Jerome clambered onto the bus with a malicious smile on his lips; it was the kind of smile that held no real emotion; the only thing it conveyed was madness. He was carrying a handgun and a small, worn-out piece of paper, as he stalked down the central aisle of the school bus. He checked every girl's face, well he checked the first row of faces, he then managed to spot her from the back of the bus because of her hair.

"Rory, Rory, Rory," he cackled as he slowly stalked towards her, slipping the paper back into his pocket.

She didn't move or say anything, just watched as Jerome crouched down next to her.

"You should have left when you had the chance," his grin that was already hanging from ear to ear, grew wider as he said the words.

Rory glared at him and spat, the glob of saliva hit the side of his cheek. The evil smile fell, and she could feel the whole bus tense in fear and anticipation. He looked away from her, wiping the spit off of his face before letting out a low and insane chuckle.

"You shouldn't have done that," he warned, meeting her eyes with a deadly glare, his tone becoming low and aggressive.

"Bite me," Rory snapped back, her wrists struggling against the handcuffs.

There was a moment of silence before Jerome started laughing, his low chuckle became a more deranged high pitch shrill. He stood up and smiled, turning around and looking at all the girls who were surrounding them. He pointed the gun at Lauren Junes who was sitting in front of Rory. Lauren let out a small squeak of terror when their eyes made contact.

"Now listen, baby," he looked back to her as he pointed the gun at Lauren, "if you don't cooperate with me, blondie here gets her pretty little head blown off," Jerome threatened as he pulled back Lauren's long ponytail and put the gun to her temple.

Rory did not want anyone to die, but she knew she had to stall for a few minutes longer before the police arrived.

"Cooperate in what way, Jerome?" her words burned her mouth as she spoke, her mind screaming with the terror of putting Lauren's life at risk.

Jerome giggled again at Rory's comebacks and pulled Lauren's hair tighter.

"All you need to do, is get off the bus, and we'll let these lovely ladies continue on their way to cheery cheer camp," his voice was smothered in a sly and mischievous tone as he explained.

"I just need to get off the bus?" She confirmed, her heart racing faster than it had ever done before.

"Yes," Jerome beamed as he readjusted his grip on the revolver.

Rory took a moment to try and think about what could happen, the different consequences, different alternatives: if she got off the bus, she would be immediately taken to wherever Maniax! was based and forced to deal with Jerome's wrath. She could try and escape when getting off by legging it- the police could arrive at any moment... but knowing Jerome, he'd still kill Lauren without a second thought, and if she refused to cooperate, he would end up killing each girl one by one.

She only really had one choice, comply with his orders.

Rory met his eyes before glancing between his face and Lauren's. She stood up with her hands, still tied behind her back. Again Jerome's smile widened as he watched Rory step into the aisle.

"Good girl," he praised, his voice was tainted with insanity and pride. He'd finally managed to get her, his trophy and this time there would be nothing to get in his way.

She waited for him to remove the gun from the side of Lauren's head, but he didn't move, the gun stayed firmly against her head.

"I'm complying, Jerome, a deals a deal, leave her alone," Rory snapped, nodding to Lauren.

Jerome frowned at her, showing her an over dramatised face of confusion.

"What deal? We never made a deal," his smile slowly crept back to his lips.

"I was simply giving you an order, blonde here was... encouragement," he said, pulling her hair again. Lauren's shrieks of fear surrounded Rory and Jerome, her exasperated pleads and cries only made it worse.

"You said if I got off the bus, you'd let her go," Rory grumbled, her words grinding through her teeth as she stared down the madman in front of her.

Jerome let out a giggle: "No I never said I'd let her go, you've gotta listen, sweetie," he let go of Lauren's hair and pointed at Rory with a grin, waggling it as he spoke.

"I said I would let all these girlies go, not just blonde," he smiled motioning to the 14 other girls sitting around them.

"But, you're leaving," he said through a smirk.

"And that leaves the team at an odd number. One more girl has gotta go for a better chance at winning!" Jerome sang, his smile growing wider by the second and when he reached the end of his sentence, he shot Lauren directly between the eyes and let out a wild, insane cackle as he watched the girls around him scream and squirm against the handcuffs that were binding them to the bus floor.

Rory couldn't take her eyes off of Lauren's body, the blood from the exit wound had covered her in a red shower, there was still smoke coming out of the bullet hole even though the shell had left. Lauren's blood streamed down her head like a waterfall, trickling over the bridge of her nose and dropping down into her lap, it looked like she was crying blood. Rory had never seen anything so gruesome.

Jerome was still laughing, only he was laughing at her reaction, not at Lauren.

"Come on, Rory, I thought you knew me better," he jested.

"You're a psychopath!" She yelled back, stepping away from him.

Jerome only laughed at this.

"Oh no!" he sneered before grabbing Rory's arm in a death-like grip and dragging her off the bus.

"No! Get off of me!" Rory kicked and screamed as he pulled her down the bus aisle, her teammates watching in horror as they watched her get taken.

Rory knew there was nothing they could do, so she didn't blame them for not trying to help, they'd all witnessed something traumatic, there was no way she could expect one of her teammates to bounce up and grab her. When Jerome pulled her off the last step of the bus, he dragged her to the fire truck, which was parallel to the school bus. Jerome quickly pushed her into the front seat and handcuffed her to the bottom of the seat

"I don't want you running off again, now do I," he whispered into her ear as he clamped the handcuffs down over her wrists. Before he walked back to the school bus, he kissed her. She squirmed against him, trying to pull away only to have Jerome's hand keep her head still. He pulled away a flashed her a manic grin.

"Finally!" He squealed before walking back to the bus, grabbing the fire hose that his accomplices had brought out and walked into the bus, showering the girls with gasoline and laughing over their screams.

He jumped out of the bus and smiled at his men before pulling out a lighter. Rory started to struggle against the restraint and screamed. She started begging for him to stop. He smiled at her before leaning down to the steps. Rory couldn't see what was happening, the men were blocking her view, but when Jerome's red hair popped up again, and there were no flames, she let out a sigh of relief.

She couldn't make out anything that the men were saying over the noise of the cheerleading squad screaming. She started to look around, she was sitting on the seat closet to the window and Jerome hadn't closed the fire trucks door. She looked out to the opening in front of her and saw police cars approaching, a small flicker of hope sparked up inside her, and she started to kick against the vehicle.

"Dad!" She screamed, barely catching a glimpse of her step-father as he ducked taking cover behind his car door. Jerome's men had started to shoot back and approached the vehicle with manic grins, Jerome and a skinnier man stayed behind longer whiles the bigger, more brain dead men surrounded her in the front cabin of the truck.

"No, please," she started to beg as the engine roared into action.

The bigger, paler man sat next to her, his massive arm snaking around her neck.

"Get off of me!" Rory sassed as she tried to push his arm off of her.

The two men that sat around her started to laugh like Jerome.

"I can see why he likes you," the bigger man said through a grin.

Rory glared at the man as she continued to kick and scream against there holds.

"I think this is going to be easier if she's knocked out," the smaller, fatter one babbled.

The bigger man grunted, before taking the butt of his gun and hitting Rory over the head, knocking her out unconscious.