Longing To Break Free

Chapter 9

It was five minutes later and they were still chasing after the van. They hadn't lost track of the van yet. Chad was so worried that they would loose track of him and they were so lucky that they hadn't yet.

"God, what could he possibly have done to Troy? Does he have him somewhere?" Gabriella questioned, her voice was trembling. She had broken the silence that had been going on for about a minute now, "It kills me not knowing if he has done something to him!"

Chad swallowed, he glanced briefly over at Gabriella but he immediately focused back on the van, "I don't know, but if he does have Troy somewhere or if he has done something to hurt him, I am going to kill him."

Gabriella looked over at Chad then let out a deep sigh. She nervously ran a hand through her hair. She was so frustrated by all of this. She just wanted to find Troy more than anything now.

"Call Jason or somebody," Chad suddenly suggested to her, "We might need some backup in case something happens," he quickly reached for his cell phone and tossed it to Gabriella, "Here you can use my phone."

Gabriella took the phone from Chad, she nervously laughed, "Good thing that you have your cell phone because I left mine back in the classroom with my books." It had occurred to her earlier she had done that by accident.

She was soon waiting for Jason to answer his phone.

"Hello?" Jason asked breathlessly.

"Hey, Jason, This is Gabriella," Gabriella spoke quickly into the phone.

"Gabriella!" Jason exclaimed, "Thank goodness you called! Are you okay? We were all worried after you left the classroom like that!"

"Yes, I'm okay," Gabriella nodded; she kept her eyes focused on the van as she spoke, "Chad is with me right now."

"I had a feeling that he might be," Jason told her, "I'm really relieved that you called! I will have to let everyone else know that-"

"Jason listen," she interrupted him rather quickly. She closed her eyes, then opened them again, "Chad and I found something earlier."

"Found something?" Jason sounded confused as he spoke, "Wait a minute! Does this have to do with Troy? Has something happened, Gabriella?"

"Chad and I found Troy's cell phone," Gabriella filled him in; she took a deep breath, "This man apparently had it. We found it after he had dropped it. Now we are chasing after him and-"

"His cell phone?" Jason gasped; his voice was suddenly filled with concern, "What in the world? Chasing after him! Are you sure that's safe? Gabriella, I don't know if that-"

"Jason please just listen to me!" Gabriella interrupted him again, "I need to tell you which direction we are headed, just in case something happens. We are headed towards-" she was almost finished with telling Jason the last of there directions so far when suddenly the phone went dead. She blankly stared at the phone, feeling a wave of disappointment run through her.

"Your battery died! I lost him," Gabriella frowned, "I didn't get a chance to finish the directions," she bit her lip as she looked over at Chad, who looked rather disappointed.

Chad continued to follow the van that was still ahead of them. He let out a deep sigh, "I guess we'll just have to pray then that everything works out okay."

A couple of minutes later the van had finally stopped in the driveway of a small white house. It had lots of trees surrounding it. Chad and Gabriella watched from a distance as the man got out the van. He then walked towards the house and he stepped inside; he had used the front door to get in. He had stepped out of there view.

Chad and Gabriella glanced worriedly at each other. They were both wondering if Troy could be inside the house. And if he was, they both desperately wanted to get him out of there.

Chad finally decided to park his car behind a batch of trees that were near the house. His car was hidden somewhat. Chad and Gabriella both stepped out of Chad's car and ran towards a few trees and hid behind them. They had a fairly good view of the house. Neither of them were really sure what to do. Chad suddenly rested his arms against one of the trees and banged against them in frustration. He quickly backed away from the tree and looked back up at the house.

"Oh God, do you think Troy is in there?" Gabriella asked, she kept her eyes focused on the house as she spoke.

"I don't know, but I really wish I knew if he was or not," Chad paced back and fourth, and then looked back up at the house.

They both stood there quietly for a couple of minutes. Both of them had there thoughts on Troy. Both of them wanted to get inside the house and see if Troy was in there. Both of them badly wished that they could find Troy.

Suddenly the front door opened and both of them jumped up in alarm. The man was heading back out of the house. They watched as he stepped into his van and within a minute the man was driving out of the driveway. He was suddenly gone. Chad was rather surprised he had left so quickly. This was now there chance to get inside the house. Chad and Gabriella gazed at each other with wide eyes. Together, they ran towards the house. They made there way to the side door. Gabriella attempted to open it, and was rather shocked when it opened on the first attempt. She gazed up at Chad.

"Let's go in," Chad whispered to her. They both knew it was possibly unsafe but went in anyway. Gabriella nodded and she stepped inside, with Chad following her. They both felt extremely nervous as they entered the house.

There wasn't that much inside the house. There wasn't a lot of furniture. The two moved there way through a couple of rooms, only to come up with nothing. They both felt very disappointed that they were having no luck so far. Chad looked frantically around some more.

Suddenly, his eyes fell upon what looked like a locked door. He couldn't take his eyes off it. Somehow he knew that this was the door that would lead them to his best friend.

"Gabriella," he whispered, as he nodded towards the door. Gabriella's eyes fell on the door as well. She nearly stopped breathing as she gazed at it.

"Chad!" she cried, as she eyed the door, "This has to be it! I can feel it!" her hands shook as she desperately struggled to open the door. She was close to tears as she still couldn't get it open.Suddenly though, she could hear a click and the door opened. Her heart was pounding wildly as she desperately looked down the stairs.

Chad frantically looked down below him and suddenly his eyes grew very wide.

"Oh my God!" Gabriella gasped; her eyes had finally landed on who she loved more than anyone in the world, "Oh my God, Troy!"