Captive - Onyx martin (ebook offline reader txt) 📗

Chapter 1

I was forced into this. No choice, no options. Just force. She insisted it was a ‘once in a lifetime opportunity’. For her, yeah. But for me this was hell. We’d only been in the car for an hour, just 20 more minutes until we got there and I’d already gone mad.
“I still can’t believe they’re coming here! To Florida!”
I sighed and rolled my eyes. Mom could be so annoying, “That’s about the fifteenth time you’ve said that in the past half hour.” I turned my gaze out the window, watching the buildings and pedestrians and trees drift by me like blurs of color, melting into one grand illusion I’d never understand.
“Oooh, I know, but I’m so excited!”
“Really? I couldn’t tell.” I prayed she wouldn’t be like this the whole night.
She shot me a dark look and playfully hit my shoulder, “Lighten up, Axel. At least you get the day off school. A day away from all your stupid little enemies and ex’s. I know you complain about them all the time.”
“But a day with all that is worth it to see Louis. And thanks to you and your crazy little obsessions, I can’t.” I watched a middle-aged couple start yelling at each other inside the bar across the street. I couldn’t hear them, but I could pick out a couple words from their lips. The man pointed at one of the older, dirty men in the corner, who chuckled and muttered something then turned back to the wall.
Mom sighed heavily, “Please, Axel. It’s just for one night. I never get to spend any time with you anymore anyways. You’re always with Louis!”
The man finally shut up and stomped away, leaving the woman alone, crying. I felt a little sorry for her, but not as sorry as I felt for myself.
The light turned green and the phone buzzed from Mom’s leather purse on the floor. I rummaged through it until I found the stupid cellphone, flipped it open and answered it without even looking at the caller ID.
“What?”
“That’s no way to answer a phone, Axel. Is Jenny there?”
“She’s driving.” I muttered. Mom held out her palm and I reluctantly handed the phone to her.
“Yes? … well, of-“
I popped my headphones in my ear, blasting Extremity to try and tune out her blabbering. I dreaded what I was being forced to sit through tonight. She was dragging me to a concert by a band called Contagious. She wanted to spend ‘quality time’ with me but really she just wanted me to come along because Contagious is her favorite band and she doesn’t want to feel stupid standing with a bunch of young people at a rock concert. And Contagious wasn’t really that good. They were horrible, actually. If it had been an Extremity concert, I would’ve killed to go. But no, of course not. The only concert I’ll ever get to go to is Contagious. Ughh. My life.

“Axel.”
I muttered something incomprehensible even to myself.
“Axel, wake up, we’re here!”
I slowly opened my eyes. We were parked behind what felt and looked like a motel. Two story. White walls, deep sea blue doors. The railings were a pale blue, the stairs cement. The sky was completely dark, nightfall had already taken over. There were people everywhere. Some chubby man with glasses ( who was bald other than two small patches of brown hair on either side of his head – looked retarded as hell ) was walking around selling solid black T-Shirts for $20 that had CONTAGIOUS printed in white across them, with the new album picture. That stupid rotting zombie. Anybody could’ve come up with that cover.
And of course, the chubby man caught me staring and walked up to me, “Would you like to buy a shirt? 20 bucks out here, 60 on the inside. It’s a great deal!”
“No tha-“
“Yes, please!” Mom squealed like a little kid winning something at the fair, digging around her purse for money.
The man grinned a little at me and I glared back at him darkly. Mom handed him the twenty dollar bill and he handed her a shirt without even asking her shirt size. Mom shrieked and he laughed, heading off to what he hoped would be his next customer.
“Do you want one, Axel?” Mom asked, her voice muffled by the shirt she was trying to squease her head into. Once she had it on, it was obviously way too tight and appeared to be suffocating her boobs. Just looking at it made me uncomfortable and nauseous.
“No.” I said, making a disgusted face.
Mom shrugged, “Ah well, if you change your mind, tell me. Let’s go.”

The line went all the way around to the back of the building, and it took an hour just to collect people’s tickets, check their bags and finally let us inside. With the cool air conditioning. I hadn’t realized how hot it’d been outside until I stepped in.
Once inside, we had to pass through another set of double doors leading back outside. There was the stage, a mini bar and a pool. It was all surrounded by the motel rooms. Same as the ones I’d seen outside. I wondered if anybody was staying in any of those rooms tonight. They would NOT be happy with all the noise. A live rock band playing right outside their door at 12 o’clock at night.
I could just imagine my grandparents having a freaking heart attack if that had happened to them. I laughed a little to myself and took a seat on the edge of the pool. This was going to be a long night. First we had to sit through two bands I’d never even heard of for half an hour each before Contagious even got on. Then we had to sit through 3 hours of them. Ugh.
And, of course, Mom just had to be right up front, against the freaking railing. Everything was fine until a man with long black hair and black eyes walked on stage, and literally everybody except me had a fucking panic attack and transformed into hungry, man-eating monsters. I was being crushed up against the little railing put up to keep us back from the stage. I couldn’t breathe. I looked over. Even my Mom had transformed into a lunatic. Shouting, jumping and screaming, “NIIIICK!”
The more time passed, the harder I was being slammed against the metal railing. Somebody stepped on my foot and a searing pain shot up through my leg. I think I just got my freaking toe broken. Great. Fucking great.
Never again would I go to a concert. Unless of course, it was an Extremity concert. But it was very unlikely for them to come here. Nothing good ever happens to me. But the thought of seeing them live… now I understood why Mom was eager to come here. Even though Contagious sucks. But Rickie… from Extremity… gosh he was everything Louis was times 10.
How could I think like this? I felt guilty for thinking such things. I felt like I was betraying Louis.
But it was true… about Rickie… Louis or not.
I slapped myself in the face and shook my head. I kept checking my watch, after each song when the crowd calmed down a little for a couple minutes before raging again.

11:35. Good God, it’d be over soon. They’d come on at 8. They’d have to finish soon, right?
By now, it was extremely difficult to take a single breath. The air was full with the scent of cigarettes, pot and alcohol. Disgusting. I wanted to throw up and get the hell out of here.
Just then, the singer, who I’d figured was Nick, strolled over to our side of the stage to sing. Everybody around me went frantic, reaching for him. He knelt down, intertwining his fingers with a couple different girls for a few seconds each. I was the only one who wasn’t either screaming nor reaching out for him.
I was trying to sink under them, to hide as much as I could, but somehow this caught his attention and he winked at me. Right at me. I glared at him in utter disgust and he chuckled a little before ambling back to the other end of the stage. I sighed in relief.
“Oh. My. God! Axel, did you see that?” Mom shrieked.
I sighed, “Yes, Mom. I’m getting sick, I’m going to go use the restroom. I’ll wait for you in the car.”
“Alright sweetie, I’ll be there in a few. I believe this is the last song.”
I nodded and turned, pushing my way through the wall of wild animals. It took 5 minutes just to get through the crowd back to the main building.
I asked the woman at the service desk with the thick red hair where the bathroom was, and she pointed down the hall, without a word.
I thanked her and followed where she had pointed. You had to go all the way down the hallway, turn right, and then the bathroom was halfway down that hallway. Why couldn’t there be a bathroom near the front? Probably was and the lady just didn’t like me.
Nonetheless, I quickly got my business done and took a nice long drink from the water fountain next to the restrooms.
That’s when they came strutting down the hallway, chattering away about the concert.
“That was epic, but not as good as the one we did in Georgia, though.”
“That’s cause you suck, Ben!”
“Oh, shut up! At least I’m better than you, Tanner!”
“Boys, knock it off! Nobody’s – Well, look who it is.”

Chapter 2

I turned to stare at the four men heading right past me, except for the man with long hair. One of the other men had short brown hair, and another had long brown hair. The last one had dark dreads. When they realized their singer had frozen, they turned to stare at me and Nick.
“What?” I snapped, taking a step back. I had a bad feeling about this. Me against four grown men. Not good.
Nick chuckled, “I saw you there, in the audience.”
I thought about how he’d seen me and winked. Disgusting. I shivered.
“Yeah, so? Who cares?”
He took a step towards me, “Why are you here, if you don’t want to be? You’re the only one in the crowd not doing anything. The only one who didn’t want to be here. Why?”
“Because I really don’t want to be here. My Mom drug me here against my will. Now please, get away from me.”
I tried to walk past him, but