CHAPTER TWO
Nick’s POV
When I heard the gun shots I had dropped to the ground behind drum kit. Jack fell beside me breathing heavily and I knew that he was almost as scared as I was. Almost. I squeezed my eyes shut, not wanting to see what was happening. What kind of people shot up concerts? Especially concerts with so many young people in attendance. Then it happened. I felt myself being dragged to my feet by my hair and I opened my eyes. It was painful and I cried out, but as I reached my full height a nasty whisper made my blood run cold. “Shut up,” a man’s voice said and I felt cold metal press against my right temple. I gulped. I knew what it was without looking to the side to verify. An arm snaked its way across my waist, holding me firmly and then I was moving, more like being moved. I wanted to struggle but it might get people hurt. I just let them pull from the auditorium. The man holding me stood in front of the rest as we moved, using me as a human shield. I was terrified. Terrified that they were gonna shoot me and leave me on the side of the road once I got them out of the building. They didn’t. Instead they threw me into a minivan with tinted windows. I crashed into the side hard, hitting my head against the window as the men dressed in black climbed in all around me. As soon as the door was shut the car started moving. A pair of hands grabbed me and pulled my arms behind my back, binding my wrists something that cut into my skin, maybe fishing line or some sort of wire. While my wrists were being tied, someone wrapped a dark cloth over my eyes, blindfolding me. Then I felt something sticky press over my mouth. Tape. They’d really covered everything. The ride was silent, as I couldn’t speak and no one else seemed to have anything to say.
I don’t know how long I was in the van, I was too numb with fear to even think about it. Why me? Why just me? I didn’t want to be alone, as selfish as it sounded, I wanted Kevin and Joe. I didn’t like the way the restraints were digging in to my skin, causing my wrists to chafe and bleed slightly. I didn’t like that I couldn’t speak, that I couldn’t cry out, I didn’t like that silent tears were soaking the blindfold that was stealing my sight…I didn’t like that the one thing I had taken for granted, my freedom, was being taken away from me.
Joe’s POV
I gulped as I lay in bed that night. The police were outside of our house, making sure to monitor anything that happened. Kevin was in my room, on my floor, out like a light from the sleeping pills he’d stolen from our mother when she wasn’t looking. He’d offered me some but I didn’t take them. Nick was in trouble and I was scared for him. I’d watched them take him, be so rough with him, pulling him by his hair, putting that gun to his head…he’d looked so terrified, it made my blood run cold. He was just a kid…how could anyone be so horrible to a kid? Especially a kid like Nick. I’d prayed…at least a thousand times that he was alright, that someone was watching over him, that he wasn’t as alone as he seemed but the prospects didn’t seem good. There had been at least six men, each with a fully loaded gun and a ski mask…Why did they take him? Were they hurting him? Was it worse then that? I didn’t want to think about it, but nothing could calm me. I looked at my night stand…at the sleeping pills. They looked so inviting, but I wanted to be awake in case there was any word on Nick’s condition.
“No…no donhurim…” Kevin mumbled in his sleep and rolled over, the blanket that he had twisting around his body as he did so. I don’t know how he was comfortable on that floor…he.ll, maybe he wasn’t, but he was asleep and that was more than I could say for myself. “No…please…take me instead.” He moved again, his voice a little louder this time and I knew that he was dreaming about Nick. Did he feel as guilty as I did? Like there was something that he could have done? Should have done to protect our little brother? Wasn’t that our job? I felt like I should have jumped from where I was, crouched behind one of the amps, I should I have begged them to leave Nick alone, to take me instead…it may not have done anything, but I should have tried. Kevin was feeling the same way…I think. He cried out, something about not pulling the trigger and I couldn’t take it anymore…I reached over and took the pills, swallowing both of them dry. I listened to Kevin’s nightmare for a bit longer and then I too fell in to a medicated sleep.
Nick’s POV
The van stopped and I heard doors opening. I guess people were getting out of the car but I couldn’t see them…so I didn’t know. I felt hands, strong, big hands closing over my right bicep. They pulled me from the van roughly and I fell to my knees outside of it, but they pulled my up by the neck of my shirt. I didn’t know where I was, I just remained limp while they dragged me across…I don’t even know what, grass? Maybe a lawn? I heard a door open and I was pulled inside of a house. I stumbled as I tripped on something, but they held me strong, keeping me from falling…I wish they’d just let me stay down. I heard the creaking of footsteps throughout the house and I knew that there were several people in this building, whatever it was. I tried to regulate my breathing as the man holding me pulled me further and further away from everything that I knew. Then I was stopped. The blindfold was pulled from my eyes and the tape ripped from my mouth. I suppressed a cry as the pain from the tape being removed passed quickly. I was at the top of a flight of stairs, was I supposed to walk down them? “I…” I began, unsure of what to do.
“Shut up.” The man grabbed me just below my elbow and threw me down the stairs. I’d fallen down stairs before, but I’d never been thrown down them, and I couldn’t hold back a whimper of pain as I hit the ground at the bottom…hard, my head crashing against something. Then the edges of my vision blurred, and everything went dark.
