Flame of my Heart
by hotsodagirl

Summary: A mistake. A silent cry for help. Who knew a pot of noodles could cause so much trouble in a few weeks?

Genre: Romance/Drama

Rating: T, just to be safe

Sodagirl Says: Hey everyone! Okay, I seriously don't even know how I did this. I wrote this entire chapter in one sitting the night after I put up chapter 20. But I didn't put it up right away because I had to revise it a lot and stuff :)

So anyway, this is pretty much the big part of the story. The beginning of this chapter takes place pretty much in conjunction with the last one. Like, this chapter starts at about the same time that Sharpay was in the housekeeping cart, but it'll continue on after the last chapter ended. And after this, the story is pretty much over! Okay, so we still have two more normal chapters and then the epilogue, but that's all going to go really fast. Like, I didn't think I'd be done so soon because of my summer reading, but then I figured out how short the Greek plays were so I was like "Okay, I have time to write now!" And then I was just inspired and I did this whole thing at one time. It took me many hours to write it all and then the editing and all (there was a lot of it – see the below warning), but I now present to you Chapter 21: To The Rescue.

WARNING: This chapter contains violence and rape. I tried not to make either one too detailed, since this is still a T rated fic, but it's still there. Originally the chapter was going to be longer, but then it ended up sounding more like something from an M rated fic so I cut out a lot of the details, especially the violence part. (The actual story part of the chapter is only 4476 words.) So it was actually originally even more dramatic and stuff but then I had to cut a lot out. But it's still pretty good. (I hope.) Just imagine that it's a lot more violent if you wish :)Okay, well enjoy!

Chapter Twenty One: To The Rescue

"… and then he told me that he loved me."

"Shut up!"

"I'm serious!"

"But why would Troy say that to you when he's dating Sharpay?"

"I don't know…" Gabriella frowned in puzzlement as she sucked the end of her strawberry fruit smoothie out through a straw. She and Taylor had walked over to the North Albuquerque Shopping Center after school and they were just finishing up their shopping trip. They stood from the table they had been sitting at in front of the smoothie shop and took their shopping bags with them when they went to throw away their Styrofoam cups. Taylor was shaking her head in skepticism.

"That boy has got more problems than an emo kid trying out for cheerleading," she said, and Gabriella laughed.

"You don't know how right you are," Gabriella agreed, pulling a scrunchie from her purse and tying her hair up in a ponytail. She fanned herself with her hand. The days were getting warmer as they got further into spring with the temperatures almost up into the 90's. In Gabriella's opinion, it was way too hot for the end of March. 'I wonder what the temperatures are like in Colorado,' she thought as her mind drifted to moving for the millionth time that day.

Taylor sighed and linked arms with her best friend with a slight frown on her face. It didn't take long for gossip to travel around the students living in Albuquerque, and so Taylor had known about Gabriella's move to Colorado and her breakup with Ryan before she had even seen her at school that morning. Most times when Gabriella was upset about something, Taylor would have talked to her about it and pepped her up as much as she could, but today she stayed silent and let her friend drift into her thoughts whenever she needed to. She knew that if her mother had been killed by her boyfriend's father, she wouldn't want pity. She would just want someone to be there for her, and she intended to be the person to be there for Gabriella whether she wanted to talk or just sit in silence.

The girls walked silently away from the shopping center. They crossed the crosswalk and cut across the park to 3rd street, at which point Gabriella's phone rang. She glanced down at the caller ID before answering it a voice that attempted to be cheerful but ended up sounding somewhere between bored and depressed.

"Hi Aunt Shirley… No, we're just coming home from the shopping center. Where are you?… Oh, really? That's not good… No, of course; I'll be fine by myself for a little while… No, we don't have any animals… 8:00? That's kind of late… Well, I know, but… I wasn't arguing! I was just… I don't know; I thought I'd order in a pizza… You're kidding. Well what should I… Goat's milk?! I don't… Aunt Shirley, wait… But… Fine, I'll see you later. Bye." She hung up her phone and rolled her eyes at Taylor.

"Her flight's been delayed two hours. She thought she was going to be here by 6:00 but now she won't be here until 8:00 at the earliest," Gabriella explained with a small sigh. Taylor smiled at her and squeezed her arm.

"Do you want me to spend the night so that you'll have someone with you in case she's even later?" Taylor asked. Gabriella smiled gratefully.

"Oh, Tay, would you mind? I don't think I could handle having to go to a hotel by myself and get a room for me and my aunt. I mean, it's not like we can stay at my house since it's a murder scene and the police are still investigating. It's too bad that they can't just take my word for it that Mr. Evans was the one who killed my mother. No, they have to investigate everything. It's ridiculous," Gabriella complained to cover the fact that she was presently beginning to tear up. Taylor nodded.

"I guess that's just how they have to do their job. But don't worry about it; I'll go to the hotel with you. Now, what was that about goat's milk?" Taylor asked with a raise of her eyebrows, attempting to get her friend's mind off of her mother. Gabriella shook her head.

"I don't even know! She said she was allergic to pizza and that she thought we should share a tofu salad with goat's milk for dinner." Both girls made disgusted faces and Taylor pretended to throw up at the thought of it. Gabriella laughed, but only for a moment before she suddenly fell silent once more. Taylor looked over to her, concerned.

"Gabi? Are you okay?" she asked. Gabriella didn't answer right away. She stopped walking abruptly and whirled around to look behind her. She did a double take to the left and then to the right, and there was a fearful look in her eyes. Taylor grasped her arm tightly and looked around with her. "Gabi?"

"I feel like we're being followed," Gabriella muttered quietly. Taylor tried not to look at her friend like she was being completely absurd and paranoid. She kept her voice low, for Gabriella's sake, and pulled her friend along to 2nd street.

"Gabi, I don't think that anyone is following us. Maybe it's just your imagination. It wouldn't be completely surprising for you to be feeling this way after… you know, yesterday." Gabriella clung to her friend's arm and walked a little bit more quickly.

"Tay, I don't think this is my imagination." She glanced over her shoulder. "I seriously think that someone is following us." Taylor sighed, trying not to get frustrated with Gabriella. She was almost positive that her friend was indeed imagining things, which made sense after what had happened to her mother. She was trying to think of a way to get Gabriella to believe her without making her feel stupid when suddenly the Hispanic girl made a sharp turn and pulled her into an alleyway between Al's Doughnut Shop and Tina's Coffee House. Taylor yelped in surprise and stumbled alongside her friend.

"Girl, what are you doing?" she asked, pulling her arm away from Gabriella's as she tried to regain her footing. Gabriella bit her lip and continued walking, the alleyway growing darker the farther they went. She abruptly stopped walking and held her hand out to the side to stop her friend after about ten seconds. Her eyes widened and she turned her head ever so slightly to look at Taylor.

"Did you hear that?" she whispered. Taylor only looked at her with confusion. Gabriella began walking again, pulling Taylor along with her, and then stopped as suddenly as before. This time Taylor listened, and what she heard made her blood run cold. While they had been walking, the sound of footsteps followed from behind. When they stopped, the footsteps continued on for a second longer and then stopped. The girls gripped each other's hands tightly but didn't dare to move another muscle.

"What do we do?" Taylor asked in a voice that was barely audible. Gabriella considered their options for a moment before choosing the best one she could think of.

"Run," she ordered under her breath. The girls took off at lightening speeds down the alleyway. They heard the sound of footsteps running behind them, but they didn't dare to look back. If they could find where the alley came back out into the street, they would be back in the public and they could find a safe place to go. Unfortunately, luck was not on their side. They soon came to the end of the alleyway and found a dead end. The skidded to a stop to avoid hitting the brick wall that blocked them off, and then they heard a voice from behind them.

"Hello there, girls. What brings you two to a dark alleyway on a day as fine as this?" The girls froze in place. Taylor was scared out of her mind, but her fear was nothing compared to that of the girl next to her. Gabriella recognized the voice behind her and she turned around to face their predator, although she already knew who she would find.

He stood assertively at six feet before them, right in the middle of the width of the alley. The little light that filtered into the darkness reflected off of his blonde and graying hair, and it caught the icy blue intensity of his eyes. A bulging trench coat was worn suspiciously on his body, and one hand was hiding behind his back. Gabriella took a deep breath and swallowed before daring to speak.

"Mr. Evans," she acknowledged with an exceptionally level voice. He grinned maliciously.

"Ah, so you remember me Miss Montez," he said, holding his visible hand over his heart mockingly. "I'm touched."

"How could I ever forget what you've done to my life?" Gabriella asked, her eyes watering from both anger and fear. "You brought two children into this world: a son who may very well end up a murderer like yourself one day, and a daughter who has tried to make my life a living hell since the day I moved to Albuquerque." She took a bold step towards him. "Because of you, the past week and a half of my life has been torture. I've gone through two boyfriends and a hell of a lot of problems. I have no parents and no one to love. I haven't forgotten you, nor have I forgiven you." She held her arms out in question. "So what do you want now? What more could you possibly do to screw up my life any more?" The grin on the man's face grew even more wicked.

"There isn't much I could do to screw up your life anymore," he said, taking a step closer to her. "But there is something I can do to satisfy myself. You see, Maria told me that the reason she was breaking up with me was because you had called her and told her of my true nature. I killed her then, and I vowed that I'd get revenge on the one who persuaded her. That would be you." He laughed in a manner only capable by a maniac, and then jerked his hidden arm in front of him. Grasped in his hand was a large blade with sharp, jagged edges. Gabriella's eyes widened as her former bravery evaporated from her body and she whimpered in fear.

"It's your time now, my dear Gabriella Montez," he spat. He leaped towards her and tackled her to the ground in one fluid motion. She screamed and tried to push him away from her, but she wasn't strong enough. He cackled as he reached out with his free hand and grabbed her around the throat, cutting off her ability to breathe or make any form of noise. Her body squirmed and jerked beneath him, trying to get away, but he leaned his body atop hers to hinder her movement. She sensed that the already dark alleyway was growing darker, and her head felt like it might explode from the lack of oxygen. And then suddenly the man's strong grip was gone from her throat, and she could breathe again. She gulped in air as quickly as she could, her mind only focused on breathing again. Her head was already spinning when the man put his hand to her face and pushed her head violently down to the hard ground, making a thunk on the hard gravel. He held the edge of his blade to her throat and dragged it lightly across her skin. Gabriella immediately felt a trickle of thick liquid run down her neck, but she was too paralyzed to say or do anything.

"Now listen to me, sweetheart," he said, his face merely inches from her own. His breath smelled strongly of whiskey. "I'm not going to kill you – yet. I'll get some pleasure out of you while you're still alive. You are going to do exactly as I want, and then when I'm through with you is when I'll decide to kill you. Got that?" Gabriella felt that she began to cry, but aside from that it was as if every system in her body had shut down.

Mr. Evans sneered viciously and pulled his trench coat off with his free hand, keeping the blade to Gabriella's throat with the other. He pulled another, smaller knife from an interior pocket of his coat and used it to cut through the fabric of the girl's tee shirt, tank top, and bra in one slice. Pushing away the fabric, he moved his head down and kissed her breasts hungrily, biting down on her tender flesh. Only now did she cry out, and the older man slapped her face with the smooth side of his blade as punishment. She cried out again and he bit down harder on her breast. She screamed and he threw her against the wall of the alley. She felt paralyzed again when she landed, unable to move and unable to make any noise aside from her crying.

As all of this was going on, Taylor was standing against the dead end wall of the alley, invisible to the thoughts of Michael Evans. She was nearly as paralyzed as her friend, and she was forced to watch so much of this routine before she came to her senses. Flattening herself out as much as possible against the wall, she opened her cell phone and a random number on her speed dial. She happened to end up calling Troy. Her mind panicked through the first two rings before Troy answered.

"Hello?"

"Troy!" she yelled, fear making her unable to keep quiet. "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh…" She was too freaked out to even say anything that would make sense beneath her hyperventilating.

"Taylor, Taylor, calm down," Troy was saying. "Taylor, please, try to calm down. What's going on?" Taylor responded to his question with the most understandable explanation she could muster.

"Ryan's father… and Gabriella… oh my gosh…" She suddenly burst into tears at the impact of what she was witnessing.

"Taylor! Taylor, stop crying! Where are you?" Taylor's mind raced to remember.

"In the back alleys of 2nd street…" This was when Mr. Evans had thrown Gabriella against the side wall. "Troy, hurry!" she yelled even more loudly than before, which was a mistake in its own. Michael Evans, who was on his way towards Gabriella, looked over in her direction and appeared to notice her for the first time. She screamed and he laughed maniacally. Her shaking hands caused her to drop her phone on the ground, but she hardly noticed. She tried to run past Mr. Evans, thinking that if she could get back to the other end of the alley then she could get help from someone. But Mr. Evans hadn't come alone. Two masked men jumped out of the darkness and grabbed Taylor, and it didn't take her long to see that they were both armed with guns. She screamed again.

Gabriella screamed as well from her position on the ground, where Mr. Evans had refocused his attention on her and had used his blade to remove the rest of her clothing. He was atop of her, stealing her innocence with every motion, and she had an incredibly helpless look in her tear-flooded eyes. Of the two men holding Taylor, one of them held the dark-skinned girl around the waist and put his gun to her head. The other walked to where she had dropped her phone and picked it up from the ground. He held it out to the two teenagers.

"Say goodbye, girls!" he yelled. The man holding Taylor shoved his gun closer into her temple and Mr. Evans was hurting Gabriella in ways she couldn't describe. Both girls were screaming as the man holding the phone pulled the trigger of his gun and blasted the cellular device into pieces. He laughed as if he had done the most satisfactory thing in the world and then returned to Taylor and the other mysterious accomplice.

Taylor didn't dare to move in the men's arms in fear of getting killed. She was horrified at what was happening, not to her, but to Gabriella. The Hispanic girl looked like she might have already been dead. Taylor understood then that there was no hope left for either of them. She stifled a sob as she realized that they would kill Gabriella once Mr. Evans was done with her, and they'd probably make Taylor watch. And then they'd move on to her…

She didn't notice what had happened until it had already occurred. Both of the men holding her groaned, and suddenly she was free from their grasps and the men were out cold on the ground. Somebody ran past her, and she looked up just in time to see a blonde male growl and jump atop the older man and young girl a few feet away. The new person threw his arms around Mr. Evans and pulled back on his throat, choking him. The older man released himself from Gabriella and fell backwards, hitting the concrete as the blonde male rolled out of the way and stood to his feet.

Taylor felt a smile come to her tear-stained face as she saw what was happened. She knew she had been wrong. She had thought there was no hope, but there was. Their hope had arrived in the swift, valiant body of the one and only Ryan Evans. She watched as Gabriella seemed to regain some life and as she looked up to her heroic rescuer. She was too far gone emotionally to even register a smile, as her friend had, but her appearance did change somewhat, if only that she appeared to be alive rather than dead.

While Mr. Evans was still on the ground hacking his lungs out in an attempt to breathe, Ryan kneeled down next to his ex-girlfriend and hugged her close to his body. He seemed to know that she wouldn't respond if he had said anything, so he stayed silent. He let his actions speak for him as he kissed her forehead gently and stroked her hair. She looked into his eyes, but still said nothing. Her naked, bruised body shook violently; she was bleeding fiercely from more than one place and the blood ran over every limb and area of her being. Ryan had been raised to be strong, and to think that men should never cry, but without his consent he felt a drop of salty water fall from his eye and down his cheek in a reaction to the girl's condition. Now his body was shaking as well, but it was not from sadness or fear. It was from rage. He knew his father was a horrible person, but he had never thought him to be capable of something like this. This was the last straw. He wouldn't let his father get away unpunished this time.

Mr. Evans began to regain himself on the ground behind the couple, and so Ryan quickly threw off his button down shirt and wrapped it around Gabriella as best he could to cover her up. Then he stood, unflinchingly, before his father, his hands clenched into two tight fists. The elder Evans stood, a cocky and evil smirk still present on his face. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and spat to the side, never taking his eyes off of his son. Ryan refused to break the eye contact either, and so both stared each other down for a few moments, both waiting for the other to be the one to blame for making the first move. When it was apparent that neither was going to do anything, Michael loosened his posture and motioned to the beaten girl on the ground.

"She's a good one to fuck, that one," he said, knowing exactly how to raise his son's temper. "Almost as good as your sister is on the rare chance that I get her alone." Ryan's face stiffened with unimaginable fury. Michael laughed. "What, she never told you? Come on, you don't think I'd rape a teenage girl without getting some practice first, do you?"

He barely had time to let out another chuckle before Ryan was upon him, screaming his rage out to the skies. He threw his father to the wall, beating him against the hard brick with all of his strength. There was a cracking sound as Michael's nose and jaw were broken, blood spewing to the gravel and blending in with the crimson stones. But Michael had grown familiar with his son's attacks, and it didn't take him long to turn the tables on the brawl. He elbowed Ryan and flipped him to the ground, slugging him in the face as payback for what he had just done. Ryan gouged his father in the eyes, and when his hands had flown up to his face in pain he took the opportunity to push the older man to the ground.

Unfortunately, Michael had very good reflexes and he had eleven years of experience behind him. He let his hands leave his face and grabbed his son's shoulders as he continued to roll. He gripped Ryan's right arm and pulled it far behind his son's back so that when he threw him back to the ground it made the satisfactory snap of broken bone. Ryan yelled in pain and shut his eyes for only a second, but a second was long enough for his father to get the upper hand. Michael placed his full body weight on his son, with his elbow on Ryan's throat and his knee on his crotch. Ryan's scream was silenced then, and he could feel himself slipping and losing strength. He tried to fight back with all of his might, but he soon began to feel that his "all of his might" was almost nothing by this point

And so he was close to giving up once he saw his father pull a gun out. He cursed in his blinded thoughts and closed his eyes, letting his weary head fall to the side. He had failed in trying to save Taylor and Gabriella, and that single thought hurt him more than anything else. Now it was truly hopeless. Who would think to come back here to rescue them? He knew that the girls wouldn't be able to escape. Gabriella was in no condition for running. Taylor wasn't strong enough to carry her friend, and there was no way that she would leave the girl behind. Ryan wished desperately for a miracle; something that would save the girl that he still loved, and her friend.

Suddenly, just as Ryan felt like he was living his last moments, Michael was on the ground beside him, doubled over in pain, and the gun had been thrown a few yards to the side. Ryan was still on the floor, confused, when he noticed a figure in the darkness as his sight began to return to him. The person kneeled down next to the blonde boy and grabbed him by the shoulders, pulling him up to his feet. Ryan tried to ignore the pain, but still felt himself swaying. He thought he would fall back to the ground, but the figure kept a steady hand on him.

"Come on, Evans," a familiar voice said. "If you were able to beat my ass, you had better not give up now on your old man. Stop being a pussy and help me keep him at bay until the police get here." Ryan nodded and somehow found the strength to chuckle confidently and push the helpful hand with his non-broken arm away from his body.

"You kidding me, Bolton?" he said coolly with a grin. "I've got the energy to beat the asses of both you and my father and still have enough left over to run back to the hospital and check up on my sister again."

Troy chuckled and shook his head. "By the looks of things, you'll be getting a nice ambulance ride to the hospital. But for right now let's just worry about your dad." Ryan started to move towards the lump that was his father, but Troy put his hand on Ryan's shoulder again and turned him back to face him. "By the way," Troy said, smirking. "I could beat your ass any day." Ryan shook his head, though there was still a diminutive smile on his face.

"You keep thinking that, Bolton."

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Twenty minutes later, the police were dragging Michael Evans into the police car and the emergency workers were wheeling an unconscious Gabriella into the ambulance on a stretcher and helping the other three teenagers inside as well. As the ambulance sped down the streets to return to the hospital, Troy took Gabriella's left hand from the right side of the ambulance. Taylor sat to Ryan's right on the left side of the ambulance, checking out his injuries as best she could. No one talked; no one made a single noise. Troy had his eyes closed, and he was praying for one of the few times in his life and thanking God that no one else had been killed. After finishing her silent examination, Taylor sat with her knees up to her chin and recalled the recent event fearfully. Ryan stared on at Gabriella, tremendously grateful that she would live to see another day. He didn't care about his pain or if the girl hated him or liked him or whatever, so long as she was safe.

Five minutes from the hospital, Gabriella's eyes fluttered open. She looked at the roof of the ambulance, then she looked to Troy, and then she looked to Ryan. She didn't break the silence that the others had created. She simply moved her right hand out slowly from beneath the sheet of the stretcher and reached out to her ex-boyfriend. He felt a smile come to his lips and though it physically pained him he took her petite hand with the hand of his broken arm. He then put his other arm around Taylor, so that she wasn't left out, and Troy took her hand as well with his free hand. Gabriella closed her eyes again and smiled to the best of her ability.

The four teenagers were in an ambulance, and two were fairly injured, but something had changed. After the hell-ish atmosphere that had been smothering everyone for almost two weeks, things were suddenly peaceful. And for one of the first times in his life, Ryan Evans actually felt that he and the ones he cared most about were… safe.

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Sodagirl Says: Well I hope you all liked that because I worked long and hard on it. (I hope it was still okay with not as much violence as I had originally put in.) I really really want to thank you all, as well, because we've hit another milestone! With the last chapter this story passed 400 reviews, and I am so grateful for that! Like, I was shocked enough to reach 300 reviews, but this is unbelievable. I love you all and I really hope that you all have enjoyed the story thus far and I hope you'll stick around through the rest (and the possible sequel). And don't think that there won't be anything else dramatic in the rest of the story after this, because I'm still holding some drama out for the end. But there won't be too much drama.

There's gonna be some fluff and cute stuff in the next part because I think that we all need some happiness and good feelings after all the drama of this story :P I'm also going to explain how Ryan ended up in the alleyway in the first place, in case you all were wondering, and stuff's gonna start wrapping up. :) So now it's review time, and I will update again ASAP. Love you all!