p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"The next morning was a difficult morning to get up to. Marti heard the buzzing of her alarm clock go off and woke up to a second empty bed yet again. She had just woken up and the memories of last night had already flooded back to her./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1""Don't you ever lie in?" Asked Marti jokingly. She was looking forward to her day of studying law and then joining Savannah and the gang in the gym for a round of cheerleading./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"But when Marti had made her way into the living room ready to eat some breakfast, she heard the front door open quite forcefully to Savannah and Alice upset from something that had just happened./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1""Hey guys, what's up?" asked Marti, "Vanessa hasn't shown up for cheerleading practice..." answered Savannah worried "...She's never late...i think something's up."/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1""What, you mean she's never had a sick day?" Scoffed Marti, immediately passing Savannah off as seriously overreacting. "She hasn't sent anything out that she'd be off sick though, don't you think she'd have at least contacted us on Facebook?" Asked Alice, completely suspicious as to Vanessa's disappearance. Savannah subtly glanced at Alice and could sense some growing annoyance in her voice, it did make sense seeing as how it wasn't that long ago when Savannah had surrendered her position as squad captain to her...the position Alice publicly admitted she wished she still had./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1""So what do we do?" Asked Savannah, desperate to get to the bottom of Vanessa's sudden disappearance. Marti paused for thought for a couple of seconds, then finally said "let's pay Dean Laverne a visit..." with a suspicious, determined look on her face./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Marti, Savannah and Alice marched across Lancer University campus like they were on the mission of their lives...in a way they were. Marti had been desperate to become a lawyer and even a judge ever since she was a little girl, that she was willing to bargain ANYTHING as long as it didn't mean anyone dear to her suffered. /span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Savannah loved cheerleading more than ANYTHING in the entire world. Her dream of becoming an owner of her own cheerleading gym was already hanging on by a thread on the day she was given a failing grade, as punishment for having Lewis cheat for her on an assignment about evolution. /span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"They didn't need this and neither did Alice, her pursuit of becoming a businesswoman specialising in advanced economics was NOT going to be put on hold, especially for this…"I've got bigger things to stress about" thought Alice./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"The three women all got up to Dean Laverne's office, but before they could even open the door, Frankie and Darwin had stormed out with looks of despair and hopelessness./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1""…Don't bother guys…" Frankie said almost in tears. Darwin places his right arm around her. "She's not coming back…our scholarships are at an end…" Marti paused for a couple of seconds and looked over at Dean through the office window, now more than ever she was determined to save not just her own scholarship but her friends to. "He hasn't met me yet…" said Marti softly, with a strong sense of determination in her voice. That one comment seemed to fill Frankie and Darwin with hope, almost making the two smile./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Back with Deidra and Vanessa, their situation hadn't gotten any better. They sat on the hard floor in what seemed to be total darkness, they had only gotten about 1-2 hours sleep tops and the two were dehydrated. /span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"What made matters worse, is they still didn't know where they were. Vanessa swore that the two weren't even in Memphis anymore and Deidra had completely lost count of how many times the car that they'd been stuffed into the back of had turned right, turned left, gone over speed-bumps and even how many times it had stopped./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Vanessa tried to call out for anyone who could have possibly heard her, but found out immediately that someone had covered her mouth with a big strip of gaffer tape. Deidra started to cry, but the long strip of gaffer tape that had been placed across her mouth made the sounds of her sobbing almost inaudible./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Just then the two heard a door swing open, then footsteps that weren't exactly subtle to begin with, that grew louder as the...thing approached Vanessa and Deidra./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Then a deep, threatening voice quietly said "you two awake?" Vanessa and Deidra looked up at the source of the voice, before they felt a hand pull down their blindfolds./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Deidra and Vanessa both looked around the room. It seemed to be an abandoned hotel living room of sorts, but everything was dusty and had severely rusted to a darkish brown. The floor appeared to have some kind of sticky residue, possible due to someone spilling yoghurt or dropping something sugary onto the floor, that had ultimately made the floor a darker shade of brown…then both women became focused on the balaclava wearing man who was now kneeling down to speak again./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Unbeknownst to the three people inside the deteriorating building, the cloaked crusader who rescued Marti was outside, plotting how to save Deidra and Vanessa./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"He takes out a long, winding piece of rope from behind his cloak and a handful of horseshoe magnets, proceeds to create a grappling hook of sorts and then proceeds to throw the "hook" up onto a metal vent on the side of the building, before finally climbing up./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"As the cloaked man was climbing the building, he could hear very faint, one-way talking and as he got higher, the faint talking became louder and he also started to hear the sounds of muffled whimpering and cries for help./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"He managed to find an open window to sneak into, secretly praying that no one was mistaking him for a squatter or something…despite the building being abandoned and no one seemingly to be nearby. He swung himself inside and managed to grab hold of the other end of the "grappling hook"./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Finally making it inside what appeared to be a bathroom, the cloaked man tries to listen out to see if the balaclava wearing man has heard/seen him sneak in. The cloaked man was in the room opposite where Deidra and Vanessa were being held captive, so he had to be very quiet…as the wrong step could very easily cost him the element of surprise./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Just then, the cloaked guy heard a voice coming from the other room that said "just shut up whinging you two, i'm gonna go take a piss..." the cloaked guy now startled, tries desperately to find somewhere in the bathroom to hide…but it's too late./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"The balaclava man, now scared out of his mind, tries to lunge at the cloaked man but bangs his head on the side of the metal bath, rendering him unconscious almost instantly. Vanessa and Deidra nearly jumped out of their skin when they heard the bang, they couldn't decide if things were about to get worse or better. All they could do was breathe heavily through the long strips of tape that had been placed across their mouths./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Then the cloaked man stepped out of the bathroom and Deidra and Vanessa tried to brace for anything that could happen next, by cuddling up to each other the best that they could. But the cloaked man simply took the tape off both women's mouths and the long layers that had been wrapped around their legs./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1""Please help us." Deidra begged "We both live in Memphis and we just want to get home..." the cloaked man said in a reassuring, Australian accent "nau warries lauv, ie'll geit yew autta 'ere"./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Vanessa and Deidra were both taken back by the sudden, thick Australian accent but the pair of them were still very relieved that they could put this horrifying ordeal behind them./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Back in cheertown, Marti sat at the dining room table with her face in her hands, feeling defeated and lost with how to tackle this dilemma. She couldn't believe this was happening, Vanessa had been fired because of the whole "strep" epidemic that happened a couple of days ago that "she" had apparently allowed to happen…/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Savannah came into the room with 2 cups of herbal tea in each hand, she pulled up a chair by the table and sat down next to Marti, putting her left arm around her as she sat down. Marti lifted her head up slightly and a little smile started to appear./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1""Thank you Savannah" Marti said softly, placing her right arm around Savannah. "I wish i knew what to do about this... everyone's in danger of losing their scholarships again and what's worse…" /span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Savannah reassuringly interrupted. "You can't solve ALL of our problems, Marti…" Marti just looked at Savannah smiling, but still feeling hopeless. "…it's been a fun journey…but we may just have to accept that this is where it all comes to an end…"/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Just then Lewis bursts through the main doors, his face giving off the impression that he is absolutely livid and his hands were clenched so tightly, that his fists were as red as the boxing gloves that he wore when he chose to go sparing...like in moments like this./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"He pulls up a chair next to the table where Marti and Savannah sat and placed his head in his hands and sighed. "Damn, dude you're seeing red..." joked Marti, trying to desperately take the edge off the situation...then it slowly hit Marti... "Red, of course!" Marti thought to herself "Red's not gonna let this happen, he'd probably be able to help us."/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1""I'm going to go and find Red" Marti said as she dashed away from the table. "Why?" Asked Savannah and Lewis. "Just trust me guys, i've got it figured out..." shouted Marti as she left the main building./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Meanwhile back at The Rat, Wanda was waiting patiently by the phone at the bar, only ever coming away to serve a customer. She was so grateful that today was a slow day, because she wouldn't have know what she'd have done if it had been heaving. /span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Red was also sat at the bar to, keeping watch over the phone. He'd promised Wanda that if he heard it ring and Wanda or Travis weren't available to answer it, he'd pick up. He'd caught wind of Dean firing Vanessa and…he wasn't too happy about it./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Red had been in The Rat since 10:30am this morning, secretly overhearing Dean say how he'd not only fired her, but she hadn't turned up this morning to serve her notice. He just sat there at that barstool next to the phone with a pint of ice tea, awaiting the moment when the phone from the local sherif would call back./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Then the front door to the bar opened and Deidra and Vanessa both walked in to a relieved Wanda and Red. Wanda wrapped her arms around Deidra and Red wrapped his arms around Vanessa. Deidra's look of confusion and stress quickly turned into a relieved smile with a tear running down her cheek as Wanda held her and Vanessa...happily albeit awkwardly, hugged Red just because she was glad to be in a more friendlier setting./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1""Are you ok, hun? Would you like something to eat?" Asked Wanda to Deidra, before turning to Vanessa. "Yeah, please we're both starving...is there anything for the guy who..." As Deidra turned to the front door, the cloaked vigilante she was expecting to be there was gone... "for who hun?" Asked Wanda confused. "We were rescued by someone...we never got his name..." said Vanessa "just that he was Australian judging by his voice..." /span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Vanessa and Deidra just paused for a couple of seconds in total confusion. "Why didn't he come in and introduce himself?" They both thought to each other. They just gave up and followed Wanda to a table, were they both sat down awaiting the two plates of ribs she had promised them. Red didn't stay for very long. He shouted over to both Deidra and Vanessa saying he was glad the two were ok but had to go back to Lancer University...to "speak" to Dean./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Later that day, Marti came down to The Rat after a hard day of studying Law. It wasn't necessarily the subject she was studying itself that she found hard, rather it was trying to focus on the studying in her classroom as she had the thoughts of the Hellcats and her scholarship swirling around in her head all day. /span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"She still never got the chance to find Red, not knowing that he'd been at The Rat all day drinking himself under the table fretting about Vanessa...if only she had known, she might have been able to give her Law Professor the correct answer to his question of "what would you say as your defending statement if you were representing someone who had committed one of the more heinous crimes?"/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"All of that would come to an abrupt end though as when Marti stepped through the door, she was not only immediately greeted by Wanda and Travis, but the two threw themselves at Marti and wrapped their arms around her, tightly hugged her./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1""Hey guys…" Marti said softly, with a big, reassured smile across her face "…what's the occasion?". "Deidra came back!" Travis said happily "we both don't know what happened to her, just that she disappeared the other night…along with Vanessa, your cheerleading coach"./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"All of a sudden Marti became confused and angered. She was still pissed that Deidra had lied about being her sister, but on the other hand she felt strangely comforted that Deidra had been rescued by someone…she was trying to think of there was a German word for that./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1""Where is Deidra?" Asked Marti curiously and now irritated. "She's just upstairs in the living room." Stated Wanda who was now concerned about what had happened the other night. Marti went upstairs fairly quickly with confronting Deidra on her mind./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Marti opened the door leading into the upstairs living room and as she started to enter the room, she saw Deidra sitting quietly watching the TV, which appeared to be some sort of documentary on fraternities in Universities. /span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"The people in the documentary appeared to be a combination of both men and women being tortured and publicly humiliated on the campus by the sorority "brothers and sisters", by gulping down coma-inducing levels of alcohol through a pipe from a keg, to being stripped naked and spanked until blood was drawn./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Marti, now horrified by what she was seeing, quickly sits down next to Deidra, grabs the remote and turns the TV off. Deidra looks over at Marti half surprised and half sad, then goes back to staring blankly at the TV as if it were still on and Marti just sits next to her in total silence./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"It became so quiet in that room that the only thing you could possibly hear was the general ambience of the street outside, from birds chirping late at night, to the occasional sound of someone talking loudly to their friend./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Finally and out of nowhere, Marti broke the silence. "Why didn't you just tell me?" She asked Deidra. Deidra, still staring at the TV paused for a second, then finally said "because it's true what they've all said about Rex…he IS rough around the edges…". Marti looked away for a second and started thinking to herself that maybe, Deidra really did have a reason for not coming entirely clean from the start./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1""But…you knew that this meant a lot to me though…" Marti said fairly sternly. "I know it did!" Deidra snapped, catching Marti off-guard "but honestly, I still feel like you're better off without him…I've lost count of all the times he's asked me to borrow money, all the times he brought one of his "roadies" back with him, only to become so wild that I have to either hide or leave the place entirely…"/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Marti was stunned. She didn't quite know what to say to Deidra. Her rage and heartbreak was now simmering down to a level of annoyance and…intrigue. "Ok so you had your reasons…" Marti finally said in a more calmer voice "but do you understand WHY I need to find Rex? He's my dad who for the longest amount of time…I'd been told he was dead…"/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Deidra nodded her head apologetically as she watched Marti becoming more and more upset with each passing sentence. "I mean i know he made some bad life choices but..." then Marti paused for a couple of seconds whilst visible streams of tears started to run down both of her cheeks "...i still want to prove to him that we can be a complete family..."./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Marti finally broke down and started to cry and as she did, Deidra wrapped her arms around Marti in a desperate attempt to comfort her. She felt even more guilty than before for not telling Marti that Rex was still alive and seeing Marti in this state was not lessening it./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Marti and Deidra spent the rest of the night huddled up to each other on Wanda's settee and as the night went on, Marti felt more and more like she could not only forgive Deidra...but also like she could open up to her as a sister. Deidra felt the same way, like she felt...complete. A feeling Deidra had never felt before./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"As all of this was going on, Vanessa was in her apartment alone watching TV, wondering what she was going to do about being fired from her job as the Hellcats coach. After a while, she shut the TV off and just tried to fall asleep on her settee, not even being able to bring herself to go to her bedroom./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Meanwhile...the cloaked vigilante was over at a little place in Memphis called Oakland…a baron and decrepit looking place that had been abandoned for a long, long time./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"He stood there in the rain, looking through the jet black gates of an old but large manor of sorts, plotting weather or not to go in./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"On the gates were the words "Addams Manor" in bold, yellow lettering but the house itself looked as if it hadn't been occupied for years…something had happened here a long time ago…/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1""Don't you ever lie in?" Asked Marti jokingly. She was looking forward to her day of studying law and then joining Savannah and the gang in the gym for a round of cheerleading./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"But when Marti had made her way into the living room ready to eat some breakfast, she heard the front door open quite forcefully to Savannah and Alice upset from something that had just happened./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1""Hey guys, what's up?" asked Marti, "Vanessa hasn't shown up for cheerleading practice..." answered Savannah worried "...She's never late...i think something's up."/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1""What, you mean she's never had a sick day?" Scoffed Marti, immediately passing Savannah off as seriously overreacting. "She hasn't sent anything out that she'd be off sick though, don't you think she'd have at least contacted us on Facebook?" Asked Alice, completely suspicious as to Vanessa's disappearance. Savannah subtly glanced at Alice and could sense some growing annoyance in her voice, it did make sense seeing as how it wasn't that long ago when Savannah had surrendered her position as squad captain to her...the position Alice publicly admitted she wished she still had./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1""So what do we do?" Asked Savannah, desperate to get to the bottom of Vanessa's sudden disappearance. Marti paused for thought for a couple of seconds, then finally said "let's pay Dean Laverne a visit..." with a suspicious, determined look on her face./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Marti, Savannah and Alice marched across Lancer University campus like they were on the mission of their lives...in a way they were. Marti had been desperate to become a lawyer and even a judge ever since she was a little girl, that she was willing to bargain ANYTHING as long as it didn't mean anyone dear to her suffered. /span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Savannah loved cheerleading more than ANYTHING in the entire world. Her dream of becoming an owner of her own cheerleading gym was already hanging on by a thread on the day she was given a failing grade, as punishment for having Lewis cheat for her on an assignment about evolution. /span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"They didn't need this and neither did Alice, her pursuit of becoming a businesswoman specialising in advanced economics was NOT going to be put on hold, especially for this…"I've got bigger things to stress about" thought Alice./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"The three women all got up to Dean Laverne's office, but before they could even open the door, Frankie and Darwin had stormed out with looks of despair and hopelessness./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1""…Don't bother guys…" Frankie said almost in tears. Darwin places his right arm around her. "She's not coming back…our scholarships are at an end…" Marti paused for a couple of seconds and looked over at Dean through the office window, now more than ever she was determined to save not just her own scholarship but her friends to. "He hasn't met me yet…" said Marti softly, with a strong sense of determination in her voice. That one comment seemed to fill Frankie and Darwin with hope, almost making the two smile./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Back with Deidra and Vanessa, their situation hadn't gotten any better. They sat on the hard floor in what seemed to be total darkness, they had only gotten about 1-2 hours sleep tops and the two were dehydrated. /span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"What made matters worse, is they still didn't know where they were. Vanessa swore that the two weren't even in Memphis anymore and Deidra had completely lost count of how many times the car that they'd been stuffed into the back of had turned right, turned left, gone over speed-bumps and even how many times it had stopped./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Vanessa tried to call out for anyone who could have possibly heard her, but found out immediately that someone had covered her mouth with a big strip of gaffer tape. Deidra started to cry, but the long strip of gaffer tape that had been placed across her mouth made the sounds of her sobbing almost inaudible./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Just then the two heard a door swing open, then footsteps that weren't exactly subtle to begin with, that grew louder as the...thing approached Vanessa and Deidra./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Then a deep, threatening voice quietly said "you two awake?" Vanessa and Deidra looked up at the source of the voice, before they felt a hand pull down their blindfolds./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Deidra and Vanessa both looked around the room. It seemed to be an abandoned hotel living room of sorts, but everything was dusty and had severely rusted to a darkish brown. The floor appeared to have some kind of sticky residue, possible due to someone spilling yoghurt or dropping something sugary onto the floor, that had ultimately made the floor a darker shade of brown…then both women became focused on the balaclava wearing man who was now kneeling down to speak again./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Unbeknownst to the three people inside the deteriorating building, the cloaked crusader who rescued Marti was outside, plotting how to save Deidra and Vanessa./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"He takes out a long, winding piece of rope from behind his cloak and a handful of horseshoe magnets, proceeds to create a grappling hook of sorts and then proceeds to throw the "hook" up onto a metal vent on the side of the building, before finally climbing up./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"As the cloaked man was climbing the building, he could hear very faint, one-way talking and as he got higher, the faint talking became louder and he also started to hear the sounds of muffled whimpering and cries for help./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"He managed to find an open window to sneak into, secretly praying that no one was mistaking him for a squatter or something…despite the building being abandoned and no one seemingly to be nearby. He swung himself inside and managed to grab hold of the other end of the "grappling hook"./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Finally making it inside what appeared to be a bathroom, the cloaked man tries to listen out to see if the balaclava wearing man has heard/seen him sneak in. The cloaked man was in the room opposite where Deidra and Vanessa were being held captive, so he had to be very quiet…as the wrong step could very easily cost him the element of surprise./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Just then, the cloaked guy heard a voice coming from the other room that said "just shut up whinging you two, i'm gonna go take a piss..." the cloaked guy now startled, tries desperately to find somewhere in the bathroom to hide…but it's too late./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"The balaclava man, now scared out of his mind, tries to lunge at the cloaked man but bangs his head on the side of the metal bath, rendering him unconscious almost instantly. Vanessa and Deidra nearly jumped out of their skin when they heard the bang, they couldn't decide if things were about to get worse or better. All they could do was breathe heavily through the long strips of tape that had been placed across their mouths./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Then the cloaked man stepped out of the bathroom and Deidra and Vanessa tried to brace for anything that could happen next, by cuddling up to each other the best that they could. But the cloaked man simply took the tape off both women's mouths and the long layers that had been wrapped around their legs./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1""Please help us." Deidra begged "We both live in Memphis and we just want to get home..." the cloaked man said in a reassuring, Australian accent "nau warries lauv, ie'll geit yew autta 'ere"./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Vanessa and Deidra were both taken back by the sudden, thick Australian accent but the pair of them were still very relieved that they could put this horrifying ordeal behind them./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Back in cheertown, Marti sat at the dining room table with her face in her hands, feeling defeated and lost with how to tackle this dilemma. She couldn't believe this was happening, Vanessa had been fired because of the whole "strep" epidemic that happened a couple of days ago that "she" had apparently allowed to happen…/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Savannah came into the room with 2 cups of herbal tea in each hand, she pulled up a chair by the table and sat down next to Marti, putting her left arm around her as she sat down. Marti lifted her head up slightly and a little smile started to appear./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1""Thank you Savannah" Marti said softly, placing her right arm around Savannah. "I wish i knew what to do about this... everyone's in danger of losing their scholarships again and what's worse…" /span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Savannah reassuringly interrupted. "You can't solve ALL of our problems, Marti…" Marti just looked at Savannah smiling, but still feeling hopeless. "…it's been a fun journey…but we may just have to accept that this is where it all comes to an end…"/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Just then Lewis bursts through the main doors, his face giving off the impression that he is absolutely livid and his hands were clenched so tightly, that his fists were as red as the boxing gloves that he wore when he chose to go sparing...like in moments like this./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"He pulls up a chair next to the table where Marti and Savannah sat and placed his head in his hands and sighed. "Damn, dude you're seeing red..." joked Marti, trying to desperately take the edge off the situation...then it slowly hit Marti... "Red, of course!" Marti thought to herself "Red's not gonna let this happen, he'd probably be able to help us."/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1""I'm going to go and find Red" Marti said as she dashed away from the table. "Why?" Asked Savannah and Lewis. "Just trust me guys, i've got it figured out..." shouted Marti as she left the main building./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Meanwhile back at The Rat, Wanda was waiting patiently by the phone at the bar, only ever coming away to serve a customer. She was so grateful that today was a slow day, because she wouldn't have know what she'd have done if it had been heaving. /span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Red was also sat at the bar to, keeping watch over the phone. He'd promised Wanda that if he heard it ring and Wanda or Travis weren't available to answer it, he'd pick up. He'd caught wind of Dean firing Vanessa and…he wasn't too happy about it./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Red had been in The Rat since 10:30am this morning, secretly overhearing Dean say how he'd not only fired her, but she hadn't turned up this morning to serve her notice. He just sat there at that barstool next to the phone with a pint of ice tea, awaiting the moment when the phone from the local sherif would call back./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Then the front door to the bar opened and Deidra and Vanessa both walked in to a relieved Wanda and Red. Wanda wrapped her arms around Deidra and Red wrapped his arms around Vanessa. Deidra's look of confusion and stress quickly turned into a relieved smile with a tear running down her cheek as Wanda held her and Vanessa...happily albeit awkwardly, hugged Red just because she was glad to be in a more friendlier setting./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1""Are you ok, hun? Would you like something to eat?" Asked Wanda to Deidra, before turning to Vanessa. "Yeah, please we're both starving...is there anything for the guy who..." As Deidra turned to the front door, the cloaked vigilante she was expecting to be there was gone... "for who hun?" Asked Wanda confused. "We were rescued by someone...we never got his name..." said Vanessa "just that he was Australian judging by his voice..." /span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Vanessa and Deidra just paused for a couple of seconds in total confusion. "Why didn't he come in and introduce himself?" They both thought to each other. They just gave up and followed Wanda to a table, were they both sat down awaiting the two plates of ribs she had promised them. Red didn't stay for very long. He shouted over to both Deidra and Vanessa saying he was glad the two were ok but had to go back to Lancer University...to "speak" to Dean./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Later that day, Marti came down to The Rat after a hard day of studying Law. It wasn't necessarily the subject she was studying itself that she found hard, rather it was trying to focus on the studying in her classroom as she had the thoughts of the Hellcats and her scholarship swirling around in her head all day. /span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"She still never got the chance to find Red, not knowing that he'd been at The Rat all day drinking himself under the table fretting about Vanessa...if only she had known, she might have been able to give her Law Professor the correct answer to his question of "what would you say as your defending statement if you were representing someone who had committed one of the more heinous crimes?"/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"All of that would come to an abrupt end though as when Marti stepped through the door, she was not only immediately greeted by Wanda and Travis, but the two threw themselves at Marti and wrapped their arms around her, tightly hugged her./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1""Hey guys…" Marti said softly, with a big, reassured smile across her face "…what's the occasion?". "Deidra came back!" Travis said happily "we both don't know what happened to her, just that she disappeared the other night…along with Vanessa, your cheerleading coach"./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"All of a sudden Marti became confused and angered. She was still pissed that Deidra had lied about being her sister, but on the other hand she felt strangely comforted that Deidra had been rescued by someone…she was trying to think of there was a German word for that./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1""Where is Deidra?" Asked Marti curiously and now irritated. "She's just upstairs in the living room." Stated Wanda who was now concerned about what had happened the other night. Marti went upstairs fairly quickly with confronting Deidra on her mind./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Marti opened the door leading into the upstairs living room and as she started to enter the room, she saw Deidra sitting quietly watching the TV, which appeared to be some sort of documentary on fraternities in Universities. /span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"The people in the documentary appeared to be a combination of both men and women being tortured and publicly humiliated on the campus by the sorority "brothers and sisters", by gulping down coma-inducing levels of alcohol through a pipe from a keg, to being stripped naked and spanked until blood was drawn./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Marti, now horrified by what she was seeing, quickly sits down next to Deidra, grabs the remote and turns the TV off. Deidra looks over at Marti half surprised and half sad, then goes back to staring blankly at the TV as if it were still on and Marti just sits next to her in total silence./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"It became so quiet in that room that the only thing you could possibly hear was the general ambience of the street outside, from birds chirping late at night, to the occasional sound of someone talking loudly to their friend./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Finally and out of nowhere, Marti broke the silence. "Why didn't you just tell me?" She asked Deidra. Deidra, still staring at the TV paused for a second, then finally said "because it's true what they've all said about Rex…he IS rough around the edges…". Marti looked away for a second and started thinking to herself that maybe, Deidra really did have a reason for not coming entirely clean from the start./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1""But…you knew that this meant a lot to me though…" Marti said fairly sternly. "I know it did!" Deidra snapped, catching Marti off-guard "but honestly, I still feel like you're better off without him…I've lost count of all the times he's asked me to borrow money, all the times he brought one of his "roadies" back with him, only to become so wild that I have to either hide or leave the place entirely…"/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Marti was stunned. She didn't quite know what to say to Deidra. Her rage and heartbreak was now simmering down to a level of annoyance and…intrigue. "Ok so you had your reasons…" Marti finally said in a more calmer voice "but do you understand WHY I need to find Rex? He's my dad who for the longest amount of time…I'd been told he was dead…"/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Deidra nodded her head apologetically as she watched Marti becoming more and more upset with each passing sentence. "I mean i know he made some bad life choices but..." then Marti paused for a couple of seconds whilst visible streams of tears started to run down both of her cheeks "...i still want to prove to him that we can be a complete family..."./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Marti finally broke down and started to cry and as she did, Deidra wrapped her arms around Marti in a desperate attempt to comfort her. She felt even more guilty than before for not telling Marti that Rex was still alive and seeing Marti in this state was not lessening it./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Marti and Deidra spent the rest of the night huddled up to each other on Wanda's settee and as the night went on, Marti felt more and more like she could not only forgive Deidra...but also like she could open up to her as a sister. Deidra felt the same way, like she felt...complete. A feeling Deidra had never felt before./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"As all of this was going on, Vanessa was in her apartment alone watching TV, wondering what she was going to do about being fired from her job as the Hellcats coach. After a while, she shut the TV off and just tried to fall asleep on her settee, not even being able to bring herself to go to her bedroom./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"Meanwhile...the cloaked vigilante was over at a little place in Memphis called Oakland…a baron and decrepit looking place that had been abandoned for a long, long time./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"He stood there in the rain, looking through the jet black gates of an old but large manor of sorts, plotting weather or not to go in./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1"On the gates were the words "Addams Manor" in bold, yellow lettering but the house itself looked as if it hadn't been occupied for years…something had happened here a long time ago…/span/p