The Cost of Freedom Is High

Waiting It Out

We'd arrived at our little hideout house about 5 hours ago.

At the moment, AJ was passed out on the couch, Rich, Shane, and I were watching the news intently to see if anything else was being talked about, at least in the way of Bella.

There was nothing.

We hadn't heard from anyone, and the plan was to not hear from them until sometime later tomorrow.

Right after we had arrived here, Shane went ahead and gave Bella some of those medications. She hasn't woken up yet, but her body's been moving a bit and we've noticed her eyelids flutter a teeny bit so we're assuming that she should wake up any minute now.

"How long do you think we'll have to be here?" Rich asked.

"Probably at least 3 days, it really depends." I told him.

"Chris!" Bella suddenly screamed, sitting straight up.

"What the fuck!" AJ exclaimed, waking up from Bella's scream.

"Relax Bella, it's okay. You're safe and okay." I said in an attempt to calm her down, by also going over and kneeling in front of her.

"Who are you guys?" She asked, obviously a bit out of it.

"I'm Josh, remember? I'm MIW's tour manager, and this is Rich, Shane, and AJ who are all techs for MIW." I told her.

"What happened?" She mumbled.

"You didn't feel good for a little bit, but we took you to a doctor and we got you some medicine." I said.

"You're Korel." She stated.

"Yeah." I responded.

"Where'd the others go?" She asked.

"They're fixing a little problem, but they'll be back in a few days." I told her.

"I'm a little hungry, is it okay if I get something to eat?" She whispered, after a few minutes of silence.

"I'll go make you something." Shane grunted, getting up.

"Thanks." She said quietly.

I noticed that she instantly moved off of the couch and onto the floor where she curled tightly with her arms around her legs.

"You can stay on the couch." I told her.

"I'm fine." She whispered.

I got up and met Shane in the kitchen.

"I have a new love and respect for campbell's." Shane chuckled, pulling out a can of chicken noodle soup.

"Thanks for doing that." I thanked him.

"No problem, how does she seem?" Shane asked.

"To be honest, kind of distant. I'm actually starting to think she's really missing Chris and the others, and not just as an escape." I replied.

"She has been with them now for several months." Shane pointed out.

"I guess so." I muttered, and hopped up onto the counter.

About two minutes passed, and to both Shane and I's surprise Bella came slowly walking into the kitchen.

"Sit down Bells, you shouldn't be walking around." Shane softly said.

"What happened to me?" She whispered, sitting down at the table and putting her head in her hands.

"You're body's just a bit stressed, and you're a little under the weather." I replied.

"I think I need to go back to bed." She coughed out.

"Just wait and eat a little bit first." Shane instructed her.

She simply nodded yes, and Shane and I started to converse about the next tour of MIW's that was coming up in 10 days.

The microwave then beeped, and as Shane went to grab the soup I told Bella it was ready.

After getting no response I looked over to where she was and I noticed she was fast asleep with her head resting on her crossed arms.

"She's out." I stated.

"You're kidding me." Shane groaned, throwing his head back.

"She just seems tired now. As long as we keep giving her the medicine and make sure she sleeps and eat properly she should be fine. Chris said they won't probably take more than 3 days so whatever does happen he and the rest of the guys will easily be able to get it under control." I explained to him.

"To be honest with you the only thing I'm worried about is her and Rich." Shane chuckled.

"Tell me about it." I replied.

"So what do we if she does start acting up?" Shane asked me.

"I'm not even thinking about that now, I mean looking at her know there isn't much damage she can impose on anyone." I answered.

"Good point, so I guess we just have to wait it out." Shane said.

"Yep, we're just lucky that no one was caught." I told him.

"After this though we can't afford to make any mistakes or have her get recognized or scene." He told me.

"I know."

"Don't repeat this to anyone else, but I've just got this bad feeling about Warped Tour. Something in my gut says we shouldn't bring her." I admitted.

"That's still months away, let's just take it day by day for now." He suggested.

"Okay." I muttered.

I glanced intently over at Bella and carefully studied her facial expressions.

I didn't know how to describe it but something I saw in her face told me that she had some secret hidden within her.

What could it possibly be?

To be honest, I was clueless.

And as we've learned from experience, being clueless around Bella is never a good occurrence.