Kidnapped By Johnnie and Jake

Close Call

"Oh, my God!" I shouted.

I looked at my friends. Peppa was cowered down on the floor of the car with her head in her hands. Kaycee appeared to be coming around a little. She grabbed the side of the car to stable herself, and her expression looked fearful.

"Kaycee, snap out of it," I begged, grabbing her arm. I really needed her right now. I felt alone. Kaycee was always braver than me, and I wanted that comfort.

"What was that sound?" she breathed, blinking hard as if she was trying to come back to reality.

"Gunshots, Kaycee."

By this point, we were out of the gas station, and heading down the freeway, with the other car in hot pursuit. It soon caught up with us, and was at level. Johnny fired another shot, and one smashed their window. The car began getting ahead of us a little, trying to cut us off, trying to corner our car. Jake slowed down and then swerved around them, in front again. They fired a shot into our rear window in the middle, right behind my head.

"Get down," Johnny commanded.

I joined Peppa on the floor, and then dragged Kaycee down there too by her waist. Peppa breathed heavily, and I took her hand in mine. Her sweet face was wet with tears and sweat. "Don't worry," I said to her. "If Jake and Johnny wanted to put us in danger, they wouldn't have to us to get down. They can't shoot us from down here, we're okay."

"What if they crash?" she squeaked.

"From the looks of it, this is a regular occurrence to them. They seem like they're pretty in control, but even if they did crash, we might not die. And if those 'stalkers' got us, remember it's Johnnie and Jake that they're after, not us."

"Thank you," Peppa said, her mouth trembling as she did so.

I heard Johnnie say to Jake, "I think we're clear."

"I think we're okay," I said to Peppa, and then I went to peek up out of the rear window.

"Give it a minute," said Johnnie when he noticed me. "They might catch up."

I obeyed him for my own safety and ducked back down.

My heart was still beating out of my chest. I had so many questions. Why did these guys kidnap us to help with their videos? How did they go around shooting guns and getting away with it? Why did they have stalkers who were out to kill them? And why did Johnnie kiss me?

Perhaps he was just taunting me. Perhaps he just wanted to demonstrate the power he had over me. Or maybe he found me attractive.

As insignificant as it was, I couldn't help but wonder about that last question almost as much as the other ones.

*

Once we were allowed to sit back on the seats, I couldn't help but grow tired again. I suppose it was because it was still dark, and also the fact that I was comfortable enough to relax my muscles now that Kaycee was beside me instead of Johnnie. I didn't actually know what time it was, because our phones had been taken from us, and neither Johnnie or Jake would tell us. I wasn't sure why, but it was probably so maximise their control they had over us. All I knew was that it was still the same night as our My Chemical Romance concert, although it felt like a lifetime away.

*

When I awoke, it was finally daytime. I squinted in the brightness to see Johnnie pushing my leg to wake me up. Further, I saw that we were driving down a country road, Peppa was fast asleep, probably needing a long rest after all the stress she'd been through, and Kaycee was leaning forward in her seat chatting to Jake.

"I mean, yeah, I've always wanted to be famous, like a YouTuber or something, but you could've just asked me, you didn't need to kidnap us."

Jake ignored her and stopped the car on the side of the road next to a country field.

"What are we doing?" Kaycee asked.

"We figured you might all need to use the restroom," said Jake.

"I don't see a restroom," said Kaycee sassily.

"I do," said Jake. "Welcome to nature."

"Okay, I'm not gonna lie, I've had plenty of experience peeing in a lane on the way home from the club, but this...I can smell the horse manure from here, and the windows are shut."

"Would you rather the smell of horse shit, or sitting in your own shit for the rest of this trip?" asked Jake.

"Obviously I'd rather the smell of horse shit, but not when we have a third option here, which is taking me to an actual restroom. The services, maybe?"

Jake laughed. "Yeah, that's not an option."

"Why not?"

"You think we're just gonna let our captives loose in a service station? You've clearly never kidnapped anyone before," said Johnnie.

Kaycee raised an eyebrow. "You clearly have."

Johnnie opened his door. "Anyway," he said, before walking round to one of the back doors and opening it, "out we get."

Unfortunately, I really did need to pee. Peppa (very sleepily), Kaycee and I all followed Johnnie into the field while he held his gun tightly in his hand. He came to a stop and instructed us to go ahead and do our business. The three of us stood awkwardly for a minute, waiting for him to turn his back, but then it dawned on me: a kidnapper is not going to turn their back on their captive out in an open space.