Chapter 2 Joined
The guys are still sitting on the couch watching TV when the phone rings.
"I'll get it." Kendall calls out as he gets up and picks up the receiver.
"Hello? Oh, hey mom. Uh, ok, yeah, no, that's fine. We'll just get pizza or something. Did I say pizza? I meant, we'll make a salad, yeah, that's what I meant. Okay, mom, see you later. Yes, I love you too. Bye." He flops back on the couch, going right back to watching TV, not even noticing his friends staring at him.
"So? What did she say?" He suddenly notices both his friends waiting impatiently for him to start talking.
"Oh. Uh, mom and Katie won't be getting home until really late tonight. Apparently the people from that commercial liked Katie, but they want to see her alone. They're afraid she'll hurt the other kids if they don't." The guys chuckle. "But they won't be home for dinner."
"Okay. So we're getting pizza?"
"Yep." James cheers as he jumps off the couch and grabs the phone.
"What are you doing?" Kendall questions.
"I'm ordering pizza, duh."
"Don't you think it's a little early?"
"It's already 7, Kendall."
"What?" Kendall and Logan look at the clock, their eyes widening.
"So we've been watching TV for like four hours?"
"I guess."
"Uh, guys?" James and Kendall look at Logan. "You do realize Carlos still isn't back yet, right? I mean, it's already past dinner time and he isn't here."
The other two exchange a look. James puts the phone down and walks back to the couch.
"Maybe he found a food court inside the arcade."
"Which you don't remember seeing him at." James looks down guiltily.
"Oh, right."
"Oh my god… We're horrible friends.. Here we are just watching TV while our friend is missing.."
"He's not missing, Logan." Logan glares at him. "Okay, maybe he's missing. But I'm sure we can find him. I mean, this is Carlos. He probably just got lost or something."
"Yeah, maybe he just fell in the well again and can't get out." The guys shoot James a look and within seconds they have al ran out the door.
"I can't believe we didn't even notice he still wasn't back. No wonder it was so quiet all of a sudden…"
"Yeah, I mean, normally I can't get any homework done, because he keeps distracting me. I guess I just liked the peace and quiet so much, I didn't think about it." Kendall puts his arm around his smaller friend.
"It's not your fault, Logan. None of us noticed." He looks at his friends and sees how worried they are. "Guys, relax. We'll find him. Everything will be fine. Trust me."
They run all through Palm Woods, cover all the places he normally would be, but don't find any sign of him. The boys meet up again at the Palm Woods well, where they met Jordan Sparks just a few months ago. They're all panting as they ran as fast as they could.
"Anything?" James asks. The others shake their heads.
"Damn it!" Logan yells, kicking a rock, before sitting down in the grass. The other two share a look, they've never heard Logan swear before. "We should have looked at the time. No, actually, we should have gone looking the minute you said you didn't see him at the arcade. Now we could be anywhere. Lost, hurt, alone.."
Kendall sits next to him on the grass. "It's going to be fine, Logan. We'll find him, don't worry."
Suddenly James gets an idea. He puts his hand in his pocket and feels around for a moment, before cheering. He pulls out a small penny. The other two look at him in confusion.
He holds the penny between his fingers and kisses it, before closing his eyes.
"Please wishing well, help us find Carlitos." He pleads, before throwing it into the well. He waits for a PING sound to hear it hit the bottom. But instead he hears a small THUD. He opens his eyes and looks down the well. Just then he gasps. He leans up and the other guys worriedly see his face grow pale.
"In the well.. there's.." he can make out, before Kendall hurries up and looks down as well.
"Oh my god.. Is that?" Logan comes up behind them.
"What? What is it?" He asks, shoving them inside to take a look of his own. He gasps.
There at the bottom of the well they can clearly see a black helmet shining amongst all the pennies on the ground. But what's more disturbing is the red glow that it seems to have taken on.
"Please don't tell me that's Carlos' helmet…" Logan whispers.
"Who else owns a black hockey helmet like that? It has to be his.." James exclaims.
"Oh god… I knew it.. I knew he didn't just get distracted… I should have knows something was wrong when he didn't go to the arcade.."
"Logan, calm down." Kendall grabs his shoulders, making him look up at him. "It's going to be fine."
"How can you still say that? You've told me that three times now. But we can't find him anywhere, no one has seen him since he left the apartment this afternoon and now we fid his helmet on the bottom of the well with which I'm pretty sure is blood on it!" James steps back a little from Logan's outburst.
"We'll find him, Logan. Together we can fix this."
"Really, Kendall? So where is he, huh? How can we fix this? He could be hurt. No, I know he's hurt. He might even be laying dead somewhere!"
"Logan, stop! What has gotten into you?"
"He got hurt because we weren't paying attention. Because I wasn't paying attention.. He begged me to go to the arcade with him, but I wanted to work on my science project.."
"Logan, we all turned him down. This isn't your fault." James adds. Logan sighs.
"How are we going to find him?"
"I know where to find him." A voce suddenly mentions from behind them. They turn around, but don't see anyone.
"Who said that?" Kendall asks, stepping in front of his other friends.
"I did." Their eyes widen as they see a strange man walking up to them. He is thin, about Kendall's height, with platinum blond short hair. He wears fashionable glasses and a very strange smile is directed at the guys as he walks closer to them.
"Who are you?"
"We'll have plenty of time for that later. Now weren't you wondering where your friend is?"
"You know where he is? What did you do to him?" The man suddenly starts to laugh.
"Oh, Kendall. Always so protective of your friends. The boss really described you perfectly. I have to say it is an honor to meet you all. And to answer your question, yes. I do know where your friend is. Would you like me to take you to him?"
James wants to step forward, but Kendall pushes him behind him. "Not until you tell us who you are."
"Hm. You know, I really didn't want to do this the hard way. But you really aren't giving me a choice. You'd rather put up a fight, just like your young friend."
"If you hurt him, I swear.." James wants to lunge at the guy, but Kendall arm on his chest is still stopping him.
"James, so feisty. You're all so protective of him. Why is that, I wonder? Oh, well. We'll have plenty of time to figure it out, I suppose. Now, grab them." Suddenly, from out of nowhere, three huge guys almost as big as Freight Train show up behind them.
"What's going on?"
"Like I said. I tried to do this the easy way. But you will go and see your friend, whether you cooperate or not. Goodbye now." The last thing the boys see is the strange man waving at them with an evil grin before everything goes dark.
Yep, this is much more the way I had in mind. What did you all think?
Not going to say much else about the story, you'll have to keep reading and reviewing to find out more ;)
Thanks for the support and until soon!
Love, Baxxie