August 28th, 1984

DJ's Point Of View

I woke up with a bit of a headache.

It didn't bother me too much, but I sure would've liked something to get rid of it. I didn't let myself drink too much last night because I didn't want to wake up with a wicked hangover.

I stood up to go to the bathroom and nearly fell over multiple times in the process.

I noticed I was getting much thinner. It didn't look healthy on me at all. I had a good body before this, and I knew it. Besides a little bit of chub, I didn't mind it. Most of the time, anyway. If I brought it up with George, he would bend down, kiss my belly a few times and say, "I like your tummy. It's cute."

And then he would blow me a few raspberries.

While I washed my mouth out with water, tears formed in my eyes. I really did miss that. It gave me so much happiness.

George gave me so much happiness.

And I still wasn't sure if I would get that back.

Although I was getting thinner, I tried to work out a little bit. I was thankful I could get water any time, so I usually asked for a few glasses when I did.

I didn't overwork myself, but I did a few exercises to keep myself at least a little in shape.

My stomach didn't budge, though, which I didn't mind all too much.

Today's breakfast was a bowl of granola. It was kind of stale, though, and got stuck in our teeth easily. I wished we had some floss.

Dan turned the TV on, but I couldn't focus because I felt something in my pants.

Wet and unpleasant.

Crap.

I waddled to the bathroom and decided to pee while I was in there.

Great I thought. Mother Nature.

It explained a lot about why my lower "stomach" had been hurting so much. I assumed It was my actual stomach, though. Considering I hadn't been eating as much.

But I also assumed it might've gotten delayed from these traumatic events.

What could I possibly do? My underwear was stained, and there were most likely no materials to use. So I checked the cabinets, and of course, there was nothing.

I must've been staring at the wall for a long time, trying to figure out what my options were, because I heard somebody knocking on the door. "Are you okay?" I was thankful it was Helen.

"Uhm." I cleared my throat. "Yeah, I'm just in a... predicament."

She was very sweet with her response. "Can I help with anything?"

"Well..." I felt my face heating up. "I kinda started my uh... period."

"Oh," she was quiet, and I figured she left after a few seconds. But then I heard her again. "I've had that problem quite a few times here."

"What do you do?" I asked.

"Can't do much. Stocking up on toilet paper is what I have to do." She sighed. "But hey, at least it's not as thin as tissue paper."

I shook my head. This was so gross.

I was silently crying again.

I thought I had cried out all of my tears already, but clearly not.

There wasn't anything on to make noise. It was extremely quiet besides the sound of my occasional sniffles.

Helen heard me, of course, and came over to rub a hand on my shoulder comfortingly. "I wish I knew what to tell you."

"Tell me how to get out of here," I mumbled.

"Tsk," she shook her head. "I wish I knew too, honey."

The response rose a sob in my chest, ready to burst out of me. But I bit my tongue and held my breath for a while.

I squeezed my knees in comfortably, pretending it was George who I was holding. I wished it smelled like him when I inhaled instead of gross old jeans.

Helen had done a little laundry for me as much as she could, anyway. So my shirt was less smelly and softer. I didn't know what she could've used, though.

She sat with me until I was cried out again. "Sorry," I said.

"Don't be," she said. "You're too young to go through something like this. A while back, you said you didn't have a childhood..."

"I didn't," I laughed unbelievably.

"Dan and I lost our kid when we were taken."

"You had a kid?"

"Mhm."

I wanted to pry, but I felt it was disrespectful. Since I could relate in a sense, I could tell I would come across as desperate if I started to ask.

I was disappointed when she said nothing after that though.

"Lunch." The door had opened, and something was tossed down.

It was three slices of bread with cheese on it.

Filling.

I lazily got up and dragged myself over and picked up a serving. Thankfully, nothing looked moldy or tasted funny.

The news was on again. But this time, the topic was very intriguing. I sat very close to the screen as the reporters described my kidnapper.

I couldn't recall much of what they said. All I could think was, they're onto him.

The news reporter went on about how the "mystery man" was following people and starting strange conversations with them.

I wondered if he was choosing his next target.

The thought sent shivers down my spine. I hoped no one else had to experience this because I hoped this guy would just be caught already.

I fidgeted with my only hair tie and ended up putting it in different styles multiple times so I had something to fidget with. I noticed it was falling out more than usual since I wasn't getting enough vitamins.

I brushed it with my hands as much as I could, because shocker, there was no hairbrush.

Helen was nice enough to help. And with it, my hair was being kept from getting matted.

Andrew's Point Of View

Jeena had taken George to the food store with her to get him out of the house. But, of course, he just sat in the car, hidden.

The paparazzi had been on top of him much more recently. Ever since they found out he had a girlfriend—a missing one, at that. They just loved finding him in public looking as tired and depressed as ever.

Even if she wasn't missing, but they knew of her, they'd still be harassing him. Plus, I'm sure our lady fans wouldn't be too happy to know he's unavailable.

I was on the couch watching the telly when I heard knocking on the door. I muted it and stood up.

When I opened the door, I recognized the person as Officer James, whom I had seen many times before.

"Hello Andrew, how are you doing?" He asked.

My heart skipped a beat. Had they found something? "Hi, James. How can I help you?"

He smiled. "I won't stay long unless you have questions. Are Jeena and George here too?"

"No, they went out to the grocery store. They should be back soon, though. What happened?"He sighed. "It's probably better to tell you if you're all here, but I better get going soon. Anyway, we went to court a while ago."

"Court? For what?" I asked.

He smiled. "We got a search warrant, Andrew."

My head didn't process what that meant until a few seconds later. Then, a smile lit up on my face. "That's great."

He frowned. "Aren't you going to celebrate? You know, Hooray?"

I chuckled. "I would. I just... don't want to get my hopes up too much. Oh man, I could jump up and down right now. George is going to be ballistic when he hears the news-"

"What news?"

I looked over the policeman's shoulder, seeing George and Jeena had come back. I took the bags from George and gave Jeena a welcoming kiss. We put the food on the counter. "What's happening?"

I didn't say anything. I went back to the front door with her.

"Officer James?" George had finally recognized who was here. "What brings you here?"

"We have some news." He said.

George surprisingly didn't say a word. Instead, he stood there, waiting.

"We went to court a few hours ago," he smiled, putting a hand on his shoulder. "We have permission to search his house."

I couldn't see George's facial expression because his back was to me. But he was quiet for much longer than I was. Jenna almost screamed next to me. "That's fantastic! When is it?"

"Sometime in the next few days. Soon, though."

"Soon?" George said in disbelief. "No, we need to do it today."

Officer James sighed. "I'm sorry, but that's not possible."

George started to get amped up. "I'm coming with."

I put my hands on his shoulders. "Thank you, Officer. Do you have to get going?"

He checked his watch. "In a minute. And, George, I'm not sure if you'll want-"

"I'm going." He said. "My girl is in that house. Some tosser wants to keep her from me?"

I frowned. Tosser? I don't think that's the right term to describe him.

Hopefully not.

"She may not even be there. I just didn't want you to get your hopes up too much." He said honestly.

George huffed and went back down the hall to DJ's room, slamming the door again.

Officer James shook his head. "I'm sorry you all have to go through something like this. We're one step closer to finding her, though, aren't we?"

I nodded.

He left shortly after, and Jeena hugged me when the door closed. She didn't start crying, but she just stood there. I was willing to hold her as long as she needed.

"I'm trying not to freak out too much," she said. "George is one of the main reasons I'm getting my hopes up."

"What's another reason?" I asked.

She swallowed. "I just want to believe she'll be back in our lives by next week."

I brought her face to mine to kiss her. She was so gentle with it.

I put my hands on her face. "I have a feeling we will."

She gave me a small smile and walked away.

August 29th, 1984

DJ's Point Of View

Dan, Helen, and I had gotten close recently. We always found something to do or talk about. Sometimes we got to laughing, so many tears would spill out of my eyes.

It was scary to think it sometimes made me forget my old life.

Of course, I missed George. Every single day. I just wanted to be with him again. I wanted to be able to feel him wrap his arms around me again, feel his hair in between my fingers, and his smell...

"Hey," Helen said. "What's up?"

"What?" I asked, coming out of my daze.

"You're sad. I can see it." She said.

I sighed. "I miss George."

She put an arm around me. "I'm sorry."

"You know, we were just about to move in together." I laughed. "Jeena and I were about to go to college. You know, I told George I didn't want to go to college here. I wanted to go somewhere far. But then I changed my mind. I asked him many times if he was okay with living here with me. He didn't have a problem with it, which was sweet. But I did tell him we could visit his family during breaks. I don't have any family for him to meet..."

She didn't interrupt me. Instead, she let me talk while she rubbed my shoulder. "I miss feeling loved."

"I know how you feel." She said, turning the TV on for a distraction. MTV was already on.

Careless Whisper?

I hadn't seen the music video. I didn't even know there was a music video. So why hadn't he told me?

"Oh," she started going back up to the TV to turn it back off. "I don't have to keep this on..."

"No, it's okay," I said. "I actually want to see this..."

It was nice to see his face again. It might've made me a little sad, but I always had some way to see him.

It hurt my heart to see him with other women. Even though we weren't together during this. I was glad to see Alexis wasn't in it. I would've smashed the TV on the ground.

I closed my eyes when I saw him getting a little frisky with the other lady.

I was the one who turned off the TV. Now I knew why he didn't tell me about it.

"Are you okay?" Helen asked. Dan had come out from the bathroom, and I watched him sit down next to us.

I thought for a while about my answer. "No." I finally said. "Not at all."