Not much is weirder than completely missing a whole day of your life, especially after being kidnapped by a strange guy that just broke into your house. On top of that, I was totally groggy and my headache was worse than ever. But the sight of my family brought all of my emotions out. When the curtain pulled back and they came in, my confusion subsided for a moment. They all looked like they had been crying.

"Gabe!" Mom cried, running to the side of the bed.

Suddenly I was surrounded, being hugged by all of them, and no one's eyes were dry. When they finally all pulled back, and Mom got a good look at me, she gasped.

"Oh Gabe..." She whispered, stroking the side of my face.

I wouldn't find out how I looked until a little later when the call of nature forced me to be helped to the restroom door and after I'd done my buisness, I saw my face in the mirror for the first time. I inhaled sharply when I saw the bruises that covered my face, mostly my left cheek and my chin. When I returned to the bed and my family was all gathered around, I was about to ask some questions I was hoping they'd be able to answer, but the nurse returned just then, coming around the curtain.

"There's an officer here that would like to take your statement," she said to me.

"You don't have to right now if you don't want to, sweetheart," Mom said.

I just nodded to the nurse. "Let him in." Maybe he could answer some of the questions I had.

The nurse ducked out and a second later, in walked the man who'd found me in the basement.

"Hello," he saidnodding to everyone. "I'm Officer Burns, I'm the man who found your son."

Dad stood and shook the man's hand. "Thank you so much. You saved Gabe's life."

Officer Burns smiled. "I'm just glad he's doing alright."

He turned to me. "I'll try to make this brief. If you could please tell me what happened, from the beginning."

So I did. Dad held my hand the whole time as I explained everything I remembered, starting with seeing the intruder in the kitchen, to waking up in the basement.

When I finished, my whole family was just staring at me in horror.

"Thank you, Mr. Duncan," Officer Burns said, closing his notebook. "This will help with the case against the people who kidnapped you."

I nodded. "Thanks. For everything."

He nodded and left.

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

I was kept overnight 'for cautionary purposes' as the nurse called it. But when I was brought home the next day, I found out exactly what had lead up to my rescue.

Just as I'd hoped, Mrs. Dabney was disturbed slightly by my strange behavior, which had been stranger than I'd even been trying for since I was being held at gunpoint and trying to be nice. She went back home and called Mom, asking her if I was supposed to be home by myself. Mom explained about the babysitting, which in turn made her worry that I was not being responsible. She called the house, and Charlie, who'd woken from her nap, answered. The thing that scared Mom most was when Charlie said she didn't know where I was. That's when she drove home and found the front door unlocked and the garage door partially opened. Mom called the rest of the family in a panic and they all came home. PJ was the one who found my phone, and it had 16 unanswered texts on it.

Things went really downhill when the phone rang with an alert from the police explaining that there was a massive manhunt in progress for six teens who were wanted for all sorts of crimes ranging from robbery to murder. Red Head, it turns out, was one of them. The unlocked door, partially opened garage door, and my absence, along with this alarming news about criminals made my parents call the police. Long story short, they found the teens at about 2 in the morning hiding in a house two miles from our house, and that's where I was found in the basement.

Oh, and I had to testify in court against them. So there you have it, that is the story of one of the worst days of my life.

The End.