Victoria started snickering as she walked towards Alex. She stopped right in front of him and knelt to the floor. She held his chin and gazed directly into his eyes. She shook her head simultaneously moving Alex's head.

"Oh you will call me mom."

"You can't make me do it! You are not my mother!"

"That's where you got things all wrong. I am your mother!"

Alex froze like a deer in headlights. The crazy nut-job who had kidnapped him was his mother! That was an awful way to find out. Bethany wasn't his biological sister.

YES! Wait, No! If Bethany isn't my biological sister then I don't have to live with her, right. I've lived with her for sixteen years already.

"Earth to Alex, are you there?" Victoria stood there staring at Alex.

He had so many questions on his mind but if he dared to open his mouth, he would mumble everything.

"I, I..." Alex stuttered.

"I might as well just tell you the whole story," Victoria said as she pulled up a chair then untied Alex.

"I met your father twenty-five years ago. Then we got married after five years and had you later on. Everything was fine until Olivia came along. She snatched him away from me.

"Your father said that I was 'mentally ill' after trying to kill her countless times, so he took me to a therapist. The therapist said the same thing and they put me in a mental institution. They took you away from me, Alex. I was shattered and I vowed to have my revenge on Olivia."

Alex was dumbfounded. Maybe her version of 'snatched him away' was that Olivia had a heart a hundred times larger than hers, so his father had changed his mind.

I'm starting to see why he divorced her. She's nuts! Alex thought as he gazed at her.

She was looking pale, and he could see the sorrow hovering right above her.

"I know what you're thinking, we didn't divorce."

Alex opened his eyes wider as he heard this.

"He moved. He ran away. When I got back to the house, there was nothing. Everything was gone! The furniture, the pictures... you. He left his ring behind and this note."

Why would she carry the ring and note up to this day? She really is a psycho! I need to read this.

Dear Victoria

I know things haven't been good these past few months. You might be devastated because we left you, but it is for the best. Alex is still young and I know he can have a better life, one with less threats. I know you're his mother, but Olivia can take that place and she won't let you down, trust me. There is no need to try to follow us because I'm sure we are miles away by now. You will find people to replace us one day; I know you will. I'm really sorry.

Tom

Oh my word, dad really did leave her. I thought she was lying. His handwriting is the same, well almost.

He understood why his father 'ran away' from her. She tried to kill Olivia- more than once, she went bonkers because her husband had almost replaced her- which he ended up doing anyway- and now she kidnapped her own son! She needed help. He looked at Victoria and she was in tears.

"Mom, Jason is refusing to go on watch!" Rose shouted from across the room.

"Wait, what!" Alex exclaimed.

"Oh, right, I almost forgot. These are your siblings, Claire and Jason. You might as well just enjoy these times with them because you might not see them again after this. Get up, let's move," Victoria said with a serious tone.

What does she really mean by 'I might not see them again'? Oh no! Ok, Alex, calm down. Think positive, no negativity allowed here.

Alex thought of this and gulped in some air. He stood there, totally forgetting that Victoria had told him to follow her. He thought about his family, or at least, those who he thought were his real family. He sighed knowing that chances of him returning were low.

"Are you going to stand there forever? Maybe I can even put you back in those chains. You need to stop thinking about that family of yours," Victoria said looking at Alex as if she had read his mind.

She was serious about getting her revenge, which is why she controlled her own son as a slave. Alex finally moved and started walking towards her, his head low and dragging his feet. For the first time ever, he wanted to go home. He always wanted to be away from home and his family, but now that he was gone for who knows how long, he missed them.

He always loved sleeping in during the weekend, then waking up to a list of things he hadn't done that week. He missed the times when Bethany scolded him for being so careless with his belongings. She always found at least three pairs of his socks and a pair of shoes every week in her room. How would they make their way from Alex's room (which was two rooms away from Bethany's) to her room?

'Boys shall always be boys!'

He walked slowly behind Victoria, with Jason and Rose following behind him making sure he wouldn't escape. Truth was, Alex wasn't going to escape. He had no idea of where he was. He had never seen such a place in their town before. Victoria opened a door and let Alex walk in first. She left Jason and Rose outside, guarding the place. She pushed Alex until he fell on his stomach. He lay on the floor for ten seconds until he started struggling to get up.

"You can't be weak now! We're just getting started," she smirked. "Get up, now!"

Alex got up and she lifted him by the neck. She threw him across the room and paced towards him.

"Let the game begin!" she laughed.

She threw him in all directions, punching and kicking him. Alex couldn't take it anymore. Despite being tired, he was starving and thirsty. It had been a while since he had a proper meal. Every day he felt his stomach grumble at the thought of his mother's lasagne, her chocolate chip cookies and her famous home-baked cakes. Such luxuries were far from his mind as he sulked over the cold burger they gave him every now and then.

Alex knew that it had probably been months since his disappearance. It had been months without having ice cream or the cakes that he ate every weekend. It had been that long without fighting with Bethany. It had been that long without seeing Jonathan. He wondered what Jonathan's reaction was when he found out that Alex went missing. He even imagined what his best friend did when or if he figured out what he was doing just for money. The thought of his family and friends always flickered in his mind when he didn't want it to. He always got emotional when he thought about them, knowing that he probably never see them again. The last conversation he had with his parents wasn't really a conversation at all. It was more of a fight about his grades. Alex had always been a bright child but according to his parents, his grades had "taken an unbelievable plummet" since he started his last year in high school. They got even worse once he started his "task".

That was when it hit him. He never got to apologise to his parents for disrespecting them, or constantly disobeying them, or even doing illegal things in their house. He never got to apologise to Bethany for being so mean to her. He never got to apologise to Jonathan for lying to him countless times and hiding all those secrets from him. He never even got to get a girlfriend. That was the least of his problems but he thought it would have been nice to have a girl cry about losing him.

Again, a painful kick in his gut brought him back to reality.

"You're weak!" Victoria said. Ï might as well just get rid of you sooner than expected."

Alex was dumbfounded. He was sure that there was no way he would survive. Slowly, he got off the floor, groaning at every movement. Victoria stood there, staring at him. She walked over to him, cupped his face and hugged him.

"I'll let you talk to your family for the last time," she whispered softly into his ear.

"Thank you," he replied, hugging her tighter.

*****

Bethany rushed to Jonathan's room first to show him Alex's diary.

"Oh!" Bethany exclaimed as she opened the book.

On the first page, he clearly wrote:

'TO WHOEVER MAY FIND THIS IN THE FUTURE, SHOW JONATHAN FIRST. AS LONG AS I'M NOT MISSING OR DEAD, DO NOT READ THIS.

PS, THIS IS NOT A DIARY! THIS IS MY JOURNAL.'

She dashed in expecting to see Jonathan fast asleep, but there he was, sitting by his laptop scrolling through some pictures. She got closer and saw that they were pictures of him and Alex.

"I wish I had told him earlier," Jonathan said with a sigh, clearly showing that he noticed Bethany's presence.

She stood there and felt her heart sink. Was it the right time to tell him, or would she just let him talk then show him the diary/journal?

"Tell him what?" Bethany asked as she sat on the bed.

Jonathan could sense her worry, and he knew that what he was about to say would make things worse.

"Remember the night I came back late, the night I was playing video games at your house?" Jonathan said, paused and looked at Bethany.

She nodded, showing that she remembered the day.

"When I saw you in the hallway I was on my way to his room. I knew that he was hiding something and I had to go and find out. I got into his room and saw some stuff under his bed. I got so angry that I took my stuff and left."

"If you knew, why didn't you say something? I mean, it really would've helped," Bethany said with a tremble in her voice, her eyes becoming teary.

"I didn't know if I was supposed to. Besides, I also kept something from Alex."

There was an eerie silence until Keith entered the room.

"What's going on? Why is Bethany crying?" Keith said and yawned.

She quickly wiped off her tears and Jonathan told him to sit down.

"I might as well just say this now. I used to work for Mr Miller until things got out of hand. I had to quit the job. I couldn't take it anymore. He wanted me to help illegal immigrants carrying his goods.

"When I sneaked into Alex's room, the stuff had the same mark as Mr Miller's. I didn't think that telling him what I saw was a good idea, so I just had to keep quiet. Now I regret that."

Jonathan let out a sigh, hoping that his friend would be fine.

"So, you got angry because your best friend was hiding something from you yet you also had your secrets? Bro!" Keith said and held the back of his head in surprise.

Bethany sat there, dumbstruck. Alex must have known what Jonathan did; maybe that's why he wrote it at the beginning of the journal. She took out the journal from the pocket of her hoodie and put it next to Jonathan.

"Read the first page," Bethany said, her voice lower than usual.

Jonathan opened it and skipped where she wanted him to read.

"No, not there. Open the very beginning," Bethany said as she pointed where he was supposed to read.

He flipped through the book, hoping to find something that would help.

"Jackpot!" Jonathan exclaimed as he handed the book to Bethany. Keith moved closer to see what Jonathan had found. The pages were blank. Jonathan got up and returned with a pen, one unlike normal pens.

"Alex got me this pen last month. He said it would come in handy one day and I doubted him. It shows parts written in invisible ink," Jonathan said and paused. He twisted the pen and it let out a green beam.

"Switch off the light."

Keith got up and flipped the light switch and the beam got brighter.

"This is it; let's see what Alex hid in invisible ink. Ok...

"I didn't think things could get worse. Mr Miller is making more demands but there's something worse. I think dad is hiding something very important. For some reason, I don't really feel a bond with mom anymore. I know it's weird but its true. I also heard mom and dad fighting this other day, and mom told dad that she would leave with her daughter. Why didn't she say 'my kids' or something along those lines? I haven't really had the chance to ask dad what that was about, but that will have to wait till he has cooled down. Maybe that's why they went on a 'vacation,' to get over their problems. I just hope that everything will go back to normal. Maybe I can tell my parents everything when they are back, even though they will defs lash out on me."

They sat in silence for about a couple of minutes. Bethany stood up swiftly, already making her way to the door.

"Where are you going? We need to check if there's more!" Keith shouted before Bethany left the room.

She stooped right at the door and sighed. "I'm going to my parents. I need to ask about what Alex wrote, something isn't right here."

She quickly stormed out and rushed down the freshly polished staircase. Keith and Jonathan followed closely behind and managed to catch up to her as soon as she reached the bottom of the staircase. The adults were already in the living room, waiting for Bethany to show them her discovery- even though Jonathan is the one who cracked it.

"Well, what did you find?" Mrs Williams asked looking weary.

Bethany looked at her mother and wiped off the tears that were already running down her cheeks.

"Dad, is there anything that you forgot to tell Alex and I?" she finally said after gathering some courage.

"What do you mean sweetheart? What happened?" her father asked with a surprised look on his face.

In everyone else's point of view, he looked absolutely clueless, but Bethany knew that he was hiding something he wasn't supposed to. She opened the page that they had already highlighted and she let both of her parents read it. They sat in utter silence as they read the entry.

"Bethany, you might want to sit down," Mr Williams said as he pointed towards an unoccupied chair.

"Alex is... Not your biological brother."

Bethany's jaw dropped and her eyes opened widely as tears threatened to flow..

"I know I should have told you earlier but I thought your bond with Alex would break. I'm very sorry. I did all of this to protect my family."

Bethany was still in the same position and stayed like that for not more than ten more seconds. She stood up and her face turned pale. She wore a serious face as she walked up the stairs. Jonathan tried to stop her but all he got was a rude response.

"I think she needs some time to herself," Mrs Williams said, running her hands through her hair.

Jonathan and Keith stood outside Bethany's door but didn't hear a single thing. It was quiet. Was she even in there? If she were, she would have been crying, right? Keith peeped through the slightly open door and saw her sitting on the bed, clutching to one of Alex's journals. It was hard to read her exact emotions at the moment but they knew that they were not supposed to go in.

"Go away!" she shouted.

Had she seen them at the door? Impossible! She was facing the wall the whole time.

"Bethany, we-"

"I said go away, now!"

Jonathan and Keith stood up and went to their rooms. Even though it had been hard to read her, it was clear how she felt. She was shattered. Shattered could have been an understatement. After about ten minutes, Jonathan went to sit at Bethany's door again, finding Keith there already. They sat in silence hoping that she would not notice their presence this time. Jonathan got up with a jump and Bethany ran out of her room. They followed her to the living room, waiting to see her next move.

"Is Alex's mother still alive?" Bethany asked with a very serious tone, showing that she was there for that and that only.

"Yes, but I haven't spoken to her since the time we moved," Mr Williams replied.

"Did you ever think that maybe she kidnapped him?" came Jonathan's voice.

"I guess great minds do think alike," Bethany turned and said with a smirk.

"I hadn't even thought of that. After that, she went into complete ghost mode. I never-"

Mr Williams' phone rang. At that hour, it could only be the police telling them that they hadn't found anything else yet. Of course they hadn't! They hardly paid attention to the case since Alex was just a teenager.

Caller: Hello, Tom.

Mr Williams didn't respond. He hadn't heard that voice in a long time. He tried to say something but the only things that came out of his mouth was a sigh.