Chapter Nineteen: Everything's.Gone.Hurt.And.Wrong [PART ONE] (April 7th, 2000)

    The Boys had finished the extra leg of their tour in March, and had begun their much-needed vacation. After seeing their family, they had come to visit us on the 6th and planned to stay with us until the end of the month. AJ had gone straight to his Johnny No Name Tour, and was due to come join up with the rest of his bandmates on the 10th because his last show would be on the 9th. Lance had pulled a few strings and had gotten some free time to visit us as well. In the time that had passed, Jenny turned 19 in February, and soon after, Brian turned 25, I turned 20 in the beginning of March, and by the end of the April, Julie was going to catch up with me. The tour had passed over three birthdays; all of us were sure we would somehow have a belated celebration that would include Julie's birthday in the time the Boys would be staying with us.
    Oh, by the way, don't think we forgot about the 2000 Grammy's! They were great, to say the least. I felt bad - the Boys' phone bill must have been huge by that time. At least one of us was talking to them when they weren't in the middle of a concert on tour, but when it hit Grammy time... at least two of them were talking to us as any given moment. We denounced the show for them, to make them laugh a bit - how dare they not get an award? Oh well, they got to sing with Sir Elton...Oh, did I mention our reactions to their little medley? Let's just say when they hit "I'll make love to you", we all shut up and stared at that TV. Of course, with Nick all dressed in that purple outfit singing his heart out, Julie was mush...

    "Guys would you please-" I began but was interrupted by them challenging each other to a race. I rolled my eyes and gave up. Who cares if the whole neighborhood heard them? They sure didn't seem to mind.
    Jenny looped her arm around mine and we laughed when Brian and Howie tied for winner and the other guys were jumping up and down upset.
    "Did you hear that?" Chin spoke up from behind us. We all turned around and looked at her. Her eyes were shifting back and forth at the bushes and back at us.
    "Chin, don't worry!" Cathy pulled her along the street. "Everything is okay now, alright?"
    Chin shrugged still thinking something was off.
    "Anyways..." Julie piped up, "We haven't taken a walk in quite awhile..." she noted.
    "Yeah, check out the guys..." Hannah laughed and pointed. They were much further down the street and occasionally stopped and waved at us.
We all sighed. Ever since the calls began, we all had been a little on edge. Halloween, the elevator incident, New Year's Eve, and AJ's Birthday cake hadn't helped our nerves...but we had been fine for about 2 months, and everyone had finally begun to relax a bit.

    "Are we sure about this?" Christy asked frowning, as Alice drove the black van slowly down the street. All six of us were in clear view.
    "Yes..." Rebecca rolled her eyes pouring something onto a few napkins.
    "What is that?" Alice glanced at the rearview mirror from her driver's seat.
    "It doesn't look too great," Katrina commented.
    "It's nothing..." Rebecca brushed off Alice and Katrina's worried voices. "Just something to help them sleep easily..."
    Alice raised an eyebrow and turned her attention back to driving.
    "What are we gonna do with them after?" Leah asked.
    "Yeah, we never went over that," Christy spoke up.
    "Let's worry about one thing at a time..." Rebecca handed each girl a napkin, one side drenched with chloroform, and instructed them what to do with it.

    I glanced at Chin, who had fallen behind us again. When she turned, I waved at her to catch up.
    What was it that made her think something was wrong?
    I didn't have time to finish my thoughts --I saw a hand cover Jenny's mouth...
    I opened my mouth to scream when a hand covered mine and I blacked out.

    Brian turned around to give us a wave when he only noticed half of us were there.
    "Something wrong, Bri?" Kevin stopped and turned to look at us as well.
    "The girls..." Brian pointed. "There's only...three of them," a familiar fear jumped up his throat. He could see it in Kevin's eyes too.
    "No, they're right there..." Nick pointed to three figures running up to the three girls originally seen.
    "Were the girls wearing dresses?" Howie raised an eyebrow also joining the conversation.
    "Or cloaks for that matter..." Lance frowned.
    "Something's...wrong," Kevin swallowed hard as the guys saw the three girls fall.
    "JULIE?!" Nick took off after the girls with the rest of the guys at his heels.

    "SHIT! That's them!" Rebecca dragged Julie toward the van.
    "Hurry, Alice!" Katrina yelled and the van sped toward them.
    "Forget it!" Leah yelped when the guys got too close for comfort. She dropped Cathy and helped Rebecca with Julie.
    "Get in the van and get ready to toss the note with thee ones you left!" Rebecca directed and Leah jumped in to the vehicle a couple feet from them. Katrina glanced at the guys nearing and dropped Hannah as well, and jumped into the van.
    "Come on, Rebecca!" Christy hissed, making sure the guys wouldn't hear her name.

    "Cathy?" Howie ran up to her limp body and picked her up. Lance went to help Hannah and the other guys chased the cloaked figure carrying Julie. She growled and dropped her, jumping into the van.
    "Julie!" Nick caught her before she hit the ground. "Julie?" he asked taking her hand and squeezing it tight.
    "Wait! NO!" Brian yelled still running as the van made a quick U-turn, "JENNY!" he cried when the van drove off.
    "Sarah..." Kevin breathed as he caught his breath and slowed to a halt. We were gone...

(at our house)
    "Hannah?" Lance leaned over her as her eyelids fluttered open.
    "La... Lan..." she began but stopped. Her eyes rounded and sat up on her bed. "Is everyone..." she was afraid to finish, especially with Lance's facial expression.
    "They got Jenny...and Sarah...and Chin..." He bit his bottom lip.
Hannah shook her head. "No..." a tear rolled down her cheek. "Where are they?" she pushed away from Lance and ran out of the room. "JENNY?" she yelled, "SARAH?" she screamed, "CHIN!?"
    Brian ran up the stairs when he heard shouting to find Hannah crying at the top.
    "We'll find them, okay? We'll find them..." he whispered as he embraced her.
    "Hannah?" Lance whispered softly and placed a hand on her back. Brian pulled from the hug and Hannah wrapped her arms tightly around Lance.
    "We...We...Please... let them be okay..."
    "Hannah?" Cathy and Julie entered the hallway with Nick and Howie. The three hugged each other tightly and stood there.
    "They left a note..." Brian wasn't sure if he should have said that. All three girls turned.
    "What...does it say?" Julie looked up from the huddle as Brian pulled a note out from his pocket. But the phone interrupted.
    "I got it!" Kevin yelled from downstairs. Everyone fell silent, hoping for some answers, but scared at the same time. "Hang on a sec..." everyone heard Kevin say. "Guys?" he spoke up.
    "Who is it?" Brian asked as Kevin walked up the stairs with the portable phone.
    "AJ..." Kevin cringed.

    "Sarah?"
    "Sarah, wake up!"
    I stirred and opened my eyes.
    "Where am I?" I attempted to sit up.
    "You okay?"
    "Wha?" I turned to see Jenny and Chin looking at me. I must have looked confused because Jenny began to explain what was going on.
    "We were kidnapped, Sarah." She looked around the room. "And it looks like we were put in a basement."
    "I haven't seen a basement since I lived on the East Coast," Chin frowned, "You don't think they flew us there, do you?"
    "No!" I swatted Chin and she innocently grinned.
    "I wonder how everyone else is..." Jenny muttered, studying every corner of our cell.
    "And if they know we're okay," I added.
    "...for now," Chin drew in a sharp breath as the handle to the basement door turned.

     The remaining occupants of the house were all sitting in the family room. The phone had been passed around a bit. AJ was going off about the success of his tour, how much fun he had had so far. He was in Washington, D.C. and he had two more shows to do after this one. He was about to go onstage...it took him a little while to realize he hadn't spoken to exactly everybody yet.
     "Dude, I've spoken to you already, Kev!" AJ laughed as Kevin spoke into the phone for the second time. "What about Sarah, Miss Jen, or Chin? Are they mad at me or something?" he joked. Kevin looked at everyone in the room. They couldn't put it off any more.
     "They...they..." he couldn't say it. Brian grabbed the phone from his cousin.
     "They're not here, Age," he sighed.
     "Then where are they?" AJ heard something in his friend's voice.
     "They were...kidnapped," he breathed. AJ was silent. Everyone looked at Brian, wondering what was happening.
     "I'm gonna kill 'em," AJ growled after a few moments.
     "What?"
     "You heard me. Those psychos have hurt us for the last time. I'm gonna get the next plane out there and I'm gonna-"
     "AJ, calm down."
     "Calm down? You want me to CALM DOWN!?" he yelled. Brian winced.
     "Yes, J, I want you to calm down. We're as scared for the girls as you are, okay? But what will it help if you come? You have like, what, 2 more shows to do? Don't cancel them, man. There's no point of you coming down here," he continued. "We're as helpless as you are. We were left a note - it says don't contact authorities. Right now, we don't know what's gonna happen, but you have fans waiting for you - you have a job to finish. So finish it. Come when you planned to originally, okay?" Brian finished. The others looked at him, hoping he had convinced AJ to stay on tour.
    Kevin took the phone.
     "But...I can't," AJ whispered.
     "Yes, you can...You get on that stage and you finish your solo tour. We're all gonna be here when you're done. We're not going anywhere," Kevin finished before Nick grabbed the phone.
     "But-"
     "No buts, Age...We'll see you on the tenth. We'll call you if we get any news, okay?"

     "At least they feed us," Chin grumbled, munching on her food.
     "So you're saying they're not completely crazy?" Jenny asked, taking a bite of her sandwich. I sat silently, chewing on mine.
     "They're just somewhat humane," Chin replied. "I mean, they gave us sleeping bags, too."
     "What do you think the others are doing?" Jenny asked. Chin shrugged.
     "What can they do? That girl who brought us our food told us they left the guys a note, right?" Chin reminded her.
     "Yeah."
     "So we're just stuck here for now," I mumbled.

~*~*~*~
(April 8th)

     Chin shot up, gasping for air. Her eyes fell on the dark basement; she cringed, realizing everything wasn't a nightmare. 'I don't need you or want you in my life' ...Chin shivered at those words. Those stupid words. They don't mean anything. Chin shrugged them off. If only Alex... If only Alex what? What would he do?...What could he do?
    "Is everything gonna be okay?" Jenny thought aloud. Chin jumped in surprise and quickly wiped away the tear that had escaped down her cheek.
    "You're awake?" she whispered back to Jenny.
    "As much as you are..."
    "Is Sarah?"
    "I don't think so..."Jenny bit her lip.
    "You okay?" Chin crawled over to her and sat down beside her. Jenny shook her head.
    "What's going to happen to us? Are they going to hurt us? Will we ever see Hannah? Or Cathy? Or Julie?...or...the guys?... Brian?" Jenny's voice cracked.
    "Of course we will!" Chin swung an arm around Jenny. "Of course we will..."

    Brian sat on the balcony staring into space. He had taken Jenny's blanket from her room and wrapped himself in it....Wishing he could at least speak to her. See her. Know if she was okay. Jenny...Brian cringed and shut his eyes closed. Jenny, where are you?

    I laid still and kept quiet, listening to Chin try to comfort Jenny even though she herself was shaking with fear.
    "I wonder what Brian is doing..."Jenny sighed.
    "Sleeping?" Chin shrugged, they made an effort to change the subject. But the farthest it went was what everyone was doing.
    "I doubt it..."I sat up and yawned. Both Chin and Jenny jumped. Jenny swatted me.
    "Don't scare us!" she yelped.
    "Sorry!" I laughed.
    "Haven't heard that in awhile..." Chin sighed.
    "What?" Jenny and I asked her.
    "Someone laugh..."

    "Kevin, stop pacing." Nick rubbed his temples. "Man, I had a terrible night..." He let his head drop and it hit the kitchen table he was sitting at. Julie jumped a little at the bang it made. Cathy smirked, making Nick look up a bit and Howie glance at her from his newspaper."Sorry..." he apologized, "It's just that I'm sure all of us had a rough night..."
    "Yeah... some of us didn't even sleep..." Hannah whispered, her eyes glued to her hands. Lance sat beside her and pulled her into his lap.
    "Everything will be okay...Before you know it, they'll be back..." Lance whispered to her, but made it loud enough for everyone to hear.
    "I'm going to... step out..." Kevin mumbled and walked off. Brian got up from absent-mindedly stirring his cereal just as the phone rang.
    "I'll get it..." he muttered, "It's prolly Age, anyways..." he grabbed the phone and walked to the living room saying, "Hey, Bone. No, no news yet..."

    "Chin, wake up," I shook her. She sat up with wide eyes and then sighed and fell back down. "Nightmare?" I asked her. She nodded and curled up into a ball.
    "Where's Jen?" she yawned.
    "Sleeping..." I settled down between them.
    "I'm going back to sleep... It'll pass the time..." Chin turned to me and smiled. "You should try it..." she added before rolling over again and falling asleep.
    "Who would keep track of the days then?" I joked.
    Jenny spoke up and glanced at me, "Go to sleep!'
    "I will!'
    Satisfied, Jenny returned to sleep. I stared at the door to the basement, willing for Cathy, Julie, Hannah, or the guys to come bursting out and save us. After a few minutes, I gave up and lay down to try to get some sleep. I shifted my head to the side and studied the bleak walls around us. Suddenly, music came drifting through the door, interrupting my vain attempt at sanity. I smiled. It was "If I Don't Have You"...

    AJ heard the opening act's music blare. He was in Atlantic City. Tomorrow would be New York, and then he could go home.
    Home. He called our house home. It was, in a way his second home. His place to unwind, to have fun, to relax...to be with Chin.
   The last 24 hours had been hell for him. The guys had convinced him to stay on tour, but he wanted nothing else but to be in California, to be in our house...to be with Chin. But even if he had left the tour, she wouldn't have been there. Hell, he didn't know where she was, and that scared him. He prayed that she wasn't hurt, scared, or crying. He would've given anything to hold her at that moment...The opening act finished and someone gave him his cue to go onstage. He sighed, took a deep breath, and ran out to face the screaming crowd.

     "Alice, this isn't right," Christy mumbled.
     "What do you think is?" Alice shot back, trying to convince herself that she wasn't a bad person.
     "I don't know, but this isn't it," Christy sighed.
     "Rebecca's the one who wanted to take it this far," Katrina muttered.
     "And it was her idea to do that damn elevator, and the whole thing on New Year's Eve," Leah recalled, bitterly.
     "Not to mention the Halloween attack. She's gone psycho," Alice blatantly stated.
     "But what are we supposed to do now? Go let those girls out and have Rebecca pissed at us?" Katrina asked.
     "Something like that. I dunno. Why can't we just talk to Becky?" Leah suggested.
     "What was the point of this, anyway?" Christy asked softly.
     "Exactly...we've lost the whole point of this, if there ever was one. Now it's gotten too big. We're in deep and gotta get out. We've got to talk to Bec," Alice sighed.

     Everyone in the house had basically turned into hermits. No one left, in fear the phone would ring with some news. AJ had called incessantly, and it hurt to tell him that nothing of the situation had improved. There were no jokes, no laughter, no pranks, nothing. They just ate, slept, read...mostly silent activities. Nick broke out his Nintendo, but played alone most of the time, silently. Julie, Hannah, and Cathy usually retreated to the balcony or the backyard with the animals of the house, trying to find comfort. Howie tried to keep himself busy with endless crosswords, or anything else in the newspaper that he hadn't read twice yet. Lance either comforted Hannah or watched TV. Brian surfed the net or spent hours in our rooms, wondering what to do. Kevin wandered around aimlessly, sometimes picking up a familiar basketball and heading solemnly out to the driveway and the hoop.

-->Chapter Nineteen: Everything's.Gone.Hurt.And.Wrong[PART TWO]
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