Welcome to the Queendom

Chapter Fifty-One

When I woke up, it was about 11:00. Erik was up eating a cheeseburger from a nearby Wendy's. When he saw me up, he offered me the second burger but I refused. Bray walked into the room with an annoyed expression on his face.
"Lover boy's on the phone," he said. "Luckily I'm in a good mood."
He tossed me the phone and I eagerly caught it, bringing it to my ear.
"Hello?"
"Chelsea?"
I started crying. "Yeah?" I sobbed.
"Baby, don't cry on me, okay? Are you alone?"
"No," I cried, looking up at Bray who eyed me curiously and at Erik who couldn't care less about how the conversation was going.
"Go into a bathroom or something," Dean told me. "Someplace private."
I nodded and got up off the bed. "Where do you think you're going?" Bray questioned.
I ignored him and slammed the bathroom door closed, locking it behind me. I plopped down on the edge of the tub. "Okay, I'm alone."
"Chelsea, I am so sorry," Dean said. "I should've believed you. When I told Kelsey about you being missing it was like she couldn't care less. And I'm also sorry for not believing that someone wanted you gone. You just don't know how crappy I feel right now."
"It's okay," I whispered.
"No, it's not," he argued. "Look, you need to tell me where you are. Every detail, okay?"
I eagerly nodded. "Okay," I replied. "We're in Hershey, our next stop," I explained quietly in case Bray was on the other side of the door eavesdropping. "At Motel 6 like 2 miles away from where you see the Welcome to Hershey sign. Room 204."
"Room..204," he echoed. "Alright, got it. Anything else."
"Babe?" I said. "Please hurry."
"I will," he promised. "The guys and I are on the road now. We have about 30 more minutes to go. I'll be right there."
I nodded, flooded with relief. "Okay," I sighed happily. "See you soon."
When I walked out of the bathroom after ending my conversation with Dean, Bray immediately snatched the phone away. "What are you doing?" I asked.
"Consider your phone privileges revoked," Bray said smugly. "Let's move out gentlemen."
"Where are we going?" I questioned shakily.
Bray grinned. "We're moving to another hotel. Thank your big mouth for that."

20 Minutes from Hershey...

"Dean stop bouncing your leg, it's irritating me," Seth said as Dean tried to stop the movement in his leg with difficulty. He was so anxious. Chelsea was so close, yet so far away. Once he finally calmed his leg down, he gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles were chalk white. It was amazing how uneasy he was now that Chelsea wasn't in his face. It was like a person who quit smoking cold turkey just for them to experience seizures and, sometimes, hallucinations. He couldn't eat, he couldn't sleep, he even refused to drink when Seth bought a bottle of liquor when they stopped at a convenience store. Roman was driving at the time.
They finally made it to Motel 6 and bursted through the front entrance.
"Can I help you gentlemen?" the man at the front desk asked, startled.
"We're looking for a girl," Dean replied.
The man chuckled with a shake of his head. "Aren't we all?" he sighed.
Dean frowned at him before shaking his own head. "No, there's actually a girl here. She has reddish-brown hair, blue eyes."
"Do you know if she was with three guys with beards?" the man asked. Dean nodded. "They checked out about 10 minutes ago. Just missed them."
Dean put his hands behind his back to keep from punching the wall. "Do you know where they went?" he questioned through gritted teeth.
The man shook his head. "Sorry, boys."
Dean's arms went limp. "Hey, it's okay," Seth told him, putting a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder. "We just need to keep looking. Maybe you can call her again in a little bit."
Dean nodded dumbly before letting his friends lead him out.

A Few Days Later...

It was Friday night and the Wyatts and I had missed yet another show. I was so tired. The only up thing about that whole situation was that Erik had been super nice to me. He started to tuck me into bed and said goodnight before he turned out the light and he even gave me a rose Wednesday while he was out getting food. I thought Erik talked in his sleep though. I wasn't able to drift off right away yesterday and heard Erik talking to himself around midnight. I didn't hear what he was saying because his voice was low but I was surprised nonetheless that he was speaking completely sentences.
"Erik?" I had mumbled. "Are you okay?"
"Fine," Erik said quickly. He seemed wide awake. "Go back to bed," he whispered.
I nodded and curled under the covers.
Now, Erik turned off the television and walked over to my bed, tucking the covers in on both sides of me.
"Goodnight," he said as he slipped into his own bed.
"Night," I replied with a yawn and I buried my face in the pillow.

"Chelsea," someone whispered, shaking me. "Wake up."
My eyes snapped open and I looked up. A huge human silhouette was looking over me, pulling at the covers.
"Don't hurt me," I said.
"I'm not gonna hurt you," the person-a guy-assured me as he helped me out of the bed.
He put my shoes on my feet and hurried me out of the room.
"What's going on?" I asked groggily, letting out a huge yawn as we quietly marched down the carpeted hall toward the elevators. "Where are you taking me?"
We stepped inside the bank and the person pushed the lobby button. I looked up and saw Erik standing behind me, holding me up by the elbows.
He put a finger to his lips. "Shh," he whispered. "Everything's gonna be okay."
The whole hotel seemed to be sleeping. The concierge at the front desk was tuning in and out of consciousness with a half empty mug of coffee beside her and a Spanish movie playing on her iPad. Guess it wasn't that interesting. We stepped out into the parking lot after loading off the lift. The air was cool and crisp but even the breeze couldn't wake me up. My head started to loll back onto Erik's chest.
"We're almost there," he told me. We crossed the lot to a familiar shiny black van with three guys surrounding the back, talking.
They turned to us when they heard our-mostly my-heavy footsteps.
"What did you do to her?" a voice so familiar it made a lump form in my throat asked.
"Nothing," Erik snapped defensively. "She's just really tired."
"Well, give her to me," Dean growled, scooping me up like a baby. He crushed me in a tight hug.
"Why did you do this?" Seth questioned skeptically.
I peeked over in time to see Erik shrug. "Guess I didn't want us to win this time," he explained nonchalantly. "Keep a close eye on her. I have a feeling Bray and Luke are gonna be after her again."
"Wait," I said, grabbing onto his wrist before he could turn to leave. "What'll happen to you? Won't they be mad?"
"I think I'll live," Erik answered with a chuckle. "Take care."