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No one was in the room when Kevin and Gina walked in but they could hear the voices of their friends talking quietly. Their diver motioned for them to go into the small room where the voice of their friends could be heard. Gina went in first and the minute she saw Heather and Liz she raced toward them and gave them a hug. Kevin sat down with the guys. Gina was talking with Liz when Joe came in. She could see him out of the corner of her eye and when she saw him she stopped talking. “Looks like we’re all together.” He said smiling. “What a nice little reunion.” Kevin and Gina’s driver started laughing. “Did you have fun with Andy?” Joe asked Kevin and Gina. Neither of them answered. He went over to a bookshelf and pulled out a piece of paper and then sat down in a chair. There was an awkward silence as he began to read the paper and Andy shifted uneasily in his chair. The silence was interrupted as John walked into the room. He didn’t say anything but made a lot of noise. Joe looked up from his paper and stared at him. He quickly sat down next to Andy and they began to whisper to each other. Finally, after what seemed like an hour Joe looked back up from his paper and smiled. “You’re probably wondering why you’re hear.” Not a word was spoken but they all nodded their heads. “I’m sure you boys think it has something to do with your music, or that we have something against you right?” Once again heads nodded. Kevin knew why they were there but there was no way he was going to let Joe find that out. “Well, I’m going to leave you in suspense a little while longer and let all of you talk for a while so I can get a few things planned.” Joe said as he stood up. John and Andy also stood up and walked over to Joe. “Take them to another room.” He told them. So they were escorted into another room. Since the house was so big it took a few minutes to get to the room. The entire house was dimly lit and most of the doors were shut. No guards were in sight, but there was no doubt there were some around. There were many windows in the house too, but dark curtains covered them so no light could get into the house. Of course by now it was about 3am so there wasn’t much light anyway. The girls were ahead of the boys and were whispering and paid little attention to their surroundings. The boys on the other hand were watching everything. Memorizing every door and entrance in case they could escape. Nick was glad that the girls were looking at the house, because some of the accessories would have probably frightened them. There were old swords in the walls, and a collection of knives in a case near a door. They climbed up a flight of stairs and then turned in to another hallway. At the second door John stopped and went in. Andy stayed in the hall with everyone. The girls had stopped talking by now and were gazing around the hall at some of the pictures. At the end of the hall there was another collection of knives. Liz noticed this and shuddered. The door opened again and John came out and nodded to Andy. Then he led them into the room, shut the door and locked it from the outside. Once inside none of them moved until they head the sounds of footsteps disappeared.
The room was very bare and had a window near the front. Like all of the other windows dark curtains covered it. Heather went over to the window and carefully pulled the curtains away, just in case someone was watching. But there was black tape on the window and there was no way you could see out. The others had sat down so she went over to join them. A.J. was telling Kevin and Gina about what all had happened when they were caught. He told them about the van ride and how they were taken to the back door and circled to backyard. When he was done Kevin told about how he and Gina were hiding and had planned to run when we said go. Then they were caught and taken here. He also told them about the conversation between John and Andy about ‘getting rid of them.’ After they had finished telling about their trips Howie said, “We need to start planning what we’re going to do. There’s no telling when Joe will be finished and we need to go ahead and have some sort of plan ready.” Nick, Kevin and A.J. nodded. While they were thinking they heard a faint noise. They couldn’t tell what it was but it was in their room and coming towards them. It kind of had a squeaking sound. Suddenly Liz jumped up and screamed. Nick was next to her in an instant and the others were trying to figure out what was wrong. Liz was crying and trying to tell them what happened but she was badly shaken. When she finally got the words out she told them that something had run across her hand. “It was a rat probably.” A.J. said. “How big was it?” Nick asked her. Liz shook her head. “I’m not sure, but it was bigger than the small rats I’ve ever seen. It felt heavy when it ran over my hand.” Nick held her close and they all continued talking again. “I think we should get a little sleep.” Gina said. “We’ll take turns keeping watch.” Howie replied. “A.J. and Heather, why don’t you two go first. Then Kevin, Gina and I will go and then Nick and Liz. Okay?” The nodded and laid down to try and get some sleep.
Since A.J. and Heather had the first watch they obviously couldn’t go to sleep. They moved over to the door and began to talk softly. They had agreed to take hour-long watches. At every little noise Heather would look over at the door. She knew that the men probably wouldn’t do anything to them yet but she was still nervous. She wondered when they would make them call about the ransom money. If Kevin was right it would be sometime soon. To try and get Heather mind off of the men and what was happening they began talking about the concert. This made Heather feel more at ease. Before she knew it their time was up. She leaned over to Gina and quietly woke her up. A.J. woke up Kevin and Howie. They took their place and started talking immediately about ways of escape. Howie and Kevin talked about when they came in the house and about the fence in the backyard. “You don’t think they have dogs?” Gina asked. Kevin stopped talking. “I didn’t think about that. Thanks for thinking about that Gina.” He told her. They discussed this problem and tried to think of someway they could tell their manager where they were when they called to ask for the money.