The rest of the day was pretty normal. Except for when I got home. As I entered through the front door it was completely silent. Usually I would hear my mom typing away on her laptop. She got home half and hour before me and always checked her e-mail right away. It felt weird not hearing the familiar clicking of her fingers tapping on the keyboard.
"Mom!" I called out. Still silence.
I walked around the house, checking every single room. I couldn't find her. I looked in the backyard and even the garage, but still no sign of her.
I bit down on my lip nervously. This had never happened before. I reached for the phone in the kitchen and quickly dialed her cell phone number. It rang four times then went to voice mail.
"Mom, please call me back as soon as you get this message. Bye." I hung up the phone and took three deep breaths. If I wanted to find out where she was I had to stay calm.
Just then I realized that her cell phone was sitting on the kitchen counter; it was on vibrate so when I called I didn't even hear it ring. I picked it up and listened to the message I had left. Now I was really worried. My mom always brought her cell phone with her everywhere.
Then I heard a door slam shut. I ran over to the living room where the front door was, expecting to see my mom standing there. Instead I saw an unfamiliar man standing there. I crept back into the kitchen carefully so he wouldn't hear me, grabbed my mom's cell phone and ran upstairs. I went straight into my room and locked the door. I also shoved a chair up against it and went inside of my walk-in closet; I locked that door too. I immediately dialed 911.
"Hello, San Diego police department, how may I help you?" a deep, scratchy voice answered.
"Hi, my name is Allison Becker and some man just walked into my house. Also my mom didn't come home from work today like normal and doesn't have her cell phone with her. So now I don't know what to do!"
"Just stay calm. We'll send somebody over right away. Where is this man right now?"
"When I last looked he was in our living room, but he could be anywhere now."
"Well where are you?"
"Right now I'm inside my closet. My bedroom and closet door are both locked and I shoved a chair up against my bedroom door."
"Ok. Just stay where you are and try to be calm. Also try not to make any noise so that he doesn't suspect anything. There's someone on his way over there to help you right now."
"Alright, thank you." And I hung up the phone.
I tried to stay perfectly silent, but it was hard to when I was so panicky. I counted to ten in my head and took a deep breath. Then I tried to relax all of my muscles and think positive about the situation. On the good side there would be a police man over any minute to come and help me. On the bad side my mom was missing and now there was some strange man in my house!
I closed my eyes as I waited in the back corner of my closet. And before I knew it I had drifted off to sleep.


"Allison? Allison Becker?" That same deep, scratchy voice from the police department woke me up.

"What? What happened? Is my mom ok? Who was that man in my house?" I spoke in an urgent tone.

"Well, the man got away, but he did leave a note. We might be able to catch him though. So don't get all worried."

"Well what about my mom?"

He let out a big sigh. "We haven't exactly found her yet; but don't worry we have a search party looking for her right now. Everything is going to be fine." he tried to reassure me. "Infact here's that note. You can read it." He pulled out a zip-lock baggie with a piece of paper on it and handed it to me. The note read:

Hello Allison. You might not know who I am, but I know exactly who you are. If you want your mom to live then you better do exactly what I tell you to do.
P.S. I'm closer than you think.

My heart skipped a beat and my mouth felt dry. I read over the note again and again. I couldn't believe what it said. I handed him the plastic bag and stood up to get out of the closet. Officer Deblin helped me up and began walking towards the kitchen.
"Follow me." he said. And I walked right behind him. When we arrived in the kitchen he motioned for me to sit down at our kitchen table.
Then he pulled out a pad of paper and a pen that had the words San Diego Police Department scrawled on the side of it.
"Will you please give me a description of what the man looked like?" he asked.
"Um, I didn't get to see his face because he was facing the other way, but he had black hair that was slicked back, he was about 5'8 and he was wearing all black." I tried my best to describe the man. He wrote some stuff down and then stood up.
"Alright. Thank you for your time. I'd appreciate it if you just stayed here for a while so we can search for any evidence as to who this guy is." he said.
"Ok. Is it ok if I listen to my iPod while I wait?" I asked.
"Sure. Why don't you go get it really quick?"
I ran up the stairs to my room and grabbed my purple iPod nano off of my nightstand. Then I went back into the kitchen and sat down. I plugged the earbuds into my ears and began flipping through songs.
Taylor Swift's "Love Story", Lady Gaga's "Poker Face", Katy Perry’s "Thinking Of You”. I finally stopped on David Archuleta's "Crush". I began singing along in my head.

I hung up the phone tonight, something happened for the first time. Deep inside was a rush, what a rush.
"Um, excuse me, Allison." officer Deblin interrupted me. I pressed pause and pulled the ear buds out of my ears.
"Yes?" I responded.
"I just wanted to let you know that we ran a test to find fingerprints on that note and we didn't find any." He frowned as he said that.
"So you have absolutely no idea who this guy is?" I asked, already knowing what the answer would be.
"I'm sorry, but no, we don't. Don't worry though. We will find him. And we'll also find your mom. Just be patient." he reassured me.
"How am I supposed to be patient when my mom is missing and there is some crazy stalker guy after me?!?" I was shouting now.
"I know that it's tough, but you just have to stay calm." he told me. I took three deep breaths to try calming myself down.
"Ok, well thanks for telling me. I appreciate it." I said and then, without even waiting for his response, I plugged in my ear buds and pressed play.
Do you ever think when you're all alone, all that we could be, where this thing could go…