Chapter Nine

Sorry for the panic attack many of you must have had last chapter. That chapter specifically is why I put the story onto 'teen', I was pretty sure it would upset most children. By the looks of it, it upset many of my readers anyway. Should of put a warning on that one…..

I've gotten a couple mixed (though still very helpful and polite) comments about the not-quite-voices that Maggie has been talking to. Some people think they are nice, other people think they're a little sketchy. I appreciate both views, but in order to set the record, I used them as a way to a.) give Maggie a reason to hope and b.) give her something to interact with. I thought it would be rather boring if she just watched and listened to things all the time. I'll admit, they feel a bit sketchy to me, too, but I wasn't sure of any better way to give her someone to talk to without making her just talk to herself, which I thought would make her seem insane. I also wanted to give a good idea of where she was emotionally, because I wasn't sure her thoughts were communicated with enough emotion.

Thank you to Vitality Palmer, utmy123, Inkshaper, The Star Swordsman, so unnatural, rose angel 428, Card's Shadow, xXxZaraxXx, and Anime Kitten of Death for reviewing on this story so far. Also, a thank you to all who have alerted, marked this as a favourite, or read this story!

This is a huge note.

On with the story, I suppose.

Maggie's point of view:

"You killed her!"

"I didn't expect her to just die!" It was idiot. Had he followed me to torment me even after he murdered me?

"You held her down in the snow for a full minute at least. What did you expect?" yelled Driver furiously. He was smacking me on the back, and I felt a lump of half-dissolved snow come out of my mouth. Awaking somewhat, I strained to open my eyes. They were frozen stuff. Someone was trying to scrape the ice away. I wasn't sure who it was. My hair swung, hard and frozen from my tears, and hit me in the face as I coughed up the rest of the snow I had nearly swallowed.

"She's soaked," Driver continued, no longer smacking me. "Yes, hit her. Yes, scare her. But don't kill her!"

"She's alive," Idiot mumbled.

"Only because we pulled you away from her, you would have killed her if we hadn't stopped you!"

"A minute doesn't feel like very long," Idiot mumbled uselessly.

"Long enough to kill," Spy said. He scraped the ice off my face, and I opened my eyes. They had saved me. Even if only for their own selfish means, they had saved me.

"She bit me," Idiot said. He touched my shoulder, and I felt a wave of fear batter me. I tried to stand on my twisted ankle, but I could barely move. Spy was holding me up. I sank back into unconsciousness.

I awoke to being carried, slung over Idiot's shoulder. He dropped me down inside some sort of small room, looking at me in an angry way.

"You got me in trouble, girl," he said hatefully. I growled at him quietly, and he smacked me. I fell to the ground, my already potentially-concussed head slamming into the ground. I struggled to find my hands, but they were still tied. Idiot loomed over me, Driver and Spy standing near him. Spy knelt down and held me down. I kicked at him, but he pinned my legs and shoulders. I screamed, attempting to startle him, but Idiot held my mouth. Driver shoved a cloth into my mouth, cutting off my scream. Idiot reached for something, handing Driver another cloth, which he used to tie around my mouth to keep me from spitting the original cloth out. I screamed into the cloth, but you could only hear a muffled mmmmmph noise. They let go of me.

"Do you think she's secure?" Driver asked.

Idiot and Spy nodded. "Why are we keeping her quiet again?" asked Spy. He carried me out of the small room to another room.

"It's just for the phone call. We don't want her to alert the Griffin's of anything, just in case."

Henry's parents? What do they have to do with all of this?

Idiot brought a phone over to Driver, and he dialed a number and waited for a few seconds, tapping his foot impatiently.

"Hello?" he spoke into the phone. "Mr. and Mrs. Griffin? Put yourself on speakerphone, please. I'd like to talk to both of you."

There was a pause as Henry's parents responded.

"Hold on," said Driver. "I'm putting you on speaker phone. There we go. What's that you were saying?"

"Who are you?" asked Henry' dad.

"Well, you see….do you remember the time some people burned down your home in the jungle? It was a year or two ago."

"Yes…" said Mr. Griffin slowly. He sounded tired. Maybe it was night where he was.

"Those were our friends. I'm going to ask that you tell the authorities in that area that it was a mistake and ask that they are freed."

"Why? Why should we?" asked Henry's mother.

"We've…taken a hostage," said Driver.

"Henry?" asked his mother, sounding instantly angry.

"No, not Henry or Jasper, nor your brother, we aren't interested in them. We didn't want people to be able to guess what we were up to. Your son and nephew are safely at home. Care for another guess?"

"…Maggie?" Henry's mom said slowly. She knows my nickname? I thought with surprise. I didn't expect that she would know that much about me.

"That's the one," Idiot said. He put his hand on my shoulder again, and I flinched despite myself, feeling ashamed immediately afterwards.

"Maggie, are you alright?" Henry's father asked.

"Mmph," I said angrily.

"She's not in a position to speak right now," said Driver smugly.

"Let me talk to her," said Henry's father. His voice shook a little. "Let her talk to me."

Driver untied the knot from the cloth around my head. I spat out the second cloth.

"Maggie?" said Henry's mom.

"Yes…" I said shakily. My head hurt. Badly, worse than before.

"Are you alright?"

I looked at Driver. He nodded. "Reason…reasonably."

"Are you hurt?"

"Head hurts…" I said. I felt myself blacking out again, but I fought to keep myself awake. "Hurts."

"Have they hurt your head?"

"Yes, ow…" I said. There was a sharp pain to my head. "Ow!" I cried out.

"Maggie?" I didn't respond. I was focusing too hard on fighting off the pain.

"Tell us something that only someone who knows Henry would know," said Henry's dad.

"He…washed his clothes in the dishwasher," I said, smiling a little despite the pain. "And he sleeps in a hammock in Jasper's room."

"That's Henry. Tell me your full name, and count to ten for me, okay?"

"…Margaret?" I said slowly. "One, two, three, four, five…" I trailed off, it hurt too badly.

"I think you're concussed, honey," said Henry's mom.

"That's enough," said Driver. Her dragged me away from the phone, and handed me off to Spy. Spy clamped one hand over my mouth.

"She has a concussion," said Henry's dad. "You have to take care of that, or it could seriously damage her."

"She's fine," said Driver. "Here are the rules: contact our authorities as to where she is or we are, and she dies. Talk to your son, nephew, or brother, and she dies. We'll kill her, believe us, we will. Talk to the authorities who are holding our friends only. You have two days. Humans can't go without water for long."

I didn't hear the rest of the conversation. Spy shoved me back into the small room, and I curled up in a ball on the ground, shivering. My clothing was still soaked from the attack in the snow, and I tried to warm myself. My head hurt really badly, and I tried to remember what I knew about concussions. I gave up and went to sleep.