(A/N): A little warning for this chapter: this chapter features angst, drama, a stalkerish Logan and a crazy Katrina. Thank you to Milkamoo97, kitcool, and Kayla for your reviews! I did as you asked because I've got an update! I still don't own Big Time Rush nor do I own the song, Sick Little Games by All Time Low.
Please remember to vote because the end of the contest is coming up. Ending details are at the end of the chapter! But, enjoy the chapter first!
Chapter 23: Messing With The Game Of Life
Logan sat up in his bed as he woke up from a nightmare about catching James and Katrina making out. Looking around, his eyes rested on the clock that said it was eight past one in the morning. He groaned as he laid back down, trying to get back to sleep. Finding that he couldn't, he threw off the covers, determined to walk the nightmare away.
Making his way into the main room of the apartment, he found himself starting to pace as he thought over the dream. He knew it wouldn't help, but since he couldn't sleep, he didn't think it would hurt. It did though, making him even more restless.
Suddenly, he heard the squeak of the door opening. Quickly running into the kitchen, he hid behind the counter, his head poking above it to see who was there. It was Katrina. The weirdest part wasn't that she was awake at one in the morning, but that she was fully dressed and held a stereo in her left hand. Walking over to the front door, she stopped in front of it and looked around. She seemed to be lingering on where Logan was hidden, but eventually shrugged and left the apartment.
Logan stood up and waited a minute, wondering if he should leave her alone and go back to bed, wake up the others, or follow by himself. His curiosity won out and, realizing he wouldn't be able to follow her if he woke up his friends, he followed her out the door. Finding her down the hallway in front of the elevator, he decided to take a chance and use the stairs to go down to the lobby.
Reaching it, he dived for cover behind a plant right as the elevator doors dinged and Katrina walked out of them. She glanced over to where Logan had disappeared for a second in confusion. Then, shaking her head, she went on her walk, making her way out the door. Even though Logan knew Katrina was probably going to get mad if he followed her, he still did.
Trailing behind Katrina, Logan started to make guesses as to where she was going. His first guess was going to Penny's Pet Care to work on it, but it was thrown out quickly when she took a different turn. His next guess was to work on something for school, but that didn't seem likely this early in the morning. Another was that she was heading to the park to relax, but that was thrown out when she passed it by. The last thing Logan could think of was visiting Brandon and that seemed to be it when she turned onto his street. He decided to keep following her, knowing there were crazy people out on the streets.
Logan was too busy thinking about how heroic he would look if he saved Katrina from a crazy person to notice at first that Katrina had turned up a walkway to a house. He had to do a double take when he accidently passed right by it. Looking up at the house, he realized that it wasn't Brandon's house, it was the burned down one right next door.
Katrina stood right in front of the front door. She turned her head to glance over at Brandon's house for a second like she was worried he was going to come and find her, but there were no lights on in that house. Sighing, she reached forward and pushed on the door. It fell in, breaking apart as it hit the floor on the inside of the house. She stepped around it carefully and disappeared in the house.
Waiting outside for a second, Logan assessed the house. There was a lot of fire damage to it, but the house structure itself was still standing somehow. It was big, like the houses around it, three stories to it with a huge fenced in backyard. The color and the plants had been burned away making the house seem like the one flaw of the street. By now, Logan knew that Katrina would be furious when she finally caught him, but he felt that he had to follow her to keep her safe in the obviously unstable house. At least, that's what he told himself when the real cause was curiosity.
Taking a deep breath, Logan followed Katrina into the house. The inside of the house was much worse than the outside. Glancing around, he saw remnants of what looked like a living room to his right and a dining room to the left. Past the dining room, through an arch in the wall was the kitchen where the most damage was. It was obvious now that the fire that destroyed the house had come from the stove in the kitchen. There were more rooms to that floor, but Logan's attention went to the metal staircase in front of him.
Since it was metal, it had survived the fire, mostly intact. It took up most of the entry hall and could arguably be a grand staircase. Standing at the top, was Katrina. She looked like a shadow in the darkness where the only light came from the street lights from outside the windows.
Suddenly, she moved, heading to her right. Logan went up the stairs as fast as he dared to follow her. She went down a hallway of what looked like bedrooms. Stopping beside one of the doors, she looked at it before she decided to go in. Logan peeked in to see what it looked like. The room, even though it was badly burnt, was obviously sports themed. There were remnants of the wallpaper on the walls that showed images of different sports balls ranging from footballs to baseballs. The furniture matched, each looking like a different type of sport thing. There was even a baseball glove chair in the corner.
Katrina was kneeling down, digging around in what looked like a closet until she got a smile on her face. Standing up, she held up a baseball bat with her right hand. It was one of the few wooden items that survived the fire. She swung it around a few times like she was testing it out before she turned back to the door. Logan quickly ran off so she wouldn't see him. He ran through an open door and waited. Holding his breath, he glanced back out into the hallway and watched as Katrina walked past, completely missing him.
Logan peeked out once she passed, watching as she went into another room. He walked over there to watch her through the doorway. Katrina was standing in the room as though she was frozen. After a couple seconds of staying put, she set the stereo and bat down on the floor. Walking up to the bed in the room, she fell on top of it.
This gave Logan an opportunity to check out the room. It was damaged too, but some things did survive. The bed that Katrina was lying on still had covers on it, but the edges were charred. On the wall opposite the bed, there was a mirror right behind a dresser which had photo frames littered across the top of it. He couldn't tell who the subjects were in the photographs because those that hadn't been burned were covered in dust. Across from the doorway Logan was standing in was a room divider. Some of it had been burned, but he still couldn't tell what was on the other side. There was a desk, a bookshelf, and there were even small stairs that went down into a dip in the floor where there was a couch, two armchairs, a coffee table and a TV.
Suddenly, Katrina moved, catching Logan's attention again. She pushed herself up off the bed and walked over to grab the stereo. Setting it down on the desk, she pressed the play button. Apparently, she already had a song prepared cause it blasted out of the radio. It took a second, but Logan recognized it as All Time Low's song, Sick Little Games.
During the instrumental part at the beginning, Katrina pulled open the closet by the bed. Inside were dresses of different sizes, shapes, textures and, from what Logan could guess, colors. Most of them were ruined beyond repair from the fire, but there were still a few that could be saved. She pulled those ones out and set them on the bed right as the lyrics picked up. She was singing along.
Oh my God, I'm such a terrible mess
I'm turned on by the tabloids
You would never have guessed
That I'm a sucker for their gossip
Man, I take it too far
I bottle up my Hollywood
And watch 'em name their kids after cars
Katrina picked up one of the dresses and held it up as if she was checking to see how much damage it had.
I'm finding me out
I'm having my doubts
I'm losing the best of me
There was a loud ripping sound as Katrina began completely destroying the dress. Throughout the chorus, she did the same with the others, never stopping her singing.
We're all part of the same
Sick little games
And I need a getaway, getaway
I'm wasting my days
I throw them away
Losing it all on these sick little games
Katrina stopped tearing dresses apart and headed over to the dresser and mirror. She picked up one of the photo frames, studying it. She set it down as the lyrics came back on, her voice mingled in too.
I fell in love, she was the friend of a sister
Of somebody famous
At least for a day
Expensive habits and a taste for the town
Had me chasin' down red carpets
And watching all my friends slip away
At this, she swiped her hand across the dresser, completely knocking each photo frame off of it and making them crash to the floor. Glass was broken everywhere, but Katrina didn't seem to care as she stared at her reflection in the mirror, placing a hand on it and singing to the bridge.
They're finding me out
I'm having my doubts
I'm losing the best of me
Dressed up as myself
To live in the shadow
Of who I'm supposed to be
As she sang along with the chorus, Katrina grabbed the bat off the ground and headed over to the wall divider.
We're all part of the same
Sick little games
And I need a getaway, getaway
She grabbed the handle and pushed away the wall divider, revealing what was behind it. The three walls were covered in mirrors and right in the middle of the area was a circular platform raised up from the floor. Logan was surprised that she didn't notice him staring at her because it was obvious in the mirror.
I'm wasting my days
I throw them away
Losing it all on these sick little games
Katrina stood on the platform and snapped her fingers. There was a sudden spotlight on her from a ceiling light, although it blinked often. She began to pose along with the lyrics, her voice rising so it was louder than the music from the stereo.
If I play my cards right
I could make the big time
I could be a reason to stare
Caught up in the spotlight
Shaking from the stage fright
How did I end up here?
Twirling the bat in her right hand, she headed up to the mirror in front of her as the chorus kicked back in.
All part of the same
Sick little games
She gripped the bat with both hands and Logan knew what she was going to do.
And I need a getaway, getaway, getaway, getaway
Right on the loud drum beat, Katrina slammed the bat into the mirror. There was a resounding crash as mirror pieces went flying. The scene seemed to be in slow motion as Katrina broke each and every mirror, her singing starting to get shaky as tears ran down her eyes.
We're all part of the same
Sick little games
And I need a getaway, getaway
I'm wasting my days
I throw them away
Losing it all on these sick little games
All part of the same
Sick little games
And I need a getaway, getaway, getaway, getaway
Katrina dropped the bat and sat down on the platform in tears. Her sobs filled the room, being the only sound there. Logan hesitated and then decided that he would go and comfort her.
As soon as he took the first step in the room, Logan heard a crack, but it didn't come from underneath his foot. It came from the ceiling above Katrina's head. She didn't seem to notice though as she continued her crying. Logan stared at the ceiling above Katrina's head, wondering what was going on.
Suddenly, the cracks got louder as a sprinkle of dust started to fall down and Logan knew it was time to act.
"KATRINA!" Logan yelled out as he ran up to her. She turned around to stare at him dumbfounded. Before she could say anything, Logan had pulled her down to the ground, away from the platform. They both hit the mirror pieces, some of them making minor cuts to their skin. Right as they had hit the floor, a large chunk of the ceiling had fallen to crash down on the spot where Katrina had been sitting.
She stared at the ceiling chunk for a second, her eyes and mouth wide open in shock, before she turned to look at Logan, "You just saved my life."
"Yeah," Logan smiled at her, shrugging slightly like it wasn't a big deal. Then, he got serious, "Now, we should get out of here before the whole house falls apart."
"No," Katrina grabbed his arm, looking at the pricks of blood on it from hitting the mirror shards. "I need to bandage this up. You'll die if I don't bandage this up." She began looking around for some type of cloth nearby. "And then we need to get you to the hospital and keep you stabilized and-"
Logan cut her off when he heard more cracking from above their heads, "We need to go now!"
"But-"
"When I say now, I mean NOW!" Logan got up onto his feet and picked up Katrina, bridal style. Leaving the stereo behind, he carried her out of the room, through the hallway, down the stairs and out the door to get to the front lawn, where he finally set her down and collapsed beside her.
He didn't have a chance to relax before Katrina clung onto him. Her arms were practically in a death grip around him and he knew it would be useless to try getting loose. She was mumbling in his ear, "Don't die on me. I can't lose you. I need you here. Please don't leave me alone again." And then her words were lost in her tears as her head cuddled up into her shoulder.
Logan didn't know what to do in this situation, having never been around a girl crying and begging him not to die. His eyes darted back and forth awkwardly as he rubbed her back in circles, hoping it would calm her down.
Suddenly, it hit him. He had just saved Katrina's life. And she didn't kill him for following her. And now, she was practically saying that she couldn't live without him. He decided right then that he was going to make his move.
"So, Katrina, I've been meaning to tell you something," Logan began. Katrina pulled her head away to look him in the eyes. "I luh-" He trailed off and Katrina furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. He shook his head to clear it before trying again, "I want y-" He began a round of coughs.
"SEE!" Katrina pushed Logan down so his head was on the ground, "I told you that you were going to die! But you don't listen to me!" With that, she began a session of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Before Logan could get a chance to process that her lips were on his, she had moved away and began using her hands to pump on his chest as though she was trying to get him to breathe.
As she was moving down to capture his lips again, he was getting mentally ready. But she stopped leaning when she heard someone yell out, "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?" Looking over, they saw Brandon heading towards them.
"Damn it," Logan cursed.
Katrina heard it and pulled him close to her again, "Oh, thank God! You're still alive!" She turned her head to Brandon, not letting Logan go. "Brandon! We have to get Logan to the hospital or he'll die!"
Brandon stopped in his tracks. He hesitated before he asked Logan, "You saved her life, didn't you?" Logan nodded his head and Brandon sighed. He reached into his pocket and pulled out two pills in a package. Opening the package he held the pills out for Katrina.
"What are you doing?" Katrina looked distressed, "We have to get Logan to the hospital!"
"And you being in a bundle of nerves isn't going to help the ride," Brandon insisted, "Take these anti-anxiety pills."
Katrina hesitated, but then took them, popping them in her mouth. "Now, let's get in your car!" Katrina pulled Logan to his feet and pulled him over to where Brandon's car was parked. Brandon followed behind. Once Logan and Katrina were in the backseat and Brandon was behind the wheel, Katrina fell asleep, her head resting on Logan's shoulder.
"Sleeping pills," Brandon explained to Logan, "Now, we just go to the Palm Woods. And on the ride, you're going to tell me exactly what happened in that house."
"Whose house was that anyways?" Logan asked.
Brandon sighed as he started the car, "That was the Wolff family's house."
(A/N): Logan's a hero and Katrina's gone crazy! What's going on? Why is she acting like that? Is something going on that the guys don't know about? What is the story behind the burned down house? And, one of the biggest questions, are Logan and Katrina EVER going to have a chance to be together? You'll just have to wait for the coming chapters to find out!
So, I've decided that there has been enough time on the voting contest to get a winner in a fair manner. But, if you want your choice to win, you've still got to keep voting! The last voting chapter will be Chapter 25 and the results will be listed in Chapter 26. Keep on voting! And if you haven't had a chance to, you've still got two chapters after this one to vote!
And here are the choices for the voting contest again:
1. A girl bully.
2. A boyfriend for Brandon.
3. A stray animal.
4. A boyfriend for Katrina.
Confused? Check out chapter 7 for more information! Until the next chapter, happy reading and don't forget to vote!