-->Chapter Fifteen: ...Lemme.Hear.You.Scream [CONTINUED]

    Jenny and I ran as fast as we could down the side of the house, tripping over everything from the garden hose to cracked stones on the pathway. We practically kicked the side gate open and fell onto the grass beside the driveway, out of breath. We looked up to see in our driveway the side of a van open, revealing the Boys and Lance. They stopped whatever discussion they were having and looked at us in shock. In a split second all six of them were by us, helping us up. A sea of "What happened?", "Are you okay?", etc, bombarded us.
    "They're gonna kill us," I cried into Brian's shoulder, once he had helped me up. Jenny was shaking, holding onto Kevin or dear life.
    "Where's Julie?!" Nick asked, scared.
    "We don't know," Jenny sobbed. "We don't know where anyone is..."
    "Then we'll find them." AJ fished out the key and they led us to our front door.
    "NO!" we screamed. "WE'RE NOT GOING IN THERE!" We tried to push away from Kevin and Brian, but they wouldn't let us.
    The guys cautiously entered the house, no matter how much we screamed at them not to.

    Leah and Katrina showed up by the side of the pool, only able to see Rebecca's mask floating in the moonlight.
    "Shit..." Katrina muttered.
    "What are we going to do?!" Leah freaked.
    "HELP ME OUT OF HERE." Rebecca surfaced, sputtering. The two helped her up. Leah went to get her mask, but Rebecca held her back. "There's no time...lights are on in the house - we're leaving," she whispered, before dragging them down the left side of the house. They showed up on the driveway, and noticed a van, as well as the front door to our house open. They ran to their black van, buckled in, and left without speaking to Christy or Alice, who sat in the back with the animals, wondering where Rebecca's mask was and why she was soaking wet.

    "JULIE??"
    "CHIN!!"
    "HANNAH?!"
    "CATHY!?"
    We called for our friends. We didn't know if they were all right. We spilt up.
    Kevin and Brian took Jenny and me to the family room to calm down, no matter how much we wanted to search for our friends. AJ, Howie, and Lance headed upstairs while Nick stayed downstairs. He went outside first, noticing the patio door was open. He noticed something floating in the pool.
    "Those sickos," he muttered, retrieving the soaked mask. He took it inside, and threw it in the kitchen sink, before going to check the other rooms.

    AJ went further down the upstairs hallway to check around while Howie and Lance stuck to the rooms by the stairs. They checked the gameroom, then moved down the hall. They found Cathy and Julie's room locked, and pounded on the door. No answer.
    "CATHY! HANNAH!" they yelled. The door slowly opened after a moment, and they came face to face with the trembling girls. They pulled them into a hug and headed downstairs.

    After checking the other rooms that had doors, Nick noticed the door to the garage was locked.
    "Odd..." he muttered, and opened it. Light from the room shed itself into the pitch-black dark garage. He was going to close the door when he heard a scared voice.
    "Nick...?"

    AJ knew Cathy and Julie's room was now empty, and had checked Hannah and Chin's room, Jenny and my room, along with the respective bathrooms, as well as the guestroom and its bathroom. He was about to give up, hoping Chin was downstairs, when he noticed a figure outside on the balcony. The curtains were partly opened, and so was the door. Chin stiffened for the second time as she heard the balcony door creak from someone pushing it. She was shivering from the cold, shaking from fear, and didn't have any energy left to fight back. This is it, she trembled. She lovingly grabbed hold of a ring dangling from her neck on a necklace, and closed her eyes
    ...She gasped in surprise when two strong arms wrapped around her.
    "Chin..."
    "A-Alex?"
    "You're shivering... You gotta get inside," his warm arms stayed around her.
    "I-I...I killed someone," Chin whispered. "They're in the-the...pool. I thr-threw them over the balcony when they tried to k-kill me..."
    "Shhh," AJ tried to soothe her. "No one's in the pool. You're just scared out of your mind right now. You're shaking...C'mon." He helped her up. She leaned on him heavily as they came inside.
    "The others-" Chin began.
    "Are fine. All accounted for. The guys are downstairs with them." AJ led her down the hall. "Come on, you've got a video to see." AJ tried to make her smile. She did, a bit.
    "I...I have to go to the bathroom. You go, I'll join you guys in a minute." She broke away from his embrace before they passed her room. AJ nodded.
    "See you downstairs."
    Chin closed the door behind her and headed towards the bathroom. She switched on the light in her bathroom and turned on the faucet in the sink. She cupped her hands full of water and splashed her face. She reached for a towel and looked at her reflection once she was dried off. She turned off the light and walk out of the bathroom, heading towards the door to the hallway, with moonlight as her only guide. She was still cold, and sat down on her bed to try to find some socks in her nearby dresser. She had a flashback of what had happened...Images of the mask in her face, of the body flying over her, over the balcony, the splash in the pool...The figure from the garage, with the phone, and a knife...Surprise. It echoed in her mind...It was too much. She couldn't hold it in anymore...She broke down and cried.

    "Why the hell are we keeping these animals?" Alice wailed for the billionth time.
    "Will you shut up?" Rebecca yelled from the driver's seat.
    "No, I will not! I've gotten one too many scratches from these damn cats, not to mention these dogs are going to bite our heads off!"
    "But they're so cute," Christy cooed for the millionth time.
    "I'm sick of this!" Leah yelled.
    "Rebecca, take us back. There's no point in keeping the animals! Do you want to spend money on food for them or something?" Katrina glared at Rebecca. She gave a huff and turned the steering wheel.
    "Fine, drop them off at that corner."
    "What? We're not at the house!" Christy screamed.
    "It's either now, or never. I'm not going back there," Rebecca hissed. Leah opened the side door and Alice shoved the animals out, to Christy's dismay. The van took off with a screech, leaving Kezia, Darwin, Roky, Sprite, and Coke alone in the road. The dogs picked up the scent of our neighborhood, and ran off, the kittens trotting behind.

    "What's with the freaky thing in the sink?" AJ asked as he entered the room with a glass of juice from the kitchen. The Boys had tried to get us to talk about the calls, but we hadn't told them much. We were still in shock, and didn't want to think about it. We were sitting in various spots around the family room, the guysí arms around us, each in our own protective, comforting hug.
    "I found it in the pool," Nick replied.
    "Chin said...oh my god."
    "What?" Brian asked, holding Jenny.
    "She said she threw someone over the balcony," AJ muttered.
    "No one is in the pool...it looked like they left in a hurry." Nick tightened his arms around Julie.
    "Good riddance," Cathy muttered, snuggling into Howie.
    "Is Chin coming down?" Kevin asked, not letting go of me.
    "She said she was..."
    "The video's going to be on soon," Lance pointed to the TV, before returned his arm to its spot around Hannah.
    "I'll go get her," he headed for the stairs.

    "Hey, hon, did you fall asleep?" AJ called from the hallway by the door to Chin's room. His pace slowed down when he didn't hear a reply. "You in a bath, then?" he tried again. Still no response. "Aw c'mon, Chin...gimmie something here." He stood by her door, speaking to it, hands on his hips. "OK, I'm gonna assume you just got out of a shower. I'm coming in - you nekked?" AJ joked, opening the bedroom door. Chin quickly wiped her tears and looked away from him as the light from the hallway filtered into the dark room. "Damn, you're dressed, I was hoping to see some ski- Hon, what's wrong?" AJ abruptly put a halt to his antics and rushed over to her, wrapping his arms around her. He pulled her onto his lap as began to cry harder. "Shhh." He rocked back and forth, rubbing her back. "Please...tell me."
    It took coaxing, but Chin eventually let it all out. Stories of the phone calls that were just hang-ups, how we connected things to Halloween, how the phone calls had become threatening and kept reminding us about the elevator and about how the Boys were too busy for us, and now this whole incident...it came flowing out with her tears, muffled as she buried her head in AJ's shoulder. He rocked her back and forth, rubbing her back, waiting for her to finish.
    "...I can't believe I told you all of that," she sniffed, pulling away from his shoulder to look at him in the dim light. "We told each other we wouldn't bother you guys about the phone calls, about what we thought about Halloween, the elevator, and everything." She looked down. "...But now-"
    He put his finger on her lips. "But nothing." He took one of her hands in both of his and placed it on his chest, over his heart, "Feel that?" She stared at their hands, feeling the steady thumps coming from his warm chest. "It beats for you," he whispered. "If something happened to you, it would stop beating."
More tears flowed from her eyes. He couldn't stand the thought of losing her. She buried her head in his neck and cried quietly. They sat that way, silently, for a few minutes. Slowly, the tears stopped, but AJ didn't let go. A small smile crept onto her face...what did she do to deserve a friend like him? For some reason...it felt so right to be in his arms. Wait, what was she thinking? She couldn't let those little feelings resurface again. She thought she had forgotten...but now...No.
    Chin pulled away a bit, to look at him."I...I think I'm ready to see that...video," she whispered, smiling a bit, relieved that she had stopped her train of thought. He smiled back, and nodded, helping her up.

    By the time the two got downstairs, the rest of us were engrossed in the TV. Chin took note of the protective stances the Boys had over each of us, and smiled a bit. AJ guided her to a spot on one of the couches, and pulled her into his lap. Some of us were sleepy, and kept nodding off. Talking was kept to a minimum - most of us were zoned out or engrossed in the TV.
    We heard a scratch on the back door.
    Howie hit the mute button.
    We exchanged glances.
    Lance was closest to the patio door, and got up, much to Hannah's objections. We heard scuffling and Lance laughing. He showed up at the door with our pets. We screamed with joy and the animals ran to their respective owners.
    "Just in time," Nick commented, settling down, his arms still protectively around Julie. Kezia barked at the screen as the little introduction to the video popped up, with the Boys explaining it a bit.
    "Dude, they're big," AJ muttered into Chin's hair when both kittens crawled into their laps, making her laugh.
    Jenny noticed the body behind her had stopped fidgeting in attempts to bother their dog, bicker with Nick, or do anything else, for that matter.
     "Brian?" No response. She picked her head up from its resting place on his chest and turned it a bit to look back at him. His eyes were closed.  "Are you asleep?" she whispered. No response yet again. "I asked you as question, mister." She turned around in his arms so that she was facing him. "Are you asleep?"
     "Yes," he replied simply, eyes still closed, with a straight face.
     "Wake up."
     "Why?" He was trying not to smile.
    "We're gonna watch your video, mister." Jenny poked him. Brian opened his eyes and smiled at her.
    "Shhh!!!!" Hannah hushed us as the video started.
    We watched in awe as it played. Jenny felt chills when she saw Brian's pained face. Brian closed his eyes and tightened his arms around her, trying not to remember what AJ had told him to make him act like that. Chin pretended to scowl at Hannah when she was seen on the bus. I rubbed Kevin's arm in sympathy as his scene was shown. We all secretly looked at Julie and Nick when their shot came. I reached over and poked Chin when we saw that she had gotten into the video as a girl standing on a roof. All in all, we were pretty much silent about the whole thing. Even when the commercials came, all was quiet.
    "Wow," Cathy finally spoke up.
    "You said it," Lance agreed. "That'll be hard to beat on TRL!" he tried to joke. We all smiled.
    "Chinny-Chin got IN the video!" Hannah clapped. Chin rolled her eyes.
    "Whatever...just my profile..." she muttered.
    A beautiful one, at that, AJ thought.
    "How much longer till midnight?" Nick piped up.
    "I'll get the champagne..." Cathy ran off into the kitchen.
    "But you girls are under age," Brian pretended to scold us. "Not to mention a certain Blondie..."
    "I resent that." Nick made a face. Julie quietly smiled - he had used her line.
    "I'm not gonna touch the stuff." I made a gagging face.
    "It won't hurt. It's gonna be the year 2000!" Cathy giggled, as she returned with glasses and a bottle. We all filled our glasses, and made a toast. I took a sip just to humor everyone, but made sure they knew I hated the taste. Soon, we were glued to the TV.
    "10...9...8...7...6..." the TV crowd shouted.
    "5...4...3...2," we all joined in. "1!...HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!"
    Cathy pulled out some party poppers that she had been hiding and gave the animals a scare. We could hear the commotion around the neighborhood as people yelled, lit of streamers and fireworks, and celebrated. In the commotion, Julie noticed something - Hannah and Lance were the only ones who shared a New Year's kiss.

Chapter Sixteen: I.Need.To.Know...Do.You.Really.Care?
.If.I.Don't.Have.You. Index
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