Hello! Yay, more LTD, haha! You’re catching up with me a bit now – I’m only on Chapter 67! Hope you enjoy this one, and Kate hunny, sorry to disappoint you, but I think you have already read this one! In fact, haven’t you read most of it? I’m sure you have! Well, apart from the new bits. Anyway, lol, nm! Sorry it’s been ages since I’ve updated this – I hope you can remember what’s going on! (Chlo – NBY will be up when I’ve stopped writing new chapters and got round to typing up the old ones!) xxx

Chapter Fifty-Six

“She’s married?!” Paul exclaimed in amazement.

“Keep your voice down.” Ben hissed, looking towards the door.

“What’s she doing with Chris if she’s married?” Paul asked.

“That’s what I’d like to know.” Ben said, closing the disgraced novel and putting it back on the table.

“Well, do you think Chris knows?”

“I doubt it. You saw how into her he is - he’d hardly be interested if he knew she had a husband! Not exactly the affair type, is he? I knew there was something dodgy about her.” Ben said.

“Hang on, we don’t know if she really is married, or what.” Paul said.

“Paul, it says she is in print! It’s in black and white! How can she not be married? I wanna know what she’s up to with Chris. I bet she’s after his money.”

“I don’t think we should jump to conclusions.” Paul said sensibly. “She could be divorced or something.”

“She’s not divorced! She’s only 20! No-one’s married and divorced by the time they’re 20! She’s only a year older than me!” Ben said, clearly getting more and more agitated about the matter.

“Well… you’re not like, a prototype for the entire 20 year old population.” Paul said. “She could be married and divorced. You can get married at 16 with your parents’ consent.”

“The book was only published a few months ago.” Ben pointed out. “You think she got married at 16 and then conveniently divorced a few months before meeting Chris?”

“I don’t know what I think! Except that maybe we should just leave them to sort it out between themselves.”

“But Chris doesn’t know! We can’t just let her take advantage of him!”

“I don’t think she’s taking advantage of him, man. She doesn’t look the type.” Paul said, absent-mindedly poking around Ainsley’s room again.

“You so can’t tell.” Ben said dismissively. “She could be like, a professional money-grabber.”

“Why don’t you just leave it? Chris might already know: you don’t wanna go stirring things.” Paul said, taking a CD out of the rack in the corner. “Atomic Kitten?!”

Suddenly the room was plunged into darkness.

“What the f-”

“Somebody’s been naughty.” Ainsley sang to himself.

Christian felt Kate grab hold of him and move closer to him on the sofa they were sharing.

“You don’t like the dark?” he asked her quietly, not sure whether Ainsley was still in the room or not.

“No.” Kate whispered back. “I really… I…”

“It’s alright, I’ll look after you.” Chris said, putting his arm around Kate’s shoulders.

“I’m not joking.” Kate said, sounding faintly panicky. “I really really don’t like the dark.”

“Why not?” Chris asked before he could stop himself.

That’s not what you wanna be asked when you’re frightened, he was such an idiot. Why did he say stupid things like that?!

“I just don’t.” Kate said.

Chris knew it was highly insensitive, but Kate sounded really sexy when she was scared, and now he really really wanted to kiss her again. He wondered if she’d mind if he did…

“Well don’t worry. I’m no superhero, but if something came to get you I’d pretend I was one.”

Chris wasn’t sure whether he was intending that to sound romantic, or funny, but it just sounded really lame when the words left his mouth.

“Where’s your hand?” Kate asked. “I can’t see anything, I don’t wanna grope you.”

Chris stopped himself just in time from saying something crude that Kate probably wouldn’t appreciate. He didn’t know what had got into him all of a sudden – usually he was really good with girls, especially ones who were sorta interested in him already. He was normally full of smooth, not-too-cheesy lines and not at all like this idiot who was possessing his body at the moment.

“Attached to the end of my arm. Where’s yours?”

Kate giggled. “Attached to the end of my arm. Where’s the end of your arm?”

“Right here.” Chris said.

“Well I can’t see it.” Kate said. “But I found your head.”

“Oh good, I was looking for it.” Chris said, trying to keep it together as Kate ran a hand over his hair and down the side of his face.

He put his hand on hers.

“And now I’ve found your hand.”

Kate linked her hand with Chris’s and brought it down to rest on his chest.

“I feel a bit safer now.” Kate said quietly.

“Oh, well that’s a good thing.” Chris said.

They were quiet for a few minutes. Chris couldn’t see Kate – it really was pitch pitch black in the room – but it felt like she was looking in his direction. And he couldn’t help it; he had to kiss her again.

“Kate,” he said.

“What?”

“Can I… would you mind if I kissed you again?” he asked.

Oh well now that sounded nice and dumb, didn’t it Christian? Good one.

“Er… no.” Kate said. “I mean, I wouldn’t mind.”

“I’m fairly sure I told you not to touch anything.” Ainsley said to Ben and Paul.

“Ohhhh, shit.” Ben muttered, backing into a corner in the blackness.

“Don’t think I touched anything, did you touch anything, Ben?” Paul said bolshily.

Oh what is he doing, Ben thought.

He hated it when Paul got like that. The second someone got his back up in any way he got all defiant and somewhat like a spoilt child, actually. Plus he’d been drinking, and he’d been pissed off before they even arrived at this stupid party, so all that added up to a rather reckless Paul.

“Erm, no.” Ben said hesitantly.

He reeeeeally didn’t feel comfortable in the room knowing that Ainsley was somewhere but he couldn’t see him. He was a total freak, seemed really unstable, and… hang on, why didn’t he have an American accent? He was Natalie’s brother, wasn’t he? And she had an American accent, did she not? So why was he so very English? Hmm, that was odd. Suddenly not so scary Mr. Confused Roots.

“So what’s happened with the power then, mate?” Paul asked boldly.

“I think you’ll find that if you put my must treasured Atomic Kitten CD back then all the beautiful twinkly lights that make pretty patterns in your fameled minds will come back on.”

Fameled? Fameled?! That wasn’t a word!

“Don’t know what you’re talking about.” Paul said. “Do you, Ben?”

“Er…”

Ben really wished Paul wouldn’t drag him into his power struggles.

“Do you like them?” Ainsley asked.

“Atomic Kitten?”

“The lights.”

“I like them being turned on.” Paul said, sounding confused.

“I bet you do. Can you see them now?”

“No… the electric’s gone off.”

“Uhhhhh-huh?”

There was an uncomfortable silence, broken by a loud banging and the high-pitched screech of,

“AINSLEYYYYYYYY!”

The banging came again.

“Ainsley, I know you’re in there!! What have you done to the electricity?!”

“Don’t you be going anywhere now.” Ainsley said, leaving the room.

“You’re right, we’re getting out of here right now.” Paul said, heading in the direction of the door, closely followed by Ben.

Hearing a heated exchange between Ainsley and what was presumably his sister, Paul and Ben fumbled their way into the sitting area.

“We need to get out of here.” Paul said.

“What? Why?” Chris asked, pulling away from Kate.

“Because psycho brother is plotting to kill us.” Ben said.

“He’s not that bad.” Kate said, sounding slightly distracted.

“Let’s just go.” Ben said, half ignoring Kate on purpose, half just desperate to escape!

“How? Ainsley’s at the door.” Chris pointed out.

“Oh, damn, erm…”

“I still don’t understand why you’re so desperate to leave.” Kate said.

“The tunnels!” Ben exclaimed. “Ainsley said he used them to get in and out sometimes.”

“Ben, mate, you’re a genius. I owe you a pint.” Paul said.

“Oh yeah, I’ve heard that before.” Ben said.

“Can we get out first, and then argue about how many pints I owe you?”

“Yes please.” Ben said.

“I don’t think I want to go in the tunnels.” Kate said.

“Okay, stay here and die, then.” Ben said. “I’m not hanging around, come on Paul.”

Ben and Paul headed haphazardly in the direction of the back wall. It really was pitch black in the room, so they couldn’t see anything at all. They wouldn’t have been able to tell whether Ainsley was back in the room or not had it not been for the shouting match going on between him and Natalie in the hall.

“Which one are we going in?” Ben asked.

“First one we get to. You at the wall yet?”

“No. Are you?”

“No. We’ve lost the bloody wall!” Paul said.

“It’s here.” Chris said, hand in Kate’s.

“Yeah, coz we can see you.” Ben said, holding his hands out in front of him in anticipation of hitting the wall some time soon.

“I really don’t wanna go in the tunnel things.” Kate said nervously.

“Well we can stay here, if you want.” Chris said.

“Okay then, bye!” Ben said, finding the wall, then a hatch, then the cool black air inside the tunnel leading to freedom and safety.

“See you on the outside.” Ben said.

“Ben, hang on!” Paul said. “Where are ya?”

“Each for their own, mate. I’m gone.” Ben said, pulling himself into the small tunnel, trying to maintain his false bravado and not let the lack of space affect him.

It was quite cold in the tunnel, but luckily Ben had chosen one that wasn’t just earth. As he climbed, the space he was crawling through seemed to be getting smaller, which was somewhat disconcerting to say the least, but Ben tried not to let it get to him too much. He had to get out, after all, and this was the only way. He actually felt a bit like he was in an action film, moving silently through the air ducts of a disused building, about to rescue the beautiful girl. He’d come to a grille some time soon, see the damsel in distress tied to a chair, drop heroically down to the floor and ride off into the sunset with the girl on his arm.

Except that wasn’t Ben’s ideal fairytale. If he was in a work of fiction with any kind of happy ending then when he got out of this tunnel Chloe would be standing there and he could ride off into the sunset with her. Oh, he’d give anything for her to be at the party. Why had he not used his rare free evening to go and see her? It only took a couple of hours on the train; he could have gone straight from the Blue Peter studios to the station, jumped on the next train to Gloucester and been at Chloe’s house by 9 at the latest. They could have stayed up all night, spent a decent amount of truly magical hours together, and then Ben could have been back in London to make the interviews at 10 the next morning. And yet instead he was an idiot and was currently in a cold dark tunnel several feet underground, fleeing from the lair of a psycho weirdo. This was insane! All Ben wanted was to be able to give Chloe a hug. He was really missing the affection she showered him with. She was so affectionate, so loving, she was totally his when they were together, and it was like with anything really really nice – he’d sorta become addicted to the devotion. It wasn’t that he was needy, he just felt, tonight especially, that he needed someone just to put his arms around and be with.

“Oi! What’ve you stopped for?” came a shout from behind him. “Hurry up, mate, running outta air here!”

Ben stated crawling again, glad he wasn’t alone any more.

“Not exactly homely in here, is it?” Paul said. “Reckon we’re nearly out?”

“Dunno. Did Chris and Kate come?”

“I think they stayed down there. Kate was being funny about the tunnels.”

“Probably just wanted to get Chris on his own so she could con him into giving her all his money.”

Paul laughed. “Stop it! We don’t know what’s going on. Chris is old enough to look after himself. He’s older than you, anyway!”

“Not exactly the sharpest knife in the block though, is he?”

“Mate, he would kill you if he heard you say that.”

“Yeah, well.” Ben said, coming up against something solid and stopping.

“Will you stop stopping?!” Paul exclaimed. “Keep getting your feet in my face, man.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t be so close, then. You’re obviously not leaving a safe stopping distance.”

“Ooh, look who’s been reading his Highway Code!”

“Anyway, there seems to be a wall here.”

“What?”

“It’s a dead end.”

“It can’t be! Are you sure?” Paul asked.

“Fairly.” Ben said, feeling along the smooth surface in front of him.

“But Ainsley said you could get out of them.”

“The bastard. He was probably planning this all along.”

“Well he’s really got us now, hasn’t he? What do we do?” Paul asked.

“We can’t go back down. Ainsley’ll have us for dinner!”

“Well we can’t stay here! We’re in a tunnel! It’s underground! This is ridiculous! What are we, in some kinda action movie, or something?!” Paul exclaimed.

I wish, Ben thought.

“Have you got your mobile?” he asked.

“Ooh, yes!” Paul said, feeling in his pocket and getting his phone out.

He pressed a button and the tunnel was dimly illuminated by an orange glow.

“Damn. No reception.”

“Well I guess we are underground.”

“Are you sure there’s no way out?” Paul asked.

“Yeah, I mean, I -”

“Welcome, Ainsley. Please state the security code.”

“What the hell was that?!” Paul asked.

Ben ran his hand back over the bottom of the wall in front of him.

“Welcome, Ainsley. Please state the four-digit security code.”

“There must be a thingy panel, it does it when I put my hand here.”

“Welcome, Ainsley. Please state the four-digit security code.”

“Will you stop doing that?”

“Sorry. That’s good though, right? We can get out!”

“Without the code? I don’t think so.” Paul said pessimistically. “That just means that we’re never gonna get out!”

“At least it’s not just a wall.”

“Where’s the code panel thingy then?”

“I dunno. It doesn’t feel like there’s anything here.”

“Welcome, Ainsley. Please state the four-digit security code.”

“Oh shut up!” Paul exclaimed.

“Hang on,” Ben started, running his hand over the panel again.

“Welcome, Ainsley. Please state the four-digit security code.”

“State. It says state, not enter.”

“What?”

“Get your phone out again.” Ben said, suddenly getting an idea.

Paul sighed and handed the small object to Ben, who flipped it open and started looking at the keys, pressing one every now and then to re-activate the light.

“Ben, what are you doing?”

“What’s Ainsley’s surname?” Ben asked.

“Erm… oh, it begins with a t…”

“How old is he?”

“You’re meant to be finding a way out, not writing an article about him!”

“How old is he?” Ben repeated.

“Erm… I don’t know!”

“Kate said, didn’t she? In the corridor earlier.”

“Can’t remember.” Paul said, sounding thoroughly disheartened.

“You can do impressions of people, right?”

“What?”

“You do impressions of people.”

“Well, som- Ben, what are you talking about?”

“Just trust me. Do you think you can do an impression of Ainsley?”

“No.”

“Do you think you can try?”

Paul made a gesture that Ben couldn’t see in the darkness.

“What do you want me to say?” he asked.

“Two eight two two.” Ben said. “Think weird. Oh, and not American.”

“Huh?”

“Well he’s not American, is he?”

“No, I thought that, actually! Coz Natalie is. Well, I assume so.” Paul said.

“Someone’s telling fibs.”

“Hmm, I’ll give you one guess who that might be.” Paul said. “Okay, I’m thinking mole.”

“Go for it.”

There was a silence and then Paul spoke, mimicking Ainsley as closely as he could after having only spent about half an hour with him.

“Two… eight… two… two.”

“Thank you.”

There was a swish and the panel before Ben and Paul slid upwards to reveal… another tunnel. They crawled through the opening and realised that this second tunnel was actually more like a cavern. The ceiling was just about high enough for them to stand up, and oddly wasn’t quite as dark, although there were no lights or windows.

“So where are we now?” Paul asked, looking around him.

“A bit less underground than last time?” Ben suggested.

“Great. I’m so glad I let Chris drag me to this party. I’m having the time of my life.” He said dryly.

“And I owe it all to yooooooou.” Ben sang.

“Shut up.”

“Sorry.” Ben said. “I take it Chris and Kate opted out of freedom, then?”

“Mate, at the moment it looks like we’re the ones who’ve opted out of freedom.” Paul said, looking sceptically around him.

“Do you think it’s booby-trapped?” Ben asked.

“Why would it be booby-trapped?” Paul asked. “Actually, no, I take that back, it probably is, knowing Ainsley.”

“Booby-trapped how?” Ben asked worriedly.

“I didn’t build it, Ben.”

“Do you think it’s booby-trapped in a life-threatening way?”

“Will you just shut up?”

They carried on walking cautiously down the strange tunnel until they hit another dead end.

“What…?” Paul said, looking around him. “Where do we go now?”

“This is stupid.” Ben said, looking at the ground and noticing that the outline of a white circle was drawn by the wall. “What’s that?”

“I’m beginning to think we’re in a horror movie, or something. This can’t be real, can it? I mean, it has to be some kind of sick dream. Who gets stuck underground in a tunnel?!”

Ben didn’t say anything, just cautiously put one foot into the circle. He was beginning to get quite into his movie character now, and finding ways out of seemingly impossible situations was becoming increasingly easier. All he had to do was think, ‘What would movie Ben do?’ and he had an answer. It was almost fun! When nothing happened, he stepped fully into the circle.

“Thank you. Remember to keep your hands by your sides. Have a nice trip.” Came the same voice from the other tunnel.

“What did you do?” Paul asked, looking at Ben who was still standing in the circle.

“Nothing! I just-” Ben was cut off as a translucent circular wall came up from the ground to surround him and join the ceiling.

“Ben!?” Paul exclaimed, hardly believing his eyes as the ground Ben had been standing on started to move upwards, pushing Ben through a hole that had suddenly appeared in the ceiling.

Ben disappeared, and Paul stood open-mouthed, staring at the spot Ben had been standing on moments before. There was a hiss and the tube came back down from the ceiling, and sunk into the ground. Paul didn’t know what to do now. Where had Ben gone?! Should he get into the circle and follow him, or run very fast in the opposite direction? If only he could remember the thing Dorothy did in the Wizard Of Oz when she wanted to go home. Something about red shoes? Paul couldn’t remember, he hadn’t seen that film since he was about 7. But this definitely definitely definitely was not real! How could it be? The whole evening had been like something out of American Pie, crossed with Scooby Doo, crossed with James Bond, crossed with Star Trek! It was mad, the whole thing! He must be dreaming. So if he was dreaming, which he surely was, no harm could come to him so he might as well try out that weird capsule thing. Okay then.

Paul warily stepped into the white circle.

“Thank you. Remember to keep your hands by your sides. Have a nice trip.”

Here we go…

The walls came up around him, and the ceiling hatch slid open. The ground beneath him started to move upwards, and as he lost sight of the room he’d come from his vision was blurred with what appeared to be dry ice, and suddenly he was standing in amongst a load of trees breathing in the fresh air of a summer evening. He was outside! He was free!!

“Paul!”

“Ben!”

The two re-united guys looked round them in wonder.

“What was that?” Paul asked.

Ben just made a helpless gesture.

“So… where are we now?”

“Does it matter? We’re out, man! We made it!”

“Wicked. Shall we re-join the party, then?” Paul suggested. “I don’t know about you, but I think I’d certainly benefit from several hundred beers.”

“A better suggestion has never been made. Come on.”