“Casey!” I screamed into the phone, my eyes wide in terror. “Casey!”

“Holly! What’s—” Casey’s voice suddenly disappeared and was replaced with an irritatingly familiar one.

“I expect you here in about fifteen minutes,” Shawn said simply.

I swallowed nervously. “Don’t hurt Casey!”

“I won’t, as long as you get here on time,” Shawn said casually. “I’ll be waiting.”

There was a click and I looked down at my phone to see the call had ended. I turned to Jeremy, my mouth open in horror. He looked just as terrified as I did. Jeremy suddenly jammed his hand into his pocket, whipping out his phone.

“Jenna, come grab Jane and come to the front of the baked potato stand,” he said into his phone in a rushed voice. “Right now.” He snapped his phone shut and turned to me. “Do you have any idea where Shawn would be?”

I nodded my head. “He said where we first met. That would be the warehouse you took me to.”

“That’s close,” Jeremy commented, checking his phone. “It’s only about ten minutes away.”

“Ten minutes?” I cried shrilly. “Shawn wants me there in fifteen or he’ll hurt Casey! We’ve got to go now!”

Jeremy’s looked hardened. “He gave you a time limit?”

“Yeah,” I responded, feeling my eyes filling with tears. “I have to go, now!”

Someone put a hand on my shoulder and I jumped violently, turning to see a worried Lance looking at me. When he noticed my expression, his concern doubled. “What’s wrong?”

“Shawn has Casey,” I told him miserably.

“He what?” Lance nearly shouted. “How? When? Where?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know how or when! I do know where, and I’m going there now. Give me your car keys.”

Lance stared at me like I was crazy. “You’re not going anywhere! That’s too dangerous!”

“It’s more dangerous for Casey if I don’t go!”

“Why would Shawn so suddenly go after Casey?” Lance inquired, furrowing his eyebrows. “He’s been quiet for so long.”

I shifted on my feet uncomfortably. “Well… earlier I got a few text messages from him. But I thought he was just messing with me,” I added quickly, seeing Lance’s expression turn livid.

Lance grabbed my shoulders and held them roughly. “Holly! Why didn’t you tell anyone?”

“I—I didn’t think it mattered,” I told him, trying to get away from his grasp. “Lance, that hurts—”

“Holly, are you stupid? If you had said something this wouldn’t have happened!” Lance snapped. “You need to learn to swallow your pride—”

“Pride?” I cried, staring at him incredulously. “Pride? You think I take pride in not telling someone that my stalker has been texting me? I wasn’t going to tell anyone to keep everyone safe, Lance!”

“That didn’t work so well, now did it?” Lance snorted, shoving me away. “You went and got Casey captured.”

I stared at Lance, hurt by his words. Tears filled my eyes again and I sniffled, rubbing my eyes with the back of the sleeve. “I didn’t know!”

I felt an arm around me and I looked up to see Jeremy frowning at Lance. “You two, calm down,” he ordered, squeezing my shoulders. “Holly, it’s not your fault. And Lance… I understand this news is coming as a shock, but don’t place the blame on Holly so easily okay? You two will end up saying things you’ll regret later if you keep it up.”

Lance stared at the ground for a moment, his fists clenched. Finally, he sighed, looking back up at me. “I’m sorry, Holly. I know it’s not your fault.”

I shook my head. “No, it is partially my fault. Now Mr. Heywood and Casey are at Shawn’s mercy. I should have texted Mr. Heywood right away.”

“He has Heywood too?” Lance gasped.

Jenna suddenly appeared in front of me, rushing towards us with Jane in tow. Jeremy brushed past me, going up to the girls and saying something to them quickly. “Lance,” Jeremy started, gaining his attention. “I need you to do me a huge favor.”

“What?”

“Bring my sisters home,” Jeremy told him. “I can trust you right? Holly and I need to go save your friend and Chris. I don’t want my little sisters coming… just in case something happens.”

A shiver went through my body at Jeremy’s words. Just in case something happens…

“No,” Lance refused, shaking his head. “I’m coming with you guys.”

“No you’re not!” Jeremy and I snapped simultaneously.

Lance looked at us in surprise, blinking furiously. “Why not?”

“You’ve already been attacked once,” I pointed out. “You’re not going to be in danger again. Please, Lance. Take Jenna and Jane home. I don’t want them coming with us either and we need to go, now.”

Lance pursed his lips at me for a few moments before letting out a sigh. “Fine. But only because I don’t want these girls going with you two either. However, I’m texting you an hour from now. And if you don’t answer, I’m calling the cops.”

I blanked at Lance’s words. The cops? What if the cops came and Mr. Heywood was still there? “Lance, no. Not the po—”

“Sounds good,” Jeremy cut me off. “Give us an hour. If you receive no reply, send the police to the old furniture workshop off King Street.”

Lance nodded. “Gotcha.”

“But Jeremy—” I protested.

Jeremy shook his head at me. “We can handle this in an hour,” he assured me. “As long as we go now. Lance, I’ll have Holly text you my mom’s address when we get in the car.”

“Okay,” Lance responded, glancing at me. “Holly… Be careful.”

I swallowed nervously, nodding my head. “You too, Lance.”

He grinned. “I’ll try not to hit any squirrels.”

Jeremy quickly grabbed my hand and began sprinting towards the exit of the festival. People gave us annoyed looks as we brushed through them. Someone people gave me wondering looks, probably taking in the look on my face. I probably looked like someone who had just witnessed a murder— I felt like I had just witnessed a murder. Luckily, Jeremy’s car was parked almost right next to the exit. We piled in and Jeremy wasted no time before peeling out of the parking lot.

While speeding down the streets Jeremy relayed to me his mom’s address, and I quickly texted Lance it. The ride to the old gang hangout felt like forever. It was silent and tense. Nerves had me drumming my fingers against my leg constantly, had my heart pounding hard, and kept my breathing uneven. Jeremy’s hands were so grasping the steering wheel so hard his knuckles were snow white.

“Holly,” Jeremy finally spoke, “our goal is just to get Casey and Chris and to escape. Nothing else.”

I swallowed, nodding my head. “Alight.” What else did Jeremy think I’d want to do? Once Mr. Heywood and Casey were safe, I’d want to get out of there as fast as possible.

“If Shawn tries to bargain with you, I want you to say no to everything,” Jeremy continued in a serious voice. “And when I say everything, I mean everything.”

“Bargain?”

Jeremy nodded. “Like, I’ll let Chris and Casey free if you stay with me.”

My eyes widened in surprise. “What? No! I would say yes to that!”

“No, you won’t,” Jeremy said firmly. “Holly, it will be pointless if we save Chris and Casey, but you get taken instead. We need to figure out how to get you all out of this.”

I clamped my mouth shut, thinking hard. What were Shawn’s plans? Was he alone? No, he couldn’t be alone. Shawn would never have been able to knock Mr. Heywood down alone. Mr. Heywood was… Mr. Heywood. Strong. Resilient. Invincible. That still didn’t help Jeremy and myself though. We needed a strong, reliable plan.

Jeremy cleared his throat. “If there’s a chance for you, Casey, and Chris to escape, I want you to take it,” he started slowly. “Even if it means leaving me behind.”

“No,” I said instantly. “No!”

“Holly, wait,” Jeremy commanded, glancing at me from the corner of his eye. “Once you guys break free, you can call the cops. If they come and find the gang and me, nothing will happen to Chris, or myself, since I’ve never been caught up in any gang trouble.”

“But we can’t leave you alone in there,” I whispered in a horrified voice. “What if they…”

Jeremy laughed. “Holly, don’t be so worried about me. I’ve got a few things up my sleeve.”

“Like what?”

“It’s a secret,” Jeremy said with a wink.

I frowned at him. Although he seemed confident, I couldn’t help but still be worried. There had to be some way to assure that Casey, Jeremy, Mr. Heywood, and myself could escape. If worse came to worse, I would bargain with Shawn. It wasn’t like he was going to kill me.

Jeremy pulled onto the dirt road that led to the abandoned warehouse, and started speeding down it. My heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest. I took deep breaths, trying to calm down. It wasn’t really working.

The warehouse came into view and as we grew closer, Jeremy cut the engine, quickly unsnapping his seatbelt. I swiped my sweaty palms on my pants before doing the same as Jeremy, and hastily climbing out the door. Jeremy met me at the front of the car, and together we made our way up to the front of the building. The steps groaned in an unnerving way under our weight as we hurried towards the door. Jeremy held me back as he opened the front door, peering in. The main room was pitch black.

“Holly, your hand,” Jeremy demanded, holding out his hand for me to take.

It felt a little silly taking his hand. It wasn’t like I was a five year old crossing the street with her mom. Nonetheless I took his hand, and he pulled me into the warehouse, leaving the door open so the moon would provide at least a little sight. I held Jeremy’s hand tighter as we went further in, losing all sense of sight.

“Why is it so quiet?” I whispered. The only noises I could hear were the sounds of Jeremy’s and my footfalls. They sounded like a heard of elephants compared to the silence surrounding us.

“Shh,” Jeremy responded. “We’re going up stairs now. Careful.”

I stumbled on the first step, misjudging the height. Jeremy held onto me tightly as I corrected myself, gaining my balance again. Each step creaked and groaned under our weight, and each time they did I thought it sounded like an air horn going off. It was too quiet. It was unsettling.

“The Hall of Fame, right?”

“Yeah,” I whispered, finally making it to the top of the stairs. “That’s where I first saw Shawn.”

It took about thirty seconds to reach the door to the Hall of Fame. Jeremy pressed his ear to the door, and I copied him. It was silent in the room. Suddenly there was a cough, and I instantly recognized it as Casey’s. I reached for the door and yanked it open, ignoring Jeremy’s protests. Stumbling in the dark room, I ran my hands over the wall until I found the light switch. I flipped it on.

Casey was the first thing I noticed when the room was filled with light. She was sitting on the other side of the room, her knees pulled up to her chest. She squinted for a moment from the sudden light and when she saw me her eyes suddenly widened. Jeremy strode into the room, quickly surveying it. Casey pushed herself to her feet, but as soon as she took one step towards me she winced and started falling forwards. Jeremy caught her before I could even move.

“What’s wrong?” I heard him ask her.

“My ankle,” she responded, taking her weight off her right ankle. “I think I sprained it earlier.”

“Where’s Mr. Heywood?” I asked, only slightly relieved.

Casey’s eyes drifted downwards, towards the front left of the room. The door was blocking my vision so I quickly stepped around it, dropping my eyes to the floor. My heart skipped a beat and a gasp left my mouth when I focused in on Mr. Heywood’s limp body. I staggered a few feet forwards and slumped to my knees, hovering over him. His eyes were shut, and it almost looked like he was sleeping peacefully. Except for the blood that covered half of his face.

“Mr. Heywood?” I squeaked, bringing my head closer to him. “Hey. Wake up.”

“What happened?” I heard Jeremy ask Casey.

I put my ear to his mouth, and felt relief wash over me when I felt his breath against it. At least he was still breathing.

Casey cleared her throat. “Someone— I don’t know who— attacked Mr. Heywood while he was untying me. He hit Mr. Heywood over the head with a shovel,” Casey continued, her voice cracking on the word shovel. “I— I heard a crack…”

For a second it felt like I couldn’t breathe. My chest constricted painfully as I gazed at Mr. Heywood’s peaceful face. That was how Shawn had managed to strike Mr. Heywood down? Using a cheap attack like that? Anger boiled up inside of me. Shawn was definitely going to pay.

I gently brushed Mr. Heywood’s hair away from his forehead, my breath catching when I caught sight of a long, deep, bloody gash running along from his eyebrow to his ear. Tears filled my eyes again and my heart clenched painfully. This was my fault. And my phone’s fault. If I made it out of here alive, I was smashing it to pieces and buying a new one from a different company.

“Mr. Heywood,” I whispered, brushing my fingers along his jaw. “Please wake up. Can you hear me?”

There wasn’t even the slightest response.

“Do you know where Shawn is right now?” Jeremy questioned Casey. “When was the last time you saw him?”

“Who’s Shawn?”

“The man who hit Mr. Heywood with a shovel,” I responded for Jeremy, turning to look at Casey.

Casey chewed her lip. “Oh… I haven’t seen him for maybe the past ten minutes? He dumped Mr. Heywood and me in here after taking us from the fair. He told me not to leave, and if I did Mr. Heywood and I would both be, um, harmed.”

Jeremy furrowed his eyebrows. “And he hasn’t been back since? Was he with anyone else?”

“There were two other men,” Casey told him.

Only two other men? That thought made me feel a bit more relieved. That meant if something went on it’d be three on two. I smiled wryly. Well, more like three on one. I didn’t know how much help I could be to Jeremy. Jeremy set Casey against the wall before coming towards me. He crouched down beside me, taking in Mr. Heywood. He inhaled sharply, brushing his hand lightly against the gash.

“That needs medical attention,” he commented, pulling his hand back. “Holly, take this.”

I turned to Jeremy, blinking in surprise when I realized he was holding out a pocketknife. He shoved it closer to me and I quickly took it from him, my eyes wide. “Jeremy…”

“It’s for your protection,” Jeremy told me. “Since Shawn isn’t around right now, we might as well try to get out right now. The longer we stick around, the chances of Shawn coming back and finding us here increases. Right now Chris is a major liability. We need as much time as we can get.”

“You’re not supposed to move someone with a head injury,” I commented in a quiet voice, already knowing we had no other choice.

Jeremy smiled at me. “It’s better than leaving him here to die, right?”

My mouth suddenly went dry, and I could only nod.

“You help Casey, I’ll carry Chris.”

Without needing to be told twice I pushed myself off the ground and hurried towards Casey. She gave me the “you-have-a-lot-of-explaining-to-do” look as I took her arm and wrapped it around my shoulder. After a moment of adjusting ourselves so we were both comfortable, I turned around and found Jeremy carrying Mr. Heywood princess-style.

“What?” he snapped when he caught me staring.

I blushed slightly, rearranging my expression into a blank one. “Um, nothing… Prince Charming.”

Casey chuckled as Jeremy’s face heated up. He ignored my jibe and gestured with his head for me to follow him out of the room. The main room was still jet-black, and we all treaded with caution.

“Jeremy?”

“Yeah?”

“Can you handle the stairs?” I asked him, feeling nervous all of a sudden.

There was a moment of silence before Jeremy responded. “Yeah, I can hold onto the railing.”

A nerve-wracking ten minutes passed before I heard Jeremy sigh in relief, signaling he had made it to the bottom of the staircase without any problems. Casey and I were easily able to climb down, and we caught up with Jeremy quickly. Like a shot, I realized that the front door wasn’t open anymore. Jeremy must have noticed too, because I heard him curse quietly.

It didn’t surprise me when Jeremy found the door locked. Before either of us could speak, light filled the main room. I squinted for a minute while my eyes adjusted, and when they did I locked gazes with Shawn, who was standing on the balcony. He smirked at me.

“Holly! You made it.”

“Yeah,” I forced out between my clenched teeth.

Casey tugged gently on the back of my shirt. “Holly, put me against the door.”

Without any questions asked, I set Casey against the door. She put her back to it, staring up at Shawn. I glanced over my shoulder to see Jeremy still holding Mr. Heywood, a scowl on his face.

“Poor Chris is in bad shape huh?”

“That’s because you’re a coward who uses cheap shots to knock people down,” I shot back at him angrily.

“Holly,” Jeremy said in a quiet, warning tone.

Shawn laughed, leaning over the railing of the balcony. “Cowardice? Holly, love, I was just using the moment to my advantage.”

There was a pair of footsteps to my right and I looked over and saw a tall, burly man coming towards me. Another pair of footfalls to my left indicated there was something also coming from that direction. The burly man to my right stopped a good hundred yards away, a frown on his face. I watched him warily for a second before glancing at the other man, who had also stopped walking. This man was just as tall as the man to my right, but not as muscled.

My mind was racing. I needed to think of a way that would let Jeremy carry Mr. Heywood to his car, and get Casey there as well. It would be almost impossible for Jeremy to have time to bring them both separately, even if I distracted Shawn. If we could take out the two men on the ground level, I was positive I could deal with Shawn. I had escaped him once before, hadn’t I? Jeremy couldn’t be the distraction because I knew I wouldn’t be able to carry Mr. Heywood’s body.

A small amount of hopelessness began to rise in me, but I forcefully pushed it away. I had to think positively. We only had a few choices. Try to break down the door and escape before anyone caught us; take out the men on the ground floor and find a new way to escape; distract Shawn until Jeremy found a way to get Mr. Heywood and Casey to the car; or let Shawn get us. The last choice wasn’t actually a choice. It was what would happen if we couldn’t escape.

“Listen,” Shawn finally spoke up. “I know your friend Lance said he was going to call the police in an hour. It’s been just about forty-five minutes since then, so that means we have about fifteen minutes to finish this before the cops show.”

“How did you know?” I gasped in surprise.

Shawn smirked again. “I have spies, duh. Shall we get down to business then?”

The sudden pounding of feet made my heart leap into my chest. I turned right, watching as the burly man suddenly started running straight at me. Throwing my head to the other side I noticed the other man was coming as well. Jeremy placed Mr. Heywood on the ground as quickly and gently as possible, and intercepted the man from my left. My hand clenched the pocketknife I was still holding.

“Now, I don’t want to hurt you,” the burly man told me as he stopped a few feet away from me. “I just need to bring you up to Shawn.”

“No,” I stated stubbornly.

“Then I do it by force.”

A startled gasp escaped my lips as the man instantly threw a punch towards my face. I ducked just in time, staggering backwards. Without hesitating the man threw another punch, which I managed to avoid again. I struggled with the pocketknife in my hand, trying to get it open. No matter how much I tried though, it wouldn’t unlatch. Figures Jeremy would give me a pocketknife I couldn’t open.

“You’re pretty good at evading, aren’t you?” the burly man commented, looking amused and impressed.

I dodged another of his blows. “I’ve had practice.”

“Unfortunately for you, I don’t think you’re paying enough attention.”

Before I knew what happened, I was flat on my back. I stared in horror at the burly man hovering over me, a smirk on his face. When I looked to my left I realized I had tipped over Mr. Heywood’s leg. The burly man put a foot on my chest, and put pressure on it. I gasped in surprise, trying to pull his foot off.

“Should I knock her out?”

“Whatever works,” Shawn called down. “Just don’t kill her.”

“Sure,” the burly man said with a grin. “Night-night, Holly.”

The man began to press harder into my chest and I looked to my side to see Casey staring at me in terror. With my left hand I fumbled with the pocketknife again, wincing as the more pressure was applied to my chest. It felt like I was suffocating. My left hand clenched uncontrollably as the burly man suddenly pressed into me as hard as I could. A slight pain ran through my finger, and after a second my finger rubbed against something sharp and cool. The pocketknife had unlatched!

There was a loud crash behind me just as I brought up my hand and slashed the foot on me. The burly man cried out in surprise and pain, pulling his foot away from my chest. I quickly sent my leg straight up, right into his crotch, making him stagger forwards. For a horrifying second I thought he was going to fall on top of me, but a hand flashed before my eyes, making contact with his face. From the force of the punch, the burly man stumbled backwards, landing on the ground, unconscious.

Jeremy grinned down at me. “And Chris thought he was the only one who could do a one hit K.O.”

“Ten bucks says I can too,” a calm voice commented, sounding amused.

I looked beyond Jeremy, and straight at Shawn. When I realized what he was holding, I screamed in panic. I scrambled to my feet, never taking my eyes off Shawn’s gun, or where he was pointing it. Straight at Jeremy.

“Wait!” I screamed, taking a few steps towards him.

Shawn spared me one glance. “I’m an impatient person.”

I didn’t even have time to blink before Shawn squeezed the trigger. A loud cracking noise filled the room and my mouth fell open in horror as I twirled around to see Jeremy, his face frozen in shock. Then, just as I reached out to grab him, he fell over backwards.

“One shot K.O,” Shawn stated simply, an amused smirk slipping onto his face.

________________________

Okay, so if you don't have me on Facebook and don't read Believe Me, I'm Lying then you don't know that I lost internet at my house. But I'm telling you, so now you do. The only time I have a chance to update is my first period study hall (right now) so if an update falls on a weekend and I'm not at a friends house, I can't update. Just letting you guys know in advance.

Let me tell you. Being without internet sucks. I literally stare out my window listening to music all day if I don't go hang out with people. And it's been rainy.

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