You And I

Returned

Denis coughed harshly, he'd come to the conclusion that he was becoming deathly ill. Maybe the sickness will kill me...He thought, breathing through what felt like a clogged tube. Funny how just one mistake could make death sweeter than life. Just one wrong move and suddenly he was kneeling at the reaper's feet. Denis wheezed a sigh and let his muscles go slack, his body only held up by the cuffs on his wrists.

"You bastard!" The man bellowed, barging through the basement door. "You damn fool!" He cried, throwing a harsh punch right to Denis' gut. He repeated this action, screaming and hurting Denis, until the singer finally screamed out, "What did I do?!?"

The man halted his movements and slowly raised his gaze so that his stare burned through Denis' skull. "What. Did. You. Do?" The man have him a crazed glare, "What did you do?!??" The man's violent tone terrified Denis, the singer shook and gulped uneasily, "you called the fuzz on me pretty!" The man yelled. The what? The fuzz, did he mean the cops? "And now I'm in a big uh oh! But don't worry pretty, I won't let them take you from me...." he grinned maniacally and grabbed Denis by the throat. "You'll never leave me!" He screeched, dragging the singer up the basement steps.

~~~

Ben gulped, apparently the cops had gotten a serious lead on some man named Edward Cram and they were currently allowing Ben to tag along. They had been driving for at least an hour and only large pine trees lined the road they drove upon. How much longer?  Ben thought, Will Denis be okay?  The cop in the driver's seat, Officer Cade, seemed to sense Ben's distress and glanced at him through the rear view mirror, "They said the house was on the end of the road, we should be there soon enough, Mr. Bruce." A small spark of hope flickered within the guitarist, perhaps Denis would be fine when they got there, aside from the wounds he'd received shown on the tapes.

Thinking about the tapes made Ben feel sick. The whip's crack, the sight of Denis after being electrocuted, the knife slicing his back, it was all to much for Ben to bear, he couldn't even begin to imagine how Denis felt...."We're here." The cop in the shotgun seat jarred Ben out of his thoughts with his statement. Finally!  Ben thought, feeling a mixture of emotions swirl viciously in his stomach. Fear, anxiety, concern, and a slight excitement fueled by the small spark of hope that had ignited earlier.

  The cops got out of the car first, sticking next to Ben when he got out. "Now, be careful, you'll be staying outside of the house for safety reasons, but anything can happen, so watch yourself." Ben nodded, swallowing harshly. "We'll bring Mr. Stoff out as swiftly as we can, but depending on how bad his injuries are, you may not get to ride in the ambulance with him, the ambulance will be arriving soon. In that case, we will drive right behind it." The other cop, Officer Masons, added. Once again, Ben nodded, wincing at the thought of Denis' injuries.

~~~

Denis gasped for air as the man dropped him roughly, he thought that surely the man had left bruises. Attempting to gather his bearings, he hadn't noticed that the man was now holding a gun, an Ares Shrike 5.56 to be exact. A machine gun?!  Denis thought, Where in the hell had he picked up a machine gun?!  Fear spiraled within him, terrified of what the man would need something like that for. "Alright pretty, ready for the light show?" The man cackled, loading the gun. Denis breathed deeply, trying desperately to calm himself, crying would do him no good in such a situation. 

"Here we go pretty, lure em' reeeeaaal good..." The man grinned inhumanly and reinserted the ball gag into Denis' mouth. With that, the man left Denis on the floor, gagged and helpless since his limbs too were tied together. Lure them? Denis' eyes flew wide open when he realized what the man meant. This was a trap.

Five or so minutes passed until the red door of the man's house went flying inwards and a swat team of five along with a single cop rushed in. Denis thrashed wildly, trying to make them leave, but they did just the opposite when they saw him and rushed to help. However, in a desperate attempt to save them, as soon as they took the ball gag out, he screamed "It's a trap, it's a trap, run!" Unfortunately, and to Denis' horror, the men did not have time to run before the man stomped in, gun blazing.

The swat team dropped to the floor like flies, the white wall of the man's house newly splattered with red. The final man, one of the cops, barely alive radioed in for back up, begging them to come quick so that he might live another day, but that evil man made sure his request was left unfulfilled. He raised the machine gun to the cop and riddled his body with a torrent of bullets, even after he was dead. Some of the men's blood had landed on Denis, making him feel just as lifeless as they were, he felt as though he had killed them, in his mind, he might as well have. 

~~~

Ben and Officer Masons waited outside, anxiously watching Officer Cade and a small, unshielded swat team enter the house. Mere moments later, Ben heard Denis' unmistakeable voice yell that it was a trap and instantly after that, all that was heard, was gunshots. Officer Mason gasped with wide eyes when he heard Officer Cade begging for backup over the radio, only to be killed by another round of bullets. Ben instinctively ran up the house's porch steps and halted at the door, only seeing blood and bodies. he gulped and lightly, quietly, stepped in, inching his way around a corner. Denis sat only feet away, gazing deeply in horror at a pool of blood near his feet. 

On Denis' left, there was a man, hunched over one of the bodies, laughing and mumbling gibberish in a hushed tone. Ben glowered at his bent form and picked up a gun that lay stilly in Officer Cade's cold, dead hand. Ben stepped over the man's gun, an Ares Shrike 5.56, cocking the pistol in hand. At this sound, the man, Edward Cram, turned swiftly and stared at Ben. "You want to take my pretty, well I'll-" "Take another step and I'll shoot." Ben stated, pointing the gun at Edward's skull.

At the sound of Ben's voice, Denis' gaze shot up, happiness and terror waltzing boisterously in his mind. Ben however wasn't focused on Denis, (for once) instead on the tall, wicked man in front of him.  Edward's long, dark, matted and blood caked hair hung eerily around his face where his nose was scrunched up in distaste and a maddened glare glowed from his muddy brown eyes. "If you take my pretty..." He muttered, trailing off in a scary manner.

None the less, Ben wasn't shaken, he stood his ground, the gun still up, loaded and in Edward's face. "His name is Denis." Ben growled, "He is mine not yours and I will be taking him."  Edward reared back, "You little-" He stopped suddenly, frozen in place aside from small jittery movements. "Hands up where I can see them." Officer Masons ordered lowly, pistol pressed against Edward's head. 

Surprisingly enough, the maniac lifted his arms up and continued to comply when Masons told him to put his hands behind his back. "I'll take care of Mr. Cram here, please, take Denis out to the car." Masons looked at Ben who swiftly nodded and picked up the singer. "There's a switch blade in the cubby on the shotgun side." Masons called out to him before reciting the miranda laws to Edward.

Setting Denis on the hood, Ben grabbed the switch blade from the car and cut Denis' ties. As soon as he was free, the singer jumped on Ben, not caring about the injuries he'd received and hugging him tightly. "Denis!" Ben smiled widely, finally taking in that his lost band memeber had been returned to him. 

"Ben oh god, Ben!" Denis cried happily into the guitarist's warm embrace, one he'd missed so much. They didn't let go for perhaps another minute or two, but when they did, Denis did something that even in that excitement wasn't the smartest thing.....