The Drive to the Interstate

The beginning of my day started normally. I woke up, got dressed, ate breakfast, and then went to my job at the bank. I was getting people accounts, making deposits for them, and a whole bunch of other boring stuff. Then the incident happened. It was around lunchtime, so I was getting ready for my lunch break. Then a tall hooded figure entered. He was wearing a black hoodie, navy blue jeans, and a nice pair of combat boots. He looked nice, though too casual to be here to do something important. He came up to my counter and said one simple thing.

“Give me money, or I shoot. Also, don’t try to scream for help. If you do try I will have no choice but to kill you,” he said so calmly, it was terrifying.

 So I just nodded, turned around, and went to get the money. On my, to the vault, I got out my phone and tried to call the police as sneakily as possible. Then right as I was about to hit the call button, he appeared before and just shook his head sadly, while taking my phone out of my hand and then breaking it. 

“Why would you do that? I told you not to,” he stated sadly.

“Because what you’re doing is wrong, and I need to alert the authorities,” I said matter-of-factly.

He just laughed and said, “Too bad. I really thought this would end better.” 

The next thing I know I’m on the ground and he is yelling that if he doesn’t get the money he will start shooting. The rest of the people in the building start going nuts. Some try to call the police, but the robber was able to shoot the phones right out of their hands without hurting them. When everyone else sees this they all start hiding behind furniture. Luckily, someone was able to get a hold of the police and alerted them to the situation.

After everything was a little calmer, he ordered the other banker to get the money out of the vault and put it in the bag he threw to him. The other banker obeyed and put the money in the bag. He then gave it to the robber and backed up quickly. All the robber did was chuckle slightly and then proceed to pick up the bag. He looked at me and told me, “Get up. You are now my hostage, got that.”

I nodded scared for my life. He put the gun to the back of my head and told me to just do as he said and I would come out fine. So I let him lead me to his car and open the passenger door so I could get in. Once I was in, he got in and drove off. He somehow managed to do all of this before the police got there. I was genuinely impressed, but at the same time, I was wondering if he has ever done this before. Because it certainly looked like it. Suddenly my thoughts were interrupted by my captor’s voice.

“So...what’s your name?” he asked.

“And why should I tell you?” I responded sarcastically.

“Because I would like to get to know the person I captured. I mean I’m not completely heartless,” he said back.

“It’s Lily,” I told him quietly.

“What a nice name Lily. Mine is Ethan,” he replied.

“Well, you have a nice name too,” I said to be nice to him.

After that quick little conversation, I heard police sirens behind us. I thought to myself I might get out of this situation quicker than expected. That was until the police sirens couldn’t be heard anymore. Ethan must have noticed the confused look on my face as tried to piece together what had just happened.

“I had a decoy vehicle already set up to get the police off my tail,” he explained.

I just nodded dumbfounded at how smart Ethan is. Also, because of this, the probability of me escaping keeps getting lower. So I decided that if I was going to be stuck with him for a while, I might at least get to know him. A horrible decision most likely, but he looks nice and around my age. So except for the fact that he just robbed a bank and took me hostage, he seems pretty trustworthy.

“So how old are you Ethan?” I asked curiously.

“I’m 25. How ‘bout you?” he replied.

“Oh, I’m 28,” I said sort of embarrassed because I was short.

“Wow. You really are short then. Around 5’4 I’m guessing,” he said as tried not to laugh.

“Yeah, that sounds about right. But now I’m curious about your height because you are pretty dang tall,” I replied.

“Hmm...I would say around 6’5.”

When I heard that I just looked at him in awe. Honestly, how could people be so tall? Suddenly I heard him snicker.

“What?” I asked with my arms crossed against my chest.

“Just the face you were making. It was cute and funny,” he said while continuing to snicker at me.

I just sat there in silence slightly blushing from what he had, but only for a second. No one ever really called me cute so I was sort of surprised when he said that. Anyway, after that, I just sat there in silence for the rest of the way to the place where he was taking me. He would try to start conversations here and there, but I just ignored him and tried to fall asleep. Eventually, I did.

Finally, the car stopped and I woke up. I sat up, stretched, and then got very confused as to where I was. That was until I remembered I was being held hostage or in other words kidnapped. The weight of the situation finally seemed to weigh on my shoulders. I was most likely far from home, with a random stranger who threatened to shoot me and then proceeded to be kidnapped by that stranger. Then I gave personal information to that person. I really am dumb. 

As we get out of the car Ethan tries to talk to me, but I continue to ignore him. I don’t know why I talked to him earlier. Maybe it was because I was in shock at what happened. But it’s too late now. He must think I’m mad at him. Which of course I am.

“Hey, Lily, are you mad at me? I mean I know I basically kidnapped you, but I have been treating you nice. So if I did something wrong you can tell me,” Ethan tried to tell me.

As he continued to talk I got a little ticked and yelled at him, “Can you stop! Of course, I’m mad! I was just kidnapped by a random stranger! If I don’t want to talk to you, then I don’t have to!”

Ethan then looked at me sadly as I finished going off on him. “Sorry,” I say as I try to calm myself down, “I needed to get that off my chest.”

He just nods and walks into the building we were parked in front of. As I took a closer look at the building, I realized I recognized it. “Hey, Ethan, where are we?” I asked.

“At my home,” he responded quietly.

“Why would you take me to your home? Isn’t that like a major don’t in your profession,” I replied quickly.

He nodded, “Yeah, but this is the only place I have left to go.”

“Ok, I was just curious because this place looks familiar. I feel like I’ve been here before,” I said. As to explain why I asked.

“Huh, that’s funny. The only person who ever really saw my house was an old family friend. But she moved away a long time ago. See when I was younger I got in a car accident and lost some memories. I only remember the faint outline of her.” he said sadly.

I laughed a little before I told him I was in a car accident when I was younger too. And I had also lost some memories. After that, there were a few moments of awkward silence before we both went into the house quietly. He showed me to a room and told me dinner would be ready soon. I nodded and then went to the bed to take a quick nap before dinner.

I woke up from my nap when I heard yelling downstairs. “I can’t believe you robbed another bank!” yelled an unfamiliar voice.

“We needed the money!” Ethan yelled back.

I decided to go downstairs to see who was yelling at Ethan. Also, I was hungry. That was my other motive for me going down there. As I was walking down the stairs I noticed that more than one person was yelling at Ethan. As I turned the corner to the kitchen I noticed a semi-horrific scene before my eyes.

Ethan was being held up in the air by his collar. The person who was holding him up was a tall muscular man whose voice was overlapping with the other person who was yelling. Now the other yeller was a tall, very scary woman. Who was not just yelling at Ethan, but slapping him as he was in the air. I really wondered how he could yell back at them as all that was happening to him.

I stood in the shadow of the doorway for a minute before deciding to go into the kitchen. Right before I entered I saw Ethan get thrown to the floor by the tall man. When I saw that happen I was frozen in the door-way. Horrified. Not just for want happened to him, but also the fact that if I went in there that might happen to me.

Again, a few more moments passed before I gathered enough courage to enter. I decided to act as I had just woken up. So as I entered, I was yawning and said groggily, “Hey, did something happen. I heard a loud bang from upstairs.”

The other two people in the room just looked at me, frozen in shock. After a few seconds, the woman decided to talk. “Oh my lord, are you okay? How did you get here?” she asked surprisingly softly. Sort of like a concerned mother.

“Well, Ethan brought me here,” I responded. “Speaking of him, why is he on the ground unconscious?” I asked with fake curiosity.

“Oh...he passed out,” she easily lied.

I just nodded and said, “Well, I’m hungry. Do you have something to eat?”

“Oh yes, we do. Daniel will help you find something. I’m going to put Ethan in his bed,” she said.

After she had picked up Ethan and left Daniel told me that there was cereal in the pantry that I could have and then left me in the kitchen. After I finished eating the bowl of cereal I had made myself, I went up to the room Ethan had let me sleep in. When I walked in I noticed Ethan sitting on the bed awake and looking half alive. He had a lifeless look in his eyes and bruises all over him that I could see. “Hey, you ok? I saw what happened in the kitchen earlier,” I asked.

“Oh yeah, just a little bruised. Nothing too bad,” He responded quietly. “Oh, also the reason I’m here is to tell you we will be living tonight,” he told me.

“Okay. Also, what did you mean when you said y’all needed the money, back there?” I asked.

He looked at me sadly and proceeded to say, “Well, those two downstairs are my parents, and we have been struggling to pay the bills for the house. So, I decided I would get the money needed.”

I just sat there nodded, and then something came into my mind, “Hey what county are we in?”

“We are in Orange County. Why do you ask?” he said after giving me a weird look.

“Ok, so I think I know why I recognized this place. I used to live near here. And I remember driving past this house,” I said proud of myself for remembering that. This was because when I was younger I got in a car accident and forgot a lot of stuff. So when I remember stuff from before the accident I get proud of myself.

“Oh cool,” Ethan said in response to me.

“Ok, but get this,” I started, “we were both in a car accident when we were younger. I used to live here, and you still live here. We both lost our memories. I recognize your house.  And you have the memory of a girl you were close to. Do you see where I’m going?”He looked at me for a straight minute. Then he looked at me with wide eyes just connecting the dots about what I said.

After that little moment, I continued, “Also, when your mother and I were talking she was really nice to me and acted as if she knew. Because somehow she just knew that really liked cereal before I even told her.”

Ethan then stated, “Yeah, that is weird. Also, my mother is usually not nice to anyone. So for her to actually be nice is concerning.”

“Want to go ask her if we knew each other as kids?” I asked him. He simply nodded and started to head out the door. I followed him soon after he had exited. As we headed downstairs we saw his parents on the couch watching TV. When we finally entered the living room, I decided to be the first one to speak. “Hey, I have a question,” I told them.

The lady just sighed and said, “We overheard your conversation. So I’ll give you the truthful answer. Yes, you did know each other as kids.” After, she said that I looked at Ethan and mouthed ‘That was easier than I thought it would’. He just nodded at me and decided to ask the next question.

“Okay, so if we did know each other why didn’t y’all tell us about each other?” he asked with a sort of accusing tone.

Once again there was a sigh and answer, “Because we thought that if you didn’t remember each other, Lily’s move wouldn’t have affected y’all as much. And we were right.”

“Okay, then,” Ethan and I said in unison.

After we had exited the presence of Ethan’s parents, Ethan told me it was time to go. I just nodded at him and went outside to his car while he got a few items of his out of the house. When he came out we got in the car and started driving while listening to the radio.

As we were about to drive onto the interstate Ethan looked at me and said, “You know you are still my hostage right?”

I smiled at him and replied, “Sure, Bestie.” Then we got on the interstate and started our journey.