Something has been on my mind, and I figured this was the only place I could post this. If anyone in my life knew what I did, things would become much worse for me. But I guess I should start from the beginning. When I was 12 years old my 14 year old sister was kidnapped.
It was like any other day on summer break, and this was the last thing either one of us would have expected to happen. I remember it like it was yesterday, she had convinced my parents to let her walk to the pool a couple of blocks away, but only if she were to bring me along. With an obvious roll of her eyes and an irritated sigh, she agreed. I knew that she was going to meet up with friends, and I was just happy that I got to go swim on such a hot sunny day. My sister Ellie was always the favorite, she easily excelled at everything she tried. She looked identical to my mom, with auburn hair down to her waist, and big emerald green eyes.
She was quite popular and almost always had a suitor coming to the door to ask her out. I paled in comparison to her, with my looks favoring my dad. I had bright orange shoulder length hair with chocolate brown eyes. I wasn’t good at anything remotely girly and enjoyed working with my dad on his old Mustang in the garage. After we had got our bathing suits on, our parents gave us lunch money, kissed us goodbye, and out the door we went. We hopped onto our bikes and set off for the pool Ellie took off and left me behind, I wasn’t surprised. We never had the same interest, and at school I was an outcast. No one knew we were sisters and she intended to keep it that way.
I arrived a few minutes after Ellie and saw her already laughing with her friend in the pool, her group consisting of 5 members; Hannah Venture, Victor Sanchez, Josh Handson, and Cooper Jones. I watched as her perfectly straight hair splayed out behind her as she climbed onto the shoulders of a boy I knew too well. Victor Sanchez. The only popular boy that doesn’t make my life hell. I knew I would end with him, but for right now he only had eyes for one person, Ellie. As the group played chicken I couldn’t help but find myself staring, “Looks like the freak came out of hiding!” Josh yelled while climbing out of the pool, I knew what was about to happen next.
The pain that shot from my cheek as I reeled back from the slap. “Damn that hurt my hand!” Hannah yelled while shaking her now red hand. All I could do was stare down at my feet knowing the eyes of my ‘loving’ sister just watched as her friends ganged up on me. It wasn’t until Victor found us that my pain stopped, “What are you guys doing stop!” I felt hands pulling up to my feet. “Elliana, are you okay?” I was too numb to even register a thing he said, “Let’s go” he gently said to me before pulling me away from the group, as I looked to my sister she averted her eyes and headed in the other direction. Why do my parents favor her again? Was the only thought that ran through my mind.
Victor walked with me for a few minutes in silence. I stopped and turned to him “thanks for the rescue, but I just want to be alone.” Was all I could say before continuing on by myself, it wasn’t until I looked in the bathroom mirror I saw the severity of my beating, my pale skin causing the bruise under my left eye to intensify. I knew there was no hiding this, I hopped in the shower to wash off the now crusted blood remaining under my nose and on my top lip. The only thoughts that came to me were about how much I hated my sister. After getting dressed I heard my mother call me for dinner. As I rounded the corner I saw Ellie sitting at the table along with my parents, keeping her head down on her phone. I heard my mother gasp and knew what was coming next “Elliana what happened to your face?!” She exclaimed, I pulled back as she grabbed my face to now inspect the very dark and visible bruise under my eye. “Mom please just stop. I don’t know who it was, it was just some kids at the pool” I said while shrugging and sitting down, “Ellie where were you?!” She yelled, this caused both of us to jump.
My mother had never yelled at Ellie, “Mom I’m sorry I uh I..” She began to panic and we locked eyes. “Ellie ran to get help when it first started, and the kids ran off before she got anyone to come with her” Our mom seemed satisfied with that answer, “well this isn’t the end, we will find the kids who hurt you” she replied while softly rubbing my hand. As we began to eat Ellie mouthed ‘thank you’ before starting on her dinner. Once dinner was finished I headed up to my room and stayed there until I fell asleep. It wasn’t until I heard a noise outside I rose from my bed, I looked at my alarm clock and saw it was 3:15 AM.
I got up and looked out my window, being on the second floor gave me a better advantage. I opened my window a little bit to peek out and that’s when I saw him. An older fat man was opening the window right below mine. The part that scared me the most was the fact he was wearing a Santa Claus suit, without the hat. I could tell from my advantage he was balding. I realized he was opening Ellie’s window, I was frozen in fear he might see me. He slid the window open and climbed in, I heard a commotion below me for a brief moment before silence. After a few minutes that seemed to tick by slower and slower, I saw a pair of legs climb out. The old fat man turned back to the window and I saw what it was that he was pulling out.
Ellie was tied up and it wasn’t until he pulled her fully out we locked eyes. “Elliana help me” she hoarsely screamed before something was shoved into her mouth muffling whatever else it was she tried to say. The bald man immediately looked up at me, and I knew what it was I had to do. I slowly shut my window and laid back down in bed.
‘Ellie never helped me’ was all I thought before drifting back to sleep.