"Officer Garcia," one police officer said reaching out to shake Bethany's hand.

He was a tall, bald man. His eyes showed that he was a short-tempered person. Despite that, he looked quite kind. She sure hoped he was. The last thing she wanted was to be in his black books, or of any of the cops' black books. Seeing her face downtown or in the paper was something she never wanted. She would be famous for once, but that was not her idea of being popular. How would she even go back to school after all that!

"We searched the whole house but didn't find anything that could help us solve the case. Was your brother involved in anything... odd?" officer Garcia asked and gave Bethany a cold look.

Bethany let out a sigh of relief, knowing that she was safe for the time being. Afraid that she might let the cat out of the bag, she shook her head. Had she attempted to open her mouth; everything would've come pouring out. The cops took Bethany and Jonathan to the station for further questioning. Both were scared, especially Bethany. She trembled the whole way, but no one seemed to notice, except for Jonathan. It was not surprising that she was shivering because it was winter after all. Since they had been told to leave in such a hurry, she didn't have time to think about carrying a jacket. She felt a jacket sliding over her shoulders. Her mind had been elsewhere, and this brought her back to reality.

She looked at Jonathan and smiled, which seemed to be more than enough to him.

"We need to call your parents to let them know what happened," Officer Garcia said.

Bethany stiffened. She blinked, realizing that her eyes had been open wider than usual. At first, she wanted to refuse because she knew that she would get into trouble. Since she knew she could not refuse, she gave them her mother's phone number. She took deep breaths trying to calm herself down. She could hear her mother's angry voice through the officer's phone, and that only made her more anxious. Her parents were going to return the next day, Bethany had been informed. She felt bad for making them cut their vacation short, but terrified by the thought of them returning to a ransacked house, a traumatised daughter and a missing son.

Bethany went to sit in the nearest chair after a slight feeling of nausea. She knew she wouldn't be able to sleep well until Alex was found – alive. Mrs Cooper, Jonathan's mother, ran into the station, went straight to Bethany and embraced her in a tight hug. She had taken time off her shift to attend to them. Whether it was because Jonathan and the police had contacted her or because she was concerned didn't matter to Bethany. The important thing was that Mrs Cooper was there for her, and she was like a mother to her. Heather knew that Bethany couldn't sleep at their house because probably the kidnappers would go for her too. She offered for Bethany to stay at her house until Mr and Mrs Williams were back.

"They'll find him, I know that for sure," Mrs Cooper said as she hugged her even tighter.

Bethany didn't want to keep hearing that same statement over, and over, and over again. It frustrated her the more she heard it. She knew that they would find him. Scratch that, she hoped that they would find him. Wherever he was, she knew that he could survive.

*****

There it was – another reason for her to feel stressed. Heather had been having a rough week and this put more pressure on her. She could tell that Bethany was troubled. She wasn't an expert at dealing with distressed teenage girls, but she hoped that it was almost the same with what she'd do for Keith. They went back to the Williams' house and let Bethany take some clothes with her. Jonathan offered to go in with Bethany in case she got scared. Her response was merely a nod. As soon as they left, Mrs Cooper's phone rang, it was Bethany's mother. All she wanted to tell Mrs Cooper was that they would be back by sundown the following day, and that she hoped Bethany staying with her was not a problem. Of course it wasn't a problem; Mrs Cooper was an open person who would always be willing to lend a helping hand.

She sounded the horn then saw Jonathan and Bethany walking out of the house. When they arrived at the house, they saw Keith in the living room.

"Bethany!" Keith exclaimed.

"Nice to see you too," she replied with a laugh.

"Is she staying over? Don't tell me she is. Liam is coming over. I don't want a girl to be around!"

"It's okay, I understand," Bethany said.

"No, I told your parents that you'd be staying here until they get back," Mrs Cooper said angered by Keith's words.

She explained the whole story to him. He flushed white with shame.

"Liam can come another day. I'll go and ca..."

The doorbell rang interrupting him. Keith knew very well that it was Liam; there was no doubt. He opened the door only to see that he wasn't wrong. To avoid any scolding from his mother, they both left. Heather went to get dinner ready while Jonathan showed Bethany to her room. It was a good thing that she had coerced the boys to clean the guests' room a few days before. It had been like a pigsty! It was surprising how grown boys made such a mess in the guests' room, let alone their own rooms!

"If you need any help, my room is right across the hallway," Jonathan gestured towards his room.

"Wait," she said before he went out of sight. "Thanks again, for everything. I know it's hard to trust your best friend's sister." Bethany looked down and sighed.

"It's nothing, okay. If I don't trust you then how are we supposed to find Alex? Besides, I knew I could trust you from day one. I just never wanted to tell you."

Bethany felt relieved; her racing heart eased, and she felt somewhat more assured that she could trust him. She always thought that the reason why he and Alex never told her why they would sneak out was that they didn't trust her.

Bowled over, she looked at him with a smile and nodded. All she wanted was for all this drama to be over. She took her phone out and looked at Alex's picture on her homepage. A notification popped up alerting her of her changed location.

"That's it!" she exclaimed and ran downstairs.

She saw Jonathan and his mother in the kitchen preparing dinner together and Keith was just walking in. Perfect! Everyone was there.

"I know how we can find Alex!" She panted trying to catch her breath. "Dad personalised the GPS trackers in all of our devices. And I'm almost a hundred percent sure that the kidnappers wouldn't hide their IP addresses, unless they tell Alex to do it."

"Do whatever you can to find him," Mrs Cooper said.

They all had their laptops downstairs and after a while of searching, they found his location.

"I got it!" Keith shouted. "The clock tower... but how? There aren't any rooms there, are there?"

"The rooms don't have to be inside," Bethany said as she moved the cursor around the map. "They can be... underground!"

Jonathan took his phone and rang up the police. The three made sure that they had hidden their IP addresses so that they wouldn't be tracked down, unlike the kidnappers. In about ten minutes, the cops had arrived at their house. Why hadn't Bethany thought of this earlier? They wouldn't have had to go through too much trouble. The important thing was that they were another step closer to finding Alex!

"We need you all of you to stay here, for your own good. We don't want any of you getting hurt," Officer Garcia said.

"What? You can't make us stay here. We did something you couldn't do, now you tell us to stay here?" Keith replied.

"Right! If we hadn't done all the work, you'd still be trying to crack your heads and eventually, you'd stop working on the case, probably claiming that he's dead!" Bethany said and broke off into tears.

"You need to understand. This will put too much pressure on us, trying to get the boy out alive and keeping you safe as well," Officer Garcia said.

"He's right," came Mrs Cooper's voice. "It's a big risk. You can still help them. You'll be their eyes and if anything changes, you'll let them know."

"Fine," Jonathan responded.

*****

It was dark. He could not see a single thing. It seemed as though they had blindfolded him. He tried to move his hands and legs but they were chained. The last thing he remembered was the two men carrying him from their house and throwing him in a black van. Alex was terrified. What did they plan on doing to him? If they wanted to kill him, it would better if they did not torture him first.

Next time I will listen to Bethany, he thought and sighed. Well, it was too late. They had taken away from his family and friends. He did not even finish planning the prank he wanted to pull on Bethany!

Ugh, what am I thinking? How could I be thinking of that when I am so close to dying? It turns out they are smart. They tied me up, locked me up in a place I do not even know, blindfolded me and even sealed my mouth! I wonder-

The door creaked open. He gulped some air, hoping that they would be a little nice to him.

Who am I kidding? They are kidnappers! Kidnappers are not nice, unless they want something from me. Still, that is no reason to keep my hopes up.

He sat there, quietly and impatiently. He heard whispers coming from the other end of the room. He tried to listen to their conversation but he did not get a single thing. He heard footsteps coming towards him. They were not from any normal shoes, stiletto perhaps. Wait, it was a woman! The footsteps got louder and louder until they stopped right in from of him. He picked up a strong feminine scent, a lovely perfume that smelt like roses. She removed the blindfold and tape rather violently, causing Alex to scream.

"Ugh, it's too dark in here. I can't see a thing!" Alex voiced and stared at the woman in front of him.

"Oh stop your yapping already. Jason, flip the light switch." She spoke in a Spanish accent. Foreigners kidnapped him, great! That was the worst thing that could happen to him. Yet again, he did not want to conclude too early; maybe they were nice. The light was blinding and it took a while for him to adjust.

"What do you plan on doing to me?" Alex asked.

"Oh, we just want to have a small chat with you, and then we will let you go. But only if you promise not to tell the police," the other man said as he neared Alex.

He was a tall muscular man who obviously worked out a lot. His eyes showed determination to finish their task. Alex gulped some air, leaving his mouth parched.

"Can one of you get me some water?" Alex demanded.

"Are we supposed to give it anything?" Jason said and looked at the woman.

Wait, what does he mean by it? Are they even human?

"Ok, pipsqueak, the boss said we can't feed you but I can make an exception or else you'll die earlier than anticipated," she said and paused a bit. "Since you already know his name, I might as well just tell you mine because we'll be together for quite a while. They call me Rose."

"What do you mean by 'they call you'? Isn't that your real name?" Alex tried his best to stall for as long as he could.

"Well, it's because I seem sweet when you meet me but my thorns prick really deep."

She left Alex shaken. I mean, anyone would be. He sat there waiting for his water that is, if they would give him anyway. Rose talked a lot and Alex was already feeling sleepy.

"Here is your water, earth creature," Jason said as he stretched out his hand to give Alex the water.

Earth creature!

Now he had every reason to think they were aliens.

"Ehhem!" Alex said as he cleared his throat. "Are you forgetting that you tied me up? Surely I thought aliens were clever, but it seems not."

"You already gave the boy a wrong opinion of us. Firstly, we are not aliens. Jason just likes scaring the people we kidnap."

Rose's accent suddenly changed to a more familiar, American one.

What nationality is she anyway?

It was now evident that he was not the first person they held captive. The question that remained in his mind: what happened to the other people? He felt a chill running down his spine. He did not want to die, at least, not in that way.

"Get up, we need to move!"

There was another person standing by the door. He heard a loud clock above them. He was at the clock tower! It would have been better if he found out earlier. They were already tying him up again. This time they shoved him in a large sack.

Here we go again!