Chapter 4
Lucy slowly walks out of the building with Melissa still holding her hand. Paramedics have arrived and are checking the children found and guiding them to the arrived ambulances. Other officers have arrived to check the building for evidence, taking pictures of everything, including the four bodies found.
Melissa happily chats away about the family she was taken from and all the children she met here. Lucy can't believe how a girl who went through all of this can stay so full of life? Maybe she hadn't been there very long.
They are suddenly interrupted by five officers who are dragging a struggling and kicking Carlos out of the building. Lucy's heart goes out to him. But they are only trying to help him.
"No, Carlos!" Melissa screams, but Lucy holds her back.
"They're only trying to help him, sweetie."
"but they're hurting him."
"They're trying to be as gentle as possible, he's just not helping." She says, putting it mildly.
"Hey, a little help here!" One officer yells at two paramedics walking. They look up with wide eyes and quickly rush over.
Carlos starts to fight even harder when he sees how the paramedics want to help. He looks at the syringe with wide eyes, struggling to get away.
"Now, just calm down, this won't hurt a bit."
"No, they can't. You have to stop them!" Melissa screams, tears streaming down her face now. Lucy looks a little confused.
"It's nothing bad. They're just going to make him sleep a little while. It's the only way they can help him."
"No.. that's what they used to do too. Always before something bad happened.." Melissa says while she sobs. Lucy looks confused when she suddenly realizes what the girl is talking about. She puts the girl into the arms of a female paramedic and rushes over to the paramedic holding the syringe.
"hey, wait! Stop, don't use that! Don't.." She stops running when she sees the paramedic already pulling the now empty syringe out of the man's arm. After a few seconds he stops struggling and his body becomes limp. One of the paramedics picks him up and starts to carry him to a waiting ambulance. Lucy watches with regret as the ambulance drives away.
She then marches over to the four officers. "Hey! Did you not hear me yell out, wait? Stop, don't use that?" The four officers look at each other.
"Yeah, but we didn't have a choice." One officer speaks up.
"Yeah, I mean, you saw him. He was out of control. I mean, you should see the bruises he left."
"he was a lot stronger than he looked." The others nod in agreement. Lucy glares at them and hits all four in the arm.
"I gave you an order and you ignored it!" She screams at them.
"Hey, take it easy, detective. What were we supposed to do? It got him to calm down and now he can't hurt himself or anyone else anymore."
"You shouldn't have let them give him that sedative. You shouldn't."
"Why not?"
"Because, that's what those guys used on these kids before they got hurt."
"How do you know that?"
"The little girl told me."
"Well, we didn't know that. It was for his own good, you know that." The officers start to walk away when a colleague calls them to help with the bodies inside. Lucy stomps the ground and lets out a frustrated growl.
"here, drink this. You look like you could use it." Nathan, her partner says, holding out a cup.
"Coffee? Got something stronger?" She growls. He sighs and puts his arm around her.
"Come on, lets' head back to the station. We should go explain how a simple drug bust turned out to be a quadruple homicide and some sick children's prison." She sighs, suddenly it comes to her that they did need to do that.
"Oh, this day can not get any worse."
A while later…
"What do you mean they're not in the system?" She screams into the phone. "They're kids, they all went missing. Don't tell me by some coincidence none of their parents donated their DNA? How did they ever think their kids would be found? Just check again. I don't care if you ran it twice already, try again!" She screams and slams the phone down. She sits down at her desk and puts her head in her hands.
"Bad news?" Nathan asks her.
"That was the lab. Apparently none of these kids' are in the system. So now, we finally got them free, but we have no way of getting them back to their families, because we don't know who they are!"
"Whoa, take it easy. You know, there is always another way." Lucy looks at him.
"You can't be serious, Nathan. We can't release their pictures. Not when they look like this. They're just kids, no one should be seen on the news like this. We should be protecting them."
"Well, do you want to be the one to tell them their families aren't coming?" Lucy sighs, then punches her desk in frustration.
"Damn it!"
"I'll let the CSI team know. They're already taking pictures of their bruises for evidence. Don't worry, I'll make sure the pictures are decent."
Lucy pinches the bridge of her nose as Nathan heads to his desk and starts to make the phone call. She suddenly gets up and grabs her coat.
"hey, where are you going?" Nathan calls out to her, phone still held to his ear.
"To the hospital. These kids shouldn't be alone." She yells back while walking out the door. Nathan wants to head out after her, but someone has already answered his call. Reluctantly he sits back down and starts to discuss the plan.
Lucy heads into the hospital and straight for the nurses desk.
"Hi, I'm here to see the kids that were brought in earlier. I was one of the detectives that found them." She says, showing her badge. The nurse behind the desk takes a close look.
"Ah, yes, fifth floor and to your right." She says, before picking up the ringing phone. Lucy nods a thank you and heads straight for the elevators.
Coming out at the fifth floor, she sighs heavily, but tries to stay calm. Everywhere she looks, she can see the kids she helped rescue. They look a little better, some happily eating, others being covered in bandages. She walks down the hallway, looking for one familiar face. When she rounds the corner, she finds the child she's looking for. Melissa stands in front of a window, staring sadly with her hands on the glass.
Lucy goes to stand beside her. She puts a hand on the girl's shoulder, making her jump.
"It's just me, Lucy. Remember me?" Melissa smiles quickly and even hugs her. Lucy is stunned for a moment. Then the girl lets go and quickly turns to the glass window again. "What are you looking at, sweetie?" She turns to look through the window as well.
There she sees the most heartbreaking sight she has ever seen. There, in a hospital bed lays Carlos. His eyes are still closed and there is no movement except for his chest steadily rising up and down. He is all alone. But that is not the reason Lucy is getting angry. It's the way he is completely strapped down to the bed like a wild animal.
When a nurse walks past her, she immediately addresses him.
"Is this really necessary?" She asks, pointing to the young man in the room.
"I'm afraid so. I know it's a sad sight. But we're just trying to keep him from harming himself or others. It's doctor's orders."
"But he's just scared. If someone could just talk to him, I'm sure he…"
"I wish I could do more, but I can't. I'm sorry. If you'll excuse me, I have other patients to tend to." The nurse tells her. Lucy heads back to Melissa and puts her arm back around her shoulders.
"Don't worry, Melissa. Everything will be fine."
A few hours later…
"How about I check the park again?" James asks his friends.
"James, we already looked there today."
"What about Palmwoods?"
"Kendall just came from there." Logan tells his friend, sighing as he looks dejected. "It's alright, James. We'll go looking again tomorrow."
"Hey, guys! You should read this e-mail some girl sent; she says she saw Carlos on TV." Kendall yells from the study, where their laptop sits at the moment.
"Well, duh, our music videos are constantly repeated." James scoffs.
Kendall shakes his head, deleting the message. He goes back to surfing the web, trying to find a new pair of Vans. Then suddenly another envelope pops up, announcing another e-mail. He goes to read it, it's the exact same message, from another girl this time.
"What is up with these girls?" He mutters to himself, before deleting thet message as well. He moves the cursor to go back to the Web, when suddenly e-mails start pouring in. "What the…"
James and Logan quietly sit on the couch, when suddenly Kendall runs in.
"Guys, I think we need to turn on the TV." He says, panting a little from running so fast.
"Why?"
"Just do it!" He snaps and Logan quickly struggles to turn on the TV. "So, what are we supposed to be watching?"
"Shh!" Kendall replies and Logan and James share a look that he is losing his mind.
A special report is on.
"I'm standing here in downtown LA at the abandoned building where this morning four bodies were found dead. The police was called in for a possible drug lab, but after finding the bodies, they found something much more disturbing. Right behind me, in this building, 15 children and teenagers were found locked up without food. Some may have been there for years, police say. Most children are doing amazingly well, considering the circumstances they were in.
It is unconfirmed at this moment, but the children are said to have gone through physical and emotional abuse. According to an unknown source, all children were kidnapped from their homes and locked up in a small space. This was closed off with a large bolted door.
At the moment, the identities of the children are still unknown. The police have tried to run their DNA, but surprisingly, none of them seem to be in the system. Because the police desperately want to find out their identities, they would like to ask you, at home for help. Right after this message, pictures of the children will be shown, along with a phone number. If you recognize anyone, please call the number at the bottom of the screen. Now, I must warn you, the upcoming pictures may disturb you."
The three guys look on in shock. "Apparently this has been repeating for about an hour now." Kendall tells his friends.
They watch as all the pictures of the children found come up on the screen. They gasp at the state they're all in. But none make them gasp as much as the last one.
"Oh my god…" James whispers. In a second, all three guys jump off the couch and run out the door, leaving the news broadcast on repeat in the background.
Meanwhile back at the hospital…
Lucy Crimson walks through the hospital, drinking her 8th cup of coffee for the day. She moves to get back to Melissa, when her phone rings.
"hello?"
"Crimson, how are things at the hospital?" Nathan's voice sounds through the speaker.
"Oh, just great." She replies sarcastically.
"That good, huh? Hey, listen. I just wanted to call you to let you know the news broadcast with the pictures of all the kids found was a big success."
"Seriously? How big of a success are we talking here?"
"Well, ever since we ran it, the phone has been ringing non-stop. We've already managed to find the families of 7 of the children. And get this; the guy with the gun?"
"Yeah?"
"We got like a thousand calls for him. Apparently he's famous."
"What? What are you talking about?"
"He was in some boyband, Big Time Rush. They were becoming really successful, even heading out for a European tour, when he went missing. That's when they broke up and they haven't been heard from since."
"When was this?"
"That was two years ago." She gasps. "Yeah, I know. I thought you'd might like to know, since you were the only one who actually trusted him."
She hears the guilt in his voice. "So, what's his name? Do we know where his family is?"
"His name is Carlos Garcia, we're still trying to get a hold of his family. So, what's the word on the other kids?"
"Most are doing fine. For a lot of them, they only lived through emotional abuse. I think somehow, these men stayed away from them. That goes for the youngest ones. The older ones weren't so lucky. They went through physical abuse as well. But we won't know the full extent until the doctors can fully examine them. And that can't happen until we have their parent's consent."
"Hm, okay. Do you think any of them were.. you know.."
She sighs, knowing exactly what her partner means. "I don't know. Maybe. Like I said, we'll have to wait for their families to show up."
"Okay, well, keep me posted. I'll call you if I have more information too."
"Alright. Thanks, Nathan." She says, before hanging up. She slowly walks back onto the ward, sadly seeing Melissa still standing in front of the glass window. She joins her and stares at the young man. Well, Carlos Garcia, it's nice to meet you. She looks on in disbelief. How did he go from being famous and in a boyband to completely losing control? She shudders at the thought of what could have happened to him in those two years he'd been stuck there. She didn't really want to know. But being a detective, it was her job to figure it out.
She keeps staring, when suddenly his eyes open. He looks at the window with confusion and tries to sit up. He then looks even more confused when he finds he can't.
Lucy holds Melissa tightly as she starts to cry again. It is sad indeed as he struggles in his restraints. It just wasn't fair. It wasn't his fault. He just needed to learn to trust people again. It wouldn't be easy after all he went through. She just wishes it revolved around mental or emotional abuse. But she was afraid that that sadly wouldn't be the case…
So, what did you think of this one? Yep, they finally found out who he is and the guys are on their way. What will happen next?
Thank you for all the support and I hope you liked this chapter. Let me know!
Until next time!
Love, Baxxie