Last Breaths of Freedom

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DISCLAIMER: Everything that happens in this story is fictional!

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DISCLAIMER: The main character (Brooke) meets Johnnie and Jake in the last quarter of this chapter, so if you find the first bit about the concert boring, feel free to skip it! It just gives you an introduction to Brooke and her friends' personalities, and how they end up meeting Johnnie and Jake.

***

I had been waiting for this day since 2013, and it had finally arrived. My Chemical Romance had reunited, and were performing near Kansas. That hadn't happened in such a long time, so of course I'd jumped at the opportunity, and brought three tickets. One for myself, one for my friend Peppa whom I was dragging along along, and one for our friend Kaycee, whom I did not have to drag, as she was just excited as I was.

Although it was the closest show MCR was doing to us, we still had to travel about an hour by train. It was a good ride; there weren't too many other passengers, and we met another group of concertgoers who were seated on the booth next to ours. We'd noticed their shirts, and then started chatting and singing almost the whole train ride, probably annoying the few other passengers. I did notice a couple move into a different carriage after a while.

"Is this your first MCR concert?" Kaycee asked the other girls. Kaycee usually enjoyed one-upping people, so she probably knew the other group looked too young to have attended any of MCR's old concerts before their reunion. Kaycee was the only one out of all of us who had even been to a concert at all, unless you counted a shitty small-town performance by middle schoolers with out of tune guitars. Unsurprisingly, the group said yes. "Aww, you guys have missed out! They were so good back in the day. At least you have a second chance, though!" Kaycee exclaimed.

*

We were staying the night in a cheap hotel so we wouldn't have to travel back after the concert, so first we checked in and dropped off our belongings into our hotel room.

"C'mon, we have to leave now, we need to get there as early as possible. I bet there are people who have been camping outside the venue since last night, and I didn't pay all this money for nothing," said Kaycee as she threw off her cami and sweats, and pulled on her dark red bralette, black skinny jeans, and studded silver belt in front of us without warning. She looked good—her hair straight and blonde, and her skin freshly tanned.

"We can't go any faster," I said as I turned away from my friends and changed into my black crop top, and flare jeans with detailing on the back pockets. I liked to draw attention to my butt; it was the one thing Kaycee was always jealous of, but she played it off by calling it a fat dumptruck, saying that small butts were "in" again.

When I turned back around, I saw Peppa lying on the king-sized bed we'd booked for us all to share, trying to save money since we'd spent so much on the concert and train tickets. She hadn't changed her clothes; she was still wearing her baggy mom jeans and baggy shirt, and her chocolate brown hair was still thrown back in a claw clip.

"Peppa, come on, you spent the money, so you might as well try to enjoy it," I pleaded, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

"I will, I will," she said with a sigh.

*

By the time we'd taken a taxi and arrived outside the venue, the line was very long. We could see the friends we'd made on the train standing further up in the queue.

"Ugh, see I told you guys, we shouldn't have brought anything with us, then we could've went straight to the venue," said Kaycee. "Wait here, I'm gonna go up to that group and ask if we can cut the line to be with them."

"No—" said Peppa, but before she could protest out of embarrassment, Kaycee had turned her back and was heading towards the other group.

A minute later, Kaycee came walking back, rolling her eyes. "They were gonna say we could join them, but the bitches in the line behind them told me to fuck off."

"And you're gonna do it?" I asked, teasing her.

"I wouldn't care what they think, but there would literally be no room unless they moved up. Plus, I wouldn't wanna spend all the concert next to them."

"Well, it was worth a try," I said.

"It really wasn't," said Peppa, shaking her head but laughing a little at the same time.

*

The concert went great, but I won't relay it to you, because I'm sure you're here to find out what happened afterwards...how I came to meeting Johnnie and Jake, my kidnappers.

On our way back to the hotel, the night had grown completely dark, and we were quite drunk in the backseats of the taxi. We were singing the sings we'd listened to in the concert, still having fun (Peppa had loosened up a little), but the taxi driver routinely peered into the rear view mirror. I assumed he was looking at us, either checking us out or trying to make sure we weren't about to throw up in the back of his car.

Once he parked up in the hotel parking lot and we'd paid him, I had my hand on the door handle about to leave, but he quietly but sternly said, "Wait."

For a split second I thought he'd counted our money and we hadn't paid enough, and Kaycee, Peppa and I glanced at each other, but all of a sudden, the sound of screeching tires and the whiteness of bright headlights flooded into the parking lot.

We all darted our heads round to look out of the rear window, and saw a sleek, low car speed over and come to a sudden stop in the middle of the otherwise dark, deserted parking lot, not even parked in an actual space.

"Don't get out," the taxi driver instructed.

"Why?" I asked.

"Ugh, I haven't got anything on me, if I get robbed, what are they gonna take? My clothes? Hot!" Kayce said with a slurred voice. She reached for the door handle, but Peppa grabbed her arm to stop her, looking frightened, and with that, the taxi driver locked the doors. "Ugh, let us out, you creep!"

"That car has been following us," the taxi driver blurted, clearly afraid of being accused of being a creep. "I wasn't going to tell you because I didn't want to alarm you, but if I let you out and something happens, I'll feel responsible!"

"If you don't unlock the door, I'm calling the police," Kaycee threatened, pulling her phone out of her pocket.

Without another word, the taxi driver unlocked the door. As fast as she could, Kayce opened the door and stumbled out of the car, almost falling over; she was the biggest drinker of all of us. To reach the hotel entrance which was on the other side of the parking lot, we'd have to walk past the strange car.

Peppa and I glanced at each other, but I rushed out of the open door to follow Kaycee; I couldn't let her go alone. "Kaycee!" I shouted for her to wait up.

As we neared, the two front doors of the strange black car opened up, and two young men walked out of them.

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