I woke up feeling like I had a hangover. I had a migraine, and the lights flowing through the blinds of my old bedroom. I didn’t have to throw up, or at least I didn’t think I had to. I turned over, my face going into the silky light purple colored comforter. My eyes shot opened once I realized this was my bedroom in my parents’ house. What was going on? Last thing I had remembered, I was tied up to a chair in an abandoned warehouse in pitch black dark. Did Jimmy bring me here, telling me I still had to get this money from my parents? I mean, I couldn’t do it.

I slowly lifted myself up from the bed, though I didn’t really have that much strength, and my head was pounding and hurting even worse as I started moving. I wondered if my parents knew I was here as I dragged my feet to my old bathroom, going through the medicine cabinet. I found my old bottles of Advil which I always had around from when I used to go to parties and drink endlessly with the guys and Saleigh. I got two pills from one of the bottles, throwing them in my mouth, and turning the faucet on, cupping my hand and getting some water, which I quickly threw into my mouth, swallowing the pills. It would be about another half hour until it started to take any effect on me. Of course this wasn’t as bad as an actual hangover, but it still felt like hell.

I sat on the toilet, putting my head in my hands, then I remembered about Saleigh, and if she ever got home. How long had I been missing? I sighed as I walked back into my room, noticing for the first time a small note left on the nightstand, probably from one of my parents. I slowly walked over to it, picking it up so that I was able to read it.

[i]Of course you’re welcome to stay for as long as you need, but your dad and I will be back in about a week, for we’ve gone out on a vacation with the Hendersons. Much love, darling.[/i]

It wasn’t just the handwriting, the perfect cursive, that gave off that my mom had written the note, but it just sounded like her. ‘Darling’. I hated when she called me that. I hated a lot of things about my parents and their outlook on things .With that, I looked around for my shoes so I could leave this place, the place that had a lot of bad memories from me. I spotted Brian’s car keys on the bedside table as well, so of course I was hoping his vehicle was out there as well. I picked them up and slipped into my shoes before leaving the house, and going back to Brian’s.


,,,


“The fuck have you been?: Brian instantly spotted me as I trudged through the door. I guess they probably thought I tried to skip town or something, “Are you alright? How’s my baby?” He came over to me, and wrapping his arms around me.

“Your car’s fine, here are your keys,” I pulled away and handed him the metal keys, and a huge grin plastered on his face.

“Where the fuck have you been? We’ve all been worried sick and just quit looking for you for today,” he said, leading me over to the couch.

“I was….at my parents,” I partially lied. I mean, I had been at my parents at one point.

“Why the fuck didn’t you answer your phone?” He asked, making it obvious that I had in fact scared the fuck out of them.

“I had it, but I didn’t have my charger, and it went dead,” now that I thought of it, I had no idea where my purse, bag, or anything was. It’s possible it was still in Brian’s car, but I couldn’t go look now, I was far too tired. I’d go and check later.

“So why didn’t you just come back?” He asked, and I thought of something I could say.

“My parents wanted me to stay for a day, just to make sure I was okay, and all. You know?” I said, and it face distorted into confusion.

“Pay, you’ve been gone for like, three days,” he stated, and I gave him a weird look.

“Okay, so they wanted more than one day of quality time, and you are you to judge that? You know I never go and see them,” I defended, and he sighed loudly.

“I’m going to go call Saleigh and tell her you’re back. You know she’s worried shitless,” he pointed out and I nodded.

“Tell her I’ll come over tomorrow. I had a few drinks last night, and my head is like, killing me,” I said, and stood up, and he had an indescribable face on as he looked at me, it was one I hadn’t seen on him before.

“Okay, and there was something else I wanted to talk about,” he said, and I was only so curious, but way more tired.

“Yeah,” I nodded, and started walking back to my room, “tomorrow.” I took a shower before I got into bed, because I was filthy and I’ve been stuck in a warehouse. Out of those whole three days, I had only been conscious for one of them, which made me wonder how they kept me out for that long, and how much harm the drugs they used would do to my body. If I had been able to keep my eyes open, I’d probably be freaking out at this point, but as soon as my head hit my pillow, I was out like a light.

,,,

I woke up to my phone shitting itself with text messages. Before reaching over and grabbing it from the charger, I contemplated turning it off for the next few days so I could just sleep. I looked to see that they were all from Saleigh, telling me to come over, I sighed, as I put my phone back down, wanting to just go back to sleep, but instead I rolled out of bed and search for some semi clean jeans to pull on. I put my hair into a ponytail, and pulled on my converse, happy that I was able to wear both again. I grabbed my phone, and bag, and started walking towards her house, since it was pretty close, and the walk would do me well.

I didn’t knock before I walked in, just kind of let myself in, as per usual, finding Saleigh watching some weird survival show, and Zacky passed out next to her on the couch. Her head bolted to me as I can in, and she shot up, “where the fuck have you been?”

“I was…can we talk about this outside?” I pleaded, more with my facial expression, and she nodded, and I turned to go back out the door, and she shut it behind her.

“What happened?” she asked sincerely.

“Jimmy is alive,” I told her, “I’m completely positive of this,” I said, everything already being really hard for me to talk about. She noticed the look on my face, and her eyebrows creased.

“So why aren’t you happy about this?” she asked, and I shook my head, already wanting to crawl back into bed.

“He…he’s evil, Say. He used me,” I told her, and her head tilted to the side.

“What do you mean?” she asked, and I shrugged.

“I honestly don’t know much about it if we’re being honest. But he used me so he could get money, and to possibly make his fake death noticeable. I think he’s plotting something, I – I don’t know,” I said, leaning back against the front door, and sliding down it so that I was on my butt.

“But…that doesn’t make any sense? What is he, some kind of drug lord? This doesn’t make any fucking sense, Payden,” she started getting frustrated, and my head dropped into my hands.

“I don’t know what to say…or what to do. He says he needs money, or he’s going to kill me, us, Say,” I looked up at her, and she went wide eyed as she sat down next to me.

“So what are we going to do?” she asked, and I let out a sigh.

“We should go to the cops,” I suggested. My life was on the line, and I was in complete danger. We had to get the authorities in on this, or I was going to end up dead.

“No,” she said immediately, “that would be stupid right now. What the fuck would we look like, going to the police, telling them that a guy who’s supposed to be dead is after us – you – to use you for money, or he’s going to kill you?”

“Yeah,” I looked at her, wanting to laugh at how bad of a situation I was in, “that sounds just about right.”

“Not until we know more about this, Payden,” she said, and she obviously had put her foot down about this.

“So what now? He took me whilst I was leaving the hospital from dropping you off. He took me to some abandoned warehouse, talked to me, and I woke up in my parents’ house. I was gone for three days, Say. I was conscious once. I don’t even know where to begin,” I admitted, starting to be scared for my life. I always felt safe around James, but knowing now what he wanted, he scared me to death.

“We need to meddle more,” she insisted, and I looked at her like maybe she had gone nuts.

“Meddle more? Or do you mean walk into a bullet or something, because that’s what we’d be doing, getting ourselves killed,” I told her, bringing my knees up to my chest.

“Listen. I know how you’re feeling-“ she started, but I cut her off.

“You just realized your boyfriend’s not really dead and that he never loved you, and was only using you for evil intentions as far as money goes, and you know that chances are he’s going to kill you?” I said, looking her dead in the eye, not being able to really feel anything at the moment.

“That’s not what I meant,” she said, her voice low.

“Then humor me, Say. What did you mean?” I taunted her.

“You dragged me into this. Now my life’s on the line, too. I’m getting to the bottom of this,” she said and stood up, “you can do this with me,” she got quiet for a second, and then looked at me, “or I’ll do this my damn self. Now move, so I can get back inside my house.”

I looked at the ground for a second before I got up, and watched her walk back in her house. I had a lot of thinking to do, but she was right, though. I did drag her into this, and her life was on the line just as much as mine was. What type of person would I be to let her do this by herself? I stomped the ground in defeat before I followed her into her house, watching her angrily cleaning up the kitchen, avoiding noticing that I was standing there.

“I’m not going to let you do this alone,” I started, “this is my mess after all, and, I guess if you refuse to back out of this, I don’t really have a choice,” I said awkwardly, and kept silent until she looked at me.

“Well that’s good news. But, one problem,” she said, and my face fell, not really knowing what to expect.

“Yeah” I asked, telling her to go on.

“I think I have to tell Zacky about this,” she said, and my eyes grew wide.

“No, you can’t. If you don’t want the cops in on this, or anybody else in danger, then you can’t tell ANYBODY. [i]Especially[/i] not Zachary James Baker,” I told her.

“But he’s worried. He knows somebody tried to kill us, Payden. He’s sick and frustrated with worrying about me, and he’s been on my ass about it ever since he picked me up from the hospital. You know how weird he looks at me? Like I can’t defend myself? All because of this,” she flipped over the hair on the right side of her head, revealing a shaved head and a bandage. I had a feeling her hair was parted kind of awkwardly.

“Well, at least it doesn’t look that bad, AND you can hide it,” I assured her, and she gave me a death glare.

“That’s not the fucking point. But this is one of the reasons I need to get to the bottom of this whole mess. So Zacky knows for sure that I’m safe, and I’m sure that I’m not off my fucking rocker, even though I know for a fact you are,” she said, starting to calm down.

“I don’t know, you’re kind of messed up in the head, too,” I teased, a smile forming on my face.

“Fuck you,” she spat.

“Fair enough.”

©Shannon.

Notes

'Fair Enough' is a long standing joke between Saleigh and I. If you love the Rev as much as we do, you'll probably get it.

xoxo, Shannon.