Chapter Five: Running Out of Time
WARNING: I don't own QAF still:'( I'm very sad about that too:(
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I decided to be nice and post one today even though I really didn't want to lol:) there maybe one or two time skips in this one. I also want to warn you that I don't see this story going past ten chapters at the max. however, once you guys read the ending of this story let me know if you guys want a sequel and I'll think of making one. As of right now I have no plans to make a sequel. That's all I needed to tell you guys:)
"Talk"
'Thoughts'
Letters
Dreams
Chapter Five: Running Out of Time
TWO WEEKS LATER
Brian's POV:
"Brian." I heard of voice calling. I slowly opened my eyes and saw that I was in a pure black room with no doors or windows. 'Where the hell am I?' I asked myself looking around trying to find some form of an exist.
"Brian." the voice called again and I whipped my head around trying to find its owner. 'I know that voice anywhere.' I thought still trying to find the person.
"Justin?" I called out to see if I was right about who it was. Only, I wished it hadn't answered me.
"Where are you Brian? Why haven't you come?" he asked and I felt my throat tighten at his words.
"I'm sorry Sunshine. We haven't found you yet, but I haven't stopped looking and I won't stop." I told him looking around still trying to see him.
"You're running out of time Brian. Please come Brian." he said and I felt tears forming and blinked to try to keep them from falling. "I know baby, but just wait a little longer." I said and my eyes widened when he suddenly appeared. He didn't look hurt but he did look deathly pale, and I didn't like that at all. I walked up and slowly placed a hand on his shoulder to see if I could touch him. When my hand hit solid skin I instantly pulled him into my arms and held him tight.
'I don't care if I'm dreaming or not, it feels so good to hold him again.' I thought to myself and pulled him tighter to me. I felt his arms go around me and hold me just as tightly. I pulled back some and looked at him, he had sad eyes that looked like they were ready to give up. At that thought I pulled him to me again and just held him.
"I promise Sunshine, I will find you and bring you home. Just, please, hold on." I told him when I felt something wet on my hands. I pulled one back and looked at it and my eyes widened at what was on it, blood. I pulled Justin back to see that he was covered in blood from head to toe. I looked back at him in horror and he just stared at me sadly.
"I told you you were running out of time."
I woke up screaming at the top of my lungs. I looked around quickly to see where I was I saw that I was back in my loft and I sighed in relief. Only that relief turned to sadness when I remembered the Justin in my dream. I looked at my hands and saw that they were shaking. 'He felt so real in my arms, but so did his blood.' I thought and covered my face with my hands and cried.
I jumped slightly when I felt arms wrap around me and looked up to see Mikey hugging me with Em to my left and Ben sitting behind Mikey and Hunter sitting at the end of the bed, all of them looking at me with concern. I leaned into Mikey and sighed.
"Sorry I woke you guys up. I just had a nightmare is all, go back to sleep." I told them not meeting any of them in the eyes. Mikey pulled me into a tighter hug and I looked up at him when he sighed. "You know we're not going back to sleep Bri, we're not leaving you alone with your thoughts." Mikey said and I inwardly sighed happily. Thanking God they weren't going to leave me alone, on the outside I looked at him sternly before pushing out of his arms and crossing mine and pouting.
They all chuckled and shook their heads. "Well, it's already 7 in the morning, might as well get ready for the day. Especially since today is Friday." Mikey said and we all looked down at that. It had been two weeks since we found out the clues fit together, since then we gained to more clues. What had us all down was that we still hadn't figured out the clues and we only had two weeks left, only two more clues before we either found or lost Justin. 'Just like Justin said, we're running out of time.' I thought and looked back at the others.
"You and Ben go to work and Hunter, you go to school. Em and I will stay here and try to figure out the clues and yes Mikey we'll call if we figure anything, even the littlest of details, out and call you and the others right away." I told him when I saw him open his mouth. He closed it with a nod and the three of them got out of bed and got ready for the day. Em and I waited until they had left to get ready ourselves so we wouldn't get in their way.
Once we were both ready an hour later we went over to the dinner table and got to work on the clues.
Clue One: If you want to find your Sunshine, then you must come to the place where the sun is the brightest.
Clue Two: Stand on the bridge and think tall.
Clue Three: Run down until you can't anymore and make a left, then a right, then another right, and finally another left. Then go through the black door with a red door nob.
Clue Four: Run as straight as you can and beware of the monster in the shadows.
Clue Five: Splish, splash, the people have fun as they where the sun shines the brightest.
Clue Six: Once you've gone straight, make a right and go straight again until you are free.
Clue Seven: Through the door you will find your prize all covered in red.
"Bri, I really hate these clues. They give me headaches!" Em shouted all dramatic like and I rolled my eyes at him before looking at the clues again. "That's Stockwell for you. Claims to leave you clues to help you, only makes them impossible to understand. But we will figure them out, now, quit complaining and get over here and help me." I said and he side but nodded.
About an hour later there was a knock on the door and Em went and opened it while I focused on the clues.
"Daddy!" I heard and looked up in time to catch a flying four year old. Gus giggled and wrapped his arms around my neck I laughed and hugged him back and smiled at the girls as they came in. "How've you been Gussy?" I asked and he smiled at me, "I've been good daddy! I made pictures for Papa for when he comes home." he said and I felt my throat tighten.
"I'm sure he'll love them Gus." I said and smiled at him when he giggled. I sat him down and walked over to the kitchen and got a coloring book, plan white paper, and crayons out of a drawer and walked back over to Gus and gave them to him. "Mommy, Mama, and Aunt Em have work to do so why don't you color Papa more pictures." I told him and he smiled brightly and ran over to the coffee table and got started.
I turned back to the girls at that point, "So I'm assuming you girls are here to help with the clues?" I asked and they nodded.
"I actually think I figured out the first part of it." Mel said and that got my full attention. I looked at her in shock, "You think you did?" I asked and she nodded. I walked over to her and grabbed her arm and dragged her over to the table.
"Show me." I demanded and she quickly nodded and got to work on the clues. After about five minutes she stepped back and smiled at me, "I could be completely wrong on this, since I figured it out at 3:30 in the morning and I was dead tired, but I think that it's at least something we should look into." she said as me, Em, and Linds walked up to the table and looked to the clues she had placed together.
Splish, splash, the people have fun where the sun shines the brightest. If you want to find your Sunshine, then you must come to the place where the sun is the brightest. Stand on the bridge and think tall. Run down until you can't anymore and make a left, then a right, then another right, and finally another left. Then go through the black door with a red door nob. Through the door you will find your prize covered in red...
"As I said I figured this out when I was dead tired. Plus it's only the first half, we still need at least the one that comes tonight to add the next half to it." Mel said but I wasn't really paying attention because I had turned and pulled her into a tight hug. She stood shocked at first before she wrapped her arms around me and hugged me tightly too.
"Thank you Mel. I think you figured out the first half, it makes to much since for it to not be. It doesn't matter that the other half isn't done. You finally gave us something we can work with and start to narrow places down." I whispered to her and I felt her smile into my shoulder. "Your welcome Bri. I'm just glad I was able to help Justin out by figuring this out." she said as I pulled back, for once not flinching at Justin's name.
I turned to the other two with determined eyes. "Right, Em you call Mikey and the others and tell them to get their asses over here now and explain why. Linds and Mel, you two help me figure out what place he's talking about and Em will join us when he's done calling everyone." I said and they all nodded and we got to work.
'See Sunshine. We just got one step closer to you, just hold on.' I thought to myself and got to work.
Thirty minutes later the entire family came barging in the door at the same time almost making some of them fall to the floor. I looked up and laughed at them and shook my head in amusement before looking back to the table. They all fixed themselves and came over to see the clues that Mel had put together. Carl walked up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, "Good work Mel." he said and smiled at her. She smiled at him before she was surrounded by the rest of the family as they thanked her and congratulated her.
"Alright this isn't the time for a family get together. Right now we need to figure out what place he's talking about." I said and they all nodded and crowded around the table.
"Well they're clearly near water. Since the first sentence starts with splish, splash." Ben said and Carl nodded, "to stand on the bridge and think tall might mean that they're in the tallest building near the body of water and you have the best view of it from this bridge or whatever it is." he said and this time I nodded. "But what does the last parts mean? They make no since even when put in the right order." I said aggravated and sighed and ran a hand threw my hair.
Just then Gus came running up to me with a picture held tightly in his little hand. "Daddy, look at this picture! It's for you." he said as I picked him and he held the picture out to me. I smiled at it thinking how cute it was.
It was a picture of the whole family with me and Justin standing in the front and Gus in front of us. It looked like he had drawn us by a lake or ocean or something like that and couldn't help but think it was a good drawing even for a four year old. 'Justin must've been teaching him before all this shit started.' I thought to myself then stared at the picture closer and my eyes widened. I looked at Gus and smiled at him and kissed his forehead, "Thank you very much for the picture Gus. I'm going to keep this over here with me, is that OK?" I asked him and he nodded.
"Yep, I made it for you daddy." he said and hugged me as I put him down and he went back to drawing. I looked at the others and placed the picture on the table and looked at Carl.
"Carl, how many lakes and/or rivers near the Pitts?" I asked him and he thought for a second before answering, "I believe there are three that are all just outside the Pitts, one is about thirty minutes from here. Why?" he asked and everyone looked at me.
'Splish, splash, the people have fun... Go where it's the brightest...' I thought and looked up and smiled brightly. "I think I just figured out the place he's at. Or at least, the place he's near." I said and pushed the picture to the middle of the table. The others looked at it for a minute before catching on to my meaning and staring at me with wide eyes.
"You think they've been at one of the lakes this whole time?" Mikey asked and I shook my head, "No, I think they've at the one that's closest to the Pitts. He wouldn't make it on time every Friday if he were at the other two." I said and for the first time in a long time I actually felt like we were going to find Justin, not just HOPING we found him. The others must have been thinking the same thing because they each started to smile and some got tears in their eyes.
"Let's wait for this next clue and then we'll go from there. Tomorrow I'll look up the lakes name and the tallest building near it." Carl said and I looked at the clock and was surprised to see that it was 10:15 already. 'Time flies when you start to get somewhere I guess.' I thought to myself as we all rushed out the door to get to the diner.
AT THE DINER
Brian's POV:
We got to the diner five minutes before 10:30. None of us wanted to risk being late getting to clue in case it pissed Stockwell off and he did something worse than he probably is to Justin. At 10:28 I started towards the back of the diner and went through the doors that led to the alley. I got to the dumpster at exactly 10:30 and got the clue from the dumpster and walked back in to the family and sat down and opened it as they crowded around me to see it.
So we've reached our two weeks left mark. Time sure flies when you're having fun doesn't it? Anyways, there will be only one more clue after this one. I'll be giving you that entire last week to try and find Justin before Friday at 10:30. If he's not with you by that time two Friday's from now... Well... I don't have to tell you what happens do I? Well, here's the clue.
Once you're through the door that holds your prize, take the silver door and go through it.
I really hope that you've figured out some of the clue by now Brian. I will be very disappointed if you haven't, I don't think I've made them that hard to understand.
Just remember what I said, there is only one clue left. After that you're on your own.
Love,
Stockwell
P.S. Justin wanted me to tell everyone hi for him.
I was seeing red by the end of the letter. 'That son of a bitch actually has the nerve to write something like that?!' I thought to myself and looked at everyone else to see that they had the same looks as I probably had write now.
The look of pure hatred and murder.
I took calming breaths and got out the rest of the clues that I brought with me and placed them in the order that they probably went in.
Splish, splash, the people have fun where the sun shines the brightest. If you want to find your Sunshine, then come to the place where the sun is the brightest. Stand on the bridge and think tall. run down until you can't anymore and make a left, then a right, then another right, and finally another left. Then go through the black door with a red door nob. Through the door you will find your prize covered in red. Once you're through the door that holds your prize, take the silver door and go through it. Run as straight as you can and beware of the monster in the shadows. Once you've gone straight, make a right and go straight again until you're free...
I stared at the clues in amazement. "We actually figured it out." I whispered still looking at the clues. I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up to see Em smiling at me with happy tears in his eyes.
"I told you we would didn't I?" he asked and I smiled at him and looked at the others. 'Sunshine, give me just a few more days. Just a few more days and I'll make you safe again. I promise.' I thought to myself as I taped the clues we had figured out together while the others talked to Carl about when we'd be able to head to the lake.
"I'll get the info we need tomorrow and after the final clue comes next week we'll leave that Saturday and hopefully have Justin home and safe by Sunday morning." he said and they all smiled.
But none smiled as brightly as I did at that moment.
And there you go! I'm sorry if this one isn't as good as the others. It didn't seem that good to me once I finished it. I hope you guys like it so far! What do you guys think of the clues? Bet a lot of you didn't figure out it's order:p lol:) anyways, I should be posting again tomorrow when I update my Harry Potter story so be on the look out!:)