Kevin snapped awake to the sound of the phone ringing. He groaned and shifted to the side of the bed to answer it.
“Hello?”
“Kevin. This is really important.” Came a familiar voice.
“Alex? What’s wrong?”
“I need you to find AJ. Tell him I found Mel but then some stupid people let her slip away again!” She paused to calm herself down again. “And I haven’t been able to reach him at all. Tell him he needs to get up here as soon as possible. Every minute counts.”
“What happened?” he asked. She quickly began to explain. She said it all pretty much in one big sentence. She said just enough so he would understand.
“Well, where are you?” he asked after he listened to the whole story.
“Michigan. And hurry.”
“Ok I’ll find him.” After that he heard a click and he knew that his girlfriend had hung up. He clicked off the phone and sat there for a second thinking about what had just been said to him. It really sounded like Melissa was in a lot of trouble. He quickly clicked the phone back on and dialed AJ’s number. There was a busy signal so he tried AJ’s cell phone. No one answered. Kevin groaned again and got out of bed, grabbed his car keys and headed over toward AJ’s house.
----------
Alex walked back to the table the three of them were sitting at before to do some more talking, even though she wanted them to look for her friend.
“If you don’t mind me asking, who did you call?” Officer Mertin asked.
“My boyfriend. I’m having him find Melissa’s boyfriend and let him know what’s going on. He doesn’t know anything because I couldn’t find him.”
“Maybe there’s a reason you couldn’t find him.” Said Officer Mertin.
Alex frowned. “And what is that supposed to mean?” she spoke again before he could answer. “Are you saying that he’s the one who did this? Well you’re wrong because he was on tour the whole time. He just wouldn’t do such a thing.” Officer Mertin didn’t speak another word about it after that. Alex tried to think of anyone that would be sick enough to do something so cruel.
“Why are we sitting here when we could be out looking for her?” Alex asked.
“We already have people out there investigating and looking. Don’t worry. We’ll find her.” Officer Sander assured.
“Yeah but are you going to find her alive! I told you I was coming! You just let her slip away! She doesn’t know anything! Now she’s going to be afraid to trust anyone and it’s all going to be your fault!”
~Chapter 10~
“AJ!” Kevin yelled while walking through the front door to AJ’s house. “Hey! I need to talk to you man where are you?” He walked into the kitchen and saw that it was empty and continued walking through the house. He searched the whole house except for the top floor where he had his big screen TV. He found him. Or at least what was left of him. He was sitting on the floor in front of the couch with an almost empty bottle of Jack Daniel’s. His eyes were blood shot so he knew something had to have been wrong.
“Hey AJ are you ok?”
“No. Everything I love in my life is gone. Gone, gone gone gone. Melissa was just ripped out of my life. She’s gone. Gone gone gone.” He paused for a minute, taking a big swig of his JD. “Now my Jack Daniel’s is gone! Gone gone gone gone….gone! Nothing is here anymore. I’m not here, you’re not here, we all aren’t here. We are all gone. Gone gone gone gone gone gone all gone.”
“Ok AJ no more drinking for you. How about I go make you some coffee so you can sober up enough for me to talk to you?” Kevin said putting AJ’s arm around Kevin’s shoulder to help him walk downstairs.
“Ok just sit down on the stool.” Kevin said. AJ did what he was told while still repeating “gone” over and over again.
Kevin went to go find something for him to drink. He discovered that there wasn’t a coffeepot so he went and just got him some water. While he was getting a glass he heard a loud thud. He turned around and saw AJ lying on the ground. Kevin yelled at himself for putting a drunk person on a chair with no back on it.
“And the back of the chair is gone. Gone gone gone.”
Kevin helped AJ up and helped him to the kitchen table so he could sit in a real chair. He got some water and made him drink it and sat down across from him.
“Now listen very carefully. There’s something you need to know and you need to pay attention.
----------
Melissa slowly opened her eyes and looked around at her surroundings. Her heart started to beat faster and faster as she realized that she wasn’t in John’s apartment any longer. She tried to sit up but she was tied to a bed. The same bad she had been tied to before.
“This can’t be happening.” She thought to herself. “Not after all I went through to get out.”
She started to cry. She had no more hope of being safe. No one would ever help her or know where she was. They would think she was safe with her brother. It was pretty obvious that she didn’t have a brother. Just some sick man who wants to see her suffer. Now that she was in that basement again she started to remember things. Not too much but it was a start.
~*~*~*~*~
“If you make one sound I will come down here and shut you up for good!” she heard him scolded from the top of the stairs.
Melissa didn’t say a word. She kept quiet just as he had told her. But it wasn’t because of what he said. It was because had found an escape route. There was a small window seven feet up from the basement floor. There where bars on the window but she could tell that he put them in before he put her down there because they were only screwed in. They weren’t cemented in or anything like that. She spent about two weeks trying to get them unscrewed and was successful. She put the bars back so that he wouldn’t see what she was up to. Before he would go downstairs she would slip her hands through the knots of the bandanas that were supposed to be tying her arms down and pretend she had been there the whole time. The moron never knew. She knew that night he had someone over. He wasn’t sure if it was a man or a woman, she couldn’t hear. She didn’t care. She knew that that was the night she would get out of there and she would never have to see that ass hole again. After he was out of sight for awhile she slipped her hands out of the bandanas and found a pare of shoes that were down there and put them on. She then moved a crate by the wall and stood on it to take off the bars. She slowly opened the window trying not to let it make any sound. When she got that open she used all the upper body strength she had and managed to pull herself up to the window and got herself halfway out before she got stuck. She started to panic but still stayed somewhat calm so she could get out. She could hear the door to the basement open and she pulled as hard and she could and managed to get out before he made his way down the stairs. She was running through the woods when she heard him scream for her. She kept on running hoping she would get far away before he started after her.
~*~*~*~*~
Melissa looked toward the window and saw that it was boarded shut. She wouldn’t make it out that way alive. She had to think of a new way out. And it didn’t take her that long to think of one.
~Chapter 11~
“AJ you have to listen to me.” Kevin repeated.
“All right I’m listening.” AJ replied.
“Melissa was found in Michigan. She was beaten pretty badly and she had her license in her back pocket. They called Alex to go and get her. She tried calling you but she couldn’t catch you.”
“Melissa’s dead.” AJ interrupted. “She’s gone. Gone gone gone. As in never coming back. I’m never going to see her again.” She beat his head down on the table and kept it there.
“What are you talking about? Who told you that?”
AJ looked up at Kevin. “Some friend of hers. She was in a car accident and didn’t make it.”
“Oh my god. No AJ, she isn’t dead. Alex went up there to see her in the hospital and when she got there they told her that her brother had taken her home.”
“She doesn’t have a brother.” AJ interrupted again and her put his head back down on the table.
“Alex knew that. She went ballistic on the doctor there and they called the police. You see they figured someone had taken her and kept her somewhere all this time and she managed to escape from where ever she was. The reason they don’t know anything is because Mel doesn’t know anything. She has amnesia. She doesn’t remember anything at all.” Kevin explained.
“She’s alive?” AJ asked.
“Yes.”
“Well where is she now?”
“That’s the thing. We don’t know. Whoever took her probably took her back to where she was.” Kevin thought for a minute. “Wait you said someone called to tell you that Mel was dead. Was there a number on your caller ID?”
----------
Melissa tugged at the bandanas that were tied to her wrists. She needed to get free before anyone went downstairs. She heard footsteps on the floor above her and knew someone would go down there soon. She struggled even more to get her hands free and finally her left wrist slipped out and she untied the other and then untied her legs. She grabbed a small bronze statue of a duck and hid behind the stairs. She made it just in time. Just as she walked behind the staircase the door opened.
“Mel I have some food for you.” A deep voice said calmly. “You need to eat.” When he made it all the way downstairs, he threw the bag of food across the room. “Ok I know you’re in here. If you show yourself I’m not going to beat your face!” His voice started to rise as he talked. She stood still and almost held her breath so that he wouldn’t hear here.
~Just a little more to the left~ she thought. ~Come on.~
He started walking to the right, looking by the window first to see if she had gotten out there again. When he saw that she didn’t, he walked the other way. He stopped almost dead in front of her but was looking in the other direction. She held up the statue and hit him in the head. He let out a small groan and fell to the floor. She ran to the bed and quickly untied the bandanas and ropes from her bed and then went back to the guy. She tied his arms behind his back in a way that no one could get themselves out of. She went through his pockets and found his car keys and his wallet. She found a rag and stuffed it in his mouth so that if he woke up before she got out, he wouldn’t alarm the other person in the house. She crept upstairs and found the other guy sitting in the living room watching a basketball game.
“Is she awake down there?” he asked.
She walked up right behind him. “Yep.” She answered.
Before he could even look back she hit him with the statue and he was out like a light. While she was tying him up, she noticed he had a patch over his eye.
~This is the guy who was after me in the woods.~ she thought.
She found something to stuff in his mouth and then she went through his pockets. She found a wallet and another set of keys. She ran for the door and then outside. Then she quickly got into a Ford pickup truck and tried almost every single key there until she found the one that worked. Then she got the hell out of there.
~Chapter 12~
Within a few hours Kevin and AJ made it to Michigan. A police officer was waiting for them to escort them to a police station. Once they were there, they began to explain what they had found out.
“We think we know who took Mel.” Said Kevin.
“Who.” Asked Alex.
“Well someone called AJ and told him Melissa was in a car accident and died. We found a phone number on the caller ID. This guy wasn’t all that smart I’m taking it.”
“Well who is it?” Alex asked again.
“Do you know a David Stewart?”
“David Stewart.” Alex repeated. “Yeah that’s Melissa’s ex boyfriend. She broke up with him before she moved down to Florida. Are you saying that you think Dave did it?”
“His name was on the caller ID. It could be him or something who made the call from his house.” Said Kevin.
“We’ll get right on it.” Officer Sander said. “But for now just stay here. We’ll let you know if anything turns up.”
-----------
Melissa drove for about an hour before she stopped to get gas. She also needed to stop and think of where she was going. She was completely clueless. She pulled up to a pump and got out of the truck. As she was waiting for the tank to fill she tried to remember more. Small things were starting to come to her. For some reason something was pulling her toward Florida so that was the direction she was going. She felt that she would feel safe once she made it down there. Out of nowhere she got a picture in her mind. It was a picture of a guy. Someone who looked safe and maybe someone she could trust. She was beginning to think it was some sort of a memory from her past because he was saying something to her.
“I love you Mel. Just remember that.” He said. “I’ll always be there for you if you need me.”
“Why aren’t you here for me now?” she thought to herself. She walked inside the building to pay for the gas with the money she had taken off the two guys. She didn’t even think of it as steeling. You gotta do what you gotta do to get to safety. After buying a soda and some chips she was back on the road heading towards Florida.
“AJ.” She said out loud. “Where are you?”
----------
Alex, Kevin, and AJ sat in the room for about an hour before anyone came back to talk to them. While this was all going on the three of them talked about possible things that could have happened to Melissa, like how this happened and why.
“You don’t know how good it is to hear that she’s alive.” AJ said. “My whole world just about fell apart when I got that phone call.”
“Now let’s hope we get her back in one piece.” Said Alex. “This people are so stupid. How could they let him take her? I told them I was coming. They make me so angry.”
“Everything will turn out ok. Melissa’s strong and she’s smart. If she could get out once, she can get out again.”
Officer Sander walked in the room and sat down at the table with the other three. He didn’t have any expression on his face.
“We didn’t find anyone there. By the looks of things there hasn’t been anyone living there in weeks.” he said.
“If he was the one that took her, I don’t think he would take her there. The man’s dumb but not that dumb.” Said Alex. “If he took her, he would have taken her to his brother Matt’s.”
“Why didn’t you tell us that before?” AJ asked.
“I just thought of it.” She said. “I forgot all about his brother. He has a cottage in the woods.” She paused for a minute. “That has to be it. From the location she was found, she had to have been in that cottage. That’s probably where she is now.”
“Ok we’ll go there right away.” Officer Sander said and got up to leave.
“I’m coming with you.” Alex said.
“No you have to stay here.” He said. “It could be dangerous. We’ll let you know what we come up with.” He left the room before she could say another word.
“I’m sick of waiting.” Alex scowled.
“So am I.” Said AJ. “Let’s hope they find her this time. And the sick ass holes that took her.”
Chapters 13-16
Chapters 5-8
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