One little girl, kidnapped at the age of five.
Zinnia.
One angel, drifting away from the promised land.
Peregrine.
- The Writers Awards 2017 winner for Mystery/Thriller's Best Storyline -
Zinnia was only five when the men came for her. She was a f...
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"MOMMY!"
Cold sweat dripped down the back of my neck as I sat upright in bed. I'd had a... What was it called? Someone had told me it was a nightmare... but who would tell me that? Certainly not the men in the other room. They only talked if they were telling me to do something.
I was kidnapped. The men stole me from the toy section in Wal-Mart. Said they'd buy me a Barbie. They just had to find my mother, is all, so she could give them permission. I told them she's shopping and that I know exactly where she is. When I realized they weren't wanting to go in that direction, I got scared and tried to run. But they were strong. They gripped me a pulled me and told me they'd kill my mom if I screamed. Their grips on my wrists tightened as I began to call out, but they silenced me with their gruff hands. The Wal-Mart was almost empty on this side.
And so they took me. My mother lived, and they locked me in a room with just a bed. They kept saying I was the bridge to something... but to what?
But that nightmare, the one that made me wake to the room again, the one that began with the boy in the striped pants sitting on his red chair, that isn't a nightmare at all compared to what I had to face when the sun came up in the morning.
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Note to reader: Yes, the flitting between past and present tense on Zinnia's chapters is purposeful. She's literally telling the story as she recalls it. You'll see what I mean later.
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