“That was what made me angry, the fact that he had kept it a secret to protect me.”
-Matt
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Standing on my doorstep was one guy I never thought I would see there again; Tim. He had been pounding on the door for almost five minutes, but I had yet to allow him to come in. Why should I? This was Tim, the complete asshole who wanted to make everything in my life shit. Well, why would I want him around? But I was curious as to why he came to my house. Curious enough that I was actually considering opening the door.
“Matt!”Amy’s voice carried down the stairs from where she was in my room with Julia, Ethan, and Johnny. “Are you going to answer the door? You’ve been down there a while!” I sighed, wishing I had not come down in the first place.
All of the adults were at Julia’s house, probably talking about the car crash still. We had been home alone when I heard the knocking, and my first instinct was always an ounce of fear that it could be Mr. Grey. Sighing, I decided that I probably should open the door for Tim. If anything, just to see why he would show up on my steps.
“What do you want?” I demanded before he had even opened his mouth.
“Calm down, Matt. I don’t want to be here anymore than you want me here.” He sneered. I tapped my foot impatiently, not caring if it looked rude. “Are you going to let me in?”
“Why should I?”
“Suit yourself.” He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a piece of paper.
“What is that?”
“Calm down, I received it this morning. Precious little Kelly has been kidnapped by someone, and we are supposed to find her together.”
“Excuse me?!” My eyes widened and jaw dropped open in shock. A tint of rage too, but for the most part it was just shock. This had to be the work of Mr. Grey; why else would this specific girl be kidnapped and why else would we be told to find her?
“You heard me. We have exactly two days to save her before he kills her.” Tim pushed past me into the house. “Now, can we hurry up here?”
***
“What do you mean he kidnapped Kelly?” I saw Tim rolling his eyes next to me as I explained the situation once more to the rest.
“He sent Tim a letter explaining. He took Kelly, and we have two days to find her before he kills her. Tim has to help.” My brother shot Tim a glare as I said the last part.
“Why would you want to help?” Tim scoffed in return, claiming he had ‘his reasons’.
“Look, Tim, could you give us a few minutes,” I said through clenched teeth. “Just go sit on the couch or something, maybe watch a little TV.” He shrugged and trudged out of my bedroom, slamming the door behind him.
“This has to be Mr. Grey,” Ethan whispered. “We all know it is. He knows all of our little secrets, and he must have overheard you telling everybody about Kelly and Tim while he was under our cabin in the mountains.”
“I know, but I still don’t get how he could be doing all of these things.” I tried to understand how somebody could live through the fall he had, but it was still lost on me. Plus, there was a funeral and everything. “The car crash the other day, and now this. Everything seems so…calculated.”
“Right,” Ethan mumbled. I studied him carefully. Something was up with him, and same with Johnny. They definitely had something that they were not telling me.
“Alright, spill.” I slammed my good hand down on the floor.
“It’s nothing, really.” Johnny muttered. “There was just this…movie.” Amy shuffled in closer to her brother to hear better and looked at him expectantly. “Ethan and I received a little package, and in it was a movie.”
“What was the movie about?” I questioned.
“I…I don’t really remember all of the details.” Ethan started. “But it had to do with a truck driver and some violence and thrill. The ending is pretty fuzzy….but I think the girl gets kidnapped?”
“He was sending clues! He’s playing with our minds!” Julia cried. “What happened to the girl?”
“As I said, I don’t really remember, but I think he takes her to a…motel?”
“All right! That’s it; we will check all of the motels in town. We only have two days to check the three motels we have, so we must be quick.” I hurried down the steps, the feet of the other’s pounding behind me.
“Are you guys ready” Tim stood up from his seat on the couch and stuffed his hands in his jean pockets.
“You’re going to have to drive, none of us do.” I paused, waiting for him to nod in confirmation. When he did I continued on, explaining that we would be checking each of the motels in town. Tim didn’t ask any questions because he didn’t seem to really care, and that was fine by me.
The drive to the first motel was entirely silent. I was consumed by thoughts of Ethan and Johnny keeping a secret in the way that they did. Sure, I was pissed that my brother would keep a secret in the first place, but one of that magnitude? Why couldn’t he just tell me when it happened?
I knew the answer to this, of course. Ethan had started to feel like he had to protect me from things like this. It was obvious from the way he acted around me, suddenly hesitant if something about Mr. Grey was brought up that he might provoke something in me. He was walking on eggshells around me, trying to protect his older brother. And that was what made me angry, the fact that he had kept it a secret to protect me.
“Here’s the first one.” Tim pulled the car into a parking lot and cut the engine. A sign reading ‘Hershell’s Motel’ was standing upright in the lot on a pole, three of the letters burnt out.
“How are we going to go about this?” Amy asked. “Let’s come up with a plan.”
Tired of sitting around as if answers would just come to us, I decided to just go into the motel and start looking for some answers. Slamming the car door behind me, I stalked inside the building and went right up to the desk.
“Matt!” Amy cried behind me. “Don’t just wander into this blindly!” I waved her off.
“I’m sorry, sir,” A man was reading the newspaper at the desk, but he placed it down when he noticed me standing in front of him. “But if you are looking for a room we are up to our capacity right now. Nothing is available.”
“That’s not exactly what I’m here for.” The man raised his eyebrow at me. “Has anybody…come in within the last five days?”
“No. We have been full for at least a week now. You will have to look somewhere else for a place to stay, as I explained before.”
“Matt! We can’t just-.” I ignored Amy again, which I knew was driving her mad, and nodded my head at the man.
“Thank you anyway. Goodbye.” I turned around, pulling Amy with me.
“What was that? Seriously, Matt! We need to-.”
“She isn’t here. They’ve been filled for over a week, so he couldn’t have brought her here. Let’s move on to the next one.” I knew I wasn’t being the kindest, but I was still in shock over everything. I should be used to Mr. Grey by now, but I wasn’t. I mumbled an apology to Amy swiftly before jumping back into the passenger’s seat of Tim’s car. “Next one, she wasn’t here.”
***
“How are we supposed to make it in time to save her?” I moaned, knowing I sounded like a five year old. “We only have one motel left to check, and even if she is there, how are we going to actually save her before the end of the time we have?”
“I’m sure she’ll be there, and then it’s only a matter of finding the room and getting her out safely.”
“Oh yes, because that is so easy,” I muttered in response to my brother.
“Oh, shut up.” I glared at Tim’s face.
“I don’t even know why you’re here.”
“As I said, I have my reasons.” He pulled out a cigarette and lit it with one hand, keeping the other on the wheel.
“What are you doing? Don’t light those things with all of us in here!” Julia hissed. “Kill yourself with that smoke, fine, but the rest of us? Secondhand smoke is just as bad, you know. Plus,” she motioned to Ethan and Johnny, indicating that there were younger children aboard. I knew Tim though, and just as I predicted, he merely scoffed at her words.
“My fuckin’ car. I smoke if I want to smoke.”
“Matt…” Amy’s voice piped up nervously from the back. “There’s a little thing I haven’t told you about yet.”
“More?” I groaned. “Why don’t you feel like you can tell me everything? I’m not going to break like glass or something.”
“Hmm,” She winced and scrunched up her nose. “But seriously. This is kind of big.” Her eyes glanced at Tim, who wasn’t actually paying us any attention. “While at the hospital…something happened. At first I thought I imagined the whole thing, but then…” She trailed off.
“What is it?” I tapped my leg impatiently.
“Here, look for yourself.” She pulled out her cell phone, pressing a few buttons before passing it off to me.
“Mr. Grey!?” I was incredulous; how could this have happened?
“I…yes.” She stared down at her lap. “I know I should have told you right away, but…” She never finished her sentence. “Here, pass it back.” I grudgingly did so. “Anyway, maybe we should call now.”
“Now!?” I exclaimed. “Why now?”
“Calm down.” Tim said, muttering a lot of other unkind words under his breath.
“I’ll just dial to see if he gives us any hint…just in case.”
“No! Don’t call! I will if you really want to,” I winced in remembrance of the call Mr. Grey gave me. Thinking back to it, I realized how well Mr. Grey had played me. He knew that I would tell him to leave us alone, and by agreeing he had baffled me enough to easily swipe Kelly from under our noses.
“No, Matt. If he picks up you’ll just demand answers without letting him say whatever he had planned. Don’t deny it.” She added one when she saw me open my mouth to protest. Before I could do anything, her fingers were pressing the call button and the phone was up to her ear.
“Put it on speaker.” I demanded. She shook her head, mouthing ‘no’ at me and biting her lip nervously. After a minute or two of impatient waiting, Amy pocketed the phone and looked up at me. By the expression on her face I could tell whatever she was about to say would not be pleasing.
“He didn’t pick up.” She offered.
“Obviously.” Johnny rolled his eyes. “Otherwise you would have been saying something.”
“But there was an interesting voicemail message…” As if collecting her thoughts, she took a deep breath. “Mr. Grey obviously knew that we would be his only callers, because this message was very much directed towards us. It was of Kelly. Begging and pleading to be saved.”
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Alright, so I know that this upload is a little bit late. I had it done hours ago (although still not exactly on time, it was done a lot closer to on time than it is now), but my wifi decided to stop working. I spent a while trying anything and everything with my mom to try and get it working, but all failed. Now, hours later, I decided to find a location in my house where I could pick up the neighbor's wifi (they leave it unlocked apparently) and borrowed it to upload this. It was very slow, but eventually I got it up! Sorry for all of the delays!
Thoughts on this little twist? Not so little, actually...
Every little detail in this story always seems to come back very important later on, huh? Well, tell me your thoughts! I hope to upload soon, maybe Thursdayish or so? Possibly Friday or Saturday...I'll try to get it up ASAP though!
xx
Ella
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