C H A N E L

I was leaving. I wasn't going to stay in a house with a heartless gang leader, an arrogant man who wouldn't care about anyone but himself. He kidnapped me, he tortured me and hurt me, emotionally and physically. He deserved to get caught and go to jail.

I couldn't bring myself to call the police on him, my brother was a part of this and he could get in serious trouble. I would never forgive myself if I was the cause of that. He didn't deserve that from how he helped her through her dark times.

She'd lost a lot, but so has he.

All her life she'd been taken him for granted.

He might want to stay, but I sure wasn't. I wasn't going to join a gang. That would be crazy. I couldn't be like him. I would never live with myself. I barely can, now.

I was in my room for awhile. I heard the boys downstairs and I tiptoed down the stairs and eavesdrop into their conversation.

"We have to go, man. It's the most important night of our lives," Tobias said.

Where were they going?

"I'm sure the party can wait," Derrick said. He's always been the boring one.

Every time I was growing up, I would miss out on a lot of thing all because of him. He would always go telling Mama how dangerous it would be.

He was protective and sometimes that came in handy.

"No it can't, it's only one night," Tobias persuaded. He seemed really eager to go to this party. "Please, guys we have to go."

"How about Chanel?" Luke asked. I froze at the sound of my name. I stopped when I was almost at the bottom step.

"No, she's not going," Derrick pitched in. His voice was commanding.

I let out a breath of relief and continued to walk down the stairs. I accidentally stepped on a loose wood and it made a squeaking noise.

All their heads looked my way. I cringed and squeezed my eye shut. Praying they wouldn't look any further. My back was squished against the wall and I hid away from their view.

"What was that?" Luke asked. My heart started to beat faster.

"Probably nothing," Tobias shrugged his shoulders. "Stop trying to find an excuse and think about all the women we'll see there."

That was all it took for them to be out the door. Everyone left except for Giovanni. I didn't even know where he was, but I took that to my advantage.

I scurried across the floor and out the front door. I left. I escaped.

I waited for the car to drive out of the driveway before I let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding in. My chest heaved in and out, the weight on my shoulders was gone.

I was now out of the house, but what do I do now? I didn't know where I was. My phone was lost and all I was in was my brothers shirt and my boots.

I was in the middle of nowhere. There had to be a place I could go to where they would have a phone of some kind.

I've been running for what felt like forever, beads of sweat were forming on my forehead and I wiped it away in disgust.

I still didn't know where I was. The sky turned dark and stars were out. I've been on the run for a while now and I still gotten nowhere.

A bright light caught my attention and I ran towards it. Hopefully it's shelter of some sort, It was beginning to get cold out and I was starting to shiver.

Once I gotten closer I noticed it was a diner. I quickly opened the door and was greeted with a ding noise from the bell attached to the door.

"Welcome to Dally's, how may I help you?" A worker said from behind the counter.

"Do you have a phone?" I asked.

"Yes we do, but-" she started.

"I need to use it," I cut her off.

"Uh . . . sure," she seemed hesitant. She went behind the counter and grabbed a wireless phone.

I snatched it from her and called the first person that came to my mind. The phone run until someone picked up. "Valeria?"

"Chanel? What happened? Where are you? I went by your house a couple times and you weren't there," she rambled. Her voice was worried and curious.

"No, listen . . ." I tried to cut her.

"I even asked your mom and she said you were staying with me. I had to lie and act like you were at my house because I thought you were out at one of those lame parties again, your mom forbid you to go too," she continued. She never stopped once to breath.

"No-" I tried to cut off again.

"Then you didn't show up for two days and I'm starting to worry," she finally stopped. She took a breath.

"Valeria, I was kidnapped," I told her. I chewed on my nail, since I was nervous at what she had to say.

"What? Where are you? Why are you calling from a Dally's phone?" She asked.

"No, I escaped. I'm at Dally's restaurant right now," I answered. I tried to clear up the confusion.

"Oh," she said. "How'd you escape?"

"They were actually not how I expected them to be, all though there was the leader that was all 'ooh I'm so scary I'll chop off your hand' and hear this, my brother is a part of it too," I filled her in.

"You're brother kidnapped you? That's messed up," she said.

"No, the scary guy who would chop my hand off kidnapped me, but that's only because I witnessed him kill someone." I noticed that the customers in the diner was staring at me with confused and concerned faces, so I moved into the washroom.

"Hold on, you saw him kill someone, like murder, Chanel that's serious jail time just being a witness," she said.

"No, I know, that's also a reason why I shouldn't call the police," I muttered.

"I can't believe you were kidnapped Chanel, you know what that means?" She asked. Why does she sound happy?

"That I'm going to be scarred for life?" I answered, questionably.

"No! It means that I have a great story idea, you know how I've been trying to think of many ideas. You've given me a great idea about a girl who had been kidnapped and a hot stranger saved her form the terrifying kidnapper," she explained the story.

"Can you just come pick me up?" I asked. "I'll be in the bathroom." I was tired and everything was starting to get in my nerves.

"Right, yes, I'm on my way!" She exclaimed.

I hung up the phone and handed it back to the worker. I then went straight back to the bathroom, just in case the gang comes searching for me. I'd rather be safe than sorry.

You never know when they'd show up.

There was a knock on the small window where I'm standing in the bathroom and I jumped slightly. I carefully looked through to see Valeria.

She had her hair in a messy bun and wore sweatpants and baggy clothes. "What are you wearing?" I asked. My voice was full of disgust. You would never see me wearing that out in public.

"Um . . ." She looked nervous. "How do I say this?" Her voice was muffled from the glass window in front of us.

I rolled my eyes and opened the window. "What happened?"

"A bunch of guys were following me and I kind of didn't have time to change," she said.

"What do you mean? A group of guys?"

It couldn't be Giovanni, could it?

"I don't know they were in a black car, it was really fancy," she explained. Oh no! Wait maybe I'm over thinking this, so many people have black cars.

"Okay, Valeria, what do we do?" I asked. I was freaking out.

"What? I don't know? Run?" She questioned.

"Great idea," I told her.

She immediately started to run.

"No, wait for me!" I screamed. I got out from the tiny bathroom window and followed behind her.

I ran after her, trying to catch up to her. My whole body ached from all the running I've done.

I finally caught up to Valeria to see her stopped. I put my hands on my knees and looked at the ground.

"Why did you stop?" I asked. I was out of breath.

I looked up to see Valeria with a stricken look of fear plastered on her face. I then saw five shadows. They found us.

My heart started to beat faster when I hear Valeria scream. Grae grabbed a hold of her.

"You shouldn't have escaped, princess," Giovanni said.