Prayer, fear and pain were a never-ending loop of emotions my 9-year-old self-experienced for about thirty minutes during a family vacation in California. My family and myself were touring the streets in LA during, accompanied by some of our relatives who lived there. We arrived at a street which could be described like a Hispanic flea market. There were booths selling different items from clothing, to food, and souvenirs. We made our way down the street buying various when things turned for the worst,
Being young, I stayed alongside my parents for most of the vacation. However, I remember seeing this booth filled with toys, and what caught my eye, a bucket filled with swords that lit up. I left my parents side for moment to walk to this booth which was a few booths ahead from the one where my parents to wait for them there.
I walked out from the busy human traffic to try to try to spot my family to get a better view if they were catching up when an older man with long black hair says, “Hey kid? Are your parents around? Help me get my dog that got off his collar.” He then pointed to a small dog walking down the railroad track that was aside to the fair. Nothing about the man gave me good vibes. My body froze with fear. My head kept yelling at me to “Run!” but my legs failed me, and I felt paralyzed. The man started to walk up to me repeatedly asking me to help him retrieve his dog. I shook my head and finally found the strength to move my legs back into the crowd where my parents where. My reaction had come too late and the tall man ran and picked me up. I bursted screams for help from the nearby crowd for anyone to come and save me. The man ran to a minivan parked on a street next to the fair, opened the side door, and threw me in like a sack of potatoes. Inside the minivan there was another man, a large black man with a thick beard who greeted me upon my entrance and began tie my hands and feet with a thick rope that itched to the touch. During all of this I screamed for help and I pleaded for my life and to let me go. I remember there were no seats inside beside the two seats up front, where the two men sat....
