I was 9 when I was snatched from my house. My mom had the night shift at the hospital, so I was home alone. I never really feared people so when I heard a knock on the door I answered it.

A woman was standing there lost and confused. She started shouting “My baby has been stolen. Please help me.” It never occurred to me that no one in their right mind would ask a 9 year old for help. I went outside to help the lady and as I reached the bottom of the stairs a hand grabbed my arm. I went to scream, but then a piece of cloth covered my mouth. My mind got foggy ancoulddn’t think strait.

I spent over an hour in a tiny car. I could tell that we were far out of the city and into the country. I thought about all the kidnappings on the news and how most of the time the kids wind up dead. I couldn’t let that happen. I was all my mom had left.

We turned onto a darkened road. At first I thought that there was nothing on this road, but then I noticed a small house and a medium sized building that was completely dark. The sign near the darken building said welcome to Mountain High School. That was the last thing I saw of the outside world for a long time. I was taken into the small house and led to a tiny room with no windows.

That room would be where I stayed for the next five years. The only time I left was to go to the bathroom. After a few days of being there the woman approached me and said “I have to carve a number 2 into your arm. Don’t worry I’ll be gentle and it won’t hurt too much.” I let her do it just like I let her torture me and I let her husband rape me. He took away the one thing that I will never get back, my innocence.

After five years my chance to escape finally came. The man and woman left the house and they forgot to lock the doors or take their cell phones. I called my mother and told her the name of the high school across the street. I went out the front door and went into the school parking lot and waited for my mother. She came and got me. She was overly joyed and the only thing she asked me was “What happened to you?” I replied with “I just ran away and I didn’t want to be found so I hid out in the country in an abandoned house.” I don’t know why I didn’t tell my mom the truth. I guess I just didn’t want her to go through what I went through.

I went through high school not telling anyone what happened to me. Some of the students in the school gave me funny looks because I was over cautious. I didn’t want people judging me for what had happened to me. I went to college to be a teacher. I felt like that was the only way I could protect kids. I loved seeing the smiles on their faces when they came to school. They were living the childhood that I was robbed of. It made me feel happy, that is why I became a teacher.