Right now it was five o' clock in the afternoon, so they realized that they might be allowed to use the bathroom at the same time as they did yesterday. Just to have a brief shower and a change of clothes, into another pair of tracksuits each.
They were right in their assumptions.
So then, on their way there down a long passage, Jared thought that he was hearing voices in one of the rooms which he knew (from experience), were not occupied by anybody.
He waited until after his daily shower and when he and Blake (accompanied by one of their captors), passed that particular room again, he could hear a voice that sounded like Carminda's.
This caused Jared to stop in his tracks.
"Could Carminda be the one holding them captive?" Jared wondered.
If so, then what has she done to his uncle? Maybe his imagination was playing tricks on him, though.
"What would Carminda be doing here?" he asked himself.
When the men who accompanied them saw the look on Jared's face, they decided to let him in on the secret. One of the men was of medium height, with sharp, black eyes and curly brown hair. He did not look like one who could compromise.
His partner, who was called Joe, was a tall, African man with a heavy muscular build and very observant hazel-brown eyes. Jared did not know how to interpret Jo's stance upon, or his position in this situation. Was he wholeheartedly participating in this situation in which he, Jared and Blake found themselves?
The two men told both Jared and Blake that their fellow prisoners were the beautiful women Carminda and her sister, Shannon. Now Jared was even more of a puzzle to put together. How was all this possible? Was he dreaming?
Blake was just as mystified.
"Could Carminda's captors be involved with Jared's uncle in some way?" he wondered. This seemed too far-fetched though, so he swept the thought from his mind.
Now he really just wanted to speak to Laura, but his cell-phone had been confiscated by these mysterious people, who apparently had full charge over them right now.
Back in their room, Blake found a Bible, which he did not take much notice of before. He decided that, since he had started praying about his family's suffering and trials, he could just as well read the Bible, while Jared was trying to figure out what had happened to them.
He studied the Bible and decided that, if Jesus was indeed the Way, the Truth and the Life, then He was definitely the one whom the two of them needed right now. Perhaps Carminda and Shannon also needed Him. Nobody wanted to be robbed of their lives.
Blake decided to hang onto what he was reading. It began to give him peace and some courage. Jared could not understand Blake's suddenly altered point of view, so he decided to simply ignore him.
Blake read, "Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world" and he decided to keep on repeating this, both to himself and to Jared, so that he could retain his own sanity. Jared apparently also needed this because he seemed to be engulfed by fear.
Laura opened her eyes and found herself laying on a luxuriously covered double bed. She wondered why she was asleep, since all she could remember was the fact that she was last in the coffee shop at the Mall.
Then she looked around and grew alarmed when she realized that she was not in her own bedroom, on her own bed. She attempted to sit up, but her head felt too heavy, so she laid back down again.
Then she realized that she was not alone, when something moved near her. She jumped up in alarm and experienced a blinding headache, before she could take a look at her companion.
So she scrambled down and kneeled at the edge of the bed, holding her head. She waited for the pain to subside and then she slowly turned her head, to look around the room. Laura then recognized the man from the coffee shop at the mall, but she could not clearly recall what had happened between the two of them.
"Who are you? What do you want?" she asked him.
The man rose from the chair in which he was sitting while he had observed her. He smiled at her as if it is the most natural thing in the world for them to be alone in a bedroom. He looked completely relaxed.
"I simply brought you here to meet someone," he answered in a relaxed tone.
"You behaved extremely well on your way here, so I hope you'll be calm and 'together' now as well?"
Laura was puzzled by what he was saying, but she could not think about his words for too long, because immediately afterwards, the door opened.
To her greatest astonishment, no one other than Edward Hendricks from Hollywood strolled into the room.
Laura almost fainted with shock.
Edward closed the door behind him and walked over to her. He took her by the hand and helped her to sit upright on the bed.
***
Blake and Jared were promptly taken to meet Carminda and Shannon, who were apparently locked up in one of the other bedrooms. Once there the captive men realized that the two sisters seemed more upset than afraid and were not allowed to speak to either Jared or Blake.
The two astounded men were then led back to their own room, after only a few minutes in the ladies' guestroom.
After having seen Carminda and Shannon, Blake began to feel particularly restless. He felt that they should not in the least bit be at ease about being held captive. They would have to leave this place, one way or another.
Throughout the following day Blake began to pray earnestly about being released. He did not know how it was going to happen, but he knew that he could not stand the present situation for much longer. He had a family to look out for.