After we drove for a long time, the van stopped somewhere. Carlos had gotten off the floor and helped me sit up. I was still hurting a lot and was super scared, but I put my head on Carlos’s shoulder, and I was so tired that I fell asleep.

  I don’t know how long we were sitting there in the van. I woke up and fell back asleep many times. I think it was because when I leaned too far over, my shoulder started to hurt more. Carlos always leaned his head against mine when I woke up. I am not sure if he slept at all. Every time I looked over, I could see his eyes open, watching. I like to think he was planning a way to escape, because he was the best at it.

  This one time, we both noticed some polvorones cookies cooling on the counter. They looked so tasty; they were just hot enough to still have a little gooeyness. Both Carlos and I looked at each other, then we both grabbed a cookie and started eating it. We had each eaten four by the time we heard Grandma coming back to the kitchen. When we saw that she was coming, we ducked behind the counter. I thought we were going to be caught, but Carlos knew exactly what to do. She could see right away that some of the cookies had been taken. She started yelling about us. Carlos led me around the counter, behind the couch, and eventually out the bedroom window. Grandma never caught us.

  I could see Carlos with the same look in his eyes when he waited in the van with me. He was trying to find the way out, and I knew he was going to do it. My brother was the best at escaping.

  After a long time, the door of the van was slid open, and we could see the pier off in the distance. I did not know what time it was. I had been asleep when the door opened, so I was still waking up when one of the men grabbed me and carried me outside to stand by the Van. It hurt a lot, but my shoulder had been hurting for hours, so I was getting used to it.

  Carlos was put right next to me a second later. He was still looking around like he was trying to come up with a plan. We stood there for a while with the two bad men standing on either side of my brother and me. I did not know why we were standing there until Mama’s car pulled up right next to us, fast, then braked hard. I could smell burning rubber in the air.

  My Mama got out of the car and yelled over the hood. “I have your cash; just give me back my babies.”

  She had my school backpack in her hand. The big man named Pedro replied, “Just bring the bag over to us so we can count it, then you can leave with the kids.”

  I wanted to yell over to Mama that they were big liars, and they were not going to do what they said, but my mouth still had the tap over it. I tried to run over to Mama so that she would stay away from the bad men, but Pedro grabbed my arm before I had made it a single step in her direction. I kept trying to get to her. They said they were going to send her away, and I did not want that. I wanted to stay with Mama.

  When Mama saw me trying to get to me, she ran over to me with the bag outstretched. She threw my bag into his arms. “Count the stupid cash.” Then she got on her knees and hugged me tight. “Oh, baby, you are ok, Mama’s here, everything is going to be alright now.” She grabbed Carlos, too. “I love you both so much, I keep you safe.”

  Carlos used Mama’s shoulder to rub the tape off his mouth. “Mom, they are going to take you, too. We need to get away from them.”

  I saw Pedro lunge towards my Mama. I tried to kick him in the shin, but my Mama was faster. She swung her fist right up into his private parts. Mama always seemed to be gentle and nice. I did not know that she could try to hurt someone like that. I was glad, though, because Pedro did not grab anyone because he was hunkering down on the ground, curled up into a ball. The driver, Andre, had tried to grab Mama too, but Calos had thrown his body in between his legs and tripped him. They had both ended up on the ground, with Brother trying to kick Andre a bunch and Andre trying get a hold of Carlos.

  Just as Andre had got his arms around Brother’s throat, Mama jumped past me as I stood there not knowing what to do, and did a spinning kick to his head with her sharp-toed high-heeled shoe. It was like she was some action hero in one of those late-night movies that I was not supposed to watch. It wasn't fair that Carlos got to watch them without me, so sometimes, when I was supposed to be sleeping, I would sneak out of bed and watch the movie from the crack in my door. Mom was just like one of those heroes in those movies, and I was nothing like that. I just stood there watching as my brother fought for his life. I was just a big scaredy cat, like Carlos said sometimes.

  I might have been scared, but I was the only one who noticed that Pedro was starting to get up off the ground. I ran over to Mama to warn her that Pedro was coming for us. She did not understand for a second until she looked behind me, where I was nodding my head. She grabbed both Carlos and me, then threw us in the back seat of the car. I could barely notice how impressive it was that she had gotten the door open, tossed both Carlos and me into the car, and closed it before Pedro had gotten all the way up off the ground. I was crying in pain once again because when Mama had tosed me into the car, I had landed on top of Carlos with my bad shoulder. I was screaming because my arm hurt so much.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Mama got into the driver's seat a few seconds later. I heard the doors lock right before Pedro started yanking on the backseat door handle right by our feet. He was shouting for Mama to open the door, but Mama did not even pay attention to him as she drove off faster than we had ever driven before.

  I tried to stop crying, so Mama wouldn't worry about me, but all I did was grow quieter. Carlos and I were still all tangled up because it was hard to move with our hands taped together behind our backs. After struggling to get untangled for a bit, Carlos and I just lay there. Every time we tried to get free, I cried out because it hurt my arm. Carlos had his mouth free of the tape, so he could talk to Mama.

  “Mom, I think Jaun’s arm is hurt. He has been crying whenever someone touches it.”

  “Ok, Sweaty, I will take a look at it once we get away from here and are at a safe place to stop. It is no longer safe for us to stay in this city. I don’t know why, but it seems like the Falcon Gang is after us all. We need to go get Grandma and get out of here as soon as possible.”

  Once Mom said we were going to get Grandma, I could see her face again, lying against the ground. The Bloody hole where her eye used to be was looking at me, and just kept growing bigger and bigger. I did not want to see Grandma again. The Grandma I knew was gone, and all that was there was that bloody eye. I wanted to tell Mama that Grandma was gone, but my mouth was still tapped, and I could barely make any sound. I did not know why Mama wanted to go get Grandma; she had already joined our ancestors, like all of her stories always said.

  I thought that Carlos would tell her what happened, but he just said, “Grandma was on the ground when they took us out of the house. She might be hurt, so we should hurry home.” I was confused. How could Carlso not know what happened to Grandma? He was there with me when it happened. I knew Grandma was gone because I looked her in her eyes after she fell and saw that she was not there anymore. Did Carlso not see her like I did?

  I did not want to go back home; it was where the men took us from. It was not safe there anymore, and Grandma was already gone. I wanted to go somewhere else safe, but every time I cried or screamed, they thought I was just hurt.

  We tried to make it back to our house, but a lot of the streets were extra busy; it was like everyone in our city was trying to get somewhere else. My Mama decided to try to take a shortcut down an alley a few blocks from our house. A parked car blocked the alley, and we had to back up to get out. That is when another SUV was following right behind us in the alley. We were stuck until they moved.

  I was lying on top of Carlos still, so I could see out the back window. The people behind us stopped the big car and opened all their doors. When they got out of the car, I could see the hungry smile of Dominigo, followed by a couple of the men who came to our house. The arm that Carlso had stabbed now had a bandage around it, and there was a big red blood stain in the center of it. I tried to scream once again, but it did not matter; they all had guns, and we were trapped in the alley.

  Mama saw them right after me, and she tried to hit their car out of the way with her car, but she could not move their car at all, and all that happened was that there was a loud screeching, and a lot of bad-smelling smoke started coming from the back of our car.

  Then there was a super loud bang, and the window right next to my head broke into a ton of little tiny glass pieces. As the glass fell all over Carlos and me, a hand reached into the broken window and grabbed me by my shirt and dragged me out of the window. As I was dragged out the window, I felt my pants catch on the glass and rip as I was pulled out. It was only after I was all the way out of the car in Dimingos’s hands that I could feel the stinging of my legs.

  I was not sure if there was any part of me that did not hurt, but I stayed quiet because right after I was pulled out of the car, Domingo put a gun to my head.

  “Get out of the fucking car bitch. You need to fucking learn when to give up. That is, if you still want to have a baby boy in a few seconds.”

  I am not sure whether Mama heard what he said or saw me out the window, but she finally stopped the car. She opened the car door very slowly and got out with her hands up.

  “What do you want from me?”

  Domingo laughed, “It is the easiest thing in the fucking world, all you have to remember is to do everything you are fucking told to do.”

  He handed me off to the man behind me, then grabbed my Mama’s arm and started leading her away to the SUV. He grabbed the keys from my Mama’s and tossed them to the other guy.

  “Take them to Time Out. Oh, and if you don’t hear from me in the next 2 hours, kill them both.”

  My Mama shouted as he dragged her away, “At least let me say goodbye.”

  Domingo yanked her harder towards the SUV. “You got far more of a goodbye than you should have with your little joyride, Doll. Count yourself fucking lucky. You will be able to chat with them in a week.”

  Then he pushed her into the backseat and backed out of the alley, then drove away.