"Losing all hope"

"My heart is breaking for her," Helen told standing by the kitchen entry, staring at Julie's closed bedroom door. She looked at her fiancee sitting on his armchair, fiddling with the list she suspected would do them no good. But she understood Barry needed to keep busy, needed to keep his mind elsewhere.

"I don't know what I would've done in her place," she kept talking, filling her own need of drowning out the fright screaming in her head. "If he would've taken you," she added mumbling and Barry looked at her over his shoulder. He stood up and walked over to her, putting his arms around her.

"I'll never leave you Heller, not without a fight."

"How do you know Ray didn't say the exact same thing to Jules before that nutcase kidnapped him!?"

Barry was silent because he didn't know. He held his girl a little tighter and hushed her. "Whatever he has in store, we'll deal. I'll not leave you and I will not let him take you," he said with fire in his voice. He knew at least part of it was true. He'd never let the bastard take Helen.

"Barry?" Her voice sounded different and he let go off her a little, looking down on her face that wasn't focused on his anymore. She was staring at to the side and he let his eyes follow hers. "There's a message," Helen pointed at the answering machine, taking a step towards it.

"It's Julie's," she put a hand on Barry's hand when he was about to press the button. Barry nodded and turned his head over his shoulder. "Jules, get out here."

She let them wait for a few seconds but soon enough the door was opened and Julie came out, looking every bit like the pale ghost she'd been looking like lately. No improvement at all, she hadn't even changed her clothes, even though there was blood on her top. She had at least scrubbed away the blood from the gash on her forehead, the fatlip still seemed to cover half her face. "What?" she asked, looking up on them under her lashes.

"There's a message," Barry replied with a shrug pointing at the answering machine. It seemed to take a few moments for the brunette to realise what they were talking about, when she did she shuffled her feet over to them and pressed the button, folding her arms across her chest as she listened.

Barry sighed and turned around, heading back to his chair. His moves froze when a dark voice filled the room.

"Julie... are you there?" It drawled and the sniggered. "Of course you're not. I can see you right now... limp on the ground. It's a good look for you."

Helen reached out for Barry who directly took her in his arms again, trying to protect her from phantoms beginning to haunt her mind again.

"Helen... and Barry... they're coming for you. A bit slow though, maybe they just don't care anymore. If they were smart they would've abandoned you and Ray long time ago," there was another snigger, "but they're not smart. The beautiful people," for a moment the voice sounded bitter but then shone up. "Oh, and don't worry about Ray. He's good – aren't you?"

The three friend's heart's stopped when they heard muffled cries of pain from their friend. Julie covered her mouth with her hands and Helen hid her face in Barry's chest.

The low, drawling voice came back – he was amused. "Don't y'all go and be jealous now. Your time will come... don't you know... vengance is timeless."

There was a sharp tone and then all sound died for a few seconds before the tape began to rewind. They remained still.

"Vegance is timeless?" Barry suddenly spoke with a clear voice and snorted. "Who is this dimwit? Somebody who's been overdosing on horrorflicks?" He let go of Helen and took a couple of steps away, running his hand through his hair. Exhaling loudly.

"Who cares?" Julie cried. "He's hurting Ray – we... we can't...," unable to find words she grunted with frustration and hid her tearstained face in her palms.

Looking between her friends Helen felt split in two. She was scared, she was fed up and she had no idea what they could do. She was just a girl for crying out loud. "I'm gonna make coffee," she said mostly to say something and headed into the kitchen. She had to breathe.

"Helen," Barry called out to point out that it was useless cause nobody wanted coffee, but when she didn't answer he didn't follow. If she needed to keep her hands busy who was he to take that from her. He glared at his stupid list and in a fit of rage he tore it into several little pieces.

Julie didn't seem to notice. She was locked inside her own head, hiding her sight from the world and only seeing the images played before her eyes by her imagination.

The smell of freshly made coffee filled the room and Barry filled a cup and put it in front of him. Mostly to make Helen feel better.

Julie was standing by the window, with her arms wrapped around herself, staring out into the black of night. What was going on in her mind Barry didn't want to know.

He glanced at Helen. She was sitting on the couch, pretending to be occupied with stirring her coffee, she didn't seem to realize she'd been doing this for over an hour or so.

He stared down on his own list. It wasn't so much of list anymore as the number to the airport and a cab company. He wanted to get the fk out of this city. He'd had enough of this shit. How many years would they have to pay for the mistake they'd made?

He'd been stupid to think it was going to end. He was starting to think it was never going to end. And it was tearing them all apart. One by one they were loosing all hope.

With a second glance at Helen he wondered – was he right for her? Was he dragging her down? If she'd been with somebody else maybe she would've taken the job in Europe she was once offered. Then she wouldn't have been here, stuck in some sick minds ultimate fantasy.

"Barry?"

She'd noticed him staring and looked at him with kind eyes. "Are you alright?"

"What? Yeah, sure." He smiled and stared down on his paper again. He crinkled it into a ball and threw it towards the paperbasket next to the phone. As the paperball went down the phone began to ring.

All three of them flinched.

They exchanged glances.

Julie stood like frozen with terror on her face. Helen's eyes seemed to be seconds from popping out of her head. Barry wanted to answer but his body wouldn't move. His hands crampishly held the back of his chair.

The familiar tone of the answering maching beeped.

"Julie?" It was a man's voice. "Julie James, I realize this might seem... strange that I'm calling you." Laughter filled their ears. "I mean... it's not like I know you. I just wanted to talk to you. I work at the hospital you were at. I know you saw me I..."

Some unidentified background noises interrupted the man and when he returned he seemed stressed. "I can't talk right now but... I know where you live. We really need to talk. I... I have to go."

The click and the dead of silence filled them with a hollow chill.

Helen turned to her friend. "Who is he?"

"That creepy nurse... he kept staring at me. I... what if..." she breathed hard sure her heart was going to pound it's way out of her chest. "What if he has Ray?"

Barry snorted and shook his head. "Or he's just some pathetic guy who wants a date. I don't think we should read too much into this."

"Read too much into this!?" Julie exploaded. "He said; I know where you live! That sounds like a threat to me! And didn't you hear his voice? It sounded like the first message only... well maybe not exactly the same but they were both..."

"Male?" Barry suggested and Julie rolled her eyes.

"There was more. I know you heard it. You're just to afraid to admit it."

"Afraid? No. I just don't think we need to get ourselves worked up about every single little thing. If we do that we'll be locking ourselves in this apartment forever soon, hiding from the mailman! We need to pick our battles, Julie. If were gonna find Ray we need to figure out who's really responsible."

"And how do you suggest we do that, Barry? I'm telling you – this guy was not looking at me in a – let's date and get married kind of way. It was eerie."

Helen stood up, putting her coffee down on the livingroom table. "I agree with Julie. He didn't seem like his pressing matter was to ask her out on a date."

Barry stared at her. He couldn't believe she agreed wtih Julie on this. Of course they rarely seemed to agree when it came to this matter. He shook his head. That wasn't important.

"Honestly, this is beginning to get to much. We have no idea how to find Barry or who is doing this. I think we should get some sleep and trying shed light on all of this in the morning."

Julie gaped. She thought of Ray – in pain somewhere, alone and afraid – they couldn't just go to sleep and hope he'd be alright. They'd had to do something now. A thousand times she thought of calling the police but she knew there was no idea. Who would believe them?

"Maybe you're right," Helen nodded. She worried about Ray too, she really did. But she was scared and cold to the bone – she needed to sleep in Barry's arms and delude herself for at least a couple of hours that everything would be alright.

She turned to Julie who stared at her in disbelief.

"Not you too Helen. Don't give up on Ray yet. I know he's alive. I just know it." Julie pleaded and her blond friend stared at her feet.

"I haven't given up on Ray. I just feel that we are all stressed and tired and really not thinking straight. If we sleep then... maybe we'll think of something we haven't thought of before." She touched Julie's arm. "And I don't think Ray is dead. I feel quite sure in the fact that he won't die until this sick bastard has us exactly where he wants us – in the goddamn front seat for it."

She joined her fiance by his side and put her arm around his waist. Was it selfish of her to want one hour of feeling safe?

It pained her heart to think that this might be the last time she'd ever spend with Barry. This creep wouldn't stop until he had killed them all. And unless she could find a way to re-write history, their future didn't seem bright but rather short.

Julie looked between them. She was vetoed and she knew it. "Fine! Whatever! Why don't we all just go on a holiday and leave Ray to rot somewhere!! Alone!"

She strode into her room and slammed the door behind herself. With a loud sob she leaned against it and let the tears fall down her face.

Julie couldn't sleep. She'd been pacing for hours it seemed. Her clock radio kept ticking away precious minutes of Ray's life.

Why hadn't it been her?

She sighed and ran her hands through her head. She had to stop that. There was no point in wishful thinking. What she need to realize was how to find him. She couldn't sit around here and wait for some psycho-killer to decide it was finally their time.

That male nurse. Who was he? How was he connected to all this?

Barry could say what he wanted. She knew that this man was involved. She had felt it in his eyes.

Could he be a brother to the boy they'd hit? He was too young to be the father. Maybe he was just some internet pervert who'd found old articles of the deaht. But that didn't make sense either. How would he know of them then?

"Great Jules, really driving yourself insane over this." She muttered to herself. She wished it was all her own nightmare. In that case she would wake up and all of her friends would be safe.

Another sigh and then she headed for the door. Her room was too cramped.

She tiptoed out of it and in to the livingroom. Barry and Helen were tightly snuggled up together on the couch. They seemed to be deeply asleep.

She smiled crookedly. They were young and in love. Their minds should be filled with friends and parties and career plans and hopes of building a future and family together. They shouldn't be there.

Escaping to the kitchen it still didn't provide her with the oxygen she needed to breathe. It all seemed to suffocate her.

In the dark she leaned on the counter. When she put her hand back she felt something and pushed it out of her palms way, figuring it was the cord to the toaster. But it was cold and hard... not much like a cord.

Slowly she turned around and grabbed for the little silver chain. A little locket hung from it. Her fingers trembled as she popped it open. At first she yelped and covered her mouth with her hand.

When the necklace fell towards the floor she began to scream.

AN; Again sorry for the delayed update. The reviews are really inspiring me to continue it's just this damn thing called time – I don't have enough of it. I'll do my best to finish this though, bare with me for just a little while longer.

And if you don't remember I'm writing this partly after the book since they all survived there and the victim in it was a boy and not a grown man. Just so you don't get confused.

Thanks for reading this

Jennifer