Alejandra

= The Hunt =

 I live in the outsides of a small town in Austria. Here there are no other houses, except for mine, well; there is a small abandoned house in the corner of the street. My house is surrounded by forest. I live in a big house with a lot of windows, a big garden, and a lot of rooms. Even though, my family is not so big, we always have visitors. I have one younger sister called Lily; she is five years old. I have one older brother called Jake; he is 17. I am the one in the middle, and my name is Jamie; I am 14 years old. I don’t have a father he passed away two years ago, of cancer. We live with my mom, and my nanny, Marissa.  My story begins, in October 13, 2002. I was 13 years old. It was the day of my birthday; we had a big celebration. Usually, in big celebrations, many people spend the night at my house. The party ended at about 1:30 a.m. I went to my bedroom, and closed the door. In the one of the guest rooms, there was a small boy with his parents. In the other guest room, there is a man, with his wife. This people are my mom’s friends. The pair in the second guest room seems a little mysterious. Actually, it all started that night; something strange started to happen. The lights in my room started turned off and then back on again, I was really scared. I didn’t know what was happening. Suddenly, the entire house started to shake. I guessed it was an earthquake. As usual, there were many earthquakes in our small town, but there was never an earthquake as big as the one that night. Then suddenly all the lights in the house were off. I heard a very mysterious voice coming from the hallway. The voice sounded ghost like, as if a ghost had gone in the house. I was really scared I started shouting, “Help, help, help…. Mom please help me I’m scared.” All of a sudden, my brother Jake came running through the door of my room, and in a very disappointed voice he explained, "Jamie, mom is not in her room. There is no one in the guest rooms, and Lily is not in her room." When he was explaining this to me, I got really scared and I started to cry. Jake gave me a big hug so I would calm down. I tried to talk, but tears started forming in my eyes. I sighed, and the last tear rolled down my cheek. I reached out for Jake’s hand, so I would feel protected. After about five minutes, Jake suddenly looked at me and did his I-forgot-to-tell-you-something face. He let my hand go, and reached in his jeans pocket. He quickly pulled a wrinkled white paper, and handed it to me. I read it out loud it said,

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“ Yo // ur mom, sister, and friends, have just been kidnapped.” // =====  I stopped, and realized I was trembling. I continued reading, // “You and your brother, will have to start “The hunt” to find clues that will take you to your relatives.” //  I paused, sighed, and continued, //“You will start “the hunt” tomorrow morning, the clue will appear suddenly in a place.//  That was the last sentence I read. I dropped the letter, and hugged Jake. I didn’t want to do “the hunt”, but it was the only way to have my family back. I was really nervous about all of this; I started to feel dizzy, and nauseous. I laid in my bed; Jake was sitting beside me holding my hand. I closed my eyes, and another tear rolled down my cheek, and then I fell asleep. I woke up, and it was 6:30. I opened my eyes, and I realized that Jake was still snoring. I shook him, and desperately shouted his name. He woke up immediately. Jake and I went in the kitchen together, to have some breakfast; we quickly set the table, and had some cereal. While we were eating, we were talking about if something happen to one of us, we had to continue, and never give up. We finished breakfast at 7:10. I went to my room, and brushed my hair and teeth. Then, I went to my closet, and put on a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, and blue converse. I laid in my bed, and waited for Jake. Something started to happen, all the four chimes in my room, started moving, and clicking together. Then, all of a sudden, my favorite glass chime that had a big, orange star fell and broke into a million little pieces. Everything broke, except the star. I quickly rushed were all the glass was, and picked up all the pieces carefully. I leaned down, and I started to blink very fast, because I saw a very shinny light coming from the star. I stood up, and some words started appearing in the light of the star. I then shouted, “Jake, Jake, come quick something is happening I don’t know what it is. Jake, Jake.” I heard footsteps come close to my room; I sighed, and knew that it was Jake. Jake came running out of breathe through the door of my room. I hugged him, and guided him to the star. Then, a message started coming out of the light. The message said, //“// //In the room of forever, where all the memories remain, you will find your second clue, hidden beneath the black coffin.”//  Jake and I stood there for a second analyzing what it said. We knew that this was our first clue, and we had to find the second one, but we didn’t know were it was. Jake sat at my bed, and grabbed his chin for a while; this means that he was thinking of a possible answer to find the clue. He said the phrase over and over again. Like about the sixth time he said it, he jumped out of the bed, and went running out if my room, I decided to follow him. Jake entered to a room, where we have many family pictures, and we have many photos and memories. I saw Jake stand in the middle of the room, turning around to see al the pictures. I stood by his side, and then he quickly grabbed my hand. He slowly walked to one picture of my father’s funeral, where my dad was in his black coffin, and around him are my cousins, and all my family. Jake picked up the photo, and in the back of the photo there were some words that were really shiny. The words said,  //“// //Roses are red, violets are blue, and this is the second clue, of this hunt, are you ready to find the third?”//  I knew exactly where the clue was, it was in the rose bush that we had in the back yard. I ran as fast as I could. I heard Jake’s big footsteps coming behind me. I got to the rose bush, and started digging through every rose. Then I heard Jake stop in font of the rose bush. He was out of breath. I accidently tripped in a rock, and then, I saw that there was a rose in the floor, the rose was very shiny, I picked it up, and then it started to opened, and there in the petals was a message,  //“// //You have just found your third clue, you need three more, and your family will be save. Your fourth clue is close to the water, up in the air, and in between wooden tiles.”//  I stood up, a showed the message to Jake, and he told me, “I know exactly where it is, it is in the bridge close to the river, that is outside in the forests.” “Ok let’s go FAST.” We hurried, and I followed Jake because Jake always came to a wheel that hung in a branch of a tree. He always played there. We ran as fast as we could, and I started getting cramps. I stopped, took a deep breath and continued running. We got there, and I hurried to the tree. I thought that the clue could be in branch up in a tree, and that could mean that it was in the air, and close to the river, and in between wooden tiles, and that would be for the branches. I climbed up and I saw that Jake was swinging in the wheel the same way he did when he was about six years old. He always used to swing in the wheel, and then jump and land in the river. I was looking for the clue in the braches, and then I heard a loud scream. I looked down, and I saw Jake in the river, and in his forehead there was a very big hole, and there was blood leaking. I started screaming!!! I went down the tree, and I couldn’t stop crying. I quickly went to see the river, and there he was floating in the river. I realized that there was blood in the bridge. I knew what had happened. Jake had jumped of the wheel, and he hit his head in the bridge, and then landed in the river. When I was crying beside the river, watching Jake, I saw something that was shining in the bridge. I went up in the bridge, and I picked up the shiny, it was a piece of glass. I guessed that it was the clue. I read it, it said,  //“// <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 140%;">//In the soul of your brother, in his forehead, you will find your next clue. Your brother is in a room where all the walls are multicolored, and you smell the refreshing air.”// <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Eurostile; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">When I read this, I was paralyzed; I didn’t know what to do. Jake is supposed to be in the river. I turned around to see if I all of this was a joke. I t wasn’t a joke. Jake was not in the river, and there was a red path. I got really scared, and I realized that the path was blood. I followed the path, and it leads me to the art room where my mom paints all of the drawing for our house. I opened the door slowly, and it squeaked. I walked slowly, and saw my mom’s rug with a lot of pillows, in the rug laid Jake, his skin was white, and he has blood all over his clothes. I approached to him, in his forehead, was a big hole, and on the hole there was a shining light, in the light, there was the smallest piece of paper had ever seen in my life. I opened grabbed the paper, opened it, and read it. It said, “//You have accomplished the hunt, this is your last clue that will guide you to your family. Your family is in a room full of dirt and dust, there are many squeaking animals that appear in the night, these animals may be rats. In this room, you keep your baby stuff, and old stuff.”// <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Eurostile; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> I read it over and over again; I couldn’t figure it the clue out. I waited there, until I thought of one time when Lily found a rat in the basement and she started screaming. I stood up of the rug, and stated running to the basement. While I was running, I tripped over a big rock, I stood up, and I couldn’t run well, I looked down at my knee, and I saw that it had a big cut. I ran holding my knee. I finally made it in the house. I went down the stairs to the first floor of the house, and then I had to go down through another pair of stairs to the basement. I opened the door of the basement, and I saw Lily tied up with my mom, and they had there mouths tied up to, then I saw the small boy with his parents the three tied up, but I didn’t see the mysterious couple. I stood there think for a moment. I rushed quickly, and I saw my mom and my sister where pale. I quickly untied them, and ten I untied the small boy and his family. Mom gave me a big hug. She asked for Jake, and I told her that he had passed away. Her eyes started to get watery, and then she started crying. We all headed to the house because it was dark, it was 10:30 pm. We sat in the couch, and turned on the fireplace, we all drank hot chocolate and talked for a while. After about 10 minutes of talking, Lily interrupted us she said, //<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 200%;"> “Mom, who was the person that kidnapped us, and gave Jamie all of those clues?” // This question left us all in doubt.