by different author

Disclaimer: I don't own anything involved in this story.

Chapter 2


Carlos sprinted into the apartment, immediately heading towards the swirly slide. "SWIRLY SLIDE!" he screamed, climbing into it and quickly scrambling to the top. "WHOO!" He threw himself headfirst back into the slide and happily slid down, crashing into the floor as he reached the end of the ride. Kendall and Logan watched in amusement as their friend ran around the apartment. Finally Carlos stopped and looked around, frowning. "Where's James?" he asked. Kendall and Logan looked around. "James?" Kendall called out. There was no answer. "James?" he said a little louder. Logan walked over to James' room and looked in. "He's not in there," he reported, frowning. "He probably got bored and went down to the pool," Carlos said. Logan shook his head. "We would have seen him," he pointed out. "Well maybe he ran out of hair products and went to get some," Kendall said. "I guess," Logan mumbled, but doubt clouded his thoughts.

"You wanna be famous! Famous. You wanna be the one who's living the life…" All three boys looked up as James' ringtone filled the room. Carlos ran into the kitchen and found James' cell phone on the floor. He crossed the room and picked it up. "Hello?" he said as he answered the phone. "Hello? James?" a man's voice asked from the other end of the line. "No, this is Carlos," the Latino said cheerfully. "Carlos! So good to hear from you, son!" the man said enthusiastically. "You too! Um, uh, who is this again?" Carlos asked hesitantly. The man laughed. "It's me, Steve Diamond! James' dad? Speaking of James, is he there?" Carlos looked around, as if he thought James would suddenly appear, but he didn't, so he answered, "Um, no, I think he stepped out for a while. I'll have him call you when he comes back." There was a pause on the other end of the line before Mr. Diamond responded. "Okay, thank you. Tell him that if he calls after four I'll be home, so he should call the house so that his mother and I can talk to him together." For some reason, he suddenly sounded worried, but Carlos quickly shook it off. "Sure thing Mr. Diamond. I'll have him call you. Okay, bye."

Carlos hung up and met his friends' curious looks. "That was James' dad," he explained. Kendall and Logan nodded in understanding. "So…" Kendall said as the boys lapsed into silence. "What should we do now?" Logan answered first. "I think we should go look for James." Kendall gave him a weird look. "Why? I'm sure he's fine." Logan shrugged. "I don't know, I just think we should look for him. I have this weird feeling about all this. Plus, if he just ran to the store or something, why didn't he take his phone?" Kendall said nothing, not sure how to respond. "Ok," he finally said. "Let's split up. Carlos, you look down by the pool and the lobby. Logan, you head over to Palm Woods Park. I'll go to the store around the corner to see if he's there." The others nodded and took off in search of the missing friend.

Two hours later…

"Any luck?" Kendall asked as he joined his friends around the pool. They shook their heads. Kendall frowned. "Okay, now I'm starting to worry. What should we do?" Logan shrugged. "There's not much we can do," he said calmly, trying to hide his growing apprehension. The boys looked at each other unhappily. It upset them that James hadn't even bothered to leave a note saying where he was going. When he got back, James was a dead man.

"He'll probably walk in any minute," Carlos said. The others said nothing. They just watched the door, willing James to walk in with a huge bag of hair products, but nothing happened. Kendall sighed. Where was James?


James opened his eyes slowly and immediately closed them as light attacked his pupils, making his head pound. He lay there for a few minutes, waiting for the pain to subside, and quickly became aware of how uncomfortable he was. He was lying on his back with his arms twisted underneath him. His legs were bent at a weird angle and something was pressed against his mouth. He wanted to move, but he was feeling too tired to do anything. Why does everything hurt so bad? he wondered. Then it all came rushing back. His eyes snapped open and he looked around him in a panic. His arms and legs were tied together and a piece of tape was stuck firmly across his mouth. He was in the back of what appeared to be a van. A man was sitting on a bench near him but hadn't noticed that he was conscious yet.

He had been kidnapped again. Why did this have to happen to him? He'd done some bad things in his life, but nothing that made him deserved to be kidnapped not once, but twice. This couldn't be happening. People only got kidnapped in movies and books. Not in real life. Not in his life. One time was unlikely to ever happen, but twice? That was just crazy. Crazy, he realized, and his reality.

James lay there, unmoving, and was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice that the man who was with him was staring at him. The man stood up and James snapped to attention, watching his every move as the man walked to a small, barred window that separated the part of the van James was in from the driver. "He's awake," the man said quietly, still watching James. Someone up front said something that James couldn't quite make out, but whatever it was didn't make the man very happy. "But-" he started to argue. The other guy cut him off. "Jack…" he said warningly. The man, Jack, stopped talking, but he was clearly upset. "Fine," he muttered, sitting back down. James watched silently, not sure what he should do. He knew he needed to escape, but there wasn't much he could do in a moving van tied up like he was. If only Kendall were here. He'd know what to do, he thought to himself. Kendall! His thoughts turned to his friends, who were probably back from the pool and wondering where he was. How long would it take for them to realize something was wrong? He could only hope and pray that they would figure it out fast and call the police. He wasn't sure what these guys had planned for him, but after seeing himin the apartment… James shuddered. Nothing good was going to come of this.

His thoughts were jumping around, and finally landed on the man from the apartment. He knew him. His name was Samuel Stenwell, and he was the one who had lured James out of his front yard ten years ago and taken him from his family. He had been sentenced to 20 years in jail and another year for starting a prison riot. What was he doing out? And more importantly, what was he going to do to James? The boy felt himself trembling as unwanted images of all things Samuel could do to him invaded his brain. Samuel wanted revenge, that much was obvious, but what was he going to do to get it?

Without warning the van turned sharply onto a bumpy road, throwing James against the wall. He let out a cry of pain as his head slammed into the metal, sending a fresh wave of pain through his head. The van jumped as it drove over the rocky road, causing James to be tossed around the van. Finally, the van pulled to a stop. James let out a sigh of relief as he finally stopped moving, but his remission was short lived as the back doors of the van were thrown open, blinding him as bright light streamed in. Strong hands grabbed him by the shoulders and he felt himself being dragged out of the van. He saw Samuel smirking down at him as he was pulled into an old, rundown house. He was thrown to the ground and Samuel stood over him. "And so it begins," he said evilly.