The school bell rang out loudly, signalling the start of my long awaited weekend. With the weather warming up as we drew near to summer, my family was planning our first beach trip of the year tomorrow. The sea might be too polluted to swim in around here, at least if you wanted to come out with the same number of toes as you went in with, but the views are nice, and we can still play in the sand. Little Ben does enjoy his sandcastles.

I hurriedly packed up and joined my near-neighbours Samantha and Alicia to walk home. The crime rate being what it was, no girl wanted to walk anywhere alone these days, so I was glad that some other children from our street attended this school. It would be nice to move somewhere else, where muggings and other violent crimes weren't so common, but alas, such a convenient place didn't exist. The police tried their best, but no amount of funding seemed sufficient for them to keep the streets under control.

"Hurry up," called Alicia. "I have a piano lesson tonight, and I need to prepare."

"By which you mean you haven't practised your piece once, and now you're going to try to hide the fact by cramming in as much play time as you can before your teacher turns up," needled Samantha.

"I'm admitting nothing," answered Alicia, causing me to giggle. Even better than having schoolmates on the same street was the fact that I got on well with them.

"Right, I'm ready," I said, joining them as we left the building.

The walk home was only ten minutes, talking us past a couple of rows of houses and a small line of shops. The newsagent had an advertisement posted for some pay-per-view internet show by one of this year's annual monster pacification participants, supposedly giving a live feed of his 'adventures'. I scoffed under my breath; the whole thing was bad enough already without commercialising it. If monsters were as dangerous as they said, why not just exterminate them completely? It was obvious they were hunting them for sport, and not 'public safety' or anything else they claimed.

"Uh-oh," said Samantha. "Lil is pulling her self-righteous face again."

"Take cover!" screamed Alicia, throwing up her hands in mock panic.

"Sorry," I said. "Sometimes I just can't help it."

"Yeah, I know how you feel. Nothing we little folks can do about it though, so best not to let it bother you, right Alicia?"

"Alicia?" I echoed when she failed to answer. I turned, only to see her laying on the floor a few steps back. "Hey, Alicia!" I shouted, running towards her. Before I could reach her, I felt a sting on my arm, and looked down to see a small dart stuck in it. I quickly plucked it out, but the stinging sensation remained.

"Sa..." I tried to call Samantha, only to find my mouth refused to make words. A chill spread across my hands and feet, making its way up my limbs. Everything was happening too fast for me to process, but when I saw Samantha, the panic in her eyes and the dart still embedded in her own arm, it was obvious we were in trouble. I tried my best to scream, to call for help, but by now I could make no sound at all. The wheezing sounds coming from Samantha implied she was having the same problem.

As the numbness climbed my legs, I lost my balance and collapsed to the street. None of my limbs would move; I was completely paralysed. Even worse, my vision was blurring, and all that I could hear was a high pitched ringing. The last thing I saw was Samantha dropping a few seconds later. In the middle of a street, in broad daylight, walking in a group, I was being kidnapped.