"Celine, Celine, I have to talk to you!" I said when I finally found her. She turned to me and nodded. "I know who's doing this!" Celine was silent as I told her about the concert. I showed her the clip from Ike's video with the group of girls and their banner.
"Pause it," she instructed me. I did. She leaned closer to the TV and her hand flew to her mouth. "Taylor, I've seen that one…oh, my God…"
"What?" I asked, looking at the pretty girl whom the group was centered around.
"Taylor, that's…that's…" Celine stuttered. I put my hand on her shoulder. "That's Jeremy's girlfriend!"
"Jeremy?" I was confused.
Celine looked at me. "That's Randi…the girl Jeremy dumped Gabrielle for."
"Gabby, don't let go! You don't want to do this yourself! Look inside yourself!" I said frantically.
"Isaac!" Gabby cried, tears streaming down her face. "I can't die! You're right. Oh, Isaac, I don't want to die!" I felt myself begin to panic inside. What could I do? Suddenly, another shriek caught my attention as Gabby's fingers began sliding over the edge. I raced over.
"Gabby, grab my hand," I instructed.
"No!" she screamed. "I can't! I can't let go! I'll fall!" Her moist palms slipped even further over the edge until she slipped down and caught onto the bottom of the balcony.
"Isaac!" she shrieked.
"Gabby, I'll go get help." I tried my best to look reassuring.
"Isaac, don't leave," she mumbled through tears. "I'm going to fall!" she cried, slipping even more.
I glanced around the small area, looking for anything that would help me. The curtains! I exclaimed to myself. I stuck my hand inside the door and ripped the curtains outside.
I heard gasping coming from below as Gabby just barely clung to the lowest edge. If she slipped more…
"Don't give up," I encouraged.
"Isaac, I…I don't think I'm going to make it!"
"NO!" I shouted. "I'm coming to get you." I rolled the curtains up and tied them around one of the stone posts. Then I did the same to the other curtain. I climbed over the edge and lowered myself into the hammock-like curtain. Straddling it, I reached my arms out on either side, pulling Gabby up to the other curtain. She pulled herself on and I scrambled up over the edge.
"Isaac!" Gabby screamed. "The knot!" I glanced down to see the knot sliding undone. In a flash, I leaned over and grabbed Gabby's arms, hauling her over the rail as the curtain fell to the ground below.
Shaking, I collapsed into Isaac's arms. "Oh, my God…" I cried. "I'm so sorry, Isaac!"
"Shh, shh," he whispered, rocking me back and forth. My hands were numb from holding on so long. Why had it taken so long for Isaac to get to me??
"I can't do it, Isaac…Celine's breaking down under the pressure. You'll be next. Then I won't be able to…"
"Gabby, I'm right here," he said. "I'm never leaving you again. But, Gabby, don't tell Celine what happened. It would be too much right now." He paused. I felt like he wanted to tell me something but he didn't.
I pulled away from him. He kept a firm hold on my hand while I wiped my eyes. When I looked up at him, our eyes locked. I was in complete shock. I felt like I had no control over anything I did anymore. I wanted to stay in Isaac's arms forever. I felt safe there…maybe even loved?
"They've got to be around here somewhere!" I mumbled, pacing back and forth. It was Friday, the day before the ransom was due. Taylor, Celine, Isaac and I were standing in her kitchen, trying to figure out a way to get to Ellie and Zac.
All week long, Celine's machine had picked up messages from an unknown, untracable place, reminding us how much more time was left. We couldn't even tell if it was a boy or a girl calling. I was scared for Ellie and Zac. What if they were already dead?
To make matters worse, Jeremy had found out where I was, and had been calling, too. That made me even more edgy.
Celine ran her hand through her hair. "Guys, it's past midnight. We've been up all day. We need to sleep."
"You're right, Celine," Taylor said. We all quietly trudged up the stairs to our rooms. Celine slept in her own bed, Taylor and Isaac bunked together and I was across the room from them.
When I reached my room, I collapsed onto my bed, trying not to cry. Isaac had barely spoken to me since my stupid outburst of insanity. I think I scared him away. He probably thought I was a lunatic!
The hours passed, but I just couldn't sleep. I had a terrible feeling something was about to happen. I know everyone had to be asleep by now.
Just as my eyes were drooping closed, my phone rang. I jumped. Quietly, I picked it up. "Hello?" I asked.
"Gabrielle?" a voice asked.
"Yes?"
"We have your best friend and we're going to kill her!" the strange voice cackled.
What was I going to do? The guys had always picked up the phone! "No, you won't," I said, creeping to the door.
"Yes, we are!" the voice laughed. As I listened to the evil laugh, I opened the door to Taylor and Isaac's room. Isaac's head shot up as I opened it. "Gabby?" he whispered.
I ran over to him, glad he was awake, picked up his cordless phone and handed it to him. Then I dragged him to my room.
"Isaac, it's them…" I whispered frantically. Isaac put the phone to his ear.
"Who are you?" he demanded. The laughing stopped.
"So Gabrielle couldn't handle this on her own, huh? She had to get Ikey-Pooh to help her!"
"Shut up!" I yelled. Isaac put his hand on my shoulder.
"What do you want?" he asked evenly.
"We want the 50 million…duh!"
"Where's my brother?"
"Safe, with Ellie. We'd never hurt Zac."
"We have your money," Isaac said. I looked at him, shaking my head. We had no money!!
"Good! Then we can meet…"
"We have your money, but we won't give it to you until next Friday."
The voice laughed again. "Who are you to be making the deals around here?"
"Look, you have my brother and Gabrielle's best friend. We have your money. You play by our rules now."
What was he doing?!
"Oh, yeah! We could kill Ellie right now!"
"Don't!" I screamed.
"You won't, because you'd have the police, me and a million angry fans on your doorstep, and you wouldn't want that," Isaac said in an even tone. "You give us another week, and we'll get you the money."
There was a silence. "All right, fine." Then there was a click.
"Isaac, I can't believe you just did that!" I screeched. "What were you thinking? You just doubled the danger Zac and Ellie are in!"
Isaac took my hand. "Trust me," he whispered.
"Trust you?" I whirled away from him.
The phone rang again. This time, Isaac handed me the cordless and he picked up. "Hello?"
"Gabrielle?"
"You don't need me," I hissed. "Stop calling me and lying to me!"
"But I really need…"
"Didn't you hear her? Stop calling, Jeremy." Isaac slammed down the phone in frustration. The phone rang again. I put my hand over Isaac's on the receiver.
"Don't," I whispered. The machine kicked on.
"Gabby, I know you're there. I know you know who's behind all of this. How could you do this to me?"
"What?" I screamed when Jeremy hung up. "How could YOU do this to me? Isaac, what is he talking about?"
Isaac ran a hand through his frizzy hair. "Maybe you should sit down…"
Sleepily, I went down to the kitchen the next morning. I went to the fridge and grabbed some milk. "Ike? Have you been up all night? You look terrible!" I exclaimed, seeing him staring at a glass of orange juice.
"I talked the Scream Squad out of making us bring the money today," he said. "We have another week."
I sat down beside him. "That's not all. Is it Gabby?"
Ike put his head on the table. "She tried to jump off the balcony yesterday."
"What?!"
"And last night, Jeremy called her again."
"Ike…there's a new twist to the story," I said, hating to bring it up. "Celine says the leader of the group is…is…Randi Walters, the girl Jeremy dumped Gabby for."
Ike stared at me. "It gets worse and worse! We can't tell her that!"
"I know. Ike…I don't what we're going to do, now that Randi's involved…"
"Morning, guys," Celine said, coming down the stairs followed by Gabby.
"Gabby, you look like you haven't slept at all!" I said, standing up.
"I haven't. I've been up all night, thinking. I think we should rescue them."
"What?" I asked.
"That's crazy, Gabby…" Ike said.
"No, it's not. You guys say you know who's behind all this." I looked at Ike. "All we have to do is find them, and then go after Zac and Ellie."
"Gabby…" Celine said.
"Guys, listen to me! I've been crazy lately, I know, but this will work. It has to! Are you guys with me or not?"
There was silence. "I'm in," Celine said.
"Me too," Ike jumped in.
Even though I thought this was crazy, I agreed as well. "Good," Gabby said, taking charge. "Taylor, you and Isaac see if you can find out where your person lives. That may help. Celine, you and I are going to come up with a plan." She walked out of the room.
"I'll go tell Gabby we found Randi," I said two hours later.
"I'll come too, but don't say Randi," Ike warned. Ike and I walked into the next room, where we found Gabby seated at Celine's desk, slumped over on a pile of papers, asleep.
Ike went over to her. "How long has she been out?" he whispered.
"Ten minutes."
Ike slid his arms gently underneath Gabby and picked her up. She groaned, but didn't wake up. Celine and I followed Ike upstairs, where he laid her down on a bed and covered her up. He kissed her head gently and came over to us.
"I think one of us should stay with her," Ike whispered.
"I will," Celine offered. "Did you guys find anything out?"
"We'll tell you later. We have work to do." I pulled Ike out of the room without another word, my fear for Zac, Ellie and Gabby growing inside of me.
