The Pack and Sidemen Oneshots

The Sidemen- Playing Favourites

Simon's P.O.V.

I didn't remember what had happened and neither did any of the boys, but all we knew was it was something bad. We woke up chained up in a dark room, no light entering the room and it was only through hushed and terrified whispers that we discovered that all of the Sidemen were there- despite having been at home in our separate houses before this.

Everyone was bleary and confused, scared and as I woke up more I could hear the panicked whispers some of the boys were sharing. Vikk and Harry were tangled up with each other and I think they were crying, too scared to look up even when I called their names across the room. I couldn't move, the chain around my waist to tight to even move a foot.

It took me less than a minute to notice that I was chained on the other side of the room from all the other boys, a gap of 5 or 6 feet between me and them and although it confused me, it didn't seem to be the most important thing to worry about. Josh looked up at me, tugging on the chains around his waist and wrists.

"Simon?" He said, his voice shaking. "Are you okay?" I nodded in confirmation and he proceeded to ask the other boys the same. JJ, Tobi and Ethan all nodded or said something that was along the lines of yes, but Harry and Vikk didn't even look up. They didn't appear to be injured, just scared.

We sat in silence. There was nothing else we could do really, other than wait for something to happen. I didn't know what would happen when something did, but we could only wait.

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Whatever I was expecting, it wasn't this. As it turned out, the reason we were chained up in a dank and dark room was because of a crazed fan- a young man about our age who appeared after lord knows how long, a few hours? Maybe longer.

I also quickly discovered why I was chained up separately, across the room from the other boys. I was the favourite. The one he really wanted, but he took the other boys as leverage over me, and also used me as leverage over them when they didn't do what he wanted. It was sick, twisted and disgusting.

The poor boys who lived in the old Sidemen house, Vikk, Josh and JJ, with me, were the main targets of his sadistic plots. Apparently they had "stolen" me from him. I had to watch while he kicked at them, pulled the chains so tight they couldn't breathe, held up matches and threatened to press them to their skin until they were begging, crying and screaming. I fought hard against the chains, begging him to stop.

When he crouched down in front of me, twirling a knife between his fingers and smirking, I was crying. He pressed the blade delicately to my cheek but I didn't pay any attention to it- all I could hear was muffled sobbed. He was the first to have the fire pressed to his skin, no matter how I screamed and begged for him to stop.

"Will you do what I say?" His voice was soft but commanding and threatening.

"Yes!" I sobbed. "Just stop hurting them!"

"Oh I will, but you have to do everything I say. Everything. You understand that? Or it will come back to scar these boys." I nodded, still sobbing.

"Yes! I'll do it!"

"Good." And with that he unhooked the length of chain from the wall, leaving it wrapped around my waist, and tugged on it, directing me to follow him. I took one last desperate glance back at the boys, still tied up their desperate eyes following me, but I didn't get anymore than that.

I was forced to follow him up and stairs and into his house, where a new kind of torture would await.

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Afterwards I think I blocked most of it from my mind but my aching body and bruises told me enough about what had happened. I had been left alone, still chained up, in what I now knew was a bedroom, and the man was gone, probably to torment the other boys. I hated to think about what he was doing to them, if he had done that to me.

They were clearly playing favourites and unfortunately, I was the favourite. My eyes kept flicking open and closed as the pain from my lower body overwhelmed me, before I finally passed out.

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I had no idea how we were found, but we were. I was glad that we were found in enough time that he could only get to me once or twice and the boys were mostly unharmed, traumatized and scared, yes, but physically unharmed and in good health. I on the other hand... not so much.

The hospital stay was long and scary, and a lot of it I spent in and out of consciousness, the memories still blocked from my mind. By the end of it I was released, after almost two weeks lying in a hospital bed, and the other boys took me home. They had been released in the weeks before, healthy but scared.

"Hey Simon..." Josh whispered, taking my hand. I was lying on my bed, staring blankly at the ceiling while I tried to sleep. "You alright?"

"No." I mumbled, closing my eyes.

"Do you wanna come downstairs?" He asked, helping me sit up in bed when I nodded. "The other boys are all here, they aren't able to sleep either."

As he helped me down the stairs my hand gently brushed the burn scar on his arms, the one the man had inflicted. It wasn't large but it was very deep and barely healed over, one of the only wounds that the other boys received in the time in that terrible house. Vikk had got some wicked burns too, but they were shallower and had all scarred over.

The boy in question, who was lying on top of Harry, looked up when Josh and I came in. He smiled, patting the beanbag on the floor beside him. Tobi, Ethan and JJ were there as well, all tangled up in each others arms, trying to distract each other from the awful memories of screaming and crying. I settled down in Josh's arms, still unable to sleep.

"It'll be alright." He whispered, running a hand through my hair. "I promise."

I sighed, knowing that he couldn't promise me that, but I gave him a soft smile. It was comforting, knowing he was there and the others were there as well.

"Just sleep Si. There's no use in thinking about him playing favourites."