Page 160 of Hayden's Stalker

“Maybe you could just try it during the soundcheck and see how you feel. I think it’ll fit really well in the set list for tonight,” Seb suggests.

I narrow my eyes at him because this isn’t technically outside of the rules, but it’s close. He gives me an innocent smile as Gabriel nods.

“I suppose I can do that. It would fit well in the set list.”

Gabriel leads the way onstage, where Harrison is waiting for us, and I grab Seb’s arm to hold him back as I whisper in his ear with a grin, “You haven’t won yet.”

“Ah, that’s the key word there, my friend.” He pulls his arm out of my grip and laughs, “Yet.”

I roll my eyes at him before I head to my kit. As we’re performing the soundcheck, Gabriel does indeed do a great job of covering “Paradise City,” to my disappointment. I notice Tati and Dan talking and smile, then focus back on the music as Harrison asks a question about in which order we’re planning to perform the solos tonight.

When the soundcheck is finished, and we’re leaving the stage, I follow Gabriel and Harrison with Sebastian next to me.

I murmur to him, “It’s not a done deal until he actually sings it during the show, you know.”

“I know. I’m halfway there, though. Maybe seventy-five percent.” He grins at me.

We’re both laughing as we pull up short because Harrison and Gabriel have both stopped walking. I cut off my laughter and frown as I look up to see Dan in front of us with a worried look on his face.

“Thank fuck you’re here, Hayden,” he says in a stressed voice as he grabs hold of my arm and pulls me through my friends. “Tati’s been sick. She’s in your dressing room, and she’s been asking for you.”

My blood turns to ice in my veins, and I’m sure that the stalker has done something to her. Intense fear floods through me that Tati will die, and I nod at Dan.

“Fuck. Okay, let’s go. Have you called a medic?”

“Yes, I have,” he says as we rush toward my dressing room. “He wasn’t there yet when I left to get you. She was pretty insistent.”

I’m sure she would’ve been. I know how Tati can be, and I’m grateful Dan was there to help her out. We reach my dressing room, and Dan rips the door open. He rushes into the room, and I follow him.

Tati’s on the sofa, and she looks deathly pale. Sweat is on the bead of her brow, and her eyes are closed. She’s clearly passed out, and I’m pissed that the medic hasn’t arrived yet.

“Shit. Call 911, Daniel!” I rush over to her and kneel in front of her as I shake her. “Wake up, Tati.”

I shake her again, but nothing happens except that I get an intense pain in the back of my neck which is weird. Then my mouth is covered by something, and everything turns black.

I groanas I come to. My body aches all over, and I try to stretch but find myself inhibited. I have no idea where the fuck I am,and for a moment, I reach out to try and find Tati because I can hear the sound of road noise, so I assume that I’m on the bus.

A vision of Tati passed out in my dressing room comes to my mind, and I gasp loudly. I realize that my arms and legs are tied up, and as I move about, it seems that I’m in some kind of box.

Slowly, pieces of the puzzle come together, and I realize that Daniel must have done this. I feel sick as it finally becomes clear that he’s been my stalker all along. I rub my wrists against my body and realize that my watch is gone. I press my elbow against the pocket of my jeans, and it’s empty, so my phone is gone as well.

The knowledge that nobody knows where I am and that they won’t be able to find me freaks me out, and I start to panic. I kick at the box, trying to break it open, but I don’t have any success. I yell until my voice is hoarse, but nothing happens. The road noise continues, and I’m still trapped in this box.

I can barely breathe through the nausea and fear. Memories of the letters Dan sent overwhelm me as I start to think through how he planned this. All along, he was worming his way into our lives so that he could kidnap me.

My heart pounds as the ramifications of the situation hit me. I’ve been kidnapped. Nobody knows where I am.

“Help!” I scream to no avail as I kick at the box once again.

I lose track of time amidst the drone of the road noise and my attempts to escape the box. I have no clue how long we’ve been driving when I sense the vehicle we’re in comes to a stop.

My breath echoes loudly around the box as I wait for something to happen. I listen to the noises I can hear. A vehicle door opening and closing. The crunch of footsteps on the ground traveling away from me. Another door opening and closing.

I want to be sick as I wait again until the footsteps travel back toward me. Despite the darkness of my box, it gets a more grayquality as I listen to another vehicle door open, this one right next to the box I’m in.

There’s the sound of latches being opened before bright light streams into the box, and I scrunch my eyes shut tight. “Fucking ouch!”

“Shut the fuck up and get out,” Dan snaps.

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