Hello, friends! Time for another intense chapter of JOTN. We're getting to the nitty gritty end here. There will be about five or six chapters left, so a lot more to look forward to. But for today, the boys are confronted by their kidnappers yet again, and things happen. Let's see!

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OC's.

Chapter 15: Up the Bridge

The van started to vroom straight towards the boys, but they quickly moved out of the way in order to not get run over. The van continued on, but stopped for a moment. The door opened... and a man stepped out. The boys (except Albert) started shivering in fear.

"Hello, boys..." He greeted with a chuckle, "It's good to see you again. Didn't think we'd find you here. But now that you're here... we can all be together again..."

"Hey, hey, hey! No way!" Albert refused, "I won't let you take my friends again..."

Gabe smirked, "Sorry, fatty. But you don't get a say in this matter..."

"Where's my brother?!" Bill demanded, "Let him go!"

"Relax, son. He's just taking a nap in the van right now..."

However, as soon as the man said that, there was a banging sound from the back of said van, and muffled screaming that the boys knew was Russell trying to escape. But Gabe ignored it, "But don't worry, you'll get to see him shortly. Now, why don't you be good little boys and get in for me?"

But the gang didn't move a muscle... all of them too scared to do so. Ten seconds passed, and Gabe was getting irritated. He then reached into his pocket... and pulled out a large knife, "Let's try this again. Get your asses in the van, or you're gonna get cut!"

"NOOO!" Rudy cried, "I won't go! I ain't going! Not again! I won't go back to the basement again! I won't let you hurt me AGAIN!"

The man smirked as he moved closer to the boys, "Aw, what's wrong? Is the little slut too afraid to get fucked again? But I thought you enjoyed it the last four or five times we did it together..."

This was new information for Albert. Rudy was raped more than once. Well, he did remember Rudy mentioning it happened more than once, but he didn't think it happened up to five times. As for Rudy himself, he just burst into tears and looked away. Donald, in a moment of strong will, stepped in front of his best friend, "I-I-I won't l-let you hurt my friend again!" He said bravely, even though he was trembling.

Gabe laughed, "You seem to really to be close to that little whore, aren't you? So willing to protect him. So tell me, why didn't you try the first time? Why did you instead piss your pants?"

Donald frowned at the reminder of that, "I-I was scared back then. But I'm not scared now! And I want you to leave my best friend alone, you-you-you-you big bully! If you want him, y-you'll have to go through me!"

The wicked man shrugged, "Fine by me. If it'll get you to get the hell in the van."

That's when Albert stepped in front everyone, "If you want any of my friends, you'll have to go through me!" he glared.

"Again, I can take you, fatass!"

"Give. Me. Back. My. BROTHER!" Bill snarled, trying to tackle the man, but was held back by Bucky and Mush, "If you've done anything to him, I swear to God I will... I will..."

Gabe leaned in on the teenager, smirking, "You'll what, William...?"

Bill glared at him, "I'll... I'll do something. But whatever it is, you won't like it!"

"Oh, I'm so scared..."

With that, the monster raised his knife above the kids, "A few stabs, and that should get the message across to you brats!"

"Gabe! Stop it!"

Another voice was heard, and the boys saw Bella getting out of the van. She looked... pitiful. The man turned to his wife, "Bella, what are you doing...?" he asked.

"Honey... we should stop this..." She said softly, "We shouldn't be doing this. Kidnapping children... taking them away from their families, tormenting them until they die! We've become MONSTERS, Gabe! I can't do this! Not to these sweet boys..."

"But Bella... we're doing this... for you... so that you would have someone to love and care for..."

"I never wanted to do it THIS WAY! I much would've rather adopted! But no, I had to be an idiot and allow myself to be influenced by your evil ways! Well, no more! No more of that! We need to let these boys free, and turn ourselves in!"

Slowly, everything was starting to become clear to the boys. There was a reason this couple did what they did, as Albert started to speak, "So... Miss Bella... are you... in any way... infertile?"

The woman sighed in nodded, "I am... when Gabe and I met... I've always wanted children. But no matter how much we tried... we couldn't... and because of our troubled pasts... I guess this is what started all of these kidnappings of children. It's not an excuse for all the trouble we caused... but now I'm started to see how wrong we've been..."

She then turned to her husband, "Gabe... I want to have children to LOVE... not to abuse and torture... think of all the lives we ruined... all the children we took... and how traumatized these boys are. For God sakes, we took away the innocence of ONE of these boys." She gestured to a still tearful Rudy, "He'll never be the same again! He will have to live with this for the rest of his young life. All because of US! ALL of these boys will have to deal with lasting scars due to our sins!"

Bella then took his hand, "Please... for the sake of these boys... we have to give this up, turn ourselves in, and pay for our mistakes. If we don't... we'll eventually end up doing something we regret... even though I already regret all the suffering I caused to these boys..."

Speaking of said boys, they were looking back and forth between the man and woman. Wondering what Gabe was going to do now, and if Bella's words meant anything to him...

After a few moments of silence, Gabe started to growl.

"You stupid bitch! All of this, all of this giving you kids to care for, and you wanna back out NOW?!" He glared at his wife.

Bella glared right back, "I don't want to do this anymore! This has been getting out of hand. We need to stop!"

"I'm on a fucking roll, Belladonna, and I won't stop now! We're taking these boys and catching the next flight overseas! Whether you like it or not!"

But she wasn't about to back down that easily. Before Gabe could say another word, she grabbed him by the wrist, punched him in the face, kicked him where the sun doesn't shine, and while he was bent down, jabbed in the back to send him to the ground. After that, she rushed over to the back of the van and unlocked it.

The boys watched as she pulled out a bound and gagged Russell, before freeing him of his binds, "You're free little one..." She told him softly.

The small child looked up at her with confusion, but when he spotted his brother and friends, he started to ran towards them, before Gabe got up and pulled out a gun.

"That's it! I've had enough! All of you brats get in the van or else!" He roared.

When nobody moved...

"... Fine!"

BANG!

A shot was fired. No one could tell which direction, for it all happened so fast. Bill, Rudy, Donald, Harold, Bucky, and Mush felt like it was about to hit one of them, so they braced themselves.

But... one of them felt anything.

Instead, they heard a low groan.

Looking right in front of them, they were horrified. Albert was on the ground, lying on his back while clutching his stomach. Bill looked closer, and even though Albert wore a red sweater, he could see a much deeper shade of red seeping through said sweater.

Their friend... got shot...

"Oh god..." Was all Bill can say.

Gabe just smirked, "I had a feeling the fatass would try to protect his friends. But of course, a price was paid... and now, how about we- OWWWW! FUCK!"

The man cried out when he felt a pain in his hand. He looked down to see Russell biting him while reaching into his pocket. Before he could shake the kid off of him, Russell was running, with the plane tickets in hand, "You little shit! Come back here, damn it!" Gabe growled, before taking off after the boy.

"Oh my god... oh my god..." Bella couldn't believe it, "We have to stop him. He might actually kill Russell!"

At that realization, Bill spoke up, "Some of us should go after him! Miss Bella, you call the cops, the ambulance, someone! Our friend needs help!"

With that, half of the boys went running (Bill, Rudy, and Donald), while the other half (Harold, Mush, and Bucky) stayed behind to tend to Albert, "You're gonna be okay, Albert..." Harold tried to assure him.

"Please... don't leave us..." Bucky pleaded, on the verge of tears.

"Pleaseb..." Mush echoed.

Albert's response was coughing up blood and smiling slightly, "Hey.. hey... hey... I'm not going away... I'll... I'll be okay..."

But to the others, they just weren't sure...

Meanwhile, Russell had been running for a while, until he found himself on some train tracks. He stopped a bit to catch his breath, before looking back at the man who was chasing him. The child looked down at the tickets he swiped, and frowned, ripping them up, "This is for what you did to my brother and Fat Albert!" He shouted before running again.

By now, Gabe was absolutely livid, "You little bastard! I've had it with you! When I catch you, I'm going to rip you apart with my bare hands!"

At the same time, Bill, Rudy, and Donald had caught up, and just heard what the madman had said. Bill was horrified, "My god. Miss Bella was right. He really is gonna kill him! I can't let that happen! I just can't!"

With that, he took off after the man chasing down his brother. Speaking of whom, Russell had made it to the BO Bridge, which was actually lifted up as if a boat would be coming by. From the bottom, it would seem like a very tall ladder. Realizing he had no choice, and nowhere else to run, Russell began climbing.

Gabe once again caught up and started to climb after him, before he was grabbed from behind.

"NO! I won't let you kill my brother!" Bill growled as he tried to pull the man down from the tracks. With sudden force, he brought down Gabe, who glared at him, "Get off me, you piece of crap!"

"You hurt my brother, I will hurt you..." The teen said lowly, still fighting.

Rudy and Donald had caught up as well... only to see their friend struggling with the man... before said man eventually sent a punch towards Bill's head, knocking him unconscious.

"Bill!" Rudy exclaimed as the man resumed climbing the tracks to get to Russell.

The two rushed over to Bill, who was once again bleeding from the head, "W-W-What do w-we do...?" Donald stammered.

Rudy looked up towards the lifted bridge, seeing that Russell had made it up pretty far. Halfway, he had to guess. He then had an idea. It sounded pretty stupid, but at the moment, the rich boy felt like he owed something to Russell. He then told Donald, "Stay here with Bill. Help should be on the way."

"What are you gonna do...?" Donald asked as Rudy began climbing the tracks.

"I dunno... but I gotta help Russell. If I don't, that man is gonna kill him. Besides, I owe the little shrimp for some things..."

With that, Rudy continued to climb, hoping that this idea wouldn't get him killed...

Oh lord. Stuff certainly happened here. The boys are confronted. Gabe is a madman, and Bella is starting to see the error of her ways and goes against her husband. Albert gets shot, and Russell gets chased up a lifted train bridge (that reference to 1982 Annie I mentioned earlier). Next chapter will also include more intense moments. And we'll see the fates of Albert, Russell, and Rudy. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'll see you guys later. And don't forget to review, please. Thank you!