Chapter 21

Kendall, James, and Logan walked around the Palm Woods and asked people about Jake. None of them said they knew anything about his car. He'd never told anyone he even had a car. Jake was one mysterious guy. The perfect character trait for a murderer. The only clue they'd gotten was from Jo, and they couldn't really prove that, since even Jo herself wasn't sure.

"Well, that didn't work." James muttered angrily, throwing a pillow across the room in his frustration. They had no lead on Carlos's whereabouts, and it had almost been a whole day already. Before they knew it, they wouldn't ever see Carlos again. It was an obvious fact that none of them wanted to admit to themselves.

"We can't give up yet, guys." Kendall said, standing up. He was losing hope little by little, but they had learned from Carlos to be optimistic. It wasn't easy for them, but Kendall was doing his best to believe that they could still find Carlos and arrest Jake.

"There's nothing else we can do!" Logan shouted, putting his face into his hands. He blinked back the tears in his eyes, refusing to cry anymore. He was so angry that Kendall still thought they could do something. They had failed Carlos, and there was nothing else they could do to erase their mistakes. Logan knew he was being pessimistic, but he couldn't help it.

"Will you stop discouraging us? We believe Carlos is still alive, so just let us! Stop trying to make us depressed! I'm sick and tired of you being so pessimistic!" James suddenly shouted, standing up to shove Logan. Logan dodged it, and shoved James instead. Logan was small but strong, so James stumbled back a few steps. The pretty boy got his balance back and shoved Logan. Logan fell to the ground, wincing when he hit the floor with a thump.

"Well, I'm sick of you always being so optimistic!" Logan retorted, picking himself up from the ground.

Kendall stepped in between both of them. "Stop! Look at what this is doing to us!" The blonde shouted. "Will this help us find Carlos? No! So stop fighting like little sissies! Carlos needs us, and we are not failing him again!"

James and Logan looked down, refusing to meet each other's glances. Kendall was right as always. They had to stop fighting about their own troubles when Carlos really had the biggest one right now. Logan bit his lip. If they still thought Carlos was alive, then so would he. Maybe he was still alive. Maybe Logan was just overreacting.

James nodded after a long period of silence. "Sorry," he whispered softly, his gaze flickering to stare into Kendall's green eyes.

Kendall nodded back at him, and wrapped his arm around Logan. "Now let's go see if we can find something else." He told both of them. James nodded, and Logan sniffled. Kendall took that as a "yes", so he stalked out of the room and prayed that his friends would follow him.

They did.

Line line line line

Carlos's body tensed when he heard the door opening. He froze, wondering who it could be. He really hoped it would be Jo, because she seemed way nicer than Jake, even though she did threaten to kill him. Please be Jo…

It turned out that he was half right. Both Jo and Jake stood in front of him seconds later. Carlos didn't know it he should feel relieved or scared. He felt both.

"Hey, Carlos. Did you have a good nap?" Jake sneered, making himself chuckle. The truth was, Carlos didn't really get any sleep the night before. He felt too scared that if he closed his eyes and gave himself up to the dark, someone would come and stab him to death or something. And how could he sleep when he was held captive in a swamp by two of his former best friends?

When Jake found that Carlos wasn't going to reply, he sighed. "Alright then, if you're gonna be like that, why don't I just step aside and let Jo say what she wants to say." Jake left to do whatever he did.

Jo bent down until she was where Carlos was. "Ready? I have the recording device right here in my hand." She said, her voice cold as ice. Carlos gulped. He couldn't do this. But he didn't want to die, either. He didn't want to do this, but it was the only thing he could do right now. After all, his friends wanted him alive, right? He hoped so. He also hoped that Kendall would forgive him after this. If he didn't, Carlos didn't know what he'd do next.

"I guess you're ready, then, since you don't seem to be cooperating with anyone today." Jo said indifferently.

Carlos looked down, ashamed of himself for being so weak. His head snapped up when Jo started speaking again.

"Alright. You can read your lines off of this little sheet of paper. Say it with emotion, or Jake's gonna whip ya. Okay?" Carlos's eyes widened when he saw Jake return with a belt in his hands. Jake smiled and waved at Carlos like he was his best friend.

"Start whenever you're ready." Jo said, like this was an audition or something. Carlos read it over, and his heart almost broke. Kendal would hate him after he said this stuff out loud. The sheet read: Hey, Kendall. This is Carlos Garcia. I just wanted to say something. I hate you. I hate how you always get the attention. I hate you so much. I was never your friend in the first place. I just went along with you because I wanted to get famous, too. I never cared for you or your family. In fact, I'm planning to murder your little sister, Katie. She's just a burden to anyone, anyways. I didn't want to tell you this, but I think it's time you should know. If you find this tape, congratulations to you. Bye, Kendall, I hate you!

"I… I can't do this." Carlos stuttered, rubbing his hands together. He couldn't say any of this.

"There's always that other option with the gun," Jo reminded him softly, grinning. Carlos bit his lip hard. He just had to say those words, and then he was safe. They may even let him go. And then he could get back to his friends and tell Kendall the whole story.

Carlos took a deep breath and started reciting the sheet of paper that would soon ruin his life.

His voice cracked when he got to the part about not caring about Kendall or his family. That was a total lie, and Carlos couldn't bear to say it out loud. Jo paused the tape and gestured to Jake. Jake nodded and whipped Carlos without any warning. Carlos felt a blast of pain. He barely kept from crying out in pain.

"Keep going." Jo said firmly. And Carlos did. When he was finally finished, he'd suffered about 10 whippings. His back hurt all over the place. He was done. He was finally done.

"Good boy, Carlos." Jo said, smirking. Carlos whimpered and closed his eyes. He knew this would hurt Kendall. Kendall was strong, but those words would hurt anyone, even the strongest man on the earth. He already regretted doing this, but he couldn't take them back now. Jo had everything recorded, and there was no going back.

"Kendall's gonna be so mad at you after he hears this, Carlos. And finally, he's gonna ditch you. For me." Jo laughed, and Carlos cringed at the sound. So this was Jo's plan all along. To get Kendall to hate Carlos, just so he could ditch him and hang with Jo more? Carlos hated Jo now. He hated Jo so much.

"H-he's not gonna believe y-you." Carlos protested, trying to find some loophole in Jo's plan. Jo laughed like Carlos was crazy.

"They don't care about you that much. Kendall's gonna believe me. You know what? Maybe I should go right now." Jo stood up and left, leaving a scared and confused Carlos behind. How as Jo gonna fake it?

"I'm so sorry, Kendall…" Carlos cried, finally letting his tears cascade down his face. He couldn't bear to see Kendall's face after he heard all those horrible things Carlos said about him.

Kendall wouldn't forgive him. Carlos had been a coward, and now he was paying the price. But he couldn't help thinking that the price was way too high. Maybe he should've died instead. After all, no one would care about him anyways after they found out what Carlos had done.

Carlos didn't know what to do anymore. He couldn't really plan anything right now, because he couldn't escape from Jake's evil house. He couldn't just go with the flow, either, or he'd end up dead or hated.

Or both.

A/N- Okay, I really didn't get the ending…. Sorry about that. But now what? Whaddya think is gonna happen? ;)

And I'm thinking of starting a new story soon… the poll is going great, and soon I'll show the results. Or not. ;) Thanks for all the support, guys! I love you all! See ya next chapter!

Peace, Love, and Giraffes,

Anonymous Skrtle