Intertwined

Chapter 31

No one's POV

Lauren is taken to a warehouse just outside of town. She is tied up and thrown on the ground. The men leave her in the darkness of the warehouse with only one man standing guard outside to ensure that she doesn't escape.

The rest of the men go to the hotel where the Jauregui's and the Fifth Harmony girls are staying and leave a ransom note at the front desk. On the note it said several times that police cannot be involved. There was an address on it with a date and time. 

Meanwhile in the hospital, the police carry out body bag after body bag with dead police officers in it. Patients and hospital staff are interviewed as well, and especially, the Jauregui's, the Fifth Harmony girls, and little Lila and Danielle. 

After all is done, the Jauregui's and the girls are offered protection but they turn it away. Danielle and Lila are taken under protective custody with an officer by their side at all times. They are to be held at a safe house. 

The police tell the Jauregui's to go back to their hotel and wait for further instructions. When they enter the hotel they are approached by one of the hotel managers there and given a letter. It is the ransom note. Regardless of what the note says, Mike calls the police department and asks to speak to the Chief. He reads word for word on the note. They are asking for $100,000,000. which is absurd because no one has that kind of money on them. They have four days to get the money and sort out who will take it to the given location. How they would do it? They had no idea.

Back at the warehouse Lauren was stuck in the dark. She's nauseous, lightheaded, cold, and can barely keep her eyes open. Her skin felt like it was on fire and it hurt her to feel clothes on it. She was still freezing cold, though. She finally acknowledged that this is what the anorexia felt like and she couldn't run away from it. Before, she never noticed any of it. She always felt cold and nauseous but never to this extent where it felt like her limbs would fall off. It never felt like there was only a limit to what she could do, and now it feels as though if she breathes too much, more pain will come upon her because she has no energy and breathing was already too much energy spent. It was unbearable. She felt pain on every inch of her body. It was amazing to her to think that she didn't feel this earlier. She had completely ignored all of this. But she only ever really felt it after she took that IV out of her arm in the hospital. It had probably been her body being awakened. It spent so long being deprived of food that when it finally got the nutrients and hydration that it needed, it triggered all the effects of anorexia and it hit her at it's hardest. She could finally feel and there was nothing more confusing than that to Lauren. In this moment she didn't want to feel anything but it surprised her because all she had wanted a couple months ago was to feel. She hated that she had become a zombie and couldn't feel anything but now that she felt her bones aching and her skin burning with such an immense headache, feeling every emotion one can feel...she didn't want to feel anymore. Please kill me now. Please. She repeated over and over again in her head.

"Please." She said weakly into the dark, empty air. "Kill me now." 

"Oh, don't worry Princess. We'll ensure that your dream comes true." A deep voice says getting closer to her. This didn't scare Lauren. That, in all honestly, was all she wanted.

"Go ahead. I can't bear this anymore." She says bravely. Her head was between her knees. The cold floor she was laying on was not helping her at all. 

"We can help with that, don't worry." Lauren closes her eyes, not being able to keep them open anymore. She can feel the lights turn on but she doesn't want to open her eyes. Footsteps come closer and closer to her before she feels a pinch on her inner elbow, it was a needle. The men were injecting heroin into Lauren, and an excessively dangerous amount for her small body to handle.

"This should keep you still until tomorrow morning. We have very fun plans for tomorrow." He laughs as he walks out with his men following him. Lauren is left in the dark on the ground with her body shaking from the drugs and the cold. This is just about as close to hell as Lauren has ever gotten. Flashbacks of Evangeline and her family keep coming. All the bodies. All the tears on Lauren's behalf. All the days spent thinking of what it would have been like if she had never called. 

Then another flashback comes. It was of the day Leah committed suicide. Flashbacks of the phone call, the rope, her limbs flailing everywhere, the screaming, and then hearing her take her last breath. Then the flashback changes again to Evangeline. How Lauren held her when she took her last breath, how she had held Eli as he, too, died, and how Lauren had watched their coffins lower into their graves at their funeral. It was ALL Lauren's fault. All she ever does is bring bad into people's lives. 

But then a flashback of all the smiles she had in captivity with Danielle and Lila come to her. How they would laugh and scream loudly when Lloyd wasn't home and Lauren would just fall in love with the girls more and more everyday. They'd have tickle wars and dance with no music but just Lauren's voice singing happy, upbeat songs. Lauren would take their pictures with her camera (which Lloyd had luckily not taken away from her) and show it to them.  She kept each and every one of the photos. 

Now Lauren was just on the floor crying with a smile on her face. All these memories were overwhelming because they were her past life. Something she would probably never see again. She's just been hit with the reality that she never lived. Like, truly LIVED. She's spent most of her life crying and listening to other people's opinions. She's wasted most of her life in depriving herself from happiness and experiencing new things. Now she would never be able to make a change to that. After all of this, she would probably be assassinated. She would have spent all her life starving, harming herself, and crying over things she can't change because they are in the PAST.

If she could go back, she would change it all and be happy.