Gabi and I have been best friends ever since we met at church. Me and gabi connected more than me and my parents do. It was really sad, the fact that a random stranger at one point cared more about just some girl she met than her own parents did. Gabi did whatever she wanted and she didn’t care what people thought of her, or so I thought on the inside after I got to know her. The real her, she was as broken and lost and confused as me We knew we had to never leave each other after “the night”. “The night” was one of the worst things that had ever happened in all of Hillsborough. That night was one of the worst nights in history of North Carolina. Twas the night that Gabi and I got abducted. it was only  5 months since we were returned to our homes.

“My name is Cherrie, Cherrie Mahan. I was taken on February 22, 1985. I have brown hair Im 8. have you seen me? If you have call this number. 910-456-7890”  I read this off a billboard. I asked my mom why would that be up if she was taken in 1985? She replied with “What if they still want to try to find her? Its never too late to look for someone.”I said “well that explains.” Man I sure did miss my mom.

Well me and Gabi when we're taking on a clear summers day. It was June 17, 2011 to be exact. I can't believe it's already been three years. We escaped exactly from the "Devils house" on June 17, 2014. I remember it was that day because when we got out of there we ran to a gas station and asked what day it was. the women we asked was very pretty and I admired her lovely face. if I had met her on a normal situation I would wanted to get to know her. but this clearly wasn't a normal situation. her name tag read Alison. she had red hair. she was tall skinny. I swear she could be a model. anyways she told me it was the 17th of June, I said what year she said 2014. I looked at gabi and cried. gabi ran over and hugged me and whispered that everything was gonna be okay. she said I" promise I'm not gonna leave you here."

I cried and cried and then Alison came over and asked if I was okay. Gabi said with a sniffle "we're fine". Alison offered to bring us home. but we didn't even know where we were. I asked "Where are we?" she said "Wilmington."  I knew we were about 2 1/2 hours from our homes. We said we live far away. she responded with "do you want to call your parents? I almost forgot my moms number but after a minute I remembered it. "Sure it's 919-234-2739." she called and it rang once. ringgggg. twice ringgggg and the third time a voice answered saying "Hello?" I was so filled with emotions I had dreamed of this moment for 3 years. I said "Mom?" she said "who is this?" I said "Its me your daughter. It's me mom. It's Riley."  she said "what color was your phone case then?"  "Purple, just like my room." I responded. she started to cry saying "Riley where are you?" "I'm in Wilmington mom." "what's the address? Is Gabi with you? Are you hurt?" I gave her the address I told her me and gabi were together and we were okay.. we stayed in the store with Ali. She told us to call her Ali. anyways we stayed with her until cops and our moms showed up. we ran out of the gas station to our moms. Gabi and I both ran into our moms arms. we all cried for a good 5 minutes. Afterwards the cops called both of us to the station. we had to tell them about the Man who took us and where he took us.

When we got there we walked in and there were a lot of people walking around. we were taken back to a room. Gabi and I sat down and our moms came in. the cops asked if they could talk to us alone. our moms were hesitant but Gabi’s mom said "sure anything to catch the sick son of a." My mom stopped her saying "the man who took them" they walked out the two cops were one girl and one guy. the said "I'm detective Mustangemi and my partners name is detective hacordi Were gonna ask you a few questions. Is that okay? Me and Gabi both shook our head yes. he asked "do you know who the man was or where he lived or what he looked like?" I said"The man’s name was Abell Manson. I saw his wallet one day and his license and it was a picture of him and it had his address too. It was hmmm. Oh Yeah. 437 Clayton St. Wilmington Nc. 28411. he wrote that down. he asked Gabi to describe what he looked like. Gabi said "He has Blonde hair in shaggy cut. he's is about 6'3. With sky blue eyes.  he looked about 35-40." he said "does that sound right?" I added that "he had a large scar on his face from below the temple to his jaw line and another on his shin." he asked a few more questions then  he said thank you for your help. if we need your help we will call you in again. when I got home I couldn't sleep eat I was terrified that he was gonna come a take us again. a few weeks later the news was on saying they had made an arrest. Abell Manson had been arrested. I actually fell asleep that night. When I woke up the next morning the news showed up again saying he had escaped. I stopped fell to the floor and screamed. I screamed and screamed and cried. my mom ran down stairs.

She asked what was wrong I pointed at the tv. She looked and she saw. I screamed "HE’S GONNA COME BACK AND HE’S GONNA KILL ME AND GABI! HE’S GONNA MURDER US. I KNOW HE IS I JUST KNOW IT." my mom tried to calm me down. It didn't work. My mom called Gabi’s mom and told her about the news. I could hear Gabi’s mom cry the continued to talk. An hour later I went to Gabis. My mom had made me pack a large bag of stuff food clothes hairbrush toothbrush. it seemed like  everything my mom also packed one. When I got to Gabis her and her mom also had bags packed. we asked what was going on. our moms were silent. we got in the car and drove to the police station. we kept asking what we were doing. They never told us. when we were in the parking lot us and our moms got out. We sat in the lobby. My mom stayed with us and Gabis went in to the main office. About five minutes passed and she came back out with two cops with her. they walked to the car got our stuff out and brought it in. the cops explained that we were going to a safe house. That we had to get out of there. we got into the new car the put our stuff in. Gave us a GPS and put the address in. the last thing the cops said were "be safe." the safe house was about 6 hours away. when we got to the safe house we went in checked in and went to our rooms the workers explained that we could tell no one our location and that we had an eight o'clock curfew. Gabi and I were freaked out at first but we knew that we our parents were just trying to look out for us.

We’re there for 3 days until it went into lockdown. The place had got a call that Abell was coming and that he was gonna kill us. The police were set up everywhere and Abell did come and he shot the door down and glass went everywhere. he walked in the door and screamed "where are they?" a cop ran in and shot him from behind and said "It's a shame I had to kill him. His eyes were the color of the sky."