Chapter 21

Not Lost, Stolen

"Courtney! Shayne! Courtney! Shayne!" My family was cheering for me and my brother from the sidelines. We were running the three-legged race, and of course we were winning. I always aim to win. And so does Shayne. It was one of the few things we had in common; we both set our goals high.

Shayne and I were running for our lives while laughing our heads off at the same time. Most people had fallen and there was just us and Lewis' left. We were running against Bridgette and that blonde guy, who I saw her making out with, so I assume they're dating. Anyway, we were neck and neck the whole way, right up until the end when Shayne and I fell. Luckily, as we fell, we rolled over the finish line, and he judges cleared it as a win. I was about to get up and start jumping, but Shayne was still attached to my leg.

The day flew by super-fast. I never thought I'd be able to have fun with sports or after everything that had happened during the summer. It was hard to believe summer was coming to a close already. We were leaving for home in two day's time, and then we only had five days till school. Even though it had been the worst summer of my life, I still didn't want it to end.

"Looks like we're in a three-way tie." Tom announced from his podium at the front of the large crowd of people. I pushed my way to the front and found myself looking up at the scoreboards. Baker: 8, Lewis: 8, Martin: 8. Typical, the same thing happened last time my family competed in the competition, a three-way tie. My family didn't win back then, we were a weak team. This year will be different. Like I said, I aim to win.

"We're going to have to go to a tie breaker, all three families prepare for the worst." Tom gave a devilish smirk to the crowd before turning and starting to walk off the stage, but he was stopped when someone from the middle row shouted out, "We can't compete." Everyone stared at the woman, presumably one of the Martin family. "Sorry, Tom. Family emergency, we've gotta run."

"Understood, looks like it's down to the Baker's and the Lewis'." Shayne and I smirked to each other before barging our way to the back of the crowd and running straight to the few Lewis' who hadn't wanted to know about the score's.

"How'd we do?" Bridgette smiled.

"Good enough." Shayne returned the smile.

"How good is 'good enough'?" Will asked, using his fingers to quote my brother.

"Good enough to come in a tie for first." I told them, almost jumping into the air.

"A tie for first?" Duncan said. "And I'm guessing it would be with you, right?"

"Right you are." Shayne smirked.

"Let the best family win." One of Duncan's cousins said.

"We plan to, Callum." Shane replied.

After a few minutes of staring each other down, I finally gave up and walked away, smiling my head off. I was so glad that it was my family against Duncan's. I don't know why when I think back on it, but at that moment it was perfect. It was like everything that had happened was now over and done with, the happiness I was feeling was over-powering, and it knocked away the bad summer memories for a long period of time. But the memories weren't permanently removed, in fact, more were added.

By the time we had all caught our breath and full charged ourselves with food, there were rumors floating around everywhere about our final challenge. My dad, naturally, told us not to listen to them. But one did turn out to be true.

"A scavenger hunt? You cannot be serious!" Duncan complained to Tom, which got him a slap upside the head from his father. "Ow." He whined, rubbing the hair on the back of his head. I gave off a light giggle as I turned to look at my boyfriend.

"The rules are very clear." Tom announced. "Each family member must go off into the woods, individually. You must not contact each other in any way, shape or form." The man gave a look to each and every one of us. He gave me an extra hard glare. It was like he was aiming those words at me, like he knew I'd be the one to contact my family, like I was the rule breaker. "You are looking for wooden rings." Tom held up a duplicate of one. It was painted gold and was about the size of a CD. "Once you have found three each, you must come back here; the first full family back wins."

"Excuse me?" I said, raising my hand in the air. "But we have a different amount of family numbers, we have fourteen and they have twenty. That is a bit unfair on their part."

"Thank you for pointing that out, Courtney." I smiled at Tom, but he just kept his lips in a slight frown. "But, everyone will still be competing."

"And you honestly think I'm going to let my younger kids go off on their own in the woods, forget about it!" My mother shouted out.

"Calm down." Tom said, waving his hands to shush everyone who had broken out in speech after my mother's words. "Anyone under the age of ten may be supervised by an adult, but that only means that you have six rings to collect." I rolled my eyes at the man and leaned all my weight onto my left leg as I crossed my arms. "So, Baker's, Lewis', line up on the white line if you please." I looked over to where Tom had pointed to see a white line marked out clearly on the dirt floor, against forest edge. When none of us moved Tom shouted, "I meant now." All thirty-four of us ran to the starting line and Tom blew his whistle. We were off.

No one's P.O.V.

The quiet greenery was quickly disturbed by the sound of running feet. Soon the whole place was filled with noise. It was such a large area that there was enough space for all thirty-four of the occupants not to be within a ten meter radius of each other at all times. This, of course, was all to Tom's plan. Tom's plan to get revenge on the Baker's and Lewis'. He knew they would be the two family's to win, what he didn't count on were the Martin's joining them. He had his daughter, Emerald, to call them up and fake an emergency so it was just the two families. Why did Tom want revenge on the Baker's and Lewis', you may ask? It's for a reason that no one knew at the time. No one knew the truth about Tom's son, mostly because no one knew he had a son, but he did. His son was the reason Tom wanted pay back. Both families had done something to his son, more specifically; two people from each family had done something to his son. And now Tom's family was getting even.

Duncan was walking through the woodlands, keeping his wits about him. He carefully searched each tree he passed for any golden rings, so far no luck. Duncan didn't care much for this tie breaker; he hated doing things like this. It was childish in his opinion. Too bad no one asked for his opinion.

Everyone must have been wandering around for about an hour and by now most people were getting fed up. The majority had at least two rings, except for Duncan. He still had nothing. He was thinking of turning round and going back, and he probably would have if he knew what way back was. Duncan was completely lost. The forest was too large for him to know, for anyone to know what way anything was. It was only then Duncan realized how stupid Tom had been not to give them all compasses and maps of some sort.

The delinquent wandered around for a few more minutes before coming across a trail. It wasn't the same one Duncan used to get in and out from his spot, no, this was a different pathway. The boy looked around, thinking about what way to go. He didn't have the slightest clue where it would lead him, and he didn't know if it even led out of the woodsy area or deeper into it. Duncan continued to look back and fore from each end of the trail, and only then did her notice the white sheet of paper stapled to the tree in front of him. The green-haired punk stared, log, hard and confused, at the paper.

"Was that there a few minutes ago?" He asked himself aloud. He shook that thought instantly from his mind and approached the tree with caution. A light rustling came from behind and Duncan shouted out, "Who's there?" No reply. He tried to pass it off as an animal or something, but nothing could shake off the feeling Duncan had. The feeling that he wasn't alone, someone was watching him. He had been feeling it for a while now; it was as if someone was tracking him down like a predator hunted his prey.

Duncan stared blankly at the paper attached to the tree before his eye focused on the writing; Duncan. The blood in the boy's body froze, everything around him fell cold. Why did this paper have his name on it? Duncan wasn't easily scared, but this was starting to frighten him. He would never admit it, not even to himself, but the isolation and the weird feeling didn't mix well together. Maybe it was Will or Shayne playing a prank on him, which could have always been the case. But Duncan knew better.

Just as the teenager was about to remove the white sheet, the sound of crunching gravel echoed in his ears. He looked around, but nothing could be seen. The noise grew louder and Duncan's breathing became choppier. Then, out of nowhere, Shayne appeared on the track. The punk let out a sigh of relief.

"Hey." He called out.

"Huh? Oh, hey, Duncan." Shayne greeted half-heartedly.

"What's with you?" Duncan asked, trying not to sound as worried as he was.

"Nothing, just seriously fed up of all this shit." He answered.

"Tell me about it." Shayne cocked his head to the side as he saw the paper on the tree.

"What's that?"

"I'll tell you when I find out." Duncan said tearing the sheet away from the bark. He unfolded the paper and read it aloud.

'Duncan,

Looks like this is it. You think you've won, but you haven't. I've taken the one thing you care about, like you did to me. I have your precious 'Princess' and you're never going to get her back. She's mine for the taking. I know you're the one who told Gwen all about my past, all the wrong things I have done. I was prepared to start a fresh life, not making the same mistakes I had with Courtney. You stopped me from doing that. You stopped Gwen from wanting anything to do with me. I had to retaliate when she tried to leave me, I had to do something. I turned to my old ways. I turned to the violence I tried to rid myself of. It's all your fault.

Now, I will break your heart the way you broke mine. Don't worry; I'll take good care of Courtney for you. She'll look fine under my floorboards. No one will ever suspect a thing. 'But I have this letter', you may say, but I guess I'll have to do something about that.

See you in Hell, Trent.'

Shayne threw his fist against the tree the note had been stapled to. The anger grew inside of him like a ball of fire. There was no way that douche bag was going to kill his sister. Not on his watch. Duncan scrunched up the letter and stuffed it in his pocket for later evidence. His eyes were now burning red with madness. Duncan knew he had to stop Trent before he hurt Courtney. If Courtney got hurt it would be his fault. If anything happened to the girl he loved he would never be able to forgive himself.

The two teenagers stood in silence for what felt like an eternity. They both turned to each other; they both knew they had to stop him before he did something he would definitely regret if either boy got their hands on him.

All at once the rustling began again and a non-mistakable laugh surrounded them. Instantly, Duncan and Shayne fell back-to-back, almost a natural response, and started circling, trying to find where that jerk was.

"Thought you could get rid of me that easily?" His voice boomed through the trees. Shayne moved to face the same way as Duncan. "Think again." They both spun around, 180 degrees on their heels. "You'll never get rid of me." The laughter started up again and both boys kept checking each gap in the trees and bushes for any sign of him.

"DUNCAN!" Shayne cried. Trent came running from behind a tree, a butcher's knife tight in his grip. He held it high in the air and swung down at Duncan. Shayne dived in front of him and the knife hit his stomach. Trent ran off, laughing hysterically, as Shayne laid on the floor in pain.

"SHAYNE!" Duncan yelled as he watched a pool of blood gather around his girlfriend's brother. Shayne screamed in agony.

"I-I'll be fine." Shayne stuttered. "Y-You go -get C-C-Courtney."

"I won't leave you!" Duncan protested.

"GO!" Shayne shouted. "I can get back to the others and warn them" The delinquent nodded his head and helped Shayne to his feet. The eighteen-year-old leaned against a tree for support, struggling for breath. "GO!" He repeated. Duncan ran off in the direction Tent had, leaving Shayne to fend for himself.

Shayne followed the path, stopping every now and again to catch his breath and cry out in more pain. It wasn't long though before he reached the end of the never ending trail. He came out by the starting line and everyone gasped as they saw him emerge from the woodlands.

"SHAYNE!" His mother cried, much like Duncan had done. "What happened?"

"T-Trent." Shayne said, barley louder than a whisper. "H-he's got C-Courtney. D-Duncan's gone a-after h-him." Shayne fell forward into his mother's arms, motionless.

A/N: SHAYNE!

NO!

MY FAVORITE CHARACTER!

='(

This chapter always depresses me...Poor Shayne...AND COURTNEY!

Jeez, she's going through Hell right now...

Plus, we just lost a chapter! :O! Yeah, chapter 21 in the original is VERY short! So I combined it with chapter 22...THIS IS TWO CHAPTERS IN ONE! LUCKY PEOPLE, YOU!

ALSO! Go check out my friend demigodgirl1000. She's started a petition to get back our right as authors to OC stories. FanFiction staff have already taken them down and I don't know what I would do without Total Drama Music. So, please go message her about it :)

Thank you to;

Chapter 19-

rosie-sky: Oh my goodness...I can't believe you read the whole thing! Aww, why'd you skip graduation practice? haha! Well, I am very glad that you like it :D hahaha! Yeah, there are a lotta feelings I have towards Trent right now that I don't usually have with him xD Awww! Thank you ever so very much :D

KlaineLuneville: I know...Thanks :D

Chapter 20-

KlaineLuneville: Ah, I'm sorry...IT WASN'T MY FAULT! I try not to send things to Maddi that way, so no need to worry about the spaces ;) Kill Trent? Okay...We'll see what I can do! Thank you :D

rosie-sky: YAY! Another one :D Aww, I'm glad you enjoy! Oooh...Are they gonna find Trent? ;) WHO KNOWS! Thanks :D

I love you two sooo much!

I really do :D

...But the one thing that does annoy me with this story is that 46 people read the last chapter, and only 2 reviewed...That's pretty unencouraging...

ANYWAY!

Thanks for reading, please review :)

NOT SENT TO MADDI! She's in bed and she's not well...So, it's unfair on her.

Love, ChloeRhiannonX