WHOOOOOO! TWO UPDATES IN THE SAME WEEK!
NOT TO MENTION THIS IS MY LONGEST CHAPTER YET.
You see what happens when you review? I feel the love, and so does my writing hand.
My writing hand loves you all. *freakish smile*
I roll my eyes and turn around to face Stryker's troop commander brother.
"Who asked you, Jason?"
"No one, baby." He grins, playing with a strand of hair that had fallen loose around my face.
I slap his hand away.
"I just thought you might appreciate my opinion."
"Well I don't, you pig." I snap, moving over to stand between Stryker and Aiden. They both step in front of me at the same time, the overprotectiveness making me scowl.
Sabrina cleared her throat and tried to change the subject, her eyes swimming with hurt and confusion. She, Aiden, and Gabe were triplets, after all.
"So, Ivory. We found Harmony yesterday."
I turn my neck to look at her.
"Really? Does she know where the others are?" She shakes her head. "No idea, but it's good that we've at least got her, despite how cheerful she always seems to be."
I chuckle a little. "I'd be a little worried of she wasn't."
A pretty blond with sky blue eyes pokes her head in through the door. "Two hours."
She then proceeds to walk right back out the door, leaving me incredibly confused until I notice Sabrina's demonic smile.
Harmony has somehow appeared in the room, too. She stands across from her sister, the two of them looking quite evil and ready to corner me.
They seemed to get over Gabe's betrayal pretty fast. Then again, maybe they're just looking for a distraction.
Shoot.
The ball is tonight.
I'm their distraction.
"No." I growl, stepping backwards until I hit the wall.
They step all the way forward. "Yes."
"Back me up here!" I shout at the boys, trying to claw my way free.
Stryker crosses his arms, looking amused as he shakes his head no.
"You traitorous scumbag." I gasp, dropping down to dive between their legs.
Then a thought occurs to me. "This is how I die."
My supposed best friend rolls his eyes at me. "You're not going to die."
"You don't know that!" I shriek as every person in that room collaboratively sits me in a chair and ties my hands behind me.
The boys walk out.
"Where are you going?" I hear my voice become shrill and panicked. "You can't just leave me in here!"
Stryker's voice eventually fades away as he travels downstairs with the guys, but not before I hear him say, "Honestly, she's more scared now than when we were kidnapped."
"Ugh." I groan, sitting still because the girls assured me it would take longer if I didn't. Apparently, they're dressing themselves up after me because I need the most work.
I'm not sure if I should be offended by that...
After being shoved in the shower, I'm given a fairly decent and un-frilly gown to put on. Even if I would rather sit upstairs and map out ways to locate Bailey while they party, at least they're trying to make it fairly painless.
"A ball." I mutter under my breath. "Really? A freaking ball?"
"Shut up." Sabrina smacks the side of my head. "My God, do you ever run a brush through this mane of a thing? I think it's alive."
In a surprisingly short amount of time, they'd managed to comb out all of the snarls in my hair from lack of brushing and matted blood. Or dirt.
"I haven't had much of an opportunity lately." I sneer, sinking back into my chair.
Once they finish, they move on to blow drying it, my natural curls quickly reforming. After a heated debate over what to do with it, they decide to put it in a fancy bun thingy with a bunch of little strands falling out and two of them framing my face.
They try to move towards me with makeup a couple times, but after multiple curses and threats to bite them, they let me go about my business with a pair of gold, flat-bottomed shoes shoved onto my feet.
The two won't allow me to leave the room in the hour left before the ball, knowing I would likely mess up all of their hard work, so I decided to figure out what Aiden had been working on before we got here. His papers were littered with flow charts, random notes scribbled in the margins, and lines crossing over each other.
He was trying to locate Bailey, too.
My heart clenched and I quickly dashed a hand across my eyes to make sure I wasn't crying. A strong hand rested itself on my bare shoulder.
"You okay?" Aiden asked, glancing from me to the papers and then back again. He looked worried.
"Fine." I answer hoarsely. "Sorry about that. I just got curious."
He nods and backs up as the other guys walk in, Stryker with a scowl on his face and his arms crossed, while his brother looks like he's enjoying being his usual jerk of a self.
"Wow, you actually look sort of decent." Stryker teases.
My dress has a few layers from the waist down to make it look like it was flowing from the white at the very top slowly into the deep, bright blue at the bottom. It's held up by two straps of gold chains.
"You don't." I snort, looking at their tuxedos and normal, not combed back hair condescendingly.
Why did stuff like this have to be so darn easy for guys?
"You look like you're going to a funeral."
"Please, honey. The only thing that's died around here is your dignity."
Darn him. Darn them all.
Sabrina and Harmony choose that moment to walk out. Sabrina's caramel waves have stayed down, with a little piece on the left side twisted and pinned back. Her silver eyes have been done up with something, giving them a smoky effect, and she wears a gray strapless gown with a silver bow that's tied in the back.
Harmony's straight auburn hair is elaborately twisted back into some kind of braid and she wears a white dress shorter than the rest of ours that flares out from the waist down. The straps are the kind that cover the top of your arms, but not your shoulders. She's strapped a bright green belt to it to match her eyes.
The pretty blond from before walks in with a dark blue, sparkling dress and her hair loose. "Are you guys all ready to go?"
There are a few nods.
"Is that...?"
"Yep." Sabrina answers. "Cinderella."
There are already tons of people in the huge ballroom, and more arriving through the giant glass double doors.
We descend the spiral staircase like something out of a sappy fairy tale (oh, the irony) as Cinderella comes after with her prince. Some people I recognize as other Disney princesses, but I don't know anyone aside from that.
Naturally, I grab Stryker and go over to the food table. I guess food just beckons to the socially awkward.
He laughs and jokes along with me for a while, but eventually a pretty girl stops by, asks him to dance just like I knew someone would, he says yes like I suspected he would, and he was gone with the swish of a blood red dress.
I shove a cookie in my mouth and try not to dwell on it.
A few more minutes pass, and then Aiden approaches me. "Care to dance, princess?"
I give him a tiny smile, but shake my head. "I don't know how."
He grabs my hand and pulls me out on the floor anyways. "Well, I guess you'll just have to follow my lead." He pulls me in and twirls me around.
I step on his feet more than once, but he really doesn't seem to care. I soon find myself laughing and joking around with him, but when he spins me out next, someone else grabs my hand.
Aiden furrows his brow for a second, but starts dancing with Sabrina. Apparently, she'd gotten bored of being hit on and run to her brother for help.
Meanwhile, I'm turned around to face Jason. "Enjoying yourself, m'lady?" He smirks.
"Well, I was. What do you want, fish breath?"
"Wealth, pie, fame, fortune, a cheese wheel the size of my head, a new mansion, a private beach, my driver's license, a sniper rifle, a neat car, a Rottweiler, that video game that comes out next month-"
"I meant from me."
"What? Just because I abducted you, that automatically means I must want something?"
"Pretty much, yeah."
"Maybe I just wanted to get to know you better."
"Then stop staring at me like I'm that head sized cheese wheel you wanted."
Then he spins me out and, once again, I'm snatched by a different hand and pulled in. This time it's Stryker.
His pretty brunette in the red dress pouts as she stalks off to the food table. I have to fight an odd urge to stick my tongue out at her.
"Hey." He says quietly, a frown on his face.
"Hi." I raise my eyebrows.
"Don't talk to Jason. He'll only and up hurting you. Plus, he's a total jerk."
"Okay, mom." I tease. "Besides, he pulled me over there. It's not like I went willingly."
He's still frowning. "Ivory, I..."
"What's up?" I ask when he doesn't continue.
He just shakes his head and keeps dancing.
"I love this song." I smile lightly when the tune changes.
"Me too." He grins, finally looking me in the eyes again as he quietly sings along.
Pull the trigger without thinking
There's only one way down this road
And it was like a time bomb set into motion
We knew that we were destined to explode
Gnawing on my lower lip while Stryker pushes me out and pulls me back in, I recall some of the lyrics from earlier songs.
Get me out of this place before I cause more damage
A small price to pay for building houses out of matchsticks
But then you drop that bomb
All I can hear is all these car alarms
So when you fall, I take my turn, and fan the flames as your blazes burn
Shot through the heart and you're to blame
This is becoming a catastrophe
Take a breath, say goodbye
Rest in pieces
That didn't sound like any random D. J. That sounded like an iPod. My iPod. And every song that had played involved death or destruction in some way.
I pulled back hard from Stryker, making him tilt his head in confusion. "What's wrong?"
I don't answer.
Instead, I turn on my heel and duck underneath a few fat streamers, throwing my inconvenient shoes off as I sprint to the staircase leading down.
"Get everyone out, now!"
Imma put a disclaimer here- I DIDN'T WRITE ANY OF THOSE SONG LYRICS. THEY'RE ACTUALLY SONGS THAT I'VE HEARD AT SOME POINT IN TIME AND DECIDED TO USE FOR THEIR SUBTLY DESTRUCTIVE WORDS.
If anyone can name them without Google, I'll be quite impressed.
-Dictatorship