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“Troubling Gifts”



**~A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Waste~**



**~Chapter Twenty-four: Impossible Freedom~**



The thick oak door opens and in steps Damien grumbling all the while. He looks at Roy angrily and passes his light pale fingers through his blond spikes. “I’ll kill you for doing this. I can’t possibly believe you think this little plan of yours will work.”



Roy laughs at the sight of his companion and fingers the heavy magnum in his hands. “You look identical to him now. There’s no way they can identify you. We even got the tattoos on right.” Roy states with a smile across his brown colored face. He gazes at the outfit Damien is wearing: a blue wife beater and dark blue jeans. “Trust me, they won’t have a clue.”



Damien rolls his icy blue eyes and places a box cutter in his socks. “I’m just saying if they even look at me the wrong way, I’ll kill them on the spot.”



Roy raises his hands in the air, “Ok, ok. But for now, let’s move on with the plan.” He states eagerly, his brown eyes glittering in delight.



Damien lowers his eyes angrily, “Oh, you enjoying this ain’t you?”



Roy laughs loudly, “Oh yeah, big time.” And pushes Damien softly out the door. Roy smiles at his ingenious plan and rubs his hands together. ‘Oh yeah this will work, this is the perfect plan.’ He thinks to himself.

~*~



“Is it just me or is someone missing?” Summer says softly gazing around the room to see, Kimberly and Paige lying on a sofa and Dr. Natalie tending to Paige’s back.



Jamelet sits down and gazes at Summer, “Where’s Rose?”



Ana giggles and looks up from the black loveseat she’s sprawled on. “I think I saw her last when she walked out the door.”



Jamelet stares at Ana in shock, “She left! And you said nothing! When were you gonna tell us this?”



Ana shrugs her shoulders, “Don’t know, figured it wasn’t important enough to mention.”



Summer cries out, “Not important enough! What! Are you insane? What if she’s dead somewhere? I can’t believe you didn’t stop her or told us when it happened!” Summer runs her fingers through her blond locks nervously and starts trembling in fear. “Oh god what am I doing here? I shouldn’t have sign up for this job. I knew I shouldn’t have taken this. What was I thinking?”



“Well it’s too late for you to think of this now. You’re in it as much as everyone one of us here are.” Ana whispers, her bluish green eyes scrolling the beige wall beside her.



Kimberly forces a smile and walks over to the front door with Jamelet. “So now what? The guys are looking for Alison and Rose is missing. I say we all stick together and find Rose. She could be in danger and the guys don’t know about her disappearance.”



Jamelet sighs softly, “No. We wait till the others come back before looking for Rose. If I know Rose, she’s a smart cookie. She can survive this place and maybe help us get out.”



Kimberly shakes her head, “I don’t know. I mean what if she leaves and doesn’t come back for us.”



“Lucky her then.” Ana says rolling her eyes in no interest.



Jamelet gulps, “Don’t think that way! We can get out of here, you’ll see.”



“And if we don’t?” Kimberly whispers softly, her dark brown eyes darkening in fear, the amber rings in her eyes twinkle dully.



“Then we die trying.” Dr. Natalie states, her chocolate eyes lower to the forest green rug in the room.

~*~



The desolate hallway echoes the footsteps of the three men. Riley stares around the dimly lit hallway, the grey walls now changed to the pure white as they traveled further up into the upper levels. Riley turns back around to see Kevin and A.J., who both seem to be consumed in a private conversation. “Hey can I know what’s happening? Fill me in.” Riley says, his brown eyes glittering in delight.



“It’s nothing, we were talking about how our lives will be after we get out of here. I don’t think it’ll ever the same again. I wanna see my fiancé and my family. I wanna go back on stage and perform. Sing like we all did before we got in this mess, before when all that mattered was putting a smile on a fan’s face when you sing a song. But now after all we’ve experienced here, it’ll be strange to act as nothing ever happened.” A.J. whispers sadly, his dark brown eyes staring at the grey dirty tiles.



“Hey, hey, come on! What’s with all the being sad? Come on cheer up! We’re on our way to the upper lever where Alison should be in. We’ll get her and get the hell out of here.” Riley smiles as he pats A.J.’s shoulder for comfort. Kevin who is now in the front of the two men stops suddenly at a strange sound.



“Shh… you guys hear that?” Kevin whispers, his emerald eyes scanning a wooden thick oak door at the end of the hallway.



A.J. stops and listens to a small whining coming from a room a few feet down from them. A.J. gazes at a small camera hanging from the ceiling and decides now it’s not the best time to go shoot it and create noise.



Riley silently moves along the wall professionally as he had been trained. Reaching the door a couple of feet down, he pulls out his magnum and clutches it to his chest. Placing his finger over his mouth to tell the others to remain quiet, he turns the rusty doorknob. The door creaks open and inside the room is a grey fold up chair with Alison sitting on it. Riley before entering knew something is wrong with this picture. Alison is tied with rope on her feet and hands which is wrapped around the back of the chair. The dim lighting in the room made it difficult to fully see the condition of the young girl.



“Is she ok?” Whispers A.J.



Riley shrugs and motions for them to remain quiet. He didn’t know if it was his intuition telling him this, but something is not right with the young girl before him. He flips on his flashlight and stares around the room. “Clear, it’s alright, come get her out.” He says as he walks around the perimeter of the room armed with the magnum ready to shoot.



A.J. and Kevin rush over and cut loose Alison from the ropes that enchained her to the chair. “She’s seems like she’s knocked out. I’m afraid when she wakes up she can have a concussion.” Kevin whispers with concern.



“That’s the least of our worries now.” Riley says as he cautiously stares and studies the room out carefully with his eyes.



“Ok, we got her, let’s go!” A.J. states as he cradles Alison in his arms.



“Not so fast.” Riley states as he points his magnum at Kevin. “You should have listened to your friend A.J. over there about who to trust. He was right about me. I’m doing this for me, not to save your sorry selves. I was never intended to help you out. I brought you here in this room for a reason and it’s too late for her. The girl is as good as died. Too bad too, her powers would have been great if only she survived.”



Kevin froze at the harshness penetrating from Riley’s voice and he hears A.J. let out a low profanity. Kevin’s mouths drops open at the sudden attitude change from Riley. He knew Riley was pulling an act for the cameras in the room and he had play along if he was to fool the ones watching what’s happening from the camera. “So, you gonna kill us? Is this the plan. To get rid of us once and for all. Cause I could have sworn you were just as determined to destroy this company as we are.”



Riley smirks, “Maybe or maybe I fooled you to believing that was my original intentions. Sorry I have to say bye to such a nice company. Really it was sweet knowing both of you guys. I’m sure you would have had great success in the music business after you left here, but a group with three members can only go so far.” As he states this, he raises his magnum and points it at Kevin’s head.



Kevin gulps, knowing Riley’s plan was going too far now. Riley never stated to actually look like they were gonna shoot each other. Kevin stands there frozen in shock as A.J. gazes at Kevin with a smirk on his face. Something about the look A.J. gave him told Kevin a different story. This is an act, it has to be, but as he stares at the head of the magnum Kevin was beginning to have doubts.



“A.J. how could you?!” Kevin cries out suddenly. ‘This couldn’t be! This isn’t how the plan should be going?’ He thinks to himself as his breathing is getting difficult.



“Sorry buddy, nice knowing ya.” A.J. states manically, shrugging his shoulders and walking out the room with Alison is his arms. Kevin can feel his heart banging against his chest and his palms getting sweaty. ‘Was this all an act? Was someone around, that Riley is acting this convincing?’ Kevin couldn’t tell and the lighting in the room was too bad to decode Riley’s actions.



Suddenly Riley shoots and he pushes Kevin onto the floor. Kevin turns to see the bullet hit a masked soldier behind him. The gun the soldier was holding crashes onto the floor as the dark clothes man collapses dead on the black tiles. Kevin lying on his back, turns to see Riley lying on top of him. “Thanks man. I guess you can get off me now.” Kevin whispers as he holds back a small laughter.



“You’re right, I wouldn’t want to mess with your wife or your wild fans. Lucky the media didn’t get a hold of this.” Riley says smiling, helping Kevin back on his feet.



A.J. peaks in the doorway and smiles, “I fooled you didn’t I Kev.?



Kevin nods his head and rubs his fingers down the sides of his black jeans and pulls on his white t-shirt. “Hell ya! I thought I was gonna die! Thanks to Riley, I get to live another day.”



“No problem buddy, you would have done the same for me too.” Riley says laughing, his chocolate eyes glittering in glee.



Kevin sighs and chuckles, “I don’t know about that!” And they all laugh and left out the room.

~*~



A.J. turns around to see a running Nick coming towards their direction. “You guys, oh man, thank God I found ya!”



Kevin states at Nick, “Hold up I thought you with the other guys. Where’s Brian and D?”



Nick rolls his blue eyes and sighs, “Uh, see what had happened was as I was walking down a hallway and when I turn around the guys went down a hallway and I couldn’t tell where to go. I walked down this hallway and I just saw you guys.”



A.J. tries to hold back his laughter, “Hold up, Nick. What you’re saying is you got lost.”



“I ain’t lost. I just couldn’t find the others and decided to walk down here. I never said I got lost.” Nick states stuttering, blushing as his embarrassment rose. Tying to brush off his embarrassment, he changes the topic. “Oh you found Ali. Great, let’s get the hell out of here.”



“Wait, what about Brian and Howie?” Riley states, looking at Nick.



Nick shrugs his shoulder, “Uh, see this is the part where you were suppose to listen and understand that I don’t know where they’re at?”



“You mean where they are Nick” Kevin corrected the younger member.



“That’s what I said Kev.” Nick states, his blue eyes gazing at the young girl. He can feel his cheeks burning red as he hears the guys chuckling.



“Whatever man, we wasting time.” Riley says smiling at Nick. “Let’s get back to the girls.”

~*~



Kimberly opens the door for the fourth time that day hoping to see the guys with Alison, but nothing. She sighs and leans on the open doorframe.



“Give them a few. I’m sure they’ll be here. If not oh well, it was worth a shot.” Ana states, her bluish green eyes twinkle in delight.



“Why do you always have to be so negative Ana? They’ll be ok. In fact I hear footsteps coming right now.” Kimberly states, staring down the dark hallway.



Ana sighs and walks back in the room, “Whatever man, I’m just telling ya the truth. Believe what ya wanna believe.” Ana mutters bitterly.



Kimberly shakes her head and gazes down the hallway. Nick runs into the room frantically suddenly. “Nick, hey where the others?”



Nick shakes his head, “I don’t know, it was weird. I went to tie my sneaker and when I was stood up, the guys disappeared. I ran down the both the hallways and figured they came back here. They’re here right? Yo, Rok where you at?” Nick shouts as he steps in the room.



Jamelet and Dr. Natalie run out the small room to the doorway to see Nick. “They’re not with you? What? They’re not here.” Jamelet states, she narrows her eyes. Something is up, but somehow she couldn’t tell.



Nick looks around confused and runs his fingers down his blue wife beater and dark blue denim. “This is great, real great, the time we actually got the medicine and we lost each other. I should go out and get them.” He states heading back out the door. He twirls around as a hard grip on his wrist stops him from leaving.



“I think you should wait here. I’m tired of everyone being spread out and getting lost. I wanna leave quickly and this is taking too long. You said you found the medicine right?” Jamelet states, her light brown eyes watching a fidgeting Nick.



“Yup, Riley drew a map down there on the wall and we split up in two groups. Rok and D were in my group and Riley took Kevin and A.J. to get Alison.” Nick states, his blue eyes tired and hurting.



“You used your powers didn’t you?” Dr. Natalie states: interrupting the conversation.



“Had too, some iron door was trying to trap us, I thought I could burn it down but it was no use. The front door to the lab was locked from the outside.” Nick mutters as he collapses on a black sofa for himself. “So thanks to D, we got out with a hole in the wall.”



“So you got lost then right?” Ana states holding in laughter.



Nick rolls his eyes and shakes his head, “I didn’t get lost, I just lost them. Besides I knew how to get back here without them right?”



“Since when can you find anyplace on your own?” Howie interrupts suddenly as he and Brian enters the room followed behind by an eager Kimberly.



“So Nick, how did you find this place?” Summer states curiously, staring at how uncomfortable Nick was getting.



He simply shrugs, “Hey I pay attention at times. Wait, You guys are teasing me aren’t you?” Nick states catching onto the giggling in the room. “That’s real foul you guys. Just cuz I’m the youngest member don’t mean I don’t know where to go.”



Howie smirks, “Kaos, did that make any sense what you just said?”



Nick snorts, “It did to me man.”



“Maybe in your own little world Nick.” Brian says holding back laughter.



Paige groans and manages a small giggle from the funny conversation.



“Well let’s get started, now you guys did remember to bring the needles right?” Dr. Natalie states as she takes the five tubes out and lays them on the table.



“Uhhh.. hmm.. I didn’t think about that.” Nick grumbles.



Brian groans, “Oh man, see I knew we were missing something.”



“I blame that green gas that was spilling in the room for the forgetfulness.” Mutters Howie.



“Nick you were suppose to take the needles on the medical table before we ran out.” Brian asks.



“Ugh! Damn the gas! Ya should have reminded me. I’m sorry I was too busy freaking out when I saw the gas coming at us!” Nick replies sarcastically.



Jamelet sighs and shakes her head, “Today is just not my day.” She grumbles as she sits watching the three men bicker about whose responsibility it was to grab the needles.

~**~



**~TO BE CONTINUED…~**