Chapter 11: Birds in a cage.

Emily's POV

"Wow! get a room you two" spoke a voice next to us.

I turned around and my eyes widened when I saw Noel standing there looking at us.

"You too are so cute, aren't you?" he smirked, he said as he sat on the other side of the booth.

"Em…" said Alison worried, grabbing my leg under the table.

"Leave us alone Noel" I started at him.

"Fine, I'll leave you too alone. Go ahead, you can leave" he said sarcastically.

I got up and waited for Ali to walk out of the booth, I grabbed her hand and made her stand behind me as we both backed up slowly from the table.

"Please don't leave, the party is just getting started" he chuckled "Lorenzo, Joseph, take them to the car" he ordered.

Lorenzo and Joseph grabbed us and pulled us outside to the parking lot.

"Take your fucking hands off me!" I yelled as I struggled to get away "let her go!"

"Don't move a muscle or you're dead" said Noel pointing a gun at me "let me make this easy for you, you try something, she dies" he pointed the gun to Alison.

"No!" I said "Take everything you want. My car, my money, my life, but please let her go Noel"

"Owww somebody really thinks she's in love! Stop trying to be a hero Emily" said Noel "let's go" he yelled.

"Let us go" yelled Alison "I'll have my dad give you the money you want"

"Shut your mouth you bitch, before I blow your head off" he yelled.

Alison looked to me terrified. I looked at Noel with anger.

"Let's get out of here" he ordered.

They covered our eyes and placed us inside their car. I knew Alison was beside me because I could smell her perfume. There was a guy next to me and I imagined there was another next to Ali making sure we didn't try anything. After driving for a while, we came to a stop where they pulled us out of the car.

"Alison?" I spoke "are you here with me?"

"Yes" she whispered, a crack in her voice.

"Your pretty princess is still here with you don't worry" mimicked Noel "you know where to take them" he signaled to the guards. They grabbed our arms.

"Start walking," said Lorenzo

I tried to listen carefully as we walked along the guards. We walked up one step, and I could hear the floor crack. Wooden floor. We walked up two more steps. I heard the melody of a wind chime, but something was off, as if one of the metal pieces was missing and the melody missed a note every time they bumped into each other. I heard the door open, then there was a second door. On the first step inside I felt the floor soften, and then harden again. This is Noel's old Cabin, I thought. I remembered this place, we used to hang out here during the summer and I remember the first step of the cabin was broken, that's why every time you stepped on it you could hear it cracking. The wind chime was missing a piece because we shoot at it once trying to see who had the best aim. The soft floor was a small carpet Noel's mom placed in the entrance that he never removed because he wanted to feel her essence as soon as he walked inside.

They walked us inside a couple more minutes and pushed us down in a couch. They removed the rags from our eyes and untied our hands. I was right, this was Noel's cabin. They put us inside a small room and closed the door, leaving us inside of the dark room where only the light of the moon illuminated a small part of the whole room thanks to a small hole in one of the walls.

"Alison, are you ok?" I asked as I approached her.

"Yes, I' fine. Are you?" she asked pulling me closer.

"I guess I am" I hugged her.

"Where are we?" she asked as an indirect question not expecting me to answer.

"We're at Noel's old cabin. His dad gave it to him before he passed away" I said "I recognize this room"

"So, you know how we can get out of here right?" she said looking around the room.

"I know where the doors are and to where they lead, but I think he has too much security. I need to know what he wants and maybe we can make a deal with him" I said and sat on the floor "come here"

She sat beside me and rested her head on my shoulder.

"I'm scared Em, what if he kills us both…"

"Hey, look at me" I said and turned to look at her teary eyes "I'm not gonna let anything happen to you"

She looked down at my lips and gave me a sweet short kiss. I pulled her on my lap and kissed her. Her hands went around my neck as she pulled me closer. We pulled away and looked at each other.

"You've never told me how you meet Toby and… Noel" she said with her hands still around my neck.

I sighed.

"I meet Toby during high school, we both ended in detention after making two other students fight during gym class" I chuckled "After that day we started to hang out, we became best friends. He has a big sister, her name is Jenna, she invited us to a party once, that's when we meet Noel. He was a normal popular guy, the type that knows a lot of people and always gets whatever he wants. The three of us started hanging out and after we got to know Noel better, we discovered that he stole all the time from his parents and from his neighbors. He's always been super manipulative and narcissist. We were kids, we thought it was cool you know, hanging out with older guys. We started making a lot of money, doing a lot of bad things. I went to parties all the time and thought I was living the perfect life. One day we almost killed a girl…" I stayed silent and looked down. She placed a hand on my chin and raised my head to look at her "We tried to kidnap her at a dark street after we saw her coming home from work. She started yelling and panicking and suddenly there was no more noise coming from her mouth. She passed out, we panicked and carried her inside Noel's car, we went to the nearest park where we made an anonymous call to the police saying there was a girl laying on the ground. She ended up in the hospital, but I don't really know anything else"

"I'm sorry for all you've been through. I know you're not a bad person Emily, you guys were just kids" she smiled.

"You don't have to be sorry for me…"

The door swung open. Alison stood up along with me as we saw Noel entering the small room.

"Hello love birds" he said as he stood by the door along with three guys I didn't recognize. He walked towards me and placed a finger on my chest "You are the only one to blame here, you ruined all my plans, and you're going to pay the price"

I could feel his hot breath in my face, he was furious.

"What do you want Noel" spoke Alison "You want money? I can get you the money"

"Shut up!" he turned to her "you're the reason that Emily turned her back on me, after all we've been through" he looked back at me.

"You're the only one to blame Noel, you're a piece of shit" said Alison stepping in between us.

He grabbed her hair and pulled her to the side. Two guys grabbed me before I could do anything to help her.

"I'm tired and sick of bitchy spoiled brats like you who think they can do whatever they want because of daddy's money" he said directly to her face.

I struggled with the two dudes holding me, but their grip was too strong.

"She had to be different, didn't she?" said Noel turning Alison's head to look at me while he looked at me too "you were always so kind Emily, but remember all the bad things you've done in the past, that is who you really are" he looked back at Alison "This isn't about money anymore, Alison. It's about revenge"

Suddenly my vision blurred as I felt a hard smack on my face. The loud sound of the smack echoed inside my head and I fell to the ground. I turned to look at him as I coughed blood out of my mouth.

"Emily!" yelled Alison.

"I lost a lot of money because of you two" yelled Noel as he kicked my stomach "the police is now behind me because of you" he cleaned the sweat of his forehead.

"Aghhhh" I groaned, trying to get back up.

"I lost clients and money because of you" I felt another punch that made me fall back to the floor. I looked at Alison who was silently crying as she was dragged out of the room. Noel lowered himself into my ear, 'Now I'm gonna make you suffer'. That was the last thing I heard before I fainted.