"Eva! Chloe...." mum waives her hand and calls us from a distance. She clearly took Chloe's name with disinterest. We walk over to her stall. "I'm glad you two stopped by. You should take a look at the collection. Chloe, you should take one for your mother."

I look at my feet, then look the other way. Chloe starts "um... actually we'd love to, but not right now. We were um...."

"well, of course. Your mother isn't a very 'bag' person. She's more into boring stuff. No offense." Wow mum. And yet again you prove me right. Coming here was a bad idea. I immediately shut my eyes after she said that. I hold Chloe's hand.  

Chloe lets out an offended chuckle. "Huh? Yes offense. What's that supposed to mean?" And.... once again my mum has successfully able to offend my friend.

"Oh, I didn't mean to offend you. You know, we went to highschool together. She has something very 'off' about her taste. Even in men."

"Really? Huh. Right. You're the one to say. At least she ended up living happily with one. Unlike you." Now that got her on her nerves.

Mum gasps and says, "Oh you pathetic little, bi-"

I cut her before she could finish, "mum! Please!"

She looks at me and and is about to say something, her eyes widen "what? Her side?"

"It's not about taking anyone's side. We actually came here to ask for some help. And FYI you started it." I grab Chloe's hand dragging her out of that place.

We start to searching the first floor, in the empty classrooms but all the classrooms had a lock hanging outside. There was the music room and a few people were sitting with the guitar practicing for the upcoming evening events.

And we hit a dead end.

I sigh and so does Chloe. "Should we call those guys?"

Just when Chloe said that, her phone starts to ring. my fingers are crossed. I'm hoping there's good news.

Chloe answers it. She listens for like 4-5 seconds and then says "no, did you?" and by Chloe's reaction I knew that it wasn't good news. She hangs up and says, "let's go upstairs."

We run up the stairs to reach the 2nd floor. Jasper and Austin were already looking at one side of the floor so we took the other but neither of us could find him.

I should've known. Leo has been acting so weird lately. I should've been with him. This doesn't look good at all. Even a few minutes before I thought he was somewhere around. 

Did he go home? Should we call his mom? We stand still at our places. I'm not looking at anyone. cause I'm terrified. I can't look at Austin. I'm sure he's devastated. 

"Did he go home? Should we call his mom?" I tell everyone. Because I don't know what else to do.

"I don't think he'd disappear like this if he were to go home. He would've at least texted. His mother's gonna worry if we call her all of a sudden." Says Austin. He's making a valid point.

We all just stand there for a while still brainstorming ideas to find Leo. I stand beside Austin, Jasper on the opposite side holding Chloe's hand.

Austin leans against the door, sighing in disappointment. I keep looking at him. Seeing him worry like that makes me realize how much he likes Leo. I mean I always knew that he's really affectionate about Leo. They are so good together.

But the next thing that I notice kind of triggered a memory inside me. The door that Austin was leaning against didn't have a lock hanging outside, because it wasn't locked. From outside, it was locked from inside. And it was,

The staff room.

Everything starts to rush back. Leo's change in behaviour since he met Hyde. His disappearance from school and Hyde's constant enquiring about Leo. And today! I told him about Leo coming to the fundraiser.

Shit.

My heart starts to race even fast, my palms sweating even more. I start breathing fast, shut my eyes. But I have to pull myself together, I have to tell them, my gut is telling me that Leo's in this room. The room is awfully silent.

I have to lure the others away from here, because if he hears us Hyde might harm Leo. God knows what is going on inside.

"You know what, maybe we should check the auditorium."

"But...."

"No no seriously, I- I think.... Uhm...." I cut off, and start walking towards the auditorium. I turn back and the others look at each other before cluelessly following me. Everyone's pretty much out of ideas by now. All we knew was that we had to find Leo.

As soon as we were far enough from the staff room, I stop. "Alright look. I want all of you to stay calm, and not freak out."

"What.... are you talking about?" says Chloe, and the rest just stare at me searching for answers.

"I think Leo's with Hyde."

"With. With who?!" Austin looks badly tense. And frazzled. But I couldn't keep any more secrets. Secrets only result in misunderstandings.

"Look, I'll explain it later. But I think they're in the staff room right now. And we shouldn't be standing here anymore. But we can't just barge in, we need a plan."

"Is.... there time for a plan?" says Jasper. It's true. There isn't enough time to plan. Hyde could leave the room and take him somewhere else, if we took any more time. Because he surely knew that we were looking for Leo. And in this crowd we wouldn't even notice.

"Well if you think that I'll be standing here listening to you if there's going to be a plan or not. You've mistaken. I'm going inside that room right now." And before I could say another word Austin bolted away from us, towards the staff room.

It takes me a few seconds to realize that I had to run after Austin. We were in the same hallway as the staff room. So it didn't take much time for Austin to reach there even when I shouted, twice. I even got hold of him, but he was just in such a rush that he shook his hand and swung it so fast that my hands slipped.

And within no time Austin reached the staff room and he yelled "Hyde!" My heart was pounding, Jasper tried stopping Austin but nothing worked. "Open the door you son of bitch! Leo!!!"

Some of the students were looking at us, but thank god the evening event started and people rushed towards the field. And with only two bumps by the shoulder on the door it swung open.

My heart almost stopped, Austin stepped in and within seconds he staggered onto the side because someone kicked him in the side of his torso. Austin's head landed on a chair causing a deep wound and he fell unconscious.

"Leave.... you guys need to leave now!" I turn around and tell Chloe with a shaky voice after seeing what happened. "Call someone. Some teacher, security, anyone, just go!" I push both Jasper and Chloe away from the door.

As soon as they run towards the stairs I find myself being pulled in, so fast that I lose balance and trip over the floor. Hearing the sound of the door being closed behind me with a loud thud. My heart started to skipping a beat. I felt anxious, like I've never felt before.

And I knew the face I'd see when I turned. I was right. It was Hyde. "Where's Leo!?"

A creepy smile takes place on his face. He licks his lips and says "wouldn't you like to know?" He scans me and starts to walk closer. I stand up and start to step back. "Call those idiots and tell em' not to bring anyone."

"You wish!" I say. I look around and finally spot Leo. that's not how I wanted to see him. This wasn't supposed to happen. He's sitting behind the big yellow couch, with both his knees pulled into his chest and he wrapped his knees with both his hands. His pants were lying on the floor.

"Oh my.... Oh my god Leo!" He's having hiccups. He must have been whipping, really hard. But he wasn't crying anymore. He was numb. I turn back to Hyde "What did you do to him?" I didn't scream. I couldn't. It was barely a whisper.

He looks me in the eyes, takes a cup that was kept on the table, smashes it on the floor making me gasp and jump, I cover my mouth. He comes closer, before I could back off, even though there wasn't anywhere to back off to.

He grabs me by the back of my neck and holds my neck a few inches away from a piece of glass that he picked up from the floor. "Call them now."

You won't get away with this. I don't tell him. I pull the phone out of my purse with shaky hands, dial Chloe's number. It kept ringing. She didn't pick it up. And I knew that Hyde could have easily shoved that thing inside my throat and would've left with Leo. "They're not picking up"

"Call again," he threatens. This time I called Jasper. 

please please pick it up. 

"Evelyn! Hey, you okay?! It's really crowded, everyone's scattered around. We're tryin- "

"No! No.... don't try. Please. We're out. You guys go back home. Okay?"

"Wha? What?"

"Yeah, yeah. Go home. I got Leo and Austin's fine we're taking him to Austin's place. Hyde must be out somewhere, just take Chloe and go home."

"You sure?"

"Yes, yes, just go home. Trust me. It's fine." They listen to me and hang up. That's it. I said it. And now they wouldn't even know if Hyde kills me.

"Now. What should I do with you...." he says before stroking the piece of glass lightly on my cheeks. I shut my eyes. Tears start to roll down and I start shaking. "You know what. I'm disappointed in you. I thought you'd understand that I care about Leo."

I open my eyes after hearing what he said. And a word barely escaped my lips, "what?"

"Yes. Now you see, I don't like when people don't listen to me." He tightened the grip on my neck. "I tried saying that to Leo the other day. After the game? Remember?" He widens his eyes, scaring me to my core. "But he didn't seem happy. Why wouldn't he be happy? Huh?!"

"I don't know." My voice shakes as I burst into tears. Not only because I was scared. I can't even imagine what's happening to Leo. Leo's numb face kept appearing in front of my eyes.

"But you should! You're supposed to know!" he lets out a deep devilish chuckle. "So, I had to take everything in my hands. I gave him a little taste of my kind of love. And I think he liked it." he tilts his head to looks at Leo. I can't believe that I even considered talking to this sick bastard "and I'm sure he can't wait to fuck me already."

I shut my eyes and mouth, cause I was about to throw up on his filthy face.

I open my eyes to the sound of the door open with the thud. 

~*~*~*~*~*~

A/N

Writing this chapter was kinda hard and a little fun. And I wanted to make this chapter good since chapters like these are really important.

A little tip for my fellow writers: Always try to make the climax as much interesting as possible. BE it fear, hatred, betrayal or any emotion that you're mainly going for must be AT IT'S PEAK.    So that when the protagonist arrives the readers feeeeeeeeeel it.

Anyho... Thanks for all your support. Soon there'll be another book launch! Really for ya'll to read the story.