Ugh, I'm so sorry I haven't updated in like forever, I'm currently stuck with huge writer's block for this story. Like I know where I want it to go now- it's just the process of writing it and making it sound good is where I'm having trouble right now. Not to mention that I also have to explain some things… My brain hurts X(
I have a feeling that this chapter is going to be very interesting nonetheless… Stay tuned and cross your fingers that this will be a good chapter.
Btw, I apologize for the negativity I'm possessing right now… It's hard to write a story like this when you're such a damn perfectionist such as myself :/
"Wait… He WHAT!"
Tori's metal spoon clattered to the floor and Cat gasped in astonishment. Tori put her pudding cup down and stared across the tiny coffee table at Jade and Andre in shock, trying to grasp the danger of their situation. "So let me get this straight- you and Jade have been here for days? And you were both left to starve to death right before we came?"
"Oh my goodness!" Cat cried and buried her face in her hands. They were on break, for crying out loud! Weren't breaks supposed to be happy?
They had been working for four hours in a row nonstop, and she was starting to feel exhausted. All Cat wanted to do was curl up in a ball with Mr. Longneck and go to sleep. Now, they finally had gotten a break and she finds out this? Cat felt like she was going to faint. What if they were going to kill her off? She doesn't want to die!
"True chizz," Andre said and continued to crunch heavily on his bag of Cheetos. "I don't know what he wants with us, but he's one bad dude."
"Even I don't know what to do about this," Jade said, a dull look in her eyes. The constant workload was starting to exhaust Jade as well. "And I'm the devious one here!"
"My biggest concern is Arthur being able to watch us," Tori said. "How has he been doing that and how can we all of a sudden hear him in our heads even though we've never heard him before?"
"Beats me. Could be anything," Andre mused, twirling a Cheeto in his hand before popping it into his mouth.
They sat there in silence thinking of possible ways that they could be watched. Then, a light bulb went off in Jade's head. She covered her mouth in shock. "Oh my god."
"What?" the others questioned.
"I think I know how he did it…"
Flashback: 6 months ago
Jade groaned in frustration as she walked to her house in the freezing cold rain. Why did Sikowitz have to put her in charge of costumes for the school play? And it just HAD to be about freaking Eskimos who wore scratchy fur coats and moldy earmuffs. What was that hippie thinking when he decided to do this play?
Before arriving at her house, she stopped at a cheap thrift store on the way. They usually had crappy stuff, but why not give it another try just for the hell of it?
She strolled through the doorway and started looking through the racks. Of course there was nothing special. The fur coats smelled like wet dog, the ski pants had holes chewed in them, and the snowshoes looked like they had been mauled by a deranged elephant.
She was about to give up when out of the corner of her eye she spotted earmuffs. Having nothing better to do, she examined them closely. They appeared to look brand new. Each pair had two leopard-printed poufs on each end and a thick, black end connecting the poufs together. They were cheap, untouched, and, coincidentally enough, there were only 6 pairs left.
She would've thought twice about buying them, but she was just so tired and wanted to get out of the pouring rain and snuggle under her bed's covers so freaking badly that she bought them without giving her purchase a second thought.
The next day, she handed them out to everyone at the lunch table. "Ooh, what are these?" Cat giggled, admiring the leopard print on the sides. She loved animals!
"Earmuffs for the play. Don't thank me, I really don't care about this play," Jade muttered.
The group curiously examined the earmuffs and then carefully placed them on their heads. Strangely enough, it fit all of them perfectly.
"Ooh, they're so soft!" Tori exclaimed.
"And fuzzy! I feel like there's a cat laying on my head!"
Everyone stared at Robbie. "Man, really? A cat? You couldn't do better than that?" Rex chortled. "Loser."
"Hey!" Robbie shouted. Soon, he and Rex were arguing loudly.
Everyone groaned in exasperation and left, except for Cat, who watched them curiously for god knows how long. Who knows what goes on in that little brain of hers? As everyone finished the day, no one noticed that they had neglected to take the earmuffs off…
"Ohhhh, was that why everyone was looking at us so weirdly that day?" Cat wondered. "How come no one told us? We probably looked ridiculous!"
"That's not the point, Cat!" Jade shouted. "Arthur must have somehow put something in those earmuffs that migrated into the insides of our ears."
Andre, Cat, and Tori looked at her in horror. "Ewww!" Tori cried. "That's it; I'm cleaning my ears when I get home!"
"If we ever do get home…"
Upon hearing Andre's words, the group was thrown into once again another silence. Then, a loud bell rang, signaling that their break was over.
"Yay, back to more torture," Jade groaned.
"I hope Robbie and Beck are okay…" Cat whimpered as they walked back into the computer room. She was especially worried about Robbie, since she knew he wasn't physically or emotionally as strong as Beck was. She could only hope that everything would all be okay in the end, just like in every movie she had ever watched during her childhood.
Meanwhile, Robbie and Beck frantically searched the room in which Tori and Cat had first disappeared. "Where could they have possibly gone?" Beck lamented, looking underneath a computer desk.
"I don't know. Maybe there's a trap door or something…" Robbie muttered. He remembered back to a book he read where a child stomped on the floor so hard that he mistakenly activated a trap door.
He started to stomp on each cube on the floor one by one.
"Dude, what are you doing?" Beck watched him incredulously. What the hell was he trying to accomplish?
"You'll see!" he shouted, finally stomping on the red cube. Instantly, the room became dark.
"Robbie, what did you do? !"
"I don't know!" Suddenly, he saw the black goo creeping up his leg.
"Beck, help!" he yelped. Beck, hearing where Robbie's voice came from, ran towards him and tried to pull him free from the goo's sticky hold. However, it would not let up. Robbie looked at Beck in panic. "Pull harder!"
"I'm trying!" Just as the door started to drop downwards, Beck pulled with all his might and he and Robbie tumbled to the floor as the red square disappeared into the blackness below.
"Aw man, these are new pants!" Robbie complained and tried to rub the goo off of his jeans. "My mom's going to kill me!"
Beck gave him a look. "I don't think that's the issue right now!" He crouched down and looked into the hole the door had made. "I guess we know now where one of the girls disappeared to."
"Where do you think the other door is?"
"I don't know, but we don't have time to figure that out now. We have to find out where the girls disappeared to before Mr. Muerto comes back."
"Good idea," Robbie said, admiring his calm way of thinking. He, on the other hand, was freaking out inside. What happened to Cat? Did they hurt her? He sighed and followed Beck out the door. He just wanted his little red head safe and sound next to him again.
They walked in the direction where they had gone to the bathroom and saw a door on the right that said PRIVATE ROOM: DO NOT ENTER. Beck glanced once at the sign, and then turned to Robbie with a mischievous smile on his face. Robbie knew exactly what he was thinking.
"Oh no, I am not going in there!" Robbie shook his head and stepped back. "Who knows what could be in there?"
"Look, you want to see your girlfriend or not?" Beck crossed his arms.
"Tori isn't my girlfriend!"
"I wasn't talking about her. Now come on, I have a plan," Beck said and grabbed Robbie's hand.
"Oh, why meee," Robbie moaned as Beck dragged him into a supply closet.
In a matter of minutes, they emerged wearing white lab coats and tool belts just as they had seen the other workers wearing. Robbie had plastered on a fake goatee on his chin (he had to cut off a piece of his hair in order to get it in the first place. In his defense, it wasn't his idea.) and Beck had put on a pair of sunglasses that matched Arthur's pair exactly. They each had grabbed name tags (also fake, of course) and pinned them to their jackets.
Beck laughed as Robbie fumbled with one of his lab coat's sleeves- it had gotten caught somehow in the tool belt. Of course, only someone like Robbie could possibly make that happen. "Rob, cut it out. You look ridiculous!"
"Well you don't look so good yourself!" Robbie snapped, finally freeing his sleeve.
"Oh yeah? Tell that to them." He smiled and motioned to a group of women workers in a corner staring at him with an awestruck expression upon their faces. He waved to them, and they squealed and one looked like she was about to faint.
"Oh, shut up and let's just get this over with," Robbie muttered as they used their name tags as cards to gain access to the private room.
"Whoaa, this is awesome!" Robbie exclaimed upon seeing the room. In front of them stood a huge desk complete with a control board filled with various sliders and buttons and a whole bunch of computer screens. "It's like the kind of room you can only see in the movies!"
"Yeah, this must be the control room or something." Beck walked forward to take a closer look at the computer screens. "These videos must be what the security cameras are seeing right now."
There were six screens; therefore, there were six security cameras operating at this time. One screen in the top left corner showed the main entrance to the building, and the one in the top right corner showed the EMERGENCY EXIT. The top middle one, on the other hand, showed the hallway that they had just been walking in.
The three bottom screens seemed to be watching action on a different floor. The bottom left screen showed an aerial view of a kitchen and what looked like a resting area, and the bottom right screen was pitch black with maybe a dim light trying to shine through. But the bottom middle screen troubled Beck the most- because that screen showed three girls and a guy typing furiously on computers.
"Robbie! Come here! I found them!" Beck dragged Robbie all the way into the room and made him look at the screen.
"Yes! That's them! Wait, where are they, exactly? And… oh my gosh."
"What?"
"Jade and Andre are with them."
Beck felt like someone had punched him in the stomach. They have Jade too? And Andre? There's no way this can be just a coincidence. He hadn't seen them in a month! And weren't they supposed to be on Broadway now? How are they now sitting in a basement in California on computers. His stomach started to churn as he stared at Jade, who looked breathtaking as usual.
And the words that echoed in the air thereafter just made Beck feel worse. "Do you think we're next?"
Beck sighed and ran his fingers through his wavy hair. "I don't know, but I do know is that we have to act fast and the sooner, the better."
He found a folder on top of the chair and started looking through the files. "No map. If we can't get to them, we have to communicate with them somehow."
Robbie's face suddenly lit up. "I have an idea."
He looked at the control board and found a key that described which color wires led to which room in the building. According to the key, the red wires led to room PNX-1200, which was the room where the others were trapped in. He found the red wires underneath the desk and he put his idea into action. "I can hook these wires up to my Pearphone and then I'll have total access to the computer's software."
"Is it possible to do that?" Beck asked.
"Yep, I have an app called ."
"There's an app for computer hacking?"
"Apparently."
"Is it legal? And why do you have it?"
"Stop asking so many questions!" Robbie snapped.
Beck put up his hands in defeat and backed off while Robbie did all the dirty work with some pliers he had found in his tool belt. After a minute or two, he was done.
"There! Now all I have to do is start typing and it should appear on their computer screens in no time."
And with that said, Robbie started typing.
Tori's eyes started to droop. She couldn't take starting at this dang computer screen anymore. She was tired, she wanted to go home and sleep. She and the others were the only ones in the room now because Arthur had called everyone else in for a "secret meeting"- whatever the hell that was about. It felt like they hadn't had a break in eons.
"Oh my gosh, I'm starving," Tori complained. As if her cue, her stomach grumbled in your agreement.
"Vega, tell your stomach to shut up so I can keep working and not get killed!" Jade shouted, clearly on her last nerve. Tori shut her mouth and kept typing, her eyes drooping every couple of seconds.
At one point, she almost fell asleep but was awakened by an extremely loud buzz coming from the computers. "Aaaah!" She jolted awake.
"What's going on?" Cat asked, suddenly worried.
"I-I don't know," Tori stuttered, now looking at a screen that was completely black. Then, almost immediately, a message in bright red font appeared on the screen.
RShapiro1529: Hey guys, it's Robbie! Beck is with me too. Reply back if you get this. We'll get you out of here soon.
"Eeep! It's Robbie!" Cat shouted. "He's going to save us! My hero!" She started to giggle and a slight blush started creeping up her neck. Who would've thought Robbie, of all people, would be her knight in shining armor? She sure didn't.
Jade looked at the computer in awe. "How did they manage to do this?"
"Just type in a response, okay?" Andre practically screamed. He wanted to get out of this hellhole as soon as possible!
CValentine214: Roger that, Shapiro! *giggle*
TVega47: Where are you guys? Help us!
AHarris9007: I almost died! Jade did too!
BOliver899: WHAT? !
JWest508: Yeah, whatever, how are getting out of here?
RShapiro1529: Find a file on the computer that has a map of the building. Attach it to a message and send it to me.
AHarris9007: Okay, let's see… We have a "System Codes" folder, a folder of Arthur's baby pictures…
JWest508: *snicker* I wanna see those!
BOliver899: Jade! Not now!
JWest508: DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO.
TVega47: Guys, stop arguing! I found it! "PNX Technology Building Map."
RShapiro1529: Bingo! I got it!
CValentine214: Hehe, Bingo! I love that game!
BOliver899: Look, we'll be there in about five minutes. Pretend like you guys are typing and don't do anything suspicious.
JWest508: But wait, I need to tell you something, Beck!
BOliver899: *sigh* What now, Jade?
RShapiro1529: Beck, we need to get off, NOW!
JWest508: I saw you and Tori almost kiss before the Platinum Music Awards!
AHarris9007: *gasp*
CValentine214: *gasp*
RShapiro1529: *gasp*
TVega47: *gasp*
JWest508: STOP GASPING!
BOliver899: …
RShapiro1529: This is Robbie Shapiro logging off.
CValentine214: Aw :'( Bye Robbie!
Once the chat was done, the computers were back to normal.
"This is so exciting!" Cat exclaimed.
"Cat! Keep your mouth shut for once and get back to work!" Jade growled.
Cat covered her mouth and one lone tear came out of her eye as they got back to work. She just wished all of this stress would go away…
After precisely ten minutes, the EMERGENCY EXIT burst open without warning and in came Robbie and Beck. They ripped off their disguises (except Robbie couldn't get his goatee off because he glued it on with Grizzly Glue) and ran towards the others.
"Guys, we accidentally activated the alarm; we have to get out of here now!" Beck shouted over the roaring alarm noise.
His first instinct was to grab Jade's hand and run towards the door. Cat jumped into Robbie's arms for a quick hug (and a peck on the cheek; she couldn't resist!) and then let Robbie take her hand and drag her towards the door also.
"Andre! Grab Tori!" Beck shouted, seeing Tori and Andre frozen in their spots.
Without hesitating, Andre seized Tori's hand and they also started sprinting towards the door.
The run to the door was incredibly close- less than 50 feet!- but why weren't they getting anywhere? Beck looked down and saw the floor beneath them moving in the opposite direction in which they were running, as if they were all on one long treadmill.
"The floor is moving! Run faster!" Beck hollered over all of the noise.
"I'm trying!" Jade cried, slowly running out of breath.
"Oh, you won't have to try much longer," an evil voice chuckled in their ears. Before Beck knew what was going on, Jade's hand was ripped out of his as a spray of black goo came out of nowhere and smashed Jade against the wall. The blow made her lose consciousness and the goo stuck her limp figure against the wall as if it were a trophy for everyone to see.
"Jade!" Beck shouted. The blow of the blast had made Beck spiral out of control and fall near the door at the end of the "treadmill," as it will now be called.
"Jadey!" Cat screamed, tears starting to pour down her face. "Robbie, what's happening? !"
"I don't know, just keep running!" Robbie shouted, the adrenaline pumping through his blood pushing him to run faster. Behind him, Cat yelped, and he glanced back to see a black lasso pulling her towards the ceiling.
"Cat!" he cried, watching her dangle from the ceiling shrieking desperately for help.
"Robbie, we'll worry about her later! Grab my hand!" Beck yelled.
Robbie did as he was told and both he and Beck tumbled onto the floor on top of each other.
"Get off of me!" Robbie wriggled his way out from under Beck and covered his mouth in terror as he watched Cat struggle to break free. Cat's shrieks turned into hoarse choking noises and then her body ceased to move. The goo had squeezed her chest cavity until she couldn't breathe any longer, making her pass out from the lack of air.
"Andre! Come on before they get you too!" Beck shouted, fearing for his friends' lives.
"We're coming!" Andre shouted, sweat dripping down his face as they kept on running. However, he soon felt a tug behind him; Tori was slowing down. She had a look on her face as if she were about to pass out. "Tori, you have to keep going!"
"Andre…" She shook her head slowly and tears poured down her face. "I can't." And with that, Tori fell down. The treadmill sent her crashing into the computer desks. She gave out a loud yelp in pain and then also went unconscious.
Before he could fall also, Andre felt Beck and Robbie pull him off the treadmill of death on the other side. "Tori!" he yelled, watching her figure disappear as she was dragged underneath the desks by some unknown force.
"We have to get out of here!" Robbie stumbled forward and struggled with opening the door.
"Wait! We can't leave without the girls!"
"We're going to have to! We won't be able to save them if we don't leave now!" Beck argued back. Andre reluctantly gave up and they all burst through the EMERGENCY EXIT at the same time.
The last thing they heard before exiting the building was a voice so hard and cold that it could make a person's blood freeze in an instant. "Oh boys, that was a very courageous thing for you to do; but you will be sorry that you did." And with that, everything inside and outside the building went dead silent.
Meanwhile, back in the control room, Arthur growled and flicked a switch on the control board, causing Cat and Jade to crash down onto the ground.
"Guards!" he hollered into his wrist watch. "Gather the girls and lock them in Prison B. It's time to bury them in the graves the boys have dug for them."
He kicked the computer desk angrily and stormed out of the control room. He knew exactly what he was going to do. He knew that each boy had eyes on one different girl. It was obvious that from watching them over the six months and while they were at PNX that Beck's calmness wavered at the sight of the Goth girl in black clothing, Robbie's awkwardness got worse whenever a petite, ditzy girl breezed by him, and Andre's music writing skills got even better whenever Tori was around. It was clear that they brought out the best in each other; they made each other strong. And these connections made the group as a whole a force to be reckoned with.
But what do you do to break down the impenetrable wall? Take out all the weak spots. And that's exactly what Arthur was planning to do.
He grinned evilly as he got into the awaiting elevator and kept the grin going all the way down to the basement floor. He was out to get revenge on the three boys that had just ruined a key part of his plan to take over the world. And once he made their "soul mates" suffer and watch the girls die slow, painful deaths, the boys will be forced to beg at his feet for mercy.
He looked at himself in the metal elevator doors and slipped the shades over his eyes. Oh yes, Mr. Killsburo, he thought to himself, you've made your family proud.
Wow, that was a lot darker than I thought it would be! But the darker and the more drama, the better, right? Reviews would be appreciated! :D :D
