"Remember, Justy..." Rich taunted. "If you won't cooperate with me, then I'll just tell everyone you're little secret.
"You can't!"
"Wrong. I can do anything. Wanna know why?"
"No."
Rich ignored his answer and continued, "Because this is my house and I know something about you that you don't want other people to know. That's why."
"Fine!" Justin broke down, pressing his back against the door. "I'll keep quiet... but I swear... if you touch Faith again... I'll-"
"Ooo... threats!" Rich rolled his eyes. "I'm scared." He took a step closer to Justin and the door. "Now remember... If you keep quiet, I will."
Justin shot him an evil look before he walked out into the hallway and dashed back to his room. He ran his fingers through his hair and reached for the doorknob. He stared at his hand. Was this nightmare ever going to end?
Before he entered the room, he came to the conclusion that he'd have to tell Faith EVERYTHING. And soon... because it was getting worse and the worse it got, the more it would hurt her that he didn't say anything to her about it. But God... it was getting so hard to hide from her...
When he opened the door, he stared at the image of Faith fearfully gripping the blankets at her chin. Her eyes lit up when she saw him and she sighed, lowering her hands.
"Justin..." she sighed, a hint of terror still in her voice. "Is everything okay now? Did you call the police?"
"No, I didn't call the police, but don't worry. I've got him under control." Justin couldn't find the courage to tell her that it was Rich who had the control over him.
Suddenly, he felt extremely tired and now that Faith was safe, he could finally rest. He noticed how his muscles ached and how his eyes kept closing. Each time he blinked, his eyelids were getting heavier and heavier. Finally, he pulled off his shirt and crawled in next to Faith. He couldn't even manage a 'Goodnight' before his head hit the pillow and he was fast asleep.
Faith watched him. She had never seen him so exhausted before and it made her think. Her mind clouded her instincts and she convinced herself that he was only like this because of the run in they had with Rich. He was emotionally as well as physically drained, which was more true than she knew.
Silently, she cuddled up against him and closed her eyes. Sleep would not come easily and she knew it. She found herself wondering how Justin could sleep so easily...
Maybe if she forced herself to think about something else rather than that night... rather than now...
The beach. That was a nice place. There was plenty of sun and the sand always felt great between her toes as she walked along the shoreline. She missed the beach since they'd arrived in Colorado. Wishing she and Justin were back home, she fell into a restless sleep.
Morning came and Faith reluctantly opened her eyes as light started to filter through the blinds. She immediately gazed at Justin, who was still sleeping soundly... in the exact same position as he had fallen onto the bed.
A panic filled her veins and she sat up and looked at him more closely. Why was she scared? She had no REASON to be scared, but she found herself watching for his chest to move up and down as he breathed anyway. She could tell he was breathing and she felt foolish for thinking otherwise... but he WAS awfully still...
Faith nudged his arm and he still didn't move.
"Justin?" she said softly.
No answer.
"Justin?!" she said louder than before, nudging him at the same time. Twice. "Justin?"
He groggily opened his eyes and looked up at her, smiling. "Morning, Angel." When he tried to sit up, he realized that his muscles still ached and he moved slowly. He wrapped her up in his arms, being careful not to squeeze too tightly. "You look... agitated. Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," she replied quickly, hugging him back. "I was just..." She was going to say that she was thinking about last night, but didn't want to bring up the topic so she made up something else. "I was thinking about the wedding."
The second the word, wedding, left her lips, she remembered why she had left Justin's room in the first place; to warn Eric that his fiancé was cheating on him.
"We've gotta get out of here, Justin. All of us. We need to leave now."
They way she said it was so serious and so urgent, that he pulled away and looked into her eyes. "What? Is this about Rich."
"It's not just about Rich. This is about the whole..." she stopped, suddenly looking around the room.
"What?"
"I just thought of something." She leaned in close to him and whispered, "These people are rich... what if they have cameras in here? What if they're spying on us?"
"Faith! That's being really paranoid. Rich is the ONLY one out to get us. No one else."
"That's what I'm trying to tell you! It's not just Rich."
He stared at her with a confused look on his sleepy face. What she just said intrigued him and he wanted to know more. As much as possible. 'As much as I need to get Rich back...'
"So, how are my two favorite people," Rich asked as he downed his orange juice at breakfast. "Doin' okay?"
Faith and Justin only glared back at him. Well, Justin glared at him while Faith glared PAST him. She was afraid to look into his eyes.
Faith's mother noticed the tension. "Do you two normally ignore people when they talk to you?" she asked.
"Only him," Justin said under his breath.
Faith elbowed him in the ribs.
"Ow... I mean, no. I just didn't hear him."
Rich grinned like there was no tomorrow. He scooped up another spoonful of cereal and stuffed it in his mouth. "Good," he mumbled. "You guys should try this stuff."
Justin and Faith looked down at their muffins. "No thanks," they said in unison.
That was the extent of conversation at the breakfast table that morning. None of them were up for it since they all had something else on their minds.
Faith glanced at her brother at the other end of the table. He was smiling as he talked to his fiancé, Lizzie. She KNEW she had to tell him. There was no way that she'd ever let her only brother get married to someone in the retched Pratt family. Especially if that person was cheating on him. There was no way.
Rich was watching the two of them closely, contemplating his next move. He didn't know why he had made it his goal to torture them, but it seemed worth it. After all, he was a bored, rich kid with no friends and nothing to do. Why not tease the happy couple a bit? They were probably CRAVING the drama of it all. 'No, Rich," he thought as he looked down at his bowl. 'It's YOU who craves the drama.'
He focused on Faith. She had this look on her face that was so conspicuous, that he felt the need to investigate the matter further. She appeared to have something on her mind. Something that might be of benefit to him.
Justin had his thoughts on something else. It was a big building back home that had his name and records stacked in file cabinets just waiting for him to return. The people there were scheduling things for him. He didn't want anything to do with it, but he knew that he had no choice. Just the thought of those white walls and stainless steal doors scared the shit out of him.
And then he thought of the pain...
Faith was back in Justin's room brushing her hair when she heard the door open. Assuming that it was Justin, she turned around and got ready to run into his arms.
She stopped after the first step, seeing the familiar smirk on Rich's face. Immediately, terror seized her body and she took two steps back, leaning up against the mirror in the wall.
"Relax," Rich told her, as he stepped into the room, closing the door behind himself. "It's okay. I just want to have a little talk with you."
Faith watched him suspiciously. She wanted to tell him to leave, but for some reason, she couldn't speak.
Rich sat down on the bed and looked up at her. "Tell me, Faith... what is it that you know?"
The only thought running through Faith's mind was, 'My God! They DO have camera's in here!' She looked around the room, searching for a place where a camera could be hidden.
"What on EARTH are you looking for?"
Suddenly, Faith found her voice. "I'm not stupid, Rich. I know what you're doing. You were spying on me and Justin. That's the only way you could know."
Rich tried not to act surprised. Now he KNEW that he was onto something.
Earlier that morning Faith had told Justin all about what she had witnessed between Lizzie and some mysterious guy but that was not his first priority.
He had that feeling in the pit of his stomach again... the one that made him nauseous. He fell back on a couch near the front of the mansion on the main floor. He was in a small room by the front door that he had never been in before.
'A great place to hide while I use the phone,' he thought, digging his cell phone out of his pocket. He was about to dial when, all of a sudden, he felt dizzy. Extremely dizzy. Dizzier than he had ever felt before in his life.
"This has got to stop," he mumbled out loud, resting his head on the back of the couch. "I've gotta tell Faith."
"Faith, I can guarantee that we don't have camera's in this room. However, I do want you to tell me what in the hell you're talking about. Have you told your precious Justin?"
Faith inched down the wall, trying to get as far from him as possible. "Yes, I've told Justin, and I'm not gonna tell you. If there's one thing you can count on, count on that."
"Faith, if something is wrong, I want to help you through it."
"Bull shit, Rich. I don't know what it is that you want, but it's not that."
Rich stood up. This wasn't working. He walked over to Faith and grabbed her shirt, pulling her closer to himself. He saw the tears begin to fall from her eyes and onto her cheeks, but at this point, he didn't care anymore. "Tell me," he demanded.
Quickly but carefully, Justin punched in the number. He put the phone to his ear and waited.
One ring.
Two.
"Hello?"
"Hi..." Justin said softly into the phone. My name is Justin Timberlake and I-"
"Justin! It's me."
"Oh." He pulled his knees to his chest, taking in a deep breath. If he didn't get help soon, he didn't know what would happen.
"Are you doing okay?" the man asked him.
"No," he admitted. "It's getting worse... I... I keep getting dizzy and-"
"Justin, the second that wedding's over... tomorrow morning, I want you to get on that plane and come in to see me."
"I'm really not up for more tests... you've gotta understand..." By now he was on the verge of tears. Just the thought of all those needles made him wanna give up. He didn't know how he would handle it. But he couldn't give up... even if it meant ten billion more tests. He had to do this for Faith if not for himself.
"Justin, listen to me. There's only one test waiting here for you-"
"Yeah, and all the regular ones." Justin closed his eyes and tried to picture something else.
"Keep your hopes up. The test that I'm talking about is pretty simple. I just need to find out if the treatment is working.
Justin sighed. "It doesn't feel like it is..."
"Faith..." Rich repeated, keeping his voice low and firm. "Tell me what you know."
Faith was terrified. All of her thoughts and emotions from the night before flooded her senses again and the first thing she did was scream, kick and hit. Her fist connected with his face in a lucky shot, causing him to let go and back off.
"Damn it!" he cried, holding his hand over his nose. "I told you that I wasn't gonna hurt you!"
Faith looked around for an escape before looking back at her attacker's face. "And I told YOU that I didn't trust you!"
Both of them heard a loud bang and they turned to look at the doorway. The door had been swung open so forcefully that the doorknob went right into the wall. There stood a seemingly out of it Justin. His face was bright red in anger, but in his eyes he looked worn out and weak. He clutched the side of the doorway to steady himself.
"I TOLD you," he shouted at Rich, his voice wavering slightly. "I told you to stay AWAY from her!"
Rich took a small step away from Justin. "Okay, man," he said, holding his hands up. "We were just talking."
"Bull shit," Justin spat out. "Get the hell out of here before I smash your face in."
Rich chuckled, "You're too late." He pushed his way past Justin and out into the hallway, dabbing his nose with the end of his shirt. A thought ran through his mind as he looked down at the bloody material. Hadn't Faith said something about cameras?
"Did he hurt you?" Justin asked worriedly as Faith grabbed his arm and led him to the bed.
"I'm fine. Don't worry." She pushed him to the bed and forced him to lie down. "Right now I'm worried about YOU. You don't look so good."
He turned his head away from her. "You shouldn't worry about me," He told her, his voice slightly above a whisper. "Nothing is wrong... I'm going to be okay."
Faith looked at him thoughtfully. He sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than her. "Justin, is there something going on that I should know about?"
Before Justin could respond, there was a knock on the door and Faith got up to answer it. She opened the door to see her mother there.
"Faith! Your hair appointment is in a half hour and Justin's tux is waiting for him in the downstairs living room. Hurry up!" With that, she rushed down the hall, on her way to get little Kelly ready.
Justin forced himself to a sitting position and looked at Faith. He knew that he wasn't up for the big wedding today... but he plastered a smile across his face. "Are you ready?"
Faith smiled back, but she could tell by the look in his eyes that there was something that he wasn't telling her. Then, her thoughts drifted back to Eric and Lizzie and she reminded herself that she had to STOP this wedding... quickly... before it was too late.
Rich looked around the living room. Good. He was alone.
Cameras were good for some people, but they tended to be big and bulky... Now, tape recorders were the way to go if you wanted something small and discreet to do the job. He laughed at the fact that it was Faith herself that had given him the idea.
He looked around the room once more and then pressed record on the small tape recorder he held in his left hand. Quickly, he slipped it in the pocket of Justin's tux.
Just as he was about to go back up to his room, his father walked in and eyed him suspiciously.
"What are you up to, son?" Mr. Pratt wondered, taking his own tux off the rack.
"Nothing," Rich answered, still walking towards an exit. "I just came down to get my tux."
"Well you forgot it," his father said, making him stop dead in his tracks.
"Whoops." Rich turned around and Mr. Pratt handed him his tux.
"By the way, son... what happened to your face?"
Chapter 5
I Get Carried Away
Justin {Fiction}
My Fiction
I'll Never Stop {Fiction}
Email me: irishgirl982@yahoo.com