"Ok, I'll just be here..........in the dark......." Liz laughed. "Scared?" She called back. "No, not at all." Maria yelled. Liz had the flashlight and was pointing it to the now open fuse box, everything was fine. "What the-" She then heard Maria screaming. "LIZ! NO LET ME GO!"

"Maria!" She ran out front, something heavy and cold hit her head. A small scream as her body crumpled to the floor in a heap of unconciousness. Maria screamed for her friend as she was dragged out the door. Max was in his room. Michael was there too. He had been spending some nights over while trying to find a place of his own. Max's phone rang. Max picked it up on the third ring. "Hello?" He said.

"Max." Came a small quivering voice.

"Liz, is that you?" Michael looked up at him.

"Max, something happened here at the Crashdown." She said. Her voice sounded differant, distant, raspy, afraid.

"What? Liz what's wrong?" Max was becoming worried.

"It's......" She broke down in sobs.

"Liz, I'm coming right over ok?" He hung up and stood up. Michael looked at him. "What happened?"

"I don't know, c'mon." They both left and drove to the Crashdown.

Max parked in front of the Crashdown. The lights were off. "Do you think she's here?" Michael said. Max shrugged. They walked in. "Liz?" Max said as he walked around the dark restaurnat. He heard soft whimpers. "I'm over here." Liz said softly. With a wave of Max's hand the lights all came on. He saw Liz, curled up in a booth. Max walked over. She was crying. "What happened?" He said.

"Maria........she......" Michael's attention was focussed on Liz at that.

"What about Maria?"

"We were closing, and the lights came off, so I was in the backroom looking at the fuse box when I heard Maria screaming. When I came out to see what was happening, I was knocked out, and when I woke up, she.........she was gone." Max looked up at Michael.

"What do you mean 'gone'?" Isabel said in the phone. "Gone, as in, not here." Michael said. He used all his strength to keep his voice steady. "Is Liz ok?" She ask. "Physically, yeah, emotionaly, well, she's sitting in the booth staring off into space." Michael heard Isabel give a pained sigh.

"You ok?" She asked. The question surprised him. "Y......yeah, I mean, why...............uh........why wouldn't I?" "Translation, you're holding on by a thread. Did anyone call Valenti or Maria's mom?" "No, Liz said the lights came off, but the fusebox was fine, Max is thinking something, god knows what, all he said was just to call you and have you bring Alex." "We'll be there in fifteen minutes." Maria tried to move her hands, no luck, her hands were handcuffed to the handle of the backseat of a car. She wished she knew where she was, but her kidnapper tied a blindfold on her. She knew one thing though, there was little chance of her ever seeing her friends, or anyone, ever again.

Alex, Max and Michael sat in the cafe, Isabel had just taken Liz to the bathroom to splash some water on her face. All of them were worried about Maria, even Isabel, who didn't always show affection towards the girl.

"It's OK, you don't have to tell me, it's OK." Maria whispered softly into Michael's ear. He laid crying on her bed. Her small hands stroked his hair, and his arm. Soon he felt something wet on his own neck, it took him a while to realize that Maria was crying too. Why is she crying? He asked himslef. Is she crying for me?

Michael snapped out of the memory of that night. He felt something on his cheek, he was crying. Max looked at him. "We're going to find her."

"Yeah, but do you guarantee she'll be in one piece when we do?" Michael said.

"Well aren't you the optimist." Alex said. "I'm just saying................"

"We're all worried Michael." Michael looked up to see Liz and Isabel walking over. Max took Liz in his arms. She laid her head across his chest and he rested his chin on the top of her head. "We are going to find her." He said, he didn't mean it just to Liz, but to everyone, including himself. Max remebered Maria the night of the Crashdown Festival, how she was scared, petrified, but went along with Liz's plan. If Liz trusted them, then maybe they weren't so bad. It was hard for Max to picture that the girl he knew now, was the same one who everyone worried would tell Valenti. She had helped them in so many ways, Maria, Liz and Alex, had stood by them.

The phone rang. No one had the strength to pick it up, so Isabel simply pressed speaker phone on it.

"Hello." Came a rapsy male voice. "Did ya'll lose something..............or, someone?" He chuckled to himself. Michael bolted from his seat "Who the hell are you?! And where's Maria?!"

"Oh, she's right here, hold on a second." There was a moment of silence. Then they heard whimpering, breathing. "Guys?" Maria said. Michael's heart tore at the sound of her voice like that.

"Maria, Maria where are you?" Liz said. She was crying.

"I...........I don't know, he blindfolded me, I can't see anything."

"Look you sick bastard, let her go!" Michael hollered.

"Tsk, tsk Michael," The man said. "Such a mouth you have on ya. But, there isn't much of a chance of you seeing your little girlfriend, she's mine now."