After

Chapter 14

            A breeze sweeps through the dark alley as one lone person lies against a wall. A dark shadow envelops her whole figure as she regains feeling and control of her limbs. Still too weak to stand up completely, she props herself against the cold wall and takes in her surroundings. They are much different than what she had grown accustomed to over the past few days. Fresh air, of course, being the first thing she notices. The second thing she notices is the quiet air now being invaded by the echoing sound of heavy footsteps. They grow nearer to her as she begins to worry as to what their purpose is. Her breath quickens and eyes close as they stop in front of her and she soon notices her body trembling as well.

"What's a beautiful girl like you doing all alone at this hour?" A man's husky voice asks her, "Maybe I could take you back to my place and..." His voice fades out as he begins to pick the unwilling girl up off the ground and carry her to his car. She cries, lashing out at him, hitting him with all her force, but his grip doesn't loosen. She knows she is too weak to fight him off anymore, so she just screams. She screams at him, she screams for help, for somebody to help her, please.

"Let her go." Another voice says, firm and demanding.

"What makes you think I would do that?" The man asks with a smirk.

"Because we told you to." Another person states.

"Ok, ok, fine, have it your way. I just wanted her to have a nice place to stay and... you know..." He uneasily sets her down and steps away to his vehicle and drives away.

"Dinah, you're back!" Ally exclaims as Normani helps her stand up. "How are you? Is Lauren ok? What did they do to her? What did they do to you? Do you know who has her? We missed you so much."

"Ally, slow down and let her answer your questions before you ask a new one." Camila steps in and hugs Dinah right as she stands up, "We did miss you though."

"Lauren's alive, but she's been through... a lot." Dinah begins, "I'll tell you more when we get back to the apartment." She walks up to the building, but almost collapses from both pain and weakness. Normani quickly comes to her aid and helps her up the stairs and into the room while also whispering a few words of welcome.

"I know you want to rest and all, but I need you to tell me everything you remember in detail from start to finish. We can't risk you forgetting anything." AJ immediately says to Dinah once she sees her. "Even the smallest bit of information could tell us the whole story.

Connor opens the door to the room and Lauren begins to shake, "It's just me. Don't worry. I just wanted to let you know that Dinah is safe now." Lauren simply nods and he exits the room. She hopes this is the extent of her interaction with her captors until she is able to escape, but she knows the probability of that happening is slim.

Just as expected, James enters the room only hours later. He drags Lauren out of her room and sits her down on the couch. Her eyes shift nervously around the room but she knows the men are less likely to do anything sexual to her in such an open area. At least they have a little shame. Either that or they just haven't done anything to her in here yet. All she wants is to go back to her old life. It may not have been the most normal life, but she enjoyed it. She had family who cared about her, friends who cared about her, even fans that cared about her. Her job, the way she made her living, was the thing she enjoyed most in her life, music. It was always her retreat, her escape from all things evil, but they have taken it away from her. Everything she once loved has been stripped away from her, leaving her no reason to enjoy her new life. It's as if her life was once a forest, full of life, full of color, full of joy, but there was a fire and everything is scorched and black. Everything that was once full of color now burned beyond recognition. Her whole life has been burned to almost unidentifiable ashes but at least it's still there, at least there's a possibility of fixing it. Or making it worse.