Summary:

Things turn bad when Drake ends up in the hospital b/c of Josh, a mysterious stalker from Drake's past returns, stopping at nothing to get revenge, even murder. Drake falls for a sweet girl, but is scared to let her in his heart b/c of old heartbreaks. R&R!

Disclaimer:

I don't own Drake and Josh, so don't sue me, please. LOL. --begs Nickelodeon for rights to the show so she can make this a "dramatic" humorous angst movie…--

Note to Readers:

"Threatened Existence"… thank you for the helpfulness on the name, Britt! LOL! This is the chapter that none of you people will believe. YOU HAD BETTER LIKE IT! Gar. Aww, come on and laugh, guys! I'm just joshin' yah. …No pun intended. R&R!

Story: "Party in a Box"

Chapter: "Threatened Existence"; Twenty - Five

Written By: Ginger

Extras:
Italics in "quotation marks" symbolize thoughts of Drake's.

Italic Bold paragraphs are flash backs.

Italic, Bold, and Underlined refer to the mysterious man during flash backs.

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Josh's last, final harsh attempt to shake Anita awake, caused the thick black coat she had had draped around her, to slip from her shoulders and made both boys gasp roughly, quickly turning their heads in horror and close their eyes. After a moment, they both turned back and Josh bent over her, wincing hard as he drew the rest of the dark coat from around her body. Drake and Josh took in painful, shuddering breaths as they looked down, unwilling at the terrible sight that beheld them. Anita's shoulders and her collar were completely covered in blood, and her body was shaking from head to toe, even in her unconscious state.

"Oh… oh my God…" Drake muttered, seeming to snap fully out of his formerly suicidal condition as reality and mingled horror struck him simultaneously. "Josh! What'll—what do we--?" he couldn't seem to get the words that he wanted to speak, out of his mouth. "…Just… just help me get her downstairs. We can deal with this easier, down there." Josh replied, still quite stunned himself, but understanding that he had to keep his head to prevent Drake from loosing his own self control.

Drake drew the bloodstained coat back around her and within a few tries, both brothers were able to lift her from the floor and gradually make their way down the now long – seeming flight of stairs. Drake was deathly afraid that he would somehow mis-step and drop her, but thankfully, he made it all the way to the landing of the steps with out so much as even a waver.

It was all some what blurry for him as they laid her on the couch and tried to think clearly about what they had to do. Suddenly, Drake bent and leaned on his knees, making Josh look down in surprise as he took the girl's wrist in his hand. "What are you doing?" he murmured, in a voice buried in the intense confusion and terror of the moment. "Her pulse…" he murmured, not even bothering to say the entire sentence: "…Gosh, Josh, we have to do something—she's barely got a beat at all." The look on his face matched the sound of his scared voice. "I don't want to sound morbid, but why is she bleeding so badly?" the hazel eyed boy said, becoming thoroughly concerned and speaking quickly. "I…I don't know. From her shoulders, or ribs… or something. Get me a towel, we have to try and stop the bleeding as best as we can." Drake replied, looking almost ill as he tried to gain his head back. Josh felt sick at his request, too, and as he returned a few seconds later from the kitchen, he had to concentrate hard to keep himself from tears.

He knew how terribly fiercely Drake must have been fighting them back, and he felt his heart wrench for his brother. As he watched him lean down across the girl, trying to wrap her in the warm towel, he noticed that the boy's thin, fragile frame was quivering substantially, and realized that he must be only barely holding back a panic attack, himself. After all, this was his girlfriend, lying unconscious on the couch and bleeding horribly.

"We have to call the police—we have to have protection and cops, now. And the paramedics for her." Drake spoke, making his brother frown in unbelief. "…Are you ready for that?" "Josh, I have to be. If I don't do this now, we'll all die, including her." came the amazingly steady answer: "This is d-day for us." He was about to say something else, but Anita suddenly let out a loud groan, moving restlessly under the eye of both teen age boys.

Drake felt an inward gasp leave his lungs almost - raw feeling as he waited for another action from the badly wounded girl lying on their sofa. "…Anita? Can you hear me?" he struggled, trying to keep himself from grabbing her limp body in a hug. She blinked open her eyes and he saw a frightened, horrified look flash through them. "Don't! Please! Drake told me that you—I don't… I don't know!" the muddled, confused and strangled words slipped from her lips. "Sweetie, I'm here. It's Drake! I'm here." he replied, gently grabbing her shivering, slightly cold hand. Her eyes slid back closed, but it was apparent she was still awake. "Anita… what happened? Can you try to tell me?" Drake spoke quietly, almost afraid of what the reaction would be. They waited a long time, but she would simply not reply. "Are you awake, Nita?" Josh asked, carefully.

After a long time and no sign that she intended upon speaking, Drake let go of her hand and turned to Josh: "Go… go call the police." The other brother felt the tense urgency in his tone and he turned quickly on his heel to run to the kitchen. He didn't know what he would say to the police, but at this point he didn't care. Anita had been a kind friend to him, and was probably one of the only things that kept his brother going, and no matter what happened to him, he was going to try his hardest to save her.

In the next room, Drake tried to figure out how tight he should wrap the blankets around the girl, because though he wanted to stop the bleeding, he didn't want to bring any further harm to her injury. He leaned back from her and drew his legs out in front of him, sitting on the floor to give his tired knees a rest. Taking his face in his hands, he sighed and shook his head, causing his bangs to brush up against the thin bandage on his forehead. He was surprised when he felt himself wince in pain, and realized that perhaps the cut under the bandage was worse than he had thought. But brushing the pain aside quickly, he thought more of the frail girl lying on the couch. He didn't even have to ask himself who had done this to her, because his mind was already ready to supply him with a morbid answer.

All of the sudden, from the other room, Josh's voice called his name, loud, making Drake snap up his head and banish the thoughts that he'd been thinking, momentarily from his mind. "Drake!" "What's wrong?-!" he yelled back, jumping up from the floor and hurrying half-way across the room. When he reached the kitchen, Josh met him so quickly in the doorway, that he almost knocked him over. "Drake!" "What?-!" he exclaimed, bending his brow and feeling an almost frustrated shudder pass through him. "The—the phone won't work!" Josh said, in a close - to - panicked voice. "What? What do you mean 'the phone won't work'?-!" Drake replied, frowning deeper and rushing skeptically to the telephone attached to the wall, picking it up and muttering: "You probably just weren't doing it right." He pressed the "talk" button over and over, but not even so much as a dial tone welcomed his awaiting ear. He jerked the phone from his head, smashing around the buttons and only barely refraining from mumbling select words under his breath. But suddenly, he came to a screeching halt as a thought hit him. His frown slid from his face and he opened his eyes a bit wider, setting down the phone and turning to his brother: "…Do the other phones work?" A knowing look of earnest and equal fear passed between the two brothers and Drake grabbed the counter beside him, to hold himself and his shaky knees up as he snapped his eyes shut whispering in a tired voice: "Oh crap. …This is bad." "It sure is! We have to get help for Anita! And with out any phones—" suddenly Josh's sentence was cut short by a blood curdling, deep, scream.

Drake and his brother jumped back, out of surprise and then glanced at each other as they exchanged their own frightened looks and then rushed with out hesitation in to the living room.

Anita was sitting half way up, huddled in the left corner of the couch, with her eyes open in a blank, blind stare toward the wall across from her. "Anita! What is it?-! Why did you scream?" Drake exclaimed, rushing to the side and yet knowing already that the girl wouldn't understand his words in her delirious state. "He… he stabbed me…" came the murmured, breathy and weak reply, as she let out a muffled moan and fell back in to the cushions of the sofa, behind her. "Anita…" Drake said, choking back his words in a way, and sitting down beside her: "Can you hear me? Can you understand what I'm saying to you?" She looked up at the ceiling for a long while as if she were trying to battle something blocking her mind. Finally, the stressed words came from her parched lips: "…Yes, I can. …Get—get a doctor, Drake." And within only a few more moments of saying these words, she let out a gasping sigh and leaned far back, once again melting unconsciously in to the seat of the sofa.

Drake knitted his brow hard and looked up at Josh with helpless eyes and these few, heart tugging words: "Josh, we have to get somebody to her." "…You mean a doctor?" Josh asked. "Yes." He replied, slowly. "But how? There's no phone!" he replied, biting his lip and starting to get a bit scared of something that was hovering in the back of his head. "We don't know that! Look, I'll just go try the phones upstairs. And maybe if those don't work, we can use Meghan's secret separate phone line." Drake said, in a desperate tone. "You mean the one we found along with the control panel and switchboard?" the other boy asked. "Exactly. Man, though, I can't help but get so freaked out… I'm almost going to cry, but I won't. I just don't believe all of this has happened! I almost died falling down my own stairs, earlier, after he pushed me, and now she's been…" Drake gulped out the word he had hardly been able to force from his lips, with a shake of his head: "Stabbed." "Gosh—Anita! We do have to do something fast. If she's already out cold again, there must be something really screwed up with her, not to mention she has to be in a ton of pain." Josh shuddered.

"Look, let's go try the upstairs phones. Maybe… maybe just this phone's battery is dead or something." Drake's words reflected Josh's thoughts so closely that he almost began to wonder if he could read his mind. "Okay, brother. Come on." He finally replied, reaching out and grabbing his brother's shivering hand, both of them letting out a reluctant sigh before rushing together up the stairs.

"You go check Mom and Dad's room, I'll check ours." Drake said, patting his brother's back and heading off in the opposite direction. Josh hurried off and disappeared in to the door way of his parent's room as Drake entered his own room and crossed it, rushing to the desk and sighing as he stared at the phone a moment before picking it up. He pressed the button to pick it up, and sighed again in a deeper tone, shaking his head in disappointment and slowly setting it back down. The boy stood there a minute, and then realizing the urgency of the situation, he blew the brownish - red wisps of hair from his eyes and exited the room, to find his brother.

"Josh!" he called, "Hey, Josh?" When he didn't receive an answer, for over ten seconds, Drake felt his heart beat speed up and his voice became a little more tense and strained: "…Josh! Hello?" Still there came no answer. The very thought and horror of possibly being the only one in the house able to defend himself made his head hurt in a big wave of sharp pain, and he gasped a tired "Oh no…" He wandered quickly down the hall and felt his heart speed up even faster—so fast that he almost thought it would burst at any given moment.

Then suddenly he heard something behind him, and he jumped, swinging around and letting out a frightened yelp. "Hey, Drake—the phone in Mom and Dad's room totally isn't working. I tried it, but it just won't—" "JOSH! You… scared me so bad!" Drake interrupted, giving his brother a full scale glare as he grasped a shaking hand to his chest, trying to get over the sudden jolt of shock he had just had. "…Why?-!" Josh exclaimed, with a bent brow. "You didn't hear me calling you?" Drake asked, in reply to his brother's own question. "…Nope, I sure didn't. But I'm sorry for scaring you. …Did our phone work? Please say 'yes'!" Josh exclaimed, biting his lip. "Actually… no, it doesn't work. The line must be cut off. And—well, let's say I bet I know by who." came the short and to the point answer. "Yeah, I know. It's kind of… creepy." Josh nodded. "Hey, let's try Meg's secret line real quick—since it's a separate line, it might work." the thinner teen age boy replied, grabbing his brother's arm and racing a few steps down the hall, pushing the door to their little sister's room open.

It was slightly dark inside the door way, and though it gave both boys the jitters, they still rushed inside, knowing they simply must get to a phone, no matter if they were freaked out or not. They walked across the dim room, past the bed and dresser, and to the closet in the rear of the four walls. "If I remember correctly… the last time we were in here—when we found that phone, it was right in the back of—" Drake let his sentence trail off as Josh opened the door to the tiny closet and both boys reached to the back of it, past the clothes, until they felt two little metal latches.

"Ah ha!" Josh murmured, then taking a deep breath as both of them pulled hard and let out a groan as the sliding panel came roughly out of the wall. "There it is!" Drake mumbled in return, with a satisfied half smile, as he began to reach in to pick the phone up. Then, with out any warning, he dropped his smile and yanked his hand back, yelping a loud 'OW!' "What is it?" Josh gasped, bending his brow. "She—oww—she must have some stupid clear laser trip - wire thing in there! I can't get to the phone with out getting zapped!" "Aw, man, I knew we shouldn't have tried to tell Mom and Dad about this stupid phone. She probably over heard us and put this in here shortly after, to keep us from 'using' it." "Wait, looks like there's a keypad for a code right here—if she knows the code, she could tell us for this emergency and we could type it in!" Drake exclaimed, feeling a rush of hopeful excitement in his chest. But Josh didn't seem so confident: "Nope, we can't." "Well why not?" "…No phone. Megs is at her friend's house, remember?" he returned, shrugging despondently. "Oh, crap! This is so bad! It seems that at every turn—every time we think of some way to fix this mess, there are some dumb strings attached." Drake sighed, dragging his hands down his face and blowing his hair back again. Suddenly a thought hit him.

"Wait! My car! Go in it and try to use the phone at the Quick mart down the street!" Drake exclaimed, shaking his head again in a last, feeble and slightly frantic attempt to make it stop spinning. "Right! Okay—" Josh turned and reached out to catch the keys that his brother had tossed to him: "I'll be right back and hopefully I will be bringing some paramedics, shortly following." With this, he rushed from the room and down the stairs, through the door way leading to the garage.

Drake walked back down the staircase and in to the living room and then suddenly gasped, realizing that all this time the front door had been unlocked and that the murderer could have freely entered whenever he pleased. He quickly locked it with the deadbolt and he returned to the middle of the room, to monitor the girl lying in there helplessly in need for medical assistance. She looked so cold… so helpless and hurt. Drake knew in his head and heart that with every precious second, a little more life was gone from her—and the reality of her slowly slipping away was driving him almost mad.

Letting out another sigh, out of many that day, Drake crossed his arms and frowned, as he leaned up against the fire place mantel. He was trying desperately to think everything out, but then suddenly, something began to ring in his pocket. His face waxed over in a puzzled frown and then his eyes opened up wide. As the ringing persisted, he began to shake his head and he finally reached in to his pocket, drawing the article out and murmuring: "…Unbelievable." Flipping it open, the teen age boy exclaimed: "Hello?-!" "Drake, I'm stuck out on the curb! The car is completely out of gas! Somebody must have drained it. I tried to—" "Josh…" the teeth-gritted question came: "What are you calling me on?" "Because the car's out of gas!" "No, not why, Josh; what!" "A… cellphone. …Why would ya' want to know that?" "You mean to tell me that we went to all of this trouble—even tried to used Meghan's phone—and all the time, our cell phones worked?-!" Drake shrieked in an exasperated tone, in to the cell. "…Um… whoops. …My bad." Josh sounded almost scared of Drake, but instead of yelling some more, Drake growled and rolled his eyes: "Whatever! Get back inside now! It could be dangerous out there, and believe me, I'm not ready for you to need paramedics too as I try and keep myself alive single - handedly." "Okay! I'm almost up the drive way now! Should I just leave your car in the street?" With a more frightened that agitated sigh, Drake replied slowly: "And what else would you do with out any gas?" "Oh, yeah—right! Well, um, I'll see you back inside in a second." with a little pause, the two hung up and Drake let a shaky feeling shudder through him before starting to finally dial the emergency San Diego line.