| Chapter Two |
| Two days later "Crystal?" the voice echoed in her mind. "Crystal?can you hear me?" The voice said again. Slowly, painfully her eyes began to open. There was a male doctor standing over her. He had large black-rimmed glasses and sported a nametag that read "Dr. Millry." "Crystal if you can hear me, let me know." Dr. Millry said softly. "Yes?" she gasped out, barely above a whisper. She found she didn?t have enough strenght to talk. But she didn?t care right now. All she knew, was that she was thirstier than she had ever been in her entire life. The doctor patted her hand and smiled. "You gave us quite a scare there last night young lady. We thought we lost you for a minute there." Crystal glanced nervously at the doctor, and then scanned the room, looking for any sign of danger. Something she had learned to do many months ago. She found nothing could be trusted without a good look. For all she knew, this "doctor" could have been working for Todd. She was still in shock from her ordeal. She didn?t like this place. And she didn?t trust these people. What if they told Todd that she was here? What if he came and took her away again? She tried to speak, wanting to question the doctor, wanting to know when Todd was coming back so she could be ready to run. When she tried though, she failed miserably. "Shhh." The doctor said softly. "You?re just a little weak right now, but you?re going to be just fine. We contacted the authorities and there are some people coming to see you. You?re safe now; you don?t have to be afraid anymore." Dr. Millry smiled again and exited the room. People coming? What people? Wouldn?t they have forgotten me by now? It?s been a year. Crystal didn?t realize just how wrong she was. **************************** Jessica Simpson, Tina Dijaquiamo, and Justin Timberlake rode silently in the car that was bringing them to Mercy Hospital in Tampa, Florida. None of them had spoken to one another in over a year. Not since everything had fallen apart. Jessica had been working on her singing career, Justin had been in Germany promoting NSYNC, and Tina had been going to a private all girls? school. There really wasn?t time to spend together, and if there was a little time none of them had made an attempt to contact each other. It was too painful for them. Everything that had happened had been so awful, it had been easier for them to try and move forward than look back. They had been such a close group of friends. They had been the most popular kids in their class, Jessica, Tina, and Crystal were all star cheerleaders (Crystal had been the captain), and Justin had been the star of the school?s undefeated basketball team. Everything was great up until Todd had come along. He seemed like the perfect gentleman at first, and Crystal fell hard for him. But after about 3 months of dating she became less outspoken and sad looking. Often, her friends would notice her wearing sunglasses and she wouldn?t take them off, even when she was inside. When asked why, she would often make up a stupid excuse and change the subject. Justin had been the first one to find out the truth. He had been sitting at home one night when Crystal came knocking at the door frantic. She had a huge bruise on her face. Justin knew exactly what had happened. Todd had been beating her the whole time. He had begged her to leave him right then, promising he would take care of her and make sure he didn?t hurt her again but she wouldn?t hear of it. She was either too scared or too blind to see the truth. She blamed herself for the bruises on her face, saying she had done something really stupid to set Todd off and he had promised he wouldn?t do it again and that she loved him and wasn?t going to let a little thing like this tear her and Todd apart. Justin and Crystal had a huge fight that night. He screamed at her telling her how stupid she was for believing that someone that would do this to her could possibly love her. She walked out on him that night and they didn?t speak again until she wound up in the hospital because Todd had literally tried to kill her with a baseball bat. In took that to convince his best friend in the world to leave her abusive boyfriend. And she did. Finally, things started to get a little bit back to normal. Todd had left town and it gave Justin and Crystal to form a relationship. It was the best time he could ever remember being with Crystal. He was falling in love and he was going to be with her forever, or so he thought. Two months passed and RCA finally signed NSYNC. They had to go to Germany immediately to start recording an album. So he had to choose, Crystal or a career in music. He chose music and Crystal understood. But, they agreed to try to keep their relationship strong despite the long distance between them. Then came the day. The awful day that the phone rang in the hotel room that he and Chris were sharing. It was Jessica and she told him that Crystal's older brother Brad had been murdered and Crystal was gone. That Todd had killed Brad while Brad had been visiting her and taken Crystal away and the police couldn?t find them anywhere. Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months with no sign of Crystal or Todd. The police finally had to close the case, and presumed Crystal dead. It was the worst day of Justin?s life. He had never been the same after that and everybody was very careful about bringing up the subject of Crystal or anything about life before NSYNC. He pushed her out of his mind by working non-stop and only thinking about the group and his career. His mother was always worried saying he was overworking himself, that he was only 15 and had his whole life to be a great performer. But it was the only thing that kept him going. If he let his guard down, even for a minute, he would slip back to the past. And now here he was going to see the girl he had almost forgotten about up until this moment. He had never been so scared in his life. ***************** Crystal trembled as the nurse pushed the wheelchair Crystal was seated in into the visitors? room of the hospital. One of the nurses told her that Jessica, Tina, and Justin were all on their way to see her. She didn?t know what to say to these people, she felt like she didn?t even know them anymore. Hell, she didn?t even know who she was anymore. What was she supposed to say? How was she supposed to act? She needed to figure out her feelings first before she could focus on anyone else?s. And then there was Justin. That was going to be the hard part. She didn?t know if she could face him. There were just too many feelings there. It made her nauseated just thinking about seeing him. Would he still be expecting the same person? Would he be hurt that she couldn?t put him first like she had before? Time would only tell. She glanced at the coffee table and saw something that made her gasp. She wheeled herself closer and found that mornings paper with her picture on the front page. The headline read: Missing teen recovered after one year...family and friends shocked! Crystal stared at the picture of her. It was her school portrait. She tried to remember what she was like when she took that picture but she couldn?t. The girl in that picture was a stranger to her, at that moment she knew she could never go back to that life. She would have to start all over. It was almost like she had just been reborn and she had to learn everything over again. Tears started streaming from her cheeks. She had never felt so alone. She went on to read the article: Tuesday night, a person who authorities claim wants to remain anonymous found the teenage girl who was kidnapped nearly a year ago on route 136. The girl was extremely dehydrated and nearly starved to death, but somehow she managed to pull through the night. Tampa?s Mercy Hospital reports she will be fine with a little time and care? Tampa? So that?s where she was. With all of the confusion surrounding her she didn?t even ask where she was. And some random person found her? Why wouldn?t they at least give their name so she could thank them? Everything got more confusing moment by moment. She was going to go insane by the time this whole thing blew over. But before she could relax and think a nurse popped her head in the door. "Crystal, your friends are here." Crystal held her breath. |