"…did you see that one girl get jealous when Evie came in and was all over you?" Soda asked while they were walking home later that evening.

"Yeah I saw her when she left. Thought she broke the damn door after she slammed it. Man, I'm tired of fixing that stupid thing," Steve replied.

"Boss wants to hold on to it as long as he can," Soda said.

"Which means I'm going to be stuck fixing it until I die," Steve complained.

"Poor Steve. Be lucky that she was the only one who slammed it today with how busy it was. I didn't even get a chance to listen to the radio," Soda said.

"Why are you still listening to that? I like the music too but you just want updates on Lynch."

"I have to Steve. Darry may not want me to, but I have to make Pony feel safe again; and keeping up with Lynch's killing spree is the only way I think will work," Soda said as he unlatched the gate and walked up to the house. Steve took this opportunity to run ahead blocking Soda's path.

"Look buddy, all the news is gonna tell you are about more kidnappings and murders. You nearly passed out on me when you found out more about Lynch from that Gregory kid's family. What if something worse comes up then he's just doing all this for fun? How exactly will this help the kid?" Steve asked.

"It will…..to be honest I don't know what good it will do but if Pony can see that I'm doing it…"

"You're the kid's brother! He always looks up to you and trusts you with his life. Isn't that enough?!" Steve interrupted.

"Not anymore," Soda said and walked past Steve up to the porch.

'Damn you kid' Steve whispered to himself so that Soda wouldn't hear. He then walked up the porch as Soda was opening the door. As soon as it was opened, Sodapop froze where he stood. Not a single light was turned on throughout the entire house nor was the T.V or radio on. There were no sounds of pots and pans clinking together or the chatter of friends who had grown up together.

"Uh, buddy? You alright?" Steve asked from behind him. Soda snapped out of his daze and at last walked fully inside. Afterwards, he went over to the wall and turned on the living room light to get a proper view of the living room.

The room had been recently cleaned; the pillows had been fluffed, the dishes that Two-bit had left that morning were gone, the floor had been vacuumed, and the table had been wiped clean. The only thing that was out of the ordinary was a few of his mother's photo albums lying on the coffee table with some pictures just discarded on the sofa carelessly.

"Darry? Pony?" Soda called but received no answer. He walked through the nearly spotless living room straight into the kitchen and saw someone sitting at the table. Quickly, Soda turned on the light and saw Darry sitting at the table still wearing his uniform with his right hand covering his forehead facing away from Soda. "Darry?" Soda called out but Darry remained motionless. "Darry? What's wrong?" Soda asked again but got the same response. After a few more seconds of silence, Darry finally spoke.

"Soda," was all he said in a horse voice. It was then that he turned around to look at Soda. Darry's eyes were blood-shot red with semi-dry tear tracks running down his cheek along with his breathing being nothing but shaky breaths. He looked up at his brother and looked away when he tried to make eye-contact with him. However, Soda beat him to it and glanced into his icy blue eyes. It was only for a faction of a second but it was all Soda needed causing him to gasp at what he saw.

Soda's vision suddenly started to get blurry as his heartbeat sped up with every second that passed afterwards. At that moment, Darry turned his head away from Soda and closed his eyes putting his hand back on his forehead. Seeing this, Soda's breath now turned into loud, long gasps and started back away from his older brother slowly while shaking his head no. Tears had begun to roll down his cheeks in full force by the time he got to the end of the kitchen area where his best friend stood leaning on the side wall. Steve's mouth was open at this point but no words came out.

Without any warning, Soda fled the room racing past the living room and out the front door. He slammed open the gate and took off sprinting as fast as he could with his destination unknown.

"PONY!" He shouted as he ran down the street.

No reply was heard back.

"No, please God no!" He said as tears continued to fall. He continued running and calling out his brother's name until he found himself at the park; the same one where Bob had been killed. Soda stopped running and put his hands on his knees to catch his breath. After getting in a few deep breaths, he stood up and put his hands to sides of his mouth before calling out again.

"PONYBOY!" He shouted as loud as he could. Yet still no one answered his call.

Soda now fell to his knees letting out a small sob and scanned the area one last time for his brother. Seeing nothing, he bent over and screamed into the grass.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HAHAHA! PONY!" he cried. Darry and Steve at this point had caught up with Soda after chasing him down. As soon as Darry saw his little brother screaming, he slowly made his way over to him falling to his knees and put his arms around Soda's back. As the sixteen year old continued to scream, Darry looked up and watched the last inch of gold in the sky disappear leaving nothing but darkness.

Break*Break*Break

Meanwhile, just outside the city limits, Ponyboy awoke and realized he was lying on something hard and that his back hurt just as it had for that one week. A chill ran through his body making him shiver.

'No, I can't be here again. I can't!' he thought to himself. Abruptly, he opened his eyes instantly shutting them again when he felt the throbbing pain in his skull. He rubbed the temples of his head while trying once again to open his eyes. At the same time, Ponyboy lifted himself off the ground and heard something 'clank' together while also feeling something tighten around his ankle. This time, his eyes opened and tried to see why his ankle felt so tight but couldn't. He was surrounded completely by darkness with not a speck of light anywhere. Then a hard musty smell hit him and he scrunched up his nose.

'Huh?' he thought to himself and instantly felt something rough next to him. Ponyboy jerked his hand away turning his head to where his hand just was. Once again, he carefully put his hand back down and felt the roughness. He moved his hand around the area and felt something smooth and circular on top of the roughness.

'Is that a button? A jacket? No wait! A jean jacket!'

"J-Johnny?" Ponyboy called out and heard someone shifting around. The person grunted and then a familiar voice was heard.

"Pony?" The voice said.

"Johnny is that you?" Pony asked.

"Yeah it's me Pony. Where…?" Johnny asked but then gave a horrific gasp. "Pony! Mr. Glass…he…" Johnny got out but the sound of a padlock being opened from outside was heard. The two froze as they heard a door slide open on the far left side. A silhouette of a man now stood standing in front of the entranceway to even more darkness outside.

"Ah boys! Welcome! I hope you will enjoyyour stay with me, but I'm afraid the activities won't start until tomorrow. But fear not as I'll give you a little sneak peak at what's to come," The man said. "Oh! Please forgive me, I forgot to light the lanterns," he said and the boys heard another sound of a lock being opened as well as different items being shifted around. Ponyboy moved to the left where Johnny was and the two held on to each other waiting for the man's next move. The shifting stopped and the two friends saw a match being lit and right afterwards a lantern was lit lighting up the room a little. Now, Ponyboy and Johnny looked around and saw that they were in some kind of large barn. Ponyboy looked up at their 'host' and saw a white man with dark blonde hair, green eyes, and a deep scar running down the side of his face from his left eyebrow all the way down to his chin.

"Y…you. You're h-him aren't you?" Johnny asked moving closer to Ponyboy as the two still held on to each other. Memories of earlier that day now came back to Ponyboy starting with the school shooting, Mr. Glass being dead, and being kidnapped by the serial killer in front of him.

"Harrison J. Lynch at your service Jonathan," he said casually while he continued lighting more lanterns. With each new lantern that was lit, the room grew brighter as now they could see a bulletin board with hooks on it as well as a table with little stands on top of them. By the barn door was a cardboard box opened with the flaps sticking out. Ponyboy at this time looked down and saw a shackle on his and Johnny's ankle with a chain that was attached to a rusty metal hook connected to the wall. There was also a latter leading up to a second floor with hay bales and crates as well as another pair of large shackles longer than the ones they had hanging over the edge with dried blood caked all over them.

"Wonderful! Now that that's done, allow me to set up what's to come," Lynch said and went back over to his box. He carried the box over to the table and started pulling out various items. First he pulled out a whip with some blood stained on it along with an empty bucket and hung them up on the hooks. Then he pulled out some knifes ranging from a pocket knife to large steak knives and placed them carefully on the stands. Gently he stroked each knife carefully like an artist admiring his work as soon as it was in place. Afterwards, he pulled out a small wooden box, pulled out a golden key from his pocket, unlocked the box, and pulled out a small black semi-automatic pistol. Afterwards, he turned around to face Ponyboy and Johnny.

"I'm going to tell you two a little secret. I can't stand these things," Lynch said looking at the gun with disgust. "It's too…..easy but it will get used if there are any issues," he said and took some bullets and loaded them in the gun. Soon after he aimed the loaded gun at the two who squeezed their eyes shut squeezing each other tighter. Lynch laughed at the two's cowardness and tossed the gun on the table close to the edge away from his little 'display'. "You know I think you get the idea now," Lynch said and walked back towards the entranceway taking one of the lanterns hanging up with him. "Sweet dreams," he said and left the two friends with the lanterns still burning.

Break*Break*Break

"…while sixteen year old Scott Gregory has been found alive, but in critical condition, it has been reported that Harrison Lynch has stroke once again in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Principle James Grant of Tulsa High school reported that a school shooting took place around noon today and during the commotion, Harrison Lynch took not one but two students; fourteen year old Ponyboy Curtis and sixteen year old Jonathan Cade. An investigation is still being conducted as we speak and we pray that they will be found and returned safely to their families. We'll keep you updated as this story progresses on.

Was that worth the wait? Not quite? Oh don't worry cause the fun hasn't even started yet. Anyways I hope you enjoyed.

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LaurenHardy13