"I felt you in my legs
Before I even met you
And when I laid beside you
For the first time
I told you
I feel you in my heart,
And I don't even know you
Now we're saying
Bye, bye, bye."
The heavy raindrops beat against the window, strong wind making the building creak. Willow woke with a start, scrambling to sit up-right, kicking the covers off, cold sweat gathering at her forehead and the back of her neck. The frail girl jumped when a clash of thunder rumbled, causing the thin white walls to shake. She sighed and looked around, she wasn't used to the room being this empty - wasn't used to the other half of the bed still being partially made when she woke up. She slipped out of bed and stood up, hugging herself from the draft that had chilled the room as she peered around the tiny room that was barely big enough to fit just her bed. Her wide gaze flitted about as if she expected someone to walk right in.
"Stop being so paranoid." She mumbled to herself, but she embarrassingly let out a small yelp when the thunder and lightning clashed again. Shaking her head quickly, she tiptoed to the bathroom - still used to having to be quiet in the mornings - and turned the faucet on, splashing cold water on her face. With a shaky sigh, she finally looked at her reflection.
It was not a healthy nor happy face that stared dully back at her.
She looked like she'd just seen a ghost - a signature look, on her part. Her normally pasty skin had grown two shades paler, and the dark circles under her eyes were more defined in the light. Eyelids still drooping, her bright eyes seemed unnaturally bland to her, the small dent of a scar on her forehead also showing more clearly, since she had no makeup on to cover it up. The little fleck of a burn mark on her left cheek also showed, and Willow visibly winced at such memories that were connected with those marks - memories she would prefer to forget.
Willow's mind was slow-moving, though, and she held onto information like a sponge - the memories trickled in, despite her silent pleas for them to go away.
"I dunno! I swear! I swear!" A small child's voice screamed out. This wasn't like the interrogations in the cop shows she had used to watch when her parents weren't in the room - this was something much, much worse. The flame was brought closer to her face, the flames taunting her as they heated up her skin, sweat trickling down her cheeks - mixing with her tears.
"What did he do to her?" The male voice asked, as the person holding her wrists together tightened their grip, and she cried out.
Willow audibly cried out, clutching at the bathroom counter, pushing the memory out of her head. They were gone, they weren't coming back. She was safe - or at least, that was what she was trying to convince herself of.
She ran a hand through her hair, fluffing up some of her frizzy, slept-on curls. Logan, the name like a murmur inside her head. Perhaps thinking of him wasn't all too pleasant for her either, but it was better than the memories, so she let the thoughts in.
Seeing him had... frightened her. No, that was an understatement - it had completely scared her out of her wits, causing her to act in peculiar ways. Logan's face was something she had always connected to that night she had been taken from her home. He had left her there, screaming and pleading that she didn't want to go home. You guys were nine, cut him some slack. She thought to herself, but the twisting of her stomach told her what she already knew: Logan was smart, even back then, he should have realized the problem was deeper than just wanting to stay out into the woods.
"Will!" She heard someone yell from outside her apartment door, and for a second she let her head raise, wondering if someone was calling for her - and she quickly stopped herself there. No one had called her 'Will' since Logan, and there was someone across the hall named Will, anyways. She liked her internship - really, she did. Gustavo seemed a bit... over-bearing, but at least Kelly was nice - pleasant, even. Willow could have honestly seen herself learning the trade of the business, maybe even moving on to receive an actual job, getting herself into a better part of L.A. where drug deals weren't committed every evening right outside her building. The sight of Logan and his Minnesota friends, however, shattered those little fantasies and she knew there was only one thing she could do now: call and cancel her internship, and never, ever return to that building again.
She bit her lower lip in thought, absentmindedly running her fingers through the small knots in her hair and working through them, as the storm outside was slowly starting to die out. Her gaze slid over to her cell phone laying on the counter every few seconds, trying to find it in her heart to end something she had been looking so forward to. Logan's face materialized itself in her mind and she sighed, not being able to help herself as she thought about how much he had changed. Grabbing her elbow like that? That was not the gentle, shy child she had grown to become fond of during her short time in Duluth. Willow thought of his friends, the rest of the band, that had also been there.
Oh, she remembered them, as well. Kendall had always put up with her when she tagged along with Logan, but their differences had kept them from ever getting along, Carlos had liked her – to an extent, but even at such a young age she thought him immature, willing to believe anything. Willow was and still isn't the smartest person around, but she always had passing grades and learned quickly – and she never, ever, put up with stupid people. It was one of her many rules for life. James… how did Willow describe James? He had always been the one she could never stand, mainly because he was the only one of Logan's little group that wasn't afraid to speak his mind against her. They butted heads constantly, and were always seeking out new ways to put each other down. James was a bit of snob, even then, and took the gossip about the Patterson's he heard from his parents to heart.
If Willow was there, James wouldn't want to come, that was all there was to it. Many people thought it was one of those childhood crushes that were only expressed through playful smacks and sarcastic remarks, but it sure as hell wasn't – at least not to Willow, who hated most children in town, particularly the boys. Logan was really the only exception to all those rules and expectations she had set up for herself back then, and he had been her only and best friend.
A door down the hall slammed, the sound echoing throughout the place and a baby starting crying. Willow took a peek at the alarm clock on her bed-side table, the glowing letters announcing it was just barely past two in the morning. Her sleep schedule was extremely messy, especially when a storm was about and disturbing her sleep. She slept mostly throughout the late afternoon, only up for a few hours between six and nine before she would crawl back into bed – only to be awoken by something (whether it be dreams, storms, or her loud neighbors) at around two in the morning. She'd grown accustomed to it, though, and thought it to be normal – at least to her standards.
Finally deciding she wasn't going to be getting anymore sleep for quite some time, she closed the bathroom door and got in the shower, standing under the water for a good twenty minutes – letting the hot water practically scald her. As the temperature started to waver, she shut the water off, pulling the curtain back and getting out, wrapping a green towel around herself and grabbing another one to dry her hair with. Even at two thirty in the morning, her apartment building was still a lively place, and a chorus of laughter floated through the wall from the room next door. To drown it out, she turned the radio on her alarm clock up, one of the top hits stations coming in and playing Lady Antebellum's 'I run to you'. She didn't particularly care for the country sound to it, but kept it on anyways, combing through her hair and laying out some clothes on her bed.
Just then, the chorus of 'I know what I am' by Band of Skulls cut through the song from the bathroom – her ringtone playing obnoxiously loud from her cellphone. She tightened the towel around herself as she shivered before padding over to it, flipping it open and putting it to her ear without thinking of checking the caller I.D. She'd changed her number so many times, it was a wonder anybody had it.
"Hello?" She chirped into it, as chipper as someone could possibly be at this hour, walking over to turn the music down. There was a hesitation on the other end, before it finally crackled to life, and her blood ran cold.
"Yes… is this Willow... Willow Hopkins?" The voice asked, chuckling as it said her fake last name.
Kendall and James had helped Logan back to his room, and he couldn't help but feel a bit of embarrassment. Throwing up in front of everybody had definitely not been his plan. His legs still felt weak, and his head throbbed.
They had left to go back down to the recording booth, and Logan laid in his bed, the lights off and the only sound interrupting his thoughts were the wind from the storm brewing up outside. He tossed and turned, usually being able to fall asleep quickly – especially when he felt this horrible. But Willow's face kept appearing every time he shut his eyes. What was she doing here? The last he'd even heard of her was that the police had tracked her kidnappers down to Ohio, and then nothing ever that. It was like the case had vanished into thin air.. and why had she seemed so scared? The only other time he had seen her act like that was the very last time he had seen her, in the woods.
With a groan, he gave in, grabbing his laptop off the desk and opening up an internet tab, googling 'Willow Patterson kidnapping', scanning through the various articles that popped up. They all said the same thing, that at nine o'clock on a Saturday, two men had broken into the Patterson house, taking the little girl with them, and a week into the case, Mr. Patterson had suspiciously packed up and moved back down south.
His eyelids were drooping, and after about an hour of reading he shut the top of it, setting it to the side and laying back down. He eventually fell asleep, even though it was much lighter than his usually deep sleep, and sometimes later he heard Carlos let himself in, shuffle around a bit and then leave again.
A few hours later, he cracked his eyes open, looking around and stretching out, then blinking when lightning flashed through the window. He got up and closed the curtains, noticing how bad the storm seemed to be getting. Great, just another thing to make this week worse than it already was. He thought, rubbing his temple and pushing his hair back. In truth, he felt better, the nauseous feeling completely gone, although his head still ached, leaving just minor symptoms of what could be considered a minor head cold. He pulled a sweatshirt on over his t-shirt and walked out into the main area of the apartment, surprised to find it empty besides Katie and James. Katie was sprawled out on the couch, remote in hand as she boredly flipped through channels, while James sat on a chair, rambling on.
"So, anyway, this chick, is like… eight on the scale, right? That's pretty good, considering it's been dry around here. So, I found out she's buddy buddy with Bitters' niece, and they live in the South Central, which is kinda scary but she was totally staring at me, so it's worth a shot, right?" He babbled, and Katie made a 'uh-huh' noise, too focused on her channel flipping to really listen. Logan's stomach twisted with disgust as he guessed James was talking about Willow. If he really knew who it was, he probably wouldn't think she was so hot. He went over to the kitchen, grabbing a glass out of a cabinet when James' words really sunk in, and he nearly dropped the glass, fumbling with it until he was sure he had a hold on it. She was friends with Bitters' niece? Bitters had family? He wondered, brow furrowed in puzzlement – Bitters didn't seem like the kind of guy that would really give a rat's ass about his family, but it could explain how Willow knew about the internship.
"What about Bitters' niece?" He asked cautiously, filling the glass up with water before taking a slow sip. James looked up, grinning smugly.
"Apparently, Bitters' has a niece named Ari. She lives a bit more south from here, real good friends with that hot new intern Kelly's training." James replied with a nod, then added quickly. "How ya feeling?"
"Fine. Better." Logan replied, finishing up his water before peering out the kitchen window at the storm outside, which was slowly dying out. "So, are you on a mission or something with that Willow girl?" He was curious, although he wasn't quite ready to admit his fears about her being the Willow from Minnesota to anybody yet – he wasn't even a hundred percent sure himself.
"You could call it that." He flashed a grin. "Bitters neice is coming by in two hours, then I turn on the charm and bam!" He hit his hand on the arm of the chair for emphasis. "I got her number, and access to the friend." In Logan's opinion, that sounded like a really big douche move – even for James. Using a girl to get to her friend? He shook his head, annoyance bubbling up within himself.
"Well, good luck with that. Hopefully this girl will be smart." He said, heading back to his bedroom. "I'm going back to bed." James just nodded, silently going through his 'plan' in his mind.
Sometimes, Logan had no idea why he hung out with the guys.
Sometimes, he missed how easy it had been to talk to Willow.
"I was nineteen
(call me)
Flew home,
Back to where we met
Stayed inside
I was so upset
Cooked up a plan,
So good except
I was all alone
You were all I had
Love you
You were all mine
Love me."
- Nineteen / Teagan and Sara.
Gah! I had hoped to get this up sooner, oh well. It was a bit short, I was going to add another characters P.O.V (hinthint: they talk about her in Logan's P.O.V!) but I ran outta time, and I really wanted to get this uploaded over the weekend (I was going to try to find time for it tonight, but I'm going to a hockey game soon and this was the only time I had D:) Anyway, this chapter was a bunch of nonsense, and nothing really important happened. xD
I really hope hearing from Willow's point of view added to the whole suspense of this story I have going, though ^-^.
Pointing out this story will mainly be told from Logan, with the odd Willow and possibly this mysterious Ari thrown in.
Enjoy!
J.
