A Choice Of Abiding

↠love like a needle full of methadone...↞

Luke and Micheal were waiting impatiently, when Ashton finally arrived back at the hotel. 

"I finished ringing up the hospitals", Micheal sighed, pressing his fingers into his temples, as if he had a horrible migraine, "Good thing, he isn't in one of them. Bad thing, we still don't know, where the fuck he went." 

"I think, we should call management." Luke looked as exhausted as Micheal did. At least, they had slept. Ashton felt his tiredness to the bone. If it weren't for the adrenaline rush, he would have slept in standing. 

The aftermaths of the drug did it's part, as well. All together, he had a horrible craving for another pill to keep him awake and especially happy. He didn't even wanted to think about the depressing feelings, he would have to endure during the next week. 

Calling management now, seemed like a horrible idea to Ashton. Michael had the same opinion, luckily. If they admitted, they lost control over Calum again, they would have a babysitter from management in no time again. He may had selfish reasons though. He wouldn't be able to live the tour life, like he was used to. Obviously, they wouldn't look only over Calum. Ashton was goddamn 28 years old, he didn't wanted to be watched like an eight year old. 

"Did you call the police already?" Ashton asked, rubbing his eyes and suppressing a yawn. He needed sleep, and a joint to get his mind of the craving. He knew, he should stop taking amphetamines altogether. Yet, the feeling was too damn compelling. He fucking loved the high, even if he would never admit it. 

"Of course" Luke scoffed, "He's not in custody, if that's what you asking. And I can't report him as missing yet." 

Ashton pulled out his phone. It was almost nine already. He had no messages from Charlie, but that didn't mean anything. He needed to know, if she found out anything. 

"What you are doing now?" Michael asked him. Ashton didn't care to answer. He pulled the note, Charlie gave him, out of his pocket and started to type the digests on his phone. He needed to know, if she found Calum. 

A part of him also wanted to check on her, but he couldn't admit that. Not even to himself. It never came to the call, since right, when he wanted to hit call, his phone rang. It was management. 

"Speaking of the devil!", he sighed and took the call, "Yeah?" 

"Ashton! Are the other boys around? Can you put me on speaker?" It was Elise, who was responsible for them, when they were on tour. Usually, they didn't see or hear all to much of her. Ashton was curious, what she had to say. 

"Sure" Ashton did, as he was asked to. The others jumped up and gathered round the phone. 

"So since you are all here, I guess you noticed the unknown whereabouts of Calum. Good news is, we know, where he is and we are handling it." Elise didn't sound nervous at all. This was a good sign. They knew about Calum's whereabouts and he was very likely to be fine. Ashton felt the weight drop of his shoulders. He hadn't even realized, how tense he had been ever since Luke called him this morning. 

"Where is he? What happened?", Michael asked immediately. He looked relieved, but also still concerned. He would stop worrying, when he saw his friend in the flesh again. 

"We received a threat, together with a demand for ransom," Elise started to explain, but got interrupted by Luke: "Then shouldn't we call the police? He got kidnapped?" 

"Luke, calm down." Ashton growled annoyed. All this fuss gave him a headache. Luke glared at him, but Ashton couldn't care less. They could hear Elise sigh. 

"Ashton is right. We have everything under control. The kidnappers demanded a ridiculously small amount of money. We can pay for this ourselves. If we call the police, the news would catch wind of this. We can't afford to have a social media shitstorm right now. Or do you want your fans to go on the warpath, because of this."