"Won't you answer it?" Yolanda whispered.

Tobie touched a shaky hand to her mouth and swallowed. "Okay."

Heaving out a sigh, she swiped the answer button. "Hey, Mom."

"Tobie!" Mom shouted, relief lacing her cry.

Tobie had put the phone on loud speaker, so the others could hear everything she was saying. They could hear the distant blare of some soft music in the background and what sounded like Dad's voice.

"Are you guys okay?" she asked. "I've been so worried."

"We are fine, Mom," Yolanda answered. "Why were you worried?"

"You are asking me that question?" Now that Mom knew they were safe, she has gone back to her no nonsense attitude. "I've been calling everybody's phones for the past few minutes and nobody bothered to answer me. Care to tell me what the matter is?"

"Are you guys home and safe? Is Kalea with you?" Dad's voice came over the line.

"Let her answer my question first," Mom murmured to Dad.

"Yes, Dad," Tobie quickly answered. Her answer had been to Dad's second question only, of course, but she wasn't going to let them know that. "Kalea, Dad wants to speak to you." She shoved the phone into her sister's hand, glad to not be the one in their direct line of fire.

Kalea glared at Tobie, but knew had no choice but to speak up. "Hi, Dad. Hi, Mom."

"What's wrong with everybody? You two sound strange Is everything okay? Where's Art? What did he do this time?"

"I didn't do anything." Art frowned and crossed his arms.

"Well, you had better not, son" Mom said. "Where's Yolanda? Is she asleep?"

Kalea looked to Yolanda with question in her eyes. The latter's eyes widened and she started to shake her head.

"Can you try to wake her up so I can speak to her? I need to know my baby is alright."

Kalea sighed and pushed the phone Yolanda's way. "Actually, she's not asleep yet, Mom."

"Hi, Mom," Yolanda chirped. She even grinned, although they couldn't see her.

"Yolanda, baby. How are you?"

"I'm good, Mom."

"I'm surprised you aren't asleep," Dad said. "Are you guys watching TV?"

"Lacey's here, too," Kalea said and hoped Dad didn't notice she hadn't answered the question directly.

Dad chuckled. "I thought as much. Say hi to Lacey for me. You guys have a good time. But you guys better be asleep before eleven."

"And check all the door locks and windows before you go to bed. Have you seen the missing kids news?"

"Yes, Mom. Don't worry, we are safe," Kalea lied. She tried to convince herself they really were safe. They would be. They just had to go get Dore and get back home.

Mom sighed. "Oh, that's a relief. I hope the news is just false. It would be really bad if kids are disappearing on the night most parents are away. I don't know why those kids stay out so late anyways."

Kalea gulped and looked at the others' faces. They also had similar expressions.

"Stay safe, guys. Next time, please leave your phones nearby and save your parents all these heart attacks," Dad said.

"Okay." Kalea frowned and glanced at the others. Once again, they all had another same set of expressions on their faces.

"Bye. We'll try to be home as soon as possible. Don't forget to turn in early."

"Bye, Mom. Bye, Dad," Yolanda said.

"Bye," the four others said.

"Bye," Dad and Mom said together.

They glanced among each other when the disconnect tone beeped.

Lacey spoke up first. "If Mom doesn't have our phones, then where are they?"

"I'm very sure I left mine in Dad's car. I dropped it there myself when he dropped me at school today." Yolanda planted her hands on her hips.

"Yeah. But he probably doesn't know about that." Art shrugged. "What about Kalea and Lacey's phones? I thought Mom had them."

Kalea snapped her fingers. "Maybe she really did drop them at the restaurant. We asked only Riff. She could have left it with someone else." She snapped her fingers again. "That's probably what happened. She thought we had our phones by now."

Lacey sighed and slumped against the wall. "So we wasted our time going downtown. We can't go back again."

"Definitely not." Yolanda emphasized her words by slashing her hands through the hair.

Tobie nodded in agreement, already mounting her bike. "I know right. We can always go back tomorrow. Or Mom will bring them back tomorrow if she goes to work."

Kalea mounted her own bike too, turning to give a confused Brandon a half wave. "Right. Let's get going then. Dore's waiting."

Ric Cowan was in trouble. Big trouble. And the only thing that could save him was his wits. After he had come to from the punch and the man with the shocking pink hair had tied him up and thrown him into the back of the car, he had tried to take note of his surroundings. And when the car had started to move, he had tried to map it out in his head. But the lightbulb in his head had gone out with a fizz. He didn't know this area of the town very well.

He tried to shout through his gag again but it was no use, more paint make-up only got in his mouth. His stupid Joker make-up. If only he had dressed as something else. He could have been Batman or even Shrek, but no, he had chosen this stupid costume for Halloween and the other boys had made him a literal joker. A jester. Only in this case, he was the one being made a fool of, and not the other way round. Which was rather ironic, the real Joker had been evil and feared by all, but Ric was the exact opposite of this.

Sean had taught them all how to hotwire cars in the spring, so they had all goaded him to hotwire a random car and drive it over to them. Then they'd spray paint it with pumpkin faces and red paint. He hadn't really wanted to do it, but somebody had called him a pussy and he had made up his mind to prove them wrong.

His mistake had been going too far away from them. He hadn't found any suitable car nearby, the ones he had found were too expensive and looked to have some sophisticated burglar alarm. Then he had found the old station wagon, abandoned in an alley. Even if, by some foresight of the owner, it had happened to have alarms, nobody would have heard it in this back alley. He had felt so good then, until he had knelt down to pick the lock and the next thing he was looking up at was a big fat woman with a murderous face.

His friend had probably moved on and jacked many more cars and stolen candy from many little children on the road. They'd think he had chickened out and run away.

The person in the backseat groaned again and Ric wondered for the nth time what could be wrong with him. He was obviously hurt, but he didn't know to what extent. And he sounded grown up. This sickos not only kidnapped kids, they kidnapped adults, too.

He wriggled around and tried to scream again, but it was no use. It was then Ric gave in to the tears that had been swelling in his eyes since. He broke down and let the tears flow down his face and soak his gag, filling his tongue with more taste of the horrible gag and stupid make-up. Water from his nostrils joined the mess and he didn't bother to sniff them away. It was no use.

He didn't know what plans the kidnappers had for him, but it wasn't going to be anything good. They could demand ransoms from his parents. They must have recognized him and known he was the son of CEO Cowan. His father would kill him after he was released, for sure.

He shook his head to shake away a thick mucus crawling it's way towards his lips, but it was too thick. The mucky caterpillar slowly climbed over his lip and disappeared into his gag in a trail of green and white paint.

Disgusted, he tried to wriggle his arms around again, so his shoulder could reach his nose to wipe off the goo and he was fully surprised when the shoelace ropes binding his hand came loose. The pink haired man must have tied the bonds loosely in his haste.

His heart thumping faster, he wriggled his hands some more and was rewarded with the ropes falling off completely. He immediately tore away the horrible tasting gag from his mouth and sucked in a huge gulp of fresh air. As fresh as he could get in the potato-smelling back of the car.

He had taken another gulp of air and was about to open his mouth wide again and scream when a thought occurred to him. He didn't know where they were exactly, they could be in the middle of nowhere and if he screamed nobody would hear him and the kidnappers would only come to retie him tighter.

He wanted to sit up and have a look at his surroundings but the sound of the vehicle that had been on their tail all along made him quench his wants. It was most probably that minivan that had been at the back of the car in the alley and the driver could easily see him from their high seat.

He moistened his dry mouth and swallowed saliva painfully. He had to think of something. He heard the guy telling the fat woman that had punched him to look at something and then she said, "Let's go comfort the poor boy" and the car shuddered to a stop.

Whimpering, he stuffed the horrible gag back in his mouth and hurriedly twined his clasped wrists around the rope behind him. They were coming for him!

He waited for a while and nothing happened, only the opening and slamming of car doors. His heart pounded heavily somewhere behind his gag and he started to cry again. He could hear muffled voices but couldn't make out what they were saying. He thought he heard a child's voice, but he couldn't be too sure. Were they busy digging where to bury him after they had stabbed him to death?

A short scream penetrated the air. It was the scream of a child. And then he knew what had happened. The trunk door lifted slowly, cold fresh breeze rushing in to chill his skin. The fat woman was holding the lid up with one big arm and glaring directly at him. It was as if she knew he had loosened his bonds.

He whimpered and the end of the gag in his mouth came loose, trailing out to touch the car floor. The woman's frown deepened till he almost couldn't see her eyes and mouth for the folds on her face.

"You fucking dunce, I knew you didn't gag the boy properly."

Then she reached into the car and removed the gag. He sucked in a gulp of fresh air and clasped his hands tighter behind him, his face going white underneath the make-up. His heart was now quivering like a weak, trapped bird against his chest walls. He hoped with all his heart that she didn't turn him around and discover the loose ropes.

"Why do I always have to redo everything myself." She hissed and roughly shoved the gag back into his raw mouth, picking up another smelling piece of cloth to tie around his mouth. He gagged and struggled to breath as she tied the cloth too tight at the back of his head.

Pink Hair appeared beside her, a small figure thrown over his shoulder. Ric could see a tail protruding out of the rear area of the kid over his shoulder. It was a costume.

Fat Fuck snapped her head to him, her eyes taking on a different venom of anger. "Don't drop him here, you retard. Go drop him in Sam's van and come take this one away too."

"Bring him." The other lady he had only caught a glimpse of earlier took the seemingly unconscious boy from Pink Hair's shoulders and disappeared to the back of her van, her long ponytail swishing to and fro across her back.

"Won't you tie him?" he heard her call.

"No need. He's in chloroform land." Pink Hair laughed at his stupid joke then turned to face Ric, rubbing his hands together in glee. "Hello, Teletubby guy."

Fatfuck swung her gaze to him, surprised. "You gobshite, that's not a Teletubby, that's a . . . a clown of some sort."

Pink Hair didn't look so sure of himself anymore. "Really? I haven't watched Teletubbies since twenty thirteen."

"Twenty thirteen?" The other lady had come up behind them. "What are you, some retarded adult?"

"Shut up." Pink Hair glared at her and picked Ric up.

Thankfully, he didn't sling him over his shoulder or he would have seen the falsely tied ropes for sure. He just held him at the middle by his costume and made for the back of the van, grunting under the heavy weight.

"What do we do about Dick?" he heard the other lady ask.

"Nothing. We can't take him to the hospital. What are we gonna tell them there? Hey, can you help patch our friend up? He got stabbed by one of the kids we were all trying to kidnap. That's . . ."

Fatfuck's voice became distant as they reached the back of the van and he couldn't hear what more she had said. But the little he had heard was enough to know that the hurt guy was not a poor, helpless adult. He was one of the bad guys.

Hearing that some kids had escaped them boosted his hope some more. If some had been able to escape, so could he.

Pink Hair tossed him into the open van and he whimpered when his head hit the warm, hard metal floor of the vehicle. Now was a good time to escape, he thought. But the warm body behind him pricked at his conscience. It took his all not to act on first impulse. Pink Hair didn't look too smart for an older guy and Ric believed he could easily overpower him and push him into the van and leg it. But he remembered the little form that had been draped over Pink Hair's shoulder earlier. The poor boy or girl couldn't be older than four or five and it would be on his conscience forever if he escaped and left the kid behind.

So he  did nothing, inching closer to the kid to try to offer him some comfort. He remembered someone saying the kid had been chloroformed. Poor kid. If he didn't wake up by the time he came up with another plan, he would have to carry him.

And if, by some ill luck, they caught him again, he'd make sure the little kid was safe and not found. He didn't know how he would do that, but whichever way, he would. It was the only thing that would make him feel good even if he was caught again.

Pink Hair grinned, exposing his big chompers. "See ya . . . clown." The double doors of the van closed, dousing Ric in blackness.

He had seen the door locks before the door was shut. He could pick it or gently break it to open. Yes, he would do and roll out and the kidnappers wouldn't be any wiser.

The van engine started and a yellow overhead light came on, providing dim illumination to the room. Ric unclasped his hand and sat up.

And he had light to help him.

He turned over and gently tried to shake the little kid awake.