Sorry it took so long. I woudl elaborate, but that'd be pointless and a waste of time. :P Well I think it would be anyway, which is good enough for me. I wrote this in two days, and it's unedited, except by me, who's a terrible editor, so sorry if it'd terrible. I don't know if two days seems like a long time anyone else, but to me it seems like a really short time. usually it takes me like a week to write a chapter. Maybe I'm just weird. I hope you like it anyway...
The phone was ringing. It snapped Ivy out of the daze she had been in. She listened to it, waiting for someone to get it, but the ringing didn't stop. Of course it wouldn't, she realised, since she was the only one still in the house. How exactly she had managed to find herself alone, in a house inhabited by thirteen people was a mystery to her, but also surprisingly pleasant. Despite the fact that it apparently meant she was on phone answering duty. So, with a slightly exasperated sigh, she got up and followed the shrill sound out into the hall. She picked up the phone.
"Hello?" she wasn't in an overly agreeable mood, and her voice must have a come across quite sharp, because there was a chuckle on the other end of the line. That was however, the only response Ivy got to her answer, other than some faint rustling, which sounded distant, compared with the laugh.
"Hello?" she repeated a little more agitatedly. What kind of person called up and then didn't speak? Apparently, this person, because once again there was no answer.
"Listen, are you going to say anything, or should I just hang up?" she snapped down the phone, and then realised that possibly, that wasn't the best idea, since the type of people who would be calling here would probably not be very even tempered, and she had probably just yelled at a mob boss.
There was a couple more seconds of silence, and then, suddenly and sharply, a loud string of curses followed by a long scream blared out of the phone. It was a scream of pure agony and terror, and it made her blood run cold to hear it. Then as suddenly as it had started, the noise cut off, and just like that, the line went dead.
"Hello?" Ivy repeated into the phone in a shaking voice, although she didn't really expect an answer because the steady beeping was all she could hear from the other end. Tensely, she put the phone down, her heart beating rapidly. She was having a bit of trouble breathing, and she was immediately aware that she was completely alone in the house. Anyone could waltz in here and grab her. God, for all she knew, someone could already be in there. Oh lord, she really shouldn't have thought that. Suddenly she was absolutely terrified. She was certain her heart was about to explode out of her chest, it was hammering so hard, and her spine prickled in fear.
She almost died of fright when the phone started ringing again. She stared at it, unable to move to pick it up, and unsure if she wanted to anyway. What if it was the same person? What if they did the same thing again? She was terrified enough as it was. But the phone kept ringing, and she found she couldn't ignore it. With a trembling hand, she reached out to pick up the receiver once more. She opened her mouth to say something into it, only nothing came out. Apparently though, she didn't need to speak, because it was only a few seconds after she put the phone to her ear that she heard a voice from the other end.
"Don't make a noise. Do exactly as I tell you." The voice was low and distorted, and it sent chills down her spine. "If you don't, we'll hurt him." As if to prove their point, this threat was followed by a thud and then a low groan, which Ivy assumed had come from whichever 'he' they were referring to.
"Who is this?" she asked, and her question was followed by another short, sharp scream from the other end of the line.
"That would qualify as making a noise," the voice informed her. She felt a little sick. "Are you alone? Answer yes or no." Dumbly, Ivy nodded her head, then realising that whoever was speaking couldn't see her, she squeaked a soft
"Yes."
"Good. Is there anyone else in the house?"
"No," Ivy murmured. She was certain she shouldn't be telling the person this, but something in her couldn't quite bear to hear that voice screaming anymore. This was one of the very, very few moments in her life where she wished she was 9, who would have probably just let them kill the person, rather than spill anything.
"In that case, we have something to offer you," the voice sounded excited, or at least as excited as I was possible for an altered voice to sound.
"What's going on?" she wanted to cry, she really did. "Who is this?"
"We have your brother." Her breath caught in her throat. Her stomach was churning something wicked, and she was considering either crying, or throwing up. She could feel every drop of blood draining from her face.
"Oh God..." she breathed, clutching the phone so tightly her knuckles turned white. "Y-you, you're lying." Her voice was barely louder than a whisper. She heard some more rustling, and a crackling noise, then, suddenly and loudly in her ear, an all too familiar voice whimpered.
"Ivy," it was a low groan, "Please-" he broke off with a sharp screech, and then she heard more rustling, before the other voice came back on.
"The third warehouse on the docks, be there Sunday at midnight. Alone"
"Wait-" the line went dead once more. Ivy felt her breath hitch in her throat again, and she sank to her knees, the phone dropping from her now clammy fingers onto the ground. A sob escaped her, and she let it, not bothering to try and hold it back, and before she knew it, great, racking sobs were shaking her whole body. She couldn't get the sound of her little brother's screams out of her head, and they echoed around in there, making her weep even more uncontrollably.
She didn't know how long she knelt there, tears streaming down her face, but eventually she seemed to run out of them. And when they were gone, all the sadness disappeared along with them. The anger however, remained. She didn't know who had her little brother, but she did know that she was going to find out when she went to that warehouse on Sunday night. That was only three days away. She was going to need to act quickly if she was going to get everyone's help. After all, she wasn't quite stupid enough to attempt a rescue mission on her own, even if the man had said to come alone.
...
She sat in the kitchen, stirring an overly large cup of coffee when she heard the sound of cars pulling into the garage. It wasn't long before people could be heard making their way into the house. 7 was the first one to saunter into the kitchen, specks of dirt covering the right side of her face, and suspicious red spots splattered on what Ivy assumed was a previously pristine white shirt.
"Hello Ivy." She sounded far too happy, considering the state of her. But then again, what could you expect? "How are you today?"
"Fine," Ivy answered, and was glad to find that her voice remained steady. Now that the sound of voices was filling the house once more, the uncomfortable, slightly terrified feeling was fading.
"That's good," 7 smiled at her, brushing distractedly at her face, and the dirt fell off, landing on the floor.
"Where have you all been?" she asked, as 8 joined them, with a very slight nod in Ivy's direction.
"Oh you know," 7 gave a small, slightly high pitched laugh, and waved her hand nonchalantly, "Just around." Oh, Ivy thought, so it was going to be like that, then.
"Right. Is Ace here?" she felt like maybe she was being a bit rude, but then, she doubted it was anything they weren't used to. And besides, she really needed to talk to Ace. 7 and 8 exchanged a look.
"I think he's in the shower," 7 answered, and almost simultaneously, she heard the sound of running water from above their heads, "He'll be down soon."
Ivy raised an eyebrow. "I guess you're not gonna tell me what's going on then?" she asked dully. The twins exchanged another glance, then shook their heads perfectly in sync.
"No," they chorused, and turned on their heels, slipping through the door one after the other. Ivy sighed.
"Great," she muttered, propping her chin on her hand, and then taking a long sip of her still steaming coffee.
It was a couple of minutes after 7 and 8 had departed that the others flocked into the room, yelling, hitting and practically jumping over each other in order to get to the free seats first. 9 and Queen followed the in a couple of seconds later, sauntering casually along behind the others, talking to each other in low, insistent voices.
"King," If she couldn't get her first choice, Ivy was going to have to go with the second best option, "Do you think I could have a word?"
There was sudden silence after she said those words, and Ivy wondered what was quite so interesting about a conversation. She sat a little uncomfortably, waiting for him to answer, while everyone in the room looked from her to King intently. He just raised an eyebrow at her and nodded. "Sure." He made no move to get up and the others were leaning a bit closer now, in a way that sort of reminded her of hyenas or something.
"Um," she glanced at the others uncertainly, then added firmly, "Preferably alone."
He shrugged. "Whatever." Then he turned to look at the others and nodded his head in the direction of the door slightly.
"Man, we just got here," complained 6. "Can't you two go somewhere else?"
"No."
"What happened to majority rules and all that?" 3 added with a frown.
"That only counts when I'm in the majority, now get out," King waved a hand at the door impatiently. No one moved. "Don't make me have to get out of this chair. Trust me, it won't be pretty."
Muttering things, and grunting cruses which Ivy was kind of glad she couldn't make out, they filed from the room. The last thing she heard before the door shut behind them was 2's voice, disgruntled but slightly amused.
"Watch out Queen. Looks like the new girl's making moves on your man." This comment was followed by a yelp of pain, which was so loud it echoed right through the door. If Ivy had of been in a better mood, she probably would have smiled.
Once he was sure they were gone, King turned to her expectantly. "What's up?"
"Well, I mean, I don't know how serious it is, really." That wasn't true. She had no idea why she was trying to downplay the importance of the phone call from hell. "But I figured maybe I should tell you because it kind of freaked me out a little."
King frowned. "What happened?" He seemed on edge.
"Well, see, I got this call when you guys were out and-"
"You answered the phone?" he interrupted, his brows drawing together, and making Ivy feel a little rude. Perhaps she shouldn't have answered the phone in someone else's house... But it had been for her.
"Sorry. I didn't realise it was such a terrible thing to do," she scowled at him. "Anyway, that isn't the point of the story, and it's kind of important, so could you listen?"
King waved a hand unceremoniously. "Well keep going then," he told her, as though it should have been obvious.
"Fine, whatever, anyway; I answered the phone and there's some psychopath on the other end, telling me how he's got my brother and they're going to kill him if I don't meet them at some warehouse on Sunday night."
"Who was it?" King's voice was sharp, despite the closed off expression that his face was showing.
Ivy glared. "Don't you think if I knew that, I would have said?"
"Just thought I'd check, Ivy. What else did he say?"
"I don't remember. All this crazy stuff about hurting my brother, and me being alone and then they put him on the line and they were hurting him, and he was crying and-"
"Are you sure it was him?"
"Of course I'm sure," she could feel herself getting worked up again. The pitch in her voice was rising constantly and there was a lump in her throat again that she didn't like.
"And you're sure he didn't say his name?"
"Yes!" this was starting to get annoying, and it wasn't helping with the building hysteria.
"But it was definitely a man?"
"Oh for God's sake, would you stop asking these stupid fucking questions!" it must have been about then that she snapped, and a fresh bout of tears came on her. They were pouring down her cheeks before she could stop herself, and she dashed them away angrily, but more kept coming.
"I," she sniffed, "I don't care who I was talking to, I j-just want m-my brother back."
And then before she even knew what she was doing, she was practically wailing, sitting down on the nearest chair and burying her face in her hands while small sobbing, gasping noise escaped her throat. Ivy knew she was probably making King more than a little uncomfortable, but she was a little too preoccupied with her brother to actually care.
"Right." She could practically picture the grimace on his face, "Are you... okay?" he sounded more disgusted than concerned. Ivy didn't answer, just kept crying loudly into her sleeve.
"Okay then... Do you want, like, a tissue or something?" Ivy shook her head, wiping her nose with her shirt, even though it was completely disgusting and she kind of did want a tissue.
"No," she wailed, crying even harder.
"Shit. Do you want... I don't know, what do you want?" King muttered uncomfortably, sounding like all he really wanted was to run out of the room as fast as he could. Ivy sobbed loudly, and before King had time to move, she flung her arms around him and buried her face in his shoulder. She wasn't really sure why she had done it, but it just felt like the right thing to do.
King froze completely, and sat stiffly, not moving even a centimetre to try and get Ivy's tear stained face off his shirt. "Okay then," he repeated, uncertainly, and Ivy was pretty sure that if she was anyone else he would have thrown her half way across the room by now. As it was, he was probably too scared of what Ace would do to him if he found out so he just decided to act like a statue.
"Sorry," she cried, "I'm, just, r-really worried about him."
With that sentence, the door opened and slow footsteps entered the room.
"What the hell?" it was Ace. He didn't sound annoyed, he just sounded... Actually, he sounded like he thought the situation was kind of funny. Obviously, this was before he realised Ivy was crying. When he did, his amusement turned to something sounding a lot more like exasperation.
"Damn it. King, what have you done this time?" he groaned, at a bewildered King, who was still standing still as a stone in Ivy's grip.
"I haven't done anything man," his voice was edgy and uncomfortable. "I was just talking and then she came over and started crying on me and shit."
Ivy felt a hand on her shoulder, and next thing she knew it was Ace she was hugging instead of King and thankfully he was hugging her back, his warm hand rubbing soothingly over back.
"She wouldn't just start crying on you King, you idiot. You must have said something," Ace spoke from next to her ear.
"We were just talking about her brother."
Ace sighed. "Come on Rock, you're alright," he muttered in her ear, his thumb moving reassuringly up and down the bottom of her shoulder blade, then he added in a hushed voice to King, "What about her brother?"
"I can hear you!" Ivy sniffed finally, pulling away from Ace glaring between the two of them. Ace ignored her look.
"What about your brother?" he redirected his question to her. Ivy opened her mouth to speak and found that she the lump started to rise in her throat again when she tried to get the words out.
"Apparently someone has him hostage," King said, looking a little uncertainly at Ivy, as though he was scared that she was going to start crying again.
Ace took a seat, resting one of his elbows on the solid marble bench top beside him. "They what?" he didn't sound quite like what Ivy had expected him to sound like when he heard the news. That was, he didn't sound angry. He didn't even sound worried. Where exactly was the chivalrous defensiveness? Not that Ace would ever really be called chivalrous, but he could have at least faked some concern.
"They've kidnapped him, and they said they're going to kill him if I don't go and see them at some warehouse on Sunday night," Ivy told him, hoping maybe this would elicit a bit more of a reaction. Sadly it didn't.
Ace nodded. "And you believe them?" he asked in a tone that was almost condescending.
Ivy raised her eyebrows at him. "Of course I believe them, they put him on the phone."
"And you don't think there's any chance that another kid might sound like your brother? He's not the special you know Rocky."
Ivy stared at him, open mouthed. What the hell was he thinking? Was he not even going to give it a chance? She gritted her teeth. "I think I know my own brother when I hear him Ace. But I guess you wouldn't know what that's like since you don't talk to your family."
He raised an eyebrow, but strangely enough, he didn't yell at her, he just rolled his eyes. "If you could be mature for one second that'd be real nice," he told her bluntly. "You don't need to get worked up over this. It's just someone playing a joke. Forget it ever happened."
"How do you know?" Ivy snapped, unable to believe Ace was going to be so ridiculously stubborn. 'What if it's true?"
"The thing is Rock, it's not true," Ace told her, leaning back in his chair, an air of complete certainty in his voice.
"You weren't there Ace, you didn't hear the phone call."
He looked at her, shaking his head slightly. "Listen, you're over-reacting. You just need to do something else. Take your mind off it."
"How am I meant to take my mind of this, my brother is going to be killed! If this is so fake then why did King believe me?"
"He's overdramatic?" Ace shrugged nonchalantly, running a hand through his hair absentmindedly.
"What the hell?" Ivy was practically yelling she was so frustrated. "Why aren't you taking this seriously?"
Ace sat forward and looked squarely at Ivy. "I'll tell you once more Rock, there's nothing to be serious about." His voice was starting to get a little colder, and Ivy could tell she was annoying him now. Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
"I know that was my brother Ace," she lowered her voice, meeting his gaze head on and glaring back at him angrily.
"So you're just going to traipse off to some warehouse you know nothing about, all by yourself? Do I need to remind you what happened last time you went out alone at night?"
Ivy glared at him even more irately. There was no need for him to bring that up. "Actually, that's exactly what I plan on doing."
"Not likely Ivy. Really not likely," Ace told her, his face impassive, but his tone set.
"I'm going and that's final." Ivy had had just about enough of his treating her like a kid.
"No you're not."
"I'm not asking you Ace, it's not your decision."
"You're not going."
"You can't stop me from going places I want to go!"
"Watch me."
"What, so you think you can tell me what to do now?"
"No, I think you should shut up, you're giving me a headache."
Ivy opened her mouth, shut it, opened it again, and then, with a stamp of her foot, she stormed angrily from the room, retreating to her bedroom where she could sulk in peace.
...
It was a few hours later that Ivy decided she was almost done with her sulking, and was willing to give convincing Ace another shot. She climbed off her bed and after fixing her hair in the mirror, because she could feel it sticking up in all directions, she headed downstairs.
She looked in all the lounges, but he wasn't there. He wasn't in the kitchen either. Or any of the bedrooms. He wasn't even in the offices, which she had only checked as a last resort. As a matter of fact, it seemed that Ace wasn't anywhere at all inside the house.
Ivy sighed. It seemed that her persuading might have to wait for a couple more hours. Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing; it gave her more time to think of something good to say that would make him start taking her seriously. With this comforting thought in mind, she started walking back to her room. But the sound of voices coming from one of the offices stopped her.
The door was open a tiny crack and hushed voices came out through the gap. Ivy could only just hear them from where she was, and even though she knew she shouldn't be, she was curious. She took a step closer, crouching down and getting her ear as close to the door as she could. It didn't take long to recognise the voices.
"I don't know man, I don't like it." That was 10, his tone tense and uncertain, his heavily accented English giving him away.
"You don't have to like it. You just have to do it." And the second voice was King, using his normal, slightly pissed off voice."
"What did Ace say about it?"
"He's gone to see them now," King told the other man, "They called about an hour ago."
"Don't you think there's something a little weird about it?" 10 asked still uncertain, "I mean, we've been hearing things about this shipment for months and no one said anything about it being this soon."
King didn't answer, and without seeing, Ivy could picture him shrugging, rubbing a hand over the coarse stubble on his head. 10 broke out in a string of Spanish words, which were far too quick for Ivy's limited Spanish to understand. Apparently King agreed with her.
"Lose the Spanish hombre. This isn't Mexico," he said irritatedly, before adding in a more casual tone, "Just go with it. Do you really wanna be the one to screw this up?"
"I'd rather be the one who didn't die, if you don't mind."
"Shit happens." Ivy heard a chair scraping and she realised it must be someone getting up. "You better..."
Ivy didn't hear the rest. She was too busy climbing silently to her feet and trying to sneak away without either of them hearing her. She could guess that this might be something she wasn't meant to know about. Not that she actually knew anything about it right now. What she did know was that something was going down. Something major. And she intended to find out what it was.
...
So that's all. I swear I'll try and update faster from now on. Only I have this other story on fictionpress. Which btw is wicked, if you're not on it you should totally go and have a look! But I haven't updated it in ages and I feel bad.
Thanks to everyone who's reviewed, if it wasn't for you guys, I totally wouldn't have ever started writing again, and while I'm a bit amazed that no one else has realised how completely shit this story is (and trust me, I'm serious, go back and read the start it's TERRIBLE. I almost cried when i saw how horrific it is. I wanted to hit myself over the head with a... well I hadn't got as far as what I was going to hit myself with, but something hard, trust me), thanks for sticking with it, and I hope you're not too mad at me and want to murder me. And hope you haven't given up on the story completely either. It'd be nice if you hadn't.
Anyway, that's really all. Thanks for reading.
xx
Bee
ps. Lemonsour, Thanks for adding it to your c2! speacial much? :P You rule.
