Awake at Last

Nine

We pull up to the library. It's dark inside, with cobwebs and boards covering the windows that aren't cracked and broken. I take a deep breath. It's just... creepy. "Come on Avi..." I mumble, getting out of the car. We both walk towards the main entrance, which looks just about rusted shut. Avi pries at it for a few minutes and it comes up useless. There's a window nearby that's broken, just enough for someone to crawl through. Jagged shards of glass stick up from the bottom of it. That would be easy to hurt yourself on, which definitely means Marcus didn't go through it; big and bad as he acts, the guy can't stand blood. At least, he can't stand his own blood. So getting injured just to haul his captive into some old library probably isn't what he would want to do. If this is where he is, he went through a different window. "He went in a different way. Let's check around back." We both head around the side of the building and there, sitting in plain sight, is a window that was once boarded shut. The boards have clearly been broken- maybe a baseball bat or something of the like. "We've found our entryway," I mutter. "Help me up." Avi forms a platform for my foot with his hands, allowing me to haul myself into the window. I pull him in after me and we both turn around. The place is coated with cobwebs and dust. Rats squeak as we enter, scurrying off into god-knows-where. I can only see about two feet in front of me, other than that it's pitch black. Avi pulls out his phone to text the others, but I stop him. "We don't know if he's in here or if this is a decoy. He's smart, Avi. Remember that. Always remember that."

"Alright." He replies, turning on some flashlight app and shining it around. Bookshelves line the walls, all coated with dust and cobwebs, just like everything else in the building is. Sitting in the corner farthest from us is an old desk with a chair sitting behind it. Though they haven't seen a librarian in years. "God this place is all kinds of creepy." he says, looking around with a disgusted look on his face. "Do you see him?" I shake my head.

"Let's check upstairs." I say, already heading towards the stairs. We climb them and head onto the upper floor of the library, which is identical to the first aside from four desks with computers on them sitting in the center of the floor, all facing away from each other. From the looks of it, they haven't been turned on in years. "I don't see him. We'll check the bathrooms and then we leave."

"Sounds fine. The sooner we get out the better." He responds. We both creep to opposite sides of the library, me towards the woman's bathroom and him towards the men's. I grab a wooden plank that's laying on the floor- from the ceiling, I assume -and carefully open the door. He's not in here, it looks like. I slowly- ready to go insane if I see him -throw open each stall. Still no sign of him. Decoy. Just like I thought. I head back into the main room to see Avi standing there. He looks up at me when he notices I've come in, "He wasn't in mine."

"Mine either. Have any of the others texted you?" I ask. He checks his phone and shakes his head. "Send them texts asking if they're done checking their places. Tell anyone that says yes to meet us at the amusement park." Avi does so, and after a few minutes his phone buzzes a few times. He reads the messages and says the words that I had been dreading,

"Guess we're going to the amusement park then."

-

We pull up next to Kirstie's car, where she and the others are sitting around and staring at the entrance to the park like it's the gates of hell. "Hey guys!" I say happily, walking over to them. They look over at me like I've officially lost my mind. "Um... so... this is creepy."

"Yeah, it is." Mitch replies as Avi comes around the car to stand next to me. He takes my hand and gives me a confident look. It's comforting to have him next to me.

"Time to go in then..." I mumble. Avi at my side and the others walking behind us, we all head into the park. The rides are all broken in one way or another. Everything's gross and rusted and old. The lights that once lit the entire place and made it gorgeous at night are all busted and turned off. Suddenly, a voice blares over the loudspeaker system that once announced things like when the park was closing.

"Well, well, well. Alyss, I see you've brought your little friends." Marcus. Of course he's here. "Well, I haven't hurt your other little friend. Yet. Piper, do say hello." I here a scream come from the loudspeaker, and then someone starts sobbing. It's muffled and odd-sounding since her mouth is probably taped shut. "Oh shut-up you!" Marcus yells. I hear a kick land on something human and then the only thing I can hear is small whimpers.

"Let her go Marcus!" I shout. The only sound that comes from the speaker is his sick, twisted laughter. I want to find him and kick him in the balls, I really do. "Marcus! Come out here and face us! Or are you scared you'll lose? You could never take more than one person, because you and your big bad self knew you would be hopelessly outnumbered."

"Oh Alyss, you always were the aggressive type. In case you hadn't figured this out, I'm not letting her go until you hand yourself over. So, boo-hoo that you don't get your friend back. Just know that every moment you live, is every moment that she gets closer to her death. And then that little boyfriend that claims he loves you. I love you Alyss. He's just some celebrity that thinks you're pretty. It'll never last."

"So I suppose you love her enough to try to murder her, take her best friend and then threaten us with death!" Avi yells. I look over to him and see how red he is. Kind of looks like one of those stupid crayons you get in a Crayola box: 'Fire Engine Red'. "You're a psycho!"

"Oh shut up pretty boy. I should just kill you now, because Alyss is mine. I own her." Marcus hisses into the microphone.

"Leave him out of this Marcus! And leave Piper out of it too! It's me you want." I know what I have to do, but how could I? No, I need to keep Piper and Avi and my friends safe. "Let her go and take me!"

"What?" Avi yelps, grabbing my shoulders and pulling me close. "Alyss, there's another way! There has to be!"

"No, Avi. I can't let six people die just because I want to live. I need to do this." I turn and kiss him, a soft, long kiss. There's a tear streaming down his cheek, so I wipe it away. "I love you," I whisper. He grips my waist, and I have to pull myself from his grasp. "Come out Marcus. Give us Piper."

The snake himself appears from behind a wall with a limp, battered, and bloodied Piper in his hands. He throws her at us, and Scott lunges forward to catch her. "There you go." He moves quickly at me and grabs my arm, tearing me away from Avi and the others. "Nice doing business with you." I stumble along as he drags me away, and the last thing I hear is Avi yell:

"I love you, Alyss, I will find you!" Then I feel Marcus's fist come down hard on my head, just above my right eye, and I begin to drift into unconsciousness.

-

A/N: Yay! Not as short of a chapter as the last one! I'm so sorry that I haven't been putting up chapters often; turns out I'm super super behind in school, so I've been trying to catch up and stuff. Anyway, thanks so so so so much for over nine hundred reads!!! It's so crazy to think that last chapter I was thanking you all for six hundred, and now we've shot up three hundred reads. Like... what?

Anyways, a brief warning: the next four-five chapters will probably contain a decent amount of swearing, so be warned. So I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, and peace! :)

PS: This is a filler chapter. So if it sucked... boop. Next one will be longer, I promise.