Disclaimer: I own nothing, wish I did.
Author's Note: Again, thank you for all of your reviews. Some of you are making really great guesses on what is going to happen. And this is totally off of topic, but some of you may want to know this. For all of you Nancy Drew/Hardy Boy fanatics out there, on March 22nd the first season of the 1970's show will be released on DVD. Anyhow, back to the story.
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"So, is everything squared away with your friend?" Luke asked as he walked back into Nancy's bedroom.
Nancy smiled at him. "Yeah. Except my battery to my phone is dying and I wasn't able to tell him exactly where I was."
"Well, I can plug it in for you and let it charge overnight." Luke said.
"Oh, that would be great." Nancy reached into her purse and pulled out the charger. "I told him I'd call tomorrow and let him know where I was. You would have to tell him how to get here though."
"That wouldn't be a problem," Luke said taking her phone and charger. He plugged it into an outlet beside her bed.
"Do you have a home phone?" Nancy asked.
Luke shook his head. "Nah. This town has about 400 people and there's really no sense in getting one. If we want to talk to each other, we do it in town."
"What if you have an emergency?" Nancy asked.
"I yell really loud." Luke joked.
Nancy chuckled. "So, do you have any family?"
"I'm an only child. My parents died when I was young." Luke explained.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Nancy said quietly.
"Don't be." Luke said. "You weren't driving the car that hit them."
"No, " Nancy said. "I say that because I know what that's like. My mother died when I was three."
Luke looked at her sympathetically and there was a moment of silence between the two of them.
"So, how old are you, Nancy?" Luke asked, sitting in a wooden chair across the room.
"Eighteen." Nancy answered.
"I remember eighteen." Luke said, smiling.
"It couldn't have been that long ago for you." Nancy said.
"Well, I'm twenty five." Luke said.
"See, not that long." Nancy said.
"Long enough." Luke said.
"So, what do you do, Luke?" Nancy asked.
"I run the hardware shop in town." Luke said. "So, what about you? Where do you call home?"
"River Heights, Illinois." Nancy said. "It's a small town near Chicago."
"As small as Huntingdon?" Luke asked.
"No. We're about double your size." Nancy said.
"So, what brought you this way?" Luke asked.
"Like I said earlier, I was on my way to New York to meet a couple of friends. And instead of taking the quick and easy way there, like a plane or a bus, I decided to drive there." Nancy explained.
"You can't blame yourself for that." Luke said. "You had no idea you would wreck your car on the way there."
"No." Nancy chuckled. "If I was able to know that, then I would be able to predict things before I do them. And I wouldn't have made mistakes along the way."
"Regrets?" Luke asked.
"No more than anyone else." Nancy said. She tried to stifle a yawn, but it came out anyway. "I have to be boring you with this talk about me. I'm boring myself."
"And that's my cue to leave." Luke said, standing up. He walked to the dresser next to Nancy's bed and pulled a bottle of pills out of the drawer. "The doc told me to give you one of these before bed. It will help with the pain in your leg so you can sleep."
Nancy took the pills and a glass of water from Luke. She swallowed the pills and he took the glass from her.
"And you weren't boring me, Nancy. It's nice to have someone in the house to talk to." Luke said.
Nancy watched as he walked to the door. "Hey, Luke."
Luke turned around to look at her.
"Thank you." Nancy said. "For everything."
Luke gave her a small smile. "You're welcome. Goodnight, Nancy."
He turned off the light and closed the door.
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"Was that Nancy?" Joe asked Frank when he hung up the phone.
"Yeah." Frank said, distracted.
"Well, where is she?" Joe asked.
"Somewhere in Pennsylvania. She had a car accident." Frank said.
"Is she okay?" Joe asked, concerned.
"She sounded like she was." Frank said. "I mean other than the broken leg and knot on her head." He ran a hand through his hair.
"What?!" Joe said, shocked.
"And her phone died before she could tell me where she was, so I have to wait until morning before she tells me." Frank said.
"Well, at least you know where she is and that she's okay." Joe offered.
"Yeah, but she's hurt." Frank said
"There's nothing we can do for her tonight. She'll call us tomorrow and then we'll go and pick her up." Joe said.
"Yeah," Frank said, sulking.
"Try to get some sleep, Frank." Joe said.
Yeah, right, Frank thought to himself as Joe left the room.
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Nancy awoke to the sound of pounding rain and thunder. She looked at her indiglo watch and saw that it was one in the morning. She sighed and fluffed her pillow and tried to go back to sleep.
She was almost asleep again when she thought she heard shouting coming from outside. She turned her head towards the window again and listened for the shouting again. After a few moments she heard it again.
A woman screaming made her sit straight up in bed. Nancy swung her legs over the bed and carefully eased herself onto the floor. She then hobbled carefully over to the window and looked outside.
What she saw was a beat-up looking red car parked in front of Luke's house and two people sitting inside the car. The two people appeared to be having a heated argument. Nancy watched as a woman got out of the passenger side and a man got out of the driver's side.
"I told you I'm not doing this anymore!" the woman shouted.
"Yes, you are, Maddie! You're in this up to your eyeballs!" The man shouted at her.
"We are hurting too many people! I'm tired of it!" Maddie screamed.
"What are you going to do?" The man asked.
"I'm going to the police! I'm telling them everything!" Maddie said. She started to walk away.
Nancy saw the man take after Maddie. "No! I will not let you do this to me!"
Nancy watched, afraid to breathe, as the man picked up a small statue from Luke's yard and approached Maddie from behind. He lifted it above his head and brought down on Maddie's head.
Nancy brought a hand to her mouth to stifle a scream and watched in horror as he kept hitting her with it.
