Chapter 18: Two Choices

James' POV: 3 ½ Years Earlier, the Palmwoods

Katie had been avoiding me for the last few hours, ever since she had told me she'd been having dreams about me. I didn't know what to do. I was so torn…On the one hand, there was a part of me – a really huge part – that was absolutely thrilled at the possibility that she might have feelings for me. On the other hand, there was the feeling of terror and dread, knowing that if she chose to actually make a move, I would be rendered helpless. And it was illegal for me to sleep with her. I was an adult, and she was still a minor.

If we had been back in Minnesota, she would be at the age of consent, but here in California, the age of consent was eighteen, not sixteen.

I sighed deeply, wishing I knew what to do. I wanted to talk to her about what she had told me, but I didn't want to embarrass and humiliate her further, and I certainly didn't want to push her away. But if I told her I felt the same way, she might take it as a sign to act out her dreams.

And while I really wanted that, I knew it wasn't right. I was nineteen, and she was only sixteen, and I was pretty sure she was still a virgin, while I had lost my virginity back in the good ol' days of Minnesota-livin'.

But the fact remained that she was a pretty girl, and that guys seemed to at the very least notice her. It wouldn't be long before one of them asked her out, and then where would I be? In the background, watching helplessly as he got to be to her exactly what I wanted to be.

And what if she decided that this new guy, who would be sixteen or seventeen, was the one she wanted to lose her virginity to?

Needless to say, I was between a rock and a hard place, with no way out.

But what if sex wasn't involved? What if we simply dated? No sleeping together whatsoever? That'd be okay, right? That was legal. It would be enough for the both of us, I was sure.

Except…

I didn't think either Mama Knight or Kendall would be too happy with the idea of me dating Katie, no matter what we promised. The fact remained that hormones and urges could get out of control, and it would be all too easy for us to fall over the edge, bringing the other one down with them. Plus, Kendall seemed to be under the impression that I treated girls badly.

He was dead wrong. I just…didn't treat them as well as I could have…

I sighed again, repositioning myself on the couch. The guys were out with their girlfriends, per usual, and Mama Knight had to work. She had gotten a job as a night clerk or something at city hall or, well, somewhere. Somewhere with politics. Something like that.

"So, I left money for pizza," Mrs. Knight told me as she bustled around, finishing getting ready. "Have fun, and try not to burn down the apartment, okay?"

I chuckled. "I'll do my best not to."

"Good boy."

"Woof!"

She laughed, and swung her purse over her shoulder. "I'll see you in the morning. 'Night."

"'Night," I replied as she headed for the door.

She left the apartment, leaving me all alone with Katie, who was currently hiding out in her room.

I waited almost two hours for Katie to come out, but she never did. With a resigned sigh, I flipped off the TV, got to my feet, and headed to her bedroom door. I knocked on it.

"Katie? It's me. I'm going to order the pizza now, okay?"

"Whatever," was her response.

Hello, moody teenager. How nice to see you. Please go away now.

"What type do you want?"

"I don't care."

"You sure?"

"Uh huh."

I paused, and then grinned to myself. I knew exactly how to get a rise out of her. "In that case, I'm going to order Hawaiian pizza."

"No!" she cried. "I mean – "

I chuckled and opened her door. She was sitting straight up on her bed, a book lying at her side. She glared at me furiously.

"You wouldn't dare."

"Well, you said you didn't care…"

"You're such an ass," she said ferociously.

"You love my ass," I couldn't help but respond.

There was a long pause, and her face turned bright red.

"Sorry…that…um…so, Pepperoni?" I said weakly.

She wordlessly nodded.

"O-okay…Um…Yeah…" I quickly exited from her room, closing the door. I called the pizza place and order a large pepperoni pizza.

A half hour later, the pizza delivery guy showed up. I paid for the pizza, and set it down on the counter.

"Katie?" I called. "Pizza's here."

"Okay." She walked out of her room, avoiding my eyes. She grabbed a piece of pizza and plunked it on a plate, before sitting down at the counter and digging in. I joined her, neither of us saying anything as we ate.

Once we had finished and had put our plates in the dishwasher and the leftover pizza in the fridge, I cleared my throat.

"Can we – um – talk about…earlier?" I asked, a little anxiously.

"What's there to talk about? You're nineteen, really cool, really hot, the star of millions of wet dreams, and my big brother's best friend, while I'm sixteen, not so cool, not so hot, and the star of Bitters' nightmares."

"You are cool," I told her fervently. "And very pretty."

"Right. Pretty. And cute. But not someone you would want to be with."

"I never said that."

"The look on your face this morning said more than enough."

I shook my head. "Katie…you don't understand."

"Then enlighten me."

"It's just…Look. I do have feelings for you. Romantic ones. But Kendall and your mom wouldn't want me dating you, and with good reason. I'm kind of a player."

"Kind of?" she snorted.

"Well, okay, I am a player. Would you really want to date someone like that?"

"Depends," she said. "Would you be willing to date someone who's three years younger than you, inexperienced, and overly hopeful?"

I nodded. "I would be."

She turned around to face me. She tilted her head up, looking into my face, her eyes locking with mine. There was a long pause, during which she stepped towards me, trapping me against the sink. She stood on her tip-toes and wound her arms around my neck, pulling my lips down to meet hers.

That was the night I took her virginity.

(*)(*)(*)(*)

James' POV

6:02 AM

Logan and I crept down the hall, on the alert for The Replacement or any sudden gunfire. He let out a sharp gasp, and jumped. "Oh no – oh, wait," he gave me a sheepish look. "It was just our shadows."

I face-palmed. "Seriously?"

"What?" he whined. "I'm a doctor. I'm not meant for all this sneaking around, avoiding-lunatics-with-guns stuff."

"And I'm an actor and a singer. Believe me, I haven't been going to spy school!" I hissed.

"Come on, let's move it, before Mr. McNutty decides to blow us to bits!"

We scurried down the hall, keeping a lookout for Mr. McNutty, as Logan had apparently nicknamed The Replacement. We kept an eye out for a supply closet, and finally found one.

I yanked it open and Logan and I both leaped out, half expecting the janitor's dead body to fall to the ground.

No bodies tumbled out of the closet, so Logan turned the light on, and we quickly located a couple of hammers. We grabbed them and closed the door, before hurrying down the hall, to the lobby.

Jo and Camille were there, examining the added wall, Camille and Jo both holding carving knives.

Logan and I raised our eyebrows at them, and the girls gave us sheepish looks.

"We were in the kitchen," Jo explained. "And we thought these might come in handy."

"Good thinking," I said. "They look like good weapons."

"Yeah. We were thinking they might be able to get through the wall, but now we're not so sure."

Logan and I walked over to the wall to examine it. It didn't appear to be too thick, but Jo was right – a carving knife probably wasn't going to do much damage.

"Where's Katie and Kendall?" I asked the girls as Logan and I hit our hammers forcefully against the wall.

Jo and Camille looked at me. "No idea. They ran off, and we haven't seen them since."

That didn't sit well with me. That didn't sit well with me at all.

But I didn't have time to dwell on it. At that moment, there was a screeching sound, and we all tumbled to the ground as the ship did a complete U-turn.

"What the hell?!" Logan yelped.

"I guess they found the control room," I mumbled.

The ship gradually straightened itself out, and we all got gingerly to our feet, the girls holding the carving knives a little more carefully now.

Logan and I continued to take our hammers to the wall, slowly creating a dent in the very center. It was time consuming work. The lobby was filled with sunlight by the time we managed to reach the plaster. Logan pulled out his phone to check the time. "It's after ten," he told us. "We have twenty-six hours left."

"That should be enough time, right?" I said to him.

"It should be…but that doesn't mean that it will be. The Replacement will figure out what we're doing, I'm certain of it."

"You think the hole in the wall is gonna tip him off?"

"Smartass."

"Always."

"Come on, let's try to get this plaster out of the way."

We continued to chop through the plaster, slowly taking the wall apart. It was a good thing the wall wasn't thick, otherwise we would've still been there when the bomb exploded, but it was still early evening by the time we managed to get the entire wall down.

And that's when we were faced with a huge safe.

"The bomb must be in there," Camille said, eyeing it.

I nodded in agreement. "It's huge though. I bet it's heavy."

"We should still try to move it," Logan put in, and we all moved into the closet. We stood around the safe and did our best to move it forward, but it refused to budge. We tried again. Nothing.

"Fantastic. Just fan-fucking-tastic," I growled. "And the fucking thing has a key lock – we need a key to get into it!"

Logan took a deep breath. "What do we do now?"

"Start looking for lifeboats."

"Are they even on the ship?"

"By rights they should be. I'm sure The Replacement didn't plan on going up in flames with the ship. He has a way off, we just have to find it."

"Okay. Let's start looking."

"Ummm…has anyone heard from Katie or Kendall?" Jo asked nervously as she checked her phone.

The rest of us pulled out her phones. No texts, no voicemails, no missed calls. Nothing.

"No…" I said, my eyes widening. "Oh man…It's been almost twelve hours since I last saw them…If The Replacement hurt them…"

"I'm sure wherever they are, they're safe," Logan said soothingly.

Jo and I both swallowed hard.

"I hope so," I mumbled out.

Jo nodded in agreement. "The Replacement's probably angry…What if he takes it out on them?"

"Would Kendall let Katie get hurt?" Camille piped up.

We all shook our heads.

"That's right. He'd protect her all the way to the grave. So we know Katie's all right."

"But we don't know the same about Kendall," Jo protested. "Anything could have happened to them."

"We could split up again. Camille and I could go look for the lifeboats, and you two could go look for Katie and Kendall," Logan suggested.

Jo and I looked at each other. "I don't know where we would look…" Jo admitted quietly.

"And I don't know where we would look for the lifeboats," Camille added. "We're at a dead end again."

"Not yet. We've lucked out so far. We just have to think," I told them. "We can figure this out."

Logan nodded. "James is right. We can find the lifeboats. We still have eighteen hours left. We can do this."

"I say we check the control room," I suggested. "Or maybe he has them out on deck."

"Okay, let's split up," Logan said. "Cami and I'll check the control room, and James, you and Jo go out onto the deck."

"Sounds good. We'll text you if we find anything."

"Same goes for us," Logan agreed. "I'll text Carlos to see where the control room is."

Jo and I nodded, and we headed off, stepping out onto the deck. The breeze hit our faces, and there was the occasional spurt of salt water that splashed on our skin. The sun was slowly beginning to sink down in the distance, but it was still light out, so we had some time to find the lifeboats.

"I really hope they're all right," Jo murmured, and I nodded in agreement.

"Same. I hope they're someplace safe, just hiding from The Replacement. But…"

"But…?"

"I think they would have come out by now. We would have seen at least one of them at least."

"I know." She bit her lip. "I just have this bad feeling, you know?"

"Yeah. I have it too."

We exchanged scared looks, still walking over the deck.

I hadn't realized how big the ship was until we were walking around the circumference of it. It took us what felt like forever before we had even made it halfway around, the both of us checking our phones every couple of minutes.

Just as we made a half circle, I spotted them, ten lifeboats propped up against the wall and strapped down.

"There they are!" I cried, and we hurried over to examine them. The straps were strong, the only things that kept the boats from falling over and possibly getting thrown overboard.

"I'll text Camille," Jo said, a relieved look spreading across her face. She reached into her jeans pocket to pull out her phone, but before she could grab it, the floor disappeared under our feet and we want tumbling down.

Everything went black.

(*)(*)(*)(*)

Stephanie's POV

"The tidal wave is disappearing," Carlos announced, examining the screen.

I smiled in relief. "Oh, thank goodness."

Jenn nodded in agreement. "We might actually be okay. That's…wow…I can't believe what a relief that is."

"I wonder how the others are doing on finding the bomb," I spoke up, just as Carlos pulled out his phone.

"I got a text from Logan," he said. "He wants to know where the control room is. They're looking for lifeboats." He texted him back quickly as I frowned.

"There aren't any lifeboats here…"

"I know…" his phone beeped and he opened the next text. "He doesn't care, he's coming up anyway. I guess he thinks there's some kind of secret panel in here."

I rolled my eyes. Typical Logan.

A few minutes later, Logan, with Camille in tow, burst into the room.

"Logan, there aren't any lifeboats here," I told him.

"That's what Carlos said, but we need to double-check anyway."

"Go ahead," I spread my arms. "Tear the place apart. Maybe you'll find something that we didn't."

Logan and Camille both nodded, and began to dig through the nooks and crannies of the control room. Fifteen minutes later, despite going through every single inch of the room, they hadn't found anything.

"I just hope James and Jo managed to find the lifeboats," Camille sighed. "I guess I'll text Jo to ask her what's going on."

"We would have heard from them by now if they had found them," Logan pointed out.

"Maybe they forgot," Camille suggested. She pulled out her phone and texted Jo.

No response.

"Maybe she doesn't have a signal?" Jenn suggested.

Camille shook her head. "If I have a signal, then so does she – we have the same provider."

"Maybe her battery died," Kelly spoke up.

"I'll text James," Carlos volunteered. "His phone battery lasts forever." He sent James a text.

No answer.

"Am I the only one who has a really bad feeling about this?" I asked the room at large, biting my lip.

Camille shook her head. "Something's wrong…Something's really wrong…And we haven't heard from Kendall and Katie either…"

"Oh my God…you don't think…"

"I don't know…"

The screen's background suddenly changed from radar to that of a dark room. As the camera focused in, I realized that there were lamps burning, giving off a dim light. Before I could figure out just what exactly we were seeing, The Replacement came into view, dragging the camera along. "So," he spoke, his voice low and menacing, "it looks like you have managed to avoid the tidal wave. Good job. Congratulations. But the danger hasn't been averted yet. In fact, it's mounting by the second. Time is steadily running out. In fact, you now have eight hours left." The camera stopped moving, and he tipped it down so that it was facing the ground.

Laying there, bound and gagged, was Katie and Kendall, glaring fiercely at the camera and The Replacement. And beside them, just as tied up as they were, but unconscious, was James and Jo, lying on the floor.

"You really think you can beat me?" The Replacement hissed. "You're all fools! I cannot be beaten! If you choose to abandon this ship, you will be abandoning your friends. They will burn, and you will be just as guilty as if you had actually murdered them. But by all means, save yourselves. And be sure to tell everyone the story of how you left your friends to go up in flames. After all, what are friends for, right?"

And with those haunting words, he switched off the camera, leaving the image of our friends tied up in an unknown room implanted in our minds. He knew we had found the lifeboats, that was the only explanation for why he had suddenly given us permission to leave the ship. But he knew how to play us, he knew how to manipulate us. And kidnapping our friends and holding them prisoner would definitely manipulate us. He was once more pulling the strings and we were powerless to stop him.

We had two choices: We could save ourselves but leave our friends. Or we could die for them.

The question was, which one would we decide?