Disclaimer: still don't own a thing, just the book I am working on that is coming out by the end of this year.
A/N: last chapter I entered a new character, his name is Haley Hillridge. He is the unmentioned oldest brother of the Hillridge kids; yes I just created him out of my imagination. But picture Haley Joel Osment and there's my character for Haley Hillridge. I was watching Home of the Giants when I thought about how neat it would be if Haley and his sister both stared in the same movie, so I created another character in Cyberbully. Any how here is chapter 5, have fun reading, this takes some fun turns and twists.
Summary: what happens when 21 year old Haley Hillridge comes to his sister's aid? Will Taylor finally get away or will she be trapped for ever in this nightmare? Stick around and find out in chapter 5.
Haley Hillridge got off the plane near his home in Mount View Colorado; he got his bag and left the airport. After renting a car he took off in the direction of his home, after pulling into the drive way seeing all the police outside he got out. A female officer stopped him "no let me in this is my house, my sister is the one missing." she let him in, Kris Hillridge stood looking out the window of the kitchen, she had tears running down her face, she knew some where out there was her children. When she got word from the school that Eric disappeared too she didn't know what to think or how to even react. She and her husband adopted Eric nearly 14 years ago, she loved him like she had carried him her self. Knowing that her 15 year old and 17 year old were out there some where terrified her; she hoped they would be alright. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts she didn't see her eldest son Haley walk in. Haley had sandy blond hair and blue eyes, he stood tall at just 5ft 8in, he was built like a football player. She turned and saw him standing there, at first she didn't say anything, but she could clearly see that he was angry. "Haley… if you would just let me explain…" he walked into the room and stood a few feet from her "Explain what mom? That my brother and sister are out there some where with a psycho? Or the face you waited till it had been 4 days to tell me? Did you even think of using the GPS that is on Taylor's phone to track her?" Kris began to cry, she knew she had screwed up not telling him, Haley took a deep breath and calmed himself down and then felt tears in his own eyes develop. He hugged his mom, and said soothingly "its ok, we will find them… when was the last time you heard from her?" "It's been about two days; I can't seem to get a hold of her. I am so worried Haley, what if something happened?" "What about Eric?" "Yesterday, he text me and told me they were in the middle of no where, so apparently they have escaped."
Haley sighed and watched a couple of officers talking and then said to his mom "what have they done to help find her?" "It's frustrating; they just keep telling me that I have to wait for more information." Haley was aware that an officer was listening to them; he motioned for his mom to follow him out to the back porch. After shutting the door he said "mom I am going out there to find her, I am going to stay in touch with my phone and I am going to track Taylor and Eric with it. I will bring them back safely." Kris really didn't want her son to go, but knew he was stubborn just like his father; she didn't have much fight left in her, "ok, but please be careful." "I will mom, love you." Kris stopped him for a moment "take my car, I'm not going any where for a while." he nodded and grabbed the keys; he went and moved the rental and pulled his mom's car out and drove off up the street. He pulled over near the beach and turned on the GPS on his phone; he typed in Taylor's number and waited while it searched. After about five minutes it picked up a signal about 40 miles away, Jeremy had taken her pretty far out there. He turned the car around and went out to the direction of the lake that he and Taylor had gone too when they were little kids, the last time Taylor had been out here she was 6 years old. They didn't come back ever since an accident happened; he shook his head of the memory and kept going. He got deeper into the woods, it was getting darker out as the evening set in, and the temperature began to drop. He looked up at the digital thermometer and it said it was 56 degrees out, he hoped that Taylor was some place warm.
He drove for a little longer before coming to a house that had lights on downstairs, he recognized it, but couldn't pin point whose house it was exactly? He noticed a red truck in the driveway; he pulled over for a moment and shut the head lights off. He noticed a figure upstairs in one of the rooms, it was dark but he couldn't make out who it was. He had this strong feeling that Taylor was in there, but how? The GPS was saying she was still about 4 miles away?
He was studying the figure in the window, he couldn't even make out if it was male or female so he had know idea what to think. He went against his better judgment and went the four miles to find out where the phone signal was coming from. As he drove threw the woods he kept thinking of that figure in the window, he almost didn't see some one stepping out in the road as he hit the breaks hard. He couldn't believe who he saw it was his father, brother and he didn't know the other boy. He got out leaving the car running "Dad? What are you doing here? Where is Taylor? Eric? Are you ok? What happened to your head?" Eric had a cut on his head that made his dark hair shine in the moon light, his curly hair was matted with dirt and blood from his injury, Brett kept his voice calm and said "I could be asking you the same thing? But forget that right now, we need to go find Taylor."
"Where is she? What happened?" Scott spoke up next "Taylor had been talking to this guy online, well they wanted to meet so Taylor and her friend Samantha went to go meet him at the beach. From what I gather the guy ended up tricking the two of them into getting into his car and they drove off. Neither one knew that he was a fake until it was too late, he drove them out here to the middle of know where and has been torturing Taylor for the past few days." Brett spoke next "she has been exposed to high levels of ammonia; I am worried about her health. We managed to rescue them but then this guy who calls him self Jeremy followed us, and recaptured Taylor. I couldn't stop him this time from taking her." "Why not?" "Haley he had a gun, he pulled it on her, who knows what he would have done. Samantha stowed away in the truck, I don't know what is happening. But we need to get going." They all piled into the car and drove off; Haley wanted to kick himself when he found out that the house he had stopped in front of was in fact the one the girls were in.
Taylor stood at the window and watched as a car had stopped in front of the house, she kept watching and wondered who it was. It was too dark out to identify who it was, they sat out there for several moments before driving off. She wondered how long Jeremy was going to be, she was weak, cold, tired and hungry. She wasn't sure if he tried to rape her again if she could fight him off like before, she went over to the mat and lay down. Samantha opened the closet door and watched over her as she slept, she was afraid that something would happen to her. After a while she noticed headlights on the road, walking over to the window she saw a car pull up. Due to know lights out side but the moon she couldn't tell who it was and opening the window wasn't an option. Suddenly she could hear a crash and then a door slam, she raced back to the closet just as the door swung open, Taylor jumped but didn't sit up as fast as she normally would have. Jeremy didn't flip on any lights as he said to her "get up! Now!" he grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the room, he reeked and she couldn't figure out why, she knew the smell but her brain was so foggy she couldn't think straight. She felt dizzy and very light headed as he threw open the basement door and threw her down the stairs. She couldn't even scream as she tumbled down, she felt something snap in her left arm, searing pain rocketed threw out it. She landed in a heap at the foot of the stairs, she felt so dizzy and couldn't understand why as her world went black.
Jeremy panicked as he had seen car lights pull up, he flipped off the lights in the living room and pretended that he didn't hear as some one began to pound on the front door. He ran up stairs and got his gun he had left in his room, after making sure that the basement door was good and locked he went back to the front door. He could tell who ever it was, was trying to bust the door down, he could then hear unmistakable voices on the other side. "Are you sure this is the right house dad?" "Yes son, your sister is inside, and this idiot thinks we didn't see him turn the lights off." Jeremy waited until the door busted open and Brett stormed in before raising his gun "don't even think about it…" all four froze in the door way as Brett slowly turned around and stared down the barrel of a gun. Haley asked "where is my sister?" Jeremy looked over at the new boy and said "well that is for me to know and you to find out." for the first time he took note of the smaller boy behind him the one he over powered back in the woods "well I see that you're tougher then I thought? Couldn't protect Taylor either… just let me get her." Eric hid behind his older brother; Haley stood his ground and said firmly "I want to see my sister now!" Jeremy pointed the gun at him "don't be making demands boy, besides I imagine she wont be saying much for a while." he pointed up the stairs and told them "move… now…" Brett looked at Haley and said "just go with it son." he put Scott and Brett in the room Samantha and Taylor were in originally and put Eric and Haley in the empty room.
Taylor had been out for some time before she finally came too, she looked around and noticed that she was now in the basement. She sat up and took note of the blood coming from her left arm, she couldn't see it due to the darkness but she could feel it. She got up being careful of her arm, it wasn't hurting at the moment but she could feel something was badly wrong with it. She pulled the string for the light bulb to come on, the light was extremely dim but it gave her more light then what she had before. She found a sink down there and some rags, she could tell they were clean so she used them and ran cold water on her arm. She pressed down then bit her lip as pain shot threw her arm, she wanted to cry out but she didn't want to draw attention to Jeremy that she was awake. She could feel tears running down her face as she cleaned the blood off her arm. She could see a long deep cut on her arm, she knew it had to be from the fall; she could feel her self want to black out again but she fought it. As hard as it was, she was not as tired but she didn't feel alert either, her entire body started to hurt after a few moments.
She found her cloths that she had warn the day she got kidnapped, after she was done cleaning her arm she put the change of cloths on. She felt better knowing she had on clean cloths, but not much. She had to be careful because her arm hurt every time she tried to move it, at least the bleeding stopped. She found a towel and used it as a makeshift sling, she knew her arm was broken, there was no doubt about it. She could hear Jeremy walking around over head; she just prayed he didn't come for her yet. Walking around he very dim basement she found a door she hadn't seen before, she walked over to it and noticed that the door stood about two feet tall and was about three feet wide. She was thankful for once to be short, she decided to try and open it. She pulled at the door knob and it wasn't easy but it opened slightly, she could hear over head Jeremy coming to the basement door, she quickly pushed the small door shut and walked over and turned the light off. She hid over by the dryer as Jeremy flipped on the light switch to the light above the stairs. He was drunk again, he said in a slurred voice "Taylor? Where you at girl? Time for some more fun…"
Taylor had tears streaming down her face knowing what he meant by that, she knew she physically couldn't fight him off. Not any more, she was too weak and tired to stop him; she knew that he knew this. She froze in place as she could hear him come down the steps, he said to her "come on out Taylor, remember, it wont hurt…" she could hear him rustling something around and then she could hear a loud 'splat' as something made of plastic hit the floor, she dared to look around the dryer and saw a large mat on the floor. She couldn't believe it, he was going to do it right here in the basement. The light ended at the washer so he couldn't see where she was thankfully, but he kept walking around, he kept calling out to her. Once he said "come on, if you come out now then I will make it easier on you…" she highly doubted that, she knew it would hurt, she also knew that having a broken arm would really slow her down at fighting back.
Suddenly they could both hear shouting coming from upstairs, Jeremy left the basement and locked the door behind him. Taylor sighed with relief when he left; she walked quietly up the stairs and turned the light off. She proceeded to go to that little door she found, after opening it she found it was a storm shelter. She figured it was for when tornados hit, so she ducked inside and pulled the door shut, she found a latch on the inside of the door, she knew there wasn't one on the outside of it. So she latched the door, the room was darker then the rest of the basement, she crawled on her hand and knees and explored the room, it was very small but she didn't dare to stand up because she didn't know what would happen if she did. The room smelled musty, and she felt the carpet on the floor, it was very ruff, surprisingly the room was warm. Not cold like the basement, she leaned back on her knees and reached her right arm up; at first she couldn't feel anything. But then as she scooted around on her knees she found a rafter, she figured the clearance from floor to ceiling it was about three feet, so standing wasn't an option. But at least she could sit up; she crawled around some more and found a large tote. She popped the top off and felt around inside, she found a flashlight, she wondered if it still worked. She fumbled with the switch and found that the bulb was dim but she could still see around the room. She saw nothing that would indicate any one had been down here in a long time. She looked inside the tote and found boxed cereal witch expired back in 2009, along with a can opener, and 7 cans of vegetables, she found plastic silverware, and an old army blanket. There wasn't much to survive on but at least she had this. She got the blanket out and did her best to make her self a bed for the night.
What woke Taylor the next morning was light peering in on her face, she looked around and could see strips of light coming threw the ceiling. 'I must be under the front porch' she kept thinking to her self, she could see the room was fairly good size. Taylor knew that her father and brother along with Scott had returned, she figured that out when she could hear the shouting in the basement. She dragged the tote into the light more and used the sun to see what else was in there, she found a gallon of water in there. She could tell the seal was still on so she got it opened with little difficulty, and took a long and much needed drink from the jug. The water was hot, and tasted old but she didn't care, she needed it badly. After about a minute she came up for air, breathing hard she could hear sounds coming from the main part of the basement. Careful of her broken arm she crawled to the small door and listened, she could hear Jeremy calling for her. She dared not move, she didn't know what he would do to her if he found her.
Jeremy walked around the basement looking for Taylor, he couldn't figure out what had happened to her he went over to the dryer and didn't see her hiding there. He walked around the perimeter of the room and still didn't see her, he shrugged and went back upstairs, he figured that she would come out of hiding eventually.
Upstairs Haley and Eric knew they had all taken risks by shouting, but they could hear Jeremy from two floors down and knew what he was going to do if he found Taylor, so he told the others to start yelling. All four men tried to protect Samantha when she was discovered hiding in the closet by Jeremy who came in and beat Eric. The boy was supporting a black eye, he wasn't much of a fighter, but Jeremy held a gun to the other two in the room if they tried to stop him. Haley felt helpless, he didn't like this feeling, at least he knew that his sister was in the house, but she was hiding. After some time they could hear Jeremy leave, Samantha said to Haley "I have a key that unlocks the doors, lets go find Taylor and get the hell out of here while he is gone." Eric sighed "but he will be back." "No, when he leaves in the mornings he is gone until mid afternoon he will be gone for a while before he notices that we are gone." Samantha opened the door for them and then pocketed the key just in case, she let Scott and Brett out as well. They went down the stairs and listened for any signs that would indicate that Jeremy would be back sooner. Eric suggested "why not one of us keeps watch while the others look for Taylor?" Brett nodded " that is a good plan son, Samantha you and Scott go upstairs and search, Haley you and I will search down here."
They all began their search, Brett and Haley looked in every closet they could find but no Taylor. Haley noticed the basement door and told his dad "what if she's down there?" Brett nodded they unlocked the door and went down, the first thing they saw was the mat on the floor. Haley felt his blood boil "that bastard was going to rape her here wasn't he?" "I think so son. Taylor? If your down here its ok, he left." after a few moments they could hear a small noise, it sounded like a latch being undone. Brett noticed along the back wall a small door open slowly and a small figure crawl out supporting a makeshift sling. He felt tears of anger and relief when he knew it was Taylor, he rushed over to her and helped her up. Taylor looked up at her father with tears running down her face "dad? Is it over yet?" he hugged her and said softly "almost sweet heart, almost." the three went up the stairs and met up with Samantha and Scott at the front door, they could see Eric with his back turned to them, Scott asked him "what's the matter?" Eric turned around holding the gun, "we need to get rid of this thing… before he can shoot any one with it. It's got 5 bullets in it, its loaded he could have shot us any time he wanted." Brett walked over to his son and told him "give me the gun son, lets get rid of it before we leave." Eric's hands were shaking as he handed the gun over, Brett took the bullets out, and then took it outside and threw it down the old well that was in the yard. He looked at the bullets in his hands and told every one "all of you get into the car, I'm gonna get rid of these things before we take off."
Brett walked back into the house, he went upstairs and to the bathroom and flushed the bullets down the toilet. He noticed the bottle of ammonia and uncapped it, he proceeded to pour the foul smelling liquid all over the floor, it made his eyes and throat burn as he did. He dumped the rest of it on the bed in Jeremy's room after dumping most of it on the couch, he knew this would keep Jeremy from following them. He would be too sick to follow.
He came back outside, but to his horror he could hear a truck in the distance so he ran for the car, starting it up he peeled out and drove as fast as he dared to go up the dirt road. He could see Jeremy pull into the driveway of the house, he knew it wouldn't take long for him to discover them to be gone. He looked back in the mirror, Taylor was leaning against Scott nearly asleep, with Scott next to the passenger side door and Samantha sitting next to her. Eric was riding shotgun with his dad, Haley was in the far back sitting on his knees watching over the girls. Brett was hoping that Jeremy wasn't smart enough to know what direction they had gone in, Haley asked from where he was sitting "dad? Where are we going now?" Brett looked back in the mirror at him "anywhere but back there son, but we need to get Taylor to the hospital as soon as we can." Scott took the moment to look at Taylor's arm that was still in the makeshift sling, with out waking her he took her arm out and looked at it, "Mr. Hillridge her arm is broken, I broke mine several years ago and it was swollen like this." Taylor could hear what he was saying but her head was so foggy she couldn't reply. She groaned a little when Scott was feeling her arm to see how far the break was, she could hear him say softly to her "sorry Taylor."
Samantha was looking out the window, she was thinking about all that had happened, all the things she had done. Suddenly from the front seat they could all hear Brett say "oh shit!" Haley turned around and with wide eyes saw Jeremy's truck speeding to catch up with them, Brett speed up, it became a race. Scott asked "where are we at anyway?" Brett said trying to keep the panic out of his voice "not too sure to be honest with you." he turned onto another gravel road in hopes it would lead them to a black top eventually. He almost lost control when the road curved, he kept going trying hard to keep control of the vehicle. He drove fast not caring that this was his ex-wife's car, but he knew she wouldn't care if he wrecked it as long as the kids were ok and safe was the main thing. Suddenly out of know where a truck came into view, it had no intentions of moving, Brett swerved to miss him and lost control of the car.
He went down the embankment off the main road and went speeding down the hill. He tried to stop the car, just before it smashed into a tree he got control over it again and managed to miss the tree and kept driving on the grass. He managed to get back onto the gravel road, but he had gone the other direction, instead of going away from that hell hole of a house he was going back into that direction. His plan was to fool Jeremy now that he had been driven off the road, he found the truck that ran him off the road and went around him, getting dangerously close to the truck. He didn't redirect Eric or Scott as the two teens flipped the driver off. By this point Taylor was more awake now, she could see the house and said in a scared voice "no dad! Don't go back there! I don't wanna go back!" Scott could hear the near panic in her voice and held her close avoiding her broken arm "shh, Tay its ok, we aren't going back, your dad had to turn around when we got off the gravel road. Its ok, your safe, we wont let any one hurt you again." she felt safe in Scotts strong arms as he comforted her, she calmed down once they passed the house. After several minutes they found the blacktop, out of know where Jeremy's car turned up behind them again.
Eric said to his dad "doesn't this guy ever give up?" Scott turned in his seat the best he could with Taylor clinging to him, he could see Jeremy riding their bumper. Brett speed up, he took the car as fast as he could on the black top, Jeremy couldn't keep up with a newer car. Before long his truck was farther behind them, once they got closer to town Brett slowed down, that was his first mistake Jeremy caught back up quickly, he wasn't giving up that easily. But instead of just riding the bumper he rammed into the car, causing Brett to swerve. Samantha buckled up quickly, as did Scott, the only bad thing was that there was no middle seat belt, Scott got creative and took his seat belt and reached it around Taylor and buckled her up with him. Haley tried to hold on for dear life as Jeremy hit them again, and again, until Brett lost control of the car and ran off the road and hit a telephone pole knocking him unconscious. Eric was ok, but had another bump on his head, Haley was fine surprisingly, Taylor, Samantha, and Scott were ok as well. But to their horror Jeremy was at the passenger side window cursing at them and ordered Scott to open the door. He refused and locked the door, Eric locked his side and leaned over getting out of his seatbelt and locked his dad's door and Samantha locked her door. Taylor sat up straight in her seat and looked around as Jeremy yelled and banged his fists on the windows of the car.
Jeremy wasn't about to give Taylor up with out a fight, he turned and found a thick short branch and threw it at the passenger side window. Scott ducked as the branch broke the window with ease. Both girls screamed as the flying glass showered them all in the back seat. Eric ducked as some glass went over him, while Scott was down Jeremy reached over him and grabbed Taylor. Taylor screamed and pushed away from him, she unbuckled and climbed into the back with her brother. Haley held her as Scott punched Jeremy in the face and got out of the car, Scott and Jeremy went rounds. From where he was sitting Brett slowly started to come too, he looked around and saw the back window was busted out and the door was wide open, the first word that came out of his mouth was "Taylor!" Taylor spoke up from beside Haley "dad, I'm right here." he saw that his daughter was ok, Eric looked at his dad "dad, are all right?" Brett looked over at his son, his head felt dizzy from hitting it on the steering wheel, "yes son, we need to get out of here, we are just two miles away from town."
Samantha unlocked her door and opened the back for Taylor and Haley, Brett walked around to the back and said "where is Scott?" Eric answered "he's down in the ravine fighting Jeremy." Brett went around to the front of the car, the side of the road nearly came to a sharp hill down below he saw Scott fighting Jeremy, he called down to him "Scott! Get back up here!" Scott looked up the hill and then back at Jeremy, he gave it his all and punched him square in the face knocking the taller man into a tree head first knocking him out. Not looking back Scott climbed back up the hill and stood next to the others, he had cuts and bruises all over his face he had a black eye starting to form. Taylor hugged him and told him "thanks for defending me." he smiled at her and hugged her back, Brett cleared his throat "we are gonna take Jeremy's truck, its gonna be a tight fit but we can do it." Haley sat next to his father, Eric sat beside him, Scott sat next to the door, Samantha sat on Eric's lap and Taylor sat on Scott's lap. They drove the rest of the way into town, Brett drove to the hospital, when they got there two nurses came out. Brett called Kris who came with Samantha's mother along with Scotts parents. The five parents sat in the waiting room and waited while Eric, Samantha and Taylor were being checked out. Haley insisted on going back with Taylor, he didn't want her to be alone.
After nearly an hour Haley came out to give every one an update he spoke to Scott's parents first "Scotts fine, just some bruises and scrapes, they are relising him now, Samantha is dehydrated, they are keeping her over night for observation and IV treatment to get some fluid down her. Eric has a concussion, its mild but he gets to go home too… Taylor is the worse, she has a broken arm… they had to do surgery to keep her arm from splitting any more then it already has… she is severely dehydrated, severely malnourished, on top of inhaling ammonia which has caused some damage to her lungs. They have her on oxygen, and she has an IV drip right now, she will be out of surgery soon and we can go see her."
Taylor had just come out of surgery, her head felt heavy as she moved it from side to side then opened her eyes, she could first see white walls. She felt something on her finger and looked down at her right hand and saw the IV in her hand with a bandage holding it in place. She tried lifting her left hand but felt it being weighed down, she looked over at it and found it was in a cast. She didn't see any one in the room, she noticed a TV on the wall, it was on MTV. Suddenly she became startled when the door opened, her breathing increased until she saw it was her brother Eric. She relaxed, he walked over to her she lifted her hand up trying to figure out what was in her nose at first then Eric told her "leave it there, its just an oxygen tube, its supposed to put clean air into your lungs." her throat hurt, and her lungs felt like they were on fire she spoke in a raspy voice "how long have we been here?" Eric sat on the edge of her bed avoiding her arm "about 3 hours, they took you back to surgery almost immediately to set your arm and they put a plate in it with some screws to keep it in place."
They were both quiet for a moment and then Taylor asked "Can you get me that water over there?" he followed her gaze to the water pitcher that was sitting on her bedside table, he sat the head of her bed up and put the straw in her mouth. She started to chug the water and Eric pulled the pitcher away and said softly "you cant chug it, not when your throat is so dry." she listened and drank slower, after she was done he put it back, "feel better now?" she nodded and started to go back to sleep, "Tay, the police found Jeremy… he's in jail… he cant hurt you anymore ok?" she nodded as she drifted off to sleep. Haley reentered the room after a while when his parents had come to visit Taylor, they left to take Eric home. Haley told them he would stay with her that night, he sat by her side and watched her sleep. He was thankful that she would be alright with time, he thought back to when she was born just 17 years ago. He had told his parents he wanted a brother… but when they brought home a baby wrapped in pink he didn't mind, he loved her with all his heart… he was always so protective over his younger sister… always looking out for her. He kept watch a little longer then turned his attention to the TV, after another hour or two he could hear Taylor mumble in her sleep. Looking over she had a distressed look about her face, he couldn't make out what it was she was saying but he could tell she was upset by something.
Standing up he walked over to the side of the bed and ran a hand threw her hair "Taylor? Come on kiddo wake up…" her eyes flew open but he could see that she didn't know where she was and tears were flowing freely out her eyes. She screamed at first and tried to move up in the bed to get away, Haley put his hands on her shoulders firmly "Taylor. Its me, calm down, your safe." after a moment her breathing went back to normal, and she settled back down in bed, she looked up at her brother and asked "what happened?" Haley tried to hide the tears in his eyes knowing his sister had a night mare "you had a bad dream, but your safe, Jeremy is behind bars." Taylor covered back up using her right hand to pull the blankets up to her chest, "are you sure he wont get out? What if he gets out? What if they don't believe what happened, happened?" "Taylor, we all gave our statements to the police, the only one that has to give a statement is you. When the police were here you were out like a light."
Before anything else could be said a nurse came in, she smiled at Taylor "your awake, how do you feel?" Taylor's voice was still strained "like I've been run over by a bus." "are you in any pain?" "no, not really." "are you hungry?" she shook her head "no, I just want to sleep." the nurse walked closer to the bed and said gently "Taylor, you have to try to eat something, you haven't eaten in days." "I guess I could eat some strawberry jello." the nurse accepted that answer and left the room, Taylor looked out the window, it was late afternoon early evening so the sun was setting, she didn't look away from the window "how are Samantha and Scott?" "they are fine, Samantha has to stay for observation over night but Scott went home hours ago." they were both silent for a moment then Haley said to her "you know, the doctors were surprised by something." Taylor frowned and looked at him "about what?" "of how dehydrated you were, and the fact that you inhaled enough ammonia to kill you. He said you must be one hell of a fighter. I told him that you were too stubborn to die young." she grinned at that "maybe, but maybe it had to do with I opened windows." "that could be, they noticed the burns on your hands from the ammonia and bleach. And they are concerned about something else…" she frowned deeper "what?" "they said that your vocal cords were affected by the ammonia, that's why your so horse right now. They said if you could sing before then you may not be able to sing now." she looked out the window and then back to him, "you know that was my second dream right? To become a singer? After becoming a journalist, guess I wont get to do both after all."
Haley frowned, it wasn't like her to give up so easily "I bet given time you will be able to sing again, its just going to take a while. Any way, I brought you a notebook and pen to keep you occupied while your in here, they want to keep you until your strength returns and your not so dehydrated." she took the paper and pen and looked back to him "how long will that take?" "maybe a week." she sighed and put the notebook on the bedside table, she laid back down fully. When the nurse came with the jello Taylor had to have some help to eat, her arm was too week and some what tied down for her to eat on her own. After she ate she went into a deep sleep, Haley went down to the cafeteria to take a break; he asked a nurse to let him know if Taylor woke up.
After a while Brett came to visit, he noticed that Haley wasn't in the room, sitting in his son's chair he watched Taylor sleep. He could tell she was tired and warn out, a doctor came in "Mr. Hillridge…" "Brett please, so how is Taylor?" the doctor sighed and said calmly "she is fine physically, I'm worried about psychological problems, Haley told the nurse that Taylor freaked out after having a night mare, she didn't remember it of course. She refused to attempt to eat, but the nurse talked her into it." Brett asked "does she have depression?" "no, but I can tell you it sounds like she has PTSD, which is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, sometimes it can last weeks, months or even years. But it depends on the severity, I don't think Taylor's is that severe, so it may only last a few weeks." "how do we deal with it?" "well, just treat her like normal, don't change your routine, some times it can be treated with medication, but personally I don't like prescribing pills to teens. She should be fine as long as no one really talks about what happened, now what we can do is I can refer her to a support group for teens with this condition, its free and totally confidential."
Brett stayed around a little longer before heading back home, Haley came back into the room to find Taylor laying there with her eyes open, she saw him come in and said weakly "I had another nightmare, when will this end?" Haley looked out the window then back to his sister "I don't know for sure, but I over heard dad and the doctor talking a little bit ago." "what did he say?" "that you have PTSD, I'm guessing that you are not just having night mare's either, I did a little research and I think you're having night terrors." Taylor sat up slightly frowning "what's the difference?" Haley sat next to her on the bed "night terrors seem more real, and you forget where you are and that your safe in your bed. Night mares aren't the same because those you know where you are for the most part and they don't seem as real. Night terrors can cause you to become delusional and not know where you are, some times you don't remember what you were even dreaming about, except how scary it was." Taylor looked around the room, her head didn't feel as foggy any more, she sat up in bed farther and thought about what she just learned. "how can I fight it?" Haley looked down at his hands in his lap then back to his sister "it's gonna take some time, the doctor said that there's support groups for teens that have PTSD, dad thinks it's a good idea. He also said that every one has to pretty much act like nothing happened, and keep up with the same old routine."
Taylor didn't know what to think about that, she just wanted to never be reminded about those days that she had spent kidnapped. The nurse came in and smiled at her "you look like you feel better, the kitchen is still open would you like something to eat?" Taylor looked down at her hand and said concerned "what is this thing for?" "its to replace the nutrients that were missing in your body, from the looks of things I would say you shouldn't have to be stuck here more then a few days. Your color is coming back already, you bounce back quickly don't you?" Haley smiled at her "yea, she does, I remember when she was little she fell and broke her leg, it healed fast, and a doctor said she would not be able to do lots of things on it. But she defeated the odds and she can do anything." The nurse walked over to the foot of the bed "does your throat hurt?" Taylor had been rubbing her throat "it itches a little its not sore per say but its irritating." the nurse got a tough depressor and a pen light and looked down Taylor's throat "hmm its red, how about I get you some cough drops to help ok?" the nurse walked out of the room and came back moments later, Taylor took a cough drop and sucked on it for a while. Haley asked her "do you want me to go find out how Samantha is doing?" Taylor looked out the dark window and said to her brother "no, I don't even want to talk to her right now." "she's your best friend Tay, aren't you the least bit concerned about her?" "mom said she was dehydrated and that she would be fine, they are only keeping her here for observation. At least she gets to go home in the morning, while I get to stay here."
Haley couldn't understand why Taylor was so mad at Samantha "what happened? The two of you were good friends? Why are you mad at her?" Taylor looked back at him and had tears running down her face "its her fault for all of this, I wouldn't be in this hospital bed if it wasn't for her." "do you want to talk about it?" Taylor chewed up the cough drop and then said to him "she created a fake profile on the social network that me and her had been chatting on, she started to spread rumors about me online. Well she used the fake profile and set up a meeting with 'James' the guy she was pretending to be. But she found a real guy to set me up with, she didn't know that the guy was a psycho but still she should have known not to trust just any guy online." Taylor felt the tears intensify, "so what happened when you guys met?" Taylor began to cry harder, that's when Haley knew that his little sister had a lot more healing to do then he thought. He just hoped that he cold help her fight this, it hurt him knowing that she was hurt not just physically but mentally too. It was time for the healing to begin, he only hoped that everything would be ok in the end…
A/N: well this is the end of this chapter, I think there will be at least one maybe two more. The healing begins for Taylor in the next chapter and Haley sticks around in chapter 6. So r and r, hope you all are enjoying this story so far.
Also, at the end of (if there is one) chapter 7 there is a special presentation that Taylor is going to do for every one. Bare with me it may happen sooner or later not quite sure yet. Well see ya'll next time, enjoy the story.