Are You Afraid Of The Dark?, chapter 9
That night Jane slept uneasily. She tossed and turned all through the night, eyes itching with tiredness, and even though she'd hardly got any sleep the night before, she didn't fall asleep. She could only think of one thing that would make her sleep better; someone else next to her. And she knew exactly who that someone was.
She flicked on the TV that sat on top of her chest of drawers. Hopefully the background noise would help her sleep a little better. She dozed off slowly but something caught her attention. It was a newsflash. Sarah had made another call. And there'd been a plea for their safe return.
Jane rolled over so she could see the TV and saw the tired worried face of Jason White sitting behind a long desk. Just him. Jane wanted to give him a hug and tell him that everything was going to be ok, he looked so lonely on that big long table, lonely and lost. He seemed to be struggling to find the right words. "I... whoever's taken them, just give them back, they're my best friends. They've got kids who miss them, family, friends. Just let us know that they're ok, please, let them go, and guys, if you're watching this, I've got a few messages for you, BJ, Joey and Jakob miss you, they want their Dad back. Mike, Estelle's been telling us what she'll do to the nasty guys who took her Dad, and Tré, well, Frankito misses his Daddy and Ramona's been hitting your drums like crazy, just like you. And the last message is from me, and it's simple. Come home." He got up from behind the table and walked out of the room. Jane turned the TV off and wiped angrily at the tears which had emerged from her eyes.
She jumped off her bed and crept into her sister's room, she hadn't returned yet. She searched through all the drawers in Sarah's bedroom muttering to herself, "Come on, they must have had something with them... " she sighed and sat down on her sister's unmade bed. She was about to give up when she saw something poking out of the drawer in Sarah's bed. She opened it and pulled out a pillowcase, emptying the contents onto the bed. There was a cell phone in there. She grabbed it, switched it on and searched through the numbers until she found one that looked promising: Jason. She clicked the call button and it started ringing.
"Billie?"
"Hey is that Jason?"
"Yeah, why do you have Billie's phone? Are you one of the people that kidnapped him?"
"No, I mean, I don't know. It's complicated; I didn't know anything about it until the night after it happened. I... I just saw you on TV and I had to let you know that they're ok. I promise. I've been looking after them until I can figure a way to get them out. Please, I promised I'd get them out today regardless of whether I had a plan or not, please don't send anyone over here, my sister'll kill me, you don't know how she is, please."
"Hey, whoa, slow down," Jason said calmly. "So they're ok?"
"Yeah, well I mean Billie's had a bit of a rough time, but not too bad," Jane replied. "I'm sorry I sounded so pathetic," she added quietly.
"It's ok; I just can't get this through my mind properly. Ok, my next question, are you ok?"
"Me? It doesn't matter about me; did you want to speak to them?"
"It does matter about you, are you ok? Are you going to be safe?"
"It doesn't matter; besides, I'll get through whatever she's planned for me if she finds out I know." Jane got up and started walking downstairs. She opened the door to the basement, "Are you ok?"
"Yeah, just been worried like nothing else these last few days. Tim's really worried too... Armstrong that is."
"Wow, not many people can be on first name terms with Tim Armstrong... " Jane flicked on the light and Billie Joe, Mike and Tré squinted at the sudden bright light. "Sorry," Jane apologised quickly to them.
"For what?" Jason asked.
"No, I just switched the light on and it's really dark down here." The guys watched her curiously as she undid their gags and put the phone on speakerphone. "Say hi," she said into the phone.
"Hey," Jason said quietly.
"Jason!?" Billie Joe exclaimed, "Are you ok man?"
"I should be asking you guys that," he chuckled.
"We're fine, Jane's been looking after us real good," Mike answered.
"Jason how's my baby doing???" Tré yelled.
"Keep it down will you?" Jane said, looking around anxiously as if Sarah would appear out of nowhere.
"I'm fine Tré, I'm fine."
"Good, I wouldn't want my baby to be bad... well... sometimes I might. But you know that's only on Mondays!" Jane looked at Billie Joe questioningly but he gave her a 'don't ask... ' look in return. She left the guys talking to Jason and went to get dressed; it was five in the morning already so there was no point in going back to bed.
Before she went back downstairs she saw the belongings that had been tipped onto Sarah's bed. She grabbed them before she went downstairs. She might as well let them go now, and then... and then she'd go from there.
"So you'll be home soon?" Jason asked.
"Yeah, we'll be home soon." Billie said.
"I found this," Jane said interrupting their conversation, "I dunno which stuff belongs to who, you'll just have to sort it out between you." She started untying the ropes around them, first Tré's who jumped up and down at the thought of going free. Then Mike, who tried to calm Tré down unsuccessfully.
"Hey, you guys go on ahead, I just wanna talk to Jane for a second," Billie Joe said.
"Ok Bill," Mike winked at him and climbed up the stairs. When they heard the front door slam, Jane knelt down in front of Billie and reached round him to untie the rope around his waist.
"What are you gonna do?" he asked her. She stopped fumbling with the knot and heaved a sigh.
"I don't know, I really don't know... "
"Well you've gotta know, what if she comes back? Which she will, what'll you do then?" he asked worriedly.
"I don't know ok? I just... it's funny when you have to run from your own house, which you paid for with your own money, I shouldn't be such a fucking coward."
"You're not a coward, you have every right to be scared. Your sister's a fucking psycho!"
"She wouldn't do anything to seriously hurt me, I'm her sister for fucks sake! I've supported her for years! She wouldn't do serious damage... d'you think?" over the course of the sentence she began to sound less and less sure of it. Would her sister do some real damage to her? After all these years would Sarah be willing to hurt her own sister? Billie Joe looked away from her. "Would she?" Jane asked.
"I don't know Jay, but I don't wanna leave you here."
"Well I have to stay here, it's my home,"
Mike and Tré waited outside when they saw a red Cadillac pull up in front of the house. The door of the car opened and Mike and Tré hid behind a large tree planted on the grass verge at the edge of the pavement. A figure got out of the car carrying a brown package. She slammed the door shut and turned around to look out onto the apparently deserted street. "Sarah... " Mike and Tré whispered at the same time.
"You don't have to stay though! Think of what could happen!" Billie Joe pleaded with Jane.
"I do have to stay. I have my house, my belongings, my job. I can't just run away!"
"Come with us."
"What?" Billie Joe leaned forward as far as the ropes would allow him and he kissed Jane desperately.
"Well well well, you've known him five seconds and you've already got your tongue down his throat... " Jane and Billie Joe pulled away from each other quickly and looked up to the top of the stairs where Sarah was standing.
"Are you calling me a slut?" Jane asked quite pleasantly.
"Why yes, I believe I am," Sarah replied with equal pleasantness.
"Ever heard of the phrase pot calling the kettle black?"
"Oh yes, but I can't see how it applies here. I mean I don't have my tongue down a stranger's throat after five seconds of meeting them."
"No, you've already gone further by that time."
"You really don't want to upset me Jane. I'm not a very happy bunny. You've let go two of my three million dollars already. Not that anyone would pay that much for these oafs... "
"You're just jealous of everyone who's done something with their life. So you try to leech money out of them. You always have been a leech. You leeched off Mum and Dad for the first twenty one years of your pointless life, then you decided to leech off me, and now you're leeching off Green Day. I must say, you have taste."
"I am not a fucking leech!"
"We had this conversation very recently Sarah. This is the part where I ask you when you last did anything useful. And you can't come up with a better answer than doing something which involves my money being spent on you. If you wanted to go to University, you should have fucking worked for it. I tried to help you out as much as I could, but in the end, you're the one who's got to do the work. And now look at us. I'm the one with the good job who's just been promoted again. You're the one who couldn't keep a job for more than three hours. You've only ever worked for three hours in your whole life. That's why you're a fucking leech."
"Shut up Jane... " Sarah said gritting her teeth.
"No. I've had enough! You've gone too fucking far now! You've hurt too many people! I want you out of my house now. Just get out. All of this is actually mine, you don't need to pack anything up. I will let you take the clothes you're wearing right now though. Just get out of my house. If you actually fucking worked, then maybe you'd get a decent job. And maybe you'd get promoted! Promotion's a nice thing. You get better money, but of course all the money I earn is spent on you. Thanks Sarah."
"If you mention that promotion one more time... " Sarah said as she unwrapped the small brown package.
"Promotion! Promotion!"
"Jay, don't fucking mess with her. It's not worth it! Please Jay!"
"Promotion!" Jane finally yelled at the top of her voice. She fell silent as she heard a chilling click of metal on metal that she recognised all too well from movies. But only in movies had she ever heard it before. And she's always hoped that she'd never hear it in real life.
"What do we do Mike? What do we do?" Tré whined wringing his hands together.
"I don't know Tré! I don't-" he stopped talking and the colour drained from his face at the precise moment that Tré blanched. There had been a noise. A very loud, distinct noise. A noise that they'd only heard in the movies before. A noise they'd hoped to never hear in real life.
It was a gun shot.
She flicked on the TV that sat on top of her chest of drawers. Hopefully the background noise would help her sleep a little better. She dozed off slowly but something caught her attention. It was a newsflash. Sarah had made another call. And there'd been a plea for their safe return.
Jane rolled over so she could see the TV and saw the tired worried face of Jason White sitting behind a long desk. Just him. Jane wanted to give him a hug and tell him that everything was going to be ok, he looked so lonely on that big long table, lonely and lost. He seemed to be struggling to find the right words. "I... whoever's taken them, just give them back, they're my best friends. They've got kids who miss them, family, friends. Just let us know that they're ok, please, let them go, and guys, if you're watching this, I've got a few messages for you, BJ, Joey and Jakob miss you, they want their Dad back. Mike, Estelle's been telling us what she'll do to the nasty guys who took her Dad, and Tré, well, Frankito misses his Daddy and Ramona's been hitting your drums like crazy, just like you. And the last message is from me, and it's simple. Come home." He got up from behind the table and walked out of the room. Jane turned the TV off and wiped angrily at the tears which had emerged from her eyes.
She jumped off her bed and crept into her sister's room, she hadn't returned yet. She searched through all the drawers in Sarah's bedroom muttering to herself, "Come on, they must have had something with them... " she sighed and sat down on her sister's unmade bed. She was about to give up when she saw something poking out of the drawer in Sarah's bed. She opened it and pulled out a pillowcase, emptying the contents onto the bed. There was a cell phone in there. She grabbed it, switched it on and searched through the numbers until she found one that looked promising: Jason. She clicked the call button and it started ringing.
"Billie?"
"Hey is that Jason?"
"Yeah, why do you have Billie's phone? Are you one of the people that kidnapped him?"
"No, I mean, I don't know. It's complicated; I didn't know anything about it until the night after it happened. I... I just saw you on TV and I had to let you know that they're ok. I promise. I've been looking after them until I can figure a way to get them out. Please, I promised I'd get them out today regardless of whether I had a plan or not, please don't send anyone over here, my sister'll kill me, you don't know how she is, please."
"Hey, whoa, slow down," Jason said calmly. "So they're ok?"
"Yeah, well I mean Billie's had a bit of a rough time, but not too bad," Jane replied. "I'm sorry I sounded so pathetic," she added quietly.
"It's ok; I just can't get this through my mind properly. Ok, my next question, are you ok?"
"Me? It doesn't matter about me; did you want to speak to them?"
"It does matter about you, are you ok? Are you going to be safe?"
"It doesn't matter; besides, I'll get through whatever she's planned for me if she finds out I know." Jane got up and started walking downstairs. She opened the door to the basement, "Are you ok?"
"Yeah, just been worried like nothing else these last few days. Tim's really worried too... Armstrong that is."
"Wow, not many people can be on first name terms with Tim Armstrong... " Jane flicked on the light and Billie Joe, Mike and Tré squinted at the sudden bright light. "Sorry," Jane apologised quickly to them.
"For what?" Jason asked.
"No, I just switched the light on and it's really dark down here." The guys watched her curiously as she undid their gags and put the phone on speakerphone. "Say hi," she said into the phone.
"Hey," Jason said quietly.
"Jason!?" Billie Joe exclaimed, "Are you ok man?"
"I should be asking you guys that," he chuckled.
"We're fine, Jane's been looking after us real good," Mike answered.
"Jason how's my baby doing???" Tré yelled.
"Keep it down will you?" Jane said, looking around anxiously as if Sarah would appear out of nowhere.
"I'm fine Tré, I'm fine."
"Good, I wouldn't want my baby to be bad... well... sometimes I might. But you know that's only on Mondays!" Jane looked at Billie Joe questioningly but he gave her a 'don't ask... ' look in return. She left the guys talking to Jason and went to get dressed; it was five in the morning already so there was no point in going back to bed.
Before she went back downstairs she saw the belongings that had been tipped onto Sarah's bed. She grabbed them before she went downstairs. She might as well let them go now, and then... and then she'd go from there.
"So you'll be home soon?" Jason asked.
"Yeah, we'll be home soon." Billie said.
"I found this," Jane said interrupting their conversation, "I dunno which stuff belongs to who, you'll just have to sort it out between you." She started untying the ropes around them, first Tré's who jumped up and down at the thought of going free. Then Mike, who tried to calm Tré down unsuccessfully.
"Hey, you guys go on ahead, I just wanna talk to Jane for a second," Billie Joe said.
"Ok Bill," Mike winked at him and climbed up the stairs. When they heard the front door slam, Jane knelt down in front of Billie and reached round him to untie the rope around his waist.
"What are you gonna do?" he asked her. She stopped fumbling with the knot and heaved a sigh.
"I don't know, I really don't know... "
"Well you've gotta know, what if she comes back? Which she will, what'll you do then?" he asked worriedly.
"I don't know ok? I just... it's funny when you have to run from your own house, which you paid for with your own money, I shouldn't be such a fucking coward."
"You're not a coward, you have every right to be scared. Your sister's a fucking psycho!"
"She wouldn't do anything to seriously hurt me, I'm her sister for fucks sake! I've supported her for years! She wouldn't do serious damage... d'you think?" over the course of the sentence she began to sound less and less sure of it. Would her sister do some real damage to her? After all these years would Sarah be willing to hurt her own sister? Billie Joe looked away from her. "Would she?" Jane asked.
"I don't know Jay, but I don't wanna leave you here."
"Well I have to stay here, it's my home,"
Mike and Tré waited outside when they saw a red Cadillac pull up in front of the house. The door of the car opened and Mike and Tré hid behind a large tree planted on the grass verge at the edge of the pavement. A figure got out of the car carrying a brown package. She slammed the door shut and turned around to look out onto the apparently deserted street. "Sarah... " Mike and Tré whispered at the same time.
"You don't have to stay though! Think of what could happen!" Billie Joe pleaded with Jane.
"I do have to stay. I have my house, my belongings, my job. I can't just run away!"
"Come with us."
"What?" Billie Joe leaned forward as far as the ropes would allow him and he kissed Jane desperately.
"Well well well, you've known him five seconds and you've already got your tongue down his throat... " Jane and Billie Joe pulled away from each other quickly and looked up to the top of the stairs where Sarah was standing.
"Are you calling me a slut?" Jane asked quite pleasantly.
"Why yes, I believe I am," Sarah replied with equal pleasantness.
"Ever heard of the phrase pot calling the kettle black?"
"Oh yes, but I can't see how it applies here. I mean I don't have my tongue down a stranger's throat after five seconds of meeting them."
"No, you've already gone further by that time."
"You really don't want to upset me Jane. I'm not a very happy bunny. You've let go two of my three million dollars already. Not that anyone would pay that much for these oafs... "
"You're just jealous of everyone who's done something with their life. So you try to leech money out of them. You always have been a leech. You leeched off Mum and Dad for the first twenty one years of your pointless life, then you decided to leech off me, and now you're leeching off Green Day. I must say, you have taste."
"I am not a fucking leech!"
"We had this conversation very recently Sarah. This is the part where I ask you when you last did anything useful. And you can't come up with a better answer than doing something which involves my money being spent on you. If you wanted to go to University, you should have fucking worked for it. I tried to help you out as much as I could, but in the end, you're the one who's got to do the work. And now look at us. I'm the one with the good job who's just been promoted again. You're the one who couldn't keep a job for more than three hours. You've only ever worked for three hours in your whole life. That's why you're a fucking leech."
"Shut up Jane... " Sarah said gritting her teeth.
"No. I've had enough! You've gone too fucking far now! You've hurt too many people! I want you out of my house now. Just get out. All of this is actually mine, you don't need to pack anything up. I will let you take the clothes you're wearing right now though. Just get out of my house. If you actually fucking worked, then maybe you'd get a decent job. And maybe you'd get promoted! Promotion's a nice thing. You get better money, but of course all the money I earn is spent on you. Thanks Sarah."
"If you mention that promotion one more time... " Sarah said as she unwrapped the small brown package.
"Promotion! Promotion!"
"Jay, don't fucking mess with her. It's not worth it! Please Jay!"
"Promotion!" Jane finally yelled at the top of her voice. She fell silent as she heard a chilling click of metal on metal that she recognised all too well from movies. But only in movies had she ever heard it before. And she's always hoped that she'd never hear it in real life.
"What do we do Mike? What do we do?" Tré whined wringing his hands together.
"I don't know Tré! I don't-" he stopped talking and the colour drained from his face at the precise moment that Tré blanched. There had been a noise. A very loud, distinct noise. A noise that they'd only heard in the movies before. A noise they'd hoped to never hear in real life.
It was a gun shot.
