Fighting for Survival

By Samantha Tragedy

Chapter 5 Pain

A/N Hey everyone! I kept my promise! Another update! But I can't promise another one for next weekend cause I have a Mock Trial tournament Friday and Saturday. Then Sunday I'm in charge of a huge penny war kick off for my church. Then the next weekend I may be in Madison and the one after that Chicago. Plus I have another Mock Trial tournament in there and finals. And a whole new schedule of classes! Not one will stay the same! Then I have a forensics competition in there also. And my school Drama travel troupe is starting soon. And spring play tryouts are this month and so are the community play tryouts. So, needless to say I'm a tad busy. But I swear I will find time for this! In between writing my English speech, doing my three book reports, and finishing my English notebook tonight. I plan to write another chapter! So don't freak! I will update in the next week (I hope) I just don't know when! Wow! Long A/N sorry.

"Where the hell is he?" Sandy shouted in frustration. He wasn't sure what to do anymore. All the local new stations were running Ryan's photo and now the national media had taken to the story. They had "fallen in love" with the blond hair, blue eyed teenager who "didn't know his place in the world"

How the hell they had come to that conclusion Sandy had no idea. But it meant that more people would be looking for him and could spot him. However it also meant that Ryan wouldn't be able to go any where without being recognized, which could push him to drastic measures

Just then the phone rang and Seth ran to pick it up praying it was good news on his brother.

"Hello?"

"Seth! Let me talk to your father right now!"

Seth paled at the voice and not wanting to get into anything that would put him into trouble immediately shouted for his father. "Dad! It's Mom! She sounds angry!" About 3 seconds later he heard his father pick up the extension and he gently set the phone back in its place.

"Kirsten?"

"Sandy? What the hell is going on! Ryan is missing and you don't think to call me? What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Honey calm down."

"No! I will not calm down! My son is in danger, his picture is all over the news and you don't think to call me?"

"Kirsten, please just listen to me."

"Fine."

"Ryan and I had a little disagreement, he left and when he didn't come back last night I got a little worried and called a few of my friends down at the police department. They needed a picture and said the more exposure the story got the faster we could get Ryan back."

"What the hell does this have to do with the fact that you didn't call me?"

"Well, I was trying to do everything that I could to get Ryan media exposure. Honey, he could be anywhere in the world right now for all I know and I really am starting to worry. It's not like him not to call, no matter how mad or angry he gets."

"Oh, Sandy." Kirsten's voice softened right away.

Little did they know Ryan would call them if he could. He would have done anything for help at the moment.

He woke up later that day. His sense of time and place completely off. He had no idea where he was or what time it was. All he could think about was how much pain he was in. He laid on the sidewalk for a long time. Not sure if he would be able to walk or not. He reached for his cell phone and saw that it was 4 o'clock in the afternoon. He had been gone now for 24 hours.

He sat up as slowly as humanly possible. Ow. That really hurt. Walking was defiantly out of the question. At least for a while anyway. He was just going to have to sit here and try to deal with it. What else could he do? He couldn't call the Cohens. They must hate him by now. Seth. Seth would help him.

He flipped open his phone and dialed Seth. It rang and rang but no one picked up. damn it! Seth! Why the hell aren't you answering your phone! I need you man!

Seth walked up to his room after his mom had called. He needed some time to think. It was 6 o'clock now and no one had seen anything since they had received the last phone call about Ryan on a bus headed to Atlanta. He couldn't stop thinking about the news with Theresa and how it would effect his brother.

When he got to his room he heard a beeping and looking around found the annoying sound to be coming from his phone. Crap. Summer or Marissa must have called to see if I had heard anything on Ryan. He flipped it open and saw he had 1 missed call.

He checked the number and was shocked when he saw Ryan's name flashing on his screen. He clicked to see how long ago he had gotten the message. 4:15. Shit. That was almost two hours ago.

"Dad!" Seth shouted as he turned to his bedroom door and flew out of his room. "Dad! Your not going to believe this!"

"Seth. Please don't shout it's been a long day."

"No! Dad! Look at my phone! Ryan called!"

"What! Give it to me!" Seth handed his dad his cell and watched in anticipation as his dad quickly decided what to do.

"Okay, Seth. This is what were going to do. Ryan obviously wants to talk to you. Other wise he just would have called the house. I need you to call him and find out where he is. Tell him he needs to come home and that he is not in any trouble we just want him back."

"Okay." Seth took a deep breath. He knew they only had one shot at this and that if Ryan thought for one second that they were trying to trick him, he wouldn't tell them anything. He dialed Ryan's number praying he would pick up.

Ryan saw Seth's name flash across his cell phone screen. He was now sitting on a bench about 100 feet from where he had been beat up.

"Seth?"

"Ryan! Thank God! Where are you man?"

"I'm-I'm..." He trailed off. The pain in his ribs increasing greatly. "Ow."

"Ow? You're ow. Ryan are you hurt? Did something happen?"

"Yeah"

"Yeah? Yeah what? Which one?"

"Both."

"Ryan, dude, I know I'm usually the talker. But right now I need your help on this. I need you to tell me where you are so I can help you. Okay?"

"Okay."

"Okay, where are you?"

"I'm-I'm in-um-" He couldn't tell him. He didn't know how. How could he just say he was in Chino, where he had been beaten up by his former mother's boyfriend. As soon as he told Seth where he was he would turn around and tell his dad. He was still trying to decide what to do when the choice was made for him. "AAAHHH"

Seth heard his brother scream in pain and flipped. "Ryan! RYAN! What's wrong! Come on man!"

More of Ryan screaming in agony and suddenly the phone went silent. He looked at the screen. Battery Dead flashed across his screen "SHIT!"