The following morning, everyone went out on the search again. This time they were focusing on a small patch of woods near the shopping center about five miles from our house. I offered to be the one to hang back this time so my mom could go with them. She was losing it cooped up in the house, waiting for something to happen. She needed a reason to keep going and helping the search would at least get her moving again.

After everyone left and the house fell silent, I started scrolling through my phone, searching the web for any ideas. I was looking through various abduction cases trying to find some sort of inspiration. I kept striking out. After hours of research, the only thing I came up with is that no two cases of missing persons were ever exactly the same. It made me feel even more hopeless when I read that often if the person wasn't found in the first 48 hours, the chances of finding them alive decreased significantly. We were now in the 96th hour of his disappearance and we were no further along than we were two days ago.

I shouldn't have read the blogs about missing persons. It only depressed me that much more. Unfortunately, I was past the point of being able to pull myself away. There had to be something out there that could help me find him.

I continued my useless search on my phone when an unknown number popped up with a new text message.

Unknown: Hey bitch.

My heart dropped down into my ass when I saw the words on my screen. Would she really be stupid enough to contact me?

Me: Jenna?

Unknown: Your daddy is so cute when he's sleeping.

My dad? My dad wasn't sleeping. He was out with a whole team of people searching for my brother. What was she talking about?

She sent a close-up photo of Jax with his eyes closed. His skin was dull and his eyes shadowed underneath. He looked terrible, but the photo did give me hope for the first time in days.

He was still alive, which meant we could get him back.

Something about the text was bothering me, though. Why was she talking about my dad sleeping? She had kidnapped Jax, not my dad. I shook it away. She clearly wanted something if she was reaching out to me.

Me: Where is he?

Unknown: Sitting right next to me, crying to go home.

Me: Please let him go.

Unknown: No, he is mine. Not going to happen.

Me: He's alive. It's not too late to make this right.

Unknown: If you want him to stay that way, you will come. He's asking for you.

Me: Where are you?

The bubbles lingered on the screen for way too long. I shifted around impatiently, waiting for her response back. After about five minutes, a map link popped up. I clicked it and saw she was in the middle of a rundown industrial area about twenty minutes outside of town. It used to be a booming site until the market crash a couple of years back. It was a great place to hide if you didn't want to be found. How come no one thought to look there? I sure as hell didn't even think about it.

I saw the bubbles on the screen again.

Unknown: Come alone. If I see anyone else, I won't hesitate to kill him. You already know how much I like playing with my knives.

The bitch sent me five full lines of winking emojis. She was a fucking nutjob.

I raised my head high, trying to keep a calm exterior; on the inside, I was in a full-on panic attack. I wanted to call Cam and my parents to tell them what was going on, but I couldn't risk the crazy woman hurting him more than she already had. If she wanted me to come, I would go.

I would find a way to end her reign of terror against my family.

I grabbed a piece of paper and a pen to write a note to my family. Jenna may have told me to come alone, but I didn't want my family to think I had run off or, worse, been kidnapped or murdered.

Mom & Dad,

I am going to go get Jax. Jenna has him and I know where they are now. I can't tell you where I am going because she said she would hurt him if I don't come alone. I promise I will get him back for you. I will see you all again soon.

I love you both.

Love,

Your favorite pain in the ass

PS Please don't tell Cami what I am doing.

I left the letter on the island in the kitchen. I knew there was no way my parents would keep this a secret from Cam, but it was worth a shot. As soon as he found out I was gone, he would be chasing me even if I didn't want him to. I just hoped adding the line would buy me enough time to see this through before he could get to me.

I grabbed my keys and climbed into my car with shaking hands. Bad Jessa was knocking at the door in my head, begging to come out. Good Jessa had her hand on the lock, ready to open the door for her. She knew she couldn't beat her alone and was just waiting for me to give her the signal to free her from her cage.

Bad Jessa was crazy, but she was stronger than I was and I was going to need her if I had any chance of saving my little brother today.

Twenty minutes and twelve traffic cam citations later, I pulled up to the large abandoned building. The building windows were dark and ominous. This was not a place anyone should be. Years of neglect made the building look like it had been abandoned over a hundred years ago instead of the eight or nine years it had actually sat empty.

The enormous building I was walking towards looked like it housed office space at some point in time or was a creepy apartment building. Whatever it was, it fit the psychopath vibe Jenna was aiming for. There were thousands of little partitioned rooms visible from the windows. It was going to take forever to figure out which one my annoying little brother was being held hostage in. I just hoped I wasn't going to get there too late.

I ran up to the door and tried to open it. It would move a little bit as I wiggled it, but would not budge. From the outside, I could see the double doors were being held closed with a chain and a padlock. I pulled at my hair in frustration and looked around, trying to find any other way I could get in. I couldn't believe I was about to face this horrible woman to get my brother back and I was being foiled by a fucking bike lock. I pushed at the door again and realized I had about eight inches of open space to work with.

I could make this work.

I stuck my arm in the opening and squeezed through the tight space. I could feel the metal door pulling at my skin as I wiggled through. My body ached as it felt like I was being crushed. It was a good thing I wasn't eating much lately. Bloated Jessa would have never been able to slide through.

I got to my feet and shook the nervousness in my body out once I was able to get my whole body inside the door. It took a few minutes for my eyes to adjust to the darkness after getting out of the blinding sunshine.

Looking around, I took off up a hall lined with doors. I pulled at them to find some of them locked; the ones I could open were empty or covered in trash and graffiti. Some of the doors were already open or falling off their hinges. Those were the worst. They looked like they were decorated by some amateur horror movie buff.

After about thirty doors, I began losing hope. What if he wasn't even here? She could have been lying to me when she texted me. What if this was a trap? What if she was setting me up?

I continued to tear the first floor of the place apart, looking for him until I reached the last door near the back. It opened easily, to my surprise. I was horrified when I saw the flight of stairs that led up. I knew this place was big, but how long would I have to search before I found him or gave up?

I wished Cameron was here with me. He would know what to do. Cam always kept his cool in situations like this. He was the complete opposite of me; I was always spastic when things were bad.

I was close to giving up when I heard shouting.

"Please. Let me go. I'm not him." Jax cried out from somewhere above me. It sounded like it was still a few floors up from where I was standing.

"Jax! Jax! Where are you?" I screamed as loud as I could as I ran up the stairs to the next level.

"Jessa, help me!" I heard him scream from approximately three floors up.

I took off up the stairs in his direction. I wasn't paying attention to the footsteps echoing through the enclosed stairwell. As I was rounding the corner to the final flight of stairs, I was tackled from the front and pushed back down. I went flying down the steel staircase and thudded hard on the landing about twelve steps down from the top floor's fire exit. My phone went flying out of my hand clanking across the floor and over the railing. I could hear it hitting time and time again as it fell all the way to the bottom floor.

Jenna was on top of me, smashing my head into the steel staircase. I groaned as my head throbbed and warm fluid began to ooze out from where it made contact. She caught me by surprise and I was paying the price.

I was starting to get dizzy and her face became a blurry smudge of distorted features. She was screaming without words as she continued to tear into me. I was going to pass out if she didn't stop. I raised my hand and tried to gouge her eyes out, but it was no use. She was too strong to fight off in my current condition. She had the upper hand this time.

Jenna pulled my head up by my hair and slammed it down one last time before everything went black.