•Chapter Fifteen•
(Liam's POV)
I walk down to Ivy's room. On the way, I accidentally bump into her doctor.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" I apologize. "Is Ivy there? I wanted to talk to her."
"I was just going to check up on her," the doctor says. Together, we walk down to her room.
"Ivy?" the doctor says, opening the door slowly. "Ivy, Liam is- Ivy?"
I peek in, expecting to see Ivy doing something weird, but she's not there. The bed is empty, and the window is open. Connect the dots.
"Where'd she go?!" I exclaim, worried.
"She was here the last time I checked on her!" the doctor says. "That was five minutes ago!"
"Oh no, oh no, oh no!" I say worriedly.
On the bedside table, I spot her phone. It's screen is lit up, showing a text message.
I walk over to it and try to open it to see the message, but she's got a password. Darn it!
I take a wild guess, inputting the first thing I'd imagine her putting as her password, and it works.
I go through her messages to the most recent, which is an unknown number.
That doesn't sound good.
I read through quickly.
"Oh no," I mutter. "Ivy, what'd you do?!"
"What is it?" the doctor asks.
I run out of the room and down to where the boys are sitting outside of Harry's room. They look up when I arrive.
"Liam?" Niall asks. "You look worried."
I show them the texts, and they gasp.
"So Ivy went to meet a stranger?!" Louis cries. "Even after all she's been through?!"
"I guess," I say. "We've got to go find her!"
"Yes!" Zayn says, standing up.
"Someone should stay with Harry though," I say.
"I will," Niall says.
"Ok," Louis says. "Let's go get Ivy!"
***
We arrive at the skating rink, along with the police. Zayn, Louis, and I run into it.
"Please be here, please be here, please be here," I beg quietly.
"Hey, there's someone in the middle," Zayn says excitedly.
"There's actually two people," Louis corrects, not as excitedly.
We walk over and see the two people, tied up with tape over their mouths.
"It's Kylie and Roxie!" Louis exclaims.
"Who?" I ask, confused.
"We met them when you two were brainwashed," Louis explains, taking the tape off of one of the girl's mouths.
"Is Ivy here?" Zayn demands as soon as the tape is off.
"I'm sorry, but you're too late," she says sadly. "Kenny knocked her out and took her somewhere."
(Ivy's POV)
Can't this just be a dream? Well, more like a nightmare. But still, can't I just... wake up from this?
No, of course not, because life hates me.
"Is she going to wake up soon, Kenny?" a female voice whines.
"She should," Kenny answers.
"Wake her up," the first voice orders.
Oh, great.
I hear footsteps, and then I get slapped across the face.
Um, ow!
My eyes shoot open.
"Good job Kenny," says a girl in front of me.
Who's that?
"I'm Regina," she says, as if reading my mind.
"Where am I?" I ask.
"In an abandoned cabin in the woods," she replies.
Oh, how... fun.
"Why am I here?" I question.
"Well, you would have been in my office if I hadn't been forced to run from the police station for fear of being arrested," Regina snarls, glaring at me.
"Hey, it's not my fault!" I protest.
"Yes, it is," Regina says angrily. "You didn't die, which means that Justin didn't get away with his plan, which means One Direction got away, which means Liam told the police about me and Justin, which means Justin was arrested and I could have been arrested if I didn't run away." She takes a deep breath and glares at me again.
I think I might be stuck with a crazy woman.
"So," Regina continues, "I'm going to finish what neither Kenny nor Liam managed to do."
"Wait, wait, wait," I say. "What do you mean, Liam?"
Regina smiles. "He didn't tell you, did he?" I shake my head. "I brainwashed Liam and tried to get him to kill you, but something went wrong at the last minute so he didn't succeed."
So that explains why Liam tried to shoot me. I was wondering.
"And Kenny here didn't seem to have great aim." Regina glares at Kenny instead of me.
Kenny bows his head. "I'm sorry."
"You've said that too many times," Regina snarls. "Just because you're sorry doesn't change the fact that Justin is in jail, you and I are being hunted down to be thrown in jail, and this girl isn't dead yet." She gestures to me. "Oh well. She will be soon."
Oh. What a great thought.
Regina gets up and leaves, Kenny following reluctantly.
I've got to get out of here, and I realize now that I forgot my phone at the hospital. Darn it.
I look down at how I'm tied up. My feet aren't tied (luckily) and my hands are tied to the chair arms. I think I can possibly get out if this.
Before I can do anything, though, Regina walks back in.
"I've decided to hold off your death," Regina informs me. "I want a special guest to be here."
"Who?" I ask tentatively, scared of the answer.
Regina just smiles evilly. "You'll see." She stalks out of the room.
Well, I think I'll stick around for a bit so I can also help the guest get away.
Dramatic sigh.
(Liam's POV)
"She's gone again," I explain to Harry.
Niall told him what he knew, and now Harry wants to know what happened.
Harry nods sadly.
"The police are looking though," I add. "And we actually know who took her."
Harry sighs. "I guess that's good." He shakes his head. "She's been through too much, that girl."
"She blamed me for you getting shot," I say quietly.
Harry looks up at me, surprised. "Ivy did?"
I nod.
"Are you sure?" Harry asks skeptically.
"Positive," I answer.
"What exactly did she say?" Harry sits up a bit on his hospital bed.
"The whole thing?"
"Every single word."
"'If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be in this mess. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have been kidnapped in the first place. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have been shot. If it weren't for you, Harry wouldn't have been shot. If it weren't for you, Roxie and Kylie wouldn't be missing. If it weren't for you, Jade would still be alive!'"
Harry's eyes are wide. "She said that?"
I nod sadly.
"How did you remember that, word for word?" Harry inquires.
"It's easy to remember hurtful things people have said to you," I answer truthfully.
"I'm sure she didn't mean that," Harry whispers, although I can tell he doesn't believe that. "She... she could have just..." Harry shakes his head. "Who am I kidding? She hates us, doesn't she?"
I nod again.
Harry puts his face in his hands. "She probably hates me the most, after I kissed her." He groans. "Why didn't we just leave her alone in the first place?"
"What, and leave her all alone?" I ask. "We were just trying to save her, Haz."
"We didn't save her," Harry says bitterly. "We just ruined her life."
I open my mouth to say something like, "That's not true!" but nothing comes out. We did ruin her life.
"What did we do?" I whisper. "Harry, what did we do?"
"We messed up," Harry replies. "That's what we did. We messed up badly."
I nod my head. We did mess up. Big time.
"Do you think Ivy will ever forgive us?"
Harry bites his lip and looks me in the eyes. "Honestly, I'm not sure. Would you if you were her?"
I look down at my feet. "No, I probably wouldn't."
"Since you're the most forgiving lad of us all and you said no, then no, I don't think Ivy will," Harry says sadly.