Welcome to the Family

Rebecca watched as all the guys jumped off the bus and engulfed their significant others. They looked so happy and calm. Rebecca dropped her backpack on the floor as she stared out the door. She grabbed a random jacket and then stepped off the bus. As much as she got used to being around the guys or tried to get used to them, she couldn't impose on them. She took a deep breath and then walked off the bus. With all the commotion of the girls and guys in the driveway hugging each other they didn't notice that she decided to leave. Rebecca pulled the jacket closer to her and continued to walk down the street. She didn't know where she was going, but she hoped that by wandering around for awhile she would be able to figure out her way back.

Rebecca wasn't planning on staying away too long. She liked the feeling of being wanted and the feeling of belonging somewhere. She just wasn't sure if it would last. Nothing lasted for her. She couldn't remember her own family, her own parents. She didn't know where she came from or how she got on the streets. She wanted to find out, but she wasn't sure how she would get there at the moment. Rebecca continued to walk silently down the street. She didn't know her way around, but because of her constant wandering she usually figured her way around new places quite fast.

As she was walking she turned corners and walked further down the street. Huntington Beach was new to her, just like Long Beach was. She could smell the cool crisp air of the ocean a few miles off. She figured the beach would be a nice place to go at the moment so that she could collect her thoughts. Unfortunately, she didn't get that far. She made a wrong turn and ended up in the direction of the worst neighborhood Huntington had to offer. She had no clue it was a bad neighborhood until she started walking past the mouth, or entrance, of a rather dark alley. Just as she was about to turn the corner and walk on another street something struck her in the back of the head and she pitched forward onto the ground.

*****

The guys were excited to see their girlfriends again. Matt may have seen Val the night of their final concert, but it wasn't the same. He didn't have much time to spend with her and she was only there to make sure the filming was going the right way and not being screwed up. She then left right after the concert. Now that they were home from their tour they were all happy. They could finally relax and take a small break before maybe going back into the studio. They were also excited about introducing their little guest that they had on the bus. The girls were excited too.

"Rebecca," Jimmy's excited tone called back to the bus as he looked over his shoulder.
There was no answer. Jimmy furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. He tapped Brian on the shoulder and asked him to follow him to the bus to see where their little friend was. When they got back onto the bus they noticed that it was empty. Brian noticed that a sweatshirt was missing from the many that they had on the bus and a lone dirty, grey backpack was propped up against the couch. There was no note. They left the bus and then faced their friends.

"She's gone," Jimmy said.

"What do you mean she's gone?" Johnny asked.

"She left her backpack and took a sweatshirt. I don't know which one, but she took one. She's not on the bus though," Brian answered.

"We have to find her. Huntington is dangerous at night," Val said, sounding frightened for the girl she met briefly backstage of their final show.

"I know. We'll call our family members to keep an eye out for a young girl, about the age of fifteen. We don't have a picture of her to show to them, but we can give a good description," Zacky said.

"Good idea," Matt agreed.

They all went inside after unloading the bus. They dropped their suitcases on the ground by the front door haphazardly as they went into the kitchen. Each one pulled out their cell phones and called their family. Once they were done they had a meeting.

"I'm going to keep searching for her parents and family," Jimmy announced.

"I'll help you with that. The more people on it the faster we might find them," Zacky said.

Jimmy nodded his head.

"I’m searching for Rebecca," Brian spoke up with a determined note in his voice.

The other four men all looked at him confused. His behavior towards Rebecca made it seem that he was rather annoyed with their little stowaway, but his behavior now spoke completely different.

"What, she's a young girl and needs to be protected," Brian growled out, furious with the stares that he was getting.

"We're not judging you," Matt sympathized.

The girls said that they would stay at the respected houses in case she managed to come across one of them. Matt and Johnny took Lacey to Johnny's house before leaving together to start their search. Zacky and Gena left soon after with a promise from Zacky to meet at Jimmy's house after he dropped Gena off. Val stayed put while Michelle and Brian left. Brian dropped Michelle off at the house before taking off. He was determined to find Rebecca. He wanted to earn her trust, but he wouldn't be able to if she kept running off.

*****

Rebecca was startled awake by a bucket of cold water being dumped on her. The water soaked her already thin clothes through. She had taken her jacket off before she had been knocked out and she still had it in her hand. The water barely touched the jacket. She was happy about that because her teeth started to chatter.

"I think we picked a good one," a greasy voice said in the dark.

Rebecca whipped her head around to try and see where she was at. It was dark and she couldn't see much. Her head hurt and she brought her hand to the back of it and winced. There was a knot protruding from her head. It must have been where she was hit from behind.

"You know Jared, I think you're right," a different voice replied.

"Oh yes, she seems like a promising screamer," Jared said, sounding gleeful.

Rebecca shivered, but not from fear. She was cold from the water being thrown on her. The words chilled her to the bone on the inside, but her actual shiver was from the water. She taught herself at a young age to never be afraid, but this situation called for fear.

"Hey, Rick, what should we do first?" Jared asked, after a bout of silence.

"Let's see, we should play with her first," Rick answered.

Rebecca didn't know what would happen, but she knew that she couldn't stay here. She pulled on her sweatshirt and zipped it up. She placed the hood on over her head and waited. If they wanted to play then they would get a good game out of it first.

******

Brian wasn't sure where to look for Rebecca at first, but he was determined to find her. After he had comforted her during her nightmare he felt a little tug of joy in his heart. Of course, her nightmare had prevented her from waking up so she didn't know that he had been the one to calm her down. He gripped the steering wheel and closed his eyes. He placed his head down on top of his hands and groaned. Three days have passed with absolutely no results to Rebecca's whereabouts and he was getting a little pissed off.

Jimmy and Zacky were up to their necks in research concerning Rebecca's family and why she could possibly be on her own. Brian had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach about her family and he didn't like it. He lifted his head and then with a determined set to his jaw put his truck into gear. He drove to the nearest Social Services office. He had a plan up his sleeve and he hoped that it would work.

******

Rebecca was breathing rather hard. She had been running through the building she was trapped in. The two men that had kidnapped her, Rick and Jared, had released her into the building telling her that she had a thirty second head start before they came after her. This was only after they had starved her for a few days. She didn't know how many days had passed, but she knew at least a few had. She didn't need telling twice. She took off running before they even finished speaking.

She tried every single window she came across, but they were all rusted shut. There wasn't anything she could use to break the windows and she wasn't keen on jumping unsure of how far off the ground she could possibly be. There were a lot of dead ends and corridors in this building and her fear was starting to mount higher and higher.

"You can run, but you can't hide," Rick's loud voice echoed through the building.

Rebecca stopped for a second to catch her breath, but that was her first mistake. Jared tackled her to the ground just then. She grunted a little before she was rolled over onto her back. She stared up into the dark, menacing eyes of Jared.

"You'll love this sweetheart, I swear you will," he whispered into her ear, as he straddled her.

Rebecca was ready though. She knew how to fight and she wasn't about to let herself get hurt. She got in a few punches before he pinned her wrists above her head. She wasn't done yet though. She lifted her head and smacked it against the face of Jared. He grunted in pain and loosened his hands on her wrists. Rebecca wriggled free and managed to kick Jared into temporary unconsciousness. Rebecca scrambled to her feet.

Rebecca began to run again. She found a couple of doors and tried them, but they were locked. She started running back the way she came and stopped at the windows again. She peered out and noticed that she was only on a second story level. Her hopes soared a little at the thought of a door and stairs to lead her out of this place alive. Rebecca began her search for the stairs in order to escape. Running along the corridor she passed numerous amounts of windows still until she came upon some more doors. There were six total. Three were locked tight, two were dead ends, and the last one led to a set of stairs. She went to go down them when she was yanked back by her hair. She screamed in pain.

Rebecca was flung against the opposite wall and the door to the stairs was shut tight.
Rebecca went to get up but a hand smacked her back to the floor.

"I don't think so bitch," Rick's voice growled angrily at her.

Rick smacked her around a bit before moving his hands to her jeans. Rebecca wasn't about to let him do anything else to her. She kicked him and fought back a little harder than when Jared had her pinned to the floor. She was strong and she was showing it too. She managed to throw him off, but not knock him out yet. He was shocked at her strength despite her lack of food and water. Rebecca got to her feet and then looked at Rick. He charged at her, but she ducked and managed to move away from him. She ran back down the hallway and towards one of the dead end rooms. She knew that she wouldn't be able to escape unless she took the risk and jumped out the window.

Rebecca ran into the room that had the biggest window located to the side of the room. She heard Rick's footsteps behind her, but tuned him out. She took a running leap and crashed through the window. Glass shattered all around her as she managed to curl her body into a ball. She landed and did a somersault. She had a bunch of bruises and cuts from the glass, but she had landed wrong on her arm and her ankle. They both throbbed, but she knew that Rick could be only a matter of minutes behind her. She took off running hoping that she would be able to find her way back to Matt's house.

******

Zacky had been staring at his computer screen for the last three days. Jimmy was on his laptop in the living room doing the same exact thing. They were determined to find the history behind Rebecca so that they had something to tell her when they managed to find her. No one had heard from Brian since the third day of the search began. Michelle couldn't tell them anything because he came home after she fell asleep and was gone before she even woke up. She was worried about him though.

Zacky continued to surf the Internet in hopes of getting a lead. He finally went to a website and typed in Rebecca's name. He hit the jackpot of information. "I FOUND SOMETHING," Zacky yelled excitedly from the kitchen. Jimmy ran in from the living room and looked over his shoulder. "Damn It," he muttered as he read the screen.

"Not the news we were looking for, but we finally know why she's on her own at such a young age," Zacky said, looking up at Jimmy.

"We have to find her. She needs to know this," Jimmy said darkly, not pleased with the news he read on the screen.

They both looked out the window. Night was falling again and they hoped that Matt, Johnny, or Brian would find Rebecca before something horrible happened to her.

******

Rebecca limped painfully as she tried to keep herself moving further away from the building she had been held captive in. Her energy was running out mainly because all she could feel was pain from her arm and ankle. She made some odd twists and turns through the neighborhoods until the rundown looking houses turned into nicer houses. Rebecca held hope that she found the right neighborhood, but she continued to press forward.

She found a house with a truck parked in the driveway and limped up the driveway as best as she could. She tripped and fell, but pushed herself to get back up. She couldn't give up now. Her head was still throbbing from where she was hit from behind, where Rick pulled her hair to pull her back to the floor, and from where it smacked against the concrete of the ground in the building. Rebecca managed to get to the front door and pounded on the door. It was dark, but she didn't know what time it was. Her vision was getting blurry due to the massive headache she was experiencing. She pounded on the door again until finally it opened. She couldn't clearly see who was there before pitching forward and loosing consciousness from her pounding head.