One World

By Lindsey Hannah Kidwell

All Alice ever wanted was to get out. Leave her small town, go to college, and create a new life for herself. But her kidnapping changes everything. Alice soon finds out about a secret plot from the biggest company in the world, One World, and only she can stop it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: May 2, 2011
• ISBN: 9781462864324

Book preview

I want to thank my family for their support.

I want to thank my friends for their encouragement and for not allowing me to quit.

I want to thank Amber for making the awesome cover.

I want to thank Liz for writing the really perfect poem, I’m Here. (Next page.)

I want to thank Kiara and Hannah for being a good person to run to for help when I was freaking out about writing this.

Lastly, I want to thank anyone who made fun of me for reading and writing to much, because look where it got me now!

                                                            **********

I also want to dedicate this book to Jeff Edie, (A.K.A Goober!)

I am here.

When you need me, I’ll be here,

Waiting in the dark.

I will always be your candle in the night,

No matter where we venture,

Always carry my flame with you.

No matter how far you venture,

My flame will never flicker.

Because it will always be your guiding light.

                      --Liz Rachford

Chapter 1.

Alice! Hey! Alice! Wait up! I heard my name being called and all I could think was Crap. Who now? I turned around and it was Meghan. My closest friend. Practically a sister. We knew each other since 5th grade and were really close.

But that doesn't mean I wanted to see her now. I was almost home and had a hard day at school. I wanted to eat, practice flute a bit, do some laundry, and sleep. I just hope she didn't see me turn around and see her.

At that precise second I thought it, she yelled, I know you can hear me Alice Jana! I saw you turn around! Now stop! I started walking faster so Meghan just ran to catch up to me. Why didn't you wait? I got a story!

I looked at her with a bored expression on my face. Meghan always has stories. They aren't that interesting. Mostly about boys she likes and how they flirt back. Meghan is beautiful. She can have any guy she wanted if she would just act normal.

Meghan has long, curly red hair and green eyes. She uses a lot of black mascara but it still looks really good. She usually wears cute t-shirts underneath zip up jackets and tight jeans. It’s not too fashionable but it’s her. She wears Air Jordan shoes she named 'Jordan' and Jordon'. Spelled two separate ways. Not very creative. She likes to show them off because they are cool. Right now, she was wearing a 'Peace to the world' tee and dark jeans with her Air Jordan’s. Her hair was pulled into her ponytail and she had rubbed some of her make up off.

Sorry, Meghan. I didn't feel like stopping. I'm tired and I just want to get home. I told her.

Okay but you gotta hear this. I was in seventh with... I let her story trail off into my background thoughts. I nodded at the appropriate times and laughed at everything that was supposed to be funny. What I really wanted was to get home. Just then, thank god, Jake showed up.

Jake is in Meghan’s seventh period class. That's who she was getting ready to talk about till he showed up and saved me from endless stories about god knows what. Jake is average height. Probably about five feet and six inches. He wears thin wire framed braces. I am not really to close to him but he and Meghan are close so I stay polite. He has brown hair that is short and straight. He is kind of shy but definitely not around Meghan.

As he approached us, Meghan cut off her story short. You stopped talking so suddenly I am going to have to assume you’re talking about me, am I right? Jake smiled warmly at Meghan as he said it. It's really obvious Jake has a crush on Meghan. He always flirts with her and when she playfully abuses him he just takes it. He doesn't fight back at all. Meghan claims she doesn’t like him that way but I think deep down she does. She always flirts back and teases him.

It's not that Jake isn't a bad person. He is really nice. I think maybe Meghan is just scared to date again for a while because of some trouble she got into with her last boyfriend. Whatever Jake! You’re not the sun. The world doesn’t revolve around you.

Then what were you talking about?

None of your business.

So you are talking about me!

Nope! Jake then tried to tickle Meghan so she screamed RAPE! and busted out laughing. I watched in minor amusement till we reached Meghans house, a big red brick, two-story house. Then as they turned up the walk I kept going straight on home.

Hey, Alice! Aren't you coming too? called out Jake.

Uh, No! I yelled back. I am tired. Bad day. I will try to talk to you guys later! I continued walking the last three blocks till I reached the gravel road that led down the driveway. At the bottom of the road was a little white house. It looked yellowish from the dirt over the years and the screen door was ripped on the front. The porch was covered in pots filled with dirt leftover from my attempt at adding some color to the place last summer.

I walked in the front door and called out to Donnie that I was back from school. If he even cared. He is never home and doesn’t cook or pay any attention to me anyway. Donnie does his thing and I do mine. I don’t think he even notices when I am home or not. I could be dead and he would be completely oblivious. I threw my books in their corner in the bedroom and headed to the kitchen. I couldn't hear any snoring in the other room which meant that Donnie must not have gotten back from work yet. I scoured the cabinets for food and came across nothing. I moved to the fridge and found a note on it. It read:

Alice,

Going out of town for a couple days. Not sure when I will be back. Next week probably. Here is the number for the place I'm staying. Don't call before five pm or after 10 pm. I left some grocery money and emergency money in an envelope under your pillow in case you need it.

-Donnie.

After his name was the number for the hotel. I knew I wouldn't need it so I crumpled the letter and put it in the junk drawer. I got some cereal and had just started cleaning up and finished my homework when I heard gravel popping outside. I looked out the window to see if someone was here but there was no light. The sun was just setting so it was dark out. I closed the curtains and all of a sudden had this feeling come over me.

You know those feelings you get when you now you’re being called on in class even though you don't know the answer? Or that someone is staring at you from across the room because you got something on you or because they are just creepers like that? It was kind of like that. The feeling of being watched. Like I wasn't alone.

I walked through the house and locked all the windows and doors tight. I got a towel and clean wash rag out of the linen closet and was just undressing for a shower when I heard a noise outside. It was like the cracking of twigs. And whispered shush. There was definitely someone out there. I wrapped myself up in a towel and looked out the back door abut I didn't see anyone.

Then, all of a sudden I heard the doorknob rattling up front. It was locked so no one could get in unless they broke a window or busted the door through. I ran to the front and looked out the door.

There were two guys standing on the porch. They were whispering something to each other. They looked about middle or early twenties. They were tall. One had long hair to his shoulders. It was straight and jet black. He wore a black leather jacket and a white tee with blue jeans.

The other guy also was tall and had black hair. His hair was also long but it was curly. He wore only a black t-shirt with jeans. This one was whispering something to the other and making gestures to the door. I wondered if they were planning on breaking in and stealing valuables or something. We didn’t have anything worth stealing though, and wouldn't they wait until no one was home? All the lights were on so they had to have already known someone was home.

I was peeking through the curtain when the one with straight hair spotted me. I closed it quickly and turned around. When I looked back again they were both watching me. The curly haired ones made gestures to come to the door.

I walked to the door but didn't open it. Instead I just called, Whose there?

Were friends. Open the door, please. The voice that said this was deep. Kind of soft at the same time and friendly. But these guys looked kind of sneaky and suspicious to me. When I didn't answer they started pounding on the door. OPEN UP! They both started yelling at once and making threats to break down the doors and windows. I ran back into my bedroom and threw on some sweatpants and a shirt and jumped under my bed to hide.

Not the best place to hide, I know. I was already cornered there, but I couldn't think of anywhere else. As soon as I climbed under the bed, though, I heard the sound of the window being busted. Then the sound of the front door unlocking.

I heard slow, heavy footsteps walk across the hardwood floor into the living room. Then whispered voices saying, Find the girl. I gasped and crawled further under the bed. What did they want with me?

I lay there, squished beneath the bed. Waiting for them to find me. I knew they would. I heard doors opening and closing and the heavy footsteps moving around the house. Finally someone reached my room. I heard the door open up and saw the boots of one of the men walk in. He slowly walked to the center of the room and stopped just at the foot of the