Author's Note: Well the ending is somewhat of a surprise, just sitting, typing away and boom. I have to say sorry for the cliff hanger in advance... It's probably the biggest one yet. Anyway thanks to:

Amanita Virosa-Amaranthus- -giggles- You think...Kai will save the day...-evil cackle- Well read on, and thanks very much for reviewing!

Ma.anda - Now why is the 'hideout' singular. -hint- I'm pretty much indifferent when it comes to the female characters. The only ones I like are Hilary and Mariam and that's because they have attitude. Mariah, rescued...Well read on and find out. Glad you're enjoying the read, thanks for reviewing!

isthatnecessary - The father? Looking the wrong direction. -cough end author's note- Nope not step-brothers to Kai. Although that would be rather weird twist! Haha, you know me too well - thanks so much for reviewing!

ShadowBlade7330 - Well if I told you straight of the bat what you missed it wouldn't be much of a mystery, would it? Oh no, I will never be losing that USB again, especially since there's life hanging in the balance now! Thanks a lot for reviewing!

Chapter 24

"Ouch." Mariah hissed as she tried to kick the door down but ended up hurting herself. She hissed as she heard someone laughing – how could someone do this to another human being? Were they laughing at her petty attempts to escape or was something else amusing them? Her face was still wet from the warm tears that had made her cheeks red and irritated: she wiped her face quickly not sure what else she could do.

Mariah blinked, she still had her phone! She quickly pulled it out and tried to phone someone however once she checked her phone more closely she realised there was no service in this room. She threw it away deeming it unworthy of her attention. She needed to get out of here.

Maybe she could try to convince them to let her go? Then again they were the same people that had thrown Emily York into a pit of snakes... It probably wouldn't work. "This isn't happening..." She had been with police only a few minutes ago, and now this had happened?

She just sat at the far corner and cried, there was nothing she could do unless the door opened and all of her previous attempts at opening said door had failed. Anytime she heard footsteps or a voice she would try to quieten down, knowing that she would probably enrage them into killing her quicker if she cried too loudly. But damn them for doing this to her, to Emily, to everyone damn them to hell. All Mariah had wanted to do was get some fresh air, would they know that she was missing yet?

Surely the death of two police officers wouldn't have gone unnoticed for so long. How long exactly had she been here anyway? It must have been a few hours seeing as her stomach was growling for food, her head was sore from all the tears she had shed and her captors seemed to have disappeared. Or at least stopped yelling.

Be burned with fire and brimstone. They would come and release her from this room, but only be to be walked to her death. Where ever they were she was content at knowing that she wasn't going to die just yet. It gave her some hope...even if it was just a little.

She looked around the room again and back at the phone she had thrown away in a fit of despair. Maybe she could use it some other way to get out of this room? It was locked but the door was wooden and didn't seem reinforced by anything.

Her hands were shaking uncontrollably as she started to take the phone apart wondering if there was anything strong, but thin enough to slide in between the door or even something to mess with the actual lock or the hinges of the door – anything.

She frowned and then picked up the small SIM card and looked at it wondering if she would be able to do anything with it. It was too small and therefore unimportant, she knew that the battery of the phone would be too bulky and in the end she sighed in defeat and threw the phone away, piece by piece.

She placed her hands on her head and wondered how on earth Kai and the others had managed to escape, there had been two of them – they had probably worked together to get out. Mariah blinked when she felt something in hair. A sudden smile came across her face. She had two small clasps in her hair which she hadn't really liked – her brother Lee had given her them some Christmas ago – but she had wore them to keep the pink hair out of her eyes. Unlike the bow she usually had which always let her fringe annoy her.

She took them out and immediately took the two thin strips of small metal and hoped that this would work. It worked in the movies, so it should work...she hoped. Five minutes or five hours she didn't really know how long she had fiddled with the lock but eventually she heard a small click. However it then took her a few moments to yank the metal back out of the door, she seemed to have jammed them both in too far.

Opening the door and expecting to see nothing but the hall, then actually opening it up to find the killer on the other side of the door was simply demoralising. "Planning on going somewhere?" David had heard her playing around with the lock and had decided to see if the girl could do something other than cry. He didn't blame her most of the girls in this situation had either done nothing but cry.

"Oh my god..." Mariah muttered and before David could push her back inside she darted out pushing the man out of the way before he had a chance of grabbing her. Mariah was very tempted to just turn around and scream at the man but she kept running until she noted that she had nowhere else to run. Must have taken a wrong turn somewhere, she heard the footsteps of the killer and she decided to lock herself back in another room. If they couldn't get to her then she could live for a little while...

David shook his head, out of all of the room's the girl could have picked from she had to have picked that one. No matter, she was still in the house and therefore he hadn't screwed up. Eventually James appeared from the top of the stairs wondering why David was guarding the room.

"She's in there with the documents?" James frowned, how had the girl managed to get in there? Then again the locks on these doors weren't great she shouldn't have been kept alive for this long. Everything was made a little more inconvenient now.

"She won't do anything – she knows she's going to die." When someone knows they would die surely they wouldn't raid through the killers' things? Not unless she was doing it out of spite, David concluded that even if she did take something her entire body would be burned and so would the document.

"You'd better hope so..." James hissed and frowned, David watched his older brother go back down stairs until he sighed to himself. For some reason he'd been in a bad mood for the past few days, maybe his boss was annoying him at work again. That reminded him, he had to call Olivia.

The room was different from the one Mariah had been held in. This one actually had furniture, and books – even a television. Okay, so it wasn't a plasma screen but it was probably the most technical thing in the house.

Mariah wandered over to the window, could she climb out maybe? She tired to push the window open but it was stuck or rather glued shut. This house must have been escape proof... "What's this?" She frowned when she started to examine the documents on the table. There were photographs of people she'd never seen before – family maybe? She didn't really care what she was looking at: she just wanted to forget even for a second where she was and who was on the other side of that door.

Again she picked up another document, this one less official looking and words had been scrubbed out, messy handwriting all over it. "Judy Tate..." Mariah tilted her head to the side. Tate. She'd heard that name before. "Isn't that Max's mum?" She looked at the other name's none as familiar as the first. However she read over it again and managed to read what one of the scored out names was. "This was the guy killed a few days ago too." There were a few scrubbed off, something looked like Jul Snow or something similar. "This is a hit list?" Mariah blinked at it – pity she wouldn't be able to hand this to anyone.

She decided that she may as well take it, even if she did end up dead she didn't want all of these other people to suffer. Of course her thoughts where interrupted as there was banging on the door, as if someone where kicking it... Mariah quickly folded up the piece of paper and stuffed it in her pocket. James ended up kicking the door down and dragged the pink-haired girl by the hair who started kicking and screaming. Not to mention crying.

It didn't take as long as Mariah had hoped when they reached the so-called punishment area. From what she could tell it was a factory of some sort. "Please, please don't do this." She begged, David had been somewhat calmer and so Mariah believed that meant he at least had some compassion in him.

David was about to say something however James loud voice boomed over his own, "Give Lust her punishment. I'm away to make sure you didn't muck up cleaning." Mariah was sure that the grip David had on her arm just got ten times stronger and began to whimper in pain.

"Please – just let me go, just – tell him I'm dead, just tell him you killed me." James had gone off with the taxi-lookalike, and Mariah was hoping that this one would agree. Hopefully he did.

"I won't betray my brother." David watched as the girl burst again into hysterical and started once again kicking and screaming. He hated this part, why couldn't they just admit they were wrong and not scream – it wasn't his fault he'd been chosen to do this along with James?

He tried to push her into the open furnace, which was apparently used for melting metal to be turned into a liquid to be transformed into a more complex shape. Mariah would not go down without a fight and grabbed hold of David's arm, if she was going to fall so would he. David tried to shake the girl off but to no avail. However one thing that Mariah hadn't really thought of was that David was still able to get pretty close to the edge...and he did have a knife tucked away. On the other hand David didn't know that Mariah had dropped the little list as soon as she had got out the car.

A sigh came from Kai as he walked towards the place he'd been trapped in when he'd been abducted by the killers. He noticed that the shutter wasn't down and decided to walk slowly inside, not really knowing if one of the killers was dead or not.

The place seemed to have been cleaned, there was nothing, nothing whatsoever in this house. Kai looked around all of the first floor and decided to move on upstairs he shivered when he remembered that this was the floor Lita had been taken to, and had started screaming when that thing broke her fingers.

He sighed and leaned against the wall for a moment, he didn't have much time until he had to leave. He didn't want to be found here of all places. That was when something caught his eye. He kneeled down and picked up a piece of paper, no it wasn't paper...

"A photograph? What's it doing here?" What would this room have been used as? The killers hang out room or maybe this had been one of the torture chambers in which a poor soul would be locked in and hurt. "Not unless one of the victims had it...or it's the--." It wasn't the fact that the photograph itself looked old and had multiple lines running down it from being folded too many times... It was the small holes, burned through the photo, and everyone in the photo's face was burned out except the mother.

There was a car engine struggling and then a slam of the door, it was just outside and Kai rushed to one of the windows. It wasn't the police, they shouldn't have been here that quickly... "Shit." Either way he had to get out of here. He cursed under his breath as the person made his way up the creaking stairs. As soon as James disappeared into another room Kai tried his best to get down he stairs without making to much noise however it seemed that James had heard and came back down stairs. Thankfully Kai had hidden behind one of the doors.

Kai moved as quietly as he could and listened to whoever was coming closer. Whoever it was was whistling a cheerful tune, Kai slowly side-stepped closer to the door and peeked around the corner. As soon as he saw the blonde hair he jerked his head back. He was in this place with the killer, fantastic. Kai was at a disadvantage seeing as he didn't know the layout of this place and dear James did...

Kai sneaked around to the main room, although froze when he heard the footsteps coming in the same direction as he was. If worst came to worst, he could always jump out of the window and seeing as it was the first floor it wouldn't do too much damage. Kai had to dart towards the other door although when James entered he saw the door move.

While James eyed the door suspiciously Kai had made his way out of the room and was now at the entrance to the main room, now at the James's back. Something made Kai feel angry, so furious that he couldn't help himself but to reveal his position.

"I'm here to stop you from hurting anyone else." Kai spoke quickly meanwhile James seemed to be unconcerned and looked at Kai as if he had told a very bad joke. Kai wasn't too sure what he was doing, but then again hadn't these guys said that they wouldn't kill him, just watch until he did it? Surely he'd be okay then.

"And how do you plan on that?" James was a little curious and somewhat annoyed at this boys presence, what if he'd found something, took it to the police? Everything might be ruining because of this boy interfering. Then again there was always an easy to make sure he didn't talk.

Kai lifted his phone up so it was in view of the blonde no more than a few moments past and sirens were heard, faint sirens it would still take them a few minutes to even get here. Kai had located the place but instead of rushing in he had phoned the police, anonymously, and told them they should check it out.

"You had better move." He was smarter and more cautious than what he looked James had to give the boy that. However now he had to get out of here, he just had to have faith that David hadn't made any silly mistakes that would come back to haunt them.

"Or what? You'll kill me." Kai taunted, he kept telling himself that he didn't care. If he died not that many people would be sad, everyone thought that it was he that was killing everyone. This way he got what he wanted and he also got his name cleared.

"You've been asking for this." In one swift movement Kai had darted back meanwhile James had withdrew what looked like a small blade. Kai blinked and before he could process what was going on his legs buckled underneath him as the pain in his abdomen grew worse. He felt something warm spread from underneath his top.

He was kneeling down holding the hilt of the small dagger trying to get his breath back. The air had been knocked out of lungs and now the shock that was running through his veins had made Kai take quick, shallow breaths. His pupils had contracted into small specks of black, and Kai tried to stand up but the pain was just too much and so he stayed where he was, kneeling.

"Pity, it would have been amusing to watch you suffer more. You look surprised." James blinked when he noticed the frown that was on Kai's face, not one of anger just the confused type: if you didn't understand what had just happened or been said kind.

"I thought you--." Kai couldn't believe it – he'd been stabbed and everything about him seemed to suddenly ache. What had he thought the killer, of who knows how many people, would do when cornered and the police were coming? Just stay there? How naive had he just been?

"Wouldn't kill you? Well, that whole thing was my brother's idea. I don't need to tell him that I was the one that stabbed you though." Kai grimaced in pain and by how untrustworthy this guy seemed to be. He was lying to his brother even though they were killer partners.

"I'm not-" Kai took a deep breath, it hurt when he breathed, and he continued with what he was saying: the police were closer he could hear the loud sirens. "-letting you get away..." If he had been stupid enough to find this place and also stand up to someone who was meant to kill him, he definitely wasn't going to let him go not since he was so close to being found.

"Open up, it's the police!" A loud knock on the door, both Kai and James knew that they didn't have long to go until the police would find them and it appeared that the blonde killer was beginning to panic. There was no way David would continue on without his expertise, he couldn't be caught.

"You stupid boy..." A smirk came from James which only made Kai grimace in expectation of pain. James kicked the boy's side and immediately Kai's hand shot away to protect his open wound which had now started to stain the floorboards.

"Damn it." Kai hissed to himself, why had he been so stupid – if he had stayed hidden then maybe the killer would have been caught but his own pride had been deflated by this sadistic murderer that he couldn't just sit still Kai wanted revenge.

"Is there anyone here?" A voice called from the hallway, the footsteps of someone running disappeared and Kai couldn't do anything but hit the floor in outrage. They'd only been a few seconds from catching him if he had just hid then maybe this nightmare could have ended.

"Call an ambulance! Some kid's been stabbed." Kai wasn't aware if anyone else spoke or was even nearby him. His eyes were slowly closing, and all he kept thinking about was how scared he actually felt. Wasn't he meant to be embracing the fact that he was dying? Had this been a few days ago he was sure he would have taken up the opportunity, so why did his body feel cold with fear? The pain wasn't fading away, but his senses were becoming duller by the second – he could just make out the flashing lights of the police car which was parked somewhere outside. He kept telling himself to keep his eyes open, keep breathing and don't die. Just don't die. He didn't want his life to end...Not yet. Not here.

Kai choked on his own saliva as he took deep breaths: no matter how hard he breathed he just felt so weak and tired. He felt as if he were slowly being smothered, he could still feel his sticky blood on his fingers, his hands, all over his arms. He looked up, the ceiling was getting blurry, and he remembered about the others. Were they okay? Did they catch the killer? Kai gasped out something, in which confused the officers which had started to relax when they heard the ambulance coming down the street. The strange thing what was happening to the boy was that he wasn't panicking, he wasn't asking for help – he was just smirking to himself.

"I think," Kai coughed and began to find it almost impossible to breath, "sorrow really is dead." Kai closed his eyes tightly as he hoped the pain would disappear or at least for his eyes to stop stinging and feeling so heavy, anything to make this pain go away.

As soon as the ambulance had arrived and the paramedics got Kai into the ambulance: they'd already started CPR.

Author's Note: Seeing as I left such a mean cliffhanger I decided I'd give you some help or rather some form of clue... The killers' father is not a canon character but their mother on the other hand is... Well Later! (Drop in a wee review if you have time!)