Thank you all so, so much for reviewing! I love getting reviews, but I'm sorry for the delays. School work is like really hard! Sucks! Anyhow, I really, really hope you like this chapter! I tried real hard, so I hope its good enough for you!
I have nicked some stuff from Wikipedia, but I've put that in 'quotation marks' so yeah.
Wow...thirty nine chapters. Let's get lots of reviews to get chapter forty up, yeah?
Sorry for any mistakes :-(
Read. Enjoy. REEEEEEEVIIIIIEEEEEW! Please?
Chapter Thirty Nine # You Know Where to Find Me #
"What do you want?" Greg moaned.
"I think you know." Jason said mildly.
"Please don't!" Greg begged. "Please, just let me go, please."
"If you don't stop whining, I'll have to punish you."
Greg instantly stopped, leaning his head against his arm. He was so tired. God he was tired. "Why did you make me call Nick?"
"Because he has to know what he has done. He could have saved you, if only he had told."
Greg began to tremble as the man came closer. "Leave Nick alone, leave us all alone, please!"
"No can-do, Greggo. That's a cute nickname. Did Nicky come up with that?" Jason asked, smiling when Greg nodded shakily. "I like it."
The door opened and Maria walked into the room. "Hi Greg."
Greg swallowed.
"Greg. Say hello." Jason warned.
"Hello." Greg said quickly.
"I made sure that the call was untraceable. Just like you asked." Maria said to Jason and Greg swallowed.
"That make you happy, Greg?"
Greg shook his head.
"Here, babe, I gotta go fix you-know-what. I'll see you later." Jason kissed Maria on the cheek and left up a flight of stairs, which was when Greg realised that he was in a basement.
Maria came and sat on the bed, and Greg tried to squeeze further into the corner.
"You know what I did to Nick?" Maria asked.
Greg nodded, his pulse racing.
"Do you want to play a game?"
"No. Please, no." Greg begged.
"Oh don't worry. We're not going to play that game. Not yet. Jason likes to be there, to carry it straight on." Maria smiled, stroking Greg's hair away from his face. He flinched away. He couldn't get the horrendous image of what had happened to Nick out of his head.
"Don't flinch away, Greg. Just relax." Maria soothed, running her hand through Greg's hair and down his neck, her hand peeking under his loose top. "I'm here to help you."
Suuuuuuuuuuuure you are, Greg thought.
Maria smiled, continuing to stroke Greg's hair. "I know you don't believe me, but I've always wanted to help people find out what they truly want."
Suddenly she wrapped her hands around Greg's throat with surprising strength.
Greg's mind flew into panic and his free hand flew to his throat as he tried desperately to pry her hand away from his neck.
She moved her hips forward, forcing him into a lying position and sat down on his chest. Greg spluttered but Maria's hands tightened even more, cutting off any air supply that he had.
Stars danced before his eyes and he kicked weakly, his kicks slowly stopping. The stars merged together and became black.
Greg could vaguely feel his head tilt back.
Suddenly the pressure released. Greg gasped, filling his lungs with much needed air. He coughed and spluttered and tried to push Maria off of himself.
"Tell me, back then; what did you want most in the world?"
"I wanted to breathe." Greg whispered.
"Good." Maria smiled, kissing Greg on the forehead. "Now. What do you want the most in the world?"
"I want to go home."
CSIVCSIVCSIV
"Nick?"
Nick didn't move, and Rosa walked into his room, leaning against the door frame. After the police department began kicking them out of the waiting room, so each parent had taken their child home, making a pact to call with any news. However, Nick's parents and Greg's parents both stayed at the station. Bill and Jillian had wanted to be with Nick, but after the phone call the police had a couple more questions, and they had agreed to make some calls to see if anyone they knew from Texas was still in contact with the Johnsons.
MJ and Ethan were unaware that anything had happened. They were still asleep, but Robert, whose wife and kids had gone home ahead of him, had been told. He had agreed to gently break the news to the twins the next day.
Rosa had taken Nick back to their house, and Nick had gone straight to his room but he hadn't slept. Instead, he was sitting on his bed, staring at a picture frame. It had been taken in the smoothie parlour the morning after Halloween when they were all in their pyjamas by Alice, the waitress.
Greg was in the middle of the photo with his arms around both Morgan and Nick. They were all laughing as some joke someone had told. A joke Greg had told.
He always made them laugh.
"Nicky?"
Nick slowly turned his head to look at Rosa. Her eyes held the same dead look as his did. "What?"
"Nicky, I'm so sorry." The tears in Rosa's pretty eyes flooded down her cheeks and her body started to shake.
"Why?" Nick whispered.
"Jesus... Nicky...I'm sorry that Greg is missing, I'm sorry he called you... Nick, I'm sorry I didn't realise." She sobbed.
"What do you mean?" Nick murmured.
"I should have...I should've noticed when you went all quiet, I should've protected you." Rosa wiped her eyes and Nick swallowed, crying himself.
"Rosa, this isn't your fault. This is my fault, I shoulda told you. This is all my fault."
"No, Nicky, no." Rosa shook her head. "You're a kid, Nicky, this is not your fault."
Nick shook his head, crying. "I shoulda told."
Rosa shook her head and took a hesitant step towards Nick, before dragging him into her arms and hugging him tightly.
"Nick, I'm so sorry." She whispered, and he clutched her arms tightly.
"Rosa...what am I gonna do?"
"You're gonna keep it together. You're gonna be okay. The cops will find Greg, he'll be fine. They'll catch the guys. You'll testify..." Nick's hands tightened but Rosa held him close and continued. "You'll testify and they'll go to jail. Forever."
"What if it's too late? Rosa, what if they kill him, what if they've already killed him?"
"Don't think like that, don't think like that." Rosa repeated.
Nick leaned further towards Rosa. "I just...I just..."
"What?"
Nick stared down at his hands. "I wish it was me."
CSIVCSIVCSIV
The first thing she did when she got into her room was to slam the door shut and lock it behind her.
Then Morgan jumped into her secret den and screamed into her pillow. The scream trailed off into racking sobs and she tried to muffle her sobs by sticking her duvet into her mouth. She cried desperately for both Greg and Nick.
She wanted to throw up. She wanted to throw up so bad.
Greg traced nonsense onto Morgan's exposed arm as they lay on the sofa bed in his den after finishing playing Mario Kart.
"Mo?"
"Yeah?"
"Can you promise me something? Please?"
"I guess..." she looked into Greg's smouldering eyes. "What?"
"Promise me that you'll never do it again. That you'll never hurt yourself like that again. Please, promise me Morgan. I can't...I can't lose you like I lost Katie. Please, promise me."
Morgan swallowed. "I promise."
Greg smiled sadly. "I love you. I love you so much."
"I love you too."
She sobbed. She couldn't go back on her promise. She wouldn't.
God, what were they doing to him?
"Greg..." she sobbed as if he could hear her. "Greg I need you to come home...I need you to be okay..."
She curled up further into a ball and cried herself to sleep.
CSIVCSIVCSIV
"Dammit, dammit, dammit!" Ryan yelled as his mom brought him back to the apartment. His dad had been phoned but had stayed with Emily.
"Ryan, you'll wake your sis-"
"I don't care about waking her up right now, what I care about is Nick and Greg, and what's happening with them."
Emily toddled out of her bedroom, rubbing her eyes. "Ryan? What wrong?"
"Greg's missing." Ryan said bluntly.
"Missing?" Emily frowned. "Why missing?"
"Because-"
"Ryan!" his mom warned. "Some bad guys took Greg, sweetie."
"Why?" Emily's lip wavered. "Why dey dake im?"
"I don't know." Anna frowned.
Ryan just stormed into his room. He stared at his possessions, all organised in neat rows.
He yelled in anger and swiped all of them off of his desk, ripping his clothes out of his closet and making the biggest mess he had made in years.
"Why are you doing this?" He cried to any god that was listening. "Why us? Why won't you just leave us alone? Why the hell won't you just leave us alone?"
He slammed his head back against the wall and slid dismally down, tears leaking from his eyes as his angry cries turned to broken whispers.
"Why are you doing this?"
CSIVCSIVCSIV
"Are you hungry, Sara?"
"No." Sara shook her head at her dad.
"Okay." He nodded. "You know, I'm not happy that you climbed out of the window, Sara."
"Can we do this some other time?" Sara snapped. "I...I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."
"I know. I know, Sara, but just...Don't do it again. We'll leave it there."
"Thanks." Sara said with slight shock. "Dad, I just...I just want to go to bed."
At her dad's nod she ran up the stairs, three at a time and leapt into her bed, fully clothed. After a moment she felt like the guilt was smothering her.
She wiped her eyes and reached down the side of the bed and picked up a math book. Math, science, English...they all helped to take her mind off of things.
Question 14) If Joe has a 1% chance of...
1%.
The percentage chance of finding a missing person alive after a week, according to some TV show.
But Greg wasn't just a percentage. They knew who had him. They had a pretty good idea why.
They just didn't know where he was.
"Nick, I'm sorry..." she murmured, "I had no idea. But Nick, we have to go to the police!"
Nick shuddered. "I can't! I can't, Sara, I can't!"
"Sure you can."
She should have gone. She should have gone to the police, the day she found out. But she didn't.
And now, because of her, Greg was in the hands of two monsters.
CSIVCSIVCSIV
"I think you should straight to bed, Warrick."
"Yeah, yeah..." Warrick rubbed his forehead and headed upstairs. He kicked his bed when he entered the room and swore when his toe seared with pain.
"God dammit!"
He dropped into bed, his whole world reeling.
His best friend, the one guy he thought he knew really well...the guy he considered a brother, a twin...
And then there was Greg, a little brother in the family Warrick had used his school friends to create.
At the hands of the same people who had tortured and violated Nick.
And there wasn't a damn thing he could do. That was the worst part. When he was told Greg had run away, he could help search. He could deal. But this...
The feeling of helplessness was what got to Warrick the most. The feeling that there was absolutely nothing he could do.
He opened the drawer of his bedside table and pulled out the iPad that he'd bought with the money he got from his job at the local superstore.
He took a deep breath and turned it on, turning on the internet and searching Wikipedia for 'Paedophilia'.
His eyes bulged when he read the paragraph before the actual article.
'This article is about the sexual interest in prepubescent children. For the sexual act, see Child sexual abuse. For the primary sexual interest in 11–14 year old pubescents, see Hebephilia. For mid-to-late adolescents (15–19), see Ephebophilia.'
He clicked on 'Child Sexual Abuse' and scanned the article, feeling more and more sick as he did so, until he found a section labelled 'Dissociation and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)'.
'Child abuse, including sexual abuse, especially chronic abuse starting at early ages, has been found to be related to the development of high levels of dissociative symptoms, which includes amnesia for abuse memories.[59] When severe sexual abuse (penetration, several perpetrators, lasting more than one year) had occurred, dissociative symptoms were even more prominent.'
"Oh, Jesus, Nicky..." Warrick whispered, his throat catching. He backtrackes and clicked on the 'Ephebophilia' button and scanned that article as well.
Then he turned the iPad off and clutched his churning stomach.
"Warrick? How're you holding up?" his grandmother asked, poking her head around the door.
He sighed. "I'm not."
CSIVCSIVCSIV
Tali curled up on the sofa bed at the end of her bed and stuck her massive headphones over her ears, plugging them into her iPod and letting the music flow over her.
"I saw your sky fall down today
Suddenly turn from blue to gray
'Til one by one the raindrops
Turned to tears upon your face ."
Tali wiped her eyes.
"I Wish there was something I could do
Wish I could ease the pain from you
But I've never felt so helpless.
It's like you're drowning right in front of me
And I'm reaching out but you can't see
There's something holding on to you so tight
So I guess this is all I'll say to you tonight."
Tali pulled out her phone.
"If you ever need me
You know where to find me
I will be waiting
Where I've always been
If you ever need me
You know where to find me
I have never left you
I'm where I've always been
Right by your side
Right by your side
If the whole wide world is on your back
If the strength you need is the strength you lack
If you're in a crowd but all alone
If you can't stay here but you can't go home
If you can't answer all the whys
'Cause you're too tired to reach that high
I want you to remember
If you ever need me
You know where to find me
I will be waiting
Where I've always been
If you ever need me
You know where to find me
I have never left you
I'm where I've always been
Right by your side
Right by your side
If the whole wide world is on your back
If the strength you need is the strength you lack
If you're in a crowd but all alone
If you can't stay here but you can't go home
If you can't answer all the why's
'Cause you're too tired to reach that high
I want you to
I need you to remember
If you ever need me
You know where to find me
I will be waiting
Where I've always been
If you ever need me
You know where to find me
I have never left you
I'm where I've always been
Right by your side
Right by your side."
Tali stepped out onto the small balcony outside her room so her mom wouldn't hear her. She didn't think the woman would necessarily approve.
"Hello?"
"Ari?"
"Tali? Are you okay?"
"Not really... my friends and I, we're in a bit of trouble."
"What sort of trouble?"
"Ari, if someone was hiding somewhere, with a...with someone they'd kidnapped, would you be able to find them?"
"Maybe...why?"
"Ari, can you please try and find someone for me?"
Ari listened to Tali's explanation. "Tali...I can try, but I cannot make any promises."
"Please, Ari, they could be doing anything to him right now. Please..."
"I will look around, make some calls. Look, I will look around, Tali, but I-"
"Can't make any promises. I know. Please, Ari, just hurry."
"Okay. Will do."
CSIVCSIVCSIV
Greg opened his eyes slowly. According to his watch, it was 52 hours since he'd been forced into the car.
Since then, he'd been hit, strangled, starved, shocked with electricity, stripped, prodded and stroked, but to his great relief, they'd stopped out his trousers and hadn't gone in that area. Yet.
The door opened but he was too tired to do anything about it.
"Hello Greg." Jason smiled. "It's time to play."
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Thanks for reading!