ZACKY

I strolled down the overcrowded corridors of the mall, a Red Bull in one hand for Lily Ann and a coffee in the other for myself. I had tried to actually bring her something from Starbucks once, but that went over about as well as suggesting that the planet is actually being controlled by forces unknown to her. She just couldn't wrap her pretty, thick head around it.

I had barely talked to her since the incident at the hospital, not that I hadn't tried. No, I had called her at least twenty times since last night, but nothing. No call. No text. No e-mail. Nada. To tell you the truth, it was kind of pissing me off. When I had spoken to her last night, I avoided any and all mentions of Brian and the unfortunate mishap that had occurred between the two of them. Not that Brian was avoiding anything.

No, Brian was openly hating on anything and everything Reggie or Lily Ann at the moment. He had even professed his urge to use his one phone call in jail to have me nab Lily Ann so that he could do to her what he had done to Reggie. I assured him it wouldn't be long now, but he had never been the patient type.

I turned the corner and into Spencer's, strolling towards the back office. "Hey, Mr. Baker!" I turned my head and smiled, lifting my coffee in a salute to the young guy. "Hey, Amos! How's it hangin', man?" He laughed, swapping out another tag on the display in front of him. "Low and to the left!" I smirked and shook my head, pointing at him and disappearing into the back.

Right into AJ. "Good morning, beautiful," I said with a wink, trying to step around her, but she side stepped me and blocked my way to the office door. "She's not here," she said, matter-of-factly and a little impatiently. Or bitchy, if you ask me. I frowned, looking her up and down and losing myself in a horribly timed day dream about what the two of us could do with the empty office room.

Suddenly, a pair of well-manicured fingers snapped in front of my face and I jerked in surprise, looking into the stern, bitchy face. Yea, I think I'll stick with bitchy for now. "Earth to Baker! I said she's not fuckin' in there. Now go on and get out of here before the DM shows up. I can't have you back here around all of this untagged merch." I narrowed my eyes at her snippy fucking tone, but what was I going to do? I couldn't knock the shit out of her, like I so desperately wanted to do.

"Well do you know where she is?" I asked through clenched teeth, feeling my blood pressure rising at a steady pace. Not only were we in a public place, but Matt would seriously have a problem with me fucking up his girlfriend's pretty face...and then grudge fucking it. She shook her head, watching me with a curiously nosey expression. "No, I don't. What I do know, is that she's not here," she shot back.

I noticed that she had forced me back towards the main part of the store, and I had subconsciously followed her while figuring out different ways to disfigure her without anyone noticing. As she turned the knob, I placed my hand against the door and eased it shut, splaying my fingers out over the cold metal and looking down at her with what I assumed was a friendly smile. Unfortunately, the uneasy look on her face was telling me a different story.

"Aleisha..." I whispered softly, clucking my tongue when she shied away from my hand that gently grazed her cheek. Her shuddering breath was audible, and it made me smile. I could eat, sleep, and breathe on the fear that was rolling off of her in intoxicating waves. My body was nearly flush with hers, with maybe an inch or two separating us. She had nowhere to go, with the large metal door behind her and my hands against it on either side of her.

"I know that you know where she is, but I can't for the life of me understand why you would lie. to. me," I hissed out with a menacing chuckle, feeling my biceps and triceps flex as I tried to ignore the rushing sound of the blood boiling inside of my body. There was no way I was going to let this twat stand in the way of what was mine. Brian may have gotten sloppy and ended up arrested, but I had been at this game far too long to let some Australian cunt trip me up now.

She shook her head, her eyes wide and her lips pursed, and I could feel her hands applying pressure to my chest as she tried to free herself from her current position. "I really don't know where she is," she whispered, her eyes darting to the side as if she heard something, "but I know that she didn't call in this morning. I figured she was just sick." Suddenly, I heard a knock on the door, and I backed away from her immediately, scooping up the drinks that I had abandoned on a palette near the door.

"I appreciate your help, Miss Shields, and I'll get back to you when your manager is working," I said in my best professional tone, earning an alarmed look from AJ as she moved away from the opening door. A short woman with overly curled hair and too much makeup made her way into the room, looking between the two of us with a look of disdain. "Excuse me, do you work here?" She asked in a pompous tone, glancing down at I assumed was a chart for the store.

I shook my head, winking at AJ on my way back out of the stock room. "No ma'am, I was just here to talk to Miss Williams about displaying my Vengeance University line here at this location, but it appears she's sick today. I'll come back at a better time. Thank you for your time, Miss Shields."

I made my way out into the hectic mall, only one think on my mind. I wasn't sure what was going on, but Lily Ann was up to something, and she had the other girls helping her. I had noticed it earlier when I called Jimmy, and Cole answered his phone in that prissy, clipped way of hers. Johnny wouldn't even answer his phone, but sent a text saying he was spending the day with Kayla, and wouldn't be able to talk. I slipped my black Ray Bans back on and made my way back out into the intense California heat, pulling my cell phone out as I went.

"Hey man, I'm on my way over there. We have some shit to discuss, and some loose ends that need to be clipped the fuck off."

LILY ANN

"I swear, I didn't tell him where you were. I just told him I thought you were sick and that you didn't call in."

I could hear the frantic note to AJ's voice, and my heart wept for her. I felt like shit putting her in the situation that I did, but I really had no other choice. I knew Zacky would be there today to pick me up for lunch, and I couldn't be around him right now. I knew that no matter what truth had been revealed to me in the video last night, I was still in danger of his charming smile and velvet voice.

"Honey, it's fine. I believe you, and I have to thank you again for helping me out with this. You don't know what it means to me," I said into the phone, wincing as Kayla gingerly cleaned the cuts on my knuckles with antiseptic soap. "I don't think he's going to stop looking for you, Lily. He scared the shit out of me when he was here," she whispered, obviously trying to keep her voice down while at work. I relaxed once Kayla started wrapping my hand up, after thoroughly examining it to make sure all of the glass was out of my skin. Fucking mirror...

"Fuck, okay, just try to avoid him if he comes back in. Tell Amos to watch the store and lock yourself in the office if you need to. I'll come get you if he makes a scene," I said, whispering a quick thank you to Kayla as she made her way back to the bathroom with the little first aid kit. AJ and I said our goodbyes, and I leaned forward on the couch, resting my head in my hands and groaning. What the fuck was happening? When the fuck did all of this go so wrong? How ironic was it that out of everyone in the fucking world, I had to end up with an incredibly suave and classy psychopath?

I had called Reggie earlier to let her know I was hiding out at Kayla's and that I probably wouldn't be able to make it to the hospital today, which she assured me was fine. Of course, I could hear Jimmy sqwaking in the background and Cole calling her hello's, so I knew she would be fine. The guys weren't exactly sure what was going on, and I was afraid to tell them considering their close relationship. I had seen how hard this had been on Matt yesterday morning before the hearing, so I knew finding out that not one, but two of his longtime best friends were wack jobs.

Kayla came back into the living room, all bright eyed and bushy tailed, and handed me a beer. I smiled gratefully at her and tilted my head to the side. "Thanks, Kay. Do you have anything a little stronger?" I asked, batting my eyelashes and offering her my best grin. Johnny chuckled from behind her, nearly disappearing behind her near identical height, and passed me a frosty bottle of Jack. "Already done. Figured you'd need something else to help you out," he said warmly.

I wasn't able to avoid informing Johnny about the real nature of my busted up hand and secretive visit. He had taken it pretty well, all things considered, and had thrown Zacky off the trail when he had tried to call earlier. The guys may give Johnny a lot of shit, but he was a pretty great guy. He plopped himself down in the arm chair near the TV and popped the top off of his beer, taking a long drink and propping his feet up on the leather ottoman in front of him. He had kind of, sort of, not really told Jimmy that I was hiding out from Zacky, which had resulted in a lot of questions. Johnny had finally told him that we were playing an intense game of hide and seek and that I was killing at the game. I'm not sure if he bought it, but he seemed satisfied by the reason. Jimmy...you have to love him.

I took a long drink from the bottle, hissing at the familiar burn in my throat, and sat back, cradling the bottle like it was a precious commodity. Well, in my situation, it pretty much was. Kayla folded herself up on the couch next to me, absent mindedly tracing the outlines of the tattoos on her arm and tucking her legs under the floral summer dress she was wearing. "So, Lily," Johnny started from his post on the other side of the living room, "are you crashing her tonight? You know you're always welcome to sleep in the guest room. And don't mind any screaming noises," he smirked, gesturing over to where Kayla sat.

She arched a brow and snickered, glancing over at me. "Or any giggling." She pointed at him and I nearly choked on the liquor as it went down. I wasn't trying to get trashed, but maybe numb would be a good place. Yea, numb would be a perfect place. I wiped the dribbled liquor off of my chin and shook my head. "Nah, that's okay, guys. I appreciate it, but I'm going to sleep at home tonight."

"You sure? We really don't mind," Johnny said, pressing a button on the remote and glancing up at the screen. Our eyes widened and Johnny's mouth hung open as he watched the E! Entertainment News special about the "Downward Spiral Towards the GATES of Hell", an expose on Brian's arrest and impending trial. I didn't realize that the story would come out this fast, but I knew without a doubt that they would be grasping at straws, filling in blanks that were less than accurate.

I flinched as one of the voices mentioned the premature death of Avenged Sevenfold as they knew it, considering it to be useless trying to find a guitarist to fill Brian's shoes. It went from simply not being able to replace the lead guitarist, to speculating on whether or not the entire band had a skeleton filled closet that they were hiding behind. Great, that's going to go over so well...

Johnny promptly changed the channel, looking for something else to fill the shocked silence of the room, when his phone started going off. He looked down and winced before answering it. He didn't even manage to greet the caller before he was forced to pull the phone away from his ear to prevent any damage to his ear drums.

"DID YOU SEE THAT FUCKING SHIT?! THIS IS GOING TO END OUR GOD DAMN CAREERS, ALL BECAUSE OF THIS FUCKING INSANITY!"

"Whoa, whoa, hey Matt, calm the FUCK DOWN!" Johnny shouted into the phone, trying to silence the beast on the other end. I chewed nervously on my thumb nail, gripping Kayla's hand and watching Johnny as he tried to diffuse the situation. After a few more seconds of incomprehensible shouting and growling, Johnny finally placed the phone back to his ear. "Yea, I fucking know....does it look like I have any idea? No...well, yea, I guess...what the fuck?! God dammit...okay, okay...catch ya later, bro."

I watched him wordlessly for a minute as he laid the phone down in his lap and resumed his search in finding something better to watch on TV. I slowly began counting to ten in my head, waiting for him to enlighten us with that charming conversation. 1...2...3... He chuckled as he put on Tom and Jerry, reclining back in the Lay-Z-Boy. 4...5...6... He snickered at Tom, who had been smashed by another frying pan. 7...8...fucking 9... He gestured over to us with his beer bottle, stopping suddenly when he noticed the odd shade of red that my face had turned to. 10...

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT SHIT ABOUT, CHRIST?!" I shouted, slamming the bottle down on the wooden coffee table in front of me. He recoiled slightly, and Kayla instantly shot up, prepared to hold me back if the need arose. I really didn't mean to shout at him the way I did. Johnny was just as sweet and slightly ADHD as Jimmy, and he really couldn't help himself when he got side tracked. Especially when he was trying to avoid a dramatic fallout like the one he was knee deep in now.

He paused for a second, then seemed to shake off the fear that I had instilled into him. "Oh that?" He gestured to his phone, and then threw his hands up defensively when I gritted my teeth. "Fuck, yea, sorry. Matt was pissed off because of that shit on TV. Larry's talking about canceling the tour we have scheduled for the self-titled shit, but he's giving us until Friday to figure out what to do about Brian and this legal shit before he makes a definite call."

I let out a gasping breath, realizing that I had been holding it ever since my outburst. I recapped the liquor bottle and carried it into the kitchen, shoving it back on ice in the freezer and rubbing my hands together. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know where to go. I couldn't just sit here and hide from the fucking world though. I pulled out a cigarette and stepped onto the back patio, lighting it and inhaling the delicious nicotine that sent relaxing shivers through my body.

I couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching me, but when I turned around to look back into the house, I noticed Kayla and Johnny were sitting with their backs to me, talking. I frowned and glanced around the yard, unable to really see anything with the privacy fence. I stepped off of the patio and into the lush grass, taking another hit off of my cigarette and scanning the beautiful little zen garden and gazebo. Johnny swore that those things came with the house, but I had a feeling he liked to come out here quite a bit.

I chuckled and shook my head, trying to shake away the uneasy feeling that crawled up my spine, and mashed the cigarette butt into the ashtray. I let my eyes graze the yard one more time before slipping back into the house.

MATT

I was starting to get worried. AJ should have been back from work by now, but I hadn't heard from her since earlier this afternoon. My eyes jumped to the clock again. 10:46pm. Yea, something was seriously fucking wrong. Spencer's was only open until the mall closed, which was around 9:00 today.

I had been pacing back and forth across the living room floor, surprised that I hadn't carved out a trench in the plush carpet. My phone was sitting on the table, mocking me with silence. I had been holding it earlier, but tossed it down when I felt the phone give a little in my clenched fist. A broken phone wouldn't help right now.

I heard the front door open and spun around, watching the living room archway expectantly, and was immediately disappointed when Jimmy, Cole, and Lily Ann strolled in. "Hey, bro, what's crack-a-lackin'?" Jimmy called in a sing-song voice, apparently oblivious to my obvious inner turmoil. Cole grabbed his arm, shaking her head, and he immediately calmed down.

"Matt?" Lily Ann asked softly, stepping up to me. "Where is AJ?" I stared at her for what seemed like forever, my red rimmed eyes swollen from all of the horrible things I had imagined. See, AJ was never later. Ever. She always answered her phone, and always made sure to check in. However, she had seemed a little nervous earlier when I spoke to her, and it made me uneasy then. But I remembered she had a meeting with the DM today, so I brushed it off as a sign of the jitters.

Now, not so much.

"I don't fucking know! She won't answer her phone, and I haven't talked to her since this afternoon!" I shouted, dropping down onto the couch and feeling a tingling sensation in my legs, a sign of just how much and how long I had been walking back and forth. I let my head fall into my hands, unsure of what to even say or do right now. I wasn't giving up, but I was feeling pretty god damn unstable at the moment.

When she didn't respond, I glanced up to see her tapping the screen of her phone. As she placed it to her ear, I shook my head. "She won't answer," I muttered, casting my gaze back down to the rug. Suddenly, a sharp gasp caused my head to snap up, and I drank in the terrified expression on her face.

I stood up, trying to grab her attention, but she just stood still, the phone still to her ear and her eyes plastered to the wall.

LILY ANN

*ring ring ring*

"She won't answer," I heard Matt say, his tone defeated and just...sad. When he had told me that she hadn't answered all day, I immediately felt a growing ball of dread consume me. He wouldn't. He couldn't.

*click* "Hey baby, did you miss me?"

Oh but he fucking did...

Notes

Hello, my love muffins! I know, I know, it's been a little wait since the last chapter. Can I blame ADHD?! :)

I should mention that these are some pretty fucking lovely stories to check out while you wait on my slow ass!

A pretty fucking sick beginning to what I know will be great by the amazing StallionDuckie -> Rock And Roll Roulette

The amazing collabo by my lovelies, KWally and SynysterRyn - > Carry On