The Cost of Freedom Is High

Lights Out

The door quickly unlocked once my hands rested on the door handle, and I made my way down the edge of the lawn and towards Danny and Austin's voice.

"Well, it's nice to see you up, and not causing problems." Danny stated.

"I'm not going to break my promise." I replied, being honest.

"Good, let's go." Austin replied.

"Wait!" I exclaimed, as Danny and Austin started to walk towards the front of the mansion.

"What now?" Danny pretend whined at me.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"For a car ride. You sit in the back, wear these, and be quiet, and everything will be fine." Danny told me, tossing me a pair of sunglasses.

"We're leaving?" I exclaimed, more in a questioning tone.

"Yes, now get into the car." Austin instructed, as we arrived in the very front, next to a smaller car.

I did as he told me, and I watched as Austin hopped into the driver's seat and Danny got in next to him.

"You might want to make sure that you behave and do what I told you. One, because first of all you won't be able to get out, and two, you'll be punished like never before when we get home." Danny warned me.

"Yes, sir." I replied, slipping on the sunglasses and buckling my seatbelt.

It was quiet for the first few minutes as Austin pulled out of the driveway and started driving us towards what I'd call 'The Real World.'

I had to admit, I was a little curious as to why they seemed to have no issue with me going out with them, normally I wasn't even allowed out of the house, but now I was in the car with Austin and Danny and headed out in a car. Something wasn't right.

Finally we were out on actual roads, and all I could do was stare out the window and watch the scenery go by.

"Bella!" Danny called, snapping me out of my gaze.

"Yeah?" I replied.

"It's a bit of a longer drive, so pick something out." Danny said, tossing me a black case filled with CDs.

Looking through all of the CDs I realized that most of them were from bands that were involved in this whole thing. I stopped on Sempiternal by Bring Me The Horizon.

"I haven't seen Oli or any of the other guys from Bring Me in a while." I stated, handing the case back over to him with Sempiternal on top.

"They're on a huge tour. The tour started in the US, now they're in Europe, and next they're headed to South America. Around Christmas they'll be back." Danny explained.

"Christmas?" I asked, as the idea almost seemed foreign to me.

"Yeah, you know the 25th of December, Santa, Rudolph. Anything ringing a bell?" Danny asked me.

"No, I know what it is. It was just that I guess I haven't fully processed how long I'm going to be here and what I'm missing at home." I replied, my tone becoming solemn.

"You are home, Bella." Danny said, pressing play.

Can You Feel My Heart started to pour out of the stereo, and I put my head back against the headrest and just shut everything else out and let the music be my focus.

Funny how things work out, that's what I used to do before this entire thing happened.

Oli and I could agree on one thing.

"I long for that feeling to not feel at all"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hours Later -

We pulled up to a nice sized house, but it was big enough. However, nothing even close to the sheer size of the main mansion or DJ and Michael's mansion. Where the hell were we?

Besides from the middle of nowhere of course.

Putting the sunglasses up on my head, I waited for Danny and or Austin's instructions.

"No one's home yet, but we'll still go in." Austin stated.

As I took a closer look, the house started to look more and more daunting.

"Who lives here?" I asked.

"You'll find out if you need to." Danny said.

I rolled my eyes and stepped out of the car, following Danny and Austin up to the front door.

With a key they let me in and I took a deep breath, taking in everything around me.

It was a halloween lover's dream.

"Stay here, and we'll come back out when we've gotten everything." Austin instructed.

"Can you at least tell me something?" I whined, a bit scared.

"We're just picking some supplies up from a band that we're all friends with to get you ready for things like Warped and so on so forth. Now sit and don't move." Danny replied, leaving with Austin behind him into another hallway.

About 20 minutes my curiosity got the better of me, and I found myself getting up and wandering towards the front door.

What a mistake that was.

A black car, similar to Michael's but a bit larger approached the front of the house and parked next to the car we came in.

My gaze met the intense stare of two deep brown eyes. They wouldn't release my gaze, but fear quickly released it as I realized who I was looking at.

Nikki Misery.

Besides him was someone I didn't recognize and there were two other males in the back seat. No sign of Ashley. Kill me now.

"Danny! Austin!" I screamed, getting up and running down the hall that I'd seen them go down.

With no luck finding them, I shut my mouth as soon as I heard the front door open and close.

"We're home!" Someone yelled.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

I've never wanted to be with Danny and or Austin so bad.

I slipped into the closest door that I found and closed it behind me.

Once I was in I realized that I was in a guy's room. Coming to no surprise to me it was all black. In the very corner there was a bass guitar, leaning up against the wall.

Who was their bassist?

I knew Ash sung, Nick Rossi played drums, Jeremy and Nikki were on guitar, but who the hell was on bass?

That didn't matter though, all that did matter was making sure that I could stay out of their sight long enough to either get to Danny and Austin or meet them in the car.

Just as I was about to crouch next to the bed to get underneath it, the door opened up.


There's that Bella luck I've been cursed with.


"Hey there, sexy." He chuckled in an incredibly seductive tone of voice.

Gazing up, I noticed that he was tall, black haired, somewhat reminding me of Tyler in a bit of a stretch, and his almost hazel eyes seemed to stare into my soul.

Talk about uncomfortable.

"Hi." I finally whispered.

"Do you want to follow me back, or do something else stupid?" He asked, now in a much more serious tone.

"I'll follow you." I shakily replied.

"Good girl." He cooed.

He walked back to where I bolted from and I was met with both Nikki and Jeremy.

Nick Rossi was nowhere to be seen, I knew thought that I had seen him riding in the car.

"Is the rest of your body as sexy as your eyes?" Nikki asked me, roughly grabbing me, and pulling me tight to his body.

I knew instantly, he was not playing around. I'd be wise to be careful and good around him.

"I don't know." I whispered.

"Aww, am I scaring you?" Nikki taunted me, running his hands down my side.

Waiting to reply, I guess I took too long and his nails and fingers dug at least an inch into my inner thigh.

Trying not to scream, I failed completely as the pain started to run through both of my legs.

It was fucking excruciating, and brought tears to the brim of my eyes.

"Yeah." I whimpered.

"Good, now answer this. Why are you here, and not home and in bed with someone?" Nikki wondered.

"We made a deal, they're not going to do anything with me in that nature as long as I follow the rules. Well, at least for a week." I answered.

A huge sigh of relief came, when his grip loosened, but fear set in as a smirk came across his face.

"You were scared before we even walked in. That's why you went to find Danny and Austin, you wanted to get the hell out of here." Nikki realized with a hint of humor in his voice.

"Please, I just want to go back." I pleaded with him.

"Just relax and don't be afraid of the dark." He told me.

What?

That's when he pushed me into the arms of the bassist whose name remained a mystery.

In an instant his hand was over my mouth and nose, and his other arm had a death grip around my waist.

"Mmh!" I gurgled, attempting to scream against his hand to no prevail.

Attempting to wiggle free and breath again, he made sure to keep a vice grip on me. The near future was imminent.

At the moment I didn't have the strength to fight this, I quickly gave in and allowed to let my airflow come to a stop.

The blackness engulfed me, as my body fell into an endless pit of darkness.

At least that's what it felt like.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nikki Misery's POV -

"Nice job." I congratulated Chris Khaos, our new bassist as she fell back into his arms.

"Thanks, it didn't take much. She didn't fight it." He replied.

"So what's the plan?" Jeremy asked.

"She was telling the truth about their week long deal, why not take her off their hands for a bit, so they can finish redoing their basement without her knowing. Plus we wouldn't have been able to see her until Warped, might as well get to know her a bit now." I explained to both Jeremy and Chris.

"Great minds think alike." Danny stated, walking up from the back hall with Austin and Nick.

"Is everyone else okay with that?" Jeremy wondered.

"She's not doing too much for us this week, no one will mind too much." Austin answered.

"Ash has been dying to meet her and teach her a thing or two, but she's gone all week. If she does come it'll be a quick hour pop in." I told both Danny and Austin.

"That would be awesome. She did pass William's test and everything, but learning from the flip side would be good for her." Austin said.

"Agreed." Danny stated.

"Is there anything especially that we should worry about?" I asked.

"If she mentions the promise, just remind her first of all that proper adressal is a rule. She sucks at it so just call her on that and say the deal's up." Austin instructed.

I let out a laugh, I could see that she might have some issue with authority, and being a submissive.

"I'll do that. Thanks for letting us keep her, we'll drive her back after the week's up." I thanked them.

"No problem, we should probably hit the road, if we want to make it back before dark." Danny said.

"Understood, it was nice meeting you." Chris stated.

"You too, once this week is done feel free to come up anytime and visit us. Bella will always be there, besides from Warped of course, but if you've even got a day off go ahead and come on up." Danny replied.

"Will do." Chris said.

"She'll be out for a little bit so I'll just take her somewhere to lay down." Jeremy told us.

"Sounds good." We all replied.

As he took her towards the bedroom the 5 of us walked back outside to the car Danny and Austin came in.

"Don't be afraid to get her back on track, she's dealt with DJ, Michael, and William. She'll be fine." Austin informed us.

"We'll do whatever necessary." I said.

They nodded and both got in the car, with Austin's window down.

"Wait!" Nick exclaimed as the car started up.

"What's wrong?" Austin asked.

"I know that Bella lost the baby, but we never found out whose it was. Do you mind telling us?" Nick questioned them.

"Oh yeah, no problem." Danny stated.

"It was Kuza's."