| "Uh, Zac?" came a sudden murmur. "Hey! She's awake!" I exclaimed sarcastically. "You don't have to be like that, it's not her fault," Ike calmed. "Sure I have to. We're in the middle of working out a strategy of how to avoid people that wanna kill us and someone faints on the doorstep," I said. "Zac... where's Zac?" the girl murmured. "Oh great, she's probably an obsessed fan or something," I went on. "ZAC! Oh my God!" she suddenly shot up and looked around, making us jump. She grabbed Taylor by the shirt. "They took him!" she exclaimed. "Who?" he asked, trying to get her off him. "Zac!" she replied. "Zac's over there," he pointed to him on the couch. The girl took one look at him, then fainted again. "There goes the neighbourhood," I said. "This is insane, what was she going on about?" Amy questioned. "She saw something, she must have," Taylor suggested after a pause. "Saw something? You mean saw Zac get taken?" Ike asked. "Well what else could she mean?" he shrugged. "She could be an insane lunatic," I suggested. I recieved a few glances. "Shouldn't Zac be sleeping in a bed somewhere?" Amy suddenly asked. "Should be. We have to move him anyway in case she wakes up. Maybe we could learn her name if she doesn't faint," Taylor stood up. "Hey Zac, wake up," he shook him. No answer. "Let me handle this one," Amy grinned, walking towards him. She leant over his ear. "ZAC HANSON YOU GET YOUR LAZY ASS OFF THAT LOUNGE RIGHT NOW!" she yelled, as loud as humanely possible. "What? Who? Where?!" he exclaimed, jumping up, his eyes half shut. Amy grinned again, and nodded at Ike and Taylor. They grabbed his shoulders and took him out of the room. Just in time, as we heard another faint murmur from the floor... "Where am I?" I sighed, as Amy bent down to her. She sat up and looked around. "Where am I?" she repeated. "The place where you fainted on the doorstep," I replied sarcastically. "I... I did?" she asked. "You'd better believe it." Just at that second, Taylor came back into the room. When he spotted the girl awake, he hesitated. When she saw who he was, her eyes widened. "You're... Taylor..." she kind of murmured. "Yeah," he replied, "and who are you?" She hesitated. "My name's Angie," she replied. "Well that's a start," he said, sitting on the couch. "So ah, where am I? And why am I here?" she lowered her eyebrows. "Well for a start, you're in our Australian livingroom," Taylor replied, looking to be sizing her up, "and we actually wanna know why you're here... something about Zac?" Then her eyes widened again. "Oh Zac! Where is he?! Is he ok?" she exclaimed. "He's in bed, he's ok. So... tell us what you saw," Taylor tried to reason. "I could have sworn it was Zac. He was driving along, and I pulled out of a driveway not looking, and... and someone must have been chasing him..." she began. "That was you?!" I exclaimed, jumping up. "I..." she looked up at me. "Sit down," Taylor ordered calmly. I shook my head and sat next to him. "And?" he motioned for her to go on. "And suddenly, some guy jumped out of this black car with a gun and went for him!" she exclaimed, "this guy made him get into this other car and forced him to drive away." Amy nodded at Taylor. "Uh... you wouldn't happen to be able to identify that car by any chance, would you?" he asked. She shook her head. "Great," I huffed, clearly annoyed. "Well at least it's something, only problem is that she's a witness," came Ike's voice from the doorway. "And what's that supposed to mean?" she stammered. Ike glanced at her, then motioned for Taylor, Amy and I to join him in another room. We went into the kitchen. "You know what I mean, don't you?" he asked. We nodded solemnly. "So now they'll be after her," Taylor sighed. "Well we can't let them get her," Amy said. "The bloody bitch deserves some kind of payback," I snorted. "Not that kind," Amy mumbled, "no one deserves that." We hesitated. "So what do we do?" Taylor asked. "Explain the situation, hope she goes along with it," Ike shrugged. "Hope?" I raised my eyebrows. "What more can we do?" he shrugged again. We each gave each other a look of agreement, before going back to her. Ike was decidedly the one to explain the situation to Angie. "You mean... these are the guys that had you in that kidnapping thing? They're after me?" she questioned. "Apparently... yes," I replied with sarcasm. She hesitated, as if letting it sink in. "But... didn't everyone say it was over?" she asked after a moment. "We thought it was," Taylor sighed. "So... what are we gonna do?" I asked. "Well, we can't guarantee anyone's safety no matter what we do," Taylor pointed out. "I... should probably go," Angie murmured, standing up. "Where?" Amy asked. "Home, where else?" she shrugged. "Well, do you want one of us to come with you?" Taylor offered. "I'm not a baby," she replied in a rough tone, unintentionally. "We never said you were," I replied, annoyed. She hesitated for a second, glaring at me, then made her way to the front door. "Can we at least get a phone number? So we can contact you?" Ike pleaded. She stopped. "Fine," she muttered. "You think this is a joke, don't you?" I accused. She squinted at me as she wrote her number on the pad Ike supplied her with. "Why would I? I saw what happened to Zac, didn't I?" she attempted to remind me. I still wasn't convinced. She finished writing her phone number down, and left. "I don't like her," I said simply. "She's not that bad," Ike attempted to keep the peace. "Either way she's stuck with us. We're all in this mess together, right?" Taylor added. We nodded. The next morning, Ike decided to ring the phone number Angie had put down, and try to convince her to come over. Amy and I had stayed there that night, mostly because we were afraid to leave the house. Taylor and I happened to walk in on him talking, most likely to one of her parents. "Well, do you have any idea where?" he seemed to be pleading with the reciever. "Oh man... no sorry, I can't tell you. Well thanks anyway, yeah, bye," he hung up. "Can't say what?" Taylor asked. "My name and number," he replied. "Who was it?" I asked. He hesitated, and sighed. "That was a policeman... Angie's gone," he replied. "Gone?" Taylor repeated. "Missing," Ike confirmed. "By her own choice, or..." I began. He was shaking his head already. "I seriously doubt it," he said. "Great," Taylor threw his hands in the air, "one down, five to go. If they don't include anyone else." He left the room. "Do they have any leads?" I asked. He shook his head. |
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| Chapter 7 - Angie |
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