A severe pounding in my head slowly dragged me to consciousness. I tried to sit up, but the pain in my head was too great. I relaxed slowly.
A cold floor laid beneath me and the whole room was dark. Was I at home? No…this couldn't be my room. I eased myself to a sitting position, holding my head.
A door clanged open, and someone was thrown into the room beside me. The door shut again, and I was left in darkness. "Hello?" I whispered.
"Ellie! Oh, thank God! Are you all right?" someone whispered frantically.
"My head hurts…Zac?" I mumbled. I looked up and saw Zac's worried face gazing down at me. "Zac, what's going on?"
"I think we were kidnapped…"
"What?" I immediately regretted moving. Zac carefully laid me down in his lap and stroked my head.
"Shh…In the airport, I remember you saying you didn't feel well, and then you collapsed. Someone grabbed me from behind. I tried to get to you, but they knocked me out. When I came to, a whole bunch of people were standing around me. I demanded to know where you were, but they were screaming something about Ike, Tay and money."
I looked at Zac again. "Zac! Your face…did they hurt you?"
"When I didn't tell them what we been doing at the airport, they hit me a few times and dragged me back here."
"Zac…what are we doing to do?"
"It's okay. At least we're together. Ike, Tay, Celine and Gabby must have realized by now something was wrong."
"Oh, Gabby…this on top of everything else…" I swallowed my words as the door opened.
"Get up, girl," a voice snarled at me.
"Zac…"
"Go, Ellie. I'll be right here when you get back," Zac whispered. "It's okay."
"Enough!" The girl dragged me to my feet and pushed me out the door.
I opened my eyes slowly and foggily. Surprisingly, I had slept well, but as I woke up, Zac and Ellie's capture came to my mind again. I blamed myself for not making Jason go. When my parents were away, I considered myself caretaker of Taylor and Zac. I was 18! I should've had more sense than to let Zac go off alone with Ellie.
It was then I noticed Gabby laying in my lap. At least she was still asleep. I was worried for her. I gently laid my hand on her curly hair. She didn't even move.
"Isaac, you're awake," Celine said. "We're almost back to my house in Montreal."
"What are we going to do?" I asked.
"I don't know."
"I was thinking back to that ransom note," Taylor started, looking at me. "The note was signed The Scream Squad."
"Oh, man…do you think a Hanson fan pulled this off?" I asked.
"I think so," Taylor answered. "We'll come up with something. We'll find them."
How could Taylor be so level-headed?
Gabrielle was started to wake up. She opened her eyes and looked up at me. I didn't say anything. Her eyes told me everything she was feeling. She sat up and pulled her ponytail holder out of her hair. I watched it cascade to her shoulders. "Hey, guys," she said quietly.
"Hey," Taylor answered. "We're almost to Celine's house."
"Ellie and Zac…that wasn't a dream?"
"Afraid not, Gabby," I said. She ran her hands through her frizzy hair.
The limo pulled up outside Celine's house, where her husband, Rene, was waiting for us. Celine jumped out of the car and ran into his arms. I longed to hold Gabby the way Rene was holding Celine. I wished I could tell her everything would be all right…but would it be?
Ice cold jabs of fear stabbed through my body as I collapsed into Zac's arms after being thrown back into the small, dark room.
"Zac," I sobbed. "They're going to kill us."
"What?" Zac's face became disoriented with pain.
"If they don't get paid 50 million dollars by this Saturday, I'm going to die. I don't want to die!" I was getting hysterical.
"Shhh," Zac said. "No one's dying if I can help it. Especially not you, Ellie."
"50 million, Zac! They're not going to get 50 million by Saturday!"
"I know," Zac said. "But if they were stupid enough to try and kidnap us in the first place, I think we can come up with a plan to outsmart them."
"Oh, God, Zac, we have to." Just then, I spotted something on the ceiling. "Zac!…" I exclaimed, but pain suddenly rocketed in my head and moments later, blackness filled my vision.
I gently lay Ellie down on the floor and began pacing. She had figured something out before she had passed out. What had she discovered? My mind seemed to be a mess. How could I have let this happen to Ellie when I liked her so much? What hadn't I seen? How could I have protected the one I liked better?
Suddenly, my thoughts were interrupted. A tall, lanky girl entered the room, carrying a gun. Okay, I thought, they are really serious! Two other girls came up on either side of me, grabbing my arms and dragging me out of the room.
"You know you're going to pay for this, kidnapping Zac Hanson!" I shouted.
I got a bunch of laughs and a kick in the shins.
"Oh, shoot!" I yelled. "Would you just give it up! What did we ever do to you?"
"You," one girl sighed, "stole our hearts. That other girl in there took you away from us."
Now I realized why they wanted to kill Ellie, but I decided to play along. "Well, if you want me, what good would it do to kill me?"
"Well," another girl replied, "then we'd have your body with us forever, and no one could ever have you."
This was getting progressively worse, and I knew there was no way I could talk us out of this one. We would have to escape.
"In three day, if we haven't received 50 million, it's over!" Then I was tossed back into the room.
Time to start thinking. I sat down and lay Ellie's head in my lap. Suddenly, I felt her beginning to stir.
"Ellie," I whispered. "Come on, wake up. We need to escape! I need to know what got you so excited before you passed out." I got no response.
Gently, I leaned down and kissed her on the lips. Ellie's eyes popped open.
I glanced around my living room and into the kitchen. My usually spotless house was a mess, but I didn't have a passion to clean like I normally did. The tension in the living room was so thick, you could cut it with a knife! I thought. Ike sat slumped back in a big arm chair, Gabby sat on the edge of the couch, resting her face in her hands, and Taylor's face was set in an expression of thinking very hard.
I walked over and sat down next to Gabby, putting my arm around her shoulders. She looked up at me.
"Celine, we shouldn't have slept," she sighed. "We don't have much time left."
"Gabby, we wouldn't have been able to do anything if we were walking around half-asleep," I comforted. "Ellie and Zac are smart people, and so are we." Gabby nodded.
I went into the kitchen, aimlessly wandering around. How in the world are we going to get to them?
As I walked around, I heard someone singing in the living room. I peeked around the corner. Gabrielle was staring out the window, singing softly. I watched Ike's head come up, and Taylor looked up as well. I crept closer to catch the words, which I recognized were from Jewel's album, Spirit. They were from a song I remembered was titled "Deep Water".
"When you're standing in deep water and you're bailing yourself out with a straw, and when you're drowning in deep water and you wake up, making love to a wall, well, it's these little times that help to remind it's nothing without love."
Gabrielle stopped at the word "love" and buried her face in her hands. Ike looked up at me. He, Taylor and I went over to the girl. She turned when she heard us coming over. I had never seen her crying so hard. Her eyes were terribly red. She slid to the ground.
"Why couldn't it have been me?" she sobbed breathlessly. "I don't care if I die. Why did it have to be Ellie? God…I never meant for this to happen! Why?" Gabby looked up at us. "Why?!"
"Gabby…" I started.
"No! Somebody tell me why!" she screamed. "You say you can, but you don't know!" She put her face in her hands. Ike slid closer to her, hesitating. She looked up and crawled into his arms. Gabby slid her arms around his shoulders.
"Gabby, calm down," Ike whispered. "Don't blame yourself. That won't help. If we work together, we can get to them. I promise."
"Gabby, we all feel like you," Taylor said, patting her hands. "Right, Celine?"
"Yeah," I said. "Of course."
Ike made no movement. He looked up at me worriedly. We were both thinking the same thing: Was Gabrielle strong enough to go through this?
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