These guys brought me to a very dark room with no windows and just a single bed.
The smell here was already horrendous and I swear I'd heard a rat squeak.
"Don't you have a room dirtier than this?!" I sarcastically muttered to Gage.
He didn't say anything and instead taped my mouth with a duct tape.
"Mm gme gis khing umph ai oumph." I mumbled against the tape.
Gage gave me a very annoyed look and closed his eyes and sighed. "I am so done with my life and this job." He mumbled to himself and left me alone in the room, slamming the door shut.
My hands and legs were still tied and even my mouth was taped shut. I can't even shout.
I noticed my surroundings, to see for something useful but found nothing. The only source of light here was the removed brick near the top of a wall. The door was a metal door, probably locked from the outside.
Great.
There's no escape from here.
What will you do now?
What can I do now?
Nothing.
Exactly. I just hope Zack finds me.
How will he do that?
How do I know?! I just know that.. He will! He has to!
I wasn't scared until now. But realising the extent of the situation, I am starting to feel hopeless.
Being tied up with ropes and a stupid tape shutting my mouth, sitting in a dark room with no escape and possibly being accompanied by rats, is making me shiver in panic.
This room was so cold and I am all alone here.
What will I do?
Except express out muffled sobs and cries.
*****
Charlotte's POV:
It has been 4 hours since that phone call with Jennifer.
Zack has been trying to call her with Max's phone since he had smashed his own on the wall.
"The phone is fucking switched off!" Zack grunted and threw the phone at Max, who struggled to catch it.
"Do any of you have any idea of who might have done this?" Damien asked us in expectation.
"I don't fucking know?!" Zack yelled and plopped down on the couch, covering his eyes with one hand while his other hand was balled into a tight fist.
Damien sat on the couch beside Zack and kept a hand on his shoulder. "Zack, please... You need to relax and think with a clear mind. I know you're worried, we all are, but being angry won't help us in any way." He slowly said to him. Everyone was silent for a few minutes.
Then the silence was interrupted by quiet cries, which were surprisingly coming from Zack.
He looked down at his shoes and was crying, trying to suppress his emotions but failed. "I just want her back, Damien. Please bring my Jennifer back." Zack mumbled in a broken voice.
Damien quickly pulled him into a hug and was trying to calm him down.
Seeing Zack so broken and hurt, my tears returned again.
If it was anyone I'd expected to never cry in their life, it was Zack. He was always so authoritative and had a strong demeanor that I could have never imagined to see him cry.
But crying or being angry won't help us in finding Jennifer, just like Damien said. So I wiped my tears away and focused on breathing.
Think Charlotte think. Who would have done this.
This was definitely not a case of some random kidnapping for ransom; those messages Jennifer was recieving are a proof that it was all planned by someone, for whatever reason.
But what was the reason and who is behind this?
"I have some people in my suspect list." I quietly said to everyone.
Zack's head snapped in my direction. "Who are they?! Tell me!" He desperately asked.
"Hailey and Ashley. And maybe that Dylan guy." I replied.
"Eric had told me about a little fight Hailey and Jennifer had when he stepped in. Hailey had told that Jennifer will pay for what she did to her." Max shared.
"And Alexander was once telling me how Jennifer had ended her friendship with Ashley the day we all had dropped her off at school for the first time after we had kidnapped her." Zack muttered.
"And the cafeteria incident, when Ashley told Jennifer that she hates her." Liam added.
"What about Dylan?" Damien asked.
"Dylan is Hailey's brother. He must have helped his sister, I mean, I remember that day, it was your soccer match, Damien, when the two of them had pulled Jennifer in a classroom. Dylan had grabbed her throat while that Hailey was trying to snip off her hair." Zack said and looked at me.
"Dylan and Hailey's parents are powerful people indeed." I said.
"The two witches, Hailey and Ashley, were constantly trying to bully Jennifer, though she never paid attention to them." I balled my fists.
"But I still think that their motive is not that strong to kidnap Jen." Max shook his head.
"I agree." Liam stated.
"Maybe someone is doing this for money. I mean, thanks to the media, everyone knows who Jennifer and Max's parents were. And that all the property and money would soon be theirs so-" Liam started but I cut him off.
"No. I believe this is not the case."
"Why not, Charlotte?" Damien asked.
"If what Liam is saying is true, then why would they send those messages to Jennifer? If I recall correctly, Jennifer told me that the messages were threatening to snatch everything away from her life. From Jennifer's life. It has something personal to do with Jennifer specifically." I shared and everyone in the room seemed to be lost in their own thoughts.
I noticed how Celine had been so quiet in all this while. And a part of my heart is telling me that she has something to do with this.
She's def behind this.
I think so too. But why would she do this?
She hates you and Jennifer. She might have been jealous of how rich and powerful Jennifer suddenly became. Maybe it's her who threatened to snatch everything from Jennifer's life and then got her kidnapped.
That's very much plausible.
And remember how you always thought that she was never kidnapped. Maybe, just maybe, she willingly let herself being kidnapped for whatever reason, I mean, she wasn't hurt in the slightest when she had returned.
Maybe she is in some way connected to the people who kidnapped Jen.
Right.
But how will I prove this to the others, especially Damien. And also, she's pregnant. No one would want to believe it's her.
That's exactly why it's so simple for her to do this.
Yeah. She has a motive. She also has the advantage that no one would doubt her and also, she might have some connection to those people.
Exactly Charlotte!
*****
Jennifer's POV:
I have no idea how long it's been since they locked me here.
You dumbo, it's night, the little light that was lighting this room through that missing brick in the wall is gone.
Just like my hopes.
Stop being dramatic. It's not even been a full day.
So, there is not one but three rats here in this room. My only company in this dark room.
A company I'd rather not have.
Being in this room hurts me more mentally than it does physically. I am hungry and I need water. I'd stopped crying some time ago. This tape is still sealed on my mouth, no one would hear me anyway.
How would Zack be right now?
And Max?
And Charlotte? Damien and Liam?
I really want to just go back home and jump in Zack's arms. Cuddle up in his bed with him. Talk to him, laugh with him, smile at him. I want to hear him. I want to be with him.
The metal door opened wide and someone walked in.
Gage.
The ugly roach.
He closed the door behind him and slowly started approaching me. He bend down in front of me.
It was hard to see him in the dark, and that was the most frightening thing.
He seemed to take out his phone, turned on the flashlight and directed it right at my eyes. I quickly shut my eyes and he laughed.
He then kept his phone on the floor, screen down so that the flashlight was lighting up the dark room.
He grabbed my hair with one hand and my throat with the other. I stared at him with wide pleading eyes as he just smirked.
"What happened to your pretty mouth? Why aren't you saying anything now?" He asked.
"Oh sorry, it's taped." He laughed again.
He then very harshly ripped it off from my mouth, making me wince.
"Please, l-let me go." I pleaded, my voice hoarse.
"Ha Ha Ha. No." He deadpanned.
"Hey! That rhymed!" He grinned.
I so wanted to roll my eyes at him.
He roughly grabbed my cheeks between his thumb and fingers and gave me a dead look. "I am given the duty to torture you. So, tell me, how should I do that?"
I didn't say anything.
"Alright then.... Here we go." He raised his hand in the air before swinging it back down towards my face, making a hard contact with my skin as he slapped me.
He pulled me up to my feet by grabbing my hair, lifelessly staring down at me.
I started crying and pleading at him to stop but he was just laughing and enjoying my misery.
He pushed me away from himself and I landed on the floor on my face, as my hands were still tied.
I noticed blood on the floor. My nose was bleeding.
He then started kicking me mercilessly, on my legs, my stomach, my chest.
He then stopped and kept his dirty shoe on my cheek, pressing my face more onto the floor.
"You called me an ugly roach, right? Now see what I turn you into." He said and the next thing I registered before passing out was his shoe connecting with my nose as he kicked my face.
*****
Charlotte's POV:
"Eat something guys." I pleaded to Max and Zack who were stubbornly declining dinner.
"I am not hungry." Max emotionlessly said.
"Neither am I." Zack mumbled.
I sighed and gave up on trying to make them eat.
"Guys." Max suddenly cried, his blue eyes filling up with tears.
"Max? What happened?" Liam asked his best friend.
"I am having this weird feeling as if, as if, Jennifer is hurt... I can feel the pain." A tear rolled down from his eyes as he got up from his seat and went to his room.
His cries were loud enough for us to hear in the living room.
"No! Please tell me she's not!" Zack asked us in desperation. His eyes were starting to tear up too.
"Remember how on the night we had kidnapped Charlotte, Jennifer was having this same feeling about Max and then... " Liam didn't complete his sentence as Zack got up and left.
He started banging on Max's room door, trying to talk to him.
"Everything was going great until 2 weeks ago, before Coco's-"
"2 Weeks!" I suddenly exclaimed.
"Coco was killed two weeks ago! And Jennifer told me that she had received the first threatening message two weeks ago! On the day Coco was killed! I think Coco's murder is connected with this!" Hearing me, Zack came back again.
"So that means, the person who killed Coco is behind Jennifer's kidnapping?" Liam asked.
"Most likely!"
"We should inform the police!" Liam suggested.
"They haven't done anything to find Coco's killer... And still haven't found Rose and Matthew.. " Zack mumbled
"But that doesn't mean they won't find Jennifer!"
"I have a better idea." Max showed up, wiping his tears by his sweater's sleeve.
"The mafia! Dad's mafia! They will find my sister!" He looked at all of us.
Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Celine lightly tense up.
"Why didn't we think of that before?!" Zack yelled and picked up Liam's phone from the table and dialled a number.
"Isabella?" Zack called out.