Every Story Has a Beginning

Part 17 - No Escape

Chapter 1 - What Now...?

It had been almost forever in that van. It had been so long, Dave had literally fallen asleep. I mean, was there any better to do? It was cold. There was no source of warmth. It was dark. There was no source of light. There was nothing. The van kept moving. Onward and onward to nowhere.

There was no way to tell our whereabouts. No GPS, no map... Besides, we're no good at geography anyway, with or without a map, we'd still be here, lost. I wasn't sure what Jay and Alfred were doing, but I presumed they were asleep too. I just couldn't fall asleep. Maybe that was what they wanted... I had to stay alert. I was the leader of the group, and if anything happened to us, it would be mostly my fault. I couldn't let us down. Not after how far we've come. It didn't matter that the group was torn apart by Mina. We could get ourselves back together. I knew we could.

*

"Out you come!" Mina's father shouted.

The van door opened.

As soon as it did, I noticed that it was now the middle of the night. However, there was no moon, no stars... Was this a bad omen?

Dave, Jay and Alfred were now awake. Dave ran first out of the van, the dark was his nightmare. Jay and Alfred followed behind.

"This is my place," Mina announced, indicating the house that the van was parked by.

It didn't seem too nice from the outside. Maybe I shouldn't judge a book by its cover.

"Don't be shy, come in," Mina insisted.

I was right to judge a book by its cover. This was no house.

Chapter 2 - The Blame Game

This was a prison.

Before we knew it, we were pushed into a cell.

What had we done...?

So this was what Mina was up to. Capturing innocent people, gullible enough to make the journey all the way here...

And then I guess they got held for ransom...

I guess this was us now...

I looked over to the boys. They didn't look too happy....

"This is all your fault!" Jay snapped.

"Me?" Dave asked. "I warned you but you didn't listen! Now look at where we are!"

"Well maybe you should've tried to persuade me harder!"

"At least I bothered to try!"

"Try? That was one of the most unpersuasive speeches I've ever heard!"

"What, did you want me to write you a whole essay!?"

"You know, you should've thought of that earlier!"

"I'm not the smartest person on earth Jay! I don't do essays! Besides, even if I did, it'd take me forever to write, and it'd probably have ended in the same result!"

"You know, he has a point..." Alfred interrupted.

"So now you're ganging up on me huh?" Jay asked. "Some friend you are!"

"I'm just saying! This isn't just Dave's fault, it isn't just my fault, it's also your fault, Jay!" Alfred shouted. "Stop blaming all of us, and take some responsibility!"

Jay snarled.

"It's you twos fault and I know it!" he exclaimed.

"I told you Mina was up to something! I warned you! You put this on yourselves!" Dave shouted.