While baby-sittinig the new neighbors’ children for the first time, Katie answered the phone to a mysterious hang-up; the caller just took deep breaths. Well, Katie got a little freaked out because she just watched Scream 2 with her boyfriend and that’s how it all began. Katie went inito check on the Kids Natalie and Kai. Kai was out cold; he had stayed up late last night. Natalie was watching her favorite movie, the “Little Mermaid.” Well, Katie went into the kitchen to cook up a little late-night snack for Natalie and herself. When all of a sudden she heard some tree twigs crunching, Katie got a weird feeling in her stomach. She felt like she was being watched from a distance. When the popcorn was finished Katie went in and gave Natalie some. Natalie began to drift off to sleep so Katie thoguht she would watch some MTV. She loved watching the Real World; Katie thought it was just awesome. Well it was getting to the dramatic part of the show when all of the sudden the power went off. Katie was thinking, “Oh, great a fuse went out; just my luck.” Katie didn’t know if she should call her parents or just go down there herself. Well she thought if she called her parents then they would think she wasn’t ready to go off and baby-sit the neighbors’ kids. So she finally went to the pantry and got a flashlight. The fuse box was downsairs. As she was walking down the stairs she felt the spider webs going into her hair. She was finally in the dark, musty basement and turned the flashlight on; the light was very dim she never thought to check the light bult. Well she eventually found the fuse box after a couple of minutes exploring when all of a sudden she heard a creek. Well her stomach dropped she knew she wasn’t the only one down in the cold basement. She had to think of something, but her mind just couldn’t think properly. She finally worked up with courage to take a look at the fuse box and face what was down there face to face. She opened the door to the box very carefully. Katie had taken a shop class and they had to learn all about electricity. It didn’t take her more than 30 second to find the glitch. She then heard the upstairs TV turn back on, but there was one problem it still left her in a basement with something mysterious. The staircase was only a few feet away she could make a run for it or she could find a light switch and take the chances of it being a psycho. Well she decided the runaway idea sounded a lot better than being down there with it. So she counted to herself 1 … 2 …3, she took off up the stairs. She made it up without any problem; Katie soon realized she was psyching herself out over nothing. Nothing was down there in that basement. Katie went up stairs to find Natlie and Kai gone. Had they went upstairs in their room? Well it didn’t take Katie to long to find out. She was running through the house and about as she passed the back door she heard a DING DONG. Katie turned sharply, the door bell. Who would be here at this hour, it was almost 11 o’clock. She made her way to the front door, it was a package on the door with little Natalie’s sock and Kai’s hat, the note, and I’ve been watching you; Katie was about to lose it. Those kids were my reasonability, how could they have been taken. Katie burst out into tears. She had to call her parents they always know what to do. Katie picked up the phone and dialed the number. She soon realized there was no dial tone the kidnapper cut the phone line. She flew to the floor; Katie had no idea of what to do. She finally thought I’m not letting those children get hurt by some freak that has nothing better to do than scare me. The first step was she needed to get to a phone and alert the police. Well the cops showed up in about two minutes tops. Katie still had that feeling in her stomach that someone was watching her. So after the cops had asked her a bazillion questions, she decided to go outside with one of the officers she knew very well and looked around for clues. She went by the kitchen window and looked around. She saw a bunch of broken twigs on the ground. She had remembered from early she thought she heard them crunching. Well athe officers finally came back and told her she needed to have her parents come and pick her up. She had a long night and needed some rest. Well her parents pulled up and comforted her. All she really wanted was little Natlaie and Kai back safe. She went home and after thousands of questions from her parents went up to her room and laid on her bed. She had trouble drifting off to sleep because she couldn’t help think about all the terrible things that could heppen to those children. Well she soon was out, until after a deep sleep something had awakened her. She got that feeling in her again that someone was watching her. She sat up and turned on the light. A mysterious figure was inside her closet. Katie had come from a wealthy family. In every room there was a panic button, where if you had an emergency it would go straight to the police without hesitation. She felt this was the right time to push it. Katie slowly got up out of bed and went to the closet. She stuck a chair under the handles so the intruder couldn’t escape. Well after it rustled in the closet for about 30 seconds, the MAN finally broke free, trampling Katie. The man hopped on Katie trying to strangle her; Katie thought all hope was lost when out of nowhere her father slams open the door. Allowing the man to get distracted with our hesitation Katie slammed her fist right into his nose. Blood began to splurge everywhere. The man covered his nose with his hands and tried to escape, but it ws too late the cops had showed up. They dragged the man away in handcuffs. About 10 mintues after that I got a phone call saying the man was Denis Scott, a neighbor of Katie’s. He had taken the kids into his house and was planning on killing them. The children were safe and sound at home when Katie went to see them. Seeing those children was the best day of Katie’s life.

— Hannah Herrstrom is a Tonganoxie Junior High School student.