Chapter 16

Charlotte's POV

Avery and I have been sketching out a game plan for the last hour.

We have no room for mistakes.

"Do you think this will work?" Avery asks from behind me "I don't know, we just have to hope that it's enough" I reply honestly as I pull my hair up into a ponytail We're suddenly interrupted by a knock on my bedroom door.

"Come in" I yell out so that they are able to hear me from behind the door I see the doorknob twist before Bella's face appears from behind the door.

Great.

What is so important that she has to interrupt me from trying to save my girl.

"Charlotte, you have a press conference tomorrow morning at ten" Bella says calmly "Is that all?" I ask her with a firm tone I'm basically on the edge of my seat with this entire investigation.

If it's not done correctly, all of us could seriously get hurt.

I don't have much time to waste.

"Later that same day you have a photo shoot with this high-end brand to promote their products" she continues Seriously?!

It's going to be one of those days.

"Okay, thank you" I say with a tight-lipped smile She nods politely before retreating out of my room, closing the door behind her.

"What if we don't make it back in time?" Avery questions fearfully "Then she'll just reschedule it" I say nonchalantly It happens all the time.

I'm too busy or too sick to do certain projects.

They usually understand and are more than willing to reschedule it.

I know that it sounds unprofessional.

There's nothing that I can do about it.

"Let’s go over the plan one more time" I tell her Avery nods her head, more than willing to go over the plan again.

Don't worry, Aspen.

We're coming for you.

-

Aspen's POV

I groan as I place my hand on my head.

God.

It feels like I've been hit in the head with a frying pan.

"Oh, great, you're awake!" Someone says from the driver’s seat Wait what?!

I fully adjust my eyes to the darkness only to quickly realize that I'm sitting in the back of an SUV.

Not too long afterwards I realize that I'm also tied up.

What the fuck?

I suddenly get a flashback of Megan hitting me in the head with a shovel which causes my eyes to widen.

Oh god.

This is bad.

"Awe, babe, don't look so scared of me" she says as she looks at me through her rear-view mirror Don't be scared of her?!

I'm not only scared.

I'm completely terrified.

"What are you going to do with me?" I question fearfully as I accept my fate Maybe if I comply with her, she'll be more lenient.

Therefore, giving me a chance to sneak away as soon as possible.

"We're going to have so much fun together" she replies completely ignoring my question I glance through the windows and find out that we're the only ones on the road.

The road is completely abandoned, as if it's a secret back road.

My thoughts are suddenly cut off by the vicious hump she drives over.

What the hell?

She completely drove off the road.

She drives on a rocky trail for a few seconds before it slowly fades into dirt.

Where could we possibly be going?

-

A couple minutes pass by with Megan calmly driving along the dirt road before I spot a log cabin.

It seems to be old and abandoned with its broken porch and roof.

"Welcome home, Babe" She exclaims excitedly as she parks the SUV beside the log cabin Home?!

You've got to be joking.

I choose to remain silent.

If I upset her, I won't get out of this.

Megan unbuckles her seatbelt and opens her door before making her way around the car. When she makes her way towards my door, she practically throws it open.

She grips my upper arm firmly, helping me out of the car.

I feel a strong urge to kick her but don't give into it.

"You're pretty silent" she comments suspiciously as she walks us towards the back of the log cabin What am I supposed to say in a situation like this?!

I can't wait to be living with me kidnapper?!

"I'm just hungry" I choose to reply to her statement "As soon as I bring you to your room, I'll whip you up something to eat" she says with a tone of excitement as she opens the back door and leads me in I must say that the inside looks just as bad, if not worse, than the outside.

There are multiple holes in the wooden floor boards. Some parts of the floor are covered in mold and mildew, I'm assuming from the holes in the roof.

The kitchen and living room are absolutely disgusting with the amount of rat droppings and few deceased rats.

Some parts of the ceiling are dripping a dark brown liquid.

Don't get me started with the smell of it.

Overall, the house is in horrible condition.

"Watch your step" she has the nerve to say as she leads me between to gigantic holes in the floor Dear god.

If I die at any point during this kidnapping, please make sure that Charlotte finds someone who is worthy of her love and affection.

Can you also make sure that Bellisa knows how much I love her and wish the best for her life and career?

I get interrupted from mentally writing my will by a bright light.

She led me to an up-to-date bedroom.

The flooring is completely intact.

There's a twin sized bed in the corner of the room.

There's also a ceiling fan currently going.

There is no entertainment to be found in the room.

As well as the windows being barred.

"This is our room, babe" she says excitedly Excuse me?!

Did I hear her correctly?

"Our?" I question her carefully "Yeah, I fixed it up for us" she says before pushing me into the room She's about to say something else but her phone ends up ringing.

She quickly glances down at it before looking back up at me.

"My mom is calling me, we'll talk later" is all she says She closes the door behind her and quickly walks away while answering the phone call.

Please tell me that her mom is calling her to track us down.

I really do not want to live the rest of my life with Megan.

I slowly make my way over to the bed since I'm being to feel extremely dizzy.

I can't believe I didn't see the signs earlier.

Whenever Bellisa and I would hang out with each other Megan would always become jealous and upset.

Whenever Avery or Bellisa would interrupt our conversation, her emotions would be all over the place.

Plus, she only appears whenever she wants something from me.

It was so obvious.

Not to mention the uncomfortable tension between the three of them.

I get up from the bed and quickly walk over to the door.

Maybe she left it unlocked.

I try to move my hands only to sigh.

I forgot that my hands were tied behind my back.

I turn around, so that my back is facing the door, and try to blindly twist the door.

I quickly find out that it's locked and release an irritated groan.

It was worth a shot.

I hear her footsteps which causes my eyes to widen with fear.

"Shit, Shit, Shit" I whisper to myself as I quietly run back to my spot on the bed She easily opens the door with a conflicted facial expression.

What kind of door has a fucking child lock?!

Those are meant to be on cars not houses.

"Have you spoken to my mother recently?" She questions me suspiciously Is she serious right now?!

"I don't even know who your mom is" I say "You've met her before" Megan states matter of fatly I shake my head at her.

"No, I haven't" I tell her "Before she hung up, she asked about you. Do you know why?" She questions as she starts to furrow her eyebrows with rage Why is she getting so mad?

"I don't know, maybe you've mentioned my name to her before or something" I say with a panicked facial expression She suddenly does the unthinkable.

She laughs.

Not a small laugh either.

She laughs so hard to the point where she has to hold her stomach and use the wall to balance herself.

Okay, I'm actually terrified.

Jesus, if this is some cruel joke that you're playing on me.

It's not funny.

"You might be right" she says as her laughter quickly ceases "I'll go make you a sandwich" she says before slamming the door shut behind her I hear something fall from outside of the room which causes me to jump.

I swear if that was a piece of this house.

-

"Just eat the goddamn sandwich" Megan says finally getting annoyed by my reluctancy She's been trying to get me to eat the sandwich that she made for who knows how long.

I do know that it has to have been an hour by now.

I continue to shake my head at her.

The sandwich looks old and disgusting.

The bread looks the most appetizing out of the whole sandwich.

The cheese looks warm, as if it's been sitting in an unsuitable environment for too long.

The meat doesn't look any better, it appears to be discolored.

"Jesus fucking Christ, eat the sandwich" she says with an eye roll as she holds the sandwich in front of my face I curiously sniff it only to gag immediately afterwards.

It smells worse than this abandoned house.

And that's saying a lot.

She takes a deep breath before kneeling in front of me so that we're the same height.

"Babe, I don't want to see you starve yourself" Megan says with a forced smile She's making it really hard to play nice.

"Please, just eat the sandwich, I'll be satisfied with just one bite" she tries to persuade me desperately I don't respond as I raise my eyebrow at her challengingly.

I see her forced smile start to twitch.

I smirk as I slowly lean forward so that she thinks I'm about to take a bite of the horrible sandwich.

"I'd rather go down with the dead rats" I tell her Her forced smile quickly falls and is replaced by scowl. Her eyes are glaring at me with pure irritation and annoyance.

"I've tried to be patient with you, babe," she says as she stands up and throws the sandwich in a random corner of the bedroom "I tried to give you the benefit of the doubt, but you're making it really hard to cooperate with this attitude that you have" she says as she crosses her arms "You kidnapped me against my will, what were you expecting?" I question her This girl is seriously delusional.

She's suddenly shushing me as her eyes widen.

What is happening?

She walks over to the barred window and looks out into the front yard.

"Shit," she curses as I hear a car door being slammed shut "They found us" she says with a conflicted facial expression as she turns to face me Something mysterious lights up in her eyes.

"If you scream, you'll regret it" she threatens as she grips my upper arm and drags me up from the bed Seriously?!

I just want to take a nap.

She quickly drags me down the hall and towards the back door. When we arrived at her car, she opens the backdoor before basically throwing me inside.

"Ouch" I squeak out as my head hits the window No wonder I have memory loss.

I keep hitting my head on the weirdest things.

Megan closes the door behind me before quickly running around the car and hopping into the driver’s seat. She starts the car and speeds away from the abandoned house.

"No one wants us to be together," she says shakily as her eyes start to dart around the empty road Her hands are violently shaking as they rest on the steering wheel.

Her chest is rapidly moving up and down as her breathing increases drastically.

Her eyes seems as if they're searching for something.

An object maybe?

She glances in her rear-view mirror and curses.

I turn around in my seat so that I can look behind her car.

There's another car behind us. I can't tell who's in it since they're too far away.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Megan suddenly yells out I quickly turn around to spot two police cars coming right at us.

Uh, isn't that illegal?

"If I can't have you, no one can" she says with a promising tone What does she mean by that?

She suddenly swerved off the road and towards a humongous tree.

"Megan, stop!" I yell out as she smirks with a satisfied facial expression I don't know what happened.

I faintly recall screaming out something along the words of 'stop' before we collided with the old looking tree.

My head hits the back of the headrest with an incredible amount of force, making sure to hit the window for a second time, before finally resting on the floor of the back seat.

I hear police sirens but it sounds like they are underwater.

My vision begins to slowly blur around the edges before I'm consumed into a black nothingness.