This couldn’t have happened at a worse time. I just finished touring like…two days ago. I’m exhausted, and all I wanted to do today was sit at the table with my family and friends and eat about ten slices of pepperoni pizza. That’s probably what Trace is doing right now…damn him. Now, I don’t even know where my next meal is coming from, or even if…I’ll be around to eat another meal after today. It’s scary, and I probably should be nervous, or freaking out like Kerri is. But I’m not…and it’s weird. It’s like, I’ve been ready for this. Maybe it’s because my bodyguard, Horace or to put it normally…Tiny, constantly sits me down and tells me that this sort of thing can happen if I’m not ‘alert’. I always think he’s doing it to put a scare in me, because he usually gives me that lecture after I’ve been drinking after a show or whatever. But now, I guess he was being serious…because now here I am.

Or rather…here we are…

I feel horrible. It was my idea to bring Kerri along to get the cake. She wouldn’t have come with me if I hadn’t parked in front of her house. Now, because of me, she’s been slapped across the face once and had her life threatened several times. She’s curled up in her seat, crying softly. I wish she wouldn’t do that. It shows this guy that she’s weak…vulnerable. I think that’s why he hit her. He wanted to feel powerful. I bet he’s one of those types that has deep emotional problems. I know he’s not working alone either, because he’s had two phone calls since he abducted us from the shopping center. I don’t know who it was…but I’m figuring it’s the person that’s running this show.

I don’t want to meet that person.

This was planned, I know it now…and that scares me. These people have been stalking me, planning to get me at just the right moment. If I hadn’t stopped in front of Kerri’s house, I would have been alone too. How could they have known that I was picking up a cake though? I mean, my mom was supposed to do that. Unless…

Unless, they’ve been watching me since I landed today. If that’s the case, then they did a damn good job of keeping themselves hidden.

I wish I could have been driving my Escalade today. It has one of those tracing devices built into it, so if your car gets stolen the police can trace where it goes. I always meant to put one of those in this car, but I got so busy I never got around to it. I never drive this car anyway, unless I’m here staying with momma. I guess this is all my fault then. Yeah.

The prick’s phone is ringing again, and I perk up a little bit. He’s been driving us around in this car for almost three hours now, and I want some damn answers already. And I need to pee too…for real this time. The last time I peed was on the damn plane. I don’t know how much longer I can hold it. When we get there…wherever there is, I hope they let us go to the bathroom. I don’t even want to think about where we’re going to end up though. What if they tie us to some tree in the middle of the woods? I know Kerri will lose it like…right away. Then I’ll have to try to calm her down, but it will be hard you know…being tied to a tree. God, I hope these people aren’t that shallow…but then, there is probably a lot of money at stake here so I would imagine they would bring us somewhere they can watch us.

I hope to god that I‘m right..

“I’m getting tired of driving around,” the man whines into his phone. “Where are you?”

He sounds tired, and agitated…like I feel. I’m sure he wants to get to wherever ‘there’ is too. I wish these people could make up their minds already. I need to get ‘there’ and pee and think about what the hell I’m gonna do to get us out of this. I need to make sure Kerri is okay too…even though I know she’s not.

“I guess,” the man continues. “I could probably be there in ten minutes.”

Ten minutes sounds great to me. Damn, I wonder what Trace did after that phone call. Did he hear anything? Even if he did…he probably wouldn’t think much of it. He knows I’ve been trying to get him back ever since that PUNK’D shit he pulled on me. Trace is a hard person to fool. I hope he catches on soon. I don’t want to be stuck someplace with a gun to my head…and I know Kerri isn’t gonna last long. She freaks out over everything and I know she’s gonna bring us down before we have a chance to overpower these bastards…

Damn, I shouldn’t be thinking badly about her right now. Granted, seeing her for the first time in three years was tough for me. And it was even tougher to take her crap on the plane and on the ride home. But I know if we’re going to get out of this, we have to stick together. Our minds have to be on the same level. We have to be in sync with one another. But at the rate Kerri is going right now, I don’t see how I can get her to toughen up.

The prick ends his phone conversation, and continues to drive on in silence. I’m tempted to ask him what the hell is going on, but I don’t want to piss him off again. I know all it will do is freak Kerri out more, and I don’t want that to happen. The calmer she is when we have to get out of the car the better.

I sit back for the moment, and look out the window. I realize I have no idea where we are. Somewhere between Millington and here I completely lost track of where we were going. He’s been using back roads. Back roads that I’ve never taken the time to use. He could march us out of the car right now and even if we got away and ran, I don’t know where we would go. It’s dark now, and impossible to see anything. He’d probably shoot us before we got anywhere close to freedom.

He continues down the road a for about ten more minutes before turning onto another, more desolate one. It’s some sort of dirt road, that’s obviously been closed down for awhile. I see a bright light in the distance, and I’m assuming that it’s coming from whoever the prick was talking to before. I see Kerri perk up a little. Then she looks over at me, with that terrified look on her face again. I put a finger to my lips, warning her not to make any noise. This is getting really serious.

We’re going to dump the car now.

***************

After roughly yanking me out of my own car, along with Kerri, the prick leads us closer to the waiting vehicle in the distance, his gun poking me in the back the entire time. I think he knows Kerri won’t try anything at this point. She’s walking around in a daze…like some sort of a zombie. He knows he has complete control over her. It’s a bad thing, because it means that I’m alone in this right now. I know I said I wasn’t going to try and get away before, but I might have reconsidered if Kerri was acting like a human being. Now though…I know I can’t do it. Kerri would be too scared to follow, and there is no way I’m leaving her here by herself with the prick.

This day has been so insane that I forgot we’ve been fighting since the plane. I guess it doesn’t matter who did what to who anymore. The whole thing is ridiculous anyway. Sex is sex…okay so maybe it’s not. It was her first time…but damn it she wanted it. She wanted me, and she proved that she wanted me. And I…I thought that I wanted her too. I thought I belonged with her. But after…it was so weird. I didn’t feel like…you’re supposed to feel after you sleep with somebody. I felt different. I felt like…well…actually I don’t know what my exact feelings were. All I know is I got scared, and I pushed her away. I shouldn’t have…I really shouldn’t have. Kerri is a great girl. She knows me better than most people, and she’s brought me out of some of the worst moods I’ve ever been in. I used to love it when NSYNC would tour in the summer and her parents would let her come along. Man, we’d have so much fun…her, Trace, and I. Sometimes, when I’m all alone I think back to those times. It was during one of those summers that we first kissed. It was nothing spectacular of course. It was one of those spur of the moment things. We were talking and laughing, and then…I kissed her. Then we both got weirded out and she said she was tired, and went back to her own hotel room.

Sometimes when I’m all alone…I realize how much I miss her too.

We get close to the car, an Oldsmobile that looks like it’s seen better days, and the prick has us stop walking. On instinct, I grab Kerri by the hand and yank her next to me. She doesn’t seem to notice, or if she does notice, she doesn’t care. I start to worry about her again, and look over at her quickly. She’s staring straight ahead, but it’s a blank stare. I wonder if she even knows what’s happening right now. It’s like she’s having some kind of panic attack and this is the only way she knows how to deal with it. I know she’s never been through anything this traumatic before, and I’m sure that’s the reason she’s reacting like she is. But I’ve never been through something like this either…but I’ve been able to keep my wits about me and not freak out. I guess I’m just used to intense situations. I’ve dealt with massive, screaming crowds right…what’s a gun or two?

What am I saying?

The drivers side door to the Oldsmobile opens, and another guy gets out. I’m assuming this is prick number two. He’s taller and a lot more muscular than his companion. He also looks like he’s not about to take any shit from either of us. “You didn’t tell me about her.” Are the first words out of his mouth. He looks at Kerri menacingly, like he wants to kill her. I squeeze her hand tighter. He’ll have to kill me first before he touches her.

“I didn’t know how to tell you,” the prick says to him. He doesn’t look him in the eye when he speaks, and I’m assuming that this guy has a lot of clout over the prick. “She was in the car…I couldn’t leave her behind.”

He smiles just slightly. “You could have shot her.”

The prick doesn’t answer.

“Don’t worry about it. Just get the stuff out of the backseat,” he says, pointing his gun at me.

The prick obeys, and a moment later we are left alone with our new friend.

“So Justin,” he says to me, with a twisted smile. “You have a good flight?”

I meet his gaze, feeling Kerri start to tremble as I do. I’m praying she doesn’t lose it right now. She can’t…not in front of this guy. He won’t care. He’ll just hit her, or worse…shoot her. “What is this,” I say to him. “What do you want?”

“Oh come on,” he says with a roll of his eyes. “You know what this is fuckin’ about.”

“Money,” I say. I knew it was about money from the start. I guess a part of me hoped that wasn’t what it was going to come down to. I guess…I feel like less of a person…being pulled into something like this because of the money I have. People like this…they think I don’t deserve the money I have. I wish I could tell him that he is wrong. I wish I could tell him how hard I worked to get where I am today. But I won’t. He doesn’t care. He only cares about getting what he wants.

“That’s right,” he nods. “And if you cooperate, and get me what I want…you’ll be fine.”

The prick reemerges from the car a few moments later. This time he has some handcuffs and tape. I physically shudder. I wasn’t expecting this. I look at Kerri again…but she still has that same look on her face. Oh god Kerri…please tell me you know what’s happening to us.

“Do ‘em,” the second man orders, keeping his gun pointed at us.

The prick does as he’s told. He yanks me away from Kerri, and I try to be brave and take what I know is coming to me. But Kerri…she starts to freak out the moment I am forced to let go of her hand.

“No!” she cries, reaching out toward me. “Justin!”

The second mans small smile quickly fades, and he storms over to her. He grabs her shoulder length hair and pulls her head back, shoving the gun into her temple roughly.

“No!,” she screams. “Please!”

“Kerri stop!” I say to her, as my arms are yanked behind me. I feel the cuffs being fastened around my wrists, binding them together from behind me. I flinch as they are fastened too tight, cutting into my skin. “Stop fucking freaking out!” I yell again, the tears I’ve been holding back threatening to make themselves known. I can’t stand seeing her like this. I can’t stand that this bastard has control of her. I wish this was all some horrible dream. That I would wake up and knock on Kerri’s door and tell her that I never meant to hurt her…

That I still care.

I watch in horror as the second man pushes Kerri to the ground, and stands over her. His gun is pointed directly at her, and he has this look in his eyes…like he’s going to do it. Like he’s going to kill her. Kerri curls into a ball. She’s crying, begging him to spare her life. I don’t know what to do. He can’t kill her…he can’t. She doesn’t deserve this. He doesn’t know what a good person she is. He doesn’t know that she has a little sister that adores her and a family that cries when she goes back to college every fall. He doesn’t know any of it.

“Don’t!” It’s the only thing I can think of to say.

He looks at me. “You should worry about yourself,” he sneers. “Gag him,” he snaps at the prick.

I hear the ripping sound of the tape and know I only have a few precious seconds before the inevitable happens. “I’ll get you…I’ll get you anything you want…any money you want. It’s yours,” I say frantically. “Anything you want.” Then the tape is slapped over my mouth, and there is nothing left to do but wait. I start to breath heavily. Now I’m the one having a panic attack. I feel the prick jabbing me in the ribs with his gun. It doesn’t even matter. All I can focus on right now is Kerri and the gun that is pointed at her. All I can hear are her pathetic cries for the help that isn’t ever going to come.

But then he looks at me. He actually looks at me. “What kind of money are we talking about, Timberlake?”

I can’t very well answer him can I? I shrug, and moan pathetically through the tape over my mouth.

“Two million?” he asks.

I nod.

“Each?”

I nod again. I don’t care. I know I’m good for it…and I know no amount of money is worth either of our lives. He doesn’t lift his gun off of her though, and I start to pray. My mother…she’s always told me that when you have nobody else to confide in…that the lord will always be there to hear you. Well lord, now’s your time to shine.

Just as I’m expecting him to pull the trigger, he backs off a little, and points the gun away from her. I can’t help it. My legs turn to jelly and I fall to my knees. I’m relieved. Thankful and relieved. It’s only now that I allow myself to cry…thanking the lord for hearing my prayers. I don’t care if those bastards are watching me either. I know I look ridiculous…handcuffed and shit. But I don’t care. I really don’t.

Thank you god.

The prick hauls me to my feet a moment later. Still in shock, I can barely stand and I hear him groan as he tries to support me. Then the second man comes over and pushes the prick away. He grabs onto my upper arm before I have the chance to fall again, and jabs his gun into my back. I can tell already that he’s a lot stronger than the prick is. It’s a good thing to know…for later. “We have a deal, Timberlake. If one thing goes wrong…if I don’t get my fuckin money when I want it…she’s the first one to go. You get it?”

I nod again.

“Good.” He looks back at the prick. “Put her in the trunk,” he says, shooting me a menacing smile.

I try to manage a ‘no’ through the tape…but it’s no use. It’s just a moan, and nothing more. I look on helplessly as the prick rushes to Kerri’s side, and handcuffs her like he handcuffed me. She protests a little, but not enough to cause a scene. Then he gags her and lifts her off of the ground. She’s not making a fuss anymore…and I think it’s because she’s passed out. He tosses her into the trunk of the Oldsmobile, and I cringe as the lid is slammed down on her helpless form.

“Just so you won’t get any ideas,” the second man says to me. He forces me into the back of the car and the prick gets into the front seat, while the second man sits in the back with me…his gun jammed into my ribs.

As the car roars to life and starts off down the road, I look back and get one last glimpse of my Mercedes before it fades away into the night. It’s funny how alike that car and I are now. We’re both getting further away from our reality…our lives fading away into the night as if we never existed.

THE ARRIVAL