It was supposed to be the year that her life started, the year where she became an adult. Instead it turned into the worst year of her life and a birthday she would never forget.<br/><br/>Emma Carter lived an average city girl life. She grew up with loving parents and a younger sister, still at the ripe young age of fifteen. She was the first person in her family to be accepted into university, her parents were proud and her sister a little jealous at all the attention she got. She had a boyfriend of two years from highschool that she had only begun having sexual intercourse with. She had made him wait for two years, not wanting to have sex until she had graduated highschool. Her aunt had had her cousin while still in highschool and it ruined her life. Her mother never let her forget. Still, her and her boyfriend were that couple, the couple you hated but also loved because they represented something pure and lovable.<br/><br/>It was the summer before university would begin, she had quit her highschool job to enjoy the last bouts of freedom and childhood. She spent days playing games in the park with her friends, attended those new board game café’s and saw the latest movies in the theatres. Laurent still had his job, opting to take a victory lap of highschool. It annoyed her, his decision. They were supposed to leave high school behind, to grow up together and begin a new chapter in their lives. Instead he had given in to the easiness of highschool, where he was popular and lacked for nothing. So on the days he worked, she spent them with friends and it was through these daily interactions she met someone new. He was an odd character, one her friends giggled about when they were alone, but he was intriguing. He was different, he didn’t care about highschool and the drama that came with it. He was mature, confident but not cocky like Laurent, he didn’t go on about the sports game the previous night nor did he seem distracted when they were together.<br/><br/>It didn’t take long for him to gain her trust, to become her friend and confidant. They began exchanging pictures, talked online to all hours of the night and in the short time they knew each other she thought she felt a little spark. That spark and connection that she hadn’t felt with Laurent in the last few months, since he decided to stay behind.<br/><br/>The night everything changed had been a normal one. She had played several games of online poker on her laptop in her bed while Netflix spoke to her from her tv. She hated silence, hated the feeling of being alone and so there was always some kind of voice or noise in the room. The night grew late and her game came to an end, losing. It wasn’t real money so nothing was really lost save for her pride. She closed the laptop and set it on the end table by her bed. Laurent had to work the next morning so he didn’t stay over. The girl wore a simple grey tank top and stripped girl boxer shorts. She wiggled under the covers and watched out the open window. She could see the tree in the yard rustling its leaves as a breeze blew by. The sound of a car horn in the distance made her smile and close her eyes. The city buzz lulled her to sleep. It was her birthday tomorrow, but there wouldn’t be cake or presents or even loved ones.<br/><br/>Emma woke with a start, a hand around her mouth and another firmly gripping her body, pulling her from her bed. She struggled, how she struggled, though she couldn’t understand what was happening. Was it a dream? The feeling of his warm skin against hers couldn’t be imaginary. She was forced from her window, the image of her dark bedroom laying disheveled and empty etching into her mind. It was her home and she was violated in it. It was only in the car that she saw the person who was doing this. Sweet Marlon, her sweet Marlon. He took her from her bed, the late nights of their talks and games flashed before her eyes. The entire time, had this been his goal? Betrayal crashed around her as she struggled in the backseat, screaming and wriggling like a worm held between pincers.<br/><br/>For awhile she fought but the girl grew tired, hopelessness settling into her chest like a rock. She laid down on the back seat, stretched across it as she stared up at the roof, watching the lights of the cars passing them dance off of it. Emma didn’t eat when he first began offering food but the hunger set it and she soon began playing a different tune. The thirst, she grew angry at him when he spilled water down her chest, making her tank top cling to her breasts like a skin layer of skin. It was cold, sitting in the car in a damp shirt only to produce goosebumps down her pale arms.<br/><br/>When they got to their destination she knew and sat up, feeling the car slowing down and the cement road take on the grumbles of gravel. She looked out the window at the almost quaint village that sprawled before her. Emma fought him as he tried to take her out of the car finding safety in the moving vehicle rather than some unknown town she had the dreaded feeling she would never be leaving. He had forced a rag into her mouth that tasted of sweat and picked her up like she weighed nothing, her body squirming in his grasp. The eyes that followed them were left undisturbed, her attention focused on the man that wrapped his arms around her.<br/><br/>She had seen this episode before, seen the movie. She knew what the farm house meant, knew what the enforced door meant. She struggled, boy did she struggle, her body screamed at him, her muffled terror doing nothing to convince him to let her go. Adrenaline pumped through her veins, feeding her energy and desire to escape, to not let him take her into that cellar. Her nostrils flared as she struggled to breath through the gag, the cloth soaking through with saliva. The cool air hit her skin like a crashing wave as he descended down the steps, the darkness swallowing her as she watched the dim sunlight fade.<br/><br/>He placed her down on the mattress and grabbed her face, placing his warm forehead against her sweaty one. Strands of red hair clung to her forehead and neck, beads of sweat prickled at her skin. Her heart thumped loudly in her chest, threatening to push through her ribcage and fall to the floor between them. His calmness unnerved her, made her feel the vibrations of fear rippling through her body even more. She didn’t understand how he could be so calm.<br/><br/>As soon as a bit of slack in the rope occurred her body began struggling again, wanting free of her bound and to remove the salty rag from her mouth. Each time was met with a slap of her hand and she simply looked at him, unsure what to make of his actions. He was treating her like she was a child after a cookie from the cookie jar, not a kidnapped woman with a rag in her mouth. When the ga was finally removed she gasped for breath as if she hadn’t been breathing the entire time. Her hand went to her chest, feeling the quickened heart beat as it pumped adrenaline and blood through her body. She felt like she could run a marathon, to escape and run the entire way home. At the sound of his voice she looked up at him, her body still sitting on the mattress. Emma sprang up and charged, attempting to run past him towards the door. No fucking way she was staying obediently in that cellar, alone and scared. As she ran at him she screamed, screamed at the top of her lungs in the hopes someone would hear her cry for help. She had seen people, they had seen her. They had to come help her.