• ‘Twelve past eleven’ Brenda thought as she looked at her watch.
    With her graduation party a couple of friend have thrown for her, she lost track of time.
    The morning warm air had disappeared and now only the cold of night surrounded her. She wore a short red dress and stiletto red heals which were killing her feet. Earlier that day she spent an hour trying to curl her hair that now were undone. Her head was hurting and so she decided to take a shortcut to her house. She knew it wasn’t the safest way to go but she didn’t want to get in trouble at home again.
    It was a dark alley with only the back of old apartment buildings surrounding it. Usually homeless people or drug dealers roamed these parts of the streets but tonight it was quiet and Brenda didn’t feel unsafe. She walked a little further and one of her heals got caught in the crack of the cement.
    “s**t!” she said and took the shoes off with anger.
    ‘Why do girls have to suffer in these stupid things?’ She thought.
    For some reason, she didn’t know exactly why, she stopped and looked around. Her heart started to beat a little faster and she started to walk again. The wind blew and brought shivers to her bare back. As her feet hit the warm cement she quickened her pace. Every step she took fear started to build up as if awaiting for something to strike.
    “Hello Brenda” a voice said as three shapes came out of the shadows and surrounded her. She felt her heart drop to the floor and her legs almost gave in. A tall dark figure about her age stepped in front.
    “Long time no see” he said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
    “W…Who are you?” Brenda finally managed to say.
    She could see him staring right trough her like he was trying to see if she was lying.
    “Man, she’s still in the C-Zone” one of the figures surrounding her said.
    She didn’t understand what was happening, ‘the C-Zone?’ ‘What is that?’ She thought. With no reaction to her confusion the young man snapped his fingers and before Brenda could do anything she felt a sharp pain in the back of her head. Everything went black and she could feel gravity working against her as her body slowly started to fall to the ground. But before she hid the cement her hands shot up and blocked her fall. A smile slowly spread over her lips and she looked up. “Well, well, well” she said with the smile.
    “You didn’t have to hit me you know.”
    She picked herself to her feet and looked the figure up and down. She saw his hair fall over his dark eyes that hid something mysterious and she knew exactly who he was.
    “Shall I reintroduce myself?” he asked knowing well enough that he didn’t have to. “Alan” Brenda said with certainty “you’ve changed since the last time I saw you.” Looking around, she saw a trashcan on the side of the alley not too far away. With a motion of her wrist the can flew a few inches of the ground and at rapid speed started to fly towards the figure named Alan. Alan put his right palm up and stopped the can with no hesitation. The emotionless expression on his face soon turned into anger and through clutched teeth he said “enough playing these games! I want my medallion back!”
    Brenda almost started laughing “medallion?!” “ who in the world says that anymore?”
    “Brenda I want it BACK!!” he yelled.
    The laughter now had disappeared and she looked straight into his eyes and said “I don’t have your stupid necklace.”
    Now with anger still in the air he came inches close to her face and grabbed her blond wavy hair. Brenda felt his mind working into hers, “I am stronger than you!” he whispered in her ear. A satisfactory smile came across his face.
    “Hurry before she snaps back” one of his partners said.
    He let go of her hair and stepped back. Then the figures disappeared into the darkness. “ I’ll be back.” The wind blew and Brenda felt light headed.
    “Oh no” she said to the midnight air. Everything went black again. She dropped to the ground and laid there for no known time. The warm smell of the cement woke her up and she managed to carefully get up.
    A quarter past midnight her watch showed. ‘How can that be?’ She thought, ‘did I fall and pass out?’ Everything around her was tilting and she didn’t know how the time had slipped her by. She walked through the alley until she got to the corner of her street. Waiting under the street sign she felt relaxed in the darkness. A part of her liked the dark night, the stars, the moon, the cool breeze, everything seemed right.
    She walked to her old little house with the white fence surrounding it like a womb. Her family wasn’t very rich but they managed to make a living. Lifting the front door’s rug she took the extra key and put it into the lock. The lock clicked and she walked into the dim lighted house. She didn’t notice the figure in the darkness until she started to walk up the stairs.
    “Were have you been?”
    “Mom?!” she answered surprised.
    “I….I…I just lost track of time, a…and I was having so much fun” “I’m sorry” she said with embarrassment.
    “Do you have any idea how worried I was? What if something happened to you?” her voice seemed more worried than angry.
    “You can stop worrying about me! I’m seventeen already and I graduated high school, so just drop it!” Brenda said starting to get mad. The headache was overwhelming and all she wanted to do was take a warm shower and go to sleep. “Don’t you know that you’ll never be old enough for me to stop worrying about you?” her mom said with a motherly voice. Brenda couldn’t help but smile “I know mom, I’m your baby girl” she hugged her mom and started to head up to the bathroom.


    * * *

    “Brenda breakfast!” her mom yelled down the hall to her room. The warm smell of bacon, eggs, and pancakes filled her nostrils as she lifted her head and rubbed her eyes off sleep.
    She looked at her wrist watch 8:25am it read. ‘Great Delran probably got to all the food.’ She put on her fussy pink slippers and headed to the kitchen. One of the pictures on the hall was crooked and it bugged her so much that after passing it she returned and fixed it. “There” she said with a relieved smiled and headed back. Her hair was a total mess but she hated taking showers in the morning so she looked like she hadn’t slept in ages with the bags under her eyes. She pulled out the wooden chair and sat behind the table. The plate in front of her was a smiley face of food.
    “Hey Brenda check this out: an unrecognizable man found three miles from town Millay” her father was reading the news paper and on the front page it read in big letters “Burt Body Found” she rolled her eyes.
    “Dad why do you read that stuff? There’s more important things to worry about than some dead guy.”
    Her little brother was shoving food into his mouth with increasing pace.
    “You’re a little pig you know that?”
    He opened his mouth full of chewed food and stuck out his tongue.
    “Mom!!”
    “Delran eat your food, and you” she pointed at Brenda. “Don’t think I forgot about last night you are grounded missy.”
    “But that’s not fair…” Brenda protested.
    “Ha ha” Delran managed to say with his mouth full of food.
    “You chew your food before you speak” she gave him a side glance.
    “It wasn’t fair for me to sit up and wait for you.”
    “I promised Cassie that I’d go to the movies with her.”
    Her mother put her hands on her hips “you should of thought of that before you stayed passed your curfew.”
    “Ugh! This is so unfair!” She pushed the food away and with anger rushed to her room slamming the door behind her.
    The phone rang and she picked it up.
    “Hello?” she answered with anger still in her voice.
    “Did you get into another fight with your mom?” the voice on the line asked.
    “Don’t even get me started, that woman is unreasonable” Brenda looked out the window, the sky turned a little darker. She thought it was just her eyes “so listen since I don’t have a car, ok if we walk?”
    “Brenda you have to get alone with your mom ‘cause I’m sick of walking all the time.”
    “Well are you going to come or not?” Brenda asked getting a bit annoyed.
    “You know I always come” Cassie answered and hung up the phone.
    Brenda put on skinny jeans and a graphic tee. She looked in the mirror and was satisfied.
    The air outside was cold as she popped open the window and started to climb out. She jumped down and looked up at the sky. Grey clouds were forming above her and she headed towards the front of the neighbors house. Cassie was already waiting for her.
    “What took you so long?” she asked.
    “Well I have to look good don’t I?” she batted her eyelashes and they started walking up the street to the mall.
    Cassie shivered and grabbed onto Brenda’s arm.
    “What’s with you?” Brenda asked.
    “Dunno, I got this weird feeling suddenly” she answered.
    They kept on walking and for some reason Brenda felt like someone was watching them. She quickened her pace and Cassie followed behind.
    A worried look came on to Cassie’s face “you feel it too ha?”
    “Its probably nothing, maybe it’s the weather.”
    Cassie nodded not believe that that was the reason. Walking further they both stopped and looked back, a black van was creeping slowly behind them.
    “Ok now we are definitely being watched” Cassie whispered with panic in her voice.
    “Just keep walking” Brenda reassured her. Suddenly the van picked up speed and headed towards them.
    “What the…”
    Before Brenda could finish her sentence it swerved in front of them and the side door flew open. Two man wearing suits grabbed her and pulled her in kicking and trying to fight back. Cassie was paralyzed. She couldn’t move or say anything. After less than ten minutes all was quite; the van was gone…and so was Brenda.