Chapter 25

“Damn it, damn it, would you look at all of them!” Kenyon was ringing his hands together and glancing at his gun ever so often. Seven of them sat around a table dressed in their usual black suits. Their masks sat perched atop their heads. All looked jumpy and nervous, Sean sat biting his nails. Trinity took his hands and held them in her lap.

“Where’s Ariella?” Zalia eyed Brendon, she had heard tales of some foul play being involved earlier and Ariella’s absence was just the evidence she needed to prove it.

“She’s not feeling well,” Brendon said through clenched teeth, “So what does your father propose we do?” He put a nasty tone on the word “father.”

Zalia glared at him never missing a beat, “He wants us to take what we can get and get out.”

“What we can get? According to those guys downstairs their parents don’t have any money, and won’t have it for a few more days according to the parents!” Sean’s normally tanned face was pale with worry. He squeezed Trinity’s hands, “We can still just bail out can’t we? We still have that option... Cause Trin and I wanna get married. Have a family... We can’t do that in jail. Kidnaping is a felony.”

“Give that boy a prize for his brightness,” Brendon snapped, rolling his eyes, “Are you bailing out on us Sean? Are you going to betray us?”

“Betray you? We all were given the option to leave whenever we felt it was too much!” Sean was throwing back at Brendon, “I’m not saying I want to leave...yet.”

“That’s not good enough,” Brendon stood up to challenge Sean, “If you want out Sean, I can go open that door right now and toss you to the Parana. Is that what you want Sean?”

“Alright, I’ve had it up to here with you and your punk ass!” Sean stood almost knocking over the table and charging towards Brendon. Kenyon and Brody immediately stood to block his action, but Sean was too quick. He pummeled Brendon, bringing him down with his body weight. He landed blows to Brendon’s face and stomach, chest and shoulders. Kenyon and Brody pulled him off, and were bristling for another fight, but by then Ramon had joined Sean’s side.

“Stop it now!” Zalia ordered, “We are in some serious shit here, and you guys want to play WWF Smack Down? Stop it! Brody, go and get me a phone so I can contact the police outside. Ramon, you and Sean go check on our cargo... Trinity,” she motioned the tall chic blond girl closer, “Go find Ariella.”

Trinity, Ramon, Sean, and Brody nodded and left the room leaving Brendon, Zalia, and Kenyon to stare at each other.

“Ariella?” Trinity called softly into the room. The small sound of sniffling could be heard. It was stifled quickly, and Trinity heard a soft breath being taken, “Go away.”

Trinity sighed and turned on the light in the room, “No I will not go away. Zalia sent me in here to... Holy Heavens!” Trinity rushed to the once beautiful girl’s side to gawk at her raw swollen face, “What in the.... How could he? That animal!” Trinity raised Ariella’s chin to take in the full brutality of the attack, and gasped. Tears fell from her eyes... Ariella would be scarred. “Why do you let him do it?” She ran her fingers through the girl’s soiled hair. Ariella may be a year older than she, but after the moment she met her, Trinity felt older.

She felt Ariella tremble slightly, “Because... because...”

“Don’t say he loves you, any man who hits you doesn’t love you,” Trinity said, her voice full of anger, “Sean will take care of... Brendon though. Don’t you worry about a thing.”

“No,” Ariella said forcefully, “Don’t hurt Brendon! It’s all my fault, I’m the stupid one! I’m the one who led them here! I’m the one who made Brendon angry...”

“Are you blaming yourself Ariella?” Trinity asked shaking her head, “How can you blame yourself for Brendon’s stupid...”

“I shouldn’t have left that day...”

“Ariella, maybe what you did wasn’t thought all the way through. But you did it for the right reason...”

“Trin, I know you mean well, but you can’t make what I did right,” Ariella said, “It was stupid. I was stupid, and now we’re all going to pay for it.”

Trinity was silent, then she spoke in a low voice, “Listen Ariella, you have to pull yourself together, and stop beating yourself up over your mistakes. You can’t take them back now, now what you can do is help us cope with our new situation. The pressure’s on now, but the plan can still work. We’ll need your help now, Ariella. Right now Zalia is downstairs negotiating with the police... We’ll be out of this soon and heading for a place far away from here.... but only with your help.”

Ariella stared at Trinity’s small pretty face and smiled painfully, “What help can I be?”

Trinity smiled back, “Well for starters, you can start packing up anything personal we may have lying around here. When we get out of this place with our money we can’t have anything here linking our lives to this.”

Ariella nodded, “Ok.”

“Ok? And remember after this we start our new lives... Your new life without Brendon,” Trinity said patting her shoulder, “I have to go back down now. Will you be, ok?”

Ariella lowered her head, then nodded briefly. She glanced up suddenly, “How are the boys? How’s the youngest, Nick? Is he ok?”

Trinity frowned, “I don’t know Ari, but I’m sure they’re fine.”

“Damn it to hell,” AJ was pacing around, “What the hell’s going on up there? What’s going on! This is like being trapped in a parallel universe! Its like our own little world down here separate from everyone else’!”

“I just hope Ariella’s ok,” Howie said in a soft voice, he stared at the spots of blood on the carpet that had ran from her ears after Brendon’s punch.

“She’s a damn kidnapper!” AJ burst out, “I don’t care how nice she was, she still was involved in abducting us! If it weren’t for her and them, we’d be on stage right now!” AJ yelled, “We’d be in another state. We wouldn’t be so damn hungry! I wouldn’t have to pee so damn bad! And... and...” He broke off, “God what is happening up there? Maybe they’ve all killed each other and left us down here to rot, where no one will find us!”

“AJ, calm down! Sit down,” Kevin instructed roughly, “Howie, get AJ some water. You want something to eat too J?”

“Eat? My stomach’s in knots...” AJ muttered, he did obey Kevin and sit down. He sat gently beside Brian and Nick. Nick was lying half in Brian’s lap. He was awake but hadn’t uttered one single word since Brendon and Ariella left. AJ didn’t like his color. He wasn’t getting in enough air, he could tell.

“OK, we’re all going to fall apart if we sit down here dwelling on what’s going on upstairs,” Kevin tried to speak calmly, “I know it’s difficult, but we have to stay in control. If we fall apart...”

“It’s too damn late Kev...” Nick said in a tired, defeated sounding voice,“ We’re gonna die. They figured that our parents ain’t gonna pay, and we’re gonna die.”

“Nick shut up!” AJ snapped, “I ain’t dying in nobody’s basement...”

“Maybe you won’t....” Nick muttered, he muttered something else but it was lost to the others. Brian parted Nick’s hair with his fingers, but any words of comfort were lost to him at this point.

“What the hell are we gonna do?” AJ was up and pacing again. He hit the wall angrily and stayed there, “Their asses better get down here and start explaining really, really...”

The door at the top of the stairs swung open, and two bodies came down. One casually holding a gun, “What the hell’s going on up there?” AJ immediately demanded.

The tallest one paused first, “The police are outside.”

“So does that mean we’re leaving?” Howie asked sounding excited.

“Not yet,” said the shorter one, “Not yet. Right now we are in the process of negotiating the prices for your heads.... Oh yeah, and your parents are outside.”

“They are?” Brian’s eyes glittered, “Can we.... are you gonna let us...”

“When we get our money,” the tall one said.

They were quiet for a few seconds, then they appraised each boy, lingering on Nick, “How’s Blondie? I notice he’s being unusually quiet.”

Brian glared and urged Nick not to respond to them.

The tallest one sighed, “You guys are gonna get out of this situation ok? That is our number one priority. They get what they want and we get what we want. No harm should come to you.”

“No harm... No harm, look at Nick! Look at him! Does he look ok to you? Does he look like he hasn’t been harmed? He’s so sick he can’t breathe you idiots!” AJ was fuming, “How long is it gonna take for you to get what you want? Long enough to kill him? How much longer do you think he’s gonna last?”

“AJ!” Brian yelled, he was once again covering Nick’s ears, like he couldn’t hear it if he did.

The two ninjas stood still, then slowly turned and trudged back up the stairs.

“Damn...” AJ said, his voice cracking, “Damn....” Tears fell from his eyes. His mother was outside, his own mother and he couldn’t even see her. He couldn’t just look out the window to get a glimpse of her face. He was afraid that he had forgotten what she looked like. He cringed as he imagined what she must be going through out there... He was brought back into his harsh reality by Nick’s sneezing attack which brought on more wheezing.

“God, we need to get you out of here,” Brian was saying gently to Nick, tears slid down his face as the stress of the situation really got to him.

“How do we do it?” Howie asked in a loud voice, “You heard them, they won’t let us out until they get the money. Our parents don’t have the money!”

Kevin had an odd look of reverie on his face, he broke into the conversation, “Our parents don’t have it... but Nick, your parents do.”

Kevin, Brian, Howie, and AJ all looked at Nick who still lie with his eyes closed on Brian’s lap, “No way... What if they get the two mil... million and just decide to give... up... What if... if you... you guys don’t get...”

“Nick, you need help. You can barely finish your sentences without taking a breath after every word,” Brian said.

“But... but...”

“But nothing. You’re getting out. You get out, and then... then you can pay ransom for the rest of us!” Howie snapped his fingers together.

“Hey, now that’s an idea,” AJ said, his expression lighting up, “Nicky, what do you think?”

“The room’s spinning right now AJ, try me later...” Nick muttered shutting his eyes and resting his arms over his heaving chest.

AJ snorted. Leave it to Nick to still try to be the wise guy.

< The Boys In The Basement >