Waking up much later in a familiar room which I soon realised to be Max's, I slowly tried to sit up, groaning at the ache in my stomach.
Damn that Zack.
Max was sitting on the edge of the bed as he stared down at the floor, seeming to be lost in his own thoughts.
"Max?"
His head turned up to look at me as soon as my voice reached his ears. He tried to give me a fake smile but the guilty look in his glossy eyes helped me to see right through it. He himself was adorning a forming bruise on his jaw along with a bandaged nose.
The band aid having cat prints over it couldn't escape my observation.
"Jennifer, your face..." He gulped as he looked away in shame, clenching his fists tightly.
"Is it that bad that you can't even look at me?" I tried to joke to lighten up his mood but it didn't seem to work.
"Max?" I called out his name again.
The tears in his eyes were more prominent this time as his irises met mine.
"I am so sorry that you had to go through that-" He started in a shaky voice but I gently interrupted him.
"It's not your fault, Max. Please, don't blame yourself. If anything, you saved me from the hot headed panda." I smiled at him, chuckling later at my nickname for Zack. Seeing me laugh so freely, a smile soon overtook his features too, this time genuine.
"They are at the hospital." Max said after a minute of silence.
My eyes widened, "What?! Who?"
"All three of them. I choked Zack and he passed out. He was quite bruised and was bleeding so they took him to the hospital." He glumly confessed.
"Oh my god! Why would you do that?" With furrowed eyebrows, I asked him, trying to get a peek at his face but he just turned away from me.
"Are you really asking me for the reason? Get some rest and I'll drop you at your house." He sighed, running a hand through his dark hair.
"What? You guys are releasing me?" I tilted my head in a mix of confusion and bewilderment.
"I am."
"Why are you doing this for me? Aren't they your friends?" His eyes met mine again and the deep confliction swirling in those ocean blue eyes seemed to be drowning me in them.
"I don't know, Jennifer." He whispered, gazing at me for answers I definitely did not have. "IÂ felt an immediate connection with you. I don't know why but you are like a part of me. Like a lost family." He said softly, like a lost child trying to find his home.
The thing about the connection; I felt that too. As if I am somehow connected to him. It's like our relationship runs much deeper than that of just strangers, acquiantances or even friends.
But how can that be when I haven't ever even met him before this?
"Aren't you afraid that I may go to the police?"
He was silent for a few moments, thinking about the situation we were in. "You have the right to but I can't see you get tortured here. Zack is doing the same thing to you as they are doing to Celine."
"Who is Celine?" I caught onto the slip of the new name that left his mouth.
Max's eyes widened a fraction and he looked like he spilled out information that he wasn't supposed to.
"No one. Just get some rest, Okay?" He got up and hurriedly left the room, leaving me alone to indulge in my own thoughts.
I noticed that there was a tray of food kept on the table beside my bed along with a glass of water and some painkillers.
He really cares for me a whole lot than he should.
There were so many things running through my mind that I didn't even know which thought to focus on most.
It was my first day of being kidnapped and already so much had happened.
*****
I woke up the next day with the sunlight blinding me as it fell on my face. Sitting up straight on my bed, I tried to untangle the knots in my hair before throwing the covers off of myself.
I stood up to take a look at my reflection in the mirror and almost screamed out in horror. I looked like total shit with a purple eye and bruised cheek. My face looked like a horrible canvas painting with shades of red and purple blending with my skin colour.
I was still staring at my horrible reflection when I heard yelling from outside, instantly recognising the voices of Max and Zack.
I opened the door of the room to venture outside to see what the commotion was about.
Zack was grabbing Max's collar as he had him pinned to the wall. In his eyes was an unspoken fury, which was enough to drown anyone in its doom.
"What's going on?"
Oh how I wish I hadn't said that.
Can't I just disappear in air. Like melt down and evaporate in vapours? Or just simply disappear. Can't the ground swallow me? Can't aliens come and pick me up in their space ship because the look Zack gave me had me shivering.
He let go of Max and started walking towards me instead. As a reflex, I started walking backwards until my back met the wall.
Way to get yourself trapped, Jennifer.
Zack smirked at me, looking satisfied with the beautiful piece of art he had turned my face into. How can someone look like an angel and act like the devil? It's actually amusing to be honest.
"We sent the video to your parents." He casually stated.
"...What did they say?" I hesitantly asked, eyeing him warily.
"Haven't seen it yet. Busy people, I see." He scoffed.
"They don't see my texts for days..."
"So I'll just call them again."
"You want your ears to bleed again?"
Zack barked out a laugh, "Aren't you scared of me?" The previous rage in his eyes was washed away and overtaken by amusement as he let his eyes roam over at me.
"I have already seen your worst. The more bad you can cause me is death..." I felt so dramatic saying that. Almost like a main character of a silly story.
"You are weird, very weird. But you're kinda entertaining too."
"Is that supposed to be a compliment?"
"Perhaps."
I would've actually fallen for his handsome looks if he wasn't such an arrogant monster. The way his lips tilt up to form that devilish smirk and that evil mischief in his light brown eyes is something which could have been endearing if his personality wasn't shitty.
As I was still busy grazing over his pleasant features, I failed to notice when he had come so close to me that now he was pressed up against me, trapping me between the wall and himself.
"Get away from her!" Max warned from behind us, hands clenching into tight fists while he glared holes into Zack's head.
"Relax, will you?" Zack calmly replied, eyes still staring intensely into mine.
He put his hands on my waist, causing me to shiver. Leaning closer, he parted his lips to speak as his silky voice sounded out, "You aren't going home so soon darling."
I put my hands on his chest, trying to create distance between us because he surely wasn't taught anything about personal space. "I didn't say I was."
Before he could reply back to me, Max had already pulled him away, even going as far as to stand between us when he noticed my discomfort.
"What has happened to you, Max? You were never like this." Zack scolwed at the black haired boy standing protectively in front of me.
"You are doing exactly to Jennifer what you don't want to happen to Celine. That leaves no difference between you and them."
"Don't talk about her, Max."Damien threatened with his cold, deep voice.
His expression was now turned intimidating, daring Max to talk any further.
"I will because this is all about her. It's not Jennifer's fault that they took her!" Max yelled in exasperation.
"I swear Max.. If you talk about Celine again, I will do something to you that I will most likely regret later." Damien's green eyes glared murderously at Max which succeeded in making him falter. There was something about Damien that made all the other guys not want to fight him. When he talked, all the other boys backed out and so did Max.
The ringing of my phone cut through the tense atmosphere, giving all of us a small sense of relief.
Zack sighed and picked up, putting it on speaker for all of us to hear.
"Hello?"
"What is this video? Where is Jennifer? What have you done to her?" Dad demanded immediately.
"I told you that I wasn't joking. We have kidnapped your daughter and if you want her alive, pay us 10 million dollars." The brown haired boy said monotonously.
"It was 5 million last time?!" Dad snapped.
"So? It's 10 now." Zack shrugged nonchalantly.
"10 million dollars for that girl? Are you crazy? We don't have that much money!" Mom added in.
"If you want her alive-"
"No."
"What?" Zack was taken aback, eyes narrowing at the device.
"We don't want her. We actually wanted to get rid of her. Good thing you did that for us." Mom said in a snarky tone, making my eyes go wide.
WHAT IN THE MOTHER FISHING FISH?! She wasn't serious, was she?
"Wh-what?" Zack stuttered out in surprise.
"What what? We aren't paying a penny for her. She isn't even our daughter in the first place. She is adopted. You may tell this to her before killing her."
"Are you serious right now?!" Zack yelled, tightening his hold on my cell phone as if wanting to crush it to shreds.
"Rose, let me handle it." Dad said to mom.
"What is there to handle in it? You are not paying 10 million dollars for her." The woman argued back.
"We can't just let her die!" Dad retorted.
"Why not? No one here knows we have a daughter. It's not a problem. She was just a burden anyway." Mom said in the most uninterested tone.
"Yeah, but still-"
"Matthew. I said no. Don't call us again, Okay?"
Zack aggressively hung up and threw the phone on the couch, running a hand through his hair as he mumbled some colourful curses.
Everyone now stared from the thrown phone on the couch to me, making me feel even worse than I was already feeling.
I was adopted.
That explains why I don't look anything like my parents... Parents, can I even call them that now?
They were the people who took care of me ever since I was a small girl. And now they don't even care if I am dead or alive? They wanted to get rid of me? I was a burden so why did they adopt me?
They weren't on a business trip, they had settled down there, wherever they were.
My mind was still in a stupor of shock, having a delayed reaction to the indifferent words spoken recently. I looked down as I thought over my mother's words, trying my hardest not to cry in front of my kidnappers.
Ignoring their judging stares, I let my feet carry me towards the basement of this house. I didn't look up once to see their reactions as I continued on my tour to locking myself up in the basement.
Only when I was sure that I was out of the spotlight did I let myself be drowned in the desolate thoughts of self pity.
I just felt so unwanted in this world all of a sudden.
I had no where to call home now. No one to call mom and dad.
I had nothing.