Sara's P.O.V.

I ran I didn’t look back, I couldn’t see anything apart from large trees, it was cold, and my stomach growled because of all the hunger. My heart pounded I was getting tired, my feet were weak, and I couldn’t run anymore. I was about to stop when I noticed a ray of sunlight there was a road, it wasn’t far.

I limped towards the road, it was quiet, and I didn’t see any single person. I raised my hand waving to stop any car that comes. I couldn’t speak, my throat was dry, I tried shouting for help but I couldn’t.

I couldn’t breathe properly, I was losing hope when I saw a car, I raised my hand trying to stop the car but all went in vain, I decided to go further before he sees me. I limped further trying to find a house or cottage or someone that can help me.

I walked for hours but couldn’t find anything or anyone, Everywhere looked the same, trees all around.

I stayed under a tree to take a rest when I noticed a house, it was far but I could see the roof, I was tired but I decided to walk further, the further I came the more I could see the house, it was close.

I walked for over 5 minutes to get to the house, The house is large, and it looks beautiful, I was about to approach the door when I felt some hard touching my head, I raised my hand to touch my hair, and someone hit me. Before I could figure out who it was I fainted.

Police Station.

Officer Emily's P.O.V.

She sat putting one leg on top of another, she wore a royal blue gown, it was so tight she looked so uninterested in everything that was going on, she held a cigarette in her hand, she slowly took the cigarette touching her lips, she looked like she was in her mid-forties, she was fair had pimples all over her face, she wore makeup it was too much.

Who dresses like this when her daughter is missing?

She seems a bit weird though.

I called her last week to inform her to meet me so we could talk about her daughter, She made excuses of being busy but yet she still had to come today.

“Let me cut it short, Did you kidnap your daughter, or Did you do it yourself? Or you got someone to do it for you”.

Any officer would ask her that question if she keeps dressing like this and gives giving this stupid attitude.

She gave me a cold glare after she adjusted her sitting position.

“I don’t understand what you mean officer, I have been worried about my angel for days and now that you can’t find her you are blaming Emma”.

That's why you are dressed fancy. My inner voice

“Your action doesn’t say the same Mrs. Knight”. I was pretending to be tough, well don’t blame me I'm just 22 years. I try and pretend am tough to scare the criminals.

“What do you mean?, What are you trying to say?”.

“Your daughter has been missing for days and you are all dressed up and Mr. Knight can’t even come to the police station because he is busy” She looked quiet, I was hitting the spot “ and Mrs. Knight you tell me what kind of mother will you be when I have to force you to come to talk about your daughter and Mrs. Knight based on this pictures, you seemed happy last night,” I said taking out some pictures from the drawer. “it clearly shows you are okay with your angel missing”.

She looked at me with bitterness. “It still doesn’t prove anything and are you spying on me I could get you fired for that and Are you trying to accuse me of kidnapping my daughter, come on officer don’t be stupid " She shouted.

“Don’t raise your voice, you are at the police station, not your house?” I said trying to sound serious. “and we are not spying on you”. And based on our reports there was a complaint on the 3rd of January last year, a girl named Alice reported an abuse case, it says here you abuse your daughter Sara and then after her report, she was no longer seen again” I said pointing at the report.

She kept quiet for a while, it seemed like forever until she spoke.

“Since you have carried out research, you must be aware the girl is mentally unstable and I feel sick I will like to take your leave, and please you better solve this case and stop pinning blames ”

Lie.

She quickly stood up, adjusting her dress.

“I look forward to meeting you again,” I said taking my hand out for her to shake. She turned her heels and left.

Last night she went to a party at a club, last few days I appointed informers to keep tabs on her, it is like she doesn’t care about her daughter and Mr. Knight keeps pressuring the police to find his daughter, I have reassured him three times that we will try our best and find her.

It is a weird family, the mother seems like she doesn’t care about her daughter, she goes to parties and enjoys herself while the father seems like he can’t live without his daughter, I need to find out how their relationship is with Sara.

I quickly pressed the intercom.

“ officer Lewis,” I said softly.

“yes, ma'am”.

“get me information about this Knight family and arrange a meeting with Alice, every little piece of information is important”.

“Yes, ma'am”.

“And focus mostly on Mrs. Knight, I want to know everything about her, and everything she does, follow her steps and be her shadow.”

“Ok ma'am, I will get the informers to start working”.

I am sure Alice sure knows something about Sara's family, she is the missing puzzle to solve this kidnapping issue.

Sara P.O.V.

Flashback.

Dad met with an accident because of me, he needed to go to his client's house fast I suggested a shortcut, but he was speeding fast, and then his car hit a tree the accident was terrible. My stepmother is worried and sad, she says it is my fault everything bad thing happens and that she made a mistake adopting me.

I woke up with a strong metallic scent hitting me, everywhere smelt of blood, My blood.

Everywhere was hot, and she turned up the heat in my room and locked me up, I haven’t eaten for days, and I struggled to stand up to clean my wounds, I tried opening the windows for more ventilation but it seems like she locked them too. I was cleaning my wounds when my hair was grabbed.

She is back my inner voice said.

“I’m so sorry Mom, please don’t hurt me”.

“It, 's not her Missy” I heard a loud voice, it was the dad he seemed pissed off.

He tighten his grip on my hair, and slapped me on the cheek, he kept hitting me until I lost count, I couldn’t cry anymore, my body is tired from the contact pain.

“look at me” He shouted still maintaining his grip on my hair, I didn’t look at him until he shouted again, I slowly raised my hair to look at him, there was a huge scar on his face, and his eyes were red, I quickly averted my eyes.

“You ruined my face”. He shouted.

“I’m sorry” sounded more like a whisper.

He let out a laugh “ I will love to ruin your face but I need you in the future, so I will leave you a scar to remind you of this day”.

Before I could register what he meant by that, I felt a hot liquid on my leg, it was burning me, and it felt like my whole body was on fire, I look down to see my leg smoking.

He poured acid on my feet.

I was unaware when he carried me to the bed and tied my hands and legs, I felt his hands go up to my neck, and he pressed my neck hard.

“Y...You…You…are…choking…me” he didn’t stop, and I was soon out of breath, I tried struggling but all my effort went in vain.

“Goodbye,” That was the last thing I heard before I collapsed.

End of Flash Back.

I woke up with the comfort of a soft bed and I shifted a little, which made my head hurt, my legs hurt from all the running, and realization drawn to me, I don’t remember having a comfortable bed, I used my hands as support to stand up, The room is large and beautiful, there was a king sized bed, a large carpet at the center of the room, the curtains were beautiful, the walls were painted royal blue.

I got out of bed hoping to run from my kidnapper, I was about to approach the door when the door knob began turning.

Someone is coming.

I didn’t know where to go. I wanted to hide, but the door opened to reveal an old woman, she is dark and had large eyes.

“How do you feel?” she said to me.

“Good”.

“I'm Maggie”.

“I’m Sara”.

She sat on the bed with the first aid kit, she tapped on the bed indicating I to come and sit, she seemed nice, and she treated my wounds without saying anything.

“I will get you fresh clothes and food,” she said once she was done treating my wounds, she never asked me what happened?, or why I looked dirty. Something seemed weird about this woman, I was about to enter the bathroom when I heard voices, I tiptoed to the door to hear what was going on. I opened the door to reveal a large sitting room, it was painted in ash, the voices were coming from the weird door across the room, the door was well engraved, and there was a symbol on it.

Sk. What does that mean? It seems weird and creepy.

I neared the door and placed my ear on it, what I heard next terrified me.

“the girl is here, come get her fast before I end up doing something” After that sentence, I didn’t want to hear the rest, I ran as fast as I could toward the door.

Thank goodness the door is unlocked.

I had no idea where to go. what to do? I noticed there were two other houses, I didn’t know which one I should choose.

“where the fuck is she?” I heard a voice.

She knows am gone.

I quickly ran, I noticed a ladder attached to the house, I climbed the ladder as fast as I could, The balcony door was open, I quickly entered and closed the door.

Maggie’s P O.V.

He paced angrily across the room, He is mad I lost her, she ran away, and he is going to kill me today.

“I’m sorry” He didn’t say anything he just gave me a cold glare, he treats me like trash, I'm his grandma but he hates my guts, he hates me more than he hates his mother.

“I am so ashamed of you, how could you?” He said after a long quiet ten minutes. “she knows how I look?, Do you know what can happen? She can ruin me, every fucking thing could end in just a minute.” He shouted.

“I’m sorry, I really am it won't happen again”.

“Sorry is not going to fix anything, you are going to pay for anything that happens If I go down I'm taking you with me." He came closer to me and held my jaw roughly with his hand. “you have to find her in twenty-four hours just twenty- four hours, not a minute less not a minute more, or else I will kill you”. He pushed me making me almost break my arm, then he left.

Mental asylum... Officer Emily Black.

It seemed creepy at first when she stepped into the asylum, the smell of medicines hit her nostril, it was getting uncomfortable for her, the walls seemed as if they were telling her something, telling her to run, to leave but she wanted answers, she knew Alex knows something about Sara, Sara's parents are definitely hiding a thing or two.

She walked through the hallways, seeing men and women locked up, somewhere dancing, some smiling, some shouting for help, some trying to drag her with them, and some talking to themselves.

She was told Alice is a special case and she was kept separately from others, far away locked up in the basement, after begging and pleading with the officers and doctors in charge of the mental asylum they finally agreed to allow her to be Alice but she had to be very careful.

She stood in front of the door, but only the door separated her from Alice, she let out a breath and placed her hand on the handle about to open the door when she was dragged and pinned to the wall. She let out a scream when she realized she was pinned by a strange-looking man, he wore white almost like a uniform and there was a name tag.

Lucas.

It took her a minute to realize she was trapped by a man with mental issues, she tried getting out of his grip but he was rather too strong, he held her tight digging his nails into her flesh, he looked terrified, he looked like someone was following him, maybe someone is trying to kill him.

“Help me please, Help me. He wants to kill me, he is here.” Lucas said almost spitting on her face.

“just calm down, calm down Lucas no one is going to hurt you, I will help you, no one is over there”.

“I can see him. He will kill us all he shouted.” He grabbed her hands tightly.

Fuck he might end up killing her.

She tried distracting him to get out of his grip and she succeeded, she pushed him and pinned him to the floor, he tried struggling to get out of her grip but his effort all went in vain, she turned his hands on his back and handcuffed him.

“Miss Black are you okay?” a voice said, she turned and saw the doctor, he had an injection in his hands, he quickly went up to Lucas and injected him making him unconscious. Minutes later the ward boys came with a stretcher and took Lucas.

She looked back at Alice’s door, she knew it was now or never, she didn’t know how to react. or what to say to her?

She sat on a chair in a white room waiting for Alice to be brought by the doctor, The room was all white, and the only thing in the room was a chair, a table, and a telephone on the table. the doctor came and dropped Alice carefully handcuffing her to the chair making sure all is well then he left.

“Alice, how are you doing?”. She asked, Alice, looked down she didn’t want to look up, she took a few seconds before she responded.

“I'm fine, who are you?”. Alice asked.

“I’m a new friend, I just have some questions for you, will you answer”.

She was nervous, this is her first case dealing with a mental patient, and she never trained for this.

"I don't want any friends, friends lie. I hate friends." Alice shouted.

"Ok, I'm sorry," Emily said. "I'm not your friend but Alice will you answer some questions for me please."

“Yes, I will”.

Alice seemed gentle and nice, she answered most questions without hesitation.

"Alice where are your parents?." Emily asked her with a straight face.

"I don't have one that died in an accident".

"Do you have any friends Alice?"

"No! I hate friends they are evil, they pretend and they don’t care about you at all". Alice yelled, she seemed annoyed and angry by the question.

“Alice do you know Sara?” Emily asked.

Alice kept quiet, she kept shaking her head, and she kept doing it almost harming herself.

“Alice stop, you will hurt yourself”. But she didn’t she kept shaking her head.

“She is a witch. I hate her, I hate her.” Alice said, she kept repeating her sentence while shaking her head, before Emily could reply Alice started hitting her head on the chair, Emily stood up hurriedly to stop her, but Alice continued hitting herself. Emily took the telephone to the table to call the doctor.

The doctor came in with an injection that made Alice unconscious.

“She is going to be out for a while, what did you ask her?”. The doctor asked.

“ I asked her about Sara”. Emily said.

“Alice hates her name. By calling her name you triggered a hurtful past event in Alice's brain, Alice was constantly hurting herself because she thought that event will happen again and this could have caused damage in her brain leading to her death.”

“I understand, I’m sorry doctor,” I said.

I don’t think it will be appropriate for you to speak to her again”.

“Please, just help me out I need to talk to her it's urgent." She was pleased with the doctor, she can't miss her chance she needed to talk to her urgently.

“No! I can’t let you talk to her, I don’t want any other mistakes to occur officer".

“Ten minutes, I'm only asking for ten minutes and I will be done. Please doctor ”. She said.

The doctor to a while before he replied.

“Ok, I will think about it”.

“Thank you”.

Emily had to look for a way to talk to Alice, that is the last chance she has, she has to convince the doctor to give her alone time with Alice. She knew for a fact that Alice knew something about Sara, she seemed to be troubled by her name.