Perfect (Rewrite)

Chapter Twenty Three

Chloe entered the living room quietly and sat down on the center spot of the couch. David put his hand on her knee and nodded towards the screen. "Just remember that it's not a live feed," He told her, and Chloe nodded. No matter what he expected from her, she wasn't going to smile, not through this. Not while her friends were in danger. 

The TV screen flashed on and off a few times before the video started to play. "Do any of you have anything you want to say to Chloe?" The man asked them, but once again he wasn't in view of the camera, if only he would've made a mistake and shown his face. Then at least Chloe would've felt a little bit better, knowing who he was, knowing who had put them all here.

"I just want to say congratulations, Chloe," Ruby said, rubbing her hands together. The classic sign of her being happy, but Chloe wasn't overjoyed to hear this statement. What was wrong with her? "I'm so jealous of you, I wish I was there instead of you."

"Yeah, Chloe's always the one getting to do the fun stuff," Mikey chimed, shaking his head with a smirk. "Always getting what she wants whenever she wants it."

"We wish we were her," Ruby said, and then Chloe glanced at Betsy. She didn't seem as excited as the others, if anything, she seemed a little disappointed, jealous even. They were all jealous. Why?

"It's really, kind of, not fair," Betsy said. "I wanted to be part of this more than she did. Why was she picked over me?"

"That's not a valid statement," The man replied and then the program paused and the TV flashed a few times before turning off and changing to the constant, white blurry, snowy, fuzz.

"Don't let it get to you," Jacob said after he stood up and kicked the TV stand. "He's just trying to get into your head."

"Has he gone this far with any of you?" Chloe asked, but she didn't want any of them to answer. She already knew what it would be; he didn't care about them like he did for her. She was special, and Chloe knew that he felt this way. Why was he torturing her if he liked her so much? Couldn't he see he was hurting her beyond the breaking point?

"No," David answered for them.

"Why me?" Chloe asked before she buried her face in her hands. "I didn't ask for any of this, and now my friends say that they're jealous that they're not me and that they're not here. Why would they want to be here?" She wept into her palms, sniffled through her syllables.

"He must be lying to them," Melanie said and then everyone looked to her. She shrugged her shoulders and explained, "I'm sure that if your friends really knew where you were that they wouldn't be so excited for you. They must not know the truth. They're as some might say, being blind sided."

"See," David said, shaking Chloe's shoulder. "There's the bright light in this, extremely, dark shadow. Melanie's right and so is Jacob, he's just trying to mess with you, get inside your head. You just have to keep him out."

"It doesn't change the fact that he was in their house," Chloe muttered under her breath. She hoped no one had heard her, but she knew everyone had. It was completely silent, they could've heard a pin drop. Her friends had been in danger, and maybe they still were.

"I guess you're right about that one," David told her; he squeezed her tight up against him and whispered, "We're going to get out of here, I promise."