Jenalyn: Disconnected (#5) [Complete]

Chapter 34: Evelyn

Wed. 12/31/08 • 6:45 P.M. EST

My head is throbbing. It's the only thing I can think about when I open my eyes...

Well, I thought I opened my eyes... everything is black. Like, pitch black.

What the fuck happened?

I try to bring my hands to my eyes, but immediately find that they are bound together. My heart starts pounding a mile a minute as I realize my legs are too...

What the fuck happened?!

Memories are quick to flood my mind: Leaving Hayden's hotel, walking down to the train station to figure out a way home, and then... and then getting attacked!

"Where the fuck am I?!" I scream as the realization hits my brain. I don't expect anybody to answer, but can't help myself from repeating it three or four more times before I can calm myself down enough to listen to my surroundings to try to gauge where I am.

The only thing I can hear is the soft hum of a machine behind where I lay on what feels like a cold concrete floor, and my own heartbeat pounding in my chest.

"Let me the fuck out of here!" I scream in another rushed fit of anxiety and dread. I try to pull my arms from the knotted rope around my wrists, I try to wriggle my ankles free too- they're tied too intentionally and tight. Who the fuck would do this?! Nobody fucks with Dane's people, even out here in New York! "My brother will fucking kill you if you touch me, you don't know who I am!"

A loud creak from across the room silences me. It sounded like a door, but I couldn't quite hear it behind the echoes of my own screaming.

"Your brother will kill me, huh?" A man's voice echoes through the room next. I recognize it immediately, and the dread that filled my chest a few moments ago instantly turns to despair. My blood runs cold in my veins to the point of making me shiver. "That's a funny one, Ev. You really think that highly of yourself? No no... you think I think that highly of you?"

Dane.

"What the fuck are you doing, Dane?!" I yell as soon as the air can make it's way back into my lungs. "Why the fuck did you do all of this?!"

Within a few moments he makes his way to me, pulling me into a seated position and ripping a black bag from my head. The light of the huge warehouse room we sit in blinds me momentarily, but my vision quickly focuses in on my brother pulling up a milk crate to sit on across from me with an amused smile.

"For shits and giggles, really!" he says letting out a small laugh. "I wanted to talk to you about something! Something important and... non negotiable. What better way to make that known than to go through all of this?"

Fuck. I am one hundred percent certain this has to do with Hayden... I knew I shouldn't have bothered her, but fuck! I just wanted to get the fuck out of this lifestyle; She promised me! And I risked my life for her! I just wanted what I deserved!

"I'm not doing shit for you, Dane!" I spit despite the slight anger I feel knowing Hayden kicked me out, and that I should send him right her fucking way.

He laughs again, nodding his head. "Okay..." he says as he clasps his hands together. "You don't even know what it is though. It benefits you more than anything... I know what you want, little sis."

"I'm not stupid Dane, you want me to tell you where Jena is!" I sneer as soon as he finishes, my once cold blood turning hot with anger just being around him. "You'll just have to torture me, kill me, do whatever it is you want to do- I don't fucking care anymore! I'm not telling you because you're a sick pig! You killed her baby, Dane! She told me!"

This time he doesn't just laugh, he damn near cracks up. Once he's able to straighten himself out, he stands from the milk crate he sat on to pull something from his pocket. My phone.

"I know how to use google, Evelyn, don't be ridiculous. Hayden is quite easy to track; That's how you found her, afterall!" he chuckles as he assumingely unlocks my phone and proceeds to scroll for a few moments. Once he finds what he's looking for, he crouches to the floor to get level with me and then turns the screen to my face. It's a message thread with an unknown phone number from yesterday morning. The only message on it is from me, letting the recipient know "I'm here."

"Is this her current number?" he asks, his eyes hard on me as he waits for a response. "All I need you to do... is call her, apologize for whatever it is you did that got your sorry little ass kicked off the "Hayden" train, and get back on it!"

What?

First off, the conversation on my phone he has turned toward me is with the dealer I saw yesterday morning before I headed out to New York. Second off, why the hell would I do that? How does that even benefit him? There is definitely more to this than he's telling me.

"No, that's not her number," I say after a moment, confident he'll believe me because he could call himself and find that it's the dealer. I carry on with a lie knowing he's more likely to believe it after I told him a truth. "I didn't get kicked off a Hayden train, asshole. What does that even mean?"

He laughs again, but rolls his eyes this time as his patience slowly but surely depletes. "Evelyn, don't take me for a fool. I know you were trying to run away with your little poptart," he says between a clenched jaw and fake smile. "I'm not asking you to do anything you weren't already trying to. I have other ways of achieving what I want, currently kicking into gear, actually! I just thought I'd make it... comfortable for everyone."

There is definitely more to this than he's telling me, but I have no interest in finding out what it is. I don't care what it is he wants me to do, I'm positive it's something terrible and potentially dangerous for everyone involved except him!

I don't need any more shit on my conscious. I've cost people their lives already and can't sleep at night because of it! I'm not doing it anymore! For that, I'd rather he did kill me.

"Go fuck yourself, how about that?" I spit in his face, only to be met immediately with the back of his hand. The force sends me crashing back to the floor, my head throbbing harder and more painfully than before.

"Suit yourself," he growls behind a laugh. "My other option is probably much more dependable anyway. It's got to be someone Jena actually likes and well... she clearly can't stand your sorry ass."