The Intentions

Chapter 1: The Black Car

Mona: August 31, 2020.

The stairs thundered in the wake of the running girl who ran at top speed. Swinging her backpack onto her shoulder and dashing through the entryway, she hurriedly called over her shoulder, "I'm late!" She yelled to her mom. "I won't be able to eat breakfast!" As the words left her mouth, she ripped the front door open.

"Mona, honey, at least take it with you! You can't go without breakfast!" Her mother called back, rushing from the kitchen to stop her daughter.

"No, it's fine." She insisted, brushing her brown hair out of her face as she stepped out the door. "I'll mooch off my friends, ok? I don't have time."

Her mother scowled and shook her head disapprovingly. "Alright, off with you then." With a wave of her hand, she waved Mona out the door.

"Love you." Mona responded with a smile. Turning to run down the pathway and out to the street, she didn't look back at her mom until she had reached the sidewalk. Her mother smiled in the doorway, "I love you, honey!"

With a grin on my face, I hurried down the street. As I reached the end of my street, I paused, feeling my stomach twist. I was always too afraid to look until I reached the end of the street. Maybe today, it wouldn't be there.

As I slowly looked over my shoulder, I felt my stomach drop when my eyes fell on exactly what I didn't want to see. The black car. A 2020 Kia Optima. I had made sure to memorize everything about it.

Every day for the last month, a small black car had been parked across the street from my house. I wasn't able to see inside the tinted windows, but I knew it wasn't my neighbor's car. In fact, the mysterious car irritated my neighbor to no end. He had informed my parents several times that he had phoned the police about this car that had been parked here, but the car would be gone before they arrived and he had no license plate.

The mystery and eerie nature of the person within the blacked out windows of his car made it so my neighbor was too afraid to approach him personally. So the person was left alone. He had been left alone for the past thirty days.

I turned away from the odd car and continued on my way to school. Forcing the odd person's behavior out of my mind, I tried not to dwell on the endless amount of intentions they had. My mind was not so easily controlled.

Were they watching my neighbor? Possibly, though he was a nice man. Always kind. Every other week, George, my neighbor, would bring us over fresh fruit he grew in his backyard. He was friendly and social. He never had a bad thing to say until the foreboding car arrived. He now always seemed irritated and on edge. Probably because the car was just outside his home every day.

Despite this, I couldn't shake the feeling that they were watching me. Perhaps George felt their eyes too. After all, there was absolutely no logical reason they would want me.

Don't be naive, Mona. That thought bounced around my skull once more. You're not exempt from the many girls who go missing around the country. This was true. So many stories of girls snatched up by sex traffickers, rapists, killers... Just because these things happen more often to women of color doesn't mean that white girls don't go missing too.

Still, my boyfriend had eased some of my concerns. God forbid someone did try to kidnap me. The last guy to touch me without my consent was beaten by Brenton only seconds after. Honestly, I was happy he did that. I didn't like being touched or sexually harassed, though my school was notorious for that behavior from the male gender and allowing it to happen.

A small snort escaped me at the memory of Brenton getting suspended for fighting. My smile soon faded as my mind drifted back to my original thoughts.

Perhaps I'm just being egotistical. Our neighbors next door, the Hensley's, were a Native American family. I should be worried about their daughter, Naoma. She was only two years older than me and still lived with her parents next door. In the last month, I've expressed my concerns about the black car to Naoma. She had thanked me, but told me she would be living on University campus starting this fall semester, on the 24th of August. She had left a week ago, so shouldn't I be relieved? Could the person in the car be spying on her mother instead?