Thank you everyone for reviewing the last chapter. I... yeah. Happiness would not have been in the "Bri + Chapter 22" equation. Thanks again... :)

NOW... I have to rock something. I'm buzzing already, the idea having been swimming through this twisted brain of mine all damn day. Combine that with caffeine and a KILLER rock play list (COBAIN LOVE), and I think I may be able to drop some gold. HOPEFULLY.

I'm going to have to do it to you guys – IMPLIED BEHAVIOUR. Why? Let's just say that we haven't heard the last from Sadie. (And Crash, my love, keep on the look out. I won't kill your soul entirely with this story!)

Let's rock this...

PS: TINA! COME GET SOME HAM! (Sorry. Caffeine!)

PSS: I don't think my chapter titles could get any more... obscure.

PSSS: I think I'm actually too good at writing insanity, if that makes sense.

Chapter 23 / The Non-Favor House B-Minor

Jude screeched her final time, a faint iron taste bathing the back of her tongue. She smiled wearily, making the effort to say her own name.

"J... ude... Har... rison." She forced the sounds from her raw throat, unable to get it above a whisper. She'd done the only thing she knew she could – erase her voice. If she wasn't heard, she didn't exist and she loved the thought of nonexistence. She could slip away in her own obscurity and drown in the muddled and maddening echoes of something that turned to nothing.

Jude walked through the empty house, paper and pen in hand, scribbling random bits of nonsense before throwing them down in their appropriate place. In her mind, she was labeling her current environment to organize the ghosts that lingered in its corners.

We can breathe again...

Lullaby, lullaby... Fair thee well, wake to die.

Patented and fed upon forever.

The bizarre ritual continued until she'd strewn inked white paper all over the house. She stopped in the dining room and surveyed her work, content. She took a seat in the midst of the ivory tide, swaying from side to side. To the outside world, she'd gone completely insane, but her mind was still racing in sharp precision.

You should check your messages. You know you want to.

I want nothing. I don't want to talk to them. They are dead.

You just don't want to know Tommy hasn't called.

SHUT UP! YES HE HAS!

The maddening laughter came once again, Jude's body tensing up. It was the usual war in the usual battlefield. Day in and day out, she argued with herself only to find that they just laughed hysterically and she was left knowing she'd fallen in their trap once again.

Tommy found himself disturbed and without anyone to turn to in the situation he was now faced with. No one there to be the voice of reason and accomplice in the Jude man-hunt, he placated himself by holing up in Studio B. He absentmindedly mixed and remixed Jude's latest track, hoping it held some mystical magical key to unlock the growing mystery. It left him holding nothing but hollowness and vehement anger.

A small rap came on the door, breaking the hold the song had over him. He turned to find himself face to face with Georgia. He sighed, returning back to his mock-production.

"What's up, Georgia?"

"I just received a call, Tom."

"Yeah? Anything good?" He couldn't fight the sarcasm that framed his words.

"Not really. It was Victoria Harrison."

Bile rose up in his throat at the mentioning of the woman's name. She made him physically sick. She'd wanted him and Jude apart, for him to leave Jude alone, and she'd been granted her wish.

"What was she saying? What other lies is she preaching this time?" He stopped his dial turning, gripping the edge of the desk violently.

"Jude's gone. She's run off again, and from what I hear it's because you and her got into it." Tommy was relatively unaffected, Georgia surveying his every move. She pressed on. "Would you like to tell me what happened?"

"Nothing happened, Georgia. I don't know where she is."

"Dammit, Tom!" She slammed her fist down on the edge of the table, Tommy jumping to her outburst. "I thought I told you to cool it with her. I thought I told you Victoria was out to lynch you. I didn't want to know then, but I want to know now!"

"What am I supposed to say, huh? We had a fight, I lost my cool and left." He gruffly ran his fingers through his hair, tugging it at the roots. "What else is there to say?"

"Jude wouldn't just leave like that from one of you guy's fights." She turned to gaze inside of the booth, staring the empty stool down. "I heard the voicemail message."

"So have I, Georgia. So have I. And what can I tell you?" Tommy was on the verge or turning irate. Between the "interrogation", knowing Victoria was on his heels, and that Jude was gone, he was close to snapping. "Do you want me to admit that she and I were together? Do you? FINE! We were together! Jude and Me. Me and Jude. TO-GE-THER."

He inhaled sharply, his fingers tracing the lined in the black laminate desktop. Take that and choke on it everyone.

"She's seventeen, Tom. Do you know what kind of trouble you're facing?"

He grinned devilishly, turning to finally look at Georgia.

"Do you know how much I don't care?"

Georgia stared him down indignantly, her face set in hard lines and acute angles.

"You should."

"Well, I'm tired of caring. I love her and..." Sadness gripped the bottom of his hear, yanking it down into his stomach. "She's gone. She's gone and I don't know where she went or what's up with her. I heard that god damned message of hers and I know she's finally lost it. I knew she was close a few weeks back when she called me hysterical and I picked her up just like I know that this time it's done. She's gone over the edge and I can't help her. And all I'm fucking getting is jealousy from her sister and lectures from you."

Tommy had never felt so passionate about anything he'd said than he did right then. Everyone could go fuck off unless they were willing to help him find Jude.

"I know you love her, Tommy." Georgia softened her voice, trying to weigh everything he said against the impending doom that seemed to be hanging in the air. She knew he cared for Jude, but it couldn't erase the repercussions that were itching to be freed. "But you have to understand that this isn't just you and her. I have her mother harping at me. I have contractual obligations I have to deal with. I have to figure out a way to keep this out of the tabloids and you out of jail because you know Victoria won't stop until she sees you underneath it. You need to understand that this is big."

"Don't you think I already know this?"

"Well, you don't act like it." Georgia snapped back. She sighed, playing the only card she knew she had. "You bring her back and I'll figure out how to smooth things over. Until then, you're on suspension. I hate to do it, but it's the only way to appease her mother and for you to straighten yourself out."

Tommy just shook his head and laughed.

"So you just want me to bring her back so I can pretend like it never happened? You might as well go ahead and fire me now because I can't do that, Georgia. I've seen what it does to people."