WHERE AM I? Fourteen-year-old Megan thought to herself, as she squinted into the pitch-black darkness that's been antagonizing her for the last two hours, expecting to see a movement from something or someone within the room. All she comprehended was an obscure glumness. She parted her dry, chapped lips slightly and quietly mouthed the first line of The Lord's Prayer, “Our Father who art in heaven.”

Darkness reigned over the entire room. She heard a piercing ringing in her ears. The menacing, demonic tension made her uncomfortable, fearful and alert of her surroundings. The handcuffs that restrained her hands and feet to the bedposts of a cold, steel bed, sliced into her flesh, giving her a burning and stinging sensation. She stopped for a moment and inhaled intensely and inaudibly, listening for any foreign noises that would give her a hint about where she was. She focused on the sounds other than the rustling leaves of the swaying branches that were scratching against a window, located somewhere at the front of the house. On the other hand, she wondered to herself if she was in a house or some fabricated dungeon in the middle of nowhere.

It was the beginning of a thunderstorm and she could smell rain. All of a sudden, the most vivid, eye-catching flash of lightning coming from the skylight illuminated the room. As she laid there, contemplating her escape, she smelled a faint, repulsive, foul smell of a cigarette which gave Megan more reasons to believe that someone, other than her, was in the cold, dark house. The question was, who did this to her and why? A moment later, she heard a low, deep laughter echoing from the other room. His satanic cackle was enough to make her skin crawl just like the time her friend, Michelle ran her fingernails across the chalkboard during study-hall after the teacher had stepped out for a few minutes to grab something to drink from the teacher's lounge.

She kept herself tranquil to make it seem like she was still dormant. She tried to keep her breathing under control even though she could hear her heart thumping and pounding a mile a minute inside her chest. She swallowed her fear, opened her mouth, and yelled, “Hello? Is anybody here?”

No one answered.

She turned her head to the side and heard the sound of evil making its way across the ceramic floor. The sound was getting louder. The closer it came to the door, the more her heart raced. The shadow over took the light that was peering under the door and it opened with a slight creak.

She heard a deep distorted somewhat mechanical voice from the darkness, “Are you awake, Megan?” He paused a moment, “I know you’re awake.”

The sound of his voice sent shivers of fear down her sweat-bound spine. She quietly clenched onto the handcuffs and slowly felt her way through the darkness, along the bedposts to a steel bar. She wondered how he knew her name but that wasn’t important right now. She needed to get out and away from the emotionally imbalanced wacko who needed Jesus in his life.

“You should have been awake long before now,” he told her, “If you are a good little girl, then you will be with your parents in no time.”

“What are you going to do with me?” the girl asked. “Why have you brought me here? What do you want with me?"

“Why, it is quite simple, my dear,” the menacing, sinister voice echoed through the room, “I want money! I wish I could say it was for a more worthy cause but it’s not. I just want money!"

Megan couldn’t believe he had just said that. Her migraine was driving her to insanity and beads of sweat ran down the side of her face as she tried to move her limp and restless body. She yelled as loud as she could, “I want my mother!”

The mastermind ran his fingers through her brown tresses, “I promise, you will see your mom before you know it but right now, I need to take care of some business and you're going to help me. It depends on whether or not you cooperate with me will depend on whether you live or die. It’s simple as that. It’s all up to you.”

“Bullshit. You won’t stick with any of your so-called promises.”

The mastermind laughed, “I’m going to pretend that I didn’t hear that come out of your mouth. Now if I was you, I would keep my little mouth shut as long as I could but you may have a little bit of an obstacle, knowing that you can’t keep your trap shut for more than five minutes.”

A few minutes later, after she couldn’t take the silence anymore, she shattered the stillness, “Why?”

She heard the rasp, monotonous voice growl at her, “Why what?”

“Why me? Why did you take me away from my family?” she asked again, with fear in her voice.

The mastermind ignored her.

 “Who are you?” she asked.

“Who I am is not important, but what I want is very important and the bottom line is, you’re going to help me get it.” A second later, he implied with an inferior tone, “End of subject!”

She saw a flashlight flip on and caught a glimpse of a hand as it checked her arms and bindings “Are you thirsty?”

She shook her head no, not about to accept anything this nut had to offer.

She felt him sit next to her and heard him fumbling around in his clothes for something, but she couldn’t tell what it was.

“What are you doing?”

All of a sudden, a flame illuminated his face as he lit up a cigarette. The stranger was wearing a pure white mask that covered his entire face and the flame reflected off it like a mirror.

“Oh God!” she whimpered.

Megan jerked in terror when she saw the mask. She pulled and jerked on the bindings, hoping they would break free from the bed. She clenched her fists and kept her lips sealed. She didn't know if she could scream. She didn't know what would happen if she did.

The mastermind roared in his low, monotonous and sinister voice, “Are you sure you don't want any water?”

She kept her silence.

 “Last time I'm going to ask so you better take the offer while you can,” he told her.

She refused again by shaking her head.

He mumbled, “So much for hospitality.”

She felt defenseless. Anger rose up inside her quickly as she glared at him while she pulled on the handcuffs, screaming at him, "I want to go home!”

“I will not give you that pleasure, unless your parents cooperate,” he told her. “My plan is far too precious for anyone to foul up now. I've got something else in store for you, but just remember when you get hungry or thirsty; I might not be so hospitable.”

Megan felt a surge of anger rise up inside her but she tightened her grip on the bindings and kept her mouth shut but the headboard hit the wall with a hard, loud impact when she loosened her hold on the rope.

The mastermind turned around and looked at her, “Problem?”

Megan remembered, that before the whole ordeal, that she was with one of her friends from high school, Ketra Haskell. She felt her rage washing over her like a tidal wave, “Where’s Ketra?”

He laughed and faced the doorway, “Your friend?”

Megan didn’t say a word.

He turned his head and stared at her with hatred in his eyes, “She was a bonus.”