I stood there trembling. My hands were shaking in between my body. I just ran and ran until I was somewhere safe and known. I don’t ever want to go back to that place. It was dark, gray, scary, and loud; really loud. I was with people I didn’t like and didn’t want to be around. They chased me and followed me until they got the questions out of me that they wanted. I was scared and didn’t know what to do. They loudly and harshly asked about my father and what he was doing for our government. My father is high up in the CIA and I knew nothing about the specifics of what he was doing or who he was doing what for; but for some reason these people thought I did. They “knew I did” and wanted to know what my dad was doing.

“I know nothing!!” I screamed at the tall gray haired man with a growl in his eyebrows.

“Sarah,l you need to think long and hard about where he has been sweetie.” He said in an sarcastic tone that irritated me. I didn’t want to be called sweetie by this disgusting old man. I’m a young 13 year old and just wanted to get home, to Indiana. I don’t even know how they found me or that they knew my dad. After they locked me in basically a jail of my own until I answered further questions, I sat in the cell on the cold and dreary bed thinking about what I could tell them. Nothing came to my head, I honestly didn’t know what my father had been doing lately for work, all I knew was that he was traveling a lot. I didn’t want to tell them any information however because I didn’t want them to go after my dad too and bring him to his hell hole.

While I was sitting in the cell, I often had flashbacks to how I even got here in the first place, as it was entirely my fault. I thought about that cold rainy day last week after I got out of school. My nanny, Michaela, was running late to pick me up, and irritated me, I began to walk home. Ever since I was a little girl my parents would say to me, “Sarah, no matter what, you can never go anywhere by yourself.” There words echoed in my head as I inched up the street, but I didn’t care. I wanted to get home and Michaela had been annoying me lately, she shouldn’t have been late in the first place. But as I was walking, I almost felt the whispers of people behind me and I knew, deep down that something was wrong. Quickly, I decided to turn down Maple Street and I immediately locked eyes with the tall gray haired man in a black Mercedes sports car. I turned my back to him and quickly walked back towards the car, but I heard the rum of the engine begin and next thing I knew there was another quick black car in front of me. A big white man jumped out and grabbed me, I fought back, kicked and screamed but he was so big he just took me right into the car. I don’t remember anything after that, I just woke up here, in this cell.

After days of sitting and thinking about what I could possibly tell these ill found people, no sleep, and little food I decided to try to escape because I didn’t want to get my dad in trouble and needed to get home. Over the past few days I noticed that the security guards often left early during their shifts. They had a big cluster of cell keys on their belt and somehow I needed to obtain the keys to get home. I had wondered during my time in the cell that if my mom or dad were looking for me, or if they knew I was here but couldn’t come to save me because they didn’t want to get stuck here. Sure, they could keep a kid in a cell, but what would they do to my parents? Would they kill or murder? I knew my only way out was escaping.

At around 2:00 pm on Wednesday one of the guards was standing outside of my cell playing solitaire on his phone. I slowly and quietly crawled up to the left of my cell just where he was standing and reached my skinny arm in between the two cell poles right near the keys. As I looked at my arm, I almost gasped because I had become so skinny after weeks of being trapped here. The keys were on the side of his wide hipped pockets and I subtly reached to the clip in the keys and unattached the keys, pushed them into my hand, and prayed that he wouldn’t hear. He jumped up and I quickly turned my back against the poles hoping he didn’t realize that I had just grabbed his keys.

“I just got my new record in solitaire!” He shouted. I sense of relief lifted off my shoulders and a huge sigh came out of my mouth but I was still confused and afraid that he did not notice his keys. He then saw me staring at him and yelled, “What are you looking at?” I turned my face against his angry voice and looked in the mirror. The change in color and expression in my face after being here for a few days began to affect me and I needed to get out.

Luckily, the guard left early for his lunch break and I skipped to the lock at the jail cell. I looked through the hundreds of silver and gold keys puzzling which one belonged to my cell and knew I didn’t have much time. I began trying and trying until I found the perfect silver key that clicked right into the lock. My stomach dropped of excitement, but I knew my mission wasn’t over. I creepily walked down the long stretch of cells barefooted as my toes felt the cold punch of the cement floor and the bright yellow lights shined into my eyes. I saw all the guards in a lounge eating lunch and I crawled as I walked past their door. At the end of the hallway I saw a big window, I knew we were only on the second floor so I ran up to the window before the second round of guards came out. I looked out the window grabbed the locks and opened the window. The fresh air hit me and I felt relieved I jumped from the second floor landing suddenly on my feet into the soft grass. The landing threw me off, but I knew I needed to run before someone saw me in my orange “uniform” leaving the prison. I didn’t know what other prisoners were in there, but I wish I could’ve helped them too, but I didn’t have enough time. I needed to go home and be with my family, and survive. I crawled around the side of the prison and sprinted as fast as I could, “HOME” was all I thought in my head.