“Who is this?”
I had just started driving home after my 8-hour shift at the office. I had always wanted this job but the more I experienced it the more I started to despise it.
The phone rang while I was queued at a red light. I answered it thinking it would be my wife, annoyed that I hadn’t come home earlier. I know she wants me to work less but I thought she could understand that I did it for them.
When I answered the call, all that I was met with was a deep, distorted voice that demandingly exclaimed: “Drive!”
“Who is this?” I answered back, thinking that it was just some teenager’s bad prank.
Instead of a clear answer all that came through the phone was the voice of my daughter saying, “They got me Papa.”
At that exact moment, a huge shock went through my spine and radiated throughout my whole body, making me unable to move until I had returned to my senses.
“No, it can’t be!” I thought to myself as I followed the man’s instructions.
First, he told me to go left, then right, then left again. The caller seemed to be purposefully making me take unnecessary turns and go through dark alleyways so I wouldn’t be able to pinpoint exactly where I was going. I wondered how he knew exactly where I was, but then I remembered that I had my Snapchat location turned on. Such a small and seemingly harmless act had led to this person knowing exactly where I was at all times. This made me wonder what else they knew about me, maybe they knew where I worked, where I live, maybe even where I go to eat a burger if I dislike what my wife made for dinner. After all, they knew enough to take my daughter.
After roaming through the worst parts of the city for half an hour, I was led to a countryside road where all the eyes could see were trees and empty fields waiting for the start of spring to bloom and grow green.
After what seemed like an eternity, I arrived at a warehouse where I was instructed to get out of my car and shut it off.
“Go towards the door and wait until I tell you to come in,” demanded the voice as I walked out.
My mind raced as I thought of all the possible outcomes. Do they want money? Even if they did, I didn’t have any, and what are they going to do to me, or worse my daughter if I didn’t have what they want?
I waited in front of the warehouse in agony as I bit my nails and walked back and forth until the voice told me it was time. I was almost too afraid to open the door and considered calling the police, but I knew that they could hurt her if I did.
After this fleeting moment of contemplation, I pushed the door open with all my strength only to be met by bright, blaring lights. There were voices screaming in what seemed like a foreign, almost alien language until the adrenaline exited my body and I came back to my senses to see my family and friends gathered around with balloons for my birthday, which I had forgotten was today.