"I'd like to report a kidnapping."

Aurora felt sound leave the world, like noise was a flame on a matchstick instantaneously blown out by the human mouth. All was quiet.

There have been many times where Aurora Mulven felt the world go soundless.

Midnight, the first night in her first foster home, five years old. Her small figure coiled in a mere rough sheet, her feet barely reaching the middle of her cot, an insurmountable terror making her tremble. The newfound home an uncomfortable adjustment from her orphanage, the damp room unwelcoming. Life was a silent Merry-Go-Round and she wanted to get off and run into the arms of a mother - any mother, some grown adult woman who would tell her 'I am your mother'. Instead, that woman never came, and all was silent as tears pushed her eyes in a lonely and enclosed space of vast blackness, in her first of seven foster homes.

When her body submerged into lake water with Elise in early September, silence clogged her ears. A body of her hair cast around her face like a floating pile of auburn moss. Her eyeballs stung gazing around, above her were blankets of glossy, ruffled waves reflecting acid green leaves of weeping willows. Ataraxy coaxed her limbs in the form of a salty reservoir.

Her ears deafened when Arlan sunk her head into the bathtub, her body submerged once again in water - this time, in a nightmarish condition. Lungs clenched desperately, squeezing for intake of breath that couldn't be met. A savaging scream lacerating her throat silenced by mere bubbling in water.

And when she spoke -

"I'd like to report a kidnapping."

Sound left the world again.

Alcohol flushing through her veins in hot successions. In, and out. In, and out. In, and out. She was so faint.

Was this a fever dream?

Or was she really confessing her abduction?

And then her impaired hearing snapped back.

It's form was Aurora's heartbeat. A violent blood drum against the concave of her ear. Hot and pumping. Her Earth axis tilting.

The officer's face, partially shadowed in the night, held a striking juxtaposition of concern and skepticism. Her brows furrowed above her brown skin. The cop had expected to catch underage drinking and weed possession tonight, but not to hear the word 'kidnapping'.

"A kidnapping?" The officer clarified, her glance scrutinizing.

Aurora vigorously nodded, a helpless sob breaking.

"Yes," She confirmed, voice parched from sobbing.

"Is this a child that was taken?" The officer's brows drew together as she came closer.

"No." Aurora swallowed with difficulty.

Although, she had only been an adult for a month.

Her situation made her feel so much older.

"It's me."

The cop took in Aurora's overly distressed and slurring state, questioning the young girl's mental clarity. With the entirety of the party smelling like alcohol, she couldn't tell if Aurora smelled like it herself; However, the officer could only assume she was inebriated in some sense. She had hopped Aurora was pulling a sick, drunk prank on a friend, or something of that nature, and nothing legitimate. Kidnappings rarely happened near the college campus. Nonetheless, Aurora did appear breathless, as if she were running from someone. The officer took it seriously.

"Come with me," The police officer requisitioned.

Aurora nodded and followed, the two making their way through the night. Their feet crunched the leafy gravel as Aurora terrifyingly looked at the gun on the officer's belt. The officer buzzed her walkie talkie before bringing it to her mouth, making Aurora's body clench and look up.

"I've got a young girl from John Roberts Community College reporting a kidnapping, I'm taking her to my office to investigate," The officer spoke.

Aurora's blood was an ice bath as she trailed a few steps behind the cop. On the outside, her exterior was cool, with an aura of equanimity. But she could feel her limbs buzzing and trembling and she was severely faint. The night suddenly felt much more frigid to the bone. Silence ensued until the walkie talkie crackled.

"Copy," A fuzzy voice replied, and the female officer placed the device back into her belt.

Where were they going, a police car? Aurora had never been in one, she thought only criminals did.

Where would she go after this? In her drunk state, she couldn't even remember Alice Blake's offer to adopt her. Aurora suddenly feared she'd be homeless.

Nothing about this entire night felt real anymore. Aurora felt terrorized to reveal her private life to an outsider for the first time. But as much as she was fearful, a part of her was relieved and hopeful. She sought freedom from her prison. The officer opened the door to the nearby station on campus.

"I'm Officer Shailey, campus police. Have a seat," The cop gestured in her office. She securely locked the door.

Aurora gulped now that it was the two of them in a brightly lit office. Her eyes adjusted to the light. It was real. She was actually reporting this.

A police officer's room something entirely unfamiliar and daunting to her. With hesitancy she sunk into a cold, metal seat. It creaked slightly as the cop sorted through some files across from Aurora. There was fuzzy dialouge and beeping happening from Officer Shailey's walkie talkie but Aurora swallowed and tried to ignore that.

When Officer Shailey returned, she handed an investigative paper and pen to a very shaken up Aurora.

Aurora peered down only to be intimidated by the files as the officer went to her computer.

Crossbrooke County Police Department

Complaint- Kidnapping Investigation Request

Name:

Address:

Phone number:

Aurora's nerves snaked and coiled tightly in her nervous system. Hesitantly she lifted the paper view the second page.

Detail Any and All Events Below As Specifically As Possible.

Her poor nervous system was completely overwhelmed, it was too much. Horror overtook her senses and she quickly began sobbing again. She flinched when the officer spoke.

"What's your name?" Officer Shailey's back was to her, typing on her computer.

Aurora sniffled and hauled herself to the best composure she could.

"A-Aurora Mae Mulven," She fought through the tremors in her voice.

The officer hastily typed away at her computer.

"Are you filling out those forms?"

Aurora flinched again, stammering.

"Uh, I, yeah," She exhaled, frantically fisting the report. She scribbled her name on it, cementing her official decree that she was abducted. Never in her life did she think she'd be in this position.

"Date of birth?"

"October tenth, two thousand and two."

"And where were you born, Aurora?"

Aurora trying to remember such trivial details in her drunken state was difficult - no, an Olympic sport.

Was it Oakland? No, that's where you just resided. Okay, Folsom? No, that's where I go to college. Shifting through my seven foster home locations and trying to remember where I was born is impossible. I don't even remember the name of my orphanage, if my hospital was in that same place.

Where am I from? Everywhere. But where did I originate from?

Who knows right now.

Was it Sacramento, and then I was taken somewhere else? No, I live in Sacramento now. There was San Bernardino, Vallejo, Santa Cruz, or was it Santa Cruz, and then Vallejo? Compton, Stockton, Modesto-

"I don't know," Aurora panted breathlessly.

The officer paused from her keyboard. She wasn't expecting such a response - who doesn't know where they were born? With great hesitancy, her chair swiveled so her midnight eyes could evaluate Aurora.

"You don't know?" The officer parroted.

Aurora's heart palpitated violently. She gulped under the heated glare of Officer Shailey, who looked incredulous. Aurora shook her head.

The officers turned around, fingers flying across the keyboard, typing things. What things? - Aurora did not know.

"I have you here as a freshman at John Roberts Community College, is that right?"

"Yes," Aurora exhaled, her clammy fingers squirming in fists.

Was that a lie?

No, it wasn't. She was a student there.

But she faked a high school degree to get there. So she really shouldn't be a student here. Not the officer would know that; Would the officer know that? What if Arlan set her up to be exposed? Aurora's hands wrung together.

"And where were you before you were abducted, Miss Mulven," The officer hastily continued typing.

It hurt Aurora's heart to hear the word 'abducted' attached to her name. She never pictured being in this situation, a victim to this degree.

"I-I was in foster care, in Oakland. Harmony Hearts Manor for children," She replied.

Aurora peered back down to the investigation papers. It asked for family members names, well there goes that.

"And where have you been now?" Officer Shailey questioned, making Aurora's head snap up in attention.

"Sacremento."

Aurora had seemingly nothing to write down other than who she was, and the fact that she was taken.

The officer turned to face Aurora.

"And what is the name of your abductor?"

Aurora suddenly felt taken aback, her ears pricked scorching hot as her throat tightened. It disgusted her to say it. To confront it. To admit it to someone. But it was everything he deserved, to be exposed, and everything she deserved - to receive justice.

"Arlan Paris," Aurora announced. " A-r-l-a-n- P-a-r-i-s," Aurora spelled between shaking breaths.

The infamous day of her and Arlan meeting came back to her, chilling Aurora.

They were in Chemistry, a class she thought she'd be in a whole semester. When really, she was in it for one day. She had asked Arlan, a seemingly innocent, high school boy, to spell his name out so she could write it down.

And now, she was spelling it out for a police officer to report her kidnapping.

September third, Aurora's first day of junior year.

The foster bus had screeched irksomely against the gravel before the doors opened to Jameswood High School. Aurora's face blushed crimson as she watched all the other kids park their Porsche's and other expensive cars. She hurried up from her seat before feeling a pinch on her bum. Whimpering, she twisted around to find it was the blonde, shaggy haired boy from her foster home.

"You stood in front of me on purpose," Dustin passed the blame to her, smirking and licking across his teeth.

With eyes of terror, Aurora shuddered and clambered off the bus.

Another year of high school, another year of getting through it as quickly as possible. That was Aurora's motto, per the other two years of going to Jameswood High School. Her face grew nervous as she entered the school hallway, just hoping no rich girl would make a comment about her poor clothes as they usually did. A couple arguing by the lockers near her classroom door got her attention. Out of curiosity, she peered over, seeing the back of a tall guy arguing with Kacelynn. She didn't know much about Kacelynn other than the fact that she loved gossip and spreading rumors. Kacelynn had spread rumors that Aurora was gay, secretly a boy, just anything to torment her. She hoped that guy was dumping her.

When the bell rang, Aurora jumped and looked away, not wanting to be late.

Wait, did I make sure to turn my cell-phone sound off? She questioned.

Quickly opening her backpack, she pulled her cell phone out from her backpack and flicked the sound off. Not wanting to be late, she adjusted to put the cell phone back, but not before gasping and bumping into someone.

"Sorry," Aurora hurriedly apologized, briefly locking eyes with the man she bumped into and rushing past him. His eyes were protuberantly angry, it scared her.

Great, Aurora, she cursed to herself. Already embarrassing yourself!

She purposefully seated herself at a lab desk at the far back of the room, hoping no one would talk to her. The man she'd bumped into had sauntered into the classroom, making her heart pound as his aura punched the air with dark tension. His jet black curls fell to his collarbone, with his neck and both hands inked in tattoos. He looked ominous, like a criminal, and they lock eyes.

Aurora immediately peered down.

When he started walking forward, she notices him coming her direction, her heart rate doubling in intensity. Aurora looked down at her lap. She had hoped he would pick any desk but hers. There were seven other lab desks, why hers??

When the dark man settled onto the stool next to her and dropped his black backpack to the floor, she instantly tenses. He brushed a hand through his disheveled, curly hair in 'distress'.

"A-are you okay?" She tenderly questioned.

"I just got dumped. Seven months long relationship."

"Wow..." Aurora pretended to look shocked and unsure of what to say. When in reality, she had noticed the fight before class, just wasn't aware it was him with Kacelynn. He dated Kacelynn?

"Yeah, by a girl named Kacelynn. I mean, who the fuck names their daughter Kacelynn to begin with, anyway?"

She giggled, amused, because fuck Kacelynn.

He had stared at her so obviously, but she tried to ignore it in her seat. She liked to give people the benefit of the doubt, even if he did appear blatantly creepy and gothic. He was intense.

"I'm Arlan. Paris," He had smirked so confidently at her.

Aurora, in present day, cringed at herself in the police office's chair remembering it. He had tried to be so coy and charming, it disgusted her.

"Your first name, it's kinda unique. I'm not really sure I know how to spell it..." Aurora had asked in Chemistry class.

"That's okay, angel. Arlan. A-r-l-a-n."

Aurora paused in her current day thinking to coil in disgust. How had him calling me 'angel' flown over my head? She wondered.

Aurora was so enamored with someone acknowledging her existence that she didn't even stop to realize he was taking advantage of her, buttering her up, trying to get her close and comfortable with him.

He was like a blackened rose; She had never met someone so smooth but austere, her heart yearned to bask timidly in his attention. Now, on the other side of things, she thought him to be the most sickening man she'd ever had the misfortunate of meeting.

"Arlan," Aurora had repeated with small laugh. "Thank you. A..r..l..a..n."

"There is no Arlan Paris in Sacremento," The officer said, in present day.

Aurora lifted her chin from her chest. An incessant pang of her heart rate against her collarbone hit her, her sympathetic nervous system in full, violent force.

Officer Shailey scrolled her computer mouse quickly, searching through names on record.

"There's an Arlan Howard, Arlan Croswick, Allen Grover...Is his name Allen?" The officer turned to look at Aurora, eyes scrutinizing him.

"N-no, it's Arlan, Arlan Paris," Aurora stammered quickly, tears pricking her bloodshot irises. "That's his name, A-Arlan Paris."

Officer Shailey eyed Aurora warily, then laughed a dry, humorless scoff.

"There is no Arlan Paris," Officer Shailey spoke slowly, drawing out each word. Aurora felt the Officer's impatience and her heartbeat deadpanned in that moment.

"Your last name is Paris?" Aurora had grinned widely at the tattooed boy across from her in Chemistry. "That's really cool," Aurora's face had lit up.

Arlan nonchallantly shrugged. "Doesn't really fit my aesthetic, but it's alright. People usually know how to spell it."

"B-but...how...I...," Aurora sputtered panicked, confused in the police office.

'Doesn't really fit my aesthetic'.

Aurora sputtered out a helpless cry as she gripped the investigation papers. Clear tears spilled over her crimson colored face. The Earth was no longer on a titled axis, it was completely upside down on its head.

Officer Shailey's suspicions that Aurora was drunk, and lying, felt confirmed in her. She slowly leaned away from her computer, standing now, hands on her belt.

"Are you drunk, young lady? You reek of alcohol, do you have ID on you?"

Aurora's eyes widened, she whimpered.

"Go home," Officer Shailey urged slowly, eyes scrutinizing Aurora "Be careful next time you go to events like this. I won't even write you up for a first offense. Just get home safe."

The tears slipped incessantly from Aurora's eyes as she quickly stood up. The attenuation in the officer's stance was conclusive.

"Please, officer, you have to help me," Aurora cried, gasping through her sobs. "I-I'm not lying, I'm kidnapped, I have bruises on my neck. He hurts me."

Aurora had forgotten she'd completely covered them with makeup, leaving her neck to look unscathed.

"Young lady, I will not warn you again," Officer Shailey's eyes flash and Aurora gasped in terror.

The officer jut a finger behind her, to a stack of papers on her desk that nearly touched the ceiling.

"I have a stack up to the ceiling of real children sexual assault and kidnapping investigations, this is nothing to play with. I don't have time for this. Leave my office and sober up or I will arrest you. Go. Home."

Aurora's Point Of View

"Aurora!" Nate beseeches, eyes coruscating in alertness. He holds a sleeping Elise bridal style in his arms.

From the parking lot sidewalk where I sat, face buried in my knees, I cautiously look up. It must have been one AM, maybe close to two.

Nate surges forward to find me stranded in the parking lot. Relief floods through the rich mahogony of his honey pooled eyes monetarily, before rage takes their place.

"It's almost one am, I've been looking like a madman for you," He hisses furiously, pacing to me. "It's dark, you're drunk, you can't be alone."

"I needed some air," I whisper numbly.

My heart weighed laboriously in my chest.

Nate's rage dissolves, his brows crossing at my words. He cross-examines my dress, caked with mud, and then my swollen, teary face. His heart seemed to sink.

"What happened?" Nate implores with forbearing delicacy. "Why are you covered in dirt - are you hurt?" Nate quickly tried to look for bruises.

I abruptly coil back.

"No. Let's go," I whispered curtly. I rose up from the sidewalk.

Nate frowned, I could sense alarms were ringing in his head. He refrained from pushing it any further, but his face said it all - he was worried, he wanted answers. His grip tightened on Elise.

"Okay," He agreed, tongue swiping at his lower lip. He turned his body and began towards his car. After two beats of hesitation, I followed, our steps crunching gravel.

Tears smart my eyes. Mist clogs my vision. I'm hollow.

I feel so small, so stupid.

I mourn what could have been. Had I not taken a sip of alcohol, the officer wouldn't have shut me down. There goes ever trying to report it again. She will simply dismiss me as intoxicated, or crazy. There was no hope. And now it was back to my imprisonment. This carnival, this night, it was a facade; I tried to let it paint over my reality, but the stroke was far too subdued to cover my nightmarish life.