Author's Note: Alright, so I'm really not a needy person but the lack of reviews that this story is getting is really not helping my motivation or confidence. So please review!

All I've Never Known

Winter Break was already almost over, I couldn't believe it. I had spent most of my break sleeping and watching trashy MTV shows. I'm spending this Christmas Ever alone right now too.

My parents hadn't even called me today and wished me a Merry Christmas, or acknowledge my existence, at all. Cass and every other person that I knew was away at some relative's house and no matter how much begging she did I refused to impose on her family and go up to Vermont with them for Christmas weekend. That was just asking for too much.

So what am I doing right now on Christmas Eve? I'm sitting here about to order some Chinese food. Yes. That's some fantastic way to spend the holiday, huh? The good news is that it's snowing though! Bad news, there's only about 3 days left of vacation.

More bad news- I can barely understand this Asian guy on the phone and rather than trying to spell out my address for him I suppose I'm just going to have to go pick it up. I mean, I guess it's only about a 20 minute walk. The snow isn't too bad either. I could use some kind of peaceful, relaxing walk anyways. And after being such a bum the exercise would do me some good!

So after getting off the phone and being told that it should take my 25 minutes I bundled myself up in my white jacket and Uggs. I wrapped the scarf around my neck, put the gloves on, and I was good to go. Walking outside into the cold made me hesitate for a second, but I trudged on. I'm hungry, and I want my Chinese food. I wish Cass was here, she'd just give me a ride.

And I guess you're wondering why I don't have a car, huh? Well, that's easy- my parents don't want to get me one because they don't trust that I can take care of it. And I have better things to save up my money for. I guess I don't really need a car. I know people who have them, and they have no qualms about chauffeuring me around. End of story.

As I walked down my block I looked up and noticed all of the beautiful snowflakes falling down. The dark of the night, and purity of the white snowflakes was beautiful. I almost felt like they were dancing down to the ground, not falling.

I was so caught up in my admiration of the snow and how it made the whole town seem so much more peaceful that I had even noticed that I was a few blocks from the Chang's Chinese and that I was freezing my derrier off. I honestly could barely even feel my fingers. How had I missed that..?

As I entered that place I rubbed my hands together, trying to generate some kind of heat and got a big, cheesy smile from the Asian man at the counter who must have been who I was talking to before. I paid, grabbed my bag of egg rolls and chicken, wished the Asian man a Merry Christmas, and once again entered the cold darkness of downtown Cranesville. I don't even fully understand why Chang's was open. Do Chinese people not celebrate Christmas or something?

My town looked nearly empty as I walked down the blocks. I suppose all of the families were either home with loved ones, or away and visiting loved ones. And where was I? Walking the streets with my bag of Chinese food, prepared to sit at home and watch a marathon of Christmas themed horror movies.

I sighed to myself, secretly wishing that my parents were like other parents. Secretly wishing that they cared. I've done this so many times, it was actually becoming routine. I mean, I understand that they have to work and everything. I understand that they have to support me. But is it really impossible for them to be home on Christmas Eve? I don't even remember the last Christmas Eve that I saw them! I haven't even heard from them in over a month! Oh, that is a lie actually. There have been two voice mails left by my Mother and one from my father over the month and a half time reminding me to pay certain bills and that they bank account number had been changed and that was all that they cared to inform me of.

I felt myself slump in defeat as I was walking. Walking in this dark snowfall actually making me feel even lonelier than I am.

I heard a crunching noise from walking on the snow... and it wasn't my foot steps. I turned, panicked and the last thing I remember seeing is something blocking my vision and a rag against my mouth.

My head is killing me.

That is my first thought as I slowly find myself waking up. Then it hit me. Someone had grabbed me! Someone had kidnapped me! I'm not even a kid and somehow someone had kidnapped me. I noticed then that everything was black and it took me a few seconds to realize that it was because I had something tied over my eyes. I went to go rip it off and found also that my hands were tied behind my back.

When I went to go scream I found that I had a rag of some sort tied around my head and in my mouth, and that came out was some muffled noises.

I felt like crying, but I refused to let that happen. If I creaked this freak would feel like he had won. It would fuel him. I was not going to fuel the fire.

I heard some chuckles as I squirmed around and realized that I was in a small space... a small space that was moving... Oh my God! I'm in the backseat of a car! Sitting in between two guys, it seemed. Oh my God! How was I going to get out of here! What did they even want from me! I went completely crazy then and trying moving my body in every which way, trying to get my hands untied. I stopped and gasped in pain as I felt my ring dig into one of my fingers since it was beneath and me and already being squashed, my thrashing not helping.

Wait a second... my ring!

I calmed down then, but still kept squirming around trying to keep them suspecting that I was trying to do anything bad. I heard them speaking in some language that I couldn't really understand at first but then suspected that it was Spanish. I had only started taking Spanish this year in school, I mostly took French in school, so my comprehension of the language was still very shaky.

"Qué piensa sucederá a ella?" I heard one lean forward to ask the guy to my right. I still kept squirming, slowly being able to cut trough the rope tied around my wrists. I was more than halfway done at least!

"Yo no sé! Vale mejor todos estes problemas aunque. El mover y retorcerse se enojan." I heard the other one mutter with an annoyed tone.

"Se enoja. ¿Me pregunto cuándo se dará cuenta de que retorcerse la conseguirá en ningún lugar? ¿Debo gritar en ella?" the first speaker spoke. I could tell by his voice that, unlike the other guy who had spoken, he was only a few years older than I.

I got it! I got the rope undone!

Now what? Take down all of these Spanish speaking kidnappers at once? I could tell that the car was full, with the two silent ones up front, and the two in the back. I guess I could reach to one of my sides try to push one of the doors open and dive out of the car door before they had time to react? I tried to stay positive with my plan, though I was strongly doubting myself.

I quited my thoughts for a second, trying to make myself more aware of everything around me. The older man to my left had a rather large belly, I could just sense it. That meant that it would probably be easier to dive out of the right side. Also, it was very quietly except for the noise of the running car that I was in right now. That meant that we were most likely on some type of highway.

"Tire el coche al lado! Debo mear!" I heard the younger guy to my right call out to the driver up front. I understood that... mostly! He was saying something about going to the bathroom which meant that we were probably pulling over. I never quite figured that looking up curses in other languages would help me one day in a life or death situation. Okay. So, as soon as he go out and ran to go pee I would make my run for it.

I felt the car slow, and braced myself, tensing my body up, readying myself for my dive and sprint. Hopefully my high school years of tennis would come in handy in this situation and give me the speed that I needed to get out of this situation.

I felt the younger guy open the door, and leave it open as he went to relieve himself. I heard the crunching of the snow and I heard him jump over what I assumed was a guardrail or something of that sort.

He had left the door open! Score.

'It's now or never' I thought to myself with a silent deep breath. In a split second I leaped out of the car, pulling my hands forward to catch my fall. I immediately hopped up and was running from the direction in which we had been coming from. It seemed like that would be the more likely place to lead me to safety. I felt my lungs burning as I heard yelling behind me in Spanish. I was disease from having jumped up so quickly but pushed that aside, only allowing myself to take notice of the pounding of my feet on the highway road as I ran faster than I have in months. I was out of shape, tennis had ended two months ago and I haven't been working out.

I didn't let that stop me. I keep running, even as I heard footsteps behind me. Holy shit this guy was a fast runner. I would let him be faster than me though. I wouldn't let him get me.

I refused to go down without a fight.

With that single thought in mind I felt my draining energy power up again and I felt myself moving faster.

It must have been over a quarter of a mile by now and sprinting that distance after not having done it in a while was taking it's toll on me. I felt myself gasping for breath, trying to zig zag a bit as a way to lose him a bit. Having thrown the blindfold and mouth gag off before when I had dived out of the car I was searching for some kind of sign of civilization. I needed some sign that there was help nearby. I heard some honking back in the direction from where the car was and a thick accent urging my pursuer to "Hurry up and grab the chica because we don't have time for this nonsense!"

I felt like screaming at the top of my aching lungs in frustration. I was thinking the stereotypical thoughts of 'Why me?!' as I heard the panting of the guy as he seemed to catch up to me more and more. He must have been less than ten feet behind me. I could practically feel him reaching out to grab me. In a last minute of panic I stopped suddenly, moving to the left quickly. I almost cheered in joy as he went skidding right past me, trying to stop himself and slipping on the snow covered road, falling onto his face, bracing his weight with his arms.

My celebration was short lived as I once again made a run for it as he tried to quickly right himself and catch up to me. I couldn't see his face throughout those few seconds due to the hood that had been brought up over his head to hang over his eyes and his head was ducked.

I heard a car coming from behind me, not driving too quickly. I knew it would catch up with me soon if I didn't do something. I saw a car's headlights coming from the other direction, the one that I was running to. Relief ran rampant throughout my body. It was someone who could help me! I ran towards the car, as it slowed down, seeing me in front of them. They were a few hundred feet away when I heard the car behind me stick their head out the window and yell, "Ay! Grab her primo!"

Oh no. I knew that word. Primo was cousin. Oh no! I was trapped. Both of these cars had me trapped in. Why did they even want me so badly?! I wasn't worth anything! This is ridiculous. This is not how I planned on spending for Christmas Eve for Christ's sake!

I screamed loudly in frustration as the guy who had been chasing me finally got a hold of my swinging arms while I was running and pulled me back forcefully. We both tumbled to the ground, landing in a heap. I desperately crawled away from him, trying to right myself on the shoulder of the high where we had fallen. It was too slipper though, I could keep myself up for more than a few seconds. I couldn't do this. This was a nightmare, that's all. A nightmare from all of the Christmas themed horror movies I had watched and late night Chinese that I had eaten. This was all just one big nightmare and soon I would awake, alone in my house and on my living room couch.

I stood up finally, finding myself facing a group of dark haired men. Some stared at me with amusement and some with aggravation. I glared at them all, trying to figure out what my next move would be.

"Just give up little girl. There's nowhere for you to run. You're coming with us, and I don't want anymore little escape plans being hatched. Do you hear me?" the oldest man, who must have been in his 40's spoke in a thick Spanish accent, with a solemn look on his face. He had a long beige trench coat, black slacks, and dress shoes on. I snarled in his direction and looked around once again, feeling like a caged in animal. I needed to get out of here. I refused to give up and let these men take me and kill me. Or worse yet, traffic me as a sex slave in what Spanish speaking country they were from!

I went to go sprint into the little opening to the left where none of them stood and found myself running into a hard body and falling backwards onto my butt. I landed with an "oof" and was preparing myself to scratch out the eyes of whoever had just stopped me. I looked up from my position on the ground and found my eyes and mouth opening wide in shock. I couldn't help the loud gasp that escaped me.

"Alex?!" I screamed loudly, in complete shock.

He simply looked down at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Wha- wh- what? Why? I- I- ju-just... What?!" I couldn't even formulate words right now. I was so confused. I didn't understand any of this. I just couldn't grasp this. I wanted to throw my hands up and question them all on why exactly I had been chosen for this little kidnapper game of theirs.

"Just get up, and get back in the car," he commanded monotonously.

I looked up at him, still in shock, unable to do much but open and close my mouth, my eyes staying wide open. I must have resembled a fish.

"I said, get in the car. Now," he spoke harshly, leaning down, to stare stare me down. I found myself gasping for breath still, unable to regulate my thinking. I felt myself stand up slowly, being offered no help by anyone around me. I felt someone come up behind me, tie my wrists back together, and begin to lead me back to the car that I had just run from. The whole time Alex was giving me this look as if he was challenging me to defy him. I was scared, I'm not going to lie.

He turned from me suddenly and walked back to the car in which he came from. I myself was being led to the same car I was coming from. I struggled, but not as hard as I previously had. I was drained. I was desperate. I was scared.

I wouldn't let one tear slip from my eye though, they didn't deserve it.

I don't even know what they could possible want from me.

As I was pushed back into the same car seat that I had been in just before I felt a shiver go up my spine. I turned around and found those same golden brown eyes staring straight at me, straight into me.

I gave him a glare filled with hate and disgust, turning back around and looking out the front windshield of the car with a blank look on my face.

What could they possibly want from me?