Oh my...I'm feeling slightly teary right now...:'). Almost finished with this one, people! :O
But no worries! If you haven't already, please try to check out my other stories! i have had so much positive feedback from all you dedicated readers, and I feel like the only way to thank you is with more stories/chapters. I have a lot of A&A stories published, one of those a multi-chap, and before the end of October I will definitely have a new multi-chap started...but for now, on with the story!
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot line :'(
Chapter 18
By the time Friday rolled around my black eye was barely noticeable. I took the cash out of my bank account a little at a time, to make it seem a little less suspicious, although not much. I mean, for an account that has never been touched before, two thousand is a big withdrawal. Not huge, though. I doubt anyone will be overly suspicious.
Austin wanted me to stay away, let him give them the cash alone, just in case they tried anything. Obviously I refused. As if I would stay out of it like that. Austin walked in front of me, and when we reached the group he grabbed my arm and pushed me even further behind him. I wasn't complaining; they scared me.
"Do you have the money?" the leader guy said. Austin nodded, handing him eh envelope. He snatched it, passing it to a small guy who hadn't been there on Monday. Not that I remember, anyway.
The small guy counted the money, faster than I would have thought possible, and then whispered in the leader guy's ear. The leader-guy frowned, glaring at us.
"You're about five-hundred bucks short." He said lowly.
"What? Since when? There's two-thousand there; I checked!" I protested. Austin glanced at me, a warning look in his eyes.
"I know. That's the problem. You owe us two thousand five hundred." He said. Austin's eyes widened.
"I only borrowed two thousand!"
"I know. Have you forgotten about the interest?"
"Interest? You said no interest! You said I only had to pay back what I borrowed!"
"Yeah…when you were one of us. But you left us, remember. So now you have to pay interest like a normal person." He said coldly. Austin's grip on my wrist tightened.
"You should have told me that. I'll get you the money by tomorrow." He said, stepping backwards as if to leave. Suddenly, two guys were on him. I felt him let go of my wrist as one guy grabbed his left arm, the other his right. Austin struggled but he had no chance.
"Ally, go. Now!" he shouted. I hesitated, not wanting to leave him. And then it was too late anyway. I felt two arms go around my waist and lift me. I screamed, wriggling and kicking and trying to get free, but the arms wouldn't let go. I grabbed at them, trying to pry them off, and realised that it was a girl holding me. Her nails were long and red and she was wearing a pink and black bracelet that said 'Carla'.
I kept struggling until I eventually got put down, underneath an oak tree. We had been just outside the forest, but now we were in it. I looked around desperately, sighing in relief when I saw Austin was there, just out of arms reach. He looked at me, panic in his eyes. I nodded to tell him I was okay, and he visibly relaxed, but still looked tense and nervous. The others had disappeared, so now the only person with us was the girl who had grabbed me, Carla. She glared at us both, standing with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face.
"Where are the others?" Austin asked her. She barely even glanced at him.
"None of your business." She muttered. I took a deep breath, feeling the usual calm I felt when under pressure settle in.
"She doesn't know. She has no idea where they're going. Or what they're planning. She's just a lackey; she does what they tell her to do. Practically a servant. They tell her that she'll be one of them someday. But she won't. She'll probably be dead before they even consider making her one of them." I said, looking her right in the eyes. She scoffed, but she looked away. I knew I had her.
"You sound like you think you're in one of those stupid fantasy movies. Newsflash; they aren't vampires, sweetie. And I am one of them. I'm not a servant." She said angrily. I laughed.
"Sure you are. Maybe they tell you that. I thought I was one of them too, but obviously not. If I was actually one of them, they wouldn't have let me walk away so easily. You aren't one of them, and you never will be." Austin continued. She was starting to look a little red now, and I could tell she was going to lose it soon.
"I'm not like you. They want me to be one of them. They wouldn't let me walk away; I wouldn't want to walk away! I am one of them!" she shouted.
"Then answer me this; what are they planning to do to us?" I asked her. She opened her mouth, then closed it again. I was sure she was going to lose it. Then her expression changed, and she smiled.
"Because they knew you would do something like this. They probably knew you would find a way to get it out of me, so they didn't tell me. Not that I would have told you, anyway." She said, and I groaned inwardly. I knew it was over; she knew what I was trying to do, and she wouldn't fall for it again.
"Come on! Just tell us where we are, at least!" Austin roared, leaping up and grabbing her. I saw her panic for a second, and step backwards, but Austin didn't touch her.
"Wh-what are you gonna do if I don't?" she stuttered.
"I'm not going to hurt you, if that's what you're asking. I don't hit girls. Unless you hurt Ally. If any one of you lays a finger on Ally, I swear…" he trailed off. He didn't need to finish; the look in her eyes told us that she knew exactly how that statement was going to end. Realising how pathetic I was being just sitting there, I got to my feet shakily, jumping out of my skin when I heard a twig snap. I whirled around in the direction of the noise and saw the leader guy with the small guy who counted the money. He was smiling sardonically. I felt my stomach turn; he looked terrifying.
"You swear what? You'll kill us?" he asked, advancing towards us slowly. I stepped back, tripping over a rock and stumbling. Austin caught me, helping me to regain my balance and then grabbing my hand.
"Maybe. But you won't have to find out, because you're not going to hurt her." He said.
"Oh, we are. You failed to deliver us the money you owe. So we get her."
"What would you do with her?" Austin asked.
"I'd do exactly what I've done to the girls before her; tie her up and break as many bones as I possibly can before she passes out. Then I'll wait for her to wake up, and I will undress her, and then I will…well, you know the rest." He said. Taking another step towards us.
"No, you won't. You won't do any of that stuff. You know why?" Austin said, and I could tell by his voice that he was smiling. I looked up at him, confused.
"Why?" he asked, humouring him.
"Because I dialled nine-one-one ten minutes ago. And since I dialled, they have been listening to every word that's been said. And I'm willing to bet there's a cop car on the way right now…" he said. I looked at him, searching his expression for any hint of a bluff, but I got all the proof I needed when, ten seconds later, I heard the sirens. The leader guy's eyes widened and he turned to run, but tripped. He cried out and I heard a sickening crunch as his ankle gave underneath him and he fell to the floor. The small guy who was with hi vanished, but I had a feeling he wasn't much of a threat on his own. I turned to look at Carla, who had gone white as a sheet. She ran over to the leader guy, kneeling down beside him.
"Percy, are you okay? Percy?" she asked, concerned. Austin and I looked at each other, chuckling. I found it hard to believe that I had been so afraid of a guy called Percy.
"At least we know why she's so stubborn about being one of them." Austin said quietly.
"Yeah. She's in love with their 'leader'-Percy." I laughed again. Usually I wouldn't have found it so funny, but with all the shock, and the fear still messing with my mind, I wasn't really thinking straight. I wrapped my arms around Austin and buried my face in his shirt, and soon enough the laughter turned to sobbing, until I was all-out bawling into his shirt.
"Austin?" I eventually managed to choke out.
"Yeah?" he asked, looking down at me and wiping my eyes carefully.
"Please tell me there aren't any other gang's you owe money to." I said. He chuckled, shaking his head.
"Nah, just the one." He muttered. I sighed in relief and leant my head against his chest again.
"That has to have been the single most terrifying experience of my life." I whispered.
…
The police found us about ten minutes after Percy fell over. Carla had tried to get him to his feet, but he couldn't stand. So they sat there, talking quietly to each other, and waited for the police. We stood a few metres away from them, and when the police first arrived they didn't even notice us. After a few minutes, one woman saw us and did a double take. She patted her partner on the arm and they walked over to use, tensed ready to defend themselves.
"Are either of you the one that called us?" she asked. Austin nodded, pulling his phone out of his pocket. The phone, somehow, was still in-call. She took it from him gingerly, putting it to her ear for a second before nodding, satisfied. Then she hung up and passed him the phone back.
"Would you like to follow me? We have three cars waiting, since we assumed there were a lot of them."
"There were a lot, but most of them disappeared. I don't think they're dangerous, though. I know some of them; most of them hated it, but were too scared to walk away. I'm not saying they shouldn't be punished, but there's no need for a manhunt." Austin said. I just held onto his arm and refused to make eye contact with anyone. After a few more questions and answers with the police, Austin and I got into a car. The journey to the police station was silent, until the driver turned on the radio. Even then, it just sounded like white noise. I think I was in shock.
…
Everything after that is a bit of a blur. I remember waiting in the police station, on this really uncomfortable chair, holding hands with Austin. Then I remember being sat on Austin's lap, crying again. Then I remember my dad walking in, with Austin's parents and Bella.
After that it's pretty much a big hole in my memory, until I woke up in my bed the next day. I would have put it all down to a dream, but the pain in my legs and on my stomach, where Carla's arms had held me tight enough to bruise, told me that it was real. That and the fact that Austin was lying next to me. In my bed. In my house. With his arms around me. I was so shocked I almost pulled away, but he shifted and his arms tightened around me and the comfort and warmth I felt were too good to ruin. So I just smiled to myself and went back to sleep.
I woke up again a couple of hours later to the feeling of Austin's lips on mine. My eyes slowly opened and met his. He was grinning.
"We're okay." He whispered. I smiled, kissing him quickly one more time.
"Yeah. We're okay." I whispered. He smiled.
"Come on. Let's go find everyone." He said softly, before pulling away from me and climbing out of the bed. I blushed when I saw that he was shirtless. Not because he was shirtless; I've seen that often enough. But because my dad and his parents were in the house, and had probably been in to check on us. When I climbed out of the bed I blushed even more when I saw I was wearing a tank top and pyjama shorts. Austin chuckled at my red face.
"Relax. I think they have more important things to worry about that us sharing a bed…no matter what we're wearing. Or not wearing." He said. I laughed, grabbing his hand and pulling him out of the room. I grimaced as he wrapped his arms around my stomach and pulled away gently. He frowned, turning me around so I was facing him. I lifted my top and looked down at my stomach. He froze; there were two huge, dark bruises across my stomach, with a few smaller, yellowy-green ones dotted around. His fingers brushed the marks lightly, and then he leant down the kiss my stomach, right above my navel. Then he smiled.
"There you go. It'll get better soon." He said softly. I grinned and kissed him softly one last time before pulling him downstairs with me.
We found my dad in the lounge, drinking coffee and talking to a police woman. She smile warmly at us as we walked in, and my dad got up, hastily putting his coffee down and running over to pull me into a huge bear hug.
"Oh my God, Ally! I can't believe you! What on earth were you thinking? And you, Austin Moon! How could you pull my daughter into this? I thought you loved her!" he shouted, moving towards Austin threateningly. I pushed him backwards.
"Dad, stop. It's not his fault; he tried to make me stay. Calm down!" I shouted. The police woman was there then, pulling my dad away and telling him to calm down. Eventually she managed to convince him to sit down and drink his coffee, and after a minute or two he looked up at us, guilty.
"I'm sorry, Ally. And I'm sorry to you too, Austin. I know you didn't mean to do this. I don't blame you for this; not completely, anyway. I just got mad, and I lost my temper. I'm sorry."
"It's okay, Mr Dawson. You were right, though; I shouldn't have let Ally get involved. It was stupid of me and I put her in danger." He said. I slapped his arm.
"You need to stop blaming yourself, and accept my dad's apology. And dad, you need to stay calm and accept the fact that it happened, and we can't change that. Austin is the one who called the police, and who saved me. And trust me, he wanted me to stay away. We had a real fight about it. But I insisted on coming with. I couldn't just let him do it on his own. Besides, this whole thing only happened in the first place because he was trying to protect me." I explained. That was when the police woman cut in; she wanted to know all the details.
…
After four hours she finally had all the information she needed.
We had told her absolutely everything, from when Austin first met them to exactly what went down last night.
When she finally left she told us there would be a small court case, but since they caught Percy people have been popping up everywhere with accusations. He was almost certainly going to prison for a long, long time, so if we didn't want to go to court we didn't have to. We told her we would think about it, and then she left.
After that we spent another two hours explaining everything to Austin's parents and Bella. Apparently the police woman hadn't wanted too many people in there, in case it affected how we told the story. Don't ask, because I honestly don't understand either.
…
A week later, and it was done. Austin and I decided not to go to court. I knew I wouldn't be any use anyway. I probably wouldn't even be able to speak. And Austin didn't want to go if I wasn't going, so we were sorted. (A/N; I'm not sure if they would actually have a choice in real life, but this is a FanFiction so just go with it :P)
And then we were back at school. The local paper had covered it, so everyone knew what had happened. And let's just say, we were the subject of a lot of gossip for a long time. But we were okay with that. Everyone seemed to respect us, in a strange way. Some people would come up and ask us what happened, but most people just smiled sympathetically, or asked us if we were okay and that. We just smiled and go through it.
And then it was the last day of the semester. In some ways it had gone unbelievably fast, in other ways it had gone much, much too slow. And the end of the semester meant one thing to my dad and my boyfriend; my birthday.
School finished on the Thursday, and my birthday was the Saturday. So as you can imagine, I was pretty damn surprised when my dad woke me up at eight o'clock on Friday, singing an off-key version of 'Happy Birthday' and holding a cake with eighteen candles on it. I smiled gratefully, then frowned in confusion.
"Dad, it's not my birthday until tomorrow…" I said. He smiled.
"I know. But your boyfriend has a present for you, and you won't be here tomorrow for me to wake up at eight. So I had to settle for a day early." He shrugged. I smiled.
"What's Austin got me?" I asked excitedly. He tapped his nose.
"That's a surprise. Now come on, open your presents." He said. There were six wrapped presents at the end of my bed, four of them wrapped in the same Christmas wrapping paper my dad used every year. He accidentally bought ten industrial-sized rolls of wrapping paper one Christmas about seven years ago, and was still on the second roll. But the other two were wrapped differently. One was wrapped in a blue and red spotty paper, the other in a sparkly pink one with 'Happy Birthday' printed in neat rows all over it.
"The spotty one is from Bella, the other one from Mike and Mimi." Dad explained. I smiled, grabbing the one from Austin's parents first. I grinned as I tore off the wrapping paper. It was a photo album, a really nice one, and a book. I hadn't heard of the book, but it looked good. There was a card attached too. It read;
To Ally,
Happy Birthday! We haven't known you long, and we're ashamed that the people you first met were not the people we are today. But we have come to think of you as a daughter, and you've changed our son's life. Thank you. We hope you have a wonderful birthday, you truly deserve it after all the crap you've been through recently.
Love from Mike & Mimi. Xx
I knew that Mimi had written it from the way the 'I's were dotted with little hearts, but it was obvious that Mike had signed his own name, which made me smile.
I then picked up the present from Bella. It was small and light. This time I opened the card first.
Allyson!
Happy Birthday sweetie! Have a wonderful day! I know what my nephew has planned and trust me, you're going to love it! I wouldn't recommend opening my present in front of your father, though….I won't tell you what it is, but I will tell you that it might make your father angry.
Anyway, oh my Gosh! I have to say, you really are like one of the family to me already! I love you like a niece, and I can't wait for you and Austin to get married so that it's official. Not that that's going to happen for a long time to come…still, I call dibs on maid of honour. Just kidding. I know you have friends. :D
Again, have a great day. You sure deserve it!
Loads of Love, Bella xxx
I grinned, but I was confused. What could she possibly have bought me that I couldn't open in front of my dad. Picking up the package I started carefully tearing one of the corners. I opened it just enough to see what it was, and felt my face heat up. Condoms. Austin's aunt bought me condoms for my birthday! I shoved the package under my pillow, thankful that my dad was too engrossed with reading the book Mike and Mimi had bought me to notice.
"Dad!" I shouted. He looked up, almost dropping the book.
"Sorry, Ally. Got distracted. Where's Bella's present?" he asked.
"Erm, well…she told me to open it later. In the card, I mean." I said, shrugging. He looked suspicious, but then I picked up one of his presents and he forgot about it.
Dad bought me a really cute red camera, which I loved. I had a feeling Mimi had helped him with this one, or he had told Mimi he was getting it, considering she bought me the photo album. Anyway, he also got me a really cute jewellery box, a big make-up case and, my personal favourite, loads of socks. Like, loads of socks. I think there were about thirty pairs in all. Kind of a personal joke; I always lose my socks. So I'm constantly complaining about having no socks, and we're always running around the house searching for a pair of socks that I can wear. Now I would have enough socks to last me a month or so, at least.
"Come on, then. Now you've opened these presents you can go find Austin. I have a feeling you're going to like this present…" he said. I grinned.
"Hang on, let me get showered and dressed." I said. He left then, after kissing me on the cheek quickly. I checked my phone first, to find a text from Trish.
I've spoken to Austin, and I know I won't see you on your birthday, and you'll probably be too 'busy' to answer the phone, so happy birthday Ally! I love you! I'll give you your present next time I see you! Have a great day babe! :D xx
I smiled, then frowned. This was killing me. Everyone said I was going to love my present, Trish said it would keep me 'busy', whatever that means, and it's going to take the whole day tomorrow…ugh. I hate surprises.
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