Young Writers Society

"Well, I wont add him," Alex said and pulled out her phone, "I'll add his sister. I have a feeling Evan doesn't know about it."

"Thanks," Jonah smiled while she added Evan's sister to the list, "I've had this question on my mind for a while. What do we do when we've found him? Do we just go to the police, or do we kill BM and take back Charles?"

Elizabeth started to sniffle and Zoey ran over to her with a tissue, "I don't know. What if Beatrice has some sort of demands? What if she threatens us if we go to the police?"

"What if we go there with an undercover cop?" Avery asked. "And we could sneak up on her. Hopefully she won't see us. We'll tell the undercover cop to cuff her and she won't be able to do anything?"

"You sound extremely unsure about all of this," Jonah said. "And where are we going to get an undercover cop?"

Avery slumped. "Point." He went up to the bookshelf in Elizabeth's living room and lifted the vase. Under it was the paper that Beatrice had left them. He stared at the clue that was written on it helplessly.

He flipped it over.

Nothing.

He flipped it back. There was the clue and nothing -

He let out a yelp. "Guys!" He rushed over to everyone else who had so far been completely silent. "There's something at the very bottom of this paper," he said excitedly. He sat down on a chair and everyone else huddled around him. He squinted at the paper.

"It's very tiny," Zoey said.

"Yeah but... It's a number." Pause. "...Three million."

"Three million what?" Jonah asked, oblivious to its meaning.

"Three million dollars, dumbo." Zoey flicked him on the head and Jonah swatted her away like a fly.

"I can't give away $3 million, I'm not going to!" Elizabeth exclaimed, "What should we do?"

Alex spoke up, "What about a phony check?"

"A kidnapper can tell the difference between phony and real checks." Zoey stated as if it was a fact.

"And how do you know that?" Alex said. She hated when people said things they couldn't possibly know as facts, "Have you met a kidnapper before?"

"Movies," Zoey said as if it was the most obvious thing.

"A movie and real life. They're two different things," Jonah said, flicking Zoey's head.

"Not all the time!"

Jonah was about to retort but Avery butted in. "Can we concentrate?"

The siblings silenced.

"Okay," Avery said, taking a deep breath. "We could just walk into wherever Beatrice has Charles locked up? And try negotiating?"

"Very funny, Ave." Jonah scoffed. "You think we'll just waltz in there and be like 'we'll exchange pink fluffy unicorns dancing on rainbows for Charles with a hell lotta money'? If you do, you're wrong."

Avery sighed.

Elizabeth cracked, "Can you guys just stop being assh*les to each other so we can find my brother? This is serious!"

Zoey and Jonah sat down. He looked at his watch, "Evans probably there by now."

"He can manage." Alex rested her head on her hand, "I think we should… this sounds awful… but we should have a weapon, just in case. Like the spare gun in Charles' car."

"OK, then what? Do we just walk in and kill her?" Zoey asked, staring right at Alex.

"No, that's exactly what we don't do." Elizabeth said firmly, "If it gets out of hand, we threaten her. Remember, we can act in self-defense."

"Why don't we just go and do whatever feels right? Without all this arguing." Alex groaned.

Avery sat in silence as everyone else bickered. He was more of thinker than he was a talker. He listened more too. Talking wasn't his thing. Advising definitely was.

"Obviously BM will attack us in some sort of way," Avery said.

Everyone looked at Avery.

"Um." He shifted because of how uncomfortable he felt with the sudden attention. "We all know self-defense?" Everyone murmured a yes. Avery beamed. "That should be perfect then. We won't need to hurt anyone."

xXx

Soon enough, the five of them were in Charles' SUV once again, driving towards the theater, ready to face a kidnapper.

"Where should we look first?" Jonah said. Elizabeth blew her nose as a reply.

"The basement, maybe ask an employee if Beatrice works there." Alex asked, looking out the window, staring at some man who spilled his coffee. She found it interesting to people-watch in New York, as there was such a diverse crowd of people.

"Which employee?" Zoey asked, "We can't just go up to a cashier and say that we think a kidnapper is holding Charles Emmett hostage."

"That's why we don't. We just ask the manager or something if Beatrice works there, saying that it's her birthday and we are surprising her." Elizabeth said. Jonah turned a corner and the movie theater was in view.

"Wouldn't they be suspicious though?" Avery asked from the passenger seat. "If we know when her birthday is, then we'd for sure know if Beatrice works there or not."

"We'll tell the manager that she didn't tell us the exact address. Maybe one of us can make a fake text or something," Zoey said. She dug out her phone from her purse, clicked iMessages and changes Jonah's name to "Beatrice <3". She cringed when she put the heart. But you never know. Then she deleted all their previous texts.

"Jonah, message me some messed up address of a theater once we're there 'kay?" And she showed everyone what she had done.

"Mhmm." Jonah mumbled while trying to park.

"Jonah, did you hear me? Text me o..." Zoey said, but Jonah interrupted her.

"I heard you! I'm trying to park here." Jonah backed into the parking spot.

Zoey was really getting on Alex's nerves, and probably everyone else's. Once Jonah had parked, the group climbed out of the car and walked over to the front door of the theater, where they were greeted by Evan.

"Hi guys!" He exclaimed, "I checked our tickets, so we are free to go in."

"Thanks," Avery and Jonah said in unison. Avery's thanks was half-hearted, though.

They followed Evan into the movie hall.

Avery, frantically trying to find an excuse to leave and go search for Charles, sat down in the middle row seats, followed by Jonah on his left, Alex to his right, with Elizabeth and Zoey right in front of them. Evan was sitting beside Jonah. They made sure that they were all at the edge of their rows so it would be easy for them to slip in and out.

The previews started, and Avery started getting seriously impatient. He watched as someone from the front row seats got up and ran up the stairs and out of the hall. Probably to the restroom.

Restroom.

"I need to go to the restroom," he said loudly.

Jonah nodded sharply. He knew what Avery was doing. Zoey looked back at him, confused. Elizabeth whispered in her ear and she nodded slowly. Evan cocked his head.

"Okay?" he looked at everyone. "I'll come with. We need some popcorn."

Avery's heart dropped.

This was going to be hard.

Alex could have screamed. Evan was going to be following them around all day.

"I can get the popcorn. I've seen this movie before." Alex lied.

"I thought you said that you haven't." Evan replied, "And I'll get the popcorn, it's no problem."

Alex forced a smile onto her face while Jonah talked, "You got the tickets, let her buy the popcorn."

"Are you sure?'' Evan asked, looking at Alex and Jonah, "I don't see why you're so eager to get popcorn..."

"Just let me, please." Alex said, pulling out her wallet, "I have enough to pay for two large containers."

"Alright, I'll come with you anyway," Evan said. "I've seen the movie already so it's chill."

Someone shushed them from behind.

"Sh," Avery said. "Maybe you should just stay here. What if they don't let us back in? Jonah will text you and you can tell whoever that we're with you."

Evan nodded slowly. "Okay. Sounds good. Be back quick!"

Jonah, Zoey, Elizabeth, Avery and Alex left the movie hall and walked outside. They all stood beside the vending machine.

Time to brainstorm ideas.

"How are we going to know where Beatrice is?" Zoey asked, biting her nails.

"Does she have a weapon?" Avery asked.

"Whoa whoa. One thing at a time, okay? We've got weapons too. It's good," Elizabeth said.

"Well, what if she has more people?" Jonah said.

"Jonah, you have the power of two people, even though it doesn't look like it. So it's basically six of us. How many others could there be? And if Charles isn't chained up or anything, we'll have seven people on our side." Elizabeth crossed her arms.

“Elizabeth, the likelihood is that he is chained up,” Alex said, “So I wouldn’t expect for him to be free.”

“I wasn’t expecting it, I was just saying. Anyways, where should we look first?” Elizabeth stated. She unfolded her arms and leaned against the vending machine.

“The basement, probably some storage down there.” Jonah said, “Perfect place to hide someone.”

“And how do you know?” Zoey asked. She almost seemed serious.

Jonah shrugged and then Zoey said what she thought, “There’s also backrooms and those little rooms where they project the movie from.”

"Let's get going then," Avery said. He headed towards the narrow hall that led to different movie halls. The group followed him. Avery studied each of the doors before his eyes landed on a door that was named 'Employees Only'.

His heart raced and he pushed the door open. At least, he tried to. Avery cursed. And everyone looked at him weirdly. It wasn't at all like him to curse. He ignored it. No need to worry about that right now.

"Of course it wasn't going to be easy," Avery muttered. "We need to find an employee."

“We can’t just find an employee,” Zoey said, “They won’t let us in.”

“Then we’ll just have to steal a key.” Alex stated, “There also might be a spare in the employee break room.”

“I don’t think we can just barge into the break room uninvited.” Jonah rubbed his chin, “Unless there were no employees nearby or in the room, then we could.”

“Are you sure there would be spare keys?” Elizabeth asked, “I don’t want to risk being kicked out.”

“I worked in a Tim Hortans in highschool, we always had a spare key in the breakroom, under the coffee maker.” Alex informed her, “So there’s a fairly good chance there’ll be one there.”