Day 15      Liam POV          (December 31st 2013)

Niall hadn’t stopped screaming. He screamed all night and into the next day. For hours he hollered relentlessly. Shouting her name until I was sure his throat would bleed. Harry had cried. I’d only seen him cry a few times, it was a sad sight. But the saddest sight of all was watching Charlotte being drug outta the room on a chain- not knowing what that strange man was going to do to her.

“Niall,” Louis said softly. His voice was crackling.

“This is all my fault, dammit!” Niall shouted. His two bright eyes were brimmed with tears and his lips were swollen.

“Niall there’s nothing you could’ve done,” Louis tried to calm our friend down. It wasn’t doing much good.

Niall hung his head down into his lap. No one heard him cry. But we saw how his broad shoulders shuddered with silent sobs.

I glanced to Zayn. Neither of us had said anything since Charlotte had been dragged away. The anger behind my eyes was reflected in both sadness and rage in his.

All heads turned at the sound of a creaking door. I can’t explain the horror I felt when I saw Charlotte again.

She walked into the room alone, hair tied back in a fresh braid and face just as dirty as it had been before. Her eyes were hollow and tired. She walked with a slight limp to her left leg, and I prayed to god that was the only injury those bastards upstairs left her with.

We all silently wondered what they had done with her last night. I prayed it wasn’t the nightmare that my imagination came up with. Why had they taken her away from us again? Wasn’t she in enough pain already?

Charlotte sank back down in her seat without once looking any of us in the face. She kept her head level to the floor and her mouth pursed in a silent line.

“Did ya miss her, fellows?” A booming voice inquired from the doorway. He and another stout mister walked into the room. I’d never seen either of them before. They were definitely European, I decided. Poor Europeans, at that. They were crudely dressed and had unruly, rugged facial hair. The shorter one smirked and showed three black holes where he was missing teeth.

“She was a bit of a fun time,” The same booming lad said.

Charlotte stared into the stout one’s eyes as he walked over to her chair. He quickly tied her ankles then went to tie her hands. They were already bound with zipties.

“That’s it then,” Said the stout man before Charlotte. “Our work is done for now,” He laughed like it was some sort of sick inside joke.

“Nice meeting you boys,” The other said. He nodded to us before taking his shorter friend and walking out.

The slam of the door echoed around the room.

“Charlotte…” Niall said softly. The tears in his eyes had long since dried and he looked ten times stronger than he had before. He leaned forward in his chair- muscles on his arms straining as he tried to bring Charlotte’s chocolate gaze in his direction. But she continued to stare straight on. Like an eerie snapshot photo- frozen in one place and forever siting in one position.

I noticed the movement of her hands from the place they were tied at her back.

“Charlotte, what happened?” Niall asked slowly. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to know the answer, or if Charlotte was even willing to tell him.

We all waited. We all waited to hear if our worst nightmares were to be proven true.

“I talked to my mom,” She replied softly. “They gave me a phone and my mom was on the line.”

My tired heart skipped a beat. Thank god. Thank god, thank god!

Louis glanced to me. I could see a brief glitter in his sea colored eyes. He had been thinking the same thing as I had.

“They can’t pay the ransom,” Charlotte spoke dully. She looked to me and then to her boyfriend. “They can’t bring us home,” She said.

Her tiny hands trembled as they reached into the elastic waistline of her jeans. Her fingers reached down and then drew out a small, sharp thing that reflected dusty light up onto the ceiling.

“So,” Charlotte said with a tiny smile across her chapped lips, “We’ll just have to get ourselves out.”