Everything that’s been causing me pain for days now is obsolete. The only thing I can seem to focus on is the cut on my arm and how much it fucking hurts. It’s taking over me, making me crazier than I already am, as if that’s even possible at this point. The pain keeps pulsing, harder and harder, deeper and deeper into my body as the time passes. Bastard and his girlfriend haven’t given me anything to kill the pain at all, and that’s one reason I firmly believe that Sam doesn’t give a shit what happens to me now. By the end of this, I’ll be happy to be shot in the head, because that will mean my pain will be completely gone.
It’s the only thought that makes me smile now...death, and I know I’m going to be dead soon.
Really soon.
It’s been awhile. How long, I don’t know. Sam yanked the blindfold over my eyes a little while after Charlie made her cut me. I tried to talk to her. To tell her that it was okay, and that I still wanted to figure a way out of this with her, despite the fact that she had to hurt me, because we were at team. That I knew she hadn’t sucked up to Charlie willingly. But when she looked at me, lying on the floor, helplessly looking back at her, she didn’t smile...didn’t reach out a reassuring hand to touch my face, and she didn’t tell me that she loved me. She simply crouched down and pulled the blindfold out of her pocket, yanking it roughly over my eyes.
“Sam...” I gasped. “Sam, what the hell...what’s going on?”
“I can’t talk to you anymore. I already messed things up for you enough,” she whispered in my ear. “I’m sorry.”
It was the last time I heard her voice.
The tape was pressed over my mouth next, and I held my breath, hoping and praying that Alex was somewhere near bye with a rescue force, simply waiting for the right time to burst in and get me the hell away from her. But the harder I prayed and the longer I waited, the more the sinking feeling of despair began to take over me. He wasn’t coming. He just...wasn’t. I didn’t understand. He promised me he was going to get me out, get me to safety and yet... I hadn’t heard a thing from him since he gave me water and left me.
Maybe Sam was right.
Maybe I was just delirious.
Maybe I imagined the whole fucking thing.
I should have known this would happen...that she would go back to him. What made me think that she would take my side? Defend me, her fucking captive? Tell Charlie she was through with him, that she’d rather die with me than go back to the world he was making her live in? Fuck, did I really lose my mind that much? Me...the guy who’s usually so damn private I can’t even deal with my own fans half the time? The one who only keeps half a dozen close friends around him at all times so his private life won’t leak out to the press? I really thought I could open up to this girl, that I could bond with her and that I’d get her out of this. That we could go on afterwards...living our lives as friends. Why the fuck was I so sure it would happen? I could kick myself for letting my barriers down that much. It’s the first time I’ve ever let it happen, and now I know exactly why I never did it.
If Trace were around, he’d slap me on the back of the head and call me a fucking moron.
I’m glad he can’t be here to witness all of this.
I feel like a fucking fool, and now I have to feel this way until I’m shot dead. It’s a horrible way to go, because I’ve achieved too much in my life, and lived too much of a dream to die this way...foolish and alone without my family and my friends. It will only be Charlie, his gun, and Samantha. Samantha who will probably be pinning me down or holding me still so I have no hope of escape.
And I was so convinced that she was different. That she was simply under Charlie’s demented spell. How fucking stupid.
I start to cry again at the realization of it all, even though I shouldn’t. I shouldn’t show my weak side anymore, and I know that, but I just don’t care. It doesn’t even matter...if they think I’m weak anymore. Too much has happened now, too much time has passed, and now we’re on the move again to carry out my death sentence...
After she put the tape on my mouth, I was hauled to my feet by who I could only guess was Charlie. I knew because his grip is a lot harsher than hers, and with the condition I was in, she’d never have the strength to haul me to my feet by herself. Then I was pushed forward roughly, made to walk through the house and out a door. There were no stairs this time, but I could tell we’d gone from hardwood flooring to a cement or concrete type of floor. For some reason Charlie hadn’t returned my shoes or socks to me after I was forced to change, and my best guess is that he’s trying to erase any sign of my presence. It’ll probably work too...just because everything else about my kidnapping has seemed to work in his favor so far.
I was roughly shoved down into a small space, and when I heard something slam shut on me, I was almost positive I’d been locked in the trunk of a car. When a engine started several minutes later, it proved my theory. I never heard a word from either of them the whole time, it was like they wanted me to forget they were there at all.
And I wonder if I’ll be able to hear another human beings voice again before I’m killed.
I don’t know what happened to that Adrian guy either...if he’s in the car with them or not. Hell, I don’t even think that Alex guy is with us anymore. To me, it just seems like I’ve been stuck with Charlie and Sam. Maybe it’s better. Maybe if I can stop fucking crying and forget about how much my arm hurts...forget about how much blood I’m losing and how weak I’ll be by the time we get to our destination, I can overpower them. I suck in a long, ragged breath, my entire body aching in pain as I do so. Fuck, I can’t give up.
I can’t give up.
You can’t give up...
I hear Shelly’s sweet voice in the back of my mind now, and I nod to myself. She wouldn’t want me to give up, even though we haven’t spoken in such a long fucking time. She’d want me to hold my head high right now, because I’m smarter than both of them. Smarter than their drug addicted criminal asses. I force myself to stop crying, and start rubbing my face against the disgusting smelling carpet of the trunk I’ve been locked in, desperately trying to get the rag off my eyes and the tape off my mouth.
And then I start to kick up...up at whatever is trapping me in this place.
It makes a loud thudding sound when my feet hit the surface above, as if it will give way if I kick it hard enough. I kick and kick and drag my face...and drag my face. Then the blindfold starts to give, just a little bit. I kick some more, groan loudly through the tape on my mouth, hoping to heaven and God almighty that something happens...
That somebody can hear me besides my kidnappers.
The blindfold comes partially up around my forehead, allowing me to see out of one eye. It’s fucking dark and I’m scared, but I do the best I can to put it out of my mind. The roar of the engine seems louder now than it did before, my newfound eyesight seeming to help me focus on my surroundings a little more. It’s a really old car, that’s about the only thing I can tell, and it makes me lose a little bit of my stamina. Older cars don’t have those handy emergency escape valves inside the trunk, but I don’t let it bring me down. I start to kick again. Kick and kick and kick.
Just kick and kick and kick.
We stop.
I freeze, listening intensely for a sign of life, for a sign that I’m about to be punched the fuck out for putting up a fuss. I hear muffled voices, but I can’t make out who is talking or what they’re saying. The motor doesn’t cut off though. It never cuts off.
We must be at a light.
I kick again. I kick as hard as I can, fighting as hard as I can for my fucking life, groaning as loudly as I possibly can through the tape.
A horn blares.
Please hear me...
I kick again.
Why can’t you fucking hear me!
I drag my taped mouth against the flooring again, giving myself what I’m sure is horrible rug burn, and making the cuts on my face that much worse, but knowing it’s not the time to care. Then the tape starts to peel a little...then a little more. Then I can speak, and fuck, I’ve never screamed so loud in my life.
“HELP ME!”
It’s painful to scream so loud. It makes my body hurt so fucking much and I cough harshly, having to take in deep gulps of stale air to regain my composure again. “CAN’T YOU HEAR ME!”
Then the car starts to move again.
“Fuck,” I whimper. “Fuck...”
It’s useless. This trunk is like a fortress, and I know the only thing I’ve done is tired myself out and more than likely pissed off whoever is in the car. I’m sure they heard me screaming, and I’m sure it won’t be long before we pull over somewhere so they can check on me....
Shoot me dead.
It takes seconds, literally, before the car is jerked to a stop again, causing my body to roll into the metal wall of the trunk, my bad arm being crushed from the impact. A sharp moan escapes me and I bite down on my lip, so hard that it starts to bleed. Now isn’t the time for noise. I hide my face in the corner of the trunk when I hear a key jerking around in the lock. I’m done for. I know it now.
“Jesus Christ.”
I’m rolled over and the daylight is blinding. A slender silhouette looms above me...Sam. I have nothing to say to her.
“What did you do?” Comes a harsh whisper. “How did you get those off?”
I don’t answer her.
“What the fuck is going on!”
Charlie is yelling from somewhere. Obviously he was smart enough to send Sam to check on the situation. I wish he hadn’t. I want to see his fucking face before I die, just so I have closure.
But I’m sure the bastard doesn’t want me to be comforted.
“It’s just the tape,” she calls back to him. “Gimme a minute.”
“Just shoot him...I’m fucking done!”
I look her in the eye, not saying a word, but I’m sure the expression on my face is telling her enough right now. She stares back at me, a sorrowful gaze in her eyes as she pulls some more tape off the roll and rips it off. “Not here,” she calls back to him. “Just be patient okay? We’re close to the place we need to be. We can’t afford to be impatient. Somebody might see us.”
I squint my eyes, trying as hard as I can to see past her. It’s bright here, there are trees, birds chirping There’s a world outside of this place I realize...outside of these two, and for a moment it seems almost surreal. I’ve nearly forgotten about it. My world has stopped but everybody else’s has kept on going. There’s more than this. Right. I can’t fold up and let myself be killed. I have to fight til the finish. Have to. I can see a wooden sign behind her but her body is blocking the words. But if there’s a sign that must mean there’s people, so I don’t hesitate. “‘Somebody help me!” I cry out.
“Shut up!”
She slaps me, pulls out her gun quicker than I can take another breath and presses it hard...so hard into my temple. I feel myself trembling, my bladder gives way and the urine runs down my legs and through the fabric of the sweatpants I’m wearing. I hate it, it’s a degrading way to die.
“Fuck, Justin,” she whimpers, her lips trembling. “Please don’t make this harder for me.”
“Go to hell,” I rasp.
She pulls the gun away from my head. “Do you think I want to kill you?”
The tape is pressed over my mouth again, wrapped around the back of my head so I have no chance of getting it off this time. I just stare at her after she secures the end of the tape in place, breathing heavily through my nose, hoping that she’ll just leave me alone so I can think of another way out of this.
“I... I didn’t want things to turn out this way. They just...got so out of control,” she explains to me as she unties my blindfold and begins to prepare it again. “I’m sorry. I wish...I wish I could do something...”
“Sam, there’s a car coming!”
She looks back over her shoulder quickly and closes the lid of the trunk part way. I hear a car roar by us a moment later and wish like hell that I hadn’t been gagged yet, that Sam conjured up some of that compassion she’s had for me this whole time, just for a split second more so I could make myself known...but that just wasn’t in the cards I guess. The sound of the car gets fainter and fainter, and then she finally leans back into the trunk and looms over me again. “I’m outnumbered here,” she explains. “Trevor is waiting for us at the place...and I can’t fight the two of them off alone. I”m...I don’t know what else to do. I...I was so sure that my idea would work, but it’s not. It’s just not...”
She starts hysterically crying as she blindfolds me again. I wish I could say something, give her some kind of an idea of how to get me out of this, but I know I can’t. She dug a nice big hole for me, because she was too fucking selfish to put her life on the line for my own anymore. I start to wonder what it must be like to live her life, what I would do if I was in her situation...
And as much as I’d like to say I would save her..I really don’t know if I could. I really don’t know if I’d be able to sacrifice myself for a stranger, even if I was responsible for their fate.
Then again, I’d never kidnap somebody.
“Try to run,” she says suddenly, her crying seeming to die off for a moment. “Just do what you have to do, and I won’t stop you, Justin.”
If I wasn’t blindfolded right now I’d be staring at her, my eyes wide in disbelief.
“I mean...I know Charlie. I know something bad will probably happen if he catches you but...I don’t know what else to tell you. You can’t die,” she whimpers. “I can’t let you die. If I can distract them, I will, okay? I’ll do whatever I can, so just hang on, Justin. I...I still care about you. I’m so sorry about all this. I...”
“Sam would you get the fuck back in the car!”
The horn blares once, and I feel her hand caressing my face lightly, before the trunk lid is slammed shut again. I don’t get it.
I don’t fucking get it.
Is she playing some kind of mind game with me right now? Did Charlie put her up to this? Does he want me to run so he can grab his gun and hunt me down...shoot me dead like some kind of game animal? Probably. I mean, he’s a sick enough bastard. But at the same time...I know I don’t have a lot of options here. If she’s being sincere, I know I need to take the first opportunity to escape, no matter how run down I am...how beat up, how sick.
I just have to do it.
And if she’s not being sincere, at least I know that I’ve spent enough time with expensive personal trainers and played enough sports to get a good head start from Charlie’s gun.
So I’ll take the small amount of advice from the bitch. I’ll run...the first chance I get. I’ll run for my fucking life, and maybe it will end up getting me killed that much faster.
But at least I’ll have made an effort to get out of this.
The car begins to move again, and more time passes. I try to let the darkness take over me, let myself sleep so I can conserve some energy. It seems to work for awhile, but I think that’s mostly due to my blood loss more than anything else. I really don’t know how much I’ve bled out due to the gash on my arm, but I can tell it’s making me feel a little light headed. I need something. Water...and food. Fuck, I can’t think about it. If I think about it, I’ll feel worse.
I must sleep for awhile, because the next thing I know, everything is still. We’ve stopped moving and now all I can hear is the wind blowing, and the sound of rain falling lightly on the metal exterior of the car. There are voices. I can hear Charlie barking an order at Sam. The trunk is opened after that, and I can feel the water hitting me immediately. It’s cold but it feels awesome, seeing as how I haven’t had a shower in days.
“I swear to God...” Charlie’s voice comes quickly and harshly before I feel him shove his gun up under my chin. “If you so much as moan, I’m going to make you eat all the bullets in my gun.”
I don’t move, don’t make a sound. He sounds panicky...like something is wrong. I’d smile if I could, because now he knows how I’ve felt the entire time I’ve been under his control. But I don’t react, because I can’t take another punch or kick...or whatever else he’d do to me.
“Get over here,” he barks.
Two sets of hands grab at me, and I’m lifted out of the trunk by my arms and ankles. I can tell one set is Charlie’s, and the other set definitely isn’t Sam’s. A glimmer of hope lights up inside of me. Maybe it’s Alex...or Trevor...or whoever the fuck he is.
“Hurry up,” Charlie rasps.
I’m dropped to the ground, and I can’t help the small groan that escapes me, but I guess it was expected because I’m not reprimanded for the sound. I feel my wrists come free of metal, and I start to get a little bit excited. What if Sam did say something? Maybe she said I should be allowed a bathroom break...something...r32;
“We’re going to walk, and my gun is going to be right inside my pocket. I can get it out faster than you can get away from me.”
The tape is ripped off my face, and the blindfold is lifted off my eyes. It’s still so bright despite the rain that’s pouring down, and I press my face into the mud for a brief second, trying to get my bearings before I finally manage to roll myself over and look up at them.
Alex is standing off to the side, smoking a cigarette, not seeming to pay me any mind, while Charlie looms over me, his gun pointed in my face. Well fuck, I guess I didn’t imagine Alex after all...but that still doesn’t mean he’s going to help me. I still very well could have imagined the whole conversation we had, so I doubt his presence is going to benefit me. I don’t see Sam either, but I’m sure Charlie intended for her to be elsewhere right now. Then I realize I’m seeing Charlie’s face for the first time. I stare up into it tiredly, studying his figure and his facial features. He’s medium build, about the same size as me, but a lot more muscular. He has light hair, that’s obviously been dyed to look that way, dark eyes, and a pale complexion. He’s young though, couldn’t be much older than Sam and now I wish I hadn’t been so intimidated by him. He’s really not so scary anymore.
Hell, I could take him.
“There’s little kids not far from here, camping with their families,” he whispers as he hauls me to my feet. “If you try to run, I’ll take it out on them. Don’t make me.”
He backs off me a little bit, and it’s fucking ridiculous that I haven’t kicked him in the junk and started to run for my life. But as I look around, I can tell where we are, and I know he’s not bullshitting. It looks like your average campground. I can see a few trailers settled far off in the distance, and I doubt he’d give a shit if he murdered an entire family just so he could prove his point to me. It’s insane that it’s broad daylight and I’m here...basically in public, but so fucking far away from safety at the same time. I can’t believe he’d actually have the guts to do this, but I think his ego allows him to think he can get away with it. “So what are you gonna do,” I mutter, my voice weak. “Why’d you take me here?”
“Quit questioning me.” He keeps his gun low now, out of any possible onlookers eye line. A moment later Alex hands him a hooded sweatshirt, and Charlie thrusts it at me. “Put it on.”
I do it, painstakingly. It hurst like hell to lift my bad arm up, but I can’t complain, because I don’t know what he’ll do. It takes a long time for me to pull the hoodie up and over my head, but somehow I accomplish the task, and Charlie yanks the hood over my head, before handing me a pair of sunglasses and a black ball cap. “Put these on and then put your hands in the front pocket of the hoodie. Don’t take them out.”
I do as I’m told, realizing all too quickly that he’s trying to conceal my identity as much as he can. It’s crazy...this is how I dress sometimes when I’m trying to avoid paparazzi, but I’d do anything right now to be recognized, for somebody to point me out and alert somebody as to where I’m being taken. “What about shoes,” I whisper as I’m pushed forward. “I’m just supposed to walk in the mud?”
“Just walk,” Charlie snaps at me. “You won’t need shoes where you’re going.”
I swallow hard.
The rain starts to beat down harder as Alex leads us down a path that’s marked as a trail. I quickly realize that there may or may not be people walking on this path, and fuck...I don’t know what I’m supposed to do if I see somebody. Do I cry out? Or...do I just walk?
Two bikers casually approach us from a distance after a few minutes of walking and I realize I’m about to get an answer to my question. I can feel Charlie right behind me now, his hand pressing against the small of my back. “Keep your head down and don’t say anything,” he warns me.
I look down into the dirt and just nod.
“You fellas doing okay?” They call out to us once they get within our range. “Looks like the storm is going to get pretty bad. Maybe you should turn back?”
I look at the ground, having to bite my tongue harshly to prevent myself from screaming at them to help me, hating it more than anything, but knowing I can’t do anything to save myself. Charlie would kill these two, I’m positive of that.
“We just left our cooler up ahead,” Charlie says brightly. “It’ll take a minute, that’s all.”
“Well...all right.”
I hear them whiz away a moment later, and I feel so fucking defeated...so hopeless. It occurs to me that we’re getting farther and farther away from civilization as we walk, the pending storm having drove trail goers back to their tents and RV’s long ago. Even if I did run, I’d either get lost and die or be hunted down within minutes. Sam, while probably being sincere, surely didn’t count on how isolated this was all going to be. Fuck, neither did I.
And I have no idea what I’m supposed to do now other than walk obediently to my death.
We continue to follow Alex’s lead down the winding path, and I wish that he would look back at me, just once, just so I know if he’s still on my side or not. But he doesn’t. He seems so focused, not saying a word as he picks up his pace. I wish he’d so slow down just a little bit. It’s hard to walk like this, barefoot, all the jagged stones and sharp sticks digging into my feet, making them sore and bloody. I’d complain too...but I doubt it would get me any comfort from either of them.
It takes awhile, but we finally come to a fork in the trail and Alex stops walking, causing Charlie and I to do the same. I glance in either direction, realizing that if we continue straight forward, the trail will eventually lead us right back to the campsite. That’s the respected way to go too, because the other direction has been blocked off with a barricade, a sign posted to it reading ‘falling limbs, do not cross’.
“It’s this way.” Alex points down the condemned part of the trail and looks back at Charlie.
Of course it is.
“Well where the fuck is Sam?” Charlie grunts.
“She said she was meeting us here,” Alex nods, for the first time stealing a glance in my direction. “It’s probably taking her some time since she has to carry all the gear.”
Gear?
I feel like I’ve become a part of some deranged fucking camping trip. Fuck, where are we even going? And for how long? I mean, I thought they were just going to shoot me today, but that’s apparently the wrong assumption. I wish they would. I wish they would just put me out of my misery now because I seriously doubt I’m in any condition to take a ten mile hike through the forest. It’s crazy because out of all my friends I’m always the one who is the most up for this type of shit, causing everybody else to groan and tell me they’re not in the mood. If Rachael were here she’d say ‘now you know how I feel every time you force me to come hiking with you.’
I hear myself chuckle slightly.
“The fuck are you laughing at asshole?”
Charlie shoves me and I stumble a little bit, but manage to remain on my feet. “I dunno,” I mutter.
“This is everything.”
Sam is out of breath, and when I turn my head to look at her I can see why. She has two duffle bags, one in each hand, a large camping pack on her back, and another backpack slung over her shoulder. I can already tell that it was too much for her to handle, but Charlie is that much of a bastard that he would force her to take it all by herself. He goes over to her after that, and kisses her lightly on the lips before he tells her to keep an eye on me for a second. She gives me the opportunity to sit on a rock and I take it, all the while keeping my gaze fixated anywhere else but on her. I realize I can’t look at her anymore. I’m so confused about her now, about our bond. One minute she’ll hold a gun to my head and make me piss myself, and the next she’ll act like she cares about me so much and would do anything for me. I can’t afford to lose the rest of my sanity because of that and I refuse to be caught up in her anymore.
The thunder booms loudly in the distance as Charlie and Alex finish rummaging through the “gear” and packing each other up for the journey ahead. I’m surprised when Sam is given the lightest bag to carry, but I’m guessing that’s only because she’s going to be keeping an eye on me when we stop to rest as well. Shit, I hope that’s the plan anyway.
Then, and only then, will I have the slightest chance at escaping.
The rain has turned into a torrential downpour by the time I’m hauled to my feet again. Charlie takes me by the arm and drags me over to the wooden barricade, barking an order at me to climb over it and to stand with Sam, who has gone first. I don’t say anything, I just do it, keeping my gaze focused on her as she helps me over the barricade so I won’t fall. Her gun is in her hand and shoved into my side as we wait for the guys to cross over, but I don’t think anything of it. I can’t. The rain is too cold, I’m too tired, and much too scared.
“Here, get him over here.” Charlie tells Sam once he’s settled on the other side with Alex.
Sam just sighs and guides me forward, allowing Charlie to yank me towards him. He has the long chain with the handcuffs attached again, and I begin to wonder how the fuck I’m supposed to walk like that, before he grabs my wrists and locks them together at my waist. “You’re seriously going to make me walk like this? It’s muddy and I’m barefoot...”
“Shut up.” Charlie seethes, his gaze uncaring and cold as he cuffs the other end of the chain to the back of his pack. “I’m done taking risks when it comes to you getting between me and my fucking money.”
I look at the ground for a moment, before I’m forced to follow along behind him like an animal. There’s a lot more rocks, stones, and thick fallen branches on this path, and I trip over most of them, having a hard time keeping my balance with my hands cuffed like this, and having no shoes on my feet. Sam looks back at me every once in awhile, looking like she’s about to lose it when she sees me. I hate what this is doing to her.
I hate what it’s doing to me even more.
We walk for what seems like hours, the rain getting colder and thicker as we get deeper and deeper into the isolated forest, my teeth chattering, my feet burning with numbness due to the cold mud beneath them. Charlie leads the way with me trailing behind him, Sam and Alex off to our right. Sam and Alex have no problem keeping up and keeping their wits about them, while I feel like I’m going to collapse and pull Charlie back down the trail with me. I start to tremble harshly now, the freezing cold rain literally sinking into the depths of my body, completely taking me over, and I know I need to rest for awhile. I need water.
“Can we stop,” I groan. “Please, just for a minute.”
“You know better than to speak up right now,” Charlie snaps, glancing back at me over his shoulder with hate in his eyes. “I know you do.”
“I can barely keep up,” I mutter, breathing out a relieved sigh as he stops walking. I take the opportunity to lean against a tree beside me, as much as the chain will allow me to anyway. “I don’t have the energy for this.”
“Fine.” He throws his pack off his back and I’m yanked down to the ground as it hits the dirty forest floor. Then he pulls out his gun and crouches down in front of me, pressing it to the middle of my forehead. “I can just shoot you right here...push you down the side of a hill so every bone in your body breaks on the way.”
I don’t say a word, just squeeze my eyes shut as the gun is pressed harder into my forehead.
“Charlie,” I hear Alex speak up. “Come on, not here man. Just gag him if he’s annoying you.”
“Suck it up,” he commands me, not seeming to care about the fact that he’s just been called by his own name. “Nobody gives a shit how you feel anymore. This is a death trip for you, so you better start thinking about what you’re gonna pray for when I put you on your knees later.”
“The storm is getting bad,” Alex chimes in, most likely in an effort to save me from certain death. “We should probably set up camp anyway.”
It’s deathly quiet for several minutes, as Charlie seems to ponder Alex’s suggestion. Sam just stands there and looks down at the ground, trying to seem as invisible as possible.
“He’s got a point,” Charlie finally agrees. “We’ll set up over there and wait the storm out.” He points to a clearing in the distance, smirking slightly as he pulls Sam close to him by her arm. “We’ll only need one sleeping bag.”
She tries to smile but fails.
I want to fucking rip him apart.
He takes my handcuffs off and I’m forced to sit against the tree with him, a gun held to my head, as Sam and Alex set up our campsite. Two tents go up, and I’m assuming I’ll be rooming with one of them, or they’ll simply chain me to a rock or something and let the rain pour down on me. Then I’ll get hypothermia and die. Charlie will be glad he didn’t have to waste a bullet on me, and then Sam’s fate will be left up to Alex.
I hope he can get her out of here alive, if that’s the case.
“Who’s doing first watch?” Charlie asks Alex, once he seems confident the campsite is set for the night.
Alex eyes me slightly and shrugs. “I guess I can do it.”
Shit. This may be a good thing. If we can just figure out a plan...
“Nah, you know what, I can do it,” Charlie nods.
Great.
“On your feet.” I hear Charlie grunt to me moments later, as he pulls on my upper arm. “Now.”
I do my best to move as fast as I can, as he pushes me towards my chosen tent, his gun pressed into my back the entire time. Alex holds the fabric aside as Charlie pushes me through the opening, and I land roughly on my backside.
“Get in the sleeping bag,” Charlie orders.
I crawl in. Thank god it’s warm. I feel sleepy already, barely resisting him when he pushes me on my side and cuffs my hands behind me. He removes the sunglasses and ball cap, and the fabric is zipped up to my chin after that. I watch as he fastens some bungee cords around my leg area and across my chest. I can’t move, but I don’t dwell on it. At least I’m warm, and able to lie down now, knowing I’ve survived one more day. I’m almost at peace, almost ready to pass right out...
But then I hear a sound.
A sound I never thought I’d hear.
It’s soft at first, like it’s so far away that it will never make it close to where I’m tied up on the ground. But then it gets closer, and the closer it gets the more I realize how realistic my hopes of getting out of this alive are. When I was a kid I was always afraid of the sound of a helicopter getting too close to me. I always thought it was going to crash land right through the roof of Nana’s house. One summer Paul took me to the air force base and showed me some of them. He knew a guy, and I was able to go on a real helicopter and explore it. It was fascinating, probably because I was so young. I remember how powerful I felt when I sat in the seat, that I could save somebody if I was able to fly one.
And now...there might just be one coming to save me.
“Don’t you say a fuckin’ word.” He crouches down beside me quickly, and presses his gun to the side of my head.
“Give it up,” I whisper to him, with my eyes squeezed shut. “Don’t you get it? It’s done.”
“I’m never done.”
His voice is dark, and I only open my eyes when I feel his gun move away from my head. I look up at him, and he’s dropping an all too familiar substance into a bottle of water. I watch the pills begin to dissolve, absolutely loathing what’s about to happen to me. “You really think you’re going to get away with this now? Fuck man...they’re here. They’re coming for me. Just make it easier on everyone. Make it easier on Sam, and let me go home.”
He presses the bottle to my lips. “Drink it,” he seethes.
I turn my head away.
“I’ll kill the both of you.” He shakes me a little. “I really don’t give a fuck right now, Justin.”
I don’t react because I’m sure he’s full of shit. He’d never kill Sam. She does too much for him, even though he’d never admit it. “You won’t,” I mutter. “You can’t kill ‘er.”
“Drink it.” He pinches my nose closed and I have no choice after a few moments but to open my mouth and take a gulp of air. He literally rams the bottle into my mouth and I choke down the water, partially thankful but knowing it’s not benefitting me to get the hydration. I don’t fight the urge to pass right out. In fact, I’m a little glad that Charlie decided to do this...
I don’t have to think, don’t have to do anything.
Just dream.
My eyes close.
******************
I don’t know how long I’ve been out for, but I do know it’s still completely dark outside when I’m jerked awake again. My eyes force themselves open, but everything is blurry. My head is spinning too and I know the effects of the drugs haven’t worn off yet.
“Here, eat some of this.”
I still can’t move, and I know I’m still being held hostage inside the sleeping bag. Somebody helps me to sit upright a few moments later, propping my cocooned body against something behind me. I peer hard at the person in front of me, and I know it’s not Sam or Charlie. “Alex.” My voice is hardly more than a whisper, and I realize I sound even weaker now than I did before I was forced to pass out. I’m fading...probably dying, and I’m not sure if Charlie even realizes that or not. Hell, if I have to die though, I’d rather die on my own accord than by his gun.
“Just relax, okay?” He breaks something apart in his hands and hold a piece of it up to my mouth. “Have some, it’s an energy bar.”
I eat it quickly, not caring what it tastes like, or about the fact that I usually can’t stand any type of granola bar. “What’s happening?” I finally mange to ask him after he’s given me some water.
He doesn’t respond as he finds a bottle of pills on the ground next to me and starts to read the label. “How much of this shit have they given you?”
I try to think back, to remember a number, but I really can’t. I find that I can barely remember my own name right now though, so the amount of times I’ve been drugged isn’t topping my list of priorities at the moment. “I dunno.” I shake my head slowly. “I can’t remember.”
He sighs heavily and shoves the bottle into his pocket before putting his focus back on me again. “How weak do you think you are right now?”
My head is drooping and my eyes are starting to close themselves again, but I do the best I can to overpower the feeling, and find it easier to do when Alex’s hand is slapping itself against my face moments later. “I feel like shit.”
He nods a little and looks back over his shoulder before he slowly begins to loosen the budgie cords wrapped around my body. “Listen to me, do you remember the helicopters?”
I just nod.
“We had them fly through the area to put a scare in them. For awhile he thought he was caught, but when they didn’t come back around, he got excited and drunk...fell asleep with Sam in the other tent hours ago. This is our only chance to get you out of this without endangering your life any further.” He rips the remaining cords off of me and unzips the sleeping bag next.
“What...what about Sam?”
He just shakes his head as he casts the blanket to the side and starts to work on my handcuffs. “Just worry about yourself, okay? I’m getting you out of here.”
I should be ecstatic, filled with a brand new energy knowing I’m about to get the hell away from Charlie and his gun. After what happened with Sam, how she sort of sided with Charlie and let him order her around in regard to my life, I shouldn’t give a shit about her anymore. But...but I just know that if she could have, she would have helped me more. It’s not her fault.
None of this has ever been her fault.
“I can’t leave her with him,” I tell him as he finishes removing my handcuffs. “Alex...”
“You’re not thinking straight.”
I groan as he tries to pull me to my feet, but I can’t get there on the first try, or the second. On the third attempt he gets me to sit on top of a cooler off to the right, and I have to take a good ten minutes to catch my breath. No, I’m in no condition to do anymore traveling, but I know I have to. It’s...it’s like Sam said. I need to run, and she won’t stop me. It’s like I told myself... No matter how sick or weak I am, I have to take my chance to get away when it comes. Now it has and fuck, it’s like I can’t even see that. I just want to protect her, and I dont’ care about anything else. I don’t care about getting out, seeing everybody I love again...
“Justin.” He puts his hand on my shoulder. “I promise you, she’ll be okay once we take her into custody. I won’t let him take this out on her. You have my word.”r32;
I open my mouth to protest again, but I don’t get the chance. He’s hauled me to my feet now, and for some reason, I’m able to stand like this, being able to ignore the intense pain surging through my body. Alex presses something into my hand moments later, but I’m in too much of a daze to ask what it is, and I think he knows that, because he begins to explain it to me a moment later.
“It’s a tracing device. Keep it on you, and once you get out of site try to stay in one spot. It will let us know where you are, we’ll come to you, okay?”
I stare at him stupidly.
“Justin.” He says harshly, slapping my face a little bit more. “Do you get it?”
“Oh...yeah,” I rasp.
“Then lets go.”
He helps me out of the tent, but of course I trip...it’s just natural at this phase. We both seem to freeze in that instant. A light glows from the tent next door, but nobody emerges from it, so I guess that means we’re still free and clear. No matter, I still want to warn Sam...tell her that she should run, but I doubt Alex would be happy if I woke up Charlie now.
“Get out of here.” Alex whispers as he hauls me to my feet again. “Go!”
I stumble from the tents, practically blind in the darkness surrounding me. At least it’s not raining, but no matter...it’s still fucking freezing. I walk, and walk, stumbling and tripping, and somehow...catching myself. I reach some trees, walk into their sanction, praying to god that I can stop soon, and that I’ll be found.
Then I hear the gun shots.
And the only thing I can think about is Sam’s voice telling me to run...that she won’t stop me.
I run for my life, falling several times due to the slick mud underneath my bare feet, but forcing myself up again. It’s either up or die...and I’m not ready. I’m not ready to give Charlie the satisfaction.
Fuck, I hope Alex is okay. I really don’t know if I could live with myself if he died now.
It seems like years have passed before I have to give in and sit down at the base of a tall tree to catch my breath. I cough violently, taste the blood in my mouth. It doesn’t matter. I open my right hand...still see the tracing device Alex shoved there. There is a little red light that blinks rapidly every few seconds. It’s a beacon of hope. I want to scream into the darkness that I’m here, alive, and that I’m ready to go home, but I have no idea if that’s a smart play. I don’t know who fired the gun...if Charlie is coming for me or not. All I know is that I can’t stay here long. I have to keep going....get away, before he captures me again, so I haul myself to my feet a moment later, clinging to the strong tree for support, and push myself away from it.
“Son of a bitch!”
Charlie.
I try to run, but my energy is failing me again. I’m sick, really sick, and I have to cover my mouth and hold my breath as I stumble along so my coughs won’t be heard...so he won’t find me. I find a large rock and hide behind it, panting and gasping, feeling as if I’m going to pass out at any moment. Then I hear it...a crashing sound, like somebody is fighting their way through the heavy brush...hunting me down.
“Babe...I really don’t think he could have gotten this far.”
Sam. I hold my breath, waiting for the sound of him smacking her, but it doesn’t come. For a few minutes in fact, I don’t hear another sound. But I’m not stupid. The silence means Charlie is trying to listen for any sign of my presence, and fuck...I just won’t let him. I won’t. I hold my breath for as long as I can, pull my head down between my knees, trying desperately to become one with the rock, thankful for the fact that I’m wearing dark clothes.
“He has to be here,” Charlie snaps at her moments later. “Where the fuck else could he have gone? He’s not smart enough to find his way in the dark.”
She doesn’t say anything, and I take the opportunity to pray like hell that they’ll turn back. I feel the cough rising inside of me and I know that sooner or later my body is going to give me away.
“Maybe he went behind the tents,” she suggests.
All he does is let out a frustrated sigh.
It takes a long time, but I can hear the sounds of them crashing back through the forest and I let out the breathe I’ve been holding in, and peer over the rock. Assured that they’re gone, I let out the sickly cough that i’ve been fighting off and push myself to my feet so I can continue on my journey. I find a large, jagged stone on the ground...or rather, I nearly slice my bare foot open on it, before I realize that I might be able to protect myself with it, and safely secure it down into the confines of the large pocket of my sweatpants.
It rains a little, then stops, then rains some more. I’m shivering more harshly than I was before, coughing louder and more uncontrollably than ever. My lips are tingling, probably trying to tell me that I’m dehydrated, that I need to stop. But how can I? I’m alone, Alex is...well...he’s not here right now, and I have no idea if this tracing thing is working. I don’t hear helicopters, or shouts of my name, so that has to mean I’m still lost...that I’m still far away from the safety of large men with guns, come to take me back to momma, to everything I’ve ever known.
My second break does not come voluntarily. I feel like I’ve been walking for miles, in the same fucking deranged circle. Here, in the darkness, everything looks exactly the same. For all I know, I could be walking in circles just outside our little campsite, or I could be miles away from it. I wish I knew. I wish the sun would rise, or something would come and guide me out of here, but nothing is happening, nobody is coming, and that sinking feeling of hopelessness has taken me over again. Funny, I thought getting away from Charlie would be the best thing for me, but all it’s really done has gotten Alex...most likely killed, and me farther from a solution to all of this. My body finally breaks down as the realization hits me, and I collapse against what I’m sure is another rock, almost identical to the one I was hiding behind earlier. My fits of coughing only worsen, I’m trembling terribly, almost like I’m having some kind of strange convulsion, and at times I feel like I’m slipping in and out of consciousness. If it wasn’t dark, I think I could be completely sure.
“Shit...”
I try to see her. I know it’s her, but the flashlight she’s holding is blinding me. I groan miserably, and roll over onto my side, willing her away, or willing her just to shoot me and end all of this right now.
“You can’t just lie here.” Her voice comes in a hurried whisper. “He’ll find you. Justin...”
Samantha cares, although I don’t know why anymore. Doesn’t she know that he’s going to kill her too? That she still has most of her health left and that she should just run? Hell, I would. I would leave me here for sure now. There’s no hope for me. I laugh a little. I’m becoming one with the rock, the dirt, the strong, tall trees looming above us. “I love you,” I hear myself whisper. “But you have...you have to get yourself out.”
“Get up.” I feel her pulling on my arm. “Fuck, get up, Justin. Please.” She says it desperately now, lowering her light away from my face, and I’m able to view her glancing back over her shoulder, looking more terrified than I’ve ever seen her. “It’s getting light...he’s going to find you.”
“Let him,” I rasp, another harsh cough escaping my body, and I taste more blood. “I can’t do this.”
“Yes you can.”
With a grunt and a groan she grabs me by my upper arms, and I don’t know what’s making me do it...but I work with her, and she’s able to steady me back on my feet. I grasp her hand for the first time since we left Adrian’s god forsaken sanctuary, and she doesn’t let go of it. It’s still a little too dark to completely make her out, but I have that image of her in my mind...the one I like best. The one where I see her in that dress, under the neon lights of the night club, and it soothes me. Tells me she’s real, not evil, and that I can get us both out of this.
“SAMANTHA”
It’s Charlie’s voice, but it’s very distant. It means he’s somewhere behind us. He most likely split himself off from her, figuring it would be easier to look for me in two different directions. I shudder, only being able to imagine my fate if he’d come this way instead.
“I”m still looking!” She hollers back to him. “Go, Justin.” She pleads, letting go of my hand. “Go!”
She shoves me but I don’t move. “Not without you.”
“This isn’t about me anymore,” she whispers, and I know she’s crying but trying not to let it show. “Straight up ahead, there’s a rock that doesn’t look like all the others. Go past that and there’s a path that will take you back down the trail. Just go...and when you find help, you tell them that my name is Samantha Albertson and Charlie’s last name is DeRoy. We both kidnapped you from that night club, Justin. Tell them that.”
I realize she wants me to turn them in, and that just makes no fucking sense to me. Why would she want to put herself in jeopardy? Spend the rest of her life in prison because that sick asshole decided to control her life in every way possible? I just dont’ get it. “Why...”
“Just do what I say!”
She says it too loud, and I know she didn’t mean to, but it’s too late for her to take it back. The light is starting to creep in through the branches of the mighty trees surrounding us, warning us of our impending doom. The crashing comes next. The sound of branches being cracked and pushed aside, and I know I have almost no time to run if I try to persuade her to come with me anymore.
“Go.” She shoves me away from her.
Then I’m running, and Charlie’s voice is booming, screaming at Sam to stop me, that I’m getting away. Gun shots come quickly. One whizzes past my head as I run, and I know he’s close. I can’t think about anything else. I can’t think about what Samantha is doing, if she’s chasing me too or if he just shot her dead because he saw her helping me. All I can focus on is the forest in front of me, trying desperately to seek out the rock she told me about moments ago, the tracing device still pressed tightly into the palm of my left hand.
Then I see it.
It’s a large, ugly, lumpy rock, but it’s also the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I quicken my steps, still rasping for a breath and coughing violently but forcing myself to press on as more gun shots are fired. I feel another one just nearly miss me as I pass the rock. Just a little bit further...
And then I’m hit.
I fall right down, like some kind of wild animal just caught off guard. Trace loves hunting, and from time to time he drags me off on one of his excursions with him. I’m not big on the kill, but it is a little fun to learn about his techniques and shit. It’s actually one of the only things we don’t really share a common interest in besides golf. Golf is my thing, and yea...sometimes he lets me drag him off to one of my games with him, bored out of his mind, but happy to learn a little bit about my techniques and shit. The last time I went with him, we were turkey hunting, because he had made it a mission that year to kill our thanksgiving feast in Memphis, like “a real southerner”
Have I mentioned he’s also mildly retarded?
“You have to work them a while,” he’d whispered as we crouched behind a boulder, watching the stupid thing strut about. “Get them when they least expect it.”
Then he’d shot the thing in the head with his long, custom made rifle, a gift from his mother the previous Christmas.
It was pretty good, once it had been plucked and cooked. Better than a frozen one. I mentioned to him that we might make the whole ‘hunt for your meal’ a tradition, which of course he was ecstatic about.
But if I make it now, I won’t go hunting again.
It’s in the side of my body, the bullet. I can tell because that’s where all of my pain has immediately rushed to. It’s weird. It’s not a stinging pain or a pulsing one like I’ve gotten used to, it’s almost a burning sensation. Like I’ve been hit with a ball of fire and it’s tearing apart my insides. I think I hear myself screaming in pain but I can’t be sure, because it’s involuntary. I don’t want to scream. I just want to lie here and take it, wait for him to shoot me in the head, but I can’t stop myself from unleashing the horrible sound.
“What do you think babe?” Comes Charlies sinister voice from above me. It’s a calm, cool tone he’s using, and I can barely make him out when I look up at him, because my vision has become too blurred by the pain I’m experiencing. “Should we just watch him die? Or should we have some more fun while we still can?”
Sam appears at his side moments later. It’s much lighter out now. The sun has nearly risen, and I see her expression. The tears are crawling down her face and she’s looking at me as if to say ‘I told you to go’.
Well I tried.
I had my chance and I fucking tried.
And now we’ve reached the end of the line.
Story Tags: love celebrityj breakupj justin
