locked.
Scarlette started to panic and was about to cry when she heard Sean's voice very calmly say, "Don't worry, we can get out of this alive." He came over to her and put his arm around her like they were old friends. Scarlette didn't understand how he could be so calm about all of this that was happening. She looked at him and for the first time realized that she did know Sean. He had been in her 4th grade class when they were still just children. They were never really good friends but Scarlette had a feeling that she would get a chance to get to know him now.
Scarlette wished desperately she could see out the window so she could try to judge what time it was. She scanned the room looking at anything that might convey what time it was. There was nothing. Nothing on the dresser, nothing on the ground. But then she saw it. Sean had a watch on! 'It's a miracle' she thought. She grabbed Sean's wrist and looked at the time. It was 6:12. Her parents had just gotten home if they were still on time. They may have called most of her friends to see if she was over their house also. They must know by now. She was missing and maybe the police were already after her. She hoped they would hurry and find her.