I heard a car of some sort pull up to the house. Alarmed, I peeked through the curtains. There was a limo parked outside with two bodyguards. I heard a knock at the door...

...

Amberkin

By JAKSK

I walked over to the front door, terrified. Knowing my mom always said never to open the door, I checked through the peephole first. Surprisingly, it wasn't some random salesperson, but it was my uncle Tim, in a suit. Since I knew it wasn't some creepy stranger, I rushed outside. "Uncle Tim! What are you doing here? Who are those guys?" I asked as I squeezed him tight in a hug. "Trust me. Come get in the car," he said with a blank expression, rather than his usual goofy grin that he usually wears at family gatherings. After all, he was always closer to the kids in our family than his actual siblings and parents.

Regardless of this strange occurrence, I wanted to catch up with him, because I hadn't seen him since the year before. I started to say "So, how've you been?" -but I was quickly hushed. "Don't make me repeat myself again. Get in the car. Trust me."

I wasn't sure if I wanted to, but I walked from the porch to the limo with Tim following me. I looked at everything along the way, thinking I was about to get kidnapped and there would be no chance of me seeing my house ever again. My bicycle, the porch swing with mine, my sister Evelyn's, and another child around my age's handprints on it. The tree I use to climb up to the roof. My perennials, planted in neat rows by the mailbox, which has "The Darons" painted on it with a lighthouse. I got suddenly a little depressed thinking about how much I'd miss it all if I was never able to come back again. Tim seemed to notice, looking over at me and smoothing my frizzy hair for a brief second.

As I approached the long black car, the bodyguards opened the door to reveal a ginormous backseat. I climbed inside. The black leather was warm to the touch and the tinted windows made it hard to see anything outside. In the front seat, my uncle Tim got into the passenger side and closed the door behind him. He rolled down the tiny window in between the two of us and said with an unusually calm tone, "You want anything to drink?" I asked for some Dr. Pepper, confused but glad that I could at least drink some soda. A few moments later the screen rolled down and a tall, cold glass of a dark drink was handed to me. I quickly checked to see if the ice floated or not; it floated, so I took a sip, and sure enough, Dr. Pepper.

We had been driving for a while now, but I couldn't tell where we were through the heavily tinted windows. My shoulder-length, usually controlled dark-dusty-brown hair was a wavy, frizzy mess, because I didn't have any plans for the day. I looked behind me to see if I could see out the bad window. The two bodyguards, in the row behind me, were quietly talking amongst themselves. As they saw me peeking at them, they stopped talking. I assumed they must've thought I was eavesdropping.

I was still in my pajamas when we left, so I was pretty cozy in my sweatpants and oversized tee. It read "Life's a Beach" with a picture of Garfield relaxing on the beach. My old neighbor and former best friend Lewis had given it to me, for my birthday. I didn't talk to him anymore after he moved away. An occasional letter, but that was it, because he didn't have a phone. Lewis had straight, blond hair that was about 3-4" in length, with a middle part, and frosty-blue eyes. Our parents always used to joke that we would get married one day, and it was kinda obvious that we liked each other, but we never really confessed to each other, so nothing even happened between us. Except...

Oh god.

The car had suddenly stopped. I tried looking through the window to figure out where my uncle and these strange men had taken me, but again, the tint made everything too dark to recognize. I saw Uncle Tim get out of the car and open the door for me. It was very bright outside compared to the dark limo, and I had to blink a few times so my eyes could adjust to the light.

When I finally was able to see decently, I saw that we were in front of a huge facility, almost like a prison or a military base. Giant fencing was all around the perimeter, with barbed wire curling around the top like rings of fire. I was escorted by the bodyguards to the gate in the fence. I noticed that there was no grass anywhere, just dust and small shrubs growing from the cracks in the dry earth. Suddenly, Uncle Tim rushed in front of us, put in some secret code that I think started with a 4, and pushed the gates open. We walked up to the door of the giant facility, and again, another code was entered, but finally the door opened, and we went inside.

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