Sydney Newstrand - Bad Day or Greenway Forest - STEP ONE

The Scary
Uber

Written by: Sydney Newstrand

I have a friend group with Me, Lauryn, Skylar,
Val, Melanie, Justice, Bailey, and Raelyn. We
were all at Skylar’s house. We were sitting on
the couch talking and having a good time. It
was 11:34 PM and Justice was on her phone,
and she saw an Instagram post about a party
happening that night. We all wanted to go to
the party, but we didn’t have a ride.

So I came up with an idea to call an Uber.
Everyone was unsure about my idea, but we
had no other option. So Lauryn used her
phone to call an Uber but her phone was
really old, so she had a hard time trying to dial
the Uber’s number, but then they finally called
him. He said they would be there at 11:50 PM.
The guy showed up driving a white van that
scared us a little bit, but we didn’t really think
about that at the time. We got in the van and
everything seemed normal until the guy
skipped a turn… Skylar pointed that out to
him, but he just ignored her.

A couple minutes later, the guy pulled into a
driveway in another town, and we did not
know what town we were in. His driveway was
very dark and narrow. We saw an old
broken-down house ahead of us. When the
guy got out he told us, “I will be right back if
you leave I will find you.” Lauryn and I talked
back to the guy and that really made him mad
so he threatened to hurt us if we don’t stay in
the car. So when the guy left the car, I said
that we should try to run while he is gone but
Mel and Val thought that was a bad idea.

Without any hesitation Skylar and I jumped
out of the car and I broke my leg as soon as I
hit the ground. They all laughed at me but
they had to help me up so they did. Then we
saw the mysterious man walking back to the
car. So Skylar and I had to run back to the car
so we wouldn’t get caught. Now we all had to
be normal we couldn’t do or say anything
because if we did then we would seem
suspicious and I was scared the most
because I couldn’t walk on my leg. Then all of
the sudden he came up to us and said, “You
all come with me, now.” We all got frightened
then he brought us into the house and put us
in his closet.

We stayed at the guy’s house for 30 minutes.
He was banging on the door and windows.
Justice was in his fridge and pantry looking for
cookies. We were messing around in his
house until we heard a glass window break.
Lauryn screamed and all of us shushed her
then we all split up into groups of three to hide
somewhere in the house. Me, Skylar, and Val
were in a group together and we decided to
hide in the guy’s basement under the stairs.

After an hour of hiding, the guy found me,
Skylar and Val. He grabbed Val first, and I
screamed, so loud the neighbors could hear
me. I stood up and tried to pull Val back. He
knocked Skylar and I out and put us in a
Closet. The rest of the group ran over to Val
but couldn’t find Me or Skylar; they only saw
Val on the ground. But then Justice heard
sirens. The group got so happy, but they were
scared because they still couldn’t find Me or
Skylar.

Five minutes later, the cops showed up and
Raelyn explained everything that happened to
them. The cops found Me and Skylar passed
out in a closet and then they called for backup
to get the guy. They got two other cops to find
them. They searched the house and found
him hiding in his pantry eating cookies. He
was put in jail for 30 years and was charged
with kidnapping.

Then Lauryn called her mom and told her mom the story then
her mom came immediately after that. Five minutes later, she
was there, and her dad came with her, and we were all happy
to see them. Her mom and dad were going to bring us all
home. We were on our way home when Lauryn’s mom’s car
broke down. We all sat there thinking then Bailey said to
Lauryn’s mom, “Should we call an uber?” and Mel agreed with
her. We all laughed. We learned that day that we can’t always
trust people in this world.