The pact

Vic’s POV April 26th 2001
As the bell rang through the school, I stood up and raced towards the door. I almost pushed people aside in the hallway, that desperate I was to get to the chemistry lab. Unfortunately that classroom was at the other end of the school, which got me a bit pissed off.
Yesterday when I had called Luna, on her new cell phone, she hadn’t answered. And even not when I had called her again, three times. Normal boyfriends wouldn’t have to worry about anything except her being mad at them in that situation. But I had way more worries, her being mad at me maybe even sounded as the least problematic scenario.
Her being hurt by her mother would be the most problematic one. And even though I know it was stupid, the possibility of her being killed by her mother always crept inside my head.
It was nothing probably. She would probably sit in her seat at chemistry right now and I could just act like I haven’t been the scary, overprotective boyfriend for the last few hours.
When I approached the door of the chemistry, I expected her to sit there, even though I had other more worrying scenarios playing in my head. But she wasn’t. Her seat was empty.
But…her last class was in the classroom next to this one. She was here always earlier than me. I furrowed my eyebrow and didn’t realize I stood still in front of class until Mr. Johnson said: “Mr. Fuentes, please sit down. I’d like to start my lesson. Unless, if you want to take over from me?”
I silently mumbled a ‘no’. The whole class laughed as I quickly sat down at my chair. That was the downside of not being ignored anymore: people noticed when you did something embarrassing. And I did embarrassing things all the time.
When Mr. Johnson started his lesson, my thoughts wondered back to Luna. Where could she be? Was she sick? No, she would’ve called or texted me if she was. Or maybe her phone was just broken? I almost laughed at that possibility. Phones around that time didn’t break that easily.
I didn’t pay attention to the lesson at all, although I might had to, because my grades were heading downwards again. I was just watching the clock ticking slowly closer to twelve, the time we’d have lunchbreak. Jaime still walked home and to school with Luna every day. Maybe he knew where she was.
As the bell rang again I rushed out of my seat towards the cafeteria again. I saw my usual lunch group doom up in the distance and walked over to them.
“Hey, has one of you seen Luna?” I asked, trying to hide the fact that I was a little out of breath.
“Have you lost your girlfriend, Vic?” Mike smirked, but I really wasn’t in the mood for his jokes right now.
“I kinda hoped you knew.” Jaime said and I looked to him. “She didn’t walk home with me yesterday afternoon and this morning she didn’t show up either. I thought she might be with you.”
I had been worrying about her all morning, but this was the first time I really had felt panic. I had hoped that Jaime had seen her. Now the horrible scenario’s I had made up in my head suddenly came very close to the truth.
I moved my shaking hand through my hair. There must be an explanation for this.
“Are you okay, Vic?” I heard Tony ask me.
“Yeah.” I lied. “I’m just a little worried. She hasn’t replied to my calls, she didn’t show up in chemistry. I thought she was just mad at me, but she didn’t show up for Jaime too. So now I’m getting worried.”
“Maybe she is ill” Mike said and he shrugged. He definitely wasn’t as worried as I was, which was understandable. They didn’t know where she went through at home.
“I think she would let me or Jaime know…” I said as I looked around the group. Did they think I was exaggerating?
“What do you think happened then?” Jaime asked, I saw in his face that this all confused him a lot.
I bit my lip. I wasn’t supposed to tell them. She wouldn’t want me to. But if something happened to her, then it would be wise to tell them, right? But what if she was safe and she would get really mad at me? I mean this was probably the biggest secret she held at the moment. She wouldn’t forgive me that easily.
“Do you know something we don’t know?” Leah asked and she broke me out of my thoughts. I looked at her and tried not to look guilty, but I think I failed.
“No. I’m just worried.” I said. I first wanted to check on her mother on my own. I could tell them about her later if I needed to.
They pretty much believed me after that and we stopped talking about it pretty soon. I made a promise to myself that I would go to her house after school, but the nerves got the best of me and eventually I just went home ‘sick’. I just needed to know if she was okay.
So when I was walking towards her home, I had to keep myself from running towards it again. The road was suddenly a lot longer than normal, probably just to piss me off. Eventually I just resorted to running anyway, so when I arrived at her house I had to lean against the wall, regaining my breath.
As soon as my breath was somehow normal again I knocked on the door and waited for someone to open it. I feared that it would be her mother. I hadn’t seen her since the time I stopped her from hitting Luna. She would kill me if she saw me.
But luckily when the door opened, her dad appeared from behind it. I sighed.
“Oh hello, Victor. Can I help you?” he asked.
“Yeah, uhm. Is Luna home?” I asked and I feared for his answer. Although he would probably look more sad if she was dead. Although, maybe he didn’t know yet…I was pretty sure he didn’t even know about the abuse.
Her dad raised his eyebrow. “I thought she would be at your place. I haven’t seen her since yesterday morning.” He said and confusing was visible in his eyes.
Okay, but if she wasn’t at home, where would she be? Did she run away? Had her mom taken her something? Had she been attacked by people on the street?
“Say she is with you, Vic.” Her dad suddenly said and there was fear evident in his voice now. I looked at him and it seemed like he had tensed every muscle in his body.
I shook my head, shaking all over. This wasn’t right. There was no way to assume now that she was safe. Something was wrong and I hated it. “I haven’t seen her since yesterday morning either and she hasn’t responded my phone calls.” I said, trying to keep my voice under control.
Her dad dragged a hand over his face and it seemed for a moment like he didn’t know what to do. I know I needed to ask the question, I just didn’t know if I was the person to tell him that his wife abused his daughter.
“Does her mother maybe know where she is?” I asked a little cautious. I didn’t know how he was going to take it.
He looked at me with a surprised face. “Why would she know it?” He looked at my face for a while before he seemed to get what I was assuming. “Young man, she might not be the nicest woman in the world, but you’re still talking about my wife and Luna’s mother. She wouldn’t do anything to hurt her.” I could hear in his voice that he was offended.
But I didn’t care much about this man’s feelings right now. I just wanted to find my girlfriend. “I’m sorry, sir. But I’m not so sure about that, judging from Luna’s stories. Could you maybe just check on her. We’re still talking about Luna’s safety right now.”
Her dad looked me straight into my eyes filled with anger, but I refused to look away. Slowly his eyes softened. “You’re right, Victor. She’s lucky to have you.”
A shaky smile covered my face. I wasn’t so sure about that. A good boyfriend might’ve known what to do by now, but my mind was just empty. There was only place for panic.
“What now?” I asked and the desperation was hearable in my voice.
An understanding smile appeared on his face and he walked towards me to put his hands on my shoulders.
“Don’t worry, Vic. It will be alright.” He said. “Just go home. There’s nothing you can do now anyway. I will call the police. I’m sure they’ll find her.”
For some reason it didn’t feel quite right yet, but I didn’t know what else to do. So I nodded and went home.
But the time kept creeping on incredibly slow. I had given Luna’s dad my phone number so he could call me if he knew something. Needless to say I checked my phone every three seconds. I had the feeling I was missing something. A clue of where she might be. It seemed so obvious, but I couldn’t reach it.
I tried to make my homework, to play guitar, to binge eat tortilla’s, but I just couldn’t concentrate. My mind seemed to be clouded with it. I felt so stupid about that, because there was a big chance that there was nothing wrong with her. But I know for a fact that the chance of her being in danger would be a lot bigger.
Eventually I just gave up trying to keep my mind off it and I laid down the book I was trying to read. Okay, what could I possibly do right now? Wait, I could inform the rest.
I took out my phone and dialled Leah’s number. She was the only one with a cell phone, so she just needed to tell the rest. They were still at school now anyway.
The call went straight to voice mail though. She probably was in class right now. I would call them later.
But then the torturing nothing came back again. I wanted to do something.
I could call Casey. She probably wanted to know if her best friend was missing. I stood up from my bed on which I was laying down for the past hour and I walked over to my desk. I started searching for her letter, she had written the phone number of her house on the back of it for emergencies. Well, this was an emergency.
I pushed away a pile of school books, some of them fell on the ground. I saw a corner of a white envelope and pulled it out from under a pile of CD’s.
I dialled the number on the letter and waited for the someone to pick up the phone. After a while I heard a woman with a thick British accent say: “The Taylor residence. You’re speaking with Miranda Taylor.” Her voice sounded a little rough, like she had just woke up.
Of course, stupid me. I had totally forgotten about the time difference. It had to be a little over five am in England right now.
“Uhm, hello. You’re speaking with Vic Fuentes.” I said a little nervous. “I’m a friend of Casey…from America.”
An awkward silence was heard. “Don’t you think it’s bit of an inappropriate time to call?”
I bit my lip. Yeah, I did think it was inappropriate. But Casey might just be a missing link to the puzzle. Maybe Luna had called her in advance.
“Yes ma’am.” I said, putting on my polite voice. “But I wouldn’t call if it wasn’t extremely important. It’s about Luna, she is missing.”
After that I had to argue with her mom for at least another five minutes before she finally gave in and woke up her daughter. I didn’t really saw the problem to be honest, she was awake now anyway, why not do what I say then?
I heard her feet walk up the stairs from the other side of the line and finally I heard a hushed conversation. “An American boy called…yeah he said it was an emergency…Vic or something? I can’t remember.”
A silence followed and then I heard Casey’s voice. “Vic, are you okay?” Unlike her mother, Casey sounded very awake. Maybe it was because she was curious.
I sighed. I was happy that I had someone to talk to again. “Yes, well no actually.” I said. “Luna’s missing.”
A silence followed again. “What?” her voice cracked a bit due to the bad reception in my room.
“Yeah, have you heard anything from her in the last two days? Something that might give us a clue of where she might be?” I asked. Although I kind of already knew the answer. Luna hadn’t talked about Casey in a while, which made me assume that they weren’t on speaking terms.
“No, actually.” Casey said, her voice showed both sadness and shock. “We’ve been drifting apart lately. I guess we don’t fit in each other’s lives anymore. It was bound to happen I guess.”
I knew Casey was sad about that and I knew Luna was so too. “Oh, would you let me know if you hear anything from her?”
I heard her swallow. “Yes of course. Vic, do you think she is in trouble?” her voice sounded small. She always had a loud, upbeat voice, but now she sounded a little broken. It didn’t fit her.
“yes, I have all reason to believe she’s in trouble.” I said and I told her about the little quest I had had that day.
After I was done talking a short silence filled our conversation. “So why are you doing nothing then? Why are you not searching for her?”
I was a little taken back by her question. “Casey, there’s really nothing I can do.”
I heard her scoff. “Bullshit, Victor. You’re just scared. Now get off your lazy ass and go search for the love of your life. Quit whelming in self-pity.”
At first I was a bit insulted at her tone, but then I realised I was right. Why was I whining in my room when every minute that passed, Luna could be killed?
“You’re right, Casey.” I said and I stood up from my desk. It was like these words from Casey woke me up from my daze.
“Of course I am.” She said and I chuckled a little. That’s the Casey I knew. “I’m coming too. I don’t have a good feeling about this.” She continued. “We might not have been talking in a while, but I’m not letting my fucking fiancé die. Pick me up at the airport in twelve hours.” And then she hung up.

Luna’s POV April 25th 2001
It was quiet. Too quiet. Why was it so quiet in here?
I walked over to my locker as I was still looking around me, trying to find someone else roaming the halls of school. Even though nothing had happened since the graffiti on my locker, I was still scared something would happen. They threatened us, therefor I felt like they were planning something on us.
I slowly let my fingers slide over the faded letters on my locker. They were only readable for people who knew they had been there, but every time I saw them, realisation hit me that there was nowhere I was safe.
I shook my head to get me out of my daze and opened my locker. My muscles were still tensed of caution when I took out my Spanish books that I forgotten to get in lunch break. I was about to turn around and go back to class when I noticed a small piece of paper on the bottom of my locker.
My heart skipped a beat. Was it another threat? Or something else horrible? Until a few weeks ago Jessie and Ryan had started a contest who could drop the most insulting notes in my locker.
I moved my hand down and grabbed the crumbled piece of paper. I slowly unfolded it with shaking hands. I let out a deep breath when I saw Vic’s messy handwriting.

When every vein is red out of the blue
I held a diamond to the sun
To count the moments on account of the way you
Smile for me
Oh, we're in slow motion when you
Smile for me

What do you think?

-Vic

I smiled widely at the little piece of paper in my hand. I was happy to know that he followed my advice. And this wasn’t even that bad either!
It had been two days since the day we had spent on the rooftop and I had already gotten three text messages with song lyrics on in it. The first one wasn’t that good, but they got better with every text message. I was actually quite curious how this would sound.
Maybe he would infect the other boys with the song writing virus too and they could help them. I think they’d love that.
I re-folded the piece of paper in my hand and put it into the front pocket of my jeans. A smile was visible on my face as I closed the door of my locker. I had almost forgotten about being careful around here, when I heard a sound on the other side of the hall. It was a loud bang that echoed in the halls, making shivers go over my spine.
My head shot to my right as I looked through that end of the hall. There was no one there and that actually scared me the most. I clenched my hands tightly around the handles of my backpack, but they were still trembling like crazy.
After standing frozen in the hallway for some time, I turned around to walk back to Spanish class. I kept my gaze to the floor as I walked as fast as I could without running.
Suddenly I bumped up to a hard surface. I screeched and backed away. I immediately recognized the hard surface to be Ryan’s muscled chest.
I felt a big hand cover my mouth to mute my scream. I looked up to a clearly amused Ryan. He put up his other hand to his mouth and put his index finger to his lips. “Hush baby, we wouldn’t want your boyfriend or his pathetic little friends to come and safe you.” He said a nasty little grin spreading across his face.
I tried to move away, but he just turned me around, so he could put one arm around my neck and his other hand still covering my mouth. This way it was useless for me to resist. I didn’t stop trying though.
He tried to push me forward with his body, surely to bring me somewhere else, but I refused my feet to move.
“Don’t resist you bitch.” Ryan hissed in my ear and kicked the pit of my knee with his foot. A painful feeling spread across my leg and it immediately weakened. Ryan pushed me through the hallway, I followed his demands now, knowing that he was stronger than me.
My mind wondered to scenarios of how this could end, so I didn’t at all realise where we were going until I felt the warm sun touch my skin.
I felt the fear in my body multiply as I realised that we were leaving school grounds. This couldn’t be good, this wasn’t good at all. Were they going to kill me? I silently tried to send goodbye’s to people with my mind, just in case. To Vic, Mike, Jaime, Tony, Leah, Casey, my grandparents, my dad and even my mother. I knew they wouldn’t get the messages, but the thought that they knew how much I cared about them made me feel a little less anxious.
Tears rolled over my face. Surely I was exaggerating. Ryan was an awful person, but he wouldn’t kill me, right? That was just my mind jumping to conclusions.
I didn’t know why I knew this time was different than the other times Ryan had done things to me. But it was a feeling that was eating me, it wouldn’t let me go. I actually feared for my life.
Eventually Ryan let me off school grounds, Peter and Justin holding open the gate for him that separated the school grounds from the outside world.
When we were roaming the streets, I hoped that someone would see us. There had to be at least someone outside at this hour.
Eventually we arrived in a neighbourhood with cheap houses in bad shape. I knew this neighbourhood. It wasn’t a good one. Most of the houses seemed to be empty and the only thing outside was an angry looking dog that seemed to be rabid. It barked to me a few times, flashing its sharp teeth before we disappeared around the corner.
I was tense and constantly looking for a way out of here, but nothing came up until I heard footsteps coming our way. A homeless looking man came around the corner. There were pieces of bread stuck in his grey beard. I started to scream underneath Ryan’s hand again to get his attention. He eyed us and looked me straight into the eyes, but there was no sympathy in them, just annoyance. He looked away and continued walking.
Now I understood why Ryan had choose neighbourhood to come to. He knew that people here wouldn’t do anything to help me. He must’ve taken more of his Victim’s here. Suddenly I felt sympathy for every person that had ever been beaten up by Ryan and his minions. They had felt the same fear as me, the same immense desperation. No wonder some of them went nuts.
Eventually we walked out of an alley and we were heading towards a little wooden shed in the distance. It was covered in graffiti and the windows were broken. I feared that that would be the place to which they would take me. And they did.
Inside, the shed was covered in paint splatters and the wood of the walls was rotten. In the middle of the room was a wooden chair and the floor around the chair was covered with rope.
I suddenly realised that they were going to tie me up. This was fucked up! They were crazy!
I had heard before about people who got kidnapped, those horrible stories. I felt bad for those people, but I never actually thought it would happen to me.
When realisation hit, I tried to get out of Ryan’s grip. It didn’t matter that I was weaker than him. I needed to fight for my life.
Ryan’s grip on me tightened, but he couldn’t take me all by himself, so Peter and Justin cut in and tried to push me towards the chair. I didn’t even feel the pain of their grips and my muscles as I was trying to break free. It was like my blood was replaced by pure adrenaline.
Eventually they got me down on the chair, but I was still fighting. Although the tiredness finally took over and the blows I tried to give them were weak, they wouldn’t have an effect even if I actually hit them.
They tied a filthy rope around my chest, arms and stomach and the rough material scraped against my arms. I didn’t make it better for myself by struggling. Little drops of blood formed under the ropes.
Eventually I stopped struggling and breathed out the last bits of adrenaline that was still coursing through my veins.
“Good girl.” Peter said and his voice made me want to throw up. “There’s nothing you can do anyway.”
“I’ll find a way, believe me. You guys are gonna pay for this someday!” I almost screamed.
The familiar evil grin grew on Ryan’s face and he shook his head. “Always fighting for justice. When are you going to see that justice never wins. Simply because justice is uncontrollable. The people who fight against justice, they have the real control.”
I looked at him with every inch of my face screaming anger. It was everything I could do in this situation and that made me feel incredibly desperate. But I wasn’t going to show them, that would only give him pleasure. This was not about revenge anymore. They saw this as a game and they just made a master move.
“You do this just for fun.” I stated.
Ryan walked to me, bowed down in front of me and took my chin in his right hand. I tried to resist it, but I didn’t have the energy anymore. His grin grew a little louder. “yes, I do.” He said. “I like making others hurt. Thàt is control.” I looked straight into his eyes without backing away. Those horrible eyes that I had found creepy since day one. I could’ve just let the story between him and Vic alone. Maybe then none of this would happen. I was the one that triggered the fire that was needed for the game to play. This was all my own fault.
“Are you going to keep me here?” I asked and I tried very hard to not let fear be heard in my voice, but I failed miserably.
It definitely seemed to amuse him that I was afraid. “Yes, but you’re just the start of our plan.” He said calmly. “Because, how do you think your friends will react when you go missing? Or you beloved boyfriend? It’s a trick to start a fire that will cause lot of pain. Believe me, eventually we will win this game.”
Panic filled me up again. “WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO TO MY FRIENDS?! LEAVE THEM ALONE!” I screamed trying to free myself again. I would never forgive myself if they’d got hurt because of me. I would never survive it if one of them got hurt. I was randomly moving my arms and legs even though it was no use. It didn’t matter to me that the wounds on my arms became bigger.
Eventually I felt a hand crash into the left side of my face. I immediately stopped moving due to the shock. I looked to Ryan’s face that was showing no emotions. “You can’t go off screaming, Luna.” He said. “Someone will find you. And we wouldn’t want that.”
I looked away from them. I wanted to scream, just to annoy him, but something blocked me from doing it.
Justin took out a white piece of fabric out of his backpack and also started walking into my direction. “Any last words?” He said grinning. “You won’t talk for a while after this.”
I took this chance to try and scare them. “I will never give up fighting.” I said, trying to sound as determined as I could in this position. Anger was dripping out of me with every word.
“We wouldn’t want you to, babe.” Peter said as Justin cover my mouth with the white piece of fabric.

Notes

heyyy guysss!

So yeah this one is a little longer than the other chapters. The ones after this will be a bit longer too!

So what did you guys think of it? what do you think will happen to Luna? Do you think she will die?...........................

Okay guys, so I have a small goal set for this story. I wrote this story mostly for myself and for the few people who read it, but it would be really cool if I'd reach my goals. I was thinking about 10,000 views at the end of the story on piercetheveilfanfiction.com and 1,000 reads on wattpad.
you guys don't have to do anything about it, it's for myself. I just wanted to let you know :)

xxxxxxx

Nicky