Chapter three: a Past Life

A 9th grade Hazel walks up to the tall building staring up with fear and anxiety in her eyes, not prepared for the start of high school. She starts to walk forward when a crowd of eighth graders rush through the doors pushing Hazel to the ground. This was normal for Hazel; she was bullied all her life, especially by her parents. The eighth graders look back at her only to point and start to laugh. Small tears start to trickle down her face when suddenly a hand reaches out to her. "Hi, My name is Jeremy. And you are?" A boy says with a wide smile "I.. I.. I am Hazel" she stutters. Why is he talking to me? She thought, I am worthless, no one likes me, no one ever talks to me. So what is different about him? Why doesn't he hate me? Jeremy helped her up and walked into the school building with her. As everyone stared at them he told Hazel, "they are morons, don't pay attention to them." The day goes on and Hazel finds herself trusting Jeremy. And he quickly became her first ever REAL friend, well that's what she thought at first.

Hazel parts ways with Jeremy and starts to head home with the biggest smile ever plastered on her face. She walks down the busy downtown sidewalk when she feels a hand graze against her shoulder. Before she can turn around she is pulled into a dark alleyway. Once her vision focuses again she is met with the sight of two powerful tall men. They both wear dark baggy jeans and large black t-shirts. The two are plastered with tattoos and hold cigarettes, intimidating the small girl. She looks around for a way out but finds none "what do you want with me" she asks, one of the men steps forward and begins to say "isn't–" he gets cut off by a third, drunken man walking over and bumping into him. "Oop, my bad" the drunk fellow says "DUDE!" the man yells pushing him back "I've got one don't screw this up! I think she's a good one too, you can't lose this one" the drunk man smiles "oo, a good?" he says "can i talk to it" "no!" the first man says angrily "last time i let you talk to the kid you let him go free!" "Well ya the kid was sad he wanted his mom" Hazel scoffs "his mom?" "What you don't want your parents?" The tallest and strongest of the men questions hazel confused. "Hell NO! I hate my parents, they don't care about me." 

"Aw that's so sad, we should let her go." the drunk man says with a sad tone in his voice. "NOOOOOOOOOOO YOU IDIOT!." the other man yells. Hazel breaks down in tears and slowly falls down and curls up on the ground. "Please don't make me go back, I don't want to go back." she says through the tears pouring down her face. All three of the men freeze in utter shock. This never happened before, kids usually beg to be sent back home but this young girl was begging them to take her away. "Please don't make me go back" Hazel continues between sobs. She repeats this phrase again and again. Slowly her tears stop but she continues mumbling. Eventually she just sits leaning against the wall. "Are you okay?" one of the men asks gently. She nods slightly mumbling for them not to send her home. The drunk man, who has downed some water to talk to her, sits down next to the tired girl and puts his arm around her shoulder. She is surprised, on one ever did nice stuff like that. Not even Jeremy had put a comforting arm around her shoulder. She leans on him and for the first time, she feels safe. .

After a little while she begins to talk to the men asking how they got into the kidnapping business. "Well we had an honest living once, but then these two idiots spent it all on cigarettes and booze." he point a thumb at the another men "after our work found out we all got fired and now we have to earn money through ransoms" he finishes "that sounds unfortunate" hazle says "how long are you guys gonna be here?" she asks hopefully "i don't know" the man with a cigarette says "hmm, what are all your names?" she asks  "well Mr. booze over there is Jasper, i'm Jake, and smokers Johnny" hazel smiles "i'm hazel" 

Hazel waved goodbye and slowly walked home, dreading her arrival. Jake insisted she go home to sleep under a roof and in a bed, but he had also said she could hang out with them after school whenever she wants. Every day that year Hazel would hang out with Jeremy at school. It was weird and something about him wasn't right but he made her happy. After school Hazel would walk to the alleyway to hang out with her kidnapper friends. They'd make her sleep at  home but sometimes on weekends she'd bring a sleeping bag and sleep outside with them, under the stars. She was happy, until one day it all changed.