Taylor stood outside the white room, Zac behind him holding Zo� in his arms. The last thing Taylor wanted was Zo� to be there, but she seemed to know more than anybody else at this point so Taylor had to reluctantly bring her along. He still had no idea how exactly the three of them got there, but he didn't want to know as Angela screamed again, shaking the walls and echoing in Taylor's ears.
"Taylor?" Zac whispered. Taylor jumped. "What the hell is going on? Where are we?"
"Don't ask. I have to get her out of there."
"Taylor�this is fucking crazy."
"Shut up!" Taylor whispered. "Do you want to die? Because it's going to happen if you don't shut up and trust me, it's not going to be me doing the killing." Taylor slinked along the wall to the door.
"How are you going to do this?" Zac whispered.
"I have no idea," Taylor told him, inching towards the door. He put his hand around the white doorknob and carefully twisted it, using Angela's next scream as an opportunity to open it a crack. One blue eye scanned the white room and he saw Angela chained up against the wall, bruised broken and bloody. He took in a sharp breath. "Oh my God."
"What?"
"He's killing her," Taylor whispered. "I have to get her out of there."
"How?"
"I told you," Taylor said. "I don't know." Taylor let his gaze drift to the Maker, holding a bullwhip, which he had already used a number of times. Taylor noticed a very large crystal around the Maker's neck, which was glowing.
"Holy shit that's a big whip," Zac said. Taylor pushed him away.
"Shut up," Taylor said. "I'm going in there."
"Are you crazy? You're going to get yourself killed!"
"I'm not going to let Angela just die like that in there, all right?" Taylor said. "You be quiet and stay here. Keep Zo� out of the way." Taylor slipped into the white room, leaving a very confused Zac holding Zo� outside. I should have brought a gun or something, Taylor thought, causing Angela to look at him. Unfortunately, his thought also caused the Maker to turn around and Taylor froze.
"Why hello," the Maker said, turning around fully and walking to Taylor, the whip still in his hand. "Whatever would bring our young pop star here?" Taylor began to back away. "Stop." A wall materialized behind Taylor, who backed up into it and looked around, realizing he had nowhere else to go. "Na�ve, young Taylor�could it be Angela you're here for? How heroic. Unfortunately for you, a simple human is nothing against the Maker of Dreams."
"What the hell kind of Maker are you anyway?" Taylor asked, as the man grew closer. Taylor, no! Angela's voice echoed in his mind. "You manipulated her into doing this for you, so you could have her to yourself when she was finished." Taylor!
"You better listen to your Angel," the Maker said. "She knows what she's talking about." The Maker took him by the throat and lifted him off the ground, blocking his airway. "Now what to do with you�" As Taylor's feet left the floor, he panicked, looking for ground and struggling for air as the room grew fainter.
"Stop it!" Angela yelled. "Stop it!" The Maker let go of Taylor, who began coughing as he fell onto the floor.
"And what's it to you, princess?" The Maker asked.
"Why would you send me to protect him if you're just going to kill him anyway?" she asked.
"To die by one's own hand is one thing, to die by someone else's, well�that's another," the Maker said. Taylor got up, still coughing, and carefully regained his composure. "What will it matter to you? Angela Kennedy, worth a hundred million dollars�you'll never go anywhere but down below." Taylor looked up. Angela Kennedy? So that's where he'd seen her before, in that magazine�the Jersey girl who inherited a hundred and ten million dollars. Pushing that aside, Taylor made a run for the Maker, who noticed him straight away and had him run directly into a bar, falling back down to the ground, his hands over his face.
"Taylor!"
"And you," the Maker said. "You don't learn. Get up." Taylor unwillingly got up and was sent flying across the room and into the wall next to Angela. The Maker grinned as he lifted Taylor up and chained him to the wall. "How cute, the both of you together." You shouldn't have come for me, Angela told Taylor, looking over at him.
I had to. How come you never told me who you are? he asked. Does it matter? "Enough!" The Maker yelled and cracked his whip against Taylor who cried out in pain as a diagonal line along his chest began to bleed. "That's better!" he said as Taylor hunched over. The only thing that kept him from falling onto the floor was the chains connected to his wrists.
The Maker walked up to Taylor, who was looking at Angela. Angela was looking away. She couldn't do anything to help him and he knew it. He could see the crystal dangling around her neck, glowing. His eyes drifted back to the Maker in front on him only to see a fist coming directly at him, connecting with his face.
With blood pouring down his face, he held his heavy head up and saw the Maker's crystal dangling right in front of him. He bit down on it, hard, and it detached from its chain. "Give that back!" Angela's head shot over and she saw that chain dangling from Taylor's mouth. In a moment her chains were off and she'd taken the crystal from Taylor's mouth. "Give that back you stupid little bitch!" Angela ran off.
"Taylor, run!"
"I'm kind of still attached here!" he yelled. Angela looked at him and his chains unsnapped. He bolted to the door. When he got there Zac pulled him out, catching a glance at Angela, who dropped the crystal to the floor and stepped on it. The Maker fell to the floor as the white room disappeared and Taylor found himself back in his room, Zac and Zo� with him. "Oh my God," he said, and fell on the floor.
"Zo�, go�do something," Zac said, putting Zo� down and pushing her out of her room. He closed the door. "Taylor, are you okay?"
"No!"
"You stay there on the floor and I'll be right back. Stay there!"
"I can't even move, Zac, how the hell am I going to get myself off the floor?" Taylor asked. Zac ran out of the room and Taylor sighed, closing his eyes. Angel, where are you? he asked, searching his mind for that familiar feeling of her presence. It was hopeless; she wasn't there. The blood was still flowing from his nose and from his chest, and he was aching all over.
Zac came back in with some antiseptic to clean him off. He closed the door behind him and sat on the floor next to Taylor. "Take your shirt off," Zac said. Taylor shook his head. "Oh, come on, Taylor."
"Just cut it off."
"Ugh, Taylor�"
"Hey, you weren't out there, I was," Taylor said. Zac grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled it over his head, Taylor wincing as it peeled off his chest.
"Holy shit�" Taylor looked down and groaned, putting his head against the floor. "Taylor, maybe we should go to the hospital or something."
"No! Angel will take care of it."
"Well she's not here right now, is she?" Zac asked. Taylor sighed.
"No she's not."
"What the hell was up with that?" Zac asked, pouring some of the antiseptic on a rag and cleaning up around Taylor's disgusting, deep wound. "I mean, if I wasn't there I would so think you went crazy and did this to yourself."
"Well goodie for me that you were there," Taylor muttered.
"Shut up. This is going to hurt," Zac said, and moved the rag to the actual open wound.
"Ow! Dammit!"
"I'm sorry, but do you want an infection?" Zac asked. "If you don't want to end up going to the hospital, then you're going to have to deal with it." Taylor groaned. "So, Angela's pretty hot, isn't she?"
"Yeah�" Taylor said. "I can't believe she never told me who she was."
"What do you mean?"
"She's Angela Kennedy," Taylor said. "She just inherited, like, a hundred million dollars for her birthday a few weeks ago and she didn't tell me about it." Zac's eyes widened.
"Wow, that's a lot of money."
"But it's not like it would have changed anything! She's still the same person. She didn't change after she got her money�I don't know why she didn't tell me." Zac shrugged. "She is really beautiful, though."
"Aww, Taylor's in love�"
"Shut up."
"You are! You just risked your life to save her, which is bizarre in and of itself, and I know that look. You are so in love with her," Zac said, laughing. Taylor made a face. "Don't be so shocked, you've been talking about her and to her for weeks. When she saw you in there today she looked at you the same way."
"She did."
"Oh yeah!" Taylor smiled. "I'm surprised the two of you aren't dating already. You two look like you would be a very exciting couple."
"How so?"
"I don't know how exactly," Zac said, shrugging. "But I do know that whips and chains have been involved in your relationship." Taylor gave him a look. "Hmm, I wonder if I have enough bandages for this thing." Zac opened the box and made a face. "I hope so, as long as you don't start bleeding again."
"I hope I don't start bleeding again," Taylor said. "I'm tired enough as it is�" Zac bandaged him up after giving Taylor the rag to wipe away the blood on his face.
"If you're lucky you won't get any bruises or anything on your face. Your lip's split but if you're careful no one will really notice."
"And if they do I can always blame it on you," Taylor said.
"Do and I'll hurt you."
"Well then it really will be your fault then." Zac shook his head. "Hopefully I'll be able to see Angel before anything gets too bad."
"Why? What's she going to do about it?"
"She'll�" Taylor paused. "Nothing."
"Whatever. Anyway, I'm done here. Can you get up?"
"Yeah, I can get up," Taylor said. He slowly pulled himself into a sitting position, then took a breath before he stood up. "Whoa." Zac caught him before he fell over.
"All right, let's just get you over to the bed." Zac slowly walked with Taylor across the room to the bed, where Taylor fell on it and let out a deep sigh. "You okay? Can I go? Do you need anything?"
"Just go," Taylor said, waving his hand. Zac left, taking all the first aid equipment with him. When the door was closed Taylor sighed and put his palms against his eyes, frustrated. When he was reading that magazine, she was pressing for him to date this Angela Kennedy girl, and he had no idea she was that Angela Kennedy girl. Looking back he didn't know if she was joking or if she really wanted that to happen, but either way he realized he told her she was hot without even knowing it.
Angel, where are you?
He didn't expect a response, however when one didn't come, he nearly cried.