Love or Die

Tortured

Travis was in the shower, hot water beating down on his back, when he heard his phone ring. He ignored it, thinking it was Mandee checking up on him again. But then it kept ringing and ringing until there was almost no pause in between. A sudden cold feeling spread in his stomach and he knew something was wrong. He got out of the shower in time for the last ring and saw it was Liz.

            “Hello?” he said uneasily.

            “What took you so long?” Liz asked anxiously. “Please tell me Jade's there with you.”

            “No.”

            Liz's following silence made the cold feeling spread even more. When she finally spoke, his body felt as cold and heavy as stone. “Jade's missing, Travis.”

            He swallowed back the lump in his throat before he could respond to her. “If this is a joke to get back at me, then tell me now,” he said. “Because I really don't want to think about the possibilities otherwise.”

            “Travis, if I could tell you that, I would,” Liz responded. “But I am a hundred percent positive that this is not a prank. Even Jade wouldn't take it there.” Her words and the fear he heard in them did not make him feel better.

            “How do you know she's missing?”

            “Well I didn't know for sure before,” she said. “Her mom called and asked me if Jade remembered her keys when she came to my house, but Jade wasn't here. I remembered what she told me happened when she saw you earlier and figured she was with you and needed me to cover for her so I did. But then I called her a few times and it went to voicemail, which worried me. Travis, do you have any idea where she could be?”

            “I haven't exactly been around much, Liz”

            “I know,” she said. Despite his words, Travis thought as hard as he could on where Jade could be and then he remembered the last time he saw her. She knew that he had been pretending not to know her and despite it, she still risked everything to get him back. He always thought the studio was one place Mandee left to him, but now he had the feeling that she didn't even give him that. And now, because he had no self-control, Jade was missing.

            “I think I know where she is,” he said into the phone. “Or who she's with anyway.”

            “Who?” Liz asked, relieved yet scared to have an answer.

            “Mandee.”

*          *          *          *          *

            Jade's head was throbbing and she had no idea why. She didn't know where she was and she couldn't figure out how she got there. The last thing she remembered was walking down her stairs to find that instead of Travis, Mandee was standing in her living room. Now she was lying on the cold, hard ground and she couldn't see anything in the darkness. She tried to push up on her arms, but her head seemed to spin until her arms fell out from under her and her head slammed back on to the ground. A stabbing pain shot through her skull and white spots seemed to filter into the darkness before her. She groaned in pain but slowly tried to get up again, only managing to sit up because of something solid behind her. Jade reached her hand out behind her and felt a wooden wall.

            “Hoping for an exit?” Mandee's voice called from across the room in the darkness. “Sorry, but you're on the wrong side of the room for that.” There was a creak on the floor and then a light came on above Jade's head. She squinted at the sudden brightness and then tried to look across the room to where she heard Mandee's voice, but Mandee stood in front of her.

            “Where am I?” Jade asked, wincing at the pain caused by moving her jaw.

            “That's unimportant,” Mandee answered, shrugging the question off. “What you should be worried about is what is going to happen to you. Or are you so ignorant that you think nothing is going to happen to you?”

            “It honestly doesn't matter what I think,” Jade answered, trying to sound as unafraid as possible. “You're going to kill me anyway. So why not just get it over with?” Mandee just stared at her and then laughed.

            “You know what, Jade?” she said with a smile. “I kind of like you. You have this whole, ‘I don't give a crap’ attitude to you that I can appreciate. I can see why Travis was so drawn to you. Of course, it's for that same reason that I have to kill you, you understand.”

            “Of course,” Jade answered sarcastically. “How could I not.”

            “Good,” Mandee replied. “Because if it weren't for the fact you were trying to take Travis from me, I think we could be great friends. We both have such charming personalities and obviously great taste in men. I mean honestly, I can't blame you too much for falling for Travis. He just carries himself with such confidence, that you can't help but notice him. I think even if he hadn't been in NLT, that if I saw him in the street, I wouldn't have changed a thing. I would have still changed him, making him mine for eternity. You have no idea how dreadfully awful it is to go around for centuries with no one to keep you company. It's way worse than dying, really.” Her voice took on a sad lilt at the end, but Jade refused to feel bad for her. Especially when she was waiting for her to decide to kill her.

            “I can think of something worse,” Jade said. “Having to sit here and listen to your sob story. If you're going to kill me than just do it already, before I beat you to it.”

            A smirk crossed Mandee's face and her eyes narrowed at Jade. “Who are you kidding?” she asked. “We both know you wouldn't kill yourself. Deep down, you're probably hoping Travis will show up. Your knight in shining armor, come to save you from the bad monster. But he's not coming to save you Jade. He may think that he is, but once he gets here, he won't.” She took out Jade's phone from her pocket and clicked away before a satisfied smile crossed her face and she put it back in her pocket.

            A knot formed in the pit of Jade's stomach. “What did you do?” she asked, wishing she were strong enough to fight Mandee on her own.

            “Oh nothing,” Mandee answered. “I just text him your location, pretending I was you, and said to come right away.” Her smile seemed to grow wider as she looked at Jade. “And when he gets here, the real fun will begin. Because I won't have to kill you; he will.”

*          *          *          *          *

            After Travis got off the phone with Liz, he had gotten dressed and drove over to her house trying to calm her from her nervous ramblings. About ten minutes after he had gotten there, his phone beeped with a text message; from Jade.

            Im @ the old boat shop on pier. Mandee has me trapped. Hurry plz, it read. His eyebrows came together with anger as he read the words and sent his quick reply.

            “Who was that?” Liz asked from behind him.

            “Jade,” he said quickly. “I was right, Mandee has her. I have to go help her.”

            “I'm going with you,” Liz answered, fumbling off her desk chair.

            “No,” Travis turned to her. “I'm going alone. I can't worry about having to save you both. Just stay here.”

            “She's my best friend!”

            “You think I don't know that!” he snapped at her as she shrunk back. “Liz, please just stay here. I'll get her back.” Without waiting for a response, he left her house for his car. Liz waited until Travis drove away and then she took her own keys from her desk and went out the door after him.