Chapter 8 I feel pretty…
It's been two days since Carlos' project. The guys tried to calm him down and after crying more, he did calm down. But ever since that day, he hasn't been sleeping. He's been acting like the old Carlos during the day, letting the guys think he's okay. But they've all woken up at night, seeing Carlos sit against the wall, his knees pulled up and him looking completely lost in thought.
"Guys, I'm really worried about Carlos. I really think he's starting to fall apart." James whispers to his friends, making sure Carlos can't hear him.
"I know. We really need to get out of here. This is getting to all of us." Kendall exclaims and he sighs. He looks at Logan and looks concerned when he sees his friend trembling slightly as he sits on the floor. "Logan? Are you okay?"
He reaches out a hand to touch him and frowns when Logan jumps.
"Sorry, I was kind of lost in thought for a minute. I didn't notice you walking over." Logan tries to explain.
"Are you okay?" Logan just nods slowly, before turning his head down. "Logan?"
"I'm fine, Kendall. Really.. I just.. I just can't take much more of this. I've been having nightmares.." Kendall slowly slides down the wall to sit next to him. James quickly follows, but sits in front of his friends.
"Do you want to talk about it?" James asks in a concerned voice.
Logan shakes his head. "I'd rather just forget about them." The other two exchange a look. "They've been pretty bad…"
"You know, I've had nightmares too." Kendall suddenly mentions.
"You have?" Logan looks surprised. Kendall nods.
"I think we all have. I have a suspicion that that's the reason Carlos hasn't been sleeping. I just keep wondering, why did Carlos get a project like that? Shane must have known he would never get to tha girl in time. Why did he do that to Carlos?"
"And why did he only shave my hair off?" James agrees.
"The guy is insane. Does he really need a reason for anything?" Carlos' voice sounds from behind them. It sounds flat. The guys turn to him and find him not even looking at them. When he does turn his eyes towards them, they try hard not to gasp at how dark they look. "he just wants to taunt us. He wants us to break down. But you know what? We can't give him the satisfaction."
The guys exchange looks at the darkness sounding in his voice. They grow even more concerned when they watch a somewhat sinister smile appear on his face.
"We should fight back. We ned to stay ourselves, no matter what happens, remember? That's what we agreed on." He suddenly gets to his feet and looks at the others with determination. "Come on, guys. We can do this. Together, we can do this."
The others look hesitant. How did Carlos go from not sleeping and randomly staring into space to suddenly trying to pump up their spirits? That was Kendall's job. He should be making jokes, talking about rainbows and kittens.
"Well, we could think about kittens?" James suggests with a smile. Logan and Kendall look at him in surprise and then start to grin.
"Yeah, whatever helps." Their grins fade at how annoyed Carlos seems now.
"Bravo, what a wonderful speech!" The guys whip their heads around at the sound of clapping. Shane grins at them from the bars.
"What are you doing here?" Carlos asks, his eyes narrowing and his voice practically spitting venom.
"Ohooh, you're getting really feisty now aren't you?" Shane replies with a smile, before opening the door.
"Just tell us why you're here." Carlos says in a flat tone, his expression the same.
"Getting straight to the point. I'm starting to like you more and more." Shane whispers to Carlos as he walks close to him and reaches out a hand to touch his cheek. Carlos pulls back immediately and swats his hand away.
"Keep your hands off me."
"Okay, okay, for now." He winks at Carlos, making the boy scrunch up his face in disgust.
Shane walks over to the other guys, who've been quietly staring at the exchange.
"Hm, I believe it's your turn again, James." He looks at James and puts on a big grin. James keeps his face strong.
"Bring it on." The others exchange looks.
"Hm, after all these projects, you're still so ready for whatever's coming, aren't you? You might regret that, you know. I mean, I've had a talk with my boss and he's still not happy. Meaning; the projects are going to be kicked up a notch."
"What does that mean?" James asks, his voice sounding slightly worried.
"Oh, you'll see." The strange sinister smile appearing on Shane's face gives everyone an uneasy feeling. "Come on, we're wasting precious time." He walks away and James slowly follows. He seems hesitant, but then he is roughly pushed from behind by one of the big guys.
The other guys go back to sitting against the wall. Carlos still looks angry as he crosses his arms and watches the bars like a hawk.
Meanwhile with James…
James is led inside the same room he was in during his first project. Again a large window-like mirror is in place and a chair is in the middle of the room.
Shane motions for him to sit down. James does, after letting out a deep breath. Shane closes the door and moves to stand behind him.
"Oh, look at that. Your hair is starting to grown back." James tries not to lash out as Shane moves his hand over his head. He puts his face right next to James and smiles into the mirror. "Look at that face. You know, I always thought you were the prettiest one. But looking closer, you're really not, are you? And funny enough, I'm not the only one who thinks that."
James frowns. "What do you mean?"
"Well, I happened to ask some people, well, girls actually, if they would want to go out with you. And I asked some you did go out with. Do you want to hear their answers?" James frowns more. Shane suddenly pulls out an audio recorder and presses play.
"Go out with him? Ha! Uh, no thank you." A girls' voice laughs loudly.
"Have you seen him? I mean, he's so ugly. Who would ever want to go out with him?" James gulps as he hears the disgusted tone of voice of another girl.
"Hahaha, you have got to be kidding me. I mean seriously, he's really fat. Of course I wouldn't want to go out with him."
"Oh god, no. He is so full of himself. Have you seen him walk around the pool? I hate guys like that."
"I once even saw him without a shirt. I really had to try hard not to laugh."
James tries to keep his breathing in check, but the more messages he hears, the worse he feels. Tears are starting to pool in his eyes.
"I went out with him once. But honestly, it was more a pity date. I mean, who would ever go out with him? I was just doing him a favor. And even though the date was horrible, I don't regret it. I was really nice and I feel good about it."
"He asked like every girl to the dance. I eventually said yes, because I felt so bad for him. Every girl just talked behind his back. I mean, yeah, he's not the best looking guy. But it's sad.."
"Stop, just stop.." James softly pleads.
"Oh, James. It's never good to hear people think you're ugly and fat, right?"
"I am not ugly or fat. Those are fake.."
"Fake? Oh, honey, no. They're not. Let's hear some more."
"No, no, no. You can offer me a million and I'll still say no."
"If he was the last guy on earth, I'd still turn him down. The guy is just creepy. The way he winks at every girl. Yuck, makes me shudder."
"Please just stop.." James pleads, his voice louder now.
"Oh my god, it was so sad. He was looking at us and he smiled. It was so creepy, we couldn't help but laugh. The guy may be nice, but he could use some work. And a work-out.." The statement is followed by a series of laughter.
"Stop, stop!" Shane grins and presses 'stop'. He then gets up close to James's face again. He pulls his chin up to force him to look in the mirror.
"Now tell me what do you see? Do you still think you're beautiful?" James looks down again. Shane gets angry and forcefully grabs James by the throat, pulling up his face. "Look!" James looks up and into the mirror when tears slowly starts to roll down.
Shane grins and lets go of his face.
"Why are you doing this? Why are my projects so different from the others?"
"What? You would actually like to see your friends get hurt because of you? 'Cause if you do, I can get them in here." Shane tells him truthfully, heading towards the door.
"No, don't!" James yells, turning his body towards the door. "Don't hurt them."
"Huh. So you actually do care about the other guys."
"Why wouldn't I?" James looks shocked at the statement.
Shane shrugs. "I dunno. I just figured, you love yourself a whole lot more."
"Well, I don't. I'd trade my life for any of those guys." James yells while tears roll down faster. His breath hitches.
"Really? Huh, interesting. You would really do that?"
"Yes…" Shane smiles again and seems to think of something.
"You know, that's really good."
"W-why?" James asks during soft sobs.
Shane chuckles and snaps his fingers. James looks up to see the mirror growing transparent. He gasps at the sight of his friend on the other side. They are all tied to chairs, blindfolded.
"No, no…" James tries to get up, but Shane puts his hands on his shoulders. "Why are they there?"
"I just want to test your statement." He says matter-of-factly.
"What do you mean by that?" James sounds scared as he keeps his eyes on his friends.
"You said you'd trade your life for them. Let's see how honest you were." Shane walks away for a moment. He comes back with a cart and pushes it in front of James. On top are several tools; a razor blade, a scalpel and more sharp objects.
"What are these for?"
"Well, since you just found out that you're only positive features are really not seen that way by others, I'm guessing you can't wait to take it out on yourself."
"What?" James replies in a near whisper. "Why would I do that? Just because some people think I'm ugly and fat, doesn't mean I have to believe them."
"You know, you say that like you really believe it. But the shaking of your voice tells me otherwise." Shane leans down to him. "Go on, grab this. You know you want to."
"No.."
"You know, I only stopped that tape because you asked me to. There are a lot more voices on that tape. Including your friends."
"What?" James whips his head towards Shane, who nods.
"Yeah, I know. Horrible, right?" James doesn't respond and slowly turns his gaze towards his friends.
"I don't believe you."
"But you really should. Here, listen." Shane grabs the recorder again and presses 'play'.
"Well yeah, he's not really our friend. I mean, we're just really nice guys, you know? And he doesn't have anyone else. So, we hang out with him." Carlos' voice rings through.
"I really don't know why we hung out with him. I mean, the guy is totally annoying. He keeps following us around, trying to become friends or something. It just creeps me out." Logan agrees.
"That guy cares about no one but himself. Frantically, it just disgusts me sometimes. But I really don't have a choice. I have to hang out with him, because we work together. But if I had a choice? Yeah, I'd tell him to get lost." Kendall.
"No, they didn't mean that. You told them to say that."
"My dear boy, I did no such thing. They came up with this all by themselves." Fresh tears come out and James hangs his head. "Oh, you poor thing. So many people hating you. Tell you what. I am going to leave the room and I'm going to leave all these tools with you. If you want to do anything, don't hesitate to go for it." With that Shane leaves the room, closing the door behind him with a smile.
James just stays seated when the transparent window becomes a mirror again. His eyes widen in concern and he gets up. He puts his hands on the mirror.
"no, wait! Let me see them.. Don't hurt them!" All of a sudden he hears a speaker going on with loud crackling. He looks up towards the upper right corner.
He can suddenly hear more voices sounding through.
"He is so ugly. How can he stand looking into the mirror every day, I really don't get it.."
James puts his hands on his ears. He slides down the wall as more voices talk about him being ugly and fat. He keeps his hands on his ears, trying to block out the voices.
Suddenly, the door slams open. James looks up in surprise to see Shane.
"Change of plans. Since you're refusing to listen to those messages, I'm going to help you." He motions towards him with his hand.
"What.." He doesn't have time to finish his sentence as two of the big guys pull him to his feet roughly and haul him over to the chair. They have rope in their hands and start to tie him up tightly, making him wince ever so slightly.
When he's fully secured, they walk away and out the door. Shane remains and slowly heads towards James.
"Well, looks like we're alone again. Well, alone…" He snaps his fingers and once again the mirror becomes transparent. James gasps. The blindfolds are gone, but all three guys have their eyes closed. They're breathing heavily. He then notices blood on Kendall's head. Carlos opens his eyes, but they're unfocused. He blinks heavily, trying to clear his vision. There seems to be a large bruise forming on his jaw.
Logan looks up suddenly as well. A bruise forming on his throat.
"What did you do to them?"
"Oh, not that much. The plan was to hurt them as soon as you didn't cooperate." James' eyes widen. "Yeah. But it was taking too long. So, I decided to change things. I am going to give you a choice."
"What's that?"
"Either I hurt your friends with my tools, or I use them on your face. I mean, people already think you're ugly. But you still don't fully believe them. So, I'll have to prove it to you." James looks at his friends with concern.
"Well? What'll it be? Them or The Face?" James gulps.
"The Face…" He nearly whispers.
"Ooh, good choice." The window turns back into a mirror. James lets more tears fall down and he tries not to look when Shane goes to grab the cart with tools again. His hand moves forward and he lifts up the scalpel first. "Now this might hurt a little."
Back at the cell an hour later…
"Are you sure you're okay, Kendall? I mean, with the way they hit you, you could really have a concussion."
"I'm fine Logan. Why don't you ask Carlos, he hasn't talked the entire time we've been back in here." Logan turns around to look at Carlos. His friend stares at the bars with concern.
"Carlos?" Logan eyes the bruise on his swollen jaw and winces. "Carlos?" he asks again, leaning down to his friend.
"I'm fine." He responds, not looking up.
"You know, that bruise looks really painful."
"So does yours." Carlos replies flatly. Logan takes a deep breath and winces when it makes his throat hurt.
Suddenly Carlos' eyes widen and he rushes to his feet. Logan turns his head and sees James being led down the hall.
The door is opened and James is pushed inside. He doesn't look at his friends and heads towards the bench in the corner, sitting down rght away.
"Jamie?" Carlos asks in concern with a soft voice and goes to sit next to his friend. He holds out his hand to touch his friend. He frowns when James moves away right away.
"James?" Kendall asks in confusion. He shares a look with Logan. Logan moves towards James and kneels in front of him.
"James?" He calmly asks and reaches out his hand to pull up his head by his chin. The guys gasp when they see the long cuts covering his face and neck. "Oh my god… What did they do to you?"
"Don't look at me.. I'm hideous.. And I know what you said about me. I know you only hang out with me out of pity. It's okay, you don't have to pretend anymore." James softly tells them and pulls away from Logan.
"What? Why would we do that? James, you are our friend, our brother. We would never think you're hideous and we don't hang out with you out of pity." Carlos tells him with concerned eyes. He tries to touch James again, but he shrugs it off.
"Did Shane tell you that?" Kendall asks, now having moved to stand with his friends, his hands balled into fists as he sways a little.
"He didn't have to. He played the tape. I heard you myself."
"James, we would never say that…" Carlos says again, biting his lip.
"I heard you, Carlos. I heard all of you. Just leave me alone, I don't want pity…"
"James.." Logan reaches out, but James flinches and turns away. Carlos looks at his friend with sad eyes and sends a pleading look towards his other friends. They just sigh and start to move towards the other side of the cell. "Come on, Carlos. Let's give him some time."
But Carlos doesn't move. Instead, he moves closer to James and suddenly engulfs him in a tight hug.
"Carlos, don't.. You need to get away from me, I'm ugly and fat and I shouldn't have any friends. Carlos just hugs him tighter. "Carlos.." James starts again, but his voice is breaking. He tries to say more, but then he just breaks down crying.
The other guys share a look, before trudging over to their friends and joining into the hug.
I know, not as much angst as the others. But I couldn't come up with anything else for James. If you guys have an idea for his next project, let me know, please
Thanks again for the support! I really love receiving your reviews and alerts. Makes me feel happy
Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter. I'm off to bed right now. If you have any ideas or suggestions for this story, feel free to either tell me in a review or PM. I always appreciate it!
Until next time & Love, Baxxie