Three seconds. Three seconds was all it took before I was laying down with my face pressed against the floor with Vince on top of me.

Oh, the joy of feeling your confidence wash off of you in a matter of seconds is just beautiful, isn't it? I hope you noticed the sarcasm.

"Not so cocky anymore, huh?" he taunts and I groan in pain.

"C'mon, Vince", Danny pleads and my liking towards him immediately grows. But not enough for me to not hate him, I just don't hate him as much as the others.

"Not until she's begging for it herself", Vince spit and my body tense.

No way. I'm not going to sink that low. I'm not going to humiliate myself.

"I'm wait-", he starts but gets interrupted as the door slams open.

"Well, well, well..." the newly arrived person mocks, "stuck in a sticky situation, buttercup?"

Oh no. The stupid pet name, buttercup. I only know one person who called me that, and I easily puzzle the pieces together.

What was his name again, Kirk?

I turn my head towards the door and another groan of frustration escapes my lips as I see the slightly familiar face, which indeed belongs to Kirk.

"I didn't think you would be here today, man", Will greets him and do this weird handshake and hug I've never learned nor understood.

"I wasn't planning to", Kirk answers and flashes me an evil smirk. I hate making fun of myself and let me tell you, these guys seems to love it.

"Just let me go", I mutter under my breath, "it wasn't a fair play."

Vince chuckles from on top of me.

"Oh, really? And why not?"

I know that what I'm going to say sounds silly, but at this moment, silly is all I got.

"I wasn't ready..."

My words cause everyone in the room to laugh, except for the girls who still have scared expressions on their pale faces.

"So you think you can beat me?", Vince taunts and I decide to let my old, or more like real, self come out.

"I know I can", I say confidently, "if we're going to play by your rules, I'm sure of it."

"My rules?" he questions and a small smile starts tugging in the corner of my lips, but sadly, or maybe fortunately, Vince can't see it.

"Yeah", I state, "your rules. And if your brain can't take in what I'm saying, which is understandable considering how much bullshit it's full of, you just have to wait and see what I mean. But I would appreciate it if you could get your disgusting hands and body off of me."

He scoffs in response, but loosens his grip on my hand and thankfully gets off of me.

"We'll see about that", he says in a warning tone, "but now I think it's time for all of you girl to show us what you got."

And then, the hell consisting of hours of training started.

An eternity later, at least it's what it felt like, Vince told us we were done and all of us immediately stopped with whatever we were doing.

I quickly got off the treadmill I've been using for the past half an hour and put on an exhausted mask. Surely, I was tired, but it was now time for my act of revenge to start.

Remember when I told Vince I knew I could beat him? Well, it's time now. He doesn't pay any more attention towards me than any other of the girls and I doubt that he even remembers what I've told him a few hours ago.

I walk towards him, breathing heavily and deliberately walking with my head bowed down. As I'm right in front of him, I stop and place my hands on my knees, pretending to take deep breaths.

"Aw, already tired?" Vince mocks and I can feel his warm breath against my neck.

He has leaned in closer and a smile is tugging at the corner of my lips.

Time for action.

I quickly turn my face up to face Vince, a smirk is plastered on his lips but as I place my hands on his shoulders and knees him in the crotch, faster than he can comprehend, I see his face twist in pain and his eyes filling with surprise, pain, and anger.

"You little bi-", he curses but before he has time to fulfill the sentence, my clenched fist connects with his jaw.

I admit, he's not the only one who got hurt by the punch, but it's definitely worth it.

Vince stumbles backward, but I follow his every move and punch him again, and again, until someone suddenly grabbed a hold of me from behind and dragged me away from Vince, who is now bloody and literally pissed off.

"Let me go!", I yell at the one who is holding me back, and as I throw a glance behind me I recognize it as Danny, whose jaw is clenched and brown hair unwittingly messed up.

Will and Kirk, however, are holding Vince back. Vince's eyes are burning with anger, his muscles are tensed as he tries to push Will and Kirk off of him and get to me, but thankfully he doesn't succeed.

Danny pushes me down on a weight bench, and I'm not stupid enough to stand up in an attempt of running away. Instead, I cross my arms in front of my chest and glare at him but I can't hold back the small smile on my lips as I see Vince, all bloody, on the other side of the room.

"You know he is gonna get back at you, right?" Danny sighs and I nod.

"Yeah, if Nick will let him." I know I can't use Nick as my safe card but right now I don't care about the consequences, it felt good to hit Vince. It felt good to wipe the smile off his lips.

"I gotta admire your courage", Danny says as he shakes his head, "but what you did was just plain stupid."

I shrug at his words and restlessly pull my hair out of the ponytail I put it in and starts twirling my fingers around a few strands.

During the past few hours, I've learned the name of all the girls and I watch them with a sad expression. They seems to be terrified, not that I'm not because I am, but fear is all they are showing and as soon as one of the guys even glance at them, they flinch.

I've learned that the girl who's from the year above me in school is named Nicole. She's tall, with light eyelashes, natural red hair, and freckled face, and the scared expression she wears doesn't suit her at all. Her widened gray eyes should show happiness and not fear, no one of these girls should be scared, but being here can probably break even the strongest one. I just hope I'm not next, I just hope that the 'can probably' isn't true, and I really hope we're getting out of here soon, me and the girls.

I've been here in a few days, and it's the living hell. Imagine how it must feel after nearly a month, because that's how long Aubrey, the short-haired blonde girl, has been here.

If you think it will get better the longer you're stuck here, you're wrong. At least that's what Aubrey told me the few minutes during our training that we managed to get close enough to talk without the guys noticing. Sadly, she was the only one I managed to talk to, because as we got caught, I don't think any other of the girls even dared to breathe properly, afraid that it would make too much sound.

"Okay, time to go and change!" Will yells and I realize that Vince is no longer in the room. I've been too caught up in my thoughts to realize he left.

Kirk approaches me and I raise my eyebrows at him.

"I'm your escort", he smirks and I scoff in response but do follow him back to Nick's room. As he opens the door to the bedroom, Kirk gives me a small push and closes the door behind me without following me in. I hear the lock twist and know for sure that I'm, once again, stuck in Nick's room.

I sigh loudly and takes off the trainers Nick gave me before he left, and then I head into the bathroom and jump into the shower once I dumped my sweaty clothes in the hamper.

I take my time in the shower, just relaxing and welcoming the hot water that washes over my body and tense muscles, and I don't step out until the water runs cold.

I quickly dry myself and wrap a towel around my body, and it's not until now I realize I didn't take any clothes with me inside.

I groan slightly and let out a few curses and slowly walks towards the door. I should still be alone, right?

As I open the door, instantly being hit by the cold air, I realize I'm wrong.

"Hello, gorgeous", Nick welcomes, "you certainly took your time in there."

I give him a glare before I manage to stop myself.

"I need clothes", I say and as I try to hide behind the door, but of course, Nick has to ruin it all by stepping towards me and push the door wide open.

"You don't really need them..." he says slowly as his eyes trail down my body. He moistens his lips as he looks back at my face, his gaze laying a few more seconds on my lips.

If he thinks he can kiss me, he's wrong.

"I do need them", I state and tries to not show any emotions at all and he chuckles.

"Fine, you'll get them on one condition."

I I eye him suspiciously, knowing that nothing good can come out of what he just said.

"What condition?"

"Kiss me", he starts and hushes me as I open my mouth to tell him no way, "or... you can put both of your hands up on three."

I drop my jaw at his words, my lips forming into a small 'o', and a disgusted sound makes its way out of my throat as I realize what he means, or more like what he wants out of the second action he named.

"You're such a perv-", I cry but he puts his finger to my lips to hush me.

"Sch, don't want to get punished now, do we?" He pulls up his lips into a crooked smirk, or more like a sneer, and I bite my own lip to not talk back.

"Damn... you look good when you do that", he says in a breath and I give him a questioning look.

"Doing what?" I try to remain calm, with my emotionless mask on, but I'm honestly feeling extremely uncomfortable and terrified. I'm just wearing a towel for freaking sake!

"Biting your lip." I immediately stop tugging at it and he chuckles at my reaction.

"So what's it gonna be?" he asks and I shake my head.

"Neither." How easily manipulated do he think I am?

He then pushes me against the wall, resting his arms on both sides of me head, trapping me.

"Gorgeous, you know that's not the right answer. Alternative one or two?"

I know that my next move is going to be the most childish ever, but if he buys it, I don't care.

"You know what?" I say with a light tone, not sounding like me at all, it sounds way too happy, "if you give me some clothes now, I promise I will kiss you as I've changed. And not just a simple kiss, if you're nice I might as well give you a full make out session.

Nick does honestly look completely surprised over what I just said, and I can't really blame him. His eyes lit up, the smirk on his face grew bigger, but then he suddenly furrows his eyebrow and looks at my suspiciously.

"You promise? And why not right now?" He questions, tilting his head slightly.

I give him an attempt of a faked smile, as if I'm shy or uncomfortable. "I promise", I say, fingers crossed behind my back, "and I don't trust you, and therefore I don't want to kiss you in only a towel."

His smirk grows even bigger if possible, and his eyes lit up with something I can't point out.

"Alright", he says and backs off, grabbing a bunch of clothes laying on the bed. I practically rip the clothes from his hands and take a hold onto the doorknob, making sure of that my towel won't fall down.

"Oh, and Nick?" I'm almost singing with joy and he turns his attention towards me. I show him my crossed fingers and flashes him a genuine smile.

"Sorry to break it to you, but fingers crossed, I lied."

I quickly slam the door shut, giggling at his shocked expression. He starts banging on the door, pounding on it with his fists.

"C'mon, Alex!" he shouts, calling me by my normal nickname for once, "open the damn door!"

I quickly put on the clothes he gave me, which were one of his shirts - surprise, surprise- and a pair of legging, plus the undergarment.

Contemplating on whether or not I should open the door, I decide to do it, not wanting to risk getting into serious trouble.

Nick gives me a look of mixed feelings. Irritation, for lying to him, and amusement and joy by seeing me in his clothes, which I for the record don't like.

You can borrow a shirt from a boyfriend, not a kidnapper.

"Alex, Alex, Alex...", he sighs as if he's a disappointed teacher or parent, "what shall I do with you? You're lying, you're sarcastic, arrogant... You're not treating me with respect... And you never seem to learn."

I bite my lip and look at him, not caring what he thinks about. "Oh, I do actually learn, I just don't care about what you're saying. I'm a living creature, not a pet."

He smiles mischievously at me.

"Oh, I know, gorgeous, and you wanna know how? Because you're mine. You're not my pet, you're my girl, you're my Alex."

I'm just about to reply with a sentence full of curses when a scream pierces through the air. Not a scream of pain; a scream of fear. And I know the voice because I've heard it so many times before.

Patricia.

My eyes dart at Nick. "What did you do?" I yell at him. He looks at me with a hard and slightly confused expression.

"What do you mean?"

"What did you do when you were out?", I scream, starting to breathe heavily.

Nick decides to play stupid.

"Out?"

I can feel tears threaten to fall down my cheeks.

"You said you were going on a field trip", I say with a shaky voice, "what did you do?"

I can see his jaw clench, and his whole body tense up.

"That's none of you busine-"

He gets cut off by another scream, this one formed into words.

"Let go of me! Help!"

I clench my hands into a fist and stare at Nick with hatred in my eyes.

"Why is Patricia here?" I yell, close to losing control, "you kidnapped her. Why? You promised you wouldn't! You lied, you... you're son of a-"

He puts a hand over my mouth to silence me, pressing his body against mine as he does so.

At the moment, I'm not in the mood to do as he wants and I bite his hand and he hisses in pain and takes it off of my mouth.

I push him away and starts pounding at his chest, screaming and crying at the same time.

He kidnapped Patricia.

One of my friends, who he promised not to take.

He lied, he can't be trusted.

He is a bad guy, he doesn't have any feelings at all.

He is a monster.

"Alex, Alex!" Nick tries to get my attention, and he takes a hold onto my wrist, preventing me from pounding on his chest and I start kicking him instead.

"For freaking sake, Alex! Sto-"

I knee him in the crotch, and he lets out his breath and a sound of intense pain. I take the change and get out of his loosening grip, and run towards the door.

Maybe it wasn't locked now when he is in the room too.

I turn the doorknob.

I was right, it wasn't locked.

Nick calls on me to get back, but I ignore him and starts sprinting towards the stairs. I know I probably won't get out, but that's not my plan. My plan is to see Patricia.

Luckily, I don't meet anyone as I reach the stairs and I sprint up to the main floor, towards the living room.

As I reach it, I stop dead in my tracks.

A blonde girl is forced down on her knees on the floor, with a gun pressed against her temple.

The one who is holding it is Vince. My hatred towards him doesn't seem to stop, ever. It just increases for every time I see him.

"What the hell?" Kirk, who is standing aside watching, says.

Vince darts his eyes towards me. Zeke and Will, who are standing aside watching as well, both look at me. Patricia, who has her head bowed down and is crying for her life, darts her reddened eyes at me. Everyone's eyes are on me, and I suddenly feel extremely self-conscious.

"A-alex?" Patricia stutters and I rush forward to her, but someone sneaks their arms around my waist and drags me back. My fingers brush against Patricia's, whose hands are reaching for me. I try to squirm out of the grip and get to Patricia and tell her everything is going to be okay, but I can't. The grip around me only tightens and drags me away from Patricia, and I scream after her.

"Patricia!"

And she calls back; "Alex!"

"Let me go!" I yell at the person who is dragging me away. I'm almost out of the room by now, and my vision is blinded by tears.

"Relax. Seriously, Alex, they aren't gonna shoot her", Nick whispers in my ear, which only makes me even crazier.

"You did this!" I shout at him, my voice high-pitched and full of pain, "you bastard! Let her go! She has nothing to do with this. You promised, Nick... Let her go!"

"I'm sorry", he whispers, his warm breath hitting my neck, "but I can't do that."

I know his words are meaningless, there's no truth behind them. For him, sorry is just a word he says when it fits, but he doesn't know what it means. For Nick, sorry is just a word without meaning, a word as empty as his heart.