Post by Natalie Bolton on May 9, 2013 7:36:30 GMT -5
"Dear Diary"
Dear diary, this is my first entry since everything happened. To say that I am happy it’s all over would be a complete understatement. If someone asked me two weeks ago, I probably would have just told him or her that I wasn’t going to make it out alive. The fact that I did, well, I’m very lucky and grateful. I have a lot to catch up on and I’ve been waiting for a time where I can sit down and gather my thoughts about everything that occurred over the past month and a half. It’s been a week since I’ve been able to settle in, so I think I can finally talk about what happened.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It all began on March 22nd, the day that will stick in my head for the rest of my life. I was on my way to school that day, just like any other average Friday morning. I was very excited that the week was almost over so I could spend the weekend with my friends, Kat, Brenda and Matt. Yes, Matt was a ladies man. It was the beard that got me.
Arriving at school that morning, I walked into homeroom and sat at my desk. Our teacher, Mrs. Johnson, took attendance to make sure everyone was in.
“Natalie White,” she said as she waited for a response to see if she was in that day. “Miss White?” she asked again as she did not hear a response from her. “Okay, I guess someone is going to have an extended weekend.”
Natalie never showed up that day and it’s a good thing she didn’t. Mrs. Johnson said she had been attacked by a chimpanzee or something, I assume she was just kidding.
School was normal that day and I couldn’t wait to get home and start my weekend. When the 3:30 bell rang, I ran right to my mom’s car. Kat, Brenda and Matt were supposed to come home with me, so they all followed me closely. It was a white SUV, just like my mom’s, so I was pretty sure it was her. However, when we got to the car, we quickly realized we had made a mistake.
I opened the passenger seat door and there was a man sitting in the driver side seat, staring at me and smiling. It was the creepiest look someone has ever given me and I was very scared. I tried to shut the door and run away, but the man pulled me in by my arm. He was very strong and seemed angry, but it didn’t seem like his anger stemmed from me. How could it? I didn’t even know this man. There were three more people in the backseat, each of them pulling in one of my friends.
“BLACK POWER!” yelled one of the people in the back seat obnoxiously.
“Who are you?!” I screamed in a frightened voice. I started to cry and I knew that this was a sign of bad things to come.
“If you don’t shut up, I’ll make sure you do!” Shouted the man as he pulled out a stun gun and held it to my head. He didn’t shoot, but each of them tied our hands behind our backs and duct taped our mouths shut. I wasn’t sure why these people were doing this to us. There were so many thoughts running through my head and so many questions that I had. Was I ever going to see my family again? Who were these people? What did they want from me?
The man driving the car was black and bald and looked like he was in his 50’s. His name was Ted and I could tell right away that he was the leader of this whole thing. The other three in the back were all black as well; two were women and one other man and their names were Artis, Roxy and Ramona. I had no idea where they were taking us, but I knew it wasn’t anywhere that I wanted to be. During the car ride there, they kept talking about how they had “snagged some good ones this time.” I wasn’t sure what that meant and I didn’t really care. Tears were running down my face and I looked in the back and saw the other three crying as well. Matt was crying so much that his beard was extremely damp from all of the tears he was producing.
We finally got to where we were going. The place looked like a normal house in a normal neighborhood. I found out later that it was the home of the man that was driving the car and that the one man in the backseat lived there with him as well.
“Let’s go right now!” shouted Ted as he pulled me out of the car. He led me to the house as I reluctantly followed, tears still running down my face. Brenda, Matt and Kat were behind me, being dragged into the house by the other three that were in the car as well.
They brought us down to the basement, where I was shocked to see that there were about 15 others down there. They were all chained up and many of them looked very sick. It seemed as though some of them had been down there for quite some time.
“This is going to be how my life ends,” I thought to myself. I was sure that these people would keep me a prisoner for many years. I knew my life would never be the same.
They brought Brenda, Kat and myself to one side of the basement with all of the other girls. They locked us up on the eastern part of the basement and removed the duct tape. There were no windows, no food, and no sign of any outside life in that basement. Matt was brought to the western side of the basement with all of the other guys and they removed the duct tape from him as well. He lost some of his beard when they ripped it off. For some reason, they had the guys and girls separated and I wasn’t really sure why.
“We’ll be back, don’t you guys worry,” said Ted as the four of them all walked upstairs laughing and high fiving each other.
“BLACK POWER!!” shouted Ramona once again.
As soon as they went upstairs, I tried my best to get myself free from the chains. They were so tight around my wrists, which made it so much more difficult to try and break free.
“It’s no use, you’ll never break out of those things,” said the girl next to me. She was shackled up to the wall just like I was; however, it looked like she had been down there for quite some time. “My name is Danni. I’ve been here for a year and kind of enjoy the attention that they give me. Just don’t let them catch us talking or they will be very angry.”
After she told me that, I knew there was something wrong with that girl. She enjoyed being a hostage to these people? It seems to me that they have brainwashed her and she didn’t look like she was in the best shape. She slurred on most of her words and her face was as white as a ghost. She looked like she hadn’t had anything to eat or drink in days and it didn’t seem like she was going to make it much longer.
Looking around the room, it looked like there were a few other people who might not make it. Some of the people looked and acted just like Danni; slow on their words and movements, skin whiter than a ghost. This was all very scary for me and I was pretty adamant that I was going to end up like these people.
I remember specifically that no one ever came back down that day. You knew if there were people upstairs in the house because you could hear them talking and walking around. It sounded like the people never left the house that day, but for some reason they never came back in the basement.
Hours without food and water felt like an eternity and I knew I needed to get something soon. I didn’t sleep at all that night because it was very hard to get comfortable with the shackles around me and my arms up in the air all night. I looked over to Danni and she was unresponsive, it seemed like her time did come like I thought it would. It was a shame she would not enjoy her time in the basement any longer. There was a man on the other side of the room who also looked to have died over night. His name was Shawn and he really didn’t say or do much of anything.
Roxy came down the steps early that morning. She walked over towards the men, Matt in particular, and told him that she had something for him to do. She wanted him to drill a whole in the ground so they could store all of the dead bodies down there.
“No one will ever think to look in the ground. I need you to do it since you just got here yesterday and are probably the strongest,” she demanded of Matt.
“I’m not doing that shit for you,” Matt said with an attitude.
“You’ll do as I say. You’ll regret it if you don’t!”
Artis stormed down once he heard the shouting. “What’s going on down here?!” he asked.
“This one won’t make a hole for us to bury his friends in,” Roxy explained.
“If he knows what’s good for him, then he’ll do it.” Artis insisted. Artis was the enforcer of the group. I remember that he always was the one who made sure people were going to do what he asked them to do. He pulled out a gun and pointed it right at Matt. At that point, I began to start crying. I didn’t understand why Matt was being so stubborn and I almost yelled across the room for him to just do what they wanted, but I didn’t want to put my own life in danger.
“Just do it man,” whispered the man next to Matt. His name was Adam and he was a tall and handsome man. He looked like he hadn’t been down there for very long either. Clearly, no one informed him not to speak to anyone else down there with him.
“What was that?” asked Artis as he wanted Adam to repeat himself. Adam kept quiet this time, but Artis was already ticked off by Matt. “You know what, I should just kill both of you right now!” Artis shouted.
All of the sudden, I heard this loud bang. He actually shot Matt and Adam and they both lay there dead. Matt’s beard was bleeding, which I didn’t think was even possible and I started crying immediately. What was I going to do without Matt? If he couldn’t make it then there was no way I would be able to. Why couldn’t he just do what they asked him to do? I looked over at Brenda and Kat, both of them crying as well.
At this point, it all started to seem like a nightmare. I was starving and I didn’t think I would ever get out of that basement. One of my best friends had just been shot and killed and the people in this basement with me slowly started dying off one by one. It was an awful situation, but little did I know, it was only going to get worse.
Another one of the men, Brandon, had died as well. He was very ill, even from when before he was kidnapped.
It was mid-afternoon of the second day shackled in that basement, when Ted decided to come back down. There was a short, quiet girl down on the end of the wall. I didn’t even know she was there, because she was so quiet. I often referred to her as the mute because she literally did not say a word to anyone. Her name was Laura and Ted made his way over to her, demanding her to meet his needs.
“I’m going to have my way with you,” he said as he started getting very excited. He started to rip off her clothes slowly and she started getting upset and crying. She tried fighting him off, but she also hadn’t eaten in days and was very weak. As he moved closer to her, she kicked him in the right spot. She knew she had hurt him just judging by his reaction.
“!@#$%^&” was Ted’s reaction to this. He was not happy. “You’ll do as I say, you little bitch. I’m a grinder and you fit my style perfectly,” he explained. He was so pissed off at this point, that right after he was finished raping her, he just decided to kill her. That was what happened when you disobeyed or pissed these people off, they would not hesitate to kill you at all.
As that day went on, everyone was getting anxious. That was the common feeling between everyone who was locked in that basement, because no one knew when they would come back down and have demands for us. There were only 14 of us left; people were dying of illness and/or getting killed by one of the kidnappers very quickly. I must have cried for three hours straight. All I could think about was my family and if I would ever see them again. This seemed like a prison to me, or maybe even worse than prison. I needed to find a way out, but I knew that would be very difficult.
There was no sign of them for a week. They stayed upstairs most of the time and just left us down there to rot. Nothing to eat or drink, nowhere to go to the bathroom and brushing your teeth was considered a luxurious fantasy at this point. You can’t even begin to imagine how bad it smelled down there because no one had showered in so long.
“Don’t you guys know who I am? I’m Sir Robert!” shouted one of the men from the other side of the basement. He was shouting to the people upstairs who had left us there, for some reason. His name was Rob and he was by far the most annoying person in that basement. Having to deal with him talking about how great he was for the first whole week I was stuck down there was worse than just being killed. When I referred to him as “Sir Robert,” he started referring to himself as it as well, not knowing what the hell sarcasm is.
“You’re so annoying, you know that?” I said to him from across the room. “I’d kill you myself if I could, seriously. You think you’re amazing but no one even likes you.”
“I’ve made many good friends down here. All of them respect me, just as they should!” he said confidently. His ego was through the roof at this point and I honestly just wanted them to either kill him or myself because I hated him so much.
Later that day, Ramona came down and was told to bring us water. She left a bowl of water on the floor in front of the girls and another one in front of the guys. They made us get on the floor and drink it like a dog would, but I was desperate for some water so I didn’t care.
“BLACK POWER!” she screamed once again as she walked back upstairs.
Another week went by and there was still no sign of them. People continued to die off due to sickness. Zane, Marcus and Eddie all died during that week and there were only eleven of us left. At that point, they decided to move the guys over to our side of the basement. I wasn’t sure what the reasoning behind it was, but I was pissed off because they put “Sir Robert” next to me. I think they knew we didn’t like each other and wanted to see if we would kill each other. They thought it was pretty funny.
At this point, I had been stuck down in that basement for two weeks. For a majority of those two weeks, the people who kidnapped us didn’t bother to even come downstairs. They just left us there to die, with the exception of getting water a week ago. I was at my breaking point and I knew I was not going to last much longer. My stomach was growling over and over again, I hadn’t eaten any food in weeks. I was a small person before all of this and now I just looked very unhealthy.
Ted came downstairs that night and walked over to Corinne. I had seen this happen before, with Laura, and I knew what Ted was looking for. After all, he was “The Grinder” for a reason.
“Hopefully you’re more gentle and friendly than that mute bitch, Laura,” he said laughing. Like Laura, Corinne tried fighting it off, but at this point, she was so weak that she couldn’t even kick him. He took her clothes off and she just started crying. I felt so bad for her, but couldn’t say or do anything while having the fear of Ted coming over to me. I was lucky that he had not chosen me up until that point.
Corinne was still crying and she didn’t really know what to do. Ted raped and violated her, but then he decided he was just going to kill her.
“Please don’t!” she begged as he pulled out a knife and started stabbing her. Blood was going everywhere and after a few stabs, Corinne had been killed. She didn’t disobey him or anything like that, but it seemed like since Ted got what he wanted that he did not need her anymore. I knew in due time, this would be my fate as well.
Brenda and Kat were still alive with me, but both of them looked worse than I did. Brenda in particular looked horrible and she didn’t look like she would last anymore than a few more days. She had been talking to one of the boys a lot, Rafe, and they flirted all the time once they moved the guys over to our wall.
Rafe was the ladies man down in that basement. I always caught him winking at me from across the room when they had the guys and girls separated. It seemed like he didn’t care that we were being held hostage, he just wanted some ass. He certainly wasn’t going to get any down there, but Brenda was an easy target since she had been labeled “slut” at our school.
The next day, Rafe and Brenda continued to talk. They would laugh at each other’s jokes, call each other pet names and it was really cute. I was happy for Brenda, but I think she needed to be reminded of the situation that we were in. She seemed to lose a sense of what was going on because of Rafe and I needed her to stay focused so we could figure out a way to get out of there.
Artis suddenly stormed down the stairs. “Who the fuck is laughing and giggling?” He looked directly at Rafe and Rafe started to get nervous.
“It….it wasn’t me, I swear!” Rafe said as he started to sweat.
“It wasn’t him!” shouted Brenda. I wasn’t sure why Brenda was sticking up for this guy that she barely knew. I wanted to tell her to just shut the fuck up, but if I did then that would bring attention to myself as well. So again, I stayed quiet and tried to give Brenda subtle signals to be quiet.
“Then who was it?” asked Artis. “No one is to be talking down here without permission!” He has his eyes pinned on Rafe and Brenda and neither of them would say who it was. Artis was angry, like he always was.
“Fine, I’ll just kill both of you!” he said, laughing.
I immediately started crying. I had already lost Matt two weeks ago and now I was about to lose Brenda as well. I couldn’t take this, I just wanted them to take me instead. But I knew if I said anything, they would take me along with Brenda and Rafe, so again, I kept my mouth shut.
Artis took multiple shots at both Rafe and Brenda and just like that, they were dead. Blood was everywhere in that basement from everyone that had been killed. I tried to keep my composure, but I just broke down and started crying. I couldn’t help it; my whole world until I died would be that basement. Kat didn’t look so good and neither did anyone else that was still stuck down there as well.
Rob continued to run his mouth and he made friends with another one of the guys, Pete. I started to notice how close Rob and Pete became and it was very weird. It actually seemed like they might have fallen in love with each other. Pete did anything Rob said and made Rob feel like he really was “Sir Robert.” It was really disgusting and I really just could not stand either of them. They would stare into each other’s eyes like they were actually in love.
Another week went by and it was now 3 ½ weeks that we were stuck in that basement. Kat had died earlier in that week and once that happened I knew that I was alone. It took me a few days to get over Kat’s death because I knew I had no other friends left in that basement. I just wished that I could get out of there and escape, but with those shackles still on me, it was very hard. Another one of the guys, Boo, died during that week as well. That also made me sad because Boo and I had become pretty close while we were stuck down there as well.
“Why can’t Rob be one of the people to just die?” I asked myself over and over.
I started to think it was odd that no one ever came to the house besides the four people that kidnapped us. Why didn’t they have any visitors? Did people think the house was abandoned? If only someone would walk in, I could get their attention by screaming as loud as possible.
Another week had gone by with no food or water. It was now over a month that we were stuck in this basement. Gina, Morgan and Stephanie all died during that week, leaving me as the only girl left down there. I was stuck with Rob and Pete and honestly, I wish I had died by now. I hated them so much and couldn’t understand why they were such awful people.
A few days later, I heard someone knocking at the front door. I was at the point where I had no energy to even lift up my head, but once I heard that, I had a resurgence of life. I heard the front door open and it sounded like a girl’s voice. It wasn’t Roxy and the person wasn’t shouting “BLACK POWER!” so it wasn’t Ramona either. It was definitely an outside voice.
“HELP! HELP! HELP!” the three of us quickly shouted. However, no one was coming down the steps. We continued to shout, over and over until finally the basement door opened up. It was Ted and he ran down the steps and smacked all three of us across the face.
“Shut the fuck up right now!” he screamed in anger.
At that point, the woman had run down the steps and could not believe what she was seeing. She looked like she wasn’t sure what to do, like she was having some strange dilemma. The first thing she did was try and talk some sense into Ted and Artis and find out why they had done this. They didn’t give her a response; they just pulled out their guns and threatened her.
“If you stand in our way then we’ll kill you too,” said Ted as he looked very angry. At that point, Ted and Artis both turned their backs to the woman and turned their attention to Rob, Pete and myself. They looked excited by the idea of getting to kill the last three people that were left. They immediately went over to Pete and Rob, probably because they looked like they were in a lot better shape then I was and they would be harder to kill.
They killed Rob and Pete right on the spot choking and stabbing them to death. It was a vicious scene and one I will never forget. I was upset by the fact that I was alone, not because Rob and Pete were killed. I would’ve killed them myself by then if I had the chance.
With their backs still turned, the woman picked up the gun that Artis had dropped. Reluctantly, she decided to shoot them both to death while their backs were still turned. They both immediately dropped to the floor, blood gushing out of their bodies. I couldn’t believe what had just happened.
I looked over to the woman and she smiled at me. It seemed like God had sent me an angel and knew that I was about to be killed. This woman didn’t even know me and she risked her life to save me. Even though she was alive, she was definitely an angel on Earth in my eyes.
“Thank you,” I said as I started to break down into tears once again. The woman started to cry as well. She took out her cell phone and called 911 immediately.
“There’s a girl here who is not in very good shape, can you guys please come as soon as possible?” she asked them on the phone.
They made their way over within three minutes and took me out into the ambulance. I don’t remember much on the car ride there, but I know this woman was sitting with me the whole way, holding my hand to make sure I was okay. I felt safe with her and I didn’t even know her, I had never experienced anything like this before.
When we arrived, they brought me straight to the emergency room. They said I needed a lot of fluids, due to the low amount of water I had to drink over the past month. Within a few hours, I was starting to feel a lot better. The woman was still there with me, waiting until I got better.
“What’s your name?” I asked curiously.
“Amanda,” she said. “I used to be friends with those boys, but they wouldn’t let me hang out with them anymore because of my skin color. I couldn’t believe that they wouldn’t let me hang with them because of that, but I guess it’s a good thing. They were always concerned with African Americans taking over the world. Artis said he had once conquered a whole ‘tribe’ of Caucasians, whatever that means.”
I couldn’t thank her enough; she was a goddess in my eyes. She had her hat on and her green hoodie. She waited with me at the hospital throughout that night until I was ready to go home the next day. I knew right then and there that I had made a new friend and soon to be best friend.
My family rushed over to the hospital as soon as they got the phone call and were very elated to see me. They thought that I had been killed because of the amount of time I was missing for.
“We love you so much. Our family would have been nothing without you.” Said my mom as she was crying. They were tears of joy though; it was a very touching moment.
“And thank you so much! You have no idea how much you have helped this family and all of her friends. You are a true hero!” said my mom to Amanda.
Amanda saved my life and there is no way I could ever thank her enough. Ted & Artis, were dead thanks to her and Ramona and Roxy were sentenced to life in prison, all thanks to the bravery in one person. Most importantly, I made the best friend a girl could ever ask for and her name was Amanda Kimmel.
Re-telling this whole story has been hard for me, but I wanted to make sure I have it written down in my diary so that I could help people that have gone through the same things that I have. It’s stories like these that make people wonder what kind of messed up world we live in and that anyone is capable of anything. No one should live their life scared, but people should be more guarded and be more aware of their surroundings. I know this for sure after the experience and I’m not afraid to tell anyone about it.
Thanks so much Amanda, you really are the greatest. I love you and we will always be friends.
The end.