The Silhouette's Prisoner
By
Sherry Zeng and Katherine Chou
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PUBLISHED BY:
The Silhouette's Prisoner
Copyright © 2013 by Sherry Zeng and Katherine Chou
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This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
Kids Reading Material
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THE SILHOUETTE'S PRISONER
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Chapter 1 - Sharon-Running Away From a Large Silhouette
"Here I go again." I mumbled quietly to myself. I took a deep breath as I stepped into the alleyway between my apartment house and my friends. Every night for a week, I had to cross this dirty, slender path between the two tall buildings to work on a group project. Even though my warm jacket protected me from the snow crushing beneath my weight, I shivered and quickened my pace.
I wished Catie, my twin, were here. She was the brave one of the family. But then, she would just argue or tease me. Again, that disturbing dream came back to me as I reached the midpoint of the alleyway. As usual when I was crossing this alleyway, my heart started to jump faster than normal. I suddenly felt that someone was watching me, so I looked back just in time to hear an unusual footstep trailing behind me.
"Oh, no!" I thought. This was what I was afraid would happen. Without another thought, I broke into a run.
"You’re almost there, only five more yards." I encouraged myself as my heart became uncontrollable and my lungs burst open. Behind me, the footsteps got louder and louder. I glanced back only long enough to make out the blurry silhouette of a large person.
Now that person was so close that I could feel the hot breath pounding against my neck. I was getting closer from escaping this alleyway and the stranger. Four feet away, three feet, two feet…
Suddenly, the mysterious stranger grabbed my hoodie and pulled me back. I let out a shrill scream and managed to head butt my stalker before breaking free. Preparing to run, I slipped on a patch of ice and tried in vain to get back up. The stranger grabbed me again this time, and wrapped a thick smelly cloth around my mouth. I was thrown in a nearby convertible, my left leg bumping into the door. The last thing I remembered before the car took off was me thinking, "The nightmare became real."
Chapter 2 - Catie-So the Door Slammed…
"Bye, Sharon! Good luck with your science project. Don’t get an F on that stupid Endangered Animals topic of yours!" I waved goodbye to my twin sister as she grabbed her coat and her 11" by 11" poster board. Sharon glared at me, hurt. I glared at her back. Well, her friends would only need her to help on the writing part of the project. After all, she won a writing contest! However, I’m the one who is good at researching.
On the way out the door, she hesitated.
"Um…are you sure you can’t, well, come with me?" she asked hopefully, avoiding my eye.
"Well, no. You know that very well." I replied glancing at our seven year old brother who was focusing on a puzzle. Then I looked at the essay I was working on for Social Studies. "I have to watch over Andy, and you know how much he hates leaving in middle of Sudoku. Besides, the dream you had last night about getting kidnapped in the alleyway was only a nightmare. Seriously, you don’t have to be a scaredy-cat all the time!"
"Well, fine. I’ll try to be brave. You would have been scared if it were you. You probably don’t want to come with me because you are scared too!!!" Sharon snapped, slowly walking out, "Bye!"
"Bye!" I angrily echoed, "Make sure to call when you get there. If you ever do." I snickered.
She stared at me with her eyes narrowed and a frown on her face.
"You looked funny with your face all red. Are you a tomato?" Andy naively said to Sharon while he looked up from his Sudoku.
She turned around. The door slammed shut loudly.
He innocently commented, "Where is Sharon going, and why does she sound scared? Why are you guys even twins?? You don’t act or look alike." He ruffled his dirty blonde hair thoughtfully.
I groaned. "I hate it when you ask so many random questions at once. One, Sharon is going to her friend’s house to work on a project, and she is going through a scary, dark alleyway. Two, we are fraternal twins. That means we don-" I replied, or tried to.
"I know what that is," Andy responded, acting like a brat, "Now I need to concentrate. Please go away. I want Big Sissy, not you."
"Then why did you ask in the first place?" I spat at him, narrowing my eyes and flipping my dark brown hair. I always loved my beautiful long waves. Sharon had the same type of hair, but she had ugly reddish hair. Of course, she thought my hair was ugly.
"Sissy 2 (Andy calls me that)." Andy looked at me again. "Why are you so mean? I wish Sissy 1 (He calls Sharon that) was here."
Though it hurt my feelings, I knew it was true. Sharon was the shy, caring one that Andy wanted. Not me.
Chapter 3 - Andy-I LOVE Ice cream!!!!
Hi! I am Andy Walker. I am seven. I love ice cream and puzzles. I am very smart! My IQ is 156! My sissies said that I had the worst pronunciation and grammar skills ever. Well, I am so sad. Sissy 1 isn’t here anymore. I want her to tease me about my immatureness and bad grammar now.
My sister got taken away by mean people for two weeks now. I remember my two sissies talking. Then the conversation became heated, whatever that means. Sissy1 walked out with her poster board. I looked up from a hard Sudoku. I asked Sissy 2 a question or two. She answered them. Then, I turned back to my Sudoku. After a long time, Sissy1 had not called. Next thing I knew, Sissy 2 was calling the Smiths. That was where Sissy 1 was heading. My sister sounded very worried even though they were enemies. I think that deep down in her heart, she is a caring older twin. Turns out, Sissy 1 never ever made it. Sissy 2 frantically called everyone. Sissy 1 wasn’t anywhere!! Mommy and Daddy were called home. The police came. That is all I remember of that crazy day!
My family was all very sad. I cried. And then I cried again. Then, my mommy sobbed. My daddy and sister cried silently. The police people with super cool cars invited my parents to a place far away to attend a program called "What to Do Best with Missing Children." I have to stay home with Sissy 2. Worst of all, the person who is supposed to cook us dinner is Mrs. Johns, our neighbor. Her spaghetti tastes like ropes! I know what ropes taste like. I accidentally chewed on one because I thought that it was vanilla licorice. But that was when I was little, like two weeks ago. Anyway, I am so sad. I want Big Sis. Where is she???
Chapter 4 - Sharon-Where am I??
Tweet tweet. I awoke to the sound of birds chirping outside my window. My head was throbbing and my legs screamed with pain. Pain? Just then, the whole episode from that night flashed into my mind, and I instantly sat up.
"Whoa!" I gasped with awe at my surroundings.
I was in the coolest room ever. I was in a canopy bed with royal blue sheets. The dresser across from me had shiny knobs and was a deep cherry wood. Book cases twelve feet high had filled the rest of the room and the windows filled a whole wall, their beautiful curtains matching the bedding. Best of all, an old fashioned clock and a cool shelf filled the space a
bove the lace pillows. Below a nearby bookcase, there was a comfy armchair with a Mac Air in the seat. Toward the window, I saw the neatest grand piano ever, with a chandelier just above it.
Just then the French door opened, and a little skinny boy with big gray eyes and a thick mop of brown hair sneaked in. His dirty trousers had many holes and scratches on them. Good. I needed to hear an explanation from someone on what the heck was going on.
"Why am I here?" I blurted out to him.
The boy–his name tag said David–ignored me. When he got close enough, he whispered, "You need to escape fast, before she comes in. Here is a map of this place, with hidden passageways."
He handed me a rolled up paper that looked simply like a large copy paper. I was amazed. Not only because his words were so scary, but also because he had better pronunciation than by brother. I looked up from the map to ask the kid the million questions in my mind, but when I looked up, he was gone. Replacing him was a note (in an almost illiterate first grader’s handwriting) on my bed that read: "Putt dee maap and notee in yor poket. Dont sho enyone. –David"
Chapter 5 - Andy- I Want Sissy1!!!
I got tired of waiting for Sissy1 to come home so I went out while Sissy2 was sleeping. I went to look for my sister. I took two thick jackets, ten dollars, fifteen candy bars and eleven sandwiches all in a backpack. I put on my tennis shoes. I crept down the bedrooms and stumbled across the familiar hallway.
When I got to Mrs. Johns’ apartment door, I started tip-toeing. After all, she was supposed to watch over me and Sissy2. Obviously, she was going to freak out when she found me missing at breakfast. It was going to be much, much worse if she would find me sneaking past her front door, carrying a large, heavy backpack. It would be so hard to create an excuse.
I don’t think she will believe me when I say that that I’m going hiking in the woods. Or that I’m going camping in the park. It’s in the city after all! Maybe she’ll believe me when I say I am going to walk around the city all by myself, and I’m going to be very cold and need that sandwiches and candy bars because I’m hungry. Hey, you never know! Hopefully, I’m not too loud.
Chapter 6 - David- The Big Bad Mommy
My name is David, and like I told Sharon, I am six years old. My mommy kidnapped a girl to keep her company, or at least that was what she told me. But the real reason was that she wanted the girl to start liking her as a mom, and then she would willingly do whatever Mommy told her to do. Maybe Mommy would make Sharon her slave! She is sure crazy!
I don’t know why Mommy needed another slave. She had around fifty already! All of her slaves were teenagers she abducted about ten years ago. Mommy forced them to work in her grape field. She lives in a mansion in a huge forest, so policemen can’t find her and accuse her of forced slavery. In case they do, Mommy made fake ID cards, birth certificate and name tags for all the workers–even me. The ID cards came in handy: when workers got injured, Mommy had someone take them to the hospital with the IDs. That way, even the hospitals got fooled.
I’m the only slave that mommy did not kidnap. I was once her favorite and only son, but then she started hating me. It’s a long story.
As Mommy’s personal slave, I knew everything that was going on. I remember serving her coffee one morning and saw her reading a newspaper article about the winners of the National Kid’s Writing Faire. She read that a girl named Sharon Walker won first place. Mommy had a sneaky look on her face.
The newspaper even included a biography of her life! Sharon also appeared on television. That night, I saw the biography on T.V. and learned that Sharon had two siblings called Andy and Catie, and all three of them had unique bright emerald green eyes. Sharon seemed like one of those girls with a great personality. Then I got a horrible feeling when I remembered Mom’s sneaky look. Maybe Mommy wanted to kidnap her!!!
Then, I remembered carrying her dinner tray filled with garlic bread, a jug of water, funnel cake and a slice of five topping pizza up the stairs to her room. No one answered the door, so I went in. No one was there. I asked the head worker, Bill, where Mommy was. He said that she was in the city. Huh? Mommy never went into the city before. Was she going to do what I think she was going to do? At least I could take a break until she came back.
Four hours later (around midnight), I was woken by a rumbling sound. I looked outside my dirty window and saw a blue convertible parked outside our moat. Mommy stumbled out, dragging someone with her. I quickly jumped out of my torn beddings, and ran out my smelly room. My room was on the sixth and highest tower. I welcomed Mommy and pretended not to see the unconscious girl in her arms. Inside I was shocked and sad.
"Oh no!" I had mumbled to myself. "Mommy actually did what I thought she was going to do." I then saw the girl’s silky red brown hair and her familiar face. This was Sharon!
Mommy then ordered me to clean the fancy room on the sixth and highest floor. She laid the girl, (who I recognized as the book winner) down on the canopy bad. We left the room quietly.
Mommy must have hit poor Sharon hard, because she did not wake up the next morning or the next. Luckily, when Doctor Kittywitty (who was actually Mommy’s sister) came in, she said that Sharon was fine. She was only in a coma.
Chapter 7 - Catie-That Little Brat!
Bright sunlight streaked into my window. I glanced at my alarm clock. Huh? It was only 8am; I usually would sleep until 11am during winter break. Almost no one can wake me up, in fact, only tickling that one spot on my foot can wake me. I just lay there trying to sleep when I heard the door slam. Sharon?!
I jumped out of my bed and ran to the door, only to find Andy tiptoeing down our apartment hall to the elevator. I slipped on my fuzzy Uggs, and ran after Andy. Luckily, wore my socks to bed. Unluckily, Uggs aren’t the best shoes to run in!
"Andy, come back! Where do you think you are going?" I screamed after him. He did not stop, so I had to chase him down the stairs, through the main exit, and through the crowd of our busy New York street. Boy, did we attract attention! Imagine a teenage girl in her fuzzy pajamas chasing a little boy with a humongous backpack. That’s us!! When Andy finally stopped to rest and catch his breath, I finally caught up to him, but we were in the middle of nowhere.
Chapter 8 - Sharon-Who Is She??
Heavy footsteps came in my direction. I swiftly stuffed the map and note into my pocket, and pretended to sleep. Hearing the door open, I opened a crack of my eye. The image I saw was a woman, slightly on the heavy side. Ok, I’m not going to lie, she was obese.
"Wakey wakey!!" she shouted while carefully nudging me, "I already woke up David!!"
"Ahhh!!!!" I screamed. The face I was staring into was filled with bright but pretty makeup. Wait… never mind, those long lashes, red lips, and pink cheeks weren’t makeup, they were real.
"I am Mrs. Williams. Call me Jacque or mother. Great to see you!!"
Call me smart, but I decided to play along just to see what would happen, advancing the weird questions one at a time. After all, she was a stranger, and probably the large silhouette I saw that kidnapped me. I had to be cautious.
Chapter 9 - Andy- YAWN!
I am mad. Sissy 2 yelled at me for running off. Luckily, when I cried, she stopped. Now we are at a freeway surrounded by miles of golden wheat fields. They were all dry, so they were actually brown. I was only to be descriptive. My teacher said that was important. I wanted to ask the farmers for help but Sissy2 disapproved.
"You never know what they might do." She scowled at me. "They might pretend to be friendly and invite us to their houses. The next thing you know, they would refuse to let us out again. Maybe we would be stuck as their servant for life!"
She had watched too many movies.
In the past few hours, we asked every car (so far there was only one) passing by for directions back to our house. They just stared at us. I need water. I need food. I lost all the food and water I packed on the run. (I always knew that I should zip up my backpack more carefully.) Most
of all, I need Sissy1! It was almost dark, and I need my comfy bed! I cried again, and Sissy2 just looked at me and sighed.
Finally it was too dark to do anything else so I yawned and curled up on the edge of the road. Sissy2 didn’t look like she wanted to sleep, but soon, she had drowsed off. I looked at her and decided to sleep too.
Chapter 10 - Catie- Enter the Vampire
Someone was poking me on the feet. I giggled and opened my eyes. It was Andy. I looked around. Where were we? Oh yeah, my idiot brother ran away and we are totally lost at the moment. I checked my watch. It was two a.m.! It was still dark, but I could make out the shapes of my surroundings.
"Sissy, there are still some cars on the road, let's ask them for help." Andy whispered to me.
I sighed. Since I am already awake, I guess I will.
An hour passed with no results.
We had stumbled to a rest at the edge of the road. What we had to do was keep begging for people to help up.
"Arrrgh!" I shouted of desperation and of coldness. Andy silently popped down next to me. By now, there were hardly any cars on the road, and I felt the risk of all the dangers of being alone. I still couldn’t believe that Andy ran off without a map or any idea where to go. Besides, how could this brat had run this far without stopping?
Just then, a sleek black convertible rumbled into view, and I forced myself upward to wave to the convertible. Surprisingly, the driver pulled to the side, and rolled down the window.
"What the wha-" I almost blurted out. That guy was just plain creepy. He dramatically took off his sunglasses (Wait, why would he have sunglasses at night?), and we could see that he had pale skin and bright blue eyes. His greasy black hair was combed back. Seriously, that guy would have been mistaken for a vampire if he hadn’t been wearing a modern brown leather jacket.