Page 1 of Ticket to the Stars: Part One

Maggie

A raging headache was what told me I wasn’t dead. My body was like a thousand bricks tied together with string. I couldn’t move. For the longest time, I couldn’t even open my eyes.

I didn’t know how long I was like that, caught in a state of limbo, unable to do anything, but it had to be a while. Every time I struggled to open my eyes or get up, it was in vain. It went on like that for an eternity.

And then, whatever invisible force that had stopped me from opening my eyes earlier faded, and I lifted my eyelids to take in the fact that I was laying on a bed in an unfamiliar dark room.

I sat up, and my brain lurched inside my head. I had to lift a hand and place it on the side of my head, as if trying to relieve some of the pressure in my brain. My head wasn’t happy. My whole body was kind of sore, now that I was thinking about it, like I was sick.

Or like I’d been drugged.

As I scooted to the edge of the bed, I tried to remember how I got here. Everything was a blur though, so I couldn’t.

The bedroom I was in was a large one, decked out with expensive furniture and long drapes. It looked like a room in the Redborne, but I had no idea why I’d be here and not the suite with the guys.

This didn’t make sense. None of this made sense. If only my memory wasn’t hazy…

Once I was on my own feet, I glanced down at my clothes. At least I wasn’t tied to the bed. That’d be too horror movie-ish. I was wearing my own clothes, my stage clothes: light leggings under a pure white dress. My feet were shoeless, and I walked toward the door, my hand hovering over the handle.

Thank goodness it wasn’t locked.

I stepped out into the dark hall, glancing both ways down it. No lights were on anywhere in the suite.

Oh, yeah. I was definitely still in the Redborne, somewhere, but whose suite this was, I had no idea. I heard not a sound in the air, which was the only reason I wasn’t scared shitless as I crept down the hallway. I passed another bedroom, along with a ridiculously large bathroom—and that told me this suite was smaller than the one the guys and I shared. We each had our own private bathrooms, while in this suite they were separated, their only entrances in the hall.

Still, it’s what I’d come to expect from the Redborne: everything was ten times larger than it should be. So much empty space. And don’t get me started on the expensive furniture that only looked good when no one was using it. Let’s just say I knew from experience those weird couches that were made of all rounded semi-shapes weren’t that comfortable.

The hallway ended in a wide-open space. To my left was a living room area, complete with a flat-screen television hanging on the wall above a glass fireplace—along with two of those uncomfortable couches I mentioned. To my left was the open-concept kitchen area, which was in itself just about as big as the house I’d grown up in.

Again, I couldn’t remember how I got here. I couldn’t remember at all.

My feet took me through the kitchen, toward the door that let out into what must be one of the Redborne’s grand hallways. This time I didn’t hesitate when I reached for the door handle.

But it wouldn’t turn. It wouldn’t budge at all.

I was locked in, and no matter which way I jiggled it, no matter how many times I flicked the deadbolt, the door stayed shut. And then it hit me.

I was locked inside.

My heart pumped faster inside my chest, and I banged on the door and shouted, just in case anyone was walking by in the hall, “Hello? Is anybody out there? I’m locked inside!” But, unsurprisingly, no one came to my rescue, and the only thing that answered me was silence.

When I realized no one was coming to let me out, I felt all around my body for my phone. If my clothes didn’t have pockets, which they typically didn’t because girl’s clothes sucked, usually I just slipped my phone into the waistband of the leggings or tights I wore and let it hug against my body—but I couldn’t feel my phone anywhere.

I raced back into the bedroom, flicked on the light, and searched the bed where I’d woken up. It was too much to hope for that I’d find my phone so I could call for help. Nine-one-one, any of the guys; I’d settle for literally anyone who could get me out of this place.

But, big shocker, my phone was nowhere to be found.

I moved to the nearest window, looking out at the city. Skyscrapers of various heights surrounded this building, lit up in the darkness of the night, and though the view itself wasn’t the same as it was in the suite with the guys, I knew for a fact I was still in the Redborne, based on the buildings I saw.

Someone had taken me and brought me here, figured out a way to rig the front door so I couldn’t get out. It was as that thought dawned on me that it really hit me—and I mean really, really hit me.

I was kidnapped.

Holy shit. I, Maggie Stiefer, waskidnapped.

I knew it could happen to anybody, theoretically, but it wasn’t something you thought about every day. Just like you didn’t think about the fact that you were more likely to get in a car crash and die when you were going grocery shopping than you were for a plane to go down when you were in the air. Those things you just didn’t think about for your everyday peace of mind.

But, you know, getting kidnapped wasn’t the weirdest thing that had happened to me lately. No, the weirdness had all started with a tape… a tape and a certain little sister of mine that liked to snoop.

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