(Author's Notes- Hey Guys! Sorry this took forever. We hope people are still interested in reading. Please Read & Review! Thanks! -E.B.F.R & Cleopatra1)
The Essential Testimony- Chapter #5 –
Quartermaine Residence –
AJ came down the stairs, tired. He had barely slept last night, too worried about Emily.
He stopped at the door, unseen, to hear and see what was going on. Edward, Monica and Alan were inside.
"Your parenting? When I was in control, no child of mine dared to miss curfew." Edward bellowed.
"Your forgetting Tracy, father." Alan argued. Many a time, he covered for Tracy, and had got nothing out of it.
"It's Tracy, can barely keep her kids and marriage stable, so how do you expect her to follow curfew?" Edward challenged.
Alan and Monica ignored him at will. Edward continued his tyranny anyway. "But that sister of yours is not the issue here. It's your daughter, not mine."
Monica cut in, too tired and too worried to argue. "Edward, would you at least wait until Emily gets home to do this?" Monica suggested.
"Yes, father." Alan said. "Wait and let us find out her story and give her a chance to explain. Emily must have a good reason to not come home yet." Alan reasoned.
"Reason, I think excuse. I for one blame those friends of hers. Spencer, Santiago, Smith, Webber, absolutely bad influences." Edward complained.
Alan didn't stick up for Emily's friends, though he himself disliked Juan and her kidnapper, Zander. He used this as a change of topic. "Did he get convicted yet?" Alan asked.
"No, his trial's supposed to be today. Emily should have left for there by now." Monica frowned again, coming back to Emily.
AJ found he could waste no more time. He had to tell the family. He walked in as if it was natural.
"AJ, good morning." Monica greeted him. "Have you seen your sister?"" Monica asked, hoping he had, though she knew AJ and Emily weren't on the best of terms.
"No, not since last night." AJ told her. "I don't know if she's coming home at all." AJ finished.
"Who might not be coming home at all?" Ned walked in, asking everyone.
"Emily." AJ answered. "She was kidnapped last night." He announced.
"Kidnapped? AJ what are you talking about? You said you didn't see her since last night." Alan was visibly lost.
"I didn't. I went to the play, and saw the near end, and waited in the halls for Emily. I knew she would want sometime with her friends and to get ready." AJ explained.
"They how do you know she was kidnapped?" Edward demanded, not really believing the black sheep's story.
"I ran into Elizabeth later. She told me, when I stopped her, that they were looking for Juan, they thought he'd know where Emily was." AJ answered. "I followed them and joined in their search, which ended up in a motel."
Edward didn't let AJ finish. "A motel? Are you telling me that they were…." Edward searched for the right words. "Doing that?" He ended up with.
"Not Emily and Juan, grandfather, Emily's smarter than that. It was Allison and Juan." AJ told Edward.
"Juan was cheating on Emily?" Alan demanded.
"Yeah, as was Allison. But that isn't the issue here." AJ insisted. They'd all get to that in time. "Juan didn't have anything to do with Emily's disappearance. So Emily's friends called in for backup"
"Backup, as in Jason?" Monica's fears came visible.
"Yeah, Jason, he found a cloth, full of chloroform in the dressing room. And tire tracks at the back of the school." AJ finished his story finally, without interruption.
"My poor baby." Monica cried and Alan gave her a comforting hug, soothing her. "Emily will be fine Monica; she's a very strong and capable girl." Alan soothed Monica's fears.
Edward left the room, probably going to make calls, probably to report it to the police. AJ followed. "Grandfather, don't. We have to trust that Jason will find her." As much as he didn't really trust that knowledge, himself.
"You of all people really believe that?" His grandfather asked, AJ would usually be the first one to think to call the police.
"Well, no, but I don't really have a choice in the matter." AJ said. "Besides it has to be a like a day before you report a kidnapping, and the police won't really take that seriously. I mean Emily was just kidnapped and denied it. They won't believe you." AJ said logically.
Edward realized that AJ was right. "Fine, I won't report it yet, but if Emily isn't found in 48 hours, I am." He threatened and left AJ.
AJ left, only to find Ned on his cell, talking to Alexis. "Yeah, its hard to believe isn't it?" A few seconds later Ned said. "Good luck with the court case." Ned hung up, and AJ glared at him.
"She had to have the heads up." Ned objected.
AJ nodded and went to the doorway. He really didn't have time for small talk. He needed to get to Jason's. He grabbed his coat, and left, heading for his car. Just as he was going to back up, the passenger door opened and Ned took a seat next to him. "You're not going alone, Emily's my family too." AJ didn't say anything just, sped away as the door closed.
They got to Harberview Towers and went up the elevator, to the level to where Jason's penthouse was. Johnny opened the door for them without a word, obviously Jason told Johnny to be expecting him, or even a crowd of people.
When they entered, they saw Elizabeth, Lucky, Luke, Sonny, and Nikolas was already there. Everyone stopped what they were doing and glanced over at them, but they wordlessly took a seat and continued as if they were here before.
"As I was saying, the tire tracks came from a Ford Taurus." Jason resumed and Sonny cut in. "We don't know the model, serial number, driver, or anything that can help us at the moment, but my guys is looking into it."
Sonny saw Emily like a little sister, so naturally he would be in this.
"Is it possible that you have any new enemies, who have only recently surfaced in Port Charles?" Luke asked, looking for possibilities. Jason thought Luke could help with their search.
Lucky was extremely optimistic and really hoped he would be seeing Em again. But he just wasn't sure. Especially if the guy that took his best friend was a new bad guy that Sonny and Jason has never dealt with before. They wouldn't know any specifics that could be helpful.
"There's this new guy Andrews, only been around for a week or so." Sonny told Luke, allowing some information to slip.
"Does this guy have a first name?" Nikolas supposed.
"Like I said, my guys are looking into it. From what I know he wouldn't be a problem. He's not our enemy at the moment, and he doesn't seem to be pressuring us, invading our territory." Sonny explained.
"I sense a but in there." Luke said dryly.
"BUT, the word is he's selling drugs, so I'm not saying he won't be." Sonny said, proving Luke right.
"So where does that leave us?" Elizabeth asked, fearing for her friend.
Sonny was about to reply when there was a commotion outside.
Bursting through the door came Alan and Monica Quartermaine, Johnny trying to stop them.
"Sir…Alan and Monica Quartermaine…" Johnny said sheepishly.
"Thanks Johnny." Sonny said, excusing Johnny.
"Where's our daughter?" Alan yelled, pouncing on Sonny, furious and worried sick that his only daughter was possibly hurt.
"Alan, we don't know. We're trying to figure that out now." Sonny said calmly, taking in his anger. It wasn't like he wasn't use to this. It came with his job.
Monica looked to Jason. "Who took her Jason? Please, tell me who took my daughter?" Monica asked, tears in her eyes.
Jason took pity on Monica and said "We don't know who took her just yet, but I swear we will find her." He promised.
"Was it Smith?" Alan asked, his face getting redder at the thought that the guy his daughter trusted could have been the one to take her.
"He was in jail without contact. The only exceptions are his lawyer and Emily." Sonny told them, seeing an alibi for him. The guards would be considered witnesses; no way could Zander Smith do this.
The phone then rang and Jason answered it reluctantly, putting it on speaker phone. Everyone knew who it would be.
"Morgan." Replied Jason
"Where is my great-granddaughter?" Bellowed the voice of Edward Quartermaine.
Everyone silently groaned, but visibly rolled their eyes.
"We're not sure yet. We're working on that now." Sonny said.
"You listen to me Corinthos, if my granddaughter is hurt I will personally make sure you pay." Edward threatened.
"Edward, please! Emily will come home safely. I will not have you threaten Mr. Corinthos or Jason no matter what the circumstances." Lila's voice came, scolding her husband.
"…Yes dear…" Edward said, reluctantly, appeasing his wife.
"Sonny, Jason. I know you will do everything to bring Emily home." Lila said encouragingly.
"Thank you grandmother. We will bring her home, that's a promise." Jason said, determined.
Place Unknown –
"Sleeping Angel…if only I had gotten to you sooner…" Whispered the man as the young girl slept in the bed across the room. As she began to stir, her sighing and making small sounds, he quietly slipped away, only to monitor her from another room. He was not yet ready to show his face to his beautiful hostage.
Groggy and extremely drowsy she woke up reluctantly. Her splitting headache had kept her down for hours. Days maybe. At this point, she really didn't know. She groaned again, and as she sat up, the pain in her head just increased. It was almost unbearable, she should sleep it off, but something felt off. Her surroundings and what happened that she had such a terrible headache, needed to be found out.
"I feel like I just got hit by a truck twice over…" She grumbled miserably to the air around her.
Emily opened her eyes and tried getting her bearings. As she looked around in the darkness of the room, her body and mind snapped into awareness as reality hit.
She had been kidnapped, again. She remembered cleaning the make up off her face, about to do the lipstick. As she looked up, she saw a face, and everything else from there was blurry, except the feel and smell of something on her face. She couldn't remember if her life counted on it.
Okay, bad thought given the circumstances. She's already been kidnapped and had absolutely no clue where she was, or how to get away this time. With Zander it had been easy, with him being an inexperienced kidnapper. But this she knew was a different story. This was no amateur, this was real and life-threatening, and she was all alone. Emily also had no clue of what to do. She couldn't count on a hero this time around. No, she was on her own.
She started to panic, but the sleep and drugs of the chloroform finally drained from her body entirely, which now allowed clear thoughts to reach her brain once again. She wanted to shake and panic, she wanted to cry, but knew she had to stay calm and assess her surroundings to see if there was a way she could get out.
Escape was necessary. Maybe she could get away while her kidnapper wasn't around. It was definitely worth a try. She was beyond desperate, and desperate enough to try anything to get out alive and end up dead anyway.
There was no light from the room except a very dim lit red lamp shining across from her. That would have to do, since she saw no other one, however it had a disadvantage too.
"Great, as if that's going to help my headache…" Em muttered, as the intensity of her headache increased again.
As she looked around the room, her eyes adjusting to the dark slowly, on the far wall was a table with only 3 bins. Emily wasn't sure what it was and didn't want to investigate it. But other than that the room looked empty, the light not reflecting elsewhere, unless she was to move it around, but she really didn't want to. She let her eyes wander again.
Something caught her eye almost immediately; amongst the dim lit room was a border with what looked like papers hanging from it.
A border, that Em finally recognized. They were photographs hanging from a line, possibly drying from the looks of it.
She decided to leave it be for the moment, (not giving it a second thought) as she needed to find a door, a window, anything to climb out of, get out of this mess. Find someone with a phone, call Jason, the police, anyone. She needed help, after she helped herself.
Emily found a crack of light and followed it to the bottom of the interconnecting walls, which could possibly indicate a doorway. It was worth a try.
Emily pushed everywhere, looking for a hold, a knob to open. She felt for minutes, which felt like hours and still nothing. It must be one of those hidden doors with the knob on one end, and that one end wasn't hers. She finally gave up and went back to the only real visible piece of evidence she knew of. She studied it from afar.
Soon Emily finally connected the dots and realized where she was, as she connected the bins on the table to the photographs in the room and the very dim red light hanging above….
She was in a photographer's dark room.
(Author's Notes - Dun Dun Dun...What will happen next? Please Review! Thanks! - Cleopatra1 & E.B.F.R)