Halloween Night

Chapter 38

Ally bit the inside of her lip as she watched Austin dial. She looked and noticed the sun going down slowly. It was bright in her eyes so she turned to look at Austin and only Austin, his mop of blonde hair glowing in the orange rays. Right now, he looked like an angel. And he was. He was her angel, her fighter, her hero.

"I got your message." Austin said into the phone.

Silence. "Six. There are six of us. Of course, you have one of my friends so there's five now."

Austin seemed to get angry by whatever they said. "Whatever. I don't really care what you say you're going to do. We want our friend back."

"We're not going to rat you out. We're going to go far away. We'll never step foot in Miami again if that's what you want, I swear. Ju-just give them back." Ally heard the desperation in his voice. She walked closer to him, grabbing his hand to comfort him but he slipped out of her grasp, walking to the other side of the phone booth. She sighed, trying not to cry.

"Who are you talking about?" Austin looked back at Ally, eyes locked and a look of sheer horror on his face.

"No, you're not touching her." Austin spat. "That's unacceptable, I want different terms." Ally started shaking.

Austin growled a low growl deep in his throat. "Stop calling her that." He turned and whispered into the headset. "Listen, we'll do anything. We have money, we won't tell anyone what happened, just let them go. We don't want to run from you and the law forever."

"I already said that wasn't an option." Austin said again, slamming his head into the side of the booth. "Anything but that." Austin paused again. "Yes. I would be willing to do that," He choked out. "Though I can only assume that's not what you want. You're testing me, right?"

Ally tilted her head in sheer confusion. What was he talking about? Why does he sound so adult?

Austin was channeling his inner Ally the entire conversation, speaking in a way that he thought she would. He broke character a couple of times, getting angry when they mentioned bad things about Ally.

"Of course I'm testing you." The disguised voice growled on the other end. "I'm not an idiot. Listen, it sounds like you won't budge on the bitch."

"I told you to stop saying that."

"We're not scared of you, Mr. Moon." The voice growled. "I don't know how you'll get this type of money before Wednesday, but let's go ahead and say 50,000 or else I get the girl. She's probably worth more like 100,000. But, I'll give you a deal since you were willing to give me your ass over hers."

"We'll figure it out. I'll call you Wednesday."

"Oh, hey, don't leave town. We'll know and we'll just follow you. And you wouldn't want us to hurt the bald guy or the freaky red head now would you?" The voice said, referring to Jimmy and Dez. Austin was silent.

"Didn't think so. So I expect to see you, the girl, the Latino, the blonde girl and the Justin Bieber wannabe on Wednesday morning with the cash or else I'll be taking your girl."

"We'll get it to you. I just said that." Austin growled and hung up the phone before they could say anything more perverse.

Ally was looking up at him with wide eyes. "What happened?"

"They want money." Austin choked out and looked sadly down at his girlfriend.

"How much?" Ally furrowed her eyebrows and gulped at the look of fear and despair on Austin's face.

"50,000" Austin told her as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"We have a little over $30,000 – couldn't you have worked them down?" Ally whimpered.