�I guess they�re gonna call us,� Paul said softly, internally beating himself up, knowing that it was his inquisitiveness that got CJ snatched� or whatever.
�Do they know how to reach us?� Billy asked. He sat down on his bunk, his knees collapsed in towards each other, his hands squeezed between his thighs. He looked like he was cold or afraid, looking off into space as he spoke.
Paul shrugged. �Says they do.�
�If they hurt her-� Joel began, not even knowing how to finish that sentence.
�What, you�ll get your other poser thug friends to pretend to beat them up?� Benji asked him, snapping before he got control of his mouth. The hurt look that crossed Joel�s face was enough to break down the strongest man, and he immediately apologized. Benji put an arm around his brother�s shoulders and squeezed, planting a soft kiss in his hair, putting his chin on Joel�s shoulder.
�I just hope they don�t hurt her,� Joel repeated, copying the sentiment all the guys were feeling but didn�t express.
�Just have faith they�re not,� Benji said quietly to him. �Have some faith.�
CJ slowly came to her senses, a raging headache discouraging her from lifting her head very quickly. Usually her headaches originated from the left side of her head, right behind the eye, but this one felt like someone had seized her entire cranium and was squeezing it together. She put a hand to her face and rubbed her eyes, then tried to push herself to sitting up. �Uh, you should just stay put,� a deep voice said, cloudy, far away, definitely not any of her guys. She couldn�t remember at all what had happened. She felt a large, calloused hand on her body, not at all sure where, pushing her back to lying down.
�Wait, I want to sit up,� she said, disappointed by the way each word slurred severely into the next. �I think I might�� She felt her way to the edge of what seemed to be a twin bed and threw up over the side. Her eyes cleared as she blinked them vigorously, looking down into a well placed trashcan and onto ugly green carpet. She�d only seen rugs like that in government institutions and hotel rooms. The same large hand pat her back a couple times as she lay with her head at the edge of the bed, her arms too rubbery to push herself back to the center. For reasons completely unknown to CJ, she started crying in exhausted sobs, the tears searing down her face as her skinned seemed hyper-sensitive, the way it felt when she had a severe fever. She heard a door swing closed to her left and she labored to sitting up so she could look around herself. It did seem she was in a hotel room, but with only one twin bed, a table with one chair, no TV and no windows. �What the fuck is��
Someone came back in through the door, looking at her with little more than contempt. �Seems you had a bad reaction to the sedative,� he said, a different voice than before. He was dressed in a black suit coat and jacket with a blue button down shirt on underneath, looking in all respects business-like, but his youthful face betrayed that comportment. He couldn�t be more than 22 or 23. His hair was dark and slicked back, and his eyes were slit at her so she couldn�t discern the color.
She squinted, trying to get her vision to completely clear. �I guess.�
�You�re in a band,� he said, more of a statement than a question. CJ nodded. �You like it?�
CJ wiped the remaining tears from her face. �Why am I here?�
The man shifted as he leaned against the drawerless dresser. �You�re here because I wanted you here.� Cocky, smug little bastard.
She locked him into a direct stare, as was her custom. She demanded direct answers and used her body language to connote that. �That�s not the answer I was looking for.�
He chuckled. �Uh, let�s say that one of your pals is interesting to us.�
�Why the fuck didn�t you go get him, then?�
His eyebrows raised at the expletive that tumbled out of her mouth. Another man entered the room, speaking softly to the first. CJ recognized that voice. The second man had lighter hair, almost a honey blonde, seemed around the same age, and was of a larger build. His eyes were gray, almost colorless. He made an obvious effort not to look at her at all before he exited again. �Don�t worry,� the man in the black suit said to her, walking across the room towards her. CJ didn�t trust him as far as she could throw him and she wished that she could move enough to get up from the bed, to back away, to keep his cologne drenched hands away from her. �You�ll see them again soon enough. At least one of them, anyway.� He stood over her and reached out to touch her face, hand on her cheek, the thumb tracing over the smooth skin so much the way Paul had done so recently. There was no where she could go. The twin bed was pushed into the corner, and her head against the wall as he held it there, trapping her.
�When?� she asked. �When can I go home?�
He bent at the waist, emotion flashing in his eyes, gripping her chin gruffly and almost touching her nose with his. �Home?� He asked. �You call dickin� around with those kids home? You probably fuck a different one of them every night.� CJ�s eyes were wide as he spoke to her through clenched teeth, not knowing what she did to make him angry, what she could do to calm him down, or if she would do the same thing to set him off again. �But it doesn�t matter.� He let her go and she scoot away from him and into the corner. He strode back to the dresser and picked up a roll of duct tape, pulling off a short length and coming back over to her, slapping it across her mouth with more force than necessary. Then he wrapped tape straight from the roll around her wrists and snapped it off. He hauled her up to standing, pushing her on wobbly legs towards the door. �We�re moving.�
Billy, Benji, Joel and Paul had gotten to their hotel rooms, always with two double beds per room, Benji and Joel together as always, Paul and Billy in the connecting room. CJ had always been the in-between, bouncing back and forth all night, settling in whosever bed would have her, oftentimes Joel because he tended to be the least restless sleeper. All of the guys sat in Benji and Joel�s room, trying to watch TV to take their minds off of things. Benji and Joel sat on the far bed, closest to the bathroom and away from the door, Billy and Paul on the other bed, bathed in light from the floor lamp that stood near the windows. They had been awake all night, and it was four a.m., none of them willing to sleep. �We have to cancel the next show,� Joel said absently.
Billy gnawed on his lower lip, his eyebrows knit together, legs crossed Indian-style beneath him as he rested his back against the headboard of the bed. Paul watched him from where he was sitting, at the foot of the bed, and was afraid he�d chew his lip-ring right out. �We should tell Steve,� Billy said. All three of them looked at him, knowing it was true, but not ready to take it outside of their group yet. A cell phone rang and all four of them checked theirs, Paul calling them all off when he found it was his.
�Hullo?� Paul listened to the voice on the other end. �Who is this?� He listened again, his face white and blank. �I- I didn�t see anything. I didn�t see anything,� he insisted, then fumbled with a hotel notepad and started writing furiously. �Wait, what-� He pulled the phone away from his head as the loud click ending the call stabbed his eardrum. He looked around at everyone. �We got some directions here.� He showed them the scribbled notes. �They� I go and they give back CJ.� Blood welled up along Billy�s teeth as he accidentally bit harder than he thought. Paul reached up and laid a hand on his knee to get his attention and bring him back to reality. Billy did that sometimes, just zoning right out of a situation to the point that he didn�t realize what was happening to himself or to other people. He had actually slept through a fight between a band named Dismemberment Plan and Benji, Paul and Joel. That might not seem like much of a feat, except that it had happened in their apartment at the time, and Billy had been asleep on the couch about a foot away.
�Go alone?� Benji asked, looking down at his MADE MAN tattoos and thinking how this was nothing like the video games he played and nothing like the movies he watched. This was about someone he cared about, and had just become about two.
Paul looked down at his feet. �They, uh, they said just me.�
�Are you sure? I mean, you�re sure they had her? They might just, like, jump you and make you give them money.�
Paul�s face softened, rubbing his thumb over his eyebrow. I-� he cleared his throat, a ball of emotion lodging itself as he tried to form the words. �I heard her� she sounded� upset.� He swallowed hard. �They�re serious. I should go alone.�
Joel shook his head no. �Oh, hell no. Call them back and tell them we�re all coming or nobody.�
Paul sighed, rubbing his temples. All four of them saw this as a close to a helpless situation, and with good reason. �I don�t go till 6 a.m. We can figure something out by then if we call Steve up, get money together or something,� Paul said.
�They want money?� Billy asked, now tending to his wounded lip by sucking on it.
Paul banged his fist against his thigh. �I don�t fucking know! I don�t know what else to do.� He looked over at Joel and Benji, who had no answers for him. �But they have her, and I don�t know what I�ma say to them. I didn�t see shit and they don�t believe me.� He collapsed back on the bed and closed his grainy, sleep-deprived eyes, hoping for just a moments respite, but finding only dark chaos. �They just don�t believe me.�
The handcuffs were biting into CJ�s wrists as she tried to get away from the wounding hands of her captor. Her mouth stung from just having the tape ripped off, some of the gum having stuck to the balls of her lip ring and giving it a painful tug. Not to mention that the man in the black suit that she came to know as Gregory had kissed her mouth hard after the initial assault, making her nauseous at the same time. For some reason he was enamored of her, and he showed his affection in heated spurts, mixing his declarations of fondness with bouts of violence. But mostly, he just taunted her with the fact that she was alone and helpless, two things that she hated more than the pain he inflicted. That and she was trapped. There was nothing worse than being trapped. �Where are your wonderful boys now CJ?� Gregory asked her.
She sniffed. �I dunno,� she whispered. Her left leg pulsed in pain, as Gregory had taken a length of rebar to it earlier in order to �discourage mobility.� The bigger guy named Franklin watched the door. This was some sort of a warehouse district, which abound in industrial Cleveland, especially along the lake. This particular warehouse was practically empty, a small amount of crates near the back of the place, very high, tiny windows let her see the sky beginning to lighten with morning. The only thing in her mind, the only thing that edged its way into her mind through the pain was that she was supposed to leave with the guys at 11 for the next venue. She was going to miss them. They would have to cancel the show. They would leave without her.
�I called them, and where are they? Perhaps you aren�t as important to them as you thought?�
She lifted her head and stared at Gregory. �You called them?�
�Yes ma�am.�
�W- why didn�t you call them sooner? Why�d you keep me here all night?�
Gregory knelt in front of her. �What? You didn�t enjoy our time together? I sure did.� CJ felt the tears spring to her eyes and she had to look away from him to keep from breaking into helpless sobs. �Thinking about that pretty Joel, huh?� Gregory assumed.
She looked back down at him, clenching her teeth, letting the tears fall if they may. �Why are you such a prick? What the fuck is wrong with you?� Her anger overtook the urge to cry and she felt her eyes drying up as she spoke to Gregory, not sure what was coming out of her mouth in the heat of the moment. �You don�t even know me, you don�t know a goddamn thing about me, and you�re hung up on what you think I�m thinking? Are you psycho?� She watched the anger simmer in his black eyes (she swore to God, black eyes) and he knelt too close to her, but it was too late to check herself now. �You belong in fucking Saint Mary�s and that�s exactly where you�ll be after the police-� He lifted up a swatch of duct tape and gagged her again, then leaned with most of his weight against her abused left shin. A muffled yelp of pain escaped her and he watched her squeeze her eyes shut and try to buckle at the stomach, try to curl up in a ball, but the metal cuffs emitted and satisfying clink against the metal slat of the chair as it denied her the protective position.
He leaned closer to her ear as he extended her leg, propping it up by the ankle on his knee. �You ever met the Cleveland Police force?� He chuckled, rubbing his hand over the substantial lump, feeling her shake in anticipation of what they both knew was coming. He was surprisingly gentle at this point, admiring the well-toned curve of her calf and her tiny ankle. He liked the sharp feel of the hair growth that had sprouted over the course of the night, and the taught skin beneath it. When he looked up, her eyes were wide and glassy as she looked at him, shaking her head, murmuring beneath the tape. She was pleading with him, begging him like she should. �Y�know I broke this,� he said, looking at the huge swelled area in the middle of her shin, knowing it would eventually swell to the point that there would be no telling the site of trauma by looking. He put one hand near her ankle and the other up near her knee, hesitating one achingly long moment before he pressed down near the knee, feeling the bone shift beneath the pressure. He watched the tears coat her cheeks and flow over the tape, giving it a glossy sheen as sob-choked pleas came out only as muffled statements. CJ wished to God she�d just pass out, but she�d always had a high tolerance for pain. It got her into trouble sometimes because she could never get enough endorphins going to push out constant offence, so when she sprained fingers or an ankle and decided to go through a show (or with a soccer game or track meet when she had still been in school), she just never got a break from the constant pulses of hot pain. Gregory shifted his pressure to the side of her leg and he could feel the jagged edges of bone scrape against one another as it yielded to his touch. Her panicked murmuring increased in pitch, then ceased and Gregory imagined that beneath the tape she was simply gritting her teeth together against the pain. �You should just forget those band-geeks of yours.�
Franklin leaned in the doorway. �Hey Greg, I just got off the phone with the guy. He�s on his way.�
Gregory looked over his shoulder at his partner, then back at CJ, dropping her leg and taking care to wipe the tears off her face. He lifted her head by the chin and with a reptilian grin said, �Gotta keep that face pretty for the big show.�
They all walked Paul downstairs to the waiting taxi that was going to take him over to the warehouse district indicated in the directions. There wasn�t much choice in that matter. Either he went to try to get her out or there was no telling exactly what would happen to her, but the bottom line would be that they had propagated her fate. �I should go with you,� Billy said.
Paul put a hand on his friend�s thin shoulder, and smiled. The taxi driver leaned across the seats and talked up to Paul. �Where you going?� He asked.
Paul looked down at the directions in his hand and looked at the driver. �It�s, um, near the club Europa?�
The driver chuckled. �You should bring him, split the fare.�
Paul looked at Billy again, a half smile on his face, considering the fact that if his friend didn�t go with him he wouldn�t know how to occupy his mind on the trip, and Billy might gnaw through his lip if he wasn�t doing something productive. Benji was on his cell phone again with Steve and they could all hear the loud voice on the other end, anger attempting to mask the fear that was fundamental to this situation. �Come on,� Paul said, motioning Billy into the taxi. Billy gave him an appreciative look before he climbed into the back seat, then Paul got in right after him.
�Call us with any updates,� Joel said, leaning on the door and talking through the open window. �We�ll figure something out�� he added, referring to the fact that they weren�t allowed to call the police, there was no telling what condition CJ would be in, and there was no guarantee that Paul would be walking back out of that warehouse district. Their childhood friend was about to walk blindly into the fires of hell with the flimsy hope of pulling out another friend who had grown to equal importance in their lives. Paul nodded, nothing to say, and the cab pulled away from the curb.
The drive seemed to go by in a flash, and neither Billy nor Paul spoke to one another barring a few pointed looks at one another. Paul generally stared out his window, Billy out his own, until Paul�s cell rang. He flipped it open and relayed instructions from the caller to the driver, ending with a directive to park at the end of a blind alley. �Okay, I gotta get out and walk now,� he said to Billy, scrawling down the rest of the directions, phone still to his ear. �You guys have to wait here for five minutes, then back out and go back to the hotel.�
Billy grabbed Paul�s wrist. �How will you get home?� He whispered. Paul closed the phone and held it tight in his palm. �I�m not going to just let you walk off, Paul. We both know if you walk in there with no outs you�re fucked.�
Paul calmly removed Billy�s hand from his wrist. �Well what the fuck am I supposed to do, then, Billy?�
�I don�t know,� Billy said, speaking over the end of Paul�s reply. �I don�t know, I don�t know. We gotta get her, right?� He dug the heels of his hands into his eyes until stars exploded in the darkness. �God fucking dammit.� He heard the door quickly open and shut and he pulled his hands away to see Paul walking away from the car as the darkness slowly lifted from his vision. �Oh, shit, no,� he murmured to himself and reached for the door latch but found it locked. He reached for the opposite door and found it locked as well. He looked into the rearview and caught the eyes of the taxi driver. �What the fuck, dude?�
�Just sit back. We have four minutes, then I�ll drop you back at your hotel, Billy.�
The diminutive rocker narrowed his eyes and sat forward, speaking in a low, menacing voice. �Don�t talk to me like you know me.�
The driver turned, sliding a gun off the dash so quickly that Billy didn�t even have time to react before he was staring down the barrel. �Settle down, kid. Don�t make this messier than it already is.�
Ha ha! I told you it'd be fun. Yeah. This story's all about taking out some aggression while I try to write a goddamn psychology paper. Thanks for reading.