OKay, no jasper yet but this is chapter's important to the plot. I promise you'll get some angry, over protective, angst Jasper for most of the story after this point! On a better note, we see a little of Edward, that's always good!
***BTW check out my profile I added a bunch of pictures of the characters. Tell me what you think! PLEASE REVIEW!!
Chapter Three: Help! I need somebody! Help!
Fifteen minutes later, Rosalie turned into my driveway; I was out of the car before it stopped moving. Thankfully, Edward's Mustang was still parked in front of our house, not that he could actually help me figure out where these kids were, but he was excellent moral support. Rosalie and Mike sprinted to catch up to me as I flung the door open it and shouted, "Eddie, I need you!!!!"
Edward popped his head out of his room. "You have no idea how many times a day I hear that. It takes on a different meaning when a girl besides my little sister says it, if you get my drift," he said with a smirk. What a goober.
"Yes, I get it. Thanks for clarifying. I'm sure Bella would love to hear about it someday, too, but Edward, I had a vision of a kidnapping…."
"What? I'll get the car; we'll take care of this." See what I mean about Edward being an awesome brother.
"No, no, no. Me, Rosalie, and Mike already solved that problem, but there are other kids that are still missing. I have their pictures, but I don't know if I can find them." I filled him in on all the details; he was particularly amused by the Kung-Fu moves that I employed on Mr. Fake-Rhode-Island-Accent.
After I finished, he nodded his head as the information sunk in. "Okay, the first thing you should do is make sure that the police arrested the weirdo. Just as a precaution. Then, I'll throw on some comfort music…what do you say to Counting Crows?" I nodded. The Counting Crows always relaxed me; Edward knew me well. "We'll find those kids, Al. Don't worry."
"Thanks, Edward." I said sincerely. Quickly, I scanned the near future for proof of the creep's arrest. And guess what I saw? Not prison bars like I was expecting, oh no! I saw the young girl bound and gagged in the back of the van, our attempts apparently having no effect on her unfortunate future whatsoever. I was incredulous, to say the least. What kind of idiot continues to kidnap a girl after being knocked unconscious and pepper sprayed? Talk about persistent. And where were the bloody police? I was actually curious enough to take a circuitous route to answer this question which involved fast forwarding to see the arrival of the cops and, once I knew who to look for, backtracking again to the time of the crime. Whoever said that generalizations are for the most part incorrect is totally trippin' on something because (if you'll believe it) the cops that were supposed to be arresting Mr. Fake-Rhode-Island-Accent were munching on Krispy Kreme Donuts. What lazy asses! Seriously, they're really making this whole superhero thing so much harder than it really needs to be. Edward noticed my troubled expression as my eyes fluttered open.
"What's wrong?" He asked reproachfully.
"Small problem. Actually, humungous problem! The cops are too busy being fat asses to take the call I phoned in!" I shouted.
"What time is it? We can report a kidnapping in progress, that'll get them moving," Mike suggested.
Rosalie quickly whipped out her phone in response to Mike's statement. "It's 9:20. We still have three minutes," she was already dialing 9-1-1 when I stopped her.
"No! I used your phone for the first call. We don't want the cops getting suspicious. Edward, I need your phone." He had already unclipped his Samsung Glyde and was in the process of tossing it to me. I dexterously caught it and dialed 9-1-1. The dispatcher answered promptly.
Wasting no time, I rushed into my description of the emergency that was about to go down. "I needed about ten zillion squad cars down at East Narragansett Elementary School on Parker Street, pronto! There's a kidnapping in progress!" I screeched. I heard Mike telling me to calm down in the background. Believe me, if I could calm down, I would.
"Okay, Miss I'm sending a car down now…"
"Make sure they hurry up…"
"Please, Miss. Remain calm." Do people really expect me to be calm at a time like this? "Now, tell me what the victim and the perpetrator look like, if you could."
"The girl is about three and a half feet tall, dark brown hair, Caucasian…probably about eight. The kidnapper looks about 45, balding and is wicked ugly. He's driving a white van with Illinois license plates...umm…number…XX-236, I think! Hurry, I'll try to get help!" I slid the phone shut.
"Nice cover, Ali," Mike complimented as I handed Edward back his phone. I figured it would be beneficial to make it sound like I was at the scene of the crime and avoid stating my name.
I scanned the future for the third time in the past twenty minutes and was once again met with a dismal outcome. "They're not gonna make it," I informed them.
"Where does the van go? It'll be easier to track the van than trying to discern the whereabouts of the missing children through pictures," Edward advised.
"That's true," I said seeing the reason behind his assertion. I closed my eyes and sifted through the avalanche of images that came barreling through my head. It took me less than a second to locate the white van that was harboring the little girl and the pedophile as it crossed the Massachusetts state line. I zoomed farther into the future and witnessed the van pass a sign that read: Welcome to Concord—and then turn on to a long dirt driveway that led to a rundown colonial farmhouse. If you've ever seen Texas Chainsaw Massacre it would be easy to picture this house because it looks exactly like the one in the movie. I was seriously expecting to see Jessica Biel come screaming out the front door with a crazed ax-murder on her heels. Instead of a young vivacious actress, however, a skeevy looking middle-aged dude came crashing through the rotted porch door and slung the little girl over his shoulder while Mr. Fake-Rhode-Island-Accent followed in tow. Bingo! I found possibly the creepiest bad guy liar in all of history. Now what do I do?
"Well…where are they?" Mike shouted in anticipation. One day I'd really like to tell him to go see Madam Chloe if he wants his fortune told. I mean, seriously, they think it's so easy to be psychic and they expect me to be able to see whatever I fancy. But it's not that simple. I guess I'm partially to blame for their false convictions. I mean, it's not their fault that the only psychic they know just happens to be boss at seeing the future. Of course, this was a serious situation and demanded immediate action so I answered truthfully.
"They brought her to Concord, Mass. The others must be there, too"
"What? Why the hell would some creep drive two hours just to kidnap somebody?" Rosalie asked confused.
"Not only that, but he had no way of knowing if there even would be an opportunity to grab that girl," Mike added.
Edward sat on the overstuffed couch, his brow furrowed in deep thought. "What do you mean by 'they?' Are we dealing with more than one psycho?"
"Yeah. There was another man that came out of house when the van pulled in the driveway. He kind of took charge, I'm figuring that the guy in the parking lot was sent to do the dirty work, you know? Like a lackey or something," I informed them.
"That still doesn't tell us why he was in Narragansett. Did your tarot cards tell you the answer to that question?" Mike stated sharply. He was developing quite the attitude. Maybe it had something to do with my desecration of the sacred idol that was his iPhone.
"Whoa, Mi. Why don't you take a chill pill before she bitch slaps you in the face? Either that or you could call up a cab to take you back to school. Oh wait…you don't have a phone. Too bad. I guess you'll just have to sit here and shut your obnoxious mouth!" Rosalie exclaimed. I had to give her props for her superb usage of the classic "you don't have a cell phone" line (believe me I should know, she used variations of this bash on me numerous time).
"Thank you, Rose. Mike, I thought you would have been able to reason through that particular question easily. Maybe you should go on Wikipedia to check the date out. That should be easy enough with the internet capability of your iPhone…ohh, shucks. Silly me," I broke off in sarcastic chuckles as Rosalie keeled over with laughter. She high-fived me as Mike turn beet red with annoyance. I do realize that I'm the one who broke his phone and as a friend, should probably not be throwing this in his face, but he went a little too far with his tarot card remark. "But anyway, it's September 1st, and that means that it's the first day of school. Chances are that some confused kid will wonder off school grounds and not even realize it. The elementary school teachers are all ancient, there's no way they can keep track of all those little tykes. As for why they chose Narragansett, I can only assume that they were lured in by the rockin', beach-bronzed bods of us Rhode Islanders. That and the fact that they can't always fish in the same pond, if you get my drift. If they choose random locations to steal these kids from, it makes it harder for the police to find them," I finished with a smug in-your-face expression.
"That makes sense. I've haven't even heard about any kidnappings on the news," Edward said.
"So should we call the cops?" Rosalie asked.
"We can't call the cops. How the hell would a few seventeen year old kids in another state know where to find a bunch of missing children? It's wicked sketchy. We'd have the police knocking on our door in no time," I replied.
"What do we do, then?" Rosalie asked again.
"You guys get back in that car and go to school. Mom is going to kill you when she finds out you're bunking on the first day. The same goes with me. I have my first class in fifteen minutes and I'm sure mom wouldn't appreciate it if I threw away twelve grand by missing my first lesson." After seeing my incredulous expression he added, "Don't worry, I'll think up a plan, but I think we should consider calling the cops."
"Are you crazy?"
"Listen, Al. This isn't some 7/11 robbery we're dealing with. There are a bunch a kids locked in some sicko's basement enduring God knows what. You don't know what these guys are gonna to do to them," he said in a rush.
"I might not know now, but I can find out," I yelled back. The timeline appeared before me, yet again. I normally don't looking into the future this many times in one day. It gets wicked annoying and exhausting, but I had to check to see if Edward's fears were justified. As much as I would hate to be a science experiment in a governmental lab, I would hate it more if some little kids got hurt because I refused to tell the authorities what I saw. I concentrated hard on the image of the rat-faced man that I had beat up and carefully selected the event that seemed the most promising.
I was inside the rundown farm house. It was equally as creepy from inside as it appeared to be from the outside. The white paint had long since chipped away, leaving behind stray specks of dirty white against the rotting wood paneling. Unexpectedly, however, a gray linen sheet hung from the ceiling directly in front of a high-tech computer with a web cam attacked to the monitor which was perched on a rickety desk in the corner of the dilapidate room. Apparently our little friends were amateur filmmakers. Suddenly, the living room door swung open on its one remaining hinge and both the men entered into my line of sight. Mr. Fake-Rhode-Island-Accent followed the burly, middle-aged man into the room with sulking shoulders, as if he expected a rebuke at any given moment. His concerns seemed to have a substantiated origin because the first man whipped around and faced him with an annoyed and malicious gleam in his beady, black eyes. "You are absolutely worthless!!!!! WORTHLESS!!!! Do you realize that you could have ruined my entire plan?!!!"
"James, I'm saary. It was that li'l bitch who attack me outta nowea'!!! But, I sweah there was no haahm done!!! I got the Culkin girl just like ya told me ta!!!" he pleaded in his completely annoying accent. I wasn't too sure why he was still employing it.
"Will you STOP it with that ridiculous accent?!!! And yes, you got the girl, but only on pure luck. It was pure coincidence that she happened to get lost and wander straight to your van! But I still had a huge mess to pick up because of your stupidity!!!" the man named James screeched. Mr. Fake-Rhode-Island-Accent drew circles with the tips of his sneakers in a manner that reminded me of my three year old cousin when my uncle yelled at him. "You are SOOO lucky that the cops didn't identify the missing girl until after I informed the parents of our little auction here!!! You are SOOO lucky I'm so much smarter than you are."
"I know, James," the man had lost his cheesy RI accent, thank God. "What did you tell them?"
James gave the man a disgusted look before saying, "Laurent, you may well be the biggest waste of space in the world!! I had to employ my notorious wit and order those millionaire bastards to tell the police that the girl's uncle had picked her up and there was no need to worry. I assume it worked out well, lucky for you. Now, make your stupid ass useful and change the plates on the van; that bitch reported them to the police. I heard it on the scanner. She might prove to be a problem. What are you waiting for? GO!!! The next bidding is in four hours, hurry up you fool!!" Laurent was nervously hurrying towards the front door when I snapped out of my vision.
"So…"Mike urged.
I was silent for a moment as I took in my recent vision. Okay, so I was a little disappointed. I know that it's a horrible thing to admit, but I was kind of bummin' about the lack of sexual perversion displayed by our criminals. Sure, auctioning kids off to the highest bidder is wicked disturbing and all, but it left my previous theory in the dust. I knew I wasn't going to hear the end of it from Mike. He would totally rub my inaccurate hypothesis in my face, seeing as though I had done the same to him when I suggested it. I decided that the best way to break the news to them was quickly, like a band-aid, that way it would be less painful for me, "I saw the two creepers talking about some sorta' auction. They said that they had contacted the Culkin family…" something horrible had just dawned on me… "Oh SHIT!!! The Culkin family?!! No effing way!!"
Rosalie, Mike, and Edward looked at me, bewildered. The all exchanged flabbergasted expressions and turned to me hoping for clarification. I obliged them, "The hot new kid in my homeroom's name is Jasper Culkin!!! This must be his sister or something!!!"
Rosalie's expression immediately softened and she walked over to place her arm around my shoulder, "Why is it that the hotties' sisters are always the ones to get kidnapped?"
Mike and Edward were less sympathetic to my plight. "Why does it even matter? A missing kid is a missing kid," Mike said, completely confused. Edward nodded in the background.
"Oh shut up, Mi. Have you no compassion for a tender heart?" Rose said in my defense.
"Enough! Please continue, Al. I only have ten minutes to get to class," Edward said.
"Fine," I muttered before continuing. "Okay, so they're not pedophiles in the Dr. Phil sense," I saw a faint gleam of triumph in Mike's eyes, but he was silenced when I threw him 'the evil-eye.' "I think they kidnap really rich children and hold an auction where the parents bid against each other to get their kid back. I'm not sure about the finer points, but I don't think the children are in any immediate danger."
"Are the cops gonna find them?" Mike asked.
"No, they're having Jasper's parents pretend like their daughter was picked up from school by an uncle. It's not even gonna be on the nightly news," I informed them.
"Well, that settles it then. We all go to school and we can reconvene here at three. At this point, we can't go to the police without giving Al's secret away. I guess it's up to us," he said this in a somber, agitated way, but I could sense the excitement behind it. Edward, though he pretended differently, was always up for an exhilarating foray.
"Fine," Rosalie, Mike and I muttered in unison.
We all headed out the door and loaded into Rosalie's Audi while Edward hopped into his Mustang and sped away.
"I can't believe we actually have to go back to school. Man, this sucks," Rosalie said.
"I know! What are we going to say to the administration?" Mike asked.
Note: PLEASE REVIEW and Jasper will come out of hiding!!!