A/N i really need to stop writing past midnight

i must have been on drugs when i wrote this chapter; but you guys can judge for yourself

i had something else i was gonig to say here but now i don't remember it 

whatever

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*Kaitlyn MacDonald*

After Asher shoves me in the basement and locks the door, I sink to the floor. What am I going to do now?

After a few minutes of wallowing in self-pity and despair, I decide to assess my situation. Climbing to my feet, I survey the room, taking note of the random boxes piled around the room. I scoff.

"Rookie mistake," I say out loud, looking for any kind of vent or window in the room. "Never leave climbable things in a locked room when you're trying to contain somebody."

I've been reading too many books. But hey, what works in a book could possibly work in real life.

Fortunately, there is a vent on the ceiling, and it actually looks fairly large. There's no way Asher doesn't know about it.

Just as I'm about to start moving boxes, I hear the click of a lock, and quickly run over to a wall and slide down against it to sit on the floor. Asher walks in, brandishing a ring of keys.

"Holding up okay?" he sneers, pocketing the dangly metal items.

"It's been like five minutes," I say, rolling my eyes. "Get over yourself."

"Ouch," he mock gasps, sitting against the opposite wall. "I came here to talk to my old best friend, and this is the welcome I receive. That hurts, bean."

"Why would I want to talk to you?" I mutter, folding my arms in defiance.

"Probably because you want some answers," he responds, mimicking my stance.

"How did you- Never mind." Crazy. I've been wanting answers ever since Halloween.

"So, Kaitlyn, what's on your mind?" Asher questions.

I snort. "Please, never say that again." Tapping my chin, I pretend to think. "Okay, first of all, why does everybody think you're so terrible? And by everybody, I mean Drew."

"Where to begin with this one? Well, I suppose I'd better tell you about Mack first. Otherwise, this won't make any sense." Asher comments.

"Like none of this has been confusing to begin with," I retort.

"Hey, at least you're getting answers. I seem to have pulled a page from Doofenschmirtz's book, and I don't know why. So, sit tight and listen. We're going to be here for a while. Now, Mack." He begins.

I sit tight and listen.

"Mack, I'll admit, used to be close to me. Because we worked together. For who, I can't tell you, or they'll find me and probably shoot me. Even now, I still have to keep their secrets. Anyways, one night, they finally decided to send Mack and I out together to collect something for the boss. To accompany us, we had one guy, a few years older than us that owed the boss some money. He came with us because he had no other way of repaying his debt. Looking back at it now, he basically set us up, a couple of kids deep in enemy territory to steal their incoming drug shipment."

At this point, I can't help but gasp, and Asher raises an eyebrow. "Surprised, Kaitlyn? People are not what they seem."

"Well, yes, I'm surprised. I mean, it's not like I'm finding out my old best friend and my best friend's boyfriend used to collect drugs together. No big deal."

He laughs. "I forgot how spunky you are. But, please try to keep the interruptions to a minimum. If I played my cards right, someone should be on their way right now. We're on a schedule here."

Drew, my mind immediately thinks. I suppose that would make sense, because nobody else seems to know anything about Asher's history.

"There we are, Mack and Asher and Dex, in the middle of enemy territory. We had already had a few close calls, almost getting caught by the patrolling men and their flashlights. The drug shipment must have been a big deal to have so many guards. We knew we had exactly one minute between the shipment arriving and it getting into the hands of the enemy. I honestly don't know what we would have done to get it, or why the boss sent us, but orders were orders, and so the three of us were waiting for the opportune moment.

"Three and a half minutes before the shipment was scheduled to arrive, Mack's phone decided to go off. It was only on vibrate, but it still made a loud enough noise that someone noticed, and the next thing we knew, we were surrounded by men, gun barrels lined up with our eyes. That moment, there, was probably the most terrifying moment of my entire life. Just before all the guards shined their flashlights on us, Mack checked his phone. I saw Drew McCarthy's f*cking face on the screen, a stupid little grin as his contact photo; that image will be forever imprinted on my mind.

"Turns out, Dex had a criminal record that none of us knew about, and one of the guards recognized him. There was some reward money out for his capture, so while they focused on him, Mack and I managed to slip away. To this day, I can think of no possible explanation as to how that happened, but we were lucky. Drew McCarthy and his idiotic phone call ruined Dex's life, and almost ruined Mack's and mine as well."

"And you've never forgiven him," I say slowly, understanding flooding my mind.

"And I've never forgiven him," Asher confirms, nodding his head. "This scar?" He motions to his shoulder, the one he showed me back in the library. "This scar is from that night. I'm lucky the bullet only hit my shoulder, and nothing else."

"Oh." I peep, then falling silent.

"'Oh' is right," he mutters, shooting daggers at the floor.

"Wait," I say, confused about something else now. "How does Mack fit into all of this, that's happening tonight?"

"Well, when I found out that Drew's ex-girlfriend's best friend was dating the idiot that brought his phone on an assignment, I figured I could use him. Girls like their friends, or so I'm told, so if Beth was in trouble, Bam! There you'd be."

"But, why take me then? Why not just lure Drew up here himself and give him what you think he deserves?" I question.

"Now, that is a fun story. I think you're familiar with a certain Amanda Kelly? Used to date Drew, is now a total b*tch?"

I nod.

"She and I happen to be related, and when you're a girl's favorite second cousin, you hear a lot about her life. So, what did I hear one day? Nothing other than how Drew broke up with her. She didn't seem very upset, but I've been told many times that girls that are mad and/or sad hide their emotions. Is that true?"

I don't even have to think. "Yep."

"In part, going through you to get to Drew is the cliché thing that happens everywhere. The more important part, however, is he hurt a girl that I was close to, so now I'm going to hurt a girl he's close to. Kind of a nice poetic irony, don't you think?"

"What I think is that you should have paid more attention in your English classes."

"Ouch. I could feel that from all the way across the room." Asher shivers, rubbing his hands on his exposed arms. "Or maybe it's just the cold weather. How are you holding up in that t-shirt, anyway?"

"F*ck off," I spit.

"My apologies," Asher says, rising from the floor. "Next time I decide to kidnap a girl for revenge on a guy, I'll make sure to leave her with a blanket." He starts walking towards the door, only to pause and look over his shoulder.

"Oh, and by the way. I wouldn't try crawling through the air ducts if I were you. The building around them is a tiny bit rotted, and the slightest pressure could cause the whole thing to come down. Just a fair warning. Bye!" With that, he slams the door shut, making sure to lock it before climbing the stairs.

Once I'm sure he's gone, I sit for a few more minutes, mentally ingesting everything that Asher just told me.

Wow. Who knew my friend group was so complicated?

Kaitlyn, let's move! My subconscious tells me. You can think about your pathetic life later.

Right.

I hop to my feet and immediately head over to the boxes, which I promptly arrange in a manner that will allow me to climb up to the ceiling.

Now, what's the best way to get into the air duct? I muse over the possibilities in my mind, then think back to what Asher told me.

"The wood is rotted," I say out loud, and sure enough, I see telltale signs of wood rot on the ceiling, especially surrounding the air vent.

Tearing at the metal vent cover, I manage to rip it straight out of the ceiling after loosening a few of the already loose screws with my fingers. I carefully climb down and set it on the floor, so as not to attract attention to myself.

I take a few deep breaths. I can do this.

Climbing back up, I make sure I won't fall over before enlarging the hole I already created. After about five minutes, I have a hole that I think is large enough to crawl through.

After I take one last look at the room that I inhabited for about an hour, I manage to hoist myself up into the vent.

Crawling through the vent proves to be a challenge. Firstly, I can't bend my legs more than a 30 degree angle due to the width of the vent and the length of my legs.

I hate being tall sometimes.

The second problem comes when the shaft makes a 90 degree turn: straight up. As I attempt to inch my way up, which surprisingly proves successful, I notice a groaning noise coming from the house around me.

The rotted wood that Asher told me about. Right.

I guess he thought that would actually deter me. But I just have to keep going and hope I can find a way out of here.

*Drew McCarthy*

I drive so fast on my way to Asher and Kaitlyn that I'm thankful there weren't any cops on the road. Once I reach the place, I barely park my car before sprinting to the building.

It's smaller than I remember. Either that, or I grew a whole bunch. I'm thinking it's the latter.

Drew, focus! Saving Kaitlyn now, obsess over manly body later.

The front door opens easily, which both worries and reassures me. I know that somebody is in here, but whether the somebody that I want is here or not is another story.

"Come in, Drew. I've been expecting you," comes a voice from the darkened room in front of me. A light turns on, illuminating the brains behind this operation.

Asher Luvalle.

"You've lost your touch, Asher." I joke, in an attempt to hide my nervousness. "I half expected you to be holding a cat and wearing an eyepatch."

"I'm afraid I'm not that extra. I think you have enough flair for the two of us." Asher smiles, but it's a cold smile. He stands. "Now, I imagine you're anxious to discuss the matter at hand."

"That, you would be right about. Where's Kaitlyn?"

"Safe in the basement, like I said. The real question you should be asking, is where's Dex?"

"Are you seriously still hung up on that? Just let it go, Luvalle. Move on. Get a life, please." Not good. I'm rambling too much, but it can't be helped at this point.

"I'll tell you. Dex is in prison. Had you not called that night, he wouldn't be there."

"So?" I say. "What am I supposed to do about that now?"

"His bail is $500,000. Not a small sum, as you'll notice." The house creaks above us, but Asher ignores it. "I figured, why not make you pay? It's your fault, after all."

"So you've said." I comment dryly. "And, like I've said, GET A LIFE!" I scream the last part, satisfied with the way Asher momentarily loses his composure.

The house creaks again, and this time Asher looks up in concern. I follow his gaze, only to dive for cover moments later when I hear a metallic crash.

Then the ceiling breaks.

Kaitlyn falls on the ground, and I hear a lovely snapping sound. Her anguished cries let me know she's broken something, but before I can reach her side, Asher's there already.

"I told you, dear, the building is rotting," he whispers in her ear. She squirms away in discomfort, still gasping from the pain emanating somewhere from her body.

Asher then yanks Kaitlyn around so she's facing me and kneeling, and pulls something from his side.

A gun? Seriously? I guess his gang days never left him.

"$500,000." Asher states, face dead serious. "Or I shoot."

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A/N oops 

sorry for the cliffhanger

but i just had to

-does someone want to order me a pizza