Confrontation
Darcy's p.o.v
As soon as Mike had dragged Darcy into the apartment, his grip loosening around her wrist, Darcy took that distraction to wrench her arm from her father's hold even though it sent a white hot pain shooting up her arm
"What the hell dad?" Darcy seethed in anger, gritting her teeth to stop herself from saying anything else that might hurt her dad's feelings. Darcy knew he was worried for her because she had this massive tour, but talking to her friends like that made her blood boil; especially now she had been hurt and needed to vent. Mike never turned to look at her, but his shoulders were tense, his shoulders brushing the tips of his ears they were that tense
"Go to bed" Mike rumbled, never facing her because he was angry. Logan had upset her father, how much that was Darcy didn't know, but she ignored her father's wishes for her to go to bed
"No, I want an answer" Darcy growled, clenching her fists at her sides so she didn't lash out. Mike gave off a loud growl that rumbled through his chest, sounding like a lion roaring. Darcy couldn't help but to flinch backwards, the back of her legs hitting the table, almost sending her to the floor
"Go. To. Your. Room" Mike seethed in short breaths, breathing heavily through his nose because he was so angry. At that moment, Darcy didn't want her father to turn around, to let her see the look in his eyes. High-tailing it out of the living room, Darcy slammed her bedroom door forcefully, letting it bang back into place
"God" Darcy whispered, running her left hand across her face, letting the harsh material of the bandage wipe against her skin. She had not had a decent shower in three days, and already she could feel her hair heavy on her scalp because it was greasy, her skin becoming flaky from the dead skin clinging to her arms. With a deep, long sigh, Darcy slowly opened the door to her room, glancing around the room and spotting her father near the kitchen, pouring himself a drink and leaning heavily on the counter. Opening the door wider, Darcy crept around the door, trying to keep a quiet as possible so her father never noticed, but the door betrayed her, squeaking loudly in the quiet room. With a gasp, Darcy tried to slam the door closed again, but her father's voice stopped her
"I'm sorry Darcy" Mike spoke loudly in the silent room, and Darcy's half heartily attempt to slam the door was forgotten, her fingers falling away from the door
"I-I'm going for a shower" Darcy announced, pushing the door open fully and walking to the bathroom without another glance towards her father, her chin in the air so that she looked taller than she wanted to feel. Mike tried to talk to Darcy, but she slammed the door before the words could reach her
Stepping into the shower, Darcy made sure that she didn't wet the bandage that covered the lower part of her left arm. She let the water hit her body, the heat unbearable when the water first hit her fragile body, a small hiss came from her mouth, but Darcy stayed under the spray even though her body wanted her to step out of the boiling water. It soothed her fragile body, heating up parts of her that were frozen cold when she was in the hospital. While under the spray, Darcy's mind reeled back to the incident that left her in the hospital for three days, the explosion. It had been her own car that exploded when she tried to open the driver's side door, and the lower part of her arm had been the only part that had been badly burnt in the explosion, which surprised both herself and the doctors treating her injury. The initial blast from her car had saved her, because as soon as the car exploded, it had thrown her backwards with the blast. But her arm had been still stretched in front of her, allowing more heat to attack her already burnt arm. Bits and pieces of burning hot metal had embedded themselves into her skin where the plasters were, but they had been easily removed. Unfortunately when she had been thrown back, her head had snapped backwards so hard that she gained whiplash, and while her head had been thrown back, it was the first part of her body that had hit the ground with the force of the explosion. Darcy had been out of it for the first day because of the serious concussion, and when they put her on a higher painkiller, she had hallucinations, pretty bad ones that kept her screaming until doctors had to knock her unconscious because she was irritating her injuries. She stayed unconscious for another day until she woke to find her father sitting in a chair close to the bed. Mike had fallen asleep, his head resting on Darcy's knees. Darcy felt the water become luke warm, but she remained under the spray until it started to splutter from hot to cold. Immediately Darcy turned off the shower, leaning her forehead against the tiles and letting go of a low sigh in her throat
"I hate them" Darcy snarled low in her throat, letting out a large, angry growl to let off some anger she was holding inside. Her tour started tomorrow, so she needed to pack her clothing and get ready for her big tour. She wouldn't expect any of the guys or Camille to come to the end of her tour, because they hated her, even more now because of her father's actions. Darcy should have been annoyed at her father, seething angry words to his face and letting out all of her inner anger out on him, but she didn't have the heart to do it. She knew he was only trying to protect her, making sure to push those who hurt her away from her so that she could gain new friends. But it seemed like no one wanted to be her friend. With all the anger, Darcy threw a punch at the tiles with all her strength she could muster, feeling the bones in her hand protesting and pain shooting up her whole arm. As quickly as she could, Darcy threw on her clothing, not bothering to do anything with her hair, and throwing open the bathroom door. The steam that had collected in the bathroom flowed around her for a moment, but Darcy didn't bother to notice, only threw herself at her father to hug him. As soon as Darcy's body collided with Mike's, his arms wrapped around her small figure
"Darcy? Darcy sweetie, what's wrong?" Mike asked, pulling Darcy closer as she cried against his chest
James' p.o.v
James stood at the mirror, raking his lucky comb through his black hair and smirking at his reflection. From the mirror, James saw Kendall roll his green eyes, putting his attention back to the television as soon as he realised that James saw, but James only took one more look in the mirror and finally pulled away. James jumped on the sofa, throwing himself into the cushions and relaxing into them. From where James sat, he could see the bruise along Kendall's jaw line from where Logan hit him, but James had not believed him at first, because Logan was the calmest out of them all. But Kendall had been persistent in his explanation
"You okay?" James asked Kendall, not bothering to look at him, but he heard Kendall sigh
"Yeah, as much as I can be" Kendall answered, stretching his arms in the air, letting out a loud yawn. But the door slammed open, startling Kendall and James. They twirled on the sofa, but as they saw Logan standing at the door, all the amusement faded from their faces. Logan's face was white as paper, completely drained of any colour, his eyes having a cloudy look in them
"Logan" James whispered, raising from the sofa to his friends side in an instant, grabbing Logan's elbow and gently leading him to the sofa. Logan didn't sit down gently on the sofa; instead as soon as the back of his legs hit the sofa, he collapsed. It was lucky that James had a hold of his elbow, because with quick reactions, he made sure that Logan made it to the cushions without hurting himself
"Logan! What's the matter?" Kendall spoke, quickly moving from the sofa to sit next to Logan's legs on the floor, almost curling into Logan's legs
"D-Darcy" Logan muttered under his breath, and James saw Kendall flinch at the name from the corner of his eye. James felt fear spark in his chest, but he pushed it away for the moment, being too concerned about his friend to think of Darcy
"What's wrong with Darcy?" Carlos' voice spoke from the side, actually startling Logan enough so that his eyes cleared up. His brown eyes scanned the room before finally landing on Kendall and the bruise on his jaw, he flinched, a sorry look in his eyes before he held back the sorry back to answer Carlos' question
"The explosion yesterday, someone got hurt" Logan answered, looking around the room and even behind him
"It was not just one person in the explosion you know, two people were killed in the explosion as well" Katie came into the conversation, and James wanted to roll his eyes and ask if anyone else wanted to join in the conversation, but he bit back the sarcastic question
"How do you know that?" Kendall spoke, giving his little sister a puzzled look and James rolled his eyes at Kendall asking the stupid question. A sarcastic reply was on the tip of his tongue, but before James could speak, Katie's voice interrupted
"It was on the news. Someone's car blew up, and in the explosion two people were killed, one injured and rushed to the hospital" Katie said with a 'duh' tone, rolling her eyes and playing on the computer, a news article present on the screen from what James could see
"Wait, one person was hurt?" Kendall suddenly spoke up, trying to gain Katie's attention "who was hurt, does it day?"
"I-I don't want to say" Katie stuttered, showing a vulnerability to her older brother, but Kendall heard it, and his head whipped to his sister
"Please" Kendall begged, worry clear in his eyes
"It was Darcy Black" Katie spoke without hesitation, looking straight into Kendall's eyes, telling the truth
"Darcy was hurt? B-But why?"
"Because it was her car that blew up when she tried to open the drivers side door. The explosion actually saved her life, because it threw her back in time" Katie read from the computer as she pulled up the news article. There was a picture of the blackened car that started the explosion, and there was no recognisable trace of anything familiar about the car, it was completely blackened from the flames. James couldn't tear his gaze from the screen or the car because it was mangled beyond anything James saw before
"Are you sure only two people died?" James spoke through the horror he felt curling painfully in his stomach. When Katie didn't reply, either from not hearing him or she lied to him, James didn't know
"Yeah, only two people died, and Darcy was hurt. It doesn't say why Darcy was targeted, but I think there's something darker going on than they're letting on" Katie pouted, leaning closer to the screen, but Kendall's hand slapped onto her shoulder, pulling her back so her back rested against the back of the chair
"Don't lean to close to the screen" Kendall commented in a voice that sounded calm. James' head snapped to Kendall and from the looks of things, Kendall looked completely calm even though he had been given information about Darcy, their old friend. James felt an emotion of guilt when he heard Darcy's name, because of how they were treating the girl. But a loud crash alerted everyone to Logan, who stood up in a panic and knocking the table over, making papers fly up in the air and slowly flutter to the floor around Logan, but the papers fluttering around him never bothered Logan, because his concentration was squarely on everyone
"No! Darcy doesn't need sympathy from us because we only care about her now because she's gotten hurt!" Logan roared, his eyes going blank of any emotions, the soft brown that everyone saw in Logan's eyes was now only a black void that once occupied Logan's face. His face had gone deathly pale when he roared the words, but James guessed that something had happened to make Logan act so violently
"Logan!" Kendall shouted, trying to approach the stressed boy but failing when Logan gave off a might roar, the sound ripping itself from his soul. James flinched at the sound, looking horrified that it was Logan who gave off the mighty roar. Even Kendall had taken a step back when Logan gave off the roar
"We don't care about Darcy, none of us do! We pushed her away at the first incident when she hurt Kendall, and now she's on her own, because everyone's gone against her" Logan informed them, throwing up his hands in desperation and crashing back down onto the sofa with a loud sigh. It was better than the roar he gave off earlier, but it still had James worried for Logan
"She goes on tour tomorrow" Katie spoke when everyone was silent and James' head whipped to her face. A large smile was on her face, and James didn't want to know why
"And?" Kendall questioned, raising his eyebrows in question to his sister. The reply Kendall got was Katie rolling her own eyes, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a long ticket, flashing it to Kendall by waving it near his face
"I've got my ticket for when she's performing here!" Katie explained loudly, her voice almost shrilly at the end of her sentence because she was excited. James immediately flinched when he realised that he was the one who ripped up the tickets, but he had ripped up everyone's except Camille's, who still had it clutched in her hand when he had ripped the tickets. A puzzled look crossed James' face, but when Katie looked at him, her smile seemed to widen, a mischievous look on her face as she stared at James as if to say 'how did I do it?' James' wracked his brain for the answer, but he came up with a blank
"I taped it back together, genius" Katie spoke sarcastically, rolling her eyes and James growled
Darcy's p.o.v
After applying make-up to get rid of any proof that Darcy had been crying and changing the bandage on her arm with her father's help, Darcy finally had enough confidence to walk out of the apartment. She kept her head down the entire time that she walked through the apartments, even bumping into a few people because her fringe fell across her vision, making it harder for her to see where she was going
"Darcy!" a voice shouted from across the room, and immediately her head shot to the origin of the voice, but her mouth became dry at who she was staring at. Kendall Knight was wading through the crowd of people in the lobby, his tall, lanky frame easy to spot in the sea of people, his light green emerald eyes that Darcy always had trouble looking away from stared into her light grey ones, keeping the eye contact. Darcy's heart thudded in her chest, making her palms sweaty with perspiration. She desperately wanted to run from Kendall, bolt from the scene, but she didn't know if he would have been able to catch her up, so she stood her ground, remembering everything that her father said. She wiped the palms of her hands against her jeans so no signs that she was scared were traceable on her
"Hey" Darcy spoke before Kendall could, giving him a small smile and still staring at Kendall in his green eyes
"Logan was right" Kendall spoke, his hand flinching at his side as if he wanted to reach forwards and touch Darcy's face to see if everything was for real. Kendall's eyes roamed around her face, his eyes never making eye contact with hers, his only concentration was everything on her face, the plasters and bruises. Again Kendall's hand flinched, but instead of holding it by his side, Kendall allowed his hand to lift up towards Darcy's face, his fingers outstretched, his palm facing Darcy's cheek. His hand was close to her face, his fingers millimetres from touching her skin, Darcy held her breath, straightening her shoulders and looking Kendall dead in the eyes. His hand clenched all of a sudden, a look of hurt flashing across this face before his arm dropped to his side. Pain shot through Darcy's heart, disappointments making her hands shake at her sides, tears threatening to spill from her eyes, but she willed them away
"Everything you see is real" Darcy spoke in a strong voice, her heart jack-hammering in her chest as she realised just how close Kendall was to touching her skin. Disappointment sparked in her chest, almost making her want to sob in both embarrassment and anger, but she bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself. She wouldn't cry in front of Kendall, because she refused
"Are you okay?" Kendall asked, looking square into her eyes but not showing any emotions. He must have still been angry at her because of the incident, but Darcy couldn't care, she shut off all of her feelings towards Kendall as she spoke
"I'm fine, got a big tour coming tomorrow. But why should you care Kendall? Were not friends any more" Darcy snapped, glaring at Kendall before turning around and walking away from Kendall and leaving the lobby, trying to ignore the gut clenching pain in her stomach at leaving Kendall on a bad note
She walked around the park with no real place to go, just walking and trying to forget the harsh words she spoke to Kendall. Her father's words still roamed around in her mind, suffocating her with feelings that she really didn't need to be pushing on her when she had her big tour in a day's time. Her emotions were out of control at the moment, hate rid the most frequent emotion that she used at the moment, because it hid all the other emotions
"Stupid Big Time Rush" Darcy muttered, making her way back home but taking a different route so that she didn't bump into someone she knew. But Darcy froze when she saw how dark the way was, only two lamp posts giving off a tiny amount of light to splash on the pavement. The lamp posts were a long way off from each other, making small patches of pitched blackness. Darcy couldn't will her body to move into the blackness, a gnawing feeling eating away at her gut as she stared at the black patches on the floor. Taking a deep breath, Darcy slowly approached the alleyway, taking the smallest steps she could and desperately trying to stay in the light, listening to her loud heart beat hammering in her rib cage. Strong arms grasped around Darcy's waist, restraining her arms at her sides and trapping them there, yanking her backwards into a small enclosed alleyway, her feet completely leaving the floor, leaving Darcy suspended in the air. A scream of terror tore from her lips as she was brought back, and as hands roamed around her body, Darcy felt terror freezing up the blood in her veins, but yet her heart still hammered violently in her rib cage, almost threatening to burst from her chest. Darcy's breathing became heavy as she saw the entrance to the alleyway becoming smaller. The terror did not hold her for long, because Darcy soon thrashed in their arms, trying to throw her body left and right to break the man's hold on her, but his arms only tightened around her body, forcing the breath from her lungs. The scream died on her lips because of the man's tight hold, and soon Darcy was gasping for breath, desperate for oxygen
"Stop struggling Darcy" the figure snapped behind her, squeezing Darcy once more so she couldn't thrash in their arms. It never stopped Darcy from fighting against the man, but another figure, surrounded in the dark shadows of the alleyway, stepped forwards right in front of Darcy. She tried to kick out at the figure, but her legs never touched the person, and Darcy gave off a low growl. Their long, cold fingers suddenly gripped Darcy's chin, smacking the back of her head against the hard chest behind her, restraining her head from moving. With his hands on Darcy's chin, his palm resting on her chin, his fingernails, long and sharp, dug into the flesh of her cheeks near her mouth, digging them in slowly at first, and then tightening his grip when Darcy tried to throw her head to the right to release his grip. She shivered when his other hand brushed across her cheek and along her jaw line, his cold fingers sending goosebumps prickling down her cheek and neck from where the man touched her. The brushing of the man's hand was affection, the touch soft, but it made Darcy shiver violently, a cold flush flowing through her body. Her face was slowly becoming numb from where he touched her, his fingernails still biting into her mouth but she was still numb from the tight grip. Darcy couldn't tell if there was any blood running down her chin, but she didn't want to show any fear to this man, who ever he was, because he would only laugh and inflict more pain on her body. Her hands twitched at her sides, pins and needles prickling up her arm from the man's tight hold behind her
"Let me go" Darcy snarled finding it difficult to talk because of the man's hand on her chin, but she managed, Darcy tried ignoring the goosebumps and the horrible feeling that was creeping up from her gut, a feeling like she would vomit. Her teeth clashed together violently when the man forced up her jaw to shut her up. The man moved closer to Darcy, so close that she could feel their breath tickling her face. A whimper of fear rose from her throat, but she tried to cover up the sound by coughing
"Darcy Black, you don't remember me, do you?" the figure sneered, the grip on her mouth growing tighter, their nails digging into her mouth harder now. She couldn't see his hand on her mouth, because there were no lights in the alleyway, so she couldn't see if there was any blood coating his hands
"I don't want to remember!" Darcy screamed, kicking out her legs in anger, but her foot connected with the man's chest, knocking him back with a cry, the nails ripping from around her mouth when he fell. Darcy felt no pain, but without her mind processing what she was doing, Darcy threw back her head with a rebellious cry, smashing the back of her head into the man's nose behind her. The arms around her broke, letting Darcy fall to the floor in a heap. She still needed to catch her breath, but as soon as Darcy hit the floor, she tried to scramble to her feet, tearing at the concrete with claw shaped hands desperate to get to her feet to run. But the man in front of her had gotten to his feet quicker than Darcy had, and he loomed over her, snarling. A sharp kick to Darcy's ribs sent her to the floor in a heap, but she refused to stay down for any longer than necessary, not allowing herself to become terrified enough so that it numbed her so badly that the man behind her got to his feet too. With a rebel cry, Darcy quickly shot to her feet, swinging out her left arm and connecting her fist to some where on the man's body, but the sheer force from her punch made the man fly to the side, his body colliding into the wall with a sickening slap. Darcy heard him slam into the wall, a grunt escaping his mouth, but she didn't dare take another look behind her, only bolting from the alleyway. But not before Darcy heard the man sneer five words that made Darcy's blood run cold, like a sheet of ice flowing through her veins, almost making her freeze up and take a look backwards into the alleyway
"I'll see you soon, Darcy"
