I start to undress. Tears burn my eyes as I pull my shirt off. The only sound in the room is clothing rustling and dropping down to the floor.

Just as I start moving my leggings and underwear down my hips, the man reminds us, "Everything off. Shoes and socks too."

We all change into the new outfits quickly. My cheeks feel like they're on fire - I can't believe I just had to fully undress in front of three people I've never met before. I can barely even undress in front of my boyfriend.

The new clothes are uncomfortable on my skin, a little scratchy, slightly big, and barely any protection from the cold air.

The woman without the gun walks in front of us and bends down, picking up all of our clothes. She looks down at the hiking boots that I kicked off, and it takes me a second to realize she's admiring them. Her crooked teeth bare as she smiles.

"You have money," she states.

My breathing picks up. Are they going to single me out now? I don't have money - my step father does.

She throws all of our clothes and shoes towards the corner of the room before she walks back to her original spot beside the man.

"Down on your knees," the man demands. He seems to enjoy the power he has over us.

"Why?" Declan asks from the other side of Alice. I curl my body forward slightly to look past Alice at him. He's staring at them, his chest rising and falling rapidly. I know what he's thinking - they're going to kill us.

The woman with the gun walks up to him slowly, her eyes narrowed. My heart rate skyrockets as she reaches up to press the barrel of the gun against the side of his neck. His head tilts upwards a bit from the pressure.

"On your knees," she repeats.

I look away immediately. I can't watch him get shot, even if I hate him.

I think back to when Declan and I first met, back when we were eight years old, and if you would have told me then that we'd be where we are now, I'd have laughed in your face.

I slowly get down on my knees, hardly even able to keep myself steady with how rapidly my body is shaking.

All three of us are on our knees now. Thankfully, the woman with the gun backed away from Declan and lowered the weapon, but it's still pointed at us. The hard floor hurts my knees, I can feel the grit of dirt through the lightweight pants.

I stare down at the ground, my head down. The man walks to stand in front of me.

My lip quivers as I slowly look up at him. I reach up to touch my neck again, something I keep doing involuntarily every time I see his beady blue eyes.

"You are Louisa Rhodes," the man says.

My heart feels like it's going to break out of my chest. How does he know my name? Wait - my backpack is gone. They must have all of our belongings and they must have found my driver's license. They now also have my credit cards and my birth control pills.

The man smiles, indents appearing on each side of his mouth. "You're so scared, sweetheart. Why?"

I swallow hard and try to blink my tears away. My mouth is so dry. I don't want to speak to him at all.

"What's wrong?" he reiterates, impatiently.

"I..." I start, struggling to make myself speak. I flick my tongue over my chapped lips as I look up at him again. "I want to go home. Please."

"You don't want to be here?" the man asks as he crouches down in front of me. Every movement he makes sends a shocking jolt of fear through my body.

I shake my head. "Please," I whisper again, though the word barely comes out.

I don't really know what I expect to happen. There's a certain disconnect deep in his eyes that tells me he doesn't care that I'm crying on my knees right now.

It's silent for a minute. I stare down at the floor again. I have trouble looking into his eyes - the last time I did, he was strangling me. And now every time I even glance up at his face I feel like my throat is closing and my lungs are burning for air.

"Okay," he says, straightening up and taking a step backwards. He looks between all three of us. "Then, it's just a matter of what you would rather do."

He goes quiet, and all of our scared breaths are very heavy.

"You do have a choice, believe it or not. You can stay here, or you can die. And I'll tell you, we have a nice little beauty right here that can make that wish come true," he gestures towards the gun in the woman's hands, "but it's all up to you."

His words make me feel sick. I keep looking at the floor, my chest heaving. I try to calm myself down - maybe it'll be easy to escape. Maybe Declan can get us out, he's one of those weird smart people that are good at stuff like that. And I don't know Alice, but maybe she'll be useful in some way.

The man takes a step away from me and steps in front of Alice. "Alice Sloan, take your nose piercing out," he demands.

I don't look at her, but I can see her reaching up to take the gold hoop out of her nose from my peripheral vision. She always wears that hoop, it hugs her right nostril. Now, the small piece of jewelry is on the floor in front of her knees.

"Perfect," the man says. "All better." Then, he steps towards Declan. "Declan Lloyd."

I look up at the two women standing by the door, watching as they look between each other, perking up at the sound of his name.

"Declan," the woman holding the gun beams as she lowers the weapon down to her side. Her smile is wide, reaching her eyes. "It's nice to meet you."

"Yes, it's a pleasure," the other woman says, wearing the same giddy grin.

The man has a hard look in his eyes. His chest puffs out slightly as he looks at Declan with his arms crossed tightly over his chest. "That's enough," he murmurs to the two women, and they immediately comply, straightening their postures.

I look over at Declan, and he looks just as confused as Alice and I do. His eyebrows are furrowed and his lips are slightly parted as he looks at them.

What the hell was that? Do these creeps think he's famous or something? He's on the college track team, maybe they know him from that somehow?

The man reaches into both pockets of his pants and pulls out three sets of metal handcuffs.

"Arms behind your back," he spits.

I listen, clenching my fists as I bring them to meet at my lower back. He kneels down behind me and clicks each cuff tightly around my wrist. The metal digs into my skin. He then grabs onto my bent arm and hoists me up to my feet quickly.

He walks behind Alice and clicks the handcuffs around her wrists, lifting her up after as well. I watch out of the corner of my eye as does the same with Declan.

The man pulls Declan up to his feet until we're all standing in a row with our hands cuffed behind our backs. He then looks over to the two women who are standing on either side of the door. "Ready?"

"Where are we going?" I blurt out.

I look over my shoulder at the man, who's now standing behind me, his hand on the small of my back as he guides me towards the door. He doesn't answer me.

I catch a glimpse of Alice, she has tears in her eyes as she stares back at me. Declan looks terrified as well. In all the time I've known him, I've only ever seen that look of terror in his eyes once before.

I watch as the woman without the gun walks over to Declan and wraps a thick, white blindfold over his eyes. He jumps at the initial contact as she wraps the fabric tightly around him, securing it with a knot at the back of his head.

She then does the same with Alice, and pretty soon, a blindfold is wrapped around my eyes, engulfing me in darkness. I can just barely see a strip of light out the bottom of it.

I'm guided towards the door. I feel so terrified that I can't even believe I'm still standing. I stop right before the doorway, when I look down I can just barely see the threshold where the floor from the room stops and the floor from outside the room begins. I turn towards where I believe the people are standing.

"Please," I say desperately. "Please, please, you can still let us go home. We need to go back to school. Please."

I feel like I need to run, but I don't know where to go. I know that the second I bolt, they'll shoot me, and then I'll really have no chance.

"Turn around and walk," the man says.

"I- but, wait, I don't feel good," I tell him, my words barely legible as I can't stop shaking.

"I don't care. Walk."

"I can't, I can't," I cry out, physically unable to move.

"Walk!" one of the women screams.

I jump when I feel cold metal pressing against my forehead. There is a gun against my head right now. My body freezes up, I can literally feel every muscle in my body tense.

I can see her feet standing next to mine, her clean white sneakers. She turns me around while tears fly from my eyes, my entire face soaking wet, my hair stuck to my cheeks.

I start walking, the floor ice cold on my bare feet. I take a few deep breaths and calm myself down. If the three of us get a chance to be alone again, we'll be able to come up with a plan.

I can't see anything except my feet and the floor. The man is guiding me through, I can feel his breath on my neck and I can smell his clean scent. The metal from our handcuffs clack throughout wherever we're walking, echoing off the walls.

We walk through another doorway, and suddenly, my feet are touching what feels like grass and thick mud.

When I look down, I can't see anything. I gather that we must be outside and it must be pitch black out. I can hear crickets and wind whistling through treetops. The frigid breeze feels good on my sensitive neck.

This can't happen to me. Wherever we're going, I need to stay calm and get out. I'm going to finish college and I'm going to become a Clinical Psychologist. I've had my entire life mapped out practically since I was born, I have worked tirelessly to get to this point and I still have so much further to go. If we're getting kidnapped, I'm going to comply with everything they want me to do. I'll do whatever I can to get out of here - I'm not going to give them any reason to kill me.

We keep walking, the man still guiding us, until we reach another stop.

"Elsie, do you have the key?" the man asks one of the women.

"Yes, one second," she answers. Elsie's voice matches the woman without the gun. I hear metal jingling from beside me.

We're still standing on mud and grass. I hear the sound of a door creaking open, so I lift my head to see if I can see any surroundings through the bottom of the blindfold. Quickly, somebody's fingers wrap around the back of my head to push my gaze back down to the floor.

"Keep your heads down," the man shouts.

Wherever we are, I can hear more heavy breathing. There has to be other people here - maybe it's the rest of the class. A wave of relief washes over me. Professor Kitt will definitely be able to come up with some sort of plan to get us out.

"You'll have to push them in," I hear Elsie say.

I don't even have a chance to register what she's saying before suddenly, somebody shoves my back. I lose my balance and my body instinctively twists to catch my fall but because my hands are secured behind my back, I can't.

My stomach dips as I drop a few feet down before landing onto a hard surface.