So here is the next chapter for you guys, hope you enjoy it
Chapter Twenty: Hostages
I breathed slowly for a moment as my head caught up with what had just happened. I had answered a call from Kerry's phone and had heard the vampire.
"My dear, I hope you are not thinking about saying anything silly or shouting for anyone. As you must have realised I am calling from your friend's phone. This could mean several things. I could have stolen the phone. She could have lent it to me. Or I could have her in my company. I must say, she is a delightful young woman, and smells delicious. Of course, she does not smell as good as your friend Mary-Alice. She is simply mouth watering. Now, do you want to know what I want?"
"Yes," I whispered.
"Well of course you do sweetheart. Everyone wants to know what I want today. I have lost count of the amount of times I have heard the words 'what do you want?' today. I am finding that particular phrase quite irritating now," his gentile tone and endearments, coupled with his typical English accent conflicted with what he was saying. It confused me. "I want you to come back home and see me, dear one. We have much to discuss. Now I am sure you need some sort of motivation at the moment. I am getting the feeling that you don't want to spend time with me. I have no idea why. Now listen very closely. I have some of your very close friends here."
I started to say something, but he shushed me.
"Now, there, no talking. I understand that you crave reassurance that I actually have your friends and am not tricking you in any way. Well listen away. I am fairly sure this will convince you." I heard the sound of him moving and the phone being passed to someone else. I was desperate for it to be some sort of lie, a recording, but I knew in my heart that he was the sort who would not care for maintaining life. He would kidnap who he wanted to, and no one would have been able to get away from him, even if they had been left any kind of opening. For a moment I wondered how he had kidnapped my friends. Then I got distracted by the voice on the phone.
"Bex," I heard a weak voice murmur. Mary-Alice. "It's the guy who attacked me. He took me out of the hospital and brought me here. He brought us all here."
I listened in horror as the vampire took the phone back and began listing names. How could he do that to her? Take her from the hospital where she should have felt safe. How could he kidnap all of the people he had and no one notice? How?
"I have many of your friends my dear. Mary-Alice, Laura, Kelly, Kerry, Jackson, Mitchell, Leanne, Taylor. They will all die if you do not come here. I will shoot them and rip them to pieces. There will be nothing left." I heard cries in the background. They were all scared out of their minds. All because of me. "I am going to give you a chance to talk to a few people, and maybe they will help you make up your mind."
"Holy shit Bex, he has a gun! God, help us. Tell someone. No one knows we are here! Don't come here on your own. Bex, help us!" Laura cried into the phone. Her voice ripped into my heart. In the four years I had known her I had never heard her so broken. I could just imagine her face. She never swore. This had got to her and she was scared and it was all because of me. I heard the noise of a phone being passed along to another person. Then I heard another voice I was dreading.
"Bex, listen to me. Don't come here," I heard a loud crack as Dale was hit in the face, presumably by the vampire, for not saying what he was told to. I cried out for him. When he spoke again his voice was thick. "Bex, he won't let us go, no matter what you do."
The phone was passed along again. With every voice I heard I wanted to cry and scream and curse. This was all because of my relationship. They were all being punished because of me. I heard the voice of each of my friends. Some of them cried, some pleaded, and some of them told me to stay away. Then Kerry was put onto the phone,
"Bex, don't come here. He will hurt you. He can't hurt all of us," I heard a merciless chuckle in the background when he heard that. He knew he could hurt them all. I knew that too. "Tell someone and they will help us. Don't put other people in danger."
I wanted to do what she told me, but I knew that I couldn't. If I told Edward or Alice then my friends would get hurt. I heard the phone taken away from Kerry and he talked again.
"I am a patient man. I will give you until sunset today to get back to Basingstoke. Call me on this number when you get here and I will tell you where we are. If you don't then your friends will die. If you do get here then I will let them all go. If any of them try to escape then I will kill their partner. Tell no one about this. Bring no one with you. Or they will all die. Do you understand? Say yes or no,"
"Yes, I get it," I murmured into the phone.
"See you soon," the gentile voice said cheerily as he put the phone down. I stood there with the handset by my ear, in shock. I had to get away from Alice and Jasper and get back home. For a few moments I allowed myself to contemplate the conversation. He had gone out of his way to make it appear that he was a human gun man, rather than an obsessed vampire. There was something which was forcing him to make this look like a crazy man who wanted to kill people. He did not want to be identified as a vampire by anyone. I took a deep breath and tried to forget my friend's fear filled voices. If I thought about them anymore then Jasper would realise that there was something wrong when he got back.
I had to write two letters. One to my parents, because I would never get the opportunity to see them again if the vampire got what he wanted. And I had to write one to tell Edward why I was doing what I was doing. I had to write down everything I would not be able say to him. I held back the tears as I got out two pages of paper. I had to write the notes before Jasper got back, and before Alice became too inquisitive and came to see what was wrong.
Mum and Dad,
I love you so much. Thank you for everything you have ever given me. I love you, and I love Matt.
Bex
If I wrote anything else then I knew I would break down right then. Next came the more difficult letter, because I knew that I would have to explain everything to Edward.
Edward,
You have to realise that I am doing this to save people's lives. I know he is going to slaughter my friends and the whole town that I love if I don't go to him now. I love you, you have to know that, but I can't stand by and watch as everyone else pays because of me. This has to stop here. Once he has what he wants everything will be alright. In a tragic twisted way he is right. I am playing with fire and I won't allow other people to get burnt because of what I am doing. You have to understand that. You of all people should understand why I have to do this. After all, you know me better than I know myself.
Thank your family for me. I wholly appreciate everything they have done for me, and I love them all. Say goodbye to Alice for me, and please don't be mad at her. She has no idea of what I am about to do, and if I get away from her and Jasper then it will be some act of God.
Please protect my family. This will be hard enough for them. Please tell them I love them.
Finally Edward. I love you. You have given me so much in the short time we have been together and my only regret is that we could not have more time together. I never imagined I would get something so special in my life, when I am far from any kind of special perfection. I guess this was destined to end this way. I love you so much, and I cannot describe the feelings I have knowing I will never say this to you again. I love you.
All my heart is yours. All my love is yours.
Bex
A tear dropped onto the page as I wrote the last words. I kissed the page and then folded it into the envelope. Two letters were written. There was only one last thing I needed to do. Get away from Alice and Jasper. I forced myself to stop crying through sheer will.
I walked out of the room and put the two notes into Alice's bag. I would tell her where they were when the time was right.
"Bex, we are going to head off now. You ready?" Alice trilled as she walked back into the room, Jasper following closely behind her. A phone rang. "Uh, Bex, how about you go downstairs to the shop and get some food for the journey. We don't want to stop until we get there."
That was Alice subtly trying to get me out of the way. I nodded and picked up my bag from the side, automatically pulling my purse out of the pocket. I walked out of the door, thanking God for the opportunity to think without either one of them breathing on my neck. This was probably going to be the only chance I would get to think about my escape. I was slightly confused about the fact that Alice was actually letting me out of her sight for the first time since we had got into the car. Clearly something was going on that she did not want me to know about.
I mutely walked down the stairs to the entrance of the hotel. I crossed a small car park, and noticed a coach parked up in front of the service station doors. I walked through these doors and continued on to the shop.
I picked up a load of chocolate and some water, along with a couple of sandwiches, which I know I would never eat, but felt the need to buy anyway. As I was doing this I was constantly thinking of how I could get away from Alice and Jasper for longer than a few minutes to be able to get back to Basingstoke.
It was as I was paying that I noticed a familiar blonde head walking past the shop. It was my friend Hannah. I paid quickly and then walked over to her, tapping her on the shoulder. She spun around and squealed in glee as she saw me.
"Bex!"
"Heya Hannah, I said as enthusiastically as I could manage. She was exuberant, and always had been. I had forgotten that the college had done a trip to the River Ogmore in Wales for the geography students, and that Hannah was one of the students who had chosen to go. This could provide me with the opportunity which I needed. I thanked whatever or whoever was watching over me for the fact that Alice and Jasper had left to sort out private family stuff before Hannah could see me with them.
"Bex, what are you doing here?" Hannah asked as she hugged me.
"I was on my way up to Exeter to meet my parents for a football tournament. But my car broke down about a mile from here, and I had to walk."
"What are you going to do?" she asked shocked at my 'misfortune'.
"I have called the insurance company and they are bringing a tow truck." She nodded as I said this. A sudden thought occurred to me. "What time does the coach leave?"
"In about five minutes. We are only getting a short toilet break. Are you sure you are going to be okay until the company gets here?"
"Yeah, I will," I had just spotted Alice walking towards me. "Listen, Hannah I have to go make a call, could you excuse me?" she nodded and I walked off around the corner. I met with Alice and Jasper there.
"Bex Edward is going to meet us here. We have to stay here until he gets here then all of us are going to carry on to Blackpool." I nodded mutely, realising that I would have to get away from Alice and Jasper before he got here. Otherwise I would never find the courage to do what I need to do. And it would be a whole lot harder to get away from Edward.
"Alice I need to go to the toilet. Do you know where there is one in this service station?" I asked her, trying not to be obvious about the need to be on my own.
"Yes Bex, I will come with you."
"No Alice, I can go on my own. I do not need a guard dog. I am going to the toilet. I will be right back. Okay?" she nodded dubiously, slightly stunned at my ferocity. I added something on as if it were an afterthought. "Alice I have put a letter in the bag. Can you post it for me while I go to the toilet?"
She nodded and I walked in the direction she mutely pointed to. I knew this service station had a door at the back, round the corner next to the toilets. All I would have to do would be get out of the door and get onto the coach which was going back to Basingstoke. I just had to get there before Alice realised that there were two letters in there. One for my parents and one for Edward. They would not notice if another one of the kids from the college got onto the bus. I would just say that my car had been towed and I needed a ride. Martin would not mind me getting onto it. I walked sedately around the corner and then ran to the door. The coach was loading up right then. I ran towards it.
"Martin," I said breathlessly. "I know this is very sudden, but can I get a ride back to Basingstoke with you? It's because my car broke down and the company would not give me a ride home."
Martin looked outraged at this, and nodded straight away.
"Of course you can Bex. I am astonished that this company would leave a young woman stranded at a service station miles away from her home. I am disgusted!" I felt guilty for lying to him right then. But not guilty enough to not do it. I got on the coach and so did Martin. Then the coach pulled away. I crossed my fingers that they had not thought to check on me.
"Hey Bex, come sit down next to me," Hannah called as I walked down the coach. I smiled gratefully and walked towards her. I waved distractedly at my friend Susie who was sat in front of Hannah. It was their smiling faces which set me off. I started crying right then, in the middle of a bus crowded with eighteen year olds. Hannah put an arm around me soothingly.
"Bex. What's wrong?" she asked concernedly.
"I am just sad I am going to miss my brother's football. I miss my family." Well that was true. But it was not why I was crying.
The journey back to Basingstoke was mercifully short. I appreciated that. I listened as Hannah talked about the trip, absentmindedly fiddling with my hoodie. It was as we were pulling into the college car park that my phone vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out and almost fainted. The caller id said it was Edward. I was desperate to answer it, to hear his voice once more. I resisted the urge and pressed the deny call button. If I heard his voice then I would not go through with it, and then my friends would be murdered violently. He would convince me that there was some other way to do this. I knew that there was not. Hannah looked at my broken face for a moment, and then, filed down the aisle. I grabbed my bag and did the same.
Martin waited in the car park with me for half an hour before I convinced him to go home. Everyone else had left or been picked up, and I had 'called' my uncle. I told Martin that he was just late and that he should go home. He reluctantly agreed and walked back to his car. As soon as he was far enough away I whipped my phone out. I noticed in passing that I had 5 missed calls. I refused to look at who they were from. I was pretty sure I knew. I dialled Kerry's phone number and waited for him to pick it up.
"Why hello my dear," he said cheerfully. "I take it that you are back in Basingstoke. How delightful. You doubtlessly know the sports hall at your school. Come to it and I will let your friends go."
I ended the call and walked slowly to the double doors which opened on the gym. It was eerily quiet. Normally there would be people in the gym. They had all been dissuaded by the 'out of action' sign on the door. As I stepped through I realised that the big window of the sports hall had been covered up by some sort of dark cloth. I could hear faint crying sounds. I walked to those sounds quickly, knowing that for them the ordeal would soon be over. I trusted that this vampire would keep his side of the deal and let them go. He had no need of them.
While I walked I thought about what had led me to this. My life was never very interesting. Living in the same place for the last ten years had made everything seem the same, every day more of the same repetitive pattern, with minor changes. But I was comfortable in the pattern, unwilling to move on from my niche. I was happy.
Then he came and changed my life. And that was why I was standing here, looking through a blank window, on what was surely going to end with my death. But nothing would make me regret letting him into my life. He had changed the pattern, and for that I was grateful. For those few months I was able to see how my life could have been.
I closed my eyes and pushed open the door. I was greeted by a sight worse than I had prepared myself for.
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