It was a cold, rainy Sunday morning in the summer when I heard a loud, low pitched beeping sound coming from my laptop, so I got out of bed, sat at my small, dark wooden desk, and opened up my laptop. I noticed a bright red circle with a 1 on it over the envelope icon in the lower right hand corner. I must have an email. I opened it up and was confused when there was an email from an anonymous person. Who was it? I opened it up and started reading it.

  Dear Serena,
There was a little 8 year old girl who went missing around July 2008. She has black hair, green eyes, and her height was 4’5”. She weighed  86 lbs. She was stolen from her backyard while playing in the sandbox. Her parents went inside for a minute to grab something. By the time they came back out, the little girl was gone. She would be 15 now. She’d still have black hair ( If she hasn’t colored it ), green eyes, and would weigh around 115 lbs. She would be 5’3”.
Make sure you know who you’re spending your time with, Serena.

  -Anonymous

After the last sentence is a picture of a girl who looks exactly like me today…
I was so confused. How could it be me? I’m living with my parents. I just talked to my parents. Was this a joke? Who even sent the message? What does “Make sure you know who you’re spending your time with” even mean? Before I could do anything else, my door swung open and my mom came in. If it was even my mom.
I closed out of everything as fast as I could.
“Everything okay?”, asked my mom.
“Yeah. Everything’s fine.” I replied nervously.
“Okay. Well I just came up to tell you that your father and I are going to go to a friend’s house for a little bit. Call us if you need anything.” she told me.
“Okay. See ya.”
When my mom left, I went on the internet and looked up 2008 missing children in Boston, Massachusetts. After I hit enter, I saw a picture in the images with a girl with black hair, green eyes, and looked about 8 years old. It must be the girl the message was talking about. I made sure the math was right and it was. I was born in the year 2000. I tried to remember what I was doing sometime in July in 2008. I couldn’t remember anything really. I couldn’t remember playing in her backyard. I didn’t really have a backyard now and I’ve never moved. Whatever was going on, I was going to find out.

I had a dream where I saw a girl who was 8 years old, in a backyard, playing in a sandbox, when someone came up to her and asked if she wanted to get ice cream. She told the stranger sure and started following them. All of the sudden I heard yelling. I turned around and saw a man and a woman running towards the girl. Before I could do anything, the stranger grabbed her from behind and put her in the back of a gray van. The back doors weren’t completely shut and before the van drove off, I saw another man give the little girl a shot of something. Then, it went black.
I jolted awake, almost out of breath. Was that a dream? Or a memory? Who was that man and woman? I have never seen those people before. The stranger that grabbed the little girl looked like a man who was in his 20’s. I don’t remember ever being in that backyard. All I remember was being put in my bed by my mom. It doesn’t even make any sense. Slowly, I went back to sleep.

When I woke up, fully awake, I noticed it was 10:40a.m. I decided to get dressed and see if my parents were home yet. It was 10:45am by the time I was dressed. Before I could open my door, I heard my phone ring. I answered it and I heard a man’s voice ask, “ Have you figured it out Serena? I have just a little time to talk but I wanted to meet you somewhere so we can discuss something. You might not remember me, but I will explain everything. Meet me at noon over at the Cafe by Central Park. If you don’t show up, I understand. I’ll email you and explain everything.” Before I could answer, he had already hung up. Who was this man? What did he want to explain to me? Should I even meet him? How did he get my number?
After a few minutes of thinking, I decided to meet him and just hear him out. I’ll bring pepper-spray just in case.

I went downstairs and heard my dad on the phone. “Make sure, Daniel doesn’t contact her. I don’t want him explaining anything to her. That will ruin everything.” I heard my dad say. I tried to be quiet and slowly go down the last couple of stairs. He must’ve heard me because I heard him say, “ I have to call you later. She’s awake.” and with that, he hung up.
I asked, “Where’s mom?”
“ She went to the store to get some stuff.” he replied.
“ Okay, I just wanted to let you know that I’m going to be leaving here soon.”
“ Sounds good. Want me to drive you?”
“ Nah. It’s okay. I’ll just walk.”
“ Okay. Have fun”
With that, I went into the kitchen to find that there was no food. I returned upstairs and grabbed my phone, pepper-spray, some money, and put it in a small bag. I went back downstairs, went outside, and started walking to the Cafe. I looked at my phone and saw it read 11:45am. It was a perfect amount of time to get there.

As I arrived at the Cafe, I checked my phone again and it read 12:00pm. Perfect. As I went inside, I saw a man in a black sweatshirt and dark blue jeans wave at me. I walked over to him and slowly sat down. “ I’m so glad you came. You have no idea how long I’ve waited to apologize to you.” explained the man.
“Apologize? For what? I don’t even know you…” I replied.
“ Well first off, my name is Daniel.”
Daniel? That’s the same name I heard my dad talk about.
“ I’m Serena.”
“ Yes, yes. I know.”
A waitress came over and asked,” Is there anything I can get you both?” We shook our heads no and thanked the waitress. Then she walked away.
“ Okay then. Well, what was it that you wanted to explain to me or apologize for?”
“ You don’t remember?”
“ Should I? I’ve never met you before.”
“ Oh, right. Well promise me you won’t freak out when I tell you this, okay?”
“ Okay, I promise.”
“ Well, when you were little, about 8 years old, I visited you.”
Was this the guy that kidnapped the little girl or me or whatever???
“ You followed me to a gray van and before we arrived at the van, a man and a woman were yelling for you and started running after you. I grabbed you and put you in the back of the van. There was a guy back there, waiting for you.”
That’s exactly what I saw in my dream! So I explained, “ I had a dream about that. But that wasn’t me. I don’t even know who that man and woman were!”
He replied, “ I’m sure you don’t. That shot the other man gave you, it wasn’t a regular drug. It made you forget everything after it was given to you. When you wake up, it feels as if things are totally different. You don’t know what day it was, where you were, or anything. It’s like starting over.”
I was so nervous and confused. If this was the guy that kidnapped me then who were my so called parents? Who were even my real parents? I decided to ask, “ Who was that man and woman chasing after me…?”  He replied,” Those… those people were your real parents.”
My real parents? If those are my real parents, then who are the people I’m living with?
“ So, then who are those people I thought were my mom and dad?”
“ They were the people who hired us to kidnap you. They gave us the address and we went there .” Daniel replied.
“ But why me?”
“ That I don’t know the answer to. They didn’t really tell us why. They said they would give us each $50,000. If we wouldn’t do it… well… you don’t want to know.” he answered.

It doesn’t make any sense. Why would someone hire a complete stranger to kidnap a kid for them? What kind of people do that?
“ Was there anything else?”
“ I am so very sorry I did that to you and gave you to those people. At that time I was broke. I had no money. I lived out on the streets. The only reason they asked me to do it was because they knew I needed money and I would’ve done anything for money then. I’m sorry for traumatizing you like that.”
“ I’m not sure if I should forgive you or not. I don’t even know you. You changed my life. And not in a good way. I could’ve actually had a real family.” I said.
“ I know and you have no idea how terrible I feel. Since that was the past and this is the present, I owe you so much. Whenever you need me, I’ll be there to help.” Daniel said. I have an idea.
“ There is one thing. Could you maybe help me find my real parents so I can meet them? I have to talk to those fake parents.” I told Daniel. I really need to talk to my real parents. I also need to know the truth.
“ Sure thing, kid. I’ll see what I can do. Be careful when talking to those crazy people. See ya.” ,Daniel told me.

By the time I left it was almost 2:00pm. I walked home and when I arrived, I was nervous about talking to my fake parents, for the first time. But I need to know the truth.
I walked in the door and tried to find my fake parents. I turned around the corner and saw them sitting at the kitchen table.“ Welcome home.” stated the fake dad.
“ I need to talk to you guys and I need you to be completely honest.” I told them. I went and sat at the table across from the fake parents.
Looking confused, the mom told me, “ Um, okay?”
“ Why did you hire Daniel to kidnap me..?” I asked slowly and nervously.
“ What? Who’s Daniel? Why would you ask that?” questioned the fake dad.
“ You know exactly what I’m talking about. You aren’t my real parents. Now tell me why you did what you did.” I said angrily.
“ We are your real parents!” exclaimed the fake mom.
“ Okay, then let’s go to the hospital and get a DNA test.” I suggested. They looked at each other nervously.
“ Exactly.” I told them as calmly as I could.
“ Daniel….” the dad muttered angrily.
“ I met him today. He apologized and told me everything. Why would you do that to a person? Especially a kid!?” I yelled.
“ About 8 years ago, we had a little girl named Casina. She was almost 5 years old. We were all playing soccer outside in the front yard. I accidently kicked the ball too hard and it landed in the street. Casina went to go get it, but she forget to check if any cars were coming… Next thing you know, the doctor’s telling us she didn’t make it and that they were sorry.” the fake dad explained.
“ That still doesn’t explain why you chose me…” I whispered quietly. The fake mom was wiping her eyes as if she was crying. The fake dad continued on,” We chose you because you looked exactly like her. You both had black hair and green eyes. You were just older.” replied the fake dad.
“ That doesn’t make it okay for you to steal little kids! Especially when they have a real family.” I yelled.
“ We know. We just couldn’t handle it. I am so sorry we did that to you.” explained the fake dad.
“ That doesn’t make it right at all. I’m leaving. When I find my real parents and tell them everything, I’m going to the police.” I said. Before they could say anything, I went upstairs and started packing a bag. Why would they do such a terrible thing?
I just can’t wrap my head around it. I needed a good night’s sleep. I walked to the nearest hotel. It was really cheap, too. I checked in and went up to my room. I called Daniel and asked if there was anything that he found. He just said that where they used to live, they didn’t live there anymore. I thanked him for helping me and hung up. I’m going to find my real parents.