The Five Stages of Grief (Insane AU) SKEPHALO

Chapter 5: Acceptance (Part 1)

Sorry, this took so long! I've been very busy.
Also, an important note for this story:

Darryl never had intentions to sexually assault Zak in this book. That didn't happen and was never going to happen. Zak was only roofied to be kidnapped. I would NEVER write about anything like that. Please do not comment anything about or related to sexual assault; thank you.

acceptance (noun): the action of consenting to receive or undertake something offered

•Vincent•

The beeping from my phone made me pull it away from my ear and I quickly noticed Darryl had hung up on me. My irritation began to rise, but I pushed it down. Now I knew something was seriously wrong, but getting frustrated wouldn't solve the problem.

Zak had gone completely off the radar for a while now. At first, I thought he was just hungover, but the more I thought about it, I never saw him drinking. He just got really sick really suddenly that night at the party and Darryl took him back to his place.

However, when more days passed without Zak saying anything to his fans or uploading new videos, I couldn't help but feel like something more was going on.

Darryl was always terrible at hiding things and lying. As my suspicions rose of something more than just a silly sickness going on, I began to replay his actions at the party. I remember him acting super nervous. I knew he wasn't fond of big crowds, but his worries seemed to be more pronounced than normal.

On the night of the party, his anxious actions led me to believe he was finally going to confess his feelings to Zak. His eyes were darting everywhere constantly and whenever we asked him a question, he was overly defensive about it.

Everyone knew he had a crush on Zak. Well, besides Zak.

I don't think Darryl actually ever confessed, though. Unless he did and that's why they were together now...?

Maybe.

But why wouldn't Zak upload any videos or at least update on Twitter?

As of now, Zak was basically missing.

And Darryl was the last person to see him.

"If Darryl won't tell me, I'll just have to go to his house and see what's going on for myself," I thought bitterly, checking the time on my phone.

10:47 pm

"It's already pretty late for me to make a trip to someone's house... I'll go tomorrow morning." Shoving my phone into the pocket of my sweatpants, I headed off to bed.

•

As I stood in front of Darryl's house staring down at his welcoming doormat, I realized I didn't really have a proper plan. Figuring I could just wing it, I deepened the frown on my face and knocked on the door.

Nobody answered.

His car was outside, so I knew he was home. With a frustrated sigh, I knocked again a bit harder. "Darryl? It's me, Vincent!"

Still nothing. Before I could think my actions over, my hand reached for the doorknob and turned it, but unfortunately, the door was locked.

"I'm too tired to deal with this," I grumbled, about to turn away. Something in my gut stopped me before I could take another step away from the doorstep, leaving me standing there like a weirdo for longer than necessary.

"I can't give up that easy; Zak and Darryl are my friends. I deserve to know what is going on with them," I thought deterministically, searching around for a spare key.

My eyes trailed down to the doormat again. I lifted it up, peaking underneath, to discover a shiny silver spare key.

"Yes!" I muttered, collecting it and unlocking the front door. "Of course Darryl would keep it somewhere obvious."

"Hello? Darryl? Zak?"

I opened the door wide enough to step through and closed it briskly behind me. When no response came, I stepped further into the house, searching around for any clues or evidence that Zak had been there.

My eyes caught paperwork on the counter in the kitchen, trying to read it from afar. I squinted, stepping closer in a hurry. "What if it's about Zak?"

My legs hit a large bag of something I didn't see on the floor and I tripped, crashing into the counter. The paperwork flew everywhere and a glass cup fell over, instantly rolling off the counter and onto the floor with a loud crash.

I sighed. "Seriously?"

Figuring I could deal with it later, I straightened myself out and looked to see what I had tripped over.

A large bag of dog food sat overturned on its side, looking assaulted from being kicked.

"Dog food? Darryl's dogs aren't even that big... and I'm pretty sure they aren't even here right now."

I vaguely remembered Darryl saying they were with a friend or something, but I didn't ever really listen to his tangents so I couldn't be sure.

Picking up a piece of the paperwork from the floor, I found it was unimportant to my search and set it back down on the counter.

"Maybe I shouldn't jump to conclusions," I sighed, moving past the dog food and broken glass to search further into the house.

While there was no sign of anyone home, I found that in one of Darryl's empty office rooms there was an oddly placed door. I would have thought it was a closet if not for the excessive locks and deadbolt set drilled into it.

Goosebumps rose against my skin as I slowly pushed the door open. The air from inside felt chilly and damp, and the whole room was dark. I searched the walls for a light switch but found none.

My feet carried me inside, creaking down the ominous set of wooden stairs. It was quiet enough inside to nearly hear my thoughts out loud.

When I was at the bottom of the stairs, I looked around. The darkness hindered me from seeing a lot, but there appeared to be a small amount of furniture in the room.

"What the fuck..?" I muttered, glancing around nervously. I made sure to stay in the small ray of light pooling in from the open door behind me, placing my hand against the wooden railing for support and gripping it tensely.

I wasn't scared of the dark or anything, but this place just felt wrong.

The floor seemed to be made of concrete along with the walls, making it nearly soundproof. "What does Darryl have this for?"

"Hello?" I called loudly. The lonely echo that returned made fear rise in my gut. Before I could turn to leave, a dark figure rose from the other side of the stairs, stepping quickly into the light to knee me in the stomach. The breath escaped my lungs and I hunched over from unexpected pain. Reacting quickly, I ducked around the stranger and delivered a fist to their face, causing them to stagger backward.

I heard a whimpering in the corner behind me, causing me to lose my focus. In blind confusion, I turned around and glared into the darkness, searching for the source of the sound. There were two more figures crouched in the corner, seemingly huddled close.

One figure shifted forwards. "W-wait, Darryl, I think that's—"

Before I could hear him finish, the attacker lashed forwards, gripping my shirt and swinging my body into the wall.

Pain collected in my skull as my head smacked into the cement.

Everything went hazy and I could only hear muffled voices and sharp ringing.

I tried to balance myself out, but my legs gave in and I fell to the floor.

Another person came up behind the first, seemingly in distress. Their voices sounded far away underwater.

"Vince—"

"Get away from him, Zak."

I couldn't hear anything else after that.