Whom love you the most? Your parents, children or your siblings? You may have loved them but what about your best friend? They care for you too! However, I realized that a little too late…
“I have scored ninety-six marks for my Chinese exam paper!” I exclaimed.
“I… I … scored seventy marks only,” my best friend Rachel moaned.
“I am sorry. You were not well on that day of the examination, right? Don’t be too upset. You might have scored full marks if you were well that day,” I comforted Rachel.
“I am not as dumb as you think I am. I know what you are thinking. You think that I will ask you for help in my school work! No! I will not and my father can afford to hire a tutor for me! You will be studying on your own as you are poor!” Rachel shouted at me.
“You are just jealous right? I will be able to score the highest mark in class and you will still be the last in class even if you were to hire a tutor and I am not ashamed even if I am poor. You should be the one who is ashamed, being the last in class. Be careful, you might even get kick out of our school!” I snapped back at her as tears flowed down.
We were arguing on our way home from school. Rachel knew that my family was not that well to do and she usually did not talk about it as she knew that I would be very upset. I knew that Rachel was very disappointed at her marks but I was very furious at that moment. When I realized what I had just said, I knew deep down in my heart I had crossed an invisible line. I had hurt my best friend’s feeling. I tried to apologize but when I turned around, I did not see Rachel but a red van speeding up to the both of us. Two burly men got out of the van and one was short while the other was tall and well-built. The tall man had a long scar across his right arm and the short man had a dragon tattooed arm. I stood rooted to the ground, too stunned to react.
‘What are they doing? Are they trying to kidnap Rachel? If yes, what am I going to do?’ deep thoughts raced across my mind.
I felt a kind of mixed feelings. I told myself that I had to make up my mind quickly! While pondering over what to do, I felt myself racing towards the van . I needed to save Rachel and I did not regret it even till now.
“You! Let go of my friend!” I shouted at the tall man.
“This is none of your business! Go away!”
“No! Let go of my friend…” before I could finish my sentence, I felt a sharp pain in my head and everything went dark…
“Wake up! Wake up!” a similar voice rang.
I opened my eyes and found myself in a dark room. It was very small and dirty. My hands were tied together and my legs were tied to a nearby table and my head hurt a lot too. The one who woke me up was Rachel.
“I am sorry. It was my entire fault. Now you are kidnapped too!” Rachel sobbed.
“It is all right, I am fine. Now tell me what happened after I had fainted.”
“All right. They dragged us into the car and transported us here,” Rachel started, “then, they started tying us. I tried to struggle but one of them warned me not to. If not he would hurt me.”
“Where are they now?”
“They have just left. They have gone to report to their boss that they had successfully captured me.”
“I am going to ask you a question. Do you want to stay here and wait for your father to pay the ransom or do you want to risk your and escape with me?”
“Are you kidding? Do not have to ask me this? You understand me so well! You know my answer, don’t you?” Rachel gave me a smile, a smile that told me that she was going to risk her life and escape.
“I will take this as a yes then. Now we would have to plan when and how we are going to escape.”
“How about escaping now? I think that if they are back, they would try and force me to telephone my father.”
“No! Not now, I think that they will be back soon. Remember to act normally, or else they might suspect us.”
I was right – the two men arrived about a few minutes later. They did not suspect us at all. Both of us kept struggling and screaming, in the end the tall man got so irritated that locked us up and went out with the short man.
“Now how are we going to escape?”
“No! Now we can escape easily,” I replied as I smiled. “See that sharp piece of wood sticking out of the door? Use that to cut our string and we are free!” I ordered.
“You are such a genius!”
We managed to free ourselves after some effort. Now, we were all ready to escape.
“The door is lock! How we get out!”
I pointed to a big hole on the roof of the house. The next few minutes we tried to climb up to the roof. It was very easy and fun actually. In no time, we sneaked out of the hole easily and quickly got out. At last, we were at the roof of the house. The house was very short and so we could jump down to the ground. We ran towards the woods once we reached the ground.
“Good job!” Rachel said to me as we ran.
I did not say a single word but just grinned. At that moment, I heard some footsteps behind me. I turned and to my horror, I saw the kidnappers running after us. Rachel seemed to realize it too. The men were catching up and we had to do something! Rachel grabbed my arm and dragged me to a nearby bush. The men did not see us hiding and were searching for us.
“We could not hide here forever, they will find us soon. I have a plan. I will attract their attention. You must run quickly towards the river over there, swim across the small stream and ran away from them. I would be able to catch up,” Rachel explained.
“No. That would be too dangerous for you,” I protested.
“No listen to me. Trust me, please. If not both of us will caught and all your effort would be wasted. Start the plan when I count to three,” Rachel insisted.
I could do nothing but nodded my head.
“One, two and three!” she counted.
She rushed forward and waved at the men. They saw her and rushed towards her. I rushed towards the river before I dived in, I turned my head and saw Rachel catch by the kidnappers. I tried to save her but accidentally slipped and fell into the stream. I was drowning and everything turned to darkness.
When I woke up, I was at the hospital. My parents were beside me.
“You have finally awakened! You have been in coma for three days. You are very lucky as you managed to survive. You were found at the nick of time by some boys playing by the river. If not, you might have lost your life,” the doctor explained.
“Rachel was not as lucky as you were. She was hit in the back of her head by a wine bottle. She is now still in coma. The doctor in-charge of her told me that she might never wake up…” my father said.
I cried when I knew something like that would happen. I would rather die than see Rachel in coma. It is too terrible, walking home from school alone and doing my project alone.
Few days later, I was discharged but Rachel remained to be in a coma. Each day as I walked home from school I wished that Rachel would suddenly walk forward and talk to me, but that will always stay as a wish, a dream good to be true.