She could hear a commotion and wasn't sure what it was all about, but then she understood, everyone thought she was dead. The police were searching for the killers up in Tampa, but her friends thought she was dead. It wasn't her body that they found, it was some other poor victim, but the police were stupid enough to think that it wasn't her. No one could find any up-to-date medical records on her, because she had been switched from foster home to foster home and no had kept anything good on her, making the police cause a big mistake.
Tonight was the night, she knew it. The kidnappers didn't know what they were going to do, they thought they would keep her for another couple of days, but they didn't know what to do then. The didn't call Brian, because they knew he had called the police and they probably had a tap on the phone. They were confused, but didn't talk to Katie and tell her what was going to happen. She didn't care, she was going to do her plan.
The second they shut the door after giving her dinner, she started her plan. The night before she had seen that the ceiling, which was tiled with squared of rotten wood. She had noticed it when there was a drip that landed next to her bed, but it didn't matter, it wasn't like she was going to get any sleep anyway.
She quietly moved the piece of junk that they called her dresser, which was empty since they hadn't let her pack any bags. She was still wearing the night gown that she had worn two days ago, she looked retched, and she felt it too.
She stood on the dresser that was underneath the tile that had dripped all night long, it was annoying, but she didn't think she could do anything about it. She moved the tile easily, it was so rotten that it nearly fell into her hands. She threw it soundlessly onto the brick with a sheet that they called her bed. She thanked god for being flexible and grabbed onto the sides of empty square, above it was rotten wood that would support her weight. She quietly jumped up and crawled through the hot tunnel above the kidnappers, she could hear mice, but she didn't scream, she just continued, not knowing exactly where she was going.
She reached a door, she was surprised there even was such thing, and opened it. It was heavy but she got it open. She saw that she was now on the top of the warehouse. She saw that there was another building with a fire escape leading down to the ground. There was only 4 feet between the buildings and she thought that she should jump. She nodded and took a deep breath and looked up at the sky in prayer and jumped, nearly missing the building but she made it and she whooped in joy. She ran down the fire escape, knowing that she must have looked like a very dirty bum.
She reached the bottom and ran. She had no shoes and her feet were bleeding, but she ran anyway. She knew where she was and how to get to her house, it must have been ten miles, but she ran like a fool until she could see it off in the distance and smiled. Running towards the building at top speed. She didn't know what she would do, or what she would say, all she knew was that she was happy, and lucky, to be alive. She ran to the door and was greeted by a bodyguard.
"Let me in!" She yelled at him, still feeling like she was dreaming, she was finally going to be back home. "No, I'm sorry miss," he said, not looking in the least bit sorry. She knew what he was thinking. She looked like a maniac. It had been raining and her nightgown was soaked through, she was tired and probably looked like she did drugs and the side of her nightgown had been ripped when she went down the fire escape. "My name is Katie Smith, and live here." "I'm sorry, but Miss Katie Smith passed away..." He said, really thinking that this girl was insane. "No...I am right here!" She looked in the window and could see Howie watching television, a depressed expression on his face. She could see that there faces were on all the news channels, reporting about the loss of their dancer and friend.
She stood at the window and started yelling, "Howie! Howie! Please let this jerk let me in! I think I have had enough to deal with in the last couple of days!" He got up and went to the door and opened it. "Someone was call-" he began to day, but was cut off by Katie. "Oh my god Howie! It is so good to see you!" She screamed, still wet from the rain. She hugged him and to cry. He backed up and looked her in the eye. "Oh my god! I can't believe it! Get the police in here, she needs to talk to them!" He yelled at the guard and let her in. He ran to the bathroom and got her some towels. Her feet were bleeding and she would probably need stitches. Howie was so shocked that she was there that he forgot to tell Brian and everyone else that she was there. She told the police where the kidnappers were and they went by themselves, she had had enough in the last couple of days that they didn't make her go with them. Howie heard the whole story and was amazed.
Meanwhile, everyone else was in there own worlds. Brian and Nick were talking, Brian had looked horrendous and had been in a foul mood since the day Katie was missing. "Frack, want to hear the new song I wrote?" Brian asked Nick, Nick nodded in surprise, he didn't know that Brian had been writing anything. Brian handed him a piece of paper and let him read it, it was called "Mourning," "Frick, this is the most pathetic thing I have ever seen!" He said looking at the paper, it was also the saddest thing that he had seen.
Lauren was in her room and looked out the window, trying to figure out why there was so many police cars parked outside. She was in about the same mood as Brian, she had even thought about slashing her wrists, but she knew that was defiantly the worst thing she could do, they didn't need another person to die.
Katie sat with Howie and cried, not sure what to do. She needed to get cleaned up and Howie thought that she needed to eat something, she had lost a lot of weight in her little adventure. "Katie...I will be right back, I am going to get everyone," he said as he headed upstairs and Katie sat there and cried, shock, relief and confusion had hit her the minute she had seen Howie, she really didn't know how she would react when she saw Brian.
Howie went upstairs and knocked on Kevin's room. He opened it and Howie saw that A.J. was also there. "Come with me, we are going to get everyone else," he said so seriously that A.J. was surprised, but they both saw the tears on his face and didn't know what else was the matter.
They walked in single file to Lauren's room and told her to come with them. They then went to Brian's room and told him and Nick to follow. "I don't want to go D! I am tired," Brian complained and looked at the floor, his eyes red from tiredness and from crying so much. "B-Rok, you will want to see this..." he said with a smile and a wink. They walked single file down the hall and down to the stairs, and there was a long, loud gasp.