Chapter Fourteen: Emma and Will

A/N: You guys are absolutely the best fans ever. I love reading your comments and hearing what you have to say. Your comments and votes make my day, even when it's -13 degrees outside and I'm curled up in bed because I don't want to leave my cave/room. I love you guys!

Anyhoo, enjoy! =)

***

Kidnap My Heart

Chapter 14: Emma and Will

Emma

Honestly, when I got the idea to “haunt” Will, I never thought he would take it this seriously. I mean, he was a grown man, for Christ’s sake. How was I supposed to know he was a total pansy when it came to the supernatural stuff?

I would’ve never imagined myself in a situation like this, yet there I stood, observing Will’s unconscious figure lying on the bathroom floor. I’d hoped he would be the one to find my message, not Eric or Taylor, and my prayers had been answered. I had a feeling Eric would see through my ruse, but Will wasn’t quite as bright as his brother.

I was momentarily surprised by how peaceful and harmless he looked. His black eye was starting to become less noticeable, as were most of his bruises, so he looked less like Frankenstein’s monster and more like a cute guy, as Taylor would say. His dark brown hair had a bad case of bed head, but it didn’t necessarily look bad. And his body. Let me tell you—I had no complaints. I was just going to leave it at that before I ventured into Taylor territory. In completely different circumstances, I would’ve thought he was hot. Not just hot. Offensively hot. Too bad he just so happened to be an asshole.

I guess I could have done something to help him out and fix the damage I’d done, but where was the fun in that? Instead, I went back inside my safe haven, laughing at the thought of Will’s fear. I wished I’d been able to see the look on his face when he heard my creepy whispering, but if his walkie talkie had transmitted anything to me, he wouldn’t have been able to hear any of my whispering, and that just wouldn’t do. I had, however, heard one of his shouts and then, of course, the girly scream he’d let out when he saw my second message on the bathroom mirror. I would take the girly scream over nothing any day of the week.

Emma: 4

Will: 2

A few minutes after I retreated back into the safety of my hiding place, the door opened, creaking in the silence, and I heard Taylor scream, “Eric!”

I crawled back into the crevice for the millionth time that week—seriously, this was getting old—slowly making my way into the walls. Better safe than sorry.

Heavy footsteps were heard and then Eric’s voice rang throughout the room. “Oh, shit. Will. Buddy. Speak to me, man.” Slap. “Come on, wake up, dude.” Slap.

I rolled my eyes. What a drama queen. Will had had a small panic attack and passed out. That was all. It wasn’t the end of the world or anything.

“What if—w-what if it was the ghost?” Taylor asked, her voice quivering.

“We’re not even going to go there right now. There is no ghost.” See? I’d totally called it. Eric wasn’t dumb enough to buy into Will’s haunting. Eric’s attention then refocused on Will and he said, “Will, wake up. There’s nothing here. I, uh, chased the ghost out with some holy water and salt.” Slap.

That last slap seemed to do the trick. I heard Will splutter all of a sudden, and then he was breathing loudly and heavily, so loud I could hear him perfectly through the wall. “Am I… am I dead?”

“No. You passed out.”

“Are you sure? I feel dead. Is this heaven?” Will paused. “I hope not. This looks like our bathroom.”

“That’s because it is our bathroom. Let’s just get you back to your room.”

“No!” His reply was fervent and immediate, and it was music to my ears. The seed of doubt had been planted. He would never fully let it go unless he found out it was just me, of course, and even then he’d want to hear it from my own mouth to make sure. At least, that was what I assumed from what I’d seen of his emotional breakdown thus far. “I can’t go back there. I can’t run.”

I actually had to place my hand over my mouth at this point to stifle my laughter. Oh, God, this was good. This was too good. Sweet, sweet revenge—I loved it.

“Then you can sleep on the couch.”

“The ghost has been there too,” Will said. His voice had turned into a whisper.

“Jesus Christ…” Eric’s tone made me think he’d officially lost his patience, and I didn’t blame him. “You can sleep in my room. Let’s go.”

I guess Will was alright with this because the next thing I heard was the slamming of the door. I waited about thirty seconds before bursting with laughter. “Oh, my God,” I said, stumbling out of the walls and back into the room, still laughing as I sat down. “What a loser.”

Considering I was an eighteen year old girl who’d just been kidnapped by two bumbling imbeciles, you’d probably assume I spent my nights crying myself to sleep. This was not the case, especially not that night. That night, I actually laughed myself to sleep. Yes. One minute I was laughing, the next I was conked out. I guess you could say I cried with laughter, but that wasn’t really the same thing.

I woke up to Will and Eric conversing in the bathroom. At first, my groggy, half-asleep brain couldn’t comprehend why they were both in there at the same time. Did they have no sense of privacy? Then reality set in and I realized they were probably just using the mirror. I guess they’d cleaned up my lovely little message. Too bad. I could’ve had another laugh if they’d left it.

I quickly slipped back into the walls. I had become a pro at that. I had to do it every time someone came in, just in case they decided to check that stupid room, which did happen a few times.

“I don’t need to deal with this shit,” Will said. “First I have to deal with rage, and now I’m being haunted? This is ridiculous.”

Look who’s finally owning up to his anger issues. What a proud moment this must be for you, Squilliam. I nearly snorted with laughter. I wasn’t sure where that nickname had come from, but oh, my God, was it awesome.

“Speaking of rage,” Eric began. “I was talking to Taylor this morning, and she hasn’t heard anything from her. I mean, if she’s still here—”

“Of course she’s still here. My bed didn’t saran wrap itself.”

Wait. Will hadn’t been referring to his anger issues when he’d said he had to deal with rage—this wasn’t too surprising, really, considering his arrogant attitude. He’d been referring to me. I was Rage.

Apparently, my new nickname was one of the many things I’d missed in my absence. It just went to show how often these guys talked about me. Will’s life revolved around me and his fear of ghosts. What a pitiful life he lived.

“Will you let me finish?” Eric sighed melodramatically. He must have been a theater geek. “If she’s still here, why hasn’t she contacted Taylor or tried anything? This would be the perfect escape, but she hasn’t tried anything.”

Because you’re always with Taylor, you plague.

“I don’t know. I just know she’s here. Who knows what she’s planning in her twisted little head? I don’t even want to know.”

I tuned them out after that, lost in my own thoughts. I suppose it did look a bit strange. But maybe it was best if I waited. They were waiting for me to attempt an escape, which meant they would be prepared to stop me. I didn’t want that. I wanted our escape to be foolproof; I wanted to know I wasn’t making things worse for both Taylor and me by attempting an escape.

The shutting of the door snapped me out of my thoughts, and the next time someone spoke, it was Eric. I guess only Will had left. “Is Will out there?”

At first, there was no answer, leading me to think he was the crazy one and was talking to himself, but eventually Taylor answered his question. I could almost feel my heart constricting in my chest. God, I needed human interaction. I needed my best friend. “No, he went upstairs.”

I raised an eyebrow. No stuttering. A giant pause, sure, but no stuttering.

“Good. Did you get a whiff of the message on the wall?”

Another pause. “What?”

“The message. Did you smell it?”

“Um… why would I smell it?”

“Because it wasn’t blood. It looked scarily similar, but it wasn’t blood. It was some weird mix of gel and Pomegranate.”

Honestly, I was less worried about the fact that Eric had seen right through my ruse and more worried about the fact that his first instinct had been to smell the wall to test the blood’s legitimacy. Obviously genetics had given the Knight brothers good looks and not much else.

“But why would you sniff it?”

“That’s not the point here.” I could almost imagine him rolling her eyes at her comment. “Ghosts weren’t behind Will’s haunting last night. Emma was.”

“I knew it,” Taylor said, a joyous tone overtaking her voice. “I knew there was something fishy about this!”

There was a moment of silence, and then Eric spoke. “I told you she wouldn’t leave you. Not after what you did for her. You’re only stuck here because you tried to save her.”

“Yeah, and look where that got me,” she muttered, her tone lowering in a matter of seconds. “I’m an idiot.”

“You’re loyal. There’s a difference.”

“Are you two finished yet? I don’t want to take too long. Rage might pull another prank,” Will yelled from some other room in the house.

Oh, you bet I will, Squilliam. I snorted at the nickname.

“Did you hear that?” Eric asked.

Taylor’s reply was immediate. “I have to pee.”

“Er—okay.” His footsteps retreated, and I heard the door shut behind him.

I didn’t hear anything at first. A good thirty seconds passed in utter silence, and then the toilet was flushed. I heard Taylor’s voice soon after, and it sounded like she was right next to me. “Emma?” she whispered.

I debated whether or not I should risk detection and decided to hell with it. Taylor needed to know I was here and perfectly okay. “Yeah?” I whispered back.

She burst into incredulous laughter. “Oh, my God.”

“Shh… they’ll hear you,” I hissed.

Her voice lowered immediately. “Eric trusts me. He’s probably upstairs.” She spoke in a regular voice next. “Eric?”

We waited a few seconds. No response.

“See?” she asked, although she kept whispering, anyway. “Where are you? You’re not in that room, are you?”

“No.”

“Are you—are you in the walls?”

“Yes.”

“How in the world—”

“No time to explain,” I whispered. “But I’m here and I’m okay and that’s all you need to worry about. Now go before they think you have diarrhea.”

She giggled and turned on the faucet. The next time I heard her quiet voice, I was sure she was standing right next to me. “We’re going to the grocery store. I have to dress like a man. They have a wig.” Oh, my God. “Any requests?”

“Edible food and tampons,” I replied in an equally quiet voice.

“Got it.” With that, she turned off the faucet and left the room.

It was like I could feel the metaphorical weight on my shoulders lifting. Taylor knew where we stood, and I had a better sense of what I’d missed while I was gone. Most importantly, I knew planning an escape at that moment would be futile. This was not the moment. When the moment arose, I would know. I had to.

***

Will

“Why the fuck are you buying so much salt?” Eric asked.

I turned around; I’d been caught red-handed. There really was no excuse you could give for attempting to buy fifteen salt containers. “Hibernation?”

“It’s not winter, Will.”

I sighed in defeat. “Fine. I read somewhere that salt fends off ghosts and demons and shit.”

Sniffles actually had the nerve to snort.

“Do you have something to say?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at her.

She quickly shook her head. The fact that this made her hippie-hair swish almost made me laugh. We’d made her disguise herself as a male hippie to avoid suspicion. Looking back, I guess that wasn’t the most discreet disguise we could’ve gone with, but whatever.

I turned my attention back to Eric. “Do they sell holy water here?”

“You don’t buy holy water. You have water blessed by a priest and it becomes holy water. It’s not something you look for in a store.”

“Damn it.” I grabbed the nearest gallon of water and shoved it in our cart. It joined my ten salt containers. “Can we stop by a priest or something on the way?”

Eric then proceeded to be a douche and take out all but two of my salt containers.

“Hey!” I snapped. “What are you doing?”

“Saving our wallets. We have other things to buy.”

“Do you want me to die?”

“Salt isn’t going to save you.”

My face went pale. “What’s that supposed to mean? I’m just supposed to let it go and let that ghost kill me?”

He let out a deep breath. “No. I’m saying salt isn’t going to save you because there’s no fucking ghost.”

Taylor jabbed Eric in the gut.

I raised an eyebrow at that but said nothing on the subject. “I wouldn’t expect you to say anything different. You’re a nonbeliever.”

“Two is enough. Let’s go.”

I looked at the salt wistfully but decided Eric was right. It was a lot of money, and what if salt didn’t actually work? I needed to switch things up. “Fine… Do we have any iron at home?”

“Jesus Christ…”

The rest of our trip to the grocery store went a lot like this. I tried to grab a lot of things that looked like they would protect me from a supernatural death, and Eric called me something insulting and took whatever I grabbed out of the shopping cart. I managed to sneak a few of my saving graces back in, but not as many as I would’ve liked. I was screwed.

“We should go to an antique shop,” I said. “Or a pawn shop.”

“So we can buy some ancient item that’s actually haunted? No, thanks.” Eric’s attention shifted from me to Taylor in a matter of seconds. “What are you doing? What’s that?”

Taylor lifted up the two boxes. “Tampons. What else?”

“Sniffles.” I looked at her incredulously. “We can’t buy that.”

“Why not?”

“We are men,” I said, shaking my head in disgust. “We have reputations to uphold. We can’t be seen buying tampons.”

For a moment, I saw some of Emma come out in her best friend, and I was surprised, to say the least. “And I’m a girl. We get periods. I can’t not have tampons.”

“Shh.” I slapped a hand over her mouth. “Someone could hear you! You’re Sniffles the Hippie, remember?”

She just nodded her head.

After a moment of internal debate, I made a decision I knew I would regret later. “Put the tampons in the cart. We’re leaving now.”

She just nodded again. I was still covering her mouth. Whoops. After I let go, she threw the tampon boxes in the cart and walked over to the cashier with us. If we’d attempted to leave the house like this with Emma, we would’ve lost her for sure. I was glad Taylor was Emma’s polar opposite; it made our lives a lot easier. I wasn’t sure what we would’ve done if we’d had to deal with two Rages.

After paying for our groceries and tampons—and receiving a few stares for the tampons—we left the store. I tried to convince Eric to stop at a church, but he refused. “Dude, we’re with the girl we kidnapped. I don’t think God wants us stepping in his territory right now.”

“Look at her. She’s not hurt. She’s not scared. Are you scared?”

Sniffles didn’t answer immediately. “I’m not scared, but I’m not not-scared.”

“Good enough for me,” I said.

“We’re not stopping, so don’t even bother.”

“Damn it.”

Knowing he meant what he said, I let it go and shifted the conversation. I lost track of everything we talked about on the way home, and Taylor actually contributed to the conversation for once. I think she was starting to realize we had no interest in hurting her. Apart from her initial spurt of bravery, the spurt that made us take her in the first place, she’d been pretty quiet and submissive. I had no problem with her.

When we got home, we each grabbed a bag and helped each other put all of the groceries away. I looked around for a sign of Emma’s presence, but I couldn’t find anything. There’s no way she didn’t pull any shit while I was gone. Absolutely no way.

No, I knew Emma. There had to be something. I went upstairs, keeping my eyes peeled for any dangerous booby traps she’d set up. I wouldn’t put anything past her.

I looked pretty much everywhere, but I didn’t find anything until I went to my room later that day after taking a shower. When I grabbed a pair of pants to change into and shoved my legs through, I couldn’t find the opening and fell on my face trying to shove my leg all the way through.

As it turned out, the cuffs of my pants had been stapled together—all of them had been stapled together. Where the fuck had she found a stapler? “Damn it, Rage,” I yelled, pulling my pants off and shoving them aside. Taking out those stupid little shits would take forever!

“Screw that,” I muttered. I didn’t need pants. I had plenty of shorts.

As it turned out, the openings of those had also been stapled together. I was just glad she hadn’t touched my boxers. I had a feeling she wouldn’t have gone through that drawer if I’d paid her.

Whatever. I didn’t need pants or shorts. I was at home, after all, and I had no problem walking around in my boxers for the rest of the day. It was what I slept in, after all. It didn’t matter if there was a girl around—two, technically. We just didn’t know where the second one was.

I grabbed my laptop off of my desk and threw it on the bed. Now that we weren’t allowed to leave the house unless we really needed to—buying necessities was one of the only things that counted—life was pretty boring. It sounded ridiculous, and it was something I would never admit out loud, but I kind of missed Emma. Not because my hatred of her had magically disappeared or anything dumb like that, but because she at least brought some excitement to my dull life. It wasn’t exactly a good thing, but it wasn’t exactly a bad thing. It seemed better than boredom at that moment, at least.

I typed in my password—literally password. I was such a genius—and impatiently waited for it to load. I looked away for one second, and when I looked back, I saw Emma’s face. Not her face in real life. Her face on my computer. She’d taken selfies on my computer.

To anyone else, it would have looked like a normal selfie—she had one of those open-mouthed grins on her face that girls liked to use for pictures. But I could see the evil glint in her eye. She was taunting me. She was flaunting her cleverness in my face.

Yet I couldn’t stop looking at her picture, because damn it, she was gorgeous. She obviously had no access to makeup in this house and was going all-natural, but she didn’t even need makeup. She was already beautiful. I wanted to find her ugly, but I couldn’t. At least not realistically. My attraction to her was what had gotten me into trouble several times already, but I had a feeling it was something I would never actually shake. Besides—who didn’t like a good challenge?

***

So... Remember when I said I looked up creepy audio clips last night? Yeah, I dreamt a serial rapist was chasing after me and some other girl. No big deal or anything... Just... Never again.

On a brighter note.... I love Will. :D So much. So cute and so stupid. :')