Once again, I was left to my own devices as far as daily entertainment goes.

Colby and the other boys left on a trip, leaving me alone with the girls. Per Colby's instructions, I was not to leave their sight unless I was using the bathroom, but Katrina was pretty lenient with that one and only checked in on me once and a while if I was in my room.

Now that I knew the reasons for me being here, I had no intentions to escape at the moment. I wanted to prove that to the boys and be on my best possible behavior.

I didn't appreciate how I was being held under everyone's thumb and treated like a toddler, but I understood that they were simply doing what Colby told them to and I couldn't possibly blame them for that.

"How long will they be gone?" I asked Katrina as she and Devyn sat in one of the many living rooms. Katrina was painting her nails and Devyn was working at a side desk in the corner of the room.

"Only for a couple hours, three max maybe," Devyn said quietly, trying to concentrate as best she could on what she was doing. I preassumed I wasn't allowed to look at the papers since Colby gave them to her, so I didn't bother going over to figure out what they were.

"Yeah, they went out for a meeting. It's actually supposed to be really important," Katrina nodded along as she spoke, though I'm positive she had no idea as to what she was talking about.

Over the past couple of days, Colby has let me sit in his office with him while he worked. I believe he was getting lonely and noticed how bored I was from being cooped up in my room all day, so he invited me to come into the office with him as long as I stayed quiet.

I did for the most part, only speaking when he asked me something or if I was trying to be nice and get him something to drink. Most of the time he declined, but he assured me that he appreciated my consideration.

He wasn't all that bad when it was just the two of us. I liked to think he put up a rough exterior around his friends, only joking around when he was high or drinking.

The girls usually spend their nights out partying, and after my incident with running away I wasn't allowed to go, not that I'd want to anyways.

I began to warm up to Colby asking him questions I never thought to ask before.

"What's this?" I pointed to one of the many scratch marks in his desk after setting a glass of water down next to it.

"It's from a knife, now let me work." I shot him a glare, causing his tone to soften, "Please,"

Or

"Hey, why have you never grown out your facial hair?" I glanced up from my book. The protagonist in the book I was reading reminded me a lot of Colby, except he had a mustache and Colby didn't.

"Because it looks tacky. Can't you see I'm busy?" He shot me a look that silenced me, but I shrugged it off and went back to reading.

There was also the one time I looked out his window because I thought it was raining, though it wasn't, but I got a peek into his backyard.

"I didn't know you had a pool," I gasped, stabbing my finger at the glass.

"You can drown in it if you please," He sarcastically snapped at me, but when I looked over at him the only thing on his face was a mischievous grin.

"No," I shook my head, pretending not to notice his joking manner, "It'll be too cold,"

"I find cold girls a lot more attractive, by the way," He added. I could tell he was just trying to amuse me with his perverted jokes, but it had been a bad day for me.

It was my father's birthday, and for as long as I could remember it rained on his birthday, no matter where we were. This had been the first time in God knows how long it didn't.

"Kiara what do you think?" Katrina asked, snapping me out of my memories.

"Huh?" I looked up at her, seeing that she was holding her phone to her chest.

"Is Chinese food okay?" She repeated, and I nodded.

She grinned at me, going back to her phone call while I looked down at the blank sketchbooks pages in front of me.

I didn't know what I'd be doing when I came down here to hang out with Devyn and Katrina, so I brought multiple things to keep me busy.

Right now I sat with a pencil in my hand and blank paper in front of me. I would like to say I was pretty good at drawing but not the best, so I never showed anyone my work. There was no point to it, and I'm not one to go beggnig for compliments.

I loved to draw nature and anything with lots of details. Water was one of my favorites. In general, I was in love with water.

I had always told my mother that when I was all grown up I wanted to move to somewhere where I could look out my bedroom window and see the ocean. She nodded and told me empty encouraging messages, like any parent would.

I had a good family. I hope they were doing well, even though they'll all be dead soon if they aren't already.

It's being in an environment like this one that makes me wonder why the world has to be so bad.

If the world wasn't bad then I wouldn't be here.

If the world wasn't bad then my grandfather would still be alive and well.

If the world wasn't bad then Oakland wouldn't be cut off from the rest of the country.

But since the world is bad, I find myself waving to the four boys that kidnapped me as they walked into the house.

And if the world wasn't bad then I wouldn't have to convince myself that this isn't the life I wanted to live.