THE ROOM WASN'T DARK.
It was actually lit by one single bulb in the middle of the small sized room, yet there was no switch on the inside.
No water, no food, no useful resources of any sort to give me even the slightest clue as to where the f*ck I am, or what in the world had happened to me in order for me to end up here in the first place.
"Miley?"
My head snapped up at the sound, it seeming to be coming from from one of the dark, hidden corners of the room.
"Miley? Where are you?"
"Here" my voice was hoarse, but I knew who was talking. Michael. My Michael.
"I'm here" my voice couldn't go very high.
"I came back for you. I'm sorry"
What?
That wasn't making any sense.
"I'll fight for you. I'll always... I'll always fight for.. for you.."
It was a recording.
"Hello?" I coughed, "Who's there? Who's really there?"
"So. F*cking. Stupid." the voice echoed off the walls, and I slinked back against the far wall, wrapping my arms around myself.
It was then that I realized that my shirt was ripped. The sleeves has been torn off and my shorts were dirty. Patting the top of my hair, I could tell that it was matted and sticky. Sticky with what? I touched my fingers to my cheeks and felt the dirt there as well as a sticky substance.
"Whose there?" I tried calling out again, rubbing my throat.
"Who else could it be?"
A girl.
Something clicked, "You sent me the notes"
"I did. I did" the voice chuckled. Familiar.
"What do you want from me?"
She was silent. A thoughtful silence, not that they were actually thinking. She was taunting me.
"What did I do?" I repeated, slightly louder.
"You know what you did" she snapped at me, her voice harsh.
"I-I don't... I don't know what you're talking about" I tried to reason.
"You took him from me you b*tch!" she yelled, and I covered my ears with my hands due to the loud echo of her voice.
I pulled my knees to my chest, slightly rocking back and forth.
"Who are you talking about?" my voice was weak.
"You know who I'm talking about. You know what you did!" she yelled. My eyes were watering. This has to be some sort of dream.
"What did I do!" I cried, pushing the limits of my voice.
The lightbulb flickered, and I squinted my eyes.
She was in here.
Her shadow could be seen, but just the silhouette. I could make out her average looking figure, as well as noticing that she was holding a flimsy piece of material.
I narrowed my eyes even more, trying even harder to see who she was and what she was holding.
All at once, the material was flung at me, landing in a heap at my feet.
The silhouette looked to be crossing their arms over their chest, and I stared down at the material.
Reaching out my hand, I grabbed it and brought it to my face, unfolding it to reveal it's identity.
It was a... shirt?
A baseball tee to be exact, with a spray painted font word across it.
'Idiot'.
Michael used to have a shirt like this...
Wait a second.
Michael told me something about this shirt once.
"I told her to stay the f*ck away from me," he ran a hand through his hair as he continued to recall the painful events of that fateful night.
"Then what happened?" I asked him, looking down at my lap.
He took a breath, "I walked out the bedroom door and she called back out to me, reminding me that she was still wearing my 'Idiot' tee shirt. I told her to f*cking burn that shit"
"Victoria," I should've f*cking known, "I-I don't understand. You've been after Michael for 2 years? Why target me when we wern't even together?" I asked, anger and confusion coursing through my viens.
This f*cking b*tch.
"Well," she started thoughtfully again, "Victoria's not the one who's behind all this"
With a maniacle laugh, she pressed a button and the other lights in the room snapped on suddenly, momentarily blinding me.
After my eyes adjusted to the light, my eyes leaked tears at the figure standing infront of me. I was completly speechless.
"J..Julia?"
She flipped her long black hair over her shoulder, another maniacle laugh leaving her lips at the truely evil look that swirled in her brown eyes that I thought I knew.
"W.. why?" my voice shook, unable to contain the tears that wanted to spill, "You're my best friend. I-I-I don't understand"
"Still?" she rolled her eyes and picked at her nails breifly, as if we were having a conversation that bore her to death. She then began to fiddle with the silver band ring on her finger.
Wait a minute.
"A red head?" Julia inquired, "Damn. I haven't seen one of those walking around this city, so she must've moved out of the country or something right?" Julia added, looking at me but fidiling with the silver band ring on her finger.
"First off, I'm not your best friend. Not even your friend. It was all lies" her eyes darkened and a shadow seemed to be cast over her face.
"Why?"
"Something you should probably know about me? I'm not even Julia" she laughed again, taking taunting strides towards me. When she stood right infront of me, she ran a hand through her jet black hair before doing it a second time, crushing her hair in her fist and tugging it off her head.
"I was going to ask you if you wanted to accompany me to the dance on Friday?" she toyed with the silver band on her left pinky, trying to act somewhat sly as she made sure to block Michael from my view.
Of course, she was going to ask him to the dance. With the blackmail she held over me, being the only one to find out about my dad, she knew that I would easily bow out when Michael asked me to go with him.
Blonde locks cut to her shoulders was now revealed as she flung the black wig to the floor and tousled her hair.
"Wigs are so unbreathable sometimes" she rolled her eyes at that before looking at me and smiling.
"Y-Your-"
"That's right Miley," she did a 360, soaking in all her glory, whipping out a phone in the process and pressing a number that must've been on speed-dial, "Long live the insane"
-Michael-
"Don't make a sound" Gerald's shaky unstable voice echoed between Calum and I's silence, and we kept our breathing steday as he answered the phone and set it on speaker.
"Lydia, dear. Everything alright?" he was smart to add a realistic hint of worry into his words, although I had no doubt that he really was worried.
"I have her here," I could see him slightly relax, seeing as she didn't suspect anything on his end, "Would you like to talk to Miley, Michael?"
And all at once there was a heavy wieght on my chest and I couldn't breathe right. Worry and fear flashed through Mr.Mark's eyes as he handed me the phone hesitantly, and I kept it on speaker phone and answered, "Lydia"
She giggled, "I knew you'd figure it out sooner or later"
"What have you done with Miley?" my voice was slightly strained and I held the phone a little too tightly.
I should've been more f*cking careful. If I never questioned Miley about Julia, then we wouldn't have fought. And then I wouldn't have hooked up with some blonde slut and Miley wouldn't have caught me and stormed out.
I should've been more f*cking careful.
"Relax baby, she's right here. Would you like me to put her on?"
"Yes" the venom in that one word was enough to shake even me up.
"Michael, it's me-"
"Miley, baby are you hurt? Do you know where you are? What has she done to you?-"
"She's Tori. I-I mean she's Victoria and she's Julia and she's Lydia all at the same time-"
"I'm sorry about what I did with that other girl right before you left, I just didn't know what else to do and I-"
We were both too overwhelmed, talking over eachother quickly, not knowing how much time we were going to be given. But I could feel myself relax alittle just by hearing her voice. And that was enough.
"Please help me," she begged, "Victori—Juli—Lydi—whoever this b*tch is, is going to kill me-" she was cut off abruptly and I could hear the struggling between the possession of the phone through he line.
"Meet me at Calum's house in ten minutes"
"Wait what? Calum's house? Why?" I asked her, Calum also confused.
"It's where it all began" And with that, she hung up.
*
*
*
Calum and I drove into his driveway 10 minutes later.
He was fidgeting, wiping his palms on his jeans every so often as well as looking out the window and then at me.
As I turned off the cars' engine, I didn't get out right away. I stared at one of my best friend's homes, not seeing anything out of the ordinary on the outside, but knowing that there would something wrong as soon as well stepped in.
"It will be okay" I spoke through the tension of the car. Calum was beyond nervous and afraid. I was too. Why we had to meet here of all places? I didn't know.
"My sister was home before I came to your house"
My eyes snapped from the front door and to the driveway. The baby blue of his sisters' car wasn't there, nor was any other car that could signal anyone being here.
"She's probably out of the house" I reassured him, but I honestly had no clue. I knew for a fact though, that once we stepped inside that house, we were trapped.
"How are we going to get her out? Shouldn't we just call the cops-"
"And risk her killing my forever when she hears the sirens from a mile away?" My forever. That's what I wanted. A forever with her.
"We should at least have a plan then. What if Mila is in there? What if my mum is in there? We shouldn't just head inside blindly without a plan or even a weapon" He had a point.
Of course we couldn't just go in there with nothing on us and expect to leave with Miley unharmed.
"She might take are phone or something. They usually check to see if you're armed in the movies," I took out my phone and looked at it. How would I be able to keep this on me when there was a high chance of Lydia taking it?
"We can set it!" Calum exlaimed excitedly, and I looked over at him, confused.
I watched as he took both our phones and put them on silent. With acouple more seconds simultaneously swipping and tapping, he handed me back my phone and told me to just keep it in my pocket.
"What did you do?" I asked him, locking my phone and shoving it back into my pocker.
"I set a call timer. If we're not out of there in the next hour, it will call the police. It's also set so that they can hear what happens on our end, but we can't hear what happens on their end. That way, if the call goes through and they pick up and start talking, we can't hear them"
I nodded my head in approval before glancing back to the house. Miley was in there. She was in danger.
My chest was hurting again and I cleared my throat, rubbing my chest.
"Why are you always doing that man?" Calum asked, observing my movements, and I looked over at him.
"I don't know. I get this pain in my chest sometimes and I don't know what it is"
He frowned, looking a little concerned before realization set across his face.
"This happened before, you know. Back when you cheated on her," I felt the pain in my chest start to reappear and I cleared my throat, "I think it might be your heart. I think you physically yearn for her, and when something goes wrong, your heart begins to hurt" he explained, and a memory flashed before my eyes.
"Miley I'm sorry," I let out a muffled sob, and my heart twinged in pain, a pain do piercing that I felt like my heart was going to explode, "I'm so, so, so sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I really didn't. I don't know how it happened. That other girl—she means nothing to me. But you mean everything" I wasn't even sure if she were listening to this or not. My only hope was that out of the hundreds os messages and voicemails that I had sent her, this would be the one she would listen to.
"Michael?" my mother's voice began to ring through my ears as he shoes came into my line of vision.
"What on earth happened to you?" she asked me, her voice loud as it echoed painfully through my ears.
I groaned, "Leave me alone, mum"
"Why are you on the floor?" she asked me.
"Just leave me the f*ck alone!" I yelled at her, and I winced at the amount of ferocity that my voice held. I didn't mean to shout at her, but something was wrong with me. Heart failure? Heart burn? Chest pains? I didn't know.
But I was on the floor though. I was trying to get the pain to hurt less but nothing was working. I clutched my chest as I lay on my side and I turned my head and pressed my forhead to the floor, screwing my eyes shut and taking a shuddering breath as my mother walked off.
"Please call me," I started, shakily lettinng out a sigh as I sniffled. I still in tears, "Please. I need you. I... I need to hear your voice. I'm sorry. Please. I don't know why I hit you," My chest was hurting more at the thought. I've never hit her like that before, "I don't know what came over me. You're hurting, and I only made it all worse. I never wanted us to break up"
Break up.
We just broke up.
She wasn't mine anymore.
I held back a cry of pain at the stabbing pain in my chest. Was she the one causing this pain?
She was hurting me.
"I never wanted us to end. Never. Hurting you, only hurts me. Please. You're my firecracker. I love you," I let out another shaky sigh.
"I love you"
"You love her too much then your heart can handle. And when something goes wrong, you physically go through the pain" Calum explained further as the memory subsided.
It hurt so much when she let me go. I made that happen.
It was time to properly fix that.
With a deep breath and a glance at Calum, I nodded my head and we both opened our car doors, shutting them in unison.
My heart was pounding with anxiety as we neared the front door, just now realizing that there was a note tapped to it.
"'Basement, my love <3 ;-)'"
*
*
*
"Firecracker, wake up"
We had found her.
As the note on the door foretold, Miley was in the basement, tied and gagged and passed out in the corner of the room. And as expected, my heart clenched and I rushed towards her. I had untied her and cradled her in my arms for a few minutes before I began to shake her,
But she wasn't waking up.
And Cal was too preoccupied with trying to find out where the f*ck Lydia was hiding. This infatuation that she's had with me has been going on for far too long.
"Cal, it's your house. She has to be here somewhere," I called over my shoulder. I looked back at Miley, brushing strands of mattered hair out of her face. What exactly was in her hair, I didn't know.
"Miley, wake up-"
"You're never going to get her to wake up unless you shake her with some, you know, force" Calum rolled his eyes at me, looking at how I was barely even shaking her, and I rolled my eyes right back at him.
"I'm trying to be gentle. Duh"
Cal rolled his eyes again and walked over to me, kneeling down and taking Miley from my grasp and into his arms. I ran a hand through my hair as I watched him try a different tactic.
And in a matter of minutes of him shaking her, she was fluttering her eyes open and she was awake.
"Calum?" she muttered, her voice sounding broken and dry. I blinked a couple of times, stunned that he had gotten her to wake so easily.
I couldn't do anything right these days.
"Y-you came for me?" she muttered, coughing a little, and she wrapped her arms around him in a hug.
Oh.
Something inside me wasn't settling right as I looked at them. Together.
"Uh, I'm not the only one who came" Cal cleared his throat as he pulled out of Miley's hold, and she turned her head, her eyes connecting with mine.
And before I could try and even formulate something to say to her, she already had her arms wrapped around my neck, her head buried into the crook of my neck. Without having to think this time, I wrapped my arms around her slim waist and buried my head in her neck as well, seeking comfort in her presence.
This is most definitely what I wanted.
"You came for me" she breathed.
"Always" I held her tighter, feeling like an idiot for being the cause of all this mess.
I shouldn't have gone to that party. Then we would be okay.
"There's uh, there's something I need to tell you" I pulled away slightly to get a good look at her face. I meeded to say it now before something happened and I wouldn't be able to say it to her.
"All together once again. Isn't this just wonderful" I turned around, increasing my strength on the grip that I had on Miley's waist. I helped her stand, and then faced Lydia.
She was... different.
Lydia had her hair cut shorter then I remember. And she was taller too, her body type almost mimicking Miley's.
"What the f*ck is wrong with you?" Probably not the smartest words to come out of my mouth at such a time, but my filter was switched off. This b*tch is crazy.
"This is where everything started, all those years ago. Don't you remember?" she twirled the ring on her finger, and my eyebrows furrowed at the movement.
Holy shit.
I gave her that ring.