My head is throbbing and my wrist is badly sprained. I have no idea where I am or what happened. Judging by the overwhelming smell of chloroform, I am guessing that I have been taken.
By now, the sense of panic has gone. I can’t tell how long I have been here. Everything is a blur. So far, the only food I have been receiving is a bowl of bland beans and a cup of warm water twice a day. The beans taste kind of funny, but I don’t question my only source of food. The room I am in isn’t very comforting. My bathroom is a white plastic bucket in the corner and there is only one dim light bulb hanging in the middle of the room. The door is made of wood and is very thick. A heavy metal padlock on the other side locks it. The only window in the room is a barred window, which goes into the room next to me. In that room, lives my only companion, Wesley. He had grown to be like an older brother to me. He is also kind of like how I imagined what I would be like in the future. I had only ever seen his face through the bars but he looked about 15 years old. Wesley and I always made up elaborate plans on how to escape this place but we never dared to try them out. Wesley said that he had been in there for about a year. It seems like that year had taken a toll on him because I often hear Wesley crying at night. I am just glad I have Wesley here with me so I don’t go crazy being all alone.
Just so you know a little about me, my name is Gabe, and I am 13 years old. My dad died when I was just five years old and my mom just got remarried to a man named Frank a couple years ago. I don’t really like Frank; I think he is involved with the mob. He is always coming home late and is never without his leather briefcase. A day or two before I was taken I saw him out in the backyard talking to two men in suits. Everyone was yelling and waving around guns. It really scared me but I didn’t want to tell him that I saw. I am pretty sure that they have something to do with my capture.
To keep myself busy, I liked to sit and think. I would let my imagination run wild with elaborate escape plans or what I could be doing right now if I wasn’t in here. My imagination was the closest that I had to living a normal life. I often imagined Wesley and I sitting on the beach in Hawaii, a place I had always wanted to visit. Then Wesley broke the silence “Gabe, come here,” he whispered. I trudged over to the barred window and stood on the wooden chair so my head was level with the window. Wesley started to speak, “We are getting out of here; I’m tired of spending my life in this tiny room. Here’s the plan…”
The plan was set; I had gone over it in my head many times. When Mr. Big and Tall (that is the name I gave him) came in to give me my beans as usual, I was ready to execute the plan. I was waiting behind the door, wooden chair in hand. “Whack!” Mr. Big and Tall was out cold on the floor. I reached down and took the keys from his belt. I peeked out the door and determined that the coast was clear, so I went next door and unlocked Wesley’s door. “Thank you!” Wesley exclaimed. He scurried out of his room and went into mine. He grabbed some things off the guard and put them in his pocket, and then we headed down the dim hallway. We walked until we came to a door labeled EXIT and knew that this was the way out. As we opened the door, the cool, night air filled our nostrils. “Let’s head for the woods,” Wesley whispered. We took off and ran until we were out of breath. Looking around, we saw an old, fallen down tree that would be good shelter. As we walked over to it, we heard something moving in the log. Then unexpectedly, a wolf jumped out of the log. He was snarling and growling, as to be looking at his next meal.

We got up and ran but we couldn’t outrun it for long. Wesley began to slow down but he yelled, “keep running!” I kept running and didn’t look back. As I was running I was trying to figure out why Wesley stopped but then I heard a squeal and knew what had happened. I turned around and saw Wesley with a bloody knife in his hand. I couldn’t believe how brave he had been. He saved my life and his own! Wesley picked up the lifeless wolf and began walking. “Let’s go find shelter,” he said solemnly. We walked and walked until we put some distance between our captors and us. We took shelter under a big fir tree and decided that it would be in our best interest to build a fire and cook the wolf. Wesley made a fire with some wood and a lighter he had taken and we ate. I never imagined that I would be eating wolf, but it was all we had. After we were both full, we got some sleep. I had slept better than I had in awhile. We awoke early the next day and walked many miles. After awhile, we heard a familiar sound, a car, off in the distance. We both ran to the sound and through the bushes, we saw a road.
“We survived!” we both yelled in relief. Before we had time to fully celebrate, we looked down the road, and to our excitement we saw a car speeding down the road. We stood in the middle of the road, waving our arms so it wouldn’t miss us. When the car got close enough, it pulled off to the side. This was our ticket to freedom, but our hopes were lost when we saw who stepped out of the car. Mr. Big and Tall opened the car door and yelled “don’t move!” Wesley bolted off in time but I couldn’t move. I was frozen in disbelief. I couldn’t believe how close we were to escaping. “Get on the ground you little punk,” screamed a machete wielding Mr. Big and Tall. He walked over to me and kicked me a few times. “You don’t deserve to be alive,” he said and raised the machete over my head. Then, with the thrust of a knife, Mr. Big and Tall dropped to the ground with a hole in his chest. Hovering over him was Wesley, knife in hand. I couldn’t believe what just happened. Wesley saved my life twice. While I was trying to recover from my near death experience, Wesley yelled “a car, another car, this one is our ticket to freedom.” Then I don’t know what happened, but everything went black.
“Oh my gosh! Gabe, my son, you’re alive!” my mother said in relief. My mom leaned onto the hospital bed and hugged me. “What happened?” I said groggily. “Well Gabe, Frank borrowed some money from people he shouldn’t have and couldn’t pay them back. So they took you in return. They gave us three weeks to pay them back or… well, you know what would happen. Then you must’ve escaped because someone found you passed out on the side of the road as they were driving by, so they called 911. You were lying there all bloody with a knife clenched in your fingers. There was a dead body next to you. Honey, you stabbed someone,” my mother explained. “No, Wesley stabbed him, he saved my life,” I defended. “Who is Wesley?” “He was being held captive in the room next to me, and then he stabbed Mr. Big and Tall. He was with me while I was being held captive.” “The man who found you only reported you on the side of the road, are you sure?” my mom asked. “Yes, I am positive. But he must be here,” I said looking around. “There!” I exclaimed, he is sitting on the chair over there. I pointed to the red painted chair over in the corner. My mom looked over at the chair and said, “Gabe, there isn’t anyone sitting in that chair.” “Well of course there is, he’s right there,” I said back without a doubt. “Son, the doctors said that you were being drugged. The
drugs made you calm down but the side affects were hallucinations. I am afraid to tell you but Wesley isn’t real.”