On the way back to the apartment, I thought long and hard about only one thing, one hand resting lightly on my lower back in pain.

The man who had done this to me. I’ve been under his control ever since I was eight years old. I could remember that fateful day when he first found me in vivid Technicolor.

I laughed as I waved goodbye to my friends and ran to catch up with Henry. He always waited for me outside my classroom, coming down from the eighth-grade classrooms to my second-grade classrooms.

He caught me in a giant hug, picking me up and swinging me around. “How’s my favorite Ryn-Ryn?” he asked me, grinning and kissing my cheek.

I giggled and pushed him away. “Henry!” I whined. “You have cooties! Eewie!”

He looked indignant. “I do not!”

I just giggled again and grabbed my puppy-shaped backpack. “I bet you can’t catch me!” I yelled, starting to sprint down the hallway. I could hear him coming after me; I just ran faster, my little shoes making soft thuds on the thin carpet, my jumper skirt flying around my knees.

I had barely reached the closest bathroom when Henry caught me, picking me up and slinging me over his shoulder. “Now, we can’t forget Whitney!” he scolded me as I beat him on his back with my little fists.

“Let me go, you pirate!” I yelled, referencing our favorite game to play in the backyard, beating his back again.

He chuckled and started sprinting towards the third-grade classrooms. “Never! Arrrr!” he growled, making me laugh.

Finally, he set me down and let me walk again, one of my little hands dwarfed by his. We got Whitney from her classroom and resumed our pirate game. He was the big bad pirate and Whitney and I were the two lovely twin princesses kidnapped by him. Since we were about the same size, it was easy for strangers to mistake us for each other.

Whitney and I exchanged a glance and started to sprint towards the entrance to the school, daring Henry to catch us. Our laughter could be heard ringing throughout the hallway as we tried to evade Henry. “You can’t catch us!” Whitney called over her shoulder. I giggled and nudged her to go faster.

“Rawr! Arrr!” Henry growled from right behind us as we burst into the fresh air outside of the school, and Whitney shrieked as Henry grabbed her by the waist and slung her over his shoulder. Within a couple seconds, Henry snatched me too, and he cradled both of us as he slowed to a trot. Whitney was on his back piggyback-style with her legs gripping his waist tightly, her arms slung around his neck, and I was cradled by one of his arms close to his chest. I snuggled into him, and I could hear Whitney laid her head on his back, exhausted from running.

Henry walked over to the nearest oak tree and deposited us both down in the shade. “Hey, I forgot something in my locker. I’ll be right back, okay?” he asked.

Whitney nodded sleepily, laying her head on the cool grass, and I said, “Okay. Be back soon?”

He smiled and kissed us both again, and this time I didn’t shy away. “I’ll be right back,” he reassured us as he backed back into the school building.

Whitney was asleep within moments, her soft breathing ruffling the grass near her nose. I leaned against the tree trunk and pulled my stuffed teddy bear out of my puppy backpack to start playing with him, cooing softly to him.

Suddenly, I felt a hand clamp over my mouth and another knock my teddy bear out of my hands. I was too startled to scream as another pair of hands pulled me to my feet and jerked me away from a sleeping Whitney. A blindfold was placed over my eyes as I continued to stumble.

That’s when I had enough sense to start screaming. I yelled and tried to bite the hand covering my mouth. I heard someone curse in anger. Henry doesn’t do that. Finally, I was simply picked up and tossed over the person’s shoulder. I was too disoriented to try and escape, too disoriented to do anything but whimper.

I heard the sound of a river growing nearer. Strange, we didn’t have a river near my school. The person carrying me stopped running, and I was roughly tossed to the ground. The blindfold was yanked from my eyes, and I stared, scared, into the eyes of someone who didn’t go to my school.

He looked older than Henry, but younger than Clinton. Actually, all four of them did. They looked scary. I whimpered and tried to scoot away, but I was surrounded.

The biggest one kneeled in front of me. “Scared, little girl?” he asked meanly, then laughed. “Don’t worry, we don’t want much from you.”

I was terrified. I stared up at him with eyes as big as saucers and tried scooting away again. I bumped into something, and I looked up to realize that the something was the legs of another big guy. I let out a squeak. “I want Henry,” I whimpered pitifully.

The first guy got right in my face. “You won’t see your dear Henry again unless you do a couple things for us,” he threatened me. I squeaked and nodded. Anything to get back to Henry.

He stood and pointed to the river that was off to my left. I swallowed looking at it. It was big, and looked fast and scary. “First,” he said, “Get my favorite flashlight from the river. A little girl like you threw it in, so a little girl like you should retrieve it.”

I swallowed nervously, but only moved when one of the guys picked me up and shoved me towards the river. I pulled off my shoes, knowing Mom wouldn’t like me tracking water into the house, and slid down the muddy bank on my bottom to stick a toe into the freezing water.

I yelped and tried to scoot back up the bank, but something poked me in the back. One of the guys had a long stick in his hand and was prodding me towards the river with it. I gulped and started to ease my way into the river.

Apparently, they became impatient with how slow I was going, because then I felt a sharp stab in my back. I let out a cry as I tumbled into the river.

“Help! I can’t swim!” I screamed before my head went under. The water covered my head, got into my ears and nose, and suffocated me. I couldn’t see anything. I accidentally inhaled, and everything went dark.

Suddenly I awoke, lying on the grass, coughing up water as someone hit my back. After a moment, I stopped coughing enough to open my eyes. I was barely able to see the large, black-haired man through the shadows of the trees. He kindly helped me sit up. But then, I was on my feet and my back was pressed into the bark of a tree.

I stared up at my savior, fear entering my eyes again. He hissed, “I’ll only let you go home if you promise to do whatever it takes to pay me back for saving your life.”

I nodded. I wanted to see my family again.

And so he took me home.

I bit my lip, trying to keep tears at bay. My first message from him had arrived a few days later in the form of a letter. There had been no return address. It had only said, ‘Become skinny.’

And so that’s what I have been trying to do for eight long years. Eight years of pure hell. And I had had absolutely no choice. He saved my life; I owe him my life. Simple as that.

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Everything's been sorted out! Yay! :D I hope you enjoy this chapter, I figured you guys deserved it in more ways than one :) Comment and tell me what you think!