Aria's POV
Since we got Cece and Eve back, my mental health has been getting better. James hasn't sent a new text in a day, so I'm starting to get really worried.
"Aria!" Spinning around to face the door I saw Jayden running into the room with Brent right behind him.
"What now, boys?" I sighed. They looked at each other before Brent pulled up a folded paper from his backpocket, handing it to me.
I looked down on the paper to see coordinates.
"Is this what I think it is?!" I said, with hope laced in my voice. Jayden gives me a happy nod. I shook my head, and looked at the paper again just to make sure I wasn't imagine it. When I finally decide that this is not my brain playing a prank on me, I let out an excited squel, and ran out of my room and down to the living room where everyone else was the last time I checked.
"They found the place he texted me from!!!!!!!!!!!" I yelled on the top of my lungs, jumping around in circles. I saw Justin and Chase giving each other a high five, and Cece and Eve laughing at my reaction.
"So, should we go check it out?" Justin asked, earning a smile from me. Which has been a rare sight these past days.
Justin parked the car, and me, Eve and Chase got out. Walking up to Cece's car to see her, Brent and Jayden exit their car as well. We were about a block away from the little house Brent and Jayden tracked James' phone signal to.
"Okay, so I guess I don't need to go this through all step by step, I assume you all know how to do this." They all nodded and Chase gave me an encouraging smile.
"We all have a map of this place and ways in and out of it. Just get into pairs and work from there. Chase, you're with me." I said. Eve and Justin started walking towards the house, whilst Brent, Cece and Jayden pulled up the map to make sure where to go.
"Ari, should we enter from the back?" Chase asked, I nodded and we started walking. A sudden buzz from my phone caused me to stop walking.
To: Me
From: Unknown
See, saving a lady in distress is exhausting. Now you know how the prince feels.
But you're friend Jasmine doesn't, cause her prince can't take his flying mat to rescue her.
You know, maybe you should hurry. Since you only have 15 hours for this one, and it looks like Rajah wants a taste of her owner.
With a lump in my throat, I passed the phone over to Chase who clenched his teeth.
"Fucking Jerkface." I heard him mumble under his breath. But I just ignored it and quickly sent a text to the others telling them that Chase and I got a clue on Em's whereabouts and are currently looking it up, but to not worry about us.
(Flashback)
"Don't be like that, baby girl! You know you want it." I snorted and kept on walking. I heard James' irritated sigh. I gasped when a pair of arms wrapped around my waist.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. Please, don't go! I really want you here." He mumbled in my hair, causing me to giggle. I turned around in his arms, placing a kiss on his pouting lips. His face lit up like a child's on a Christmas morning.
"So, does that mean you forgive me?" He asked, once again pouting, probably because he knows I can't resist it.
Placing another kiss on his lips I smiled.
"Yes, James, I do forgive you! But don't lie to me again!" I said, pretending to be angry. James laughed and kissed my nose.
"Now, since we're no longer fighting, do you want to know the reason I lied to you?" slightly tilting my head back, I pretended to think.
"Hmm. Do I?" I asked. James huffed.
"Yes, Anna. I think you do. So, I remember you telling me you love tigers." He made a dramatic pause like I was going to say something.
"And?" I said, rising an eyebrow. He frowned playfully at my unwillingness to guess.
"I got us tickets to a show to see some!" He announced, happily. I squeled and pulled him into a tight hug.
(Flashback over)
"Ari, did you come up with where she might be?" Chase asked, I looked up from the old picture of me and James with a huge stuffed tiger between us. When Chase noticed the picture he frowned.
"Why are you looking at that?" He asked with furrowed eyebrows.
"Because he said tigers, and there's a tiger in this picture." I said in a duh-tone.
He rolled his eyes.
"Okay, but do you have a clue where this might be?" He asked once again, but sounding a little grumpier this time.
"No. but I do remember this. The only time we ever talked about tigers was this time when we had only been going out for like 2 weeks, he had been ignoring me for three days and when I went down to the bar by myself, because he said he was too busy to hang out I saw him there. I got pissed and was about to leave, but he caught up with me and apologized. Then he told me that he was ignoring me because he got me a surprise gift to go see tigers since that used to be my favorite animal." I thought back to the time when James still seemed like a decent guy.
"Then we'll look up places you could look at tigers, do you remember what area it was?" I nodded and told him that it was around the LA area.
Chase started typing away on his computer, and I went back at looking at the picture to see if I could remember.
"Ari, can this be it?" Chase turned the laptop around for me to see. It said
Circus Denise, closes due to bad treating of wild animals.
Circus Denise used to be a popular circus located in the LA area. There you could witness wild animals like tigers, lions, zebras and elephants, doing incredible stunts. But they had to close after a girl noticed one of the animal keepers torturing one of the tigers for doing the stunt wrong. She told the police and the police forced them to shut down and gave the animals away to a zoo in Arizona.
(I don't know if this exists, but I just made it up)
Looking up to the screen, I noticed Chase staring at me.
"Yes, this is it. And the young girl they're talking about is me. I was the one who saw how bad they treated the animals there. And it was obviously after this picture was taken." I said holding up the picture frame.
Chase nodded and texted the others where we were going so they knew, and told them that they can come if they're done with the house searching, it's been three hours so they really should be done by now.
Me and Chase walked out to the parking lot and got into his car. The drive was slow, but it gave me enough time to think. About the time with James, the good and the bad, about how Tyler's going and if he's okay, and also how Chase's presence can make me feel so calm yet excited at the same time.
I snapped out of my thoughts, just in time with Chase stopping the car. We both walked out. We started walking towards the old circus, why would anyone just leave the tents and shit there? Like hello? You could sell them on eBay, ugh! Stupid amateurs.
Me and Chase walked through the gates and started looking around.
"Chase, dude! We only have 6 hours left, can you call Jayden and the others to see what's taking such long time, and I think we need help." I shouted over to Chase, he nodded and pulled out his phone.
I was just about to walk over to him when I tripped on something. I fell to the ground and snorted. Brushing the dust of my jeans I noticed what I fell on.
A stuffed tiger.
I took a deep breath and tried to shake the uncomfortable feeling in my stomach. The tiger was dirty and the stuffing had been ripped out of it in many places.
"Yeah, dude! You need to come, like now! We are at the circus, but this place is big and we don't have a lot of time left." I heard Chase say, I threw a glance back at him. He was pacing back and forth with his phone still pressed tightly to his ear.
Picking the stuffed tiger off the ground I noticed some of the stuffing a few feet away, and without thinking I followed the trace. Every 6 feet, I found some of the stuffing.
Gasping at what I saw, I dropped the stuffed tiger on the ground. The cage the tigers used to be with was once again filled with tigers. Some were sleeping, and some were circulated around the doors. The cages were placed in a circle, and in the middle I saw Em tied to a tree.
A loud grumble made me stop staring. My eyes widened when I noticed the cage's door open a little, almost giving the tigers enough room to get out.
Once again, that unpleasant feeling in my stomach returned, I shook it off while running closer to the cages.
Five minutes later, I'm standing on the top of one of the cages, with a tiger a few feet down, trying to bite me. Don't ask me how I got here, I forgot to think before I acted. See, this is why mum always asks Eve to babysit me when they are away.
I notice Em glaring at me, I felt like she was telling me how much of an idiot I am for climbing on top of a cage filled with tigers. And I can't help but agree with her.
Jumping down inside the circle of cages, I ran over to Em. First, I removed her mouth fold. Which I by the way regret.
"You fucking idiot! I told you right from the fucking start that James was a jerk face! How come you never fucking listen to me?" She screams. I roll my eyes and just keep on removing the ropes around her body. The second her arms aren't tied to the back of the pole, she slaps me.
"Eh! What was that for!?" I ask. Em shrugs.
"For dating a psycho, for rolling your eyes at me, for climbing inside a circle of tigers? Maybe, call me crazy if I'm wrong. But maybe, the reason I slapped you was because you're stupid!" I once again rolled my eyes, Em can be quite dramatic when she wants to be.
"Okay, Angelina Jolie. Now is not the time for you to be a movie star. We need to get out of here." And just like on a queue, a loud grumble once again made it's way too my ears. The cage's doors opened even more, and one of the smaller tigers were almost outside the cage.
Turning around to Em she nodded.
"Yeah, maybe you're right! I can slap you once again when we're out of here." I agreed with her, and looked around the circle. The circle was made out of six cages. With three tigers in each, except for one, which contained a sleeping tiger along with four cubs.
"Em, you are more than welcome to slap me later for this. But I think we need to climb over on the cage with the sleeping mom." Em glared at me, but then nodded. We walked over to the cage. The four cubs ran to meet us, probably wanting to play.
I formed my hands into like a "step" that Em could climb on to easier reach the top of the cage.
"Shh. Please don't wake you're mommy! I can't play with you." I whispered to the four cubs who were now jumping over each other to come closer to me. And once again, I acted without thinking, cause seconds later, as Em jumped down on the other side of the circle, I was sitting down on the ground and petting baby tigers.
"Stupid bitch!" I heard Em mumbled and I looked up from the cub I was petting. Just to notice the mom, tiger waking up. The cubs walked away from me and over to their mom. The mom lowered her head to one of the cubs, smelling him. For one second, I was certain that my cause of death would be, Killed by a Tiger mother. But the mom didn't try to attack me through the cage, she didn't even growl at me.
She just calmly walked over to me. And to my surprise, laid down next to where I was sitting. Looking between my hand and the tiger I heard Em shouting at me.
"Alex, if you pet that mother fucking tiger, I will kill you! I don't care it that tiger eats you up, I'm going to make it puke you back up and light you on fire!" And just because she said that, I the moment later, had a hand full of tiger fur between my fingers.
"Stupid, Stupid bitch!" I heard Em mumble once again. I know she sounds mean, but in reality she's so far from mean so it's impossible to take her serious when she threatens me.
"Hey, don't get yourself killed, I'm going to try find someone who's not stupid or mad! Don't do anything stupid!" She warns me.
Another low grumble caused me to stand up. I saw five large cats running towards me, but they suddenly stopped.
The mom tiger let out a high growl and the other cats instantly stopped running. She walked between me and the other tigers. And that's when I saw it. She didn't have a tail.
(Another flashback, hehe!)
"Stupid cat! All you need to do is catch this ball!" I froze, the sound of someone shouting made my blood boil. I remember two minutes earlier when one of the beautiful tigers didn't catch the ball, and I can't help but think that something's about to go wrong. And with that I started running towards the screaming voice and the sound of a whining tiger. I gasped, when I rounded the corner.
What I saw horrified me, the circus director were standing, towering over the cat from earlier. She was laying completely still, but this time without her tail. He had cut it off.
The director hadn't noticed me yet, so I pulled up my phone from my back pocket, and dialed animal services and the police. The director stomped angrily way, leaving the large cat where it was.
I acted without thinking, and ran over to her. She didn't make any effort to growl at me, but she did move further away.
"Hush, baby hush! I'm not going to hurt you, I'm doing the opposite. I am trying to help you and your family, girl." I don't think she understood what I said, but she did give up with trying to get away from me.
Ripping off one of the sleeves of my long sleeved shirt, I made a tourniquet around the small lump of tail she had left. Looking in to the cats eyes, I felt my heart twist in pain. So I reached my hand out and she leaned her head on my hand. And I just sat there, with one sleeve, with a tigers head on my lap. I sat like that until the police came, and the animal service arrived to take care of her.
(Flashback over)
"Ari! What the fuck were you thinking? I get that you wanted to act fast, so Em didn't get hurt. But why would you stay in the fucking cage with the tigers!?" Okay, so after Em and Chase got me out of the tiger cage, Em screamed at me for a while. Then Chase took the opportunity to scream at me. When the others came, Cece and Eve screamed at me. Then when Brent and Jayden found out they screamed at me too.
But now, two hours later. Justin found out. And he's been screaming at me ever since.
"Justin, come on! You know that I wasn't thinking at all." I said calmly, drinking my tea. Justin huffed, and looked around the room for someone who can help him scream at me. But no one says anything. Guess they calmed down after having their turn to scream at me. I think I'm going deaf. And then Justin continued screaming about how stupid I was to pet a tiger, and how my mum would've killed him if I died, since apperently mum gave him the job as my baby sitter. Why on earth would I need a babysitter?
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Finally I'm updating! Don't know if it actually was a long time ago, but it feels like ages since I updated. Wrote this chapter during the process of procrastinating my studying for a German test I have in two days. So I really hope it doesn't suck. Since the consecration and ambition I should have for school was all used while writing this.
(chapter dedicated to Em/tragicx aka me rn who is editing the book and the one who made all her covers! cus obviously this chapter is about me and my favorite part in the chapter is the tiger thing cus animals truly are amazing and beautiful and i believe that they have a smart mind and i am strongly against animal abuse!! :)) peace out pandas!)
Goodbye my fellow Pandas
-Panda_Bacon