There I was… on the blood stained floor cradling the head of the girl who saved my life by giving her own.

I was walking home from school. It was a peaceful day, spring had come after a long winter. A light breeze came from the east and you could already see signs of life. As I turned the corner I saw there was a big van, with an electrical logo on it, parked near the curb. Thinking nothing of it because of all the houses around I walked right next to it. I don’t know exactly what happened because everything happened so quickly, but I was suddenly being held from behind by a large man. He put a cloth to my mouth and dragged me to the van all while I was struggling. In those few moments a million thoughts raced through my head. The standard, What’s going on? Am I being kidnapped? Why is this happening? What will happen to me? Am I going to die? I can’t tell you what happened after I got to the van door because that is as far as I remember before blacking out. 

When I woke up the first thing I noticed was the stench of blood, sweat, and fear. I then heard noises; The faint crying of a kid being consoled by a male voice, moans of people in pain, and worst of all laughter and sounds of celebration coming from a separate room. The tension in the air was so thick I could taste it. The room was cold and humid making me clammy all over.It was all too much. Every one of my senses were being overwhelmed. My head spun and I couldn’t catch my breath, my whole body shook. It was my first panic attack of many. All I could think was I wanted to go home. My throat burned making it even harder to breathe while tears ran down my face.

A steady hand was laid on my back, it rubbed up and down. A calm voice came with it singing a song that still calms me to this day. Her voice radiated across the room calming not only me but everyone in the room. She sang her song until she was out of breath.

An eerie silence fell amongst us as we looked at our fellow captives and took in our situation. As strange or heartless as it may sound, it was comforting to know that I did not have to go through this experience alone and know the others felt the same way I did in that moment. 

After the song ended no one so much as uttered a word fearing the semi-peace that had been created would shatter if we did. Sadly, our peace was slowly chipped away with each foot step that came closer to the door.

The door opened revealing three people each one wearing a mask to protect their identities. They looked us over like a cook picking out their ingredients. I could feel a stare digging into me and making me feel more exposed than ever before. It trapped me squeezing the breath from my lungs. The floor began to spin and all I could hear was the blood rushing through my veins and a ringing that grew louder with every second. The person staring walked toward me, each foot step revibrating through the room. Each step added a weight to my chest building pressure until I was sure it would kill me. His shoes, black and shiny in the limited light, stop in front of me. He crouched down, grabbed my chin in his fingers and made me look at him. To this day I still remember how revolted I was to be touched by him.

My vision blurred and shouting could be heard. Somehow I had ended up on the floor, I later learned that I puked on the man and went limp immediately after he stopped touching me. The man who I had puked on was furious with anger coming off him in waves. He pulled out his gun and pointed it at me. When the gun fired several followed it but I felt no pain. Confused, I opened my eyes expecting to find my-self bleeding out. Instead I found something even more terrifying. There were four bodies on the floor, the closest to me was the man who had tried to kill me. He had a bullet hole in his head and a surprised look on his face. His companions layed strewn on the floor, blood covering their bodies and blood pooling around them. The forth was in the center of the floor and still breathing. I looked around the room to see who was missing. Everyone was there except for the singing girl. It didn’t feel real, like I was watching everything on the TV. People were crying, some sat and looked around not knowing what to do. I slowly came to my scenes and realized that the girl that saved my life was bleeding out on the floor in front of me while I just sat there. I tried walking over but my legs felt like jelly and I fell. After a few more attempts I was able to stumble my way over to the dying girl. Her clothes were all soaked in blood making it impossible to tell where the wound was. Her haggard breathing was getting softer by the minute. I couldn’t stand the thought of her leaving, she saved my life and I didn’t even know her name, it felt wrong. Everything about it was so wrong she calmed us when we were scared, gave us hope when we had none, she was the light in the darkness that everyone said would come in your darkest hour. That light was fading before my eyes. She traded that beautiful bright light for my dull one. 

The girl looked at me and tried to smile. “Please don’t cry. I am not sad so you should not be.” She spoke barely above a whisper in a straid voice. I couldn’t believe she still had the strength to talk or the fact that she was trying to reassure me.

“Why? Why throw your life away for mine? You’re a wonderful person who could have done anything with your life. I’m just a stranger so why did you…” I couldn’t finish it was too hard. The tears wouldn’t stop.

“Listen, I did not throw my life away. I used it to save a room full of people who have their whole lives ahead of them. I wouldn’t call that throwing my life away so don’t you ever say that again.” She told me this with such conviction that I couldn’t help but agree. 

“Please don’t die.” I begged. “You can’t die.” Tears started to fall from her eyes too.

“Now look what you did. You ruined my brave face.” I felt the need to comfort her so I folded one of my legs under her head and let the other one stretch come close to her side just like my mom would when I was a kid. 

“What can I do to help?”

“When you get out of here don’t make a life for yourself. Make sure everyone in here does something they love, not some stuffy office job that they will hate. That way I know I will have done something with my life. Promise me you will never forget today… never forget me.” She had started to sound like she was breathing water. She coughed up blood and her body started shaking. “Please… tell my family… w-what happened… tell th-them… I love them. Take care of my… my sister. Don’t l-let them for..get me.”

“I won’t, I promise, I won’t let anyone forget you. I’ll tell everyone how amazing you are.” 

“Th-than..ks” She gave one last try at a smile, let out one last breath, and the light went out. There I was, sitting with one leg bent under her head tucked toward me the other bent at her left side. I stayed like that on the blood stained floor cradling the head of the girl who saved my life by giving her own.

I stayed like that and cried until the cops came. Even then it took coaxing from my fellow, former, captives who later became my best friends, all of whom I would trust with my life. My friends and I stuck together that night crying nonstop, none of us let the others be alone. That night had been a traumatic experience that made all of us closer than any friends I have had in my life, and I didn’t even know their names’.

It took the entire night for our tears to dry up, I was the last to stop crying. I don’t quite remember how but we had ended up at the police station and in a back room that was able to house all of us. Including me there were twelve kidnapped kids ranging from fourteen to eighteen. To any outsider we probably looked like a bunch of kids who were strangers to each other, they would have been wrong. We weren’t kids anymore and we weren’t strangers to each other. An unexplainable bond formed in us that night, a bond strong enough that it kept us together for years to come, only growing with the time we spent together.

When I finally stopped crying everyone looked at me. I was the closest to the singing girl and the one to hear her last words. I knew they needed guidance, I knew they needed something other than tragedy to unite them, and I knew the singing girls last words. “Last night we lived through something no one should ever experience. We were kidnapped, thrown in a dungeon, spent what felt like an eternity scared of what would happen to us, and watched the light that we depended on in that darkness be brutally snuffed out. We experienced things I thought only happened in movies; And we still live… because of the singing girl. She told me that she didn’t throw her life away, that she used it to save a room full of people. She was right, she saved us all. Because of her we have our whole lives ahead of us and I think it’s only fair that we live out her final request to live on. She didn’t die so we could mope around and just survive. No, she died so we could live. She died so we could become the light that she was in that dungun for us.” I still remember their faces when I was done speaking. The broken kids we were that day had begun their transformation into warriors that would someday rattle the world.

When it was time to part ways we were relieved and overjoyed to see our families again. Our families wept when they saw us but none of us cried because we had no tears left. We all refused to leave until everyone's families were there. In a few cases the kid’s families didn’t show up for varying reasons, but whatever the case they were welcomed into the homes of others. Before we parted ways we exchanged names, ages, phone numbers, even addresses. I created a group chat with all of us in it so we could contact each other. We spent most of the next week getting to know each other and hanging out together. A few of us lived in different cities, one even lived in a different state, but the distance never hindered our relationship in any way.

The week after we were rescued a funeral was held for the singing girl whose name was Zoe, but will always be singing girl to us. We all came together as a group and were able to meet her family along with the little sister I promised to take care of. After the funeral we all went home with singing girl’s family to tell them what happened to their daughter and beloved sister. After we told them our story and I repeated her last words the parents were kind to me but the little sister didn’t like me. The little sister and I eventually became friends after time healed both our hearts, and I looked after her as if she were my own sister. 

Later that same day, after we had gone home, all of us went back to Singing girl’s grave. Each bringing a bundle of three flowers tied with a ribbon: A yellow Zinnia to tell her she will never be forgotten; A red Poppy to tell her we live on because of her and will use our life to become a light for others just like she was for us; A purple Hyacinth to say we are sorry that she had to die for us; And a white ribbon to show everyone how pure and good she was.

It has been many years since then and we have all become successful people living our lives to the fullest doing what we love best. We are scattered all over the world now busy with our own lives, but we still always talk and constantly visit each other. Despite all our busy schedules and distance none of us have ever once failed to drop everything and help if one of us is ever in need. Nor have we ever forgotten to meet at Singing Girls grave to lay down our bundles of flowers at her headstone and remember the girl who in one night changed our lives forever.