Lachlan's P.O.V.
I stumbled, my knees hitting the ground, the skin peeling off my shins on the concrete floor. I winced but I was resigned to my fate so I didn't have any physical reaction other than that, not wanting to be manhandled around any more than I had to be.
I was used to the cold, damp and heavy concrete halls that never seemed to change, grey, grey and more grey. There were no windows, no doors to the outside and the only people I saw were the ones that came to visit me in the night or pulled me around, pushing me to the ground because they felt like it.
Someone pulled me by my shirt collar back to my feet and forced me to keep walking, their hand on my shoulder to stop me from bolting. I didn't try that anymore, not after what had happened last time.
I kept my head to the ground, never wanting to risk making eye contact with any of my captors or just seem like I was deliberately disobeying them, since I knew exactly what would happen to me. My body ached for days and I couldn't stomach anything to eat for close to a week the last time I made direct eye contact with any of those who held me.
"Move it." He shoved me close to an unopened door, which swung open when he knocked and I was pushed through it.
I sighed. Another empty room, a mattress in the corner, bare walls of a concrete box and damp air that made me wheeze. I was growing steadily more ill as the days passed, but I didn't know how much time had truly passed because there were no clocks.
I scooted myself onto the mattress and curled into the corner. There was nothing I could do to entertain myself in the cold, damp room but it was better than at night when the... visitors... came. I threw up almost every time one of them came.
The only thing that I could do was think about all of the good times before I was taken, the times spent with Vikk. Vikk, my beautiful boyfriend, who helped me through so much and who I loved with my entire heart. I had wondered many times if I would ever see him again and as time passed, the chances grew less likely.
I was doubting whether I would make it out of my living nightmare alive.
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"Get up." The command was sharp and didn't give me a choice. I could barely stand, my legs and stomach were aching and there was a pool of vomit beside the mattress. It hadn't been a good night, but then again there had never been a good night.
I struggled to my feet, stumbling and falling heavily against the wall. The man rolled his eyes, pulling on my shirt collar and tugging me out of the room. I was surprised, they didn't move me often and this was the second time in two days, so something must be happening.
It was disorientating being led down so many halls but there were no markings, no clues as to where we were going ad how they knew which way to go.
I was led through a door and then a leather boot kicked the back of my knees, earning a surprised yelp, and forced me onto my knees in front of another man. It was surprising, this was a common occurrence, being forced to my knees in front of one man or the next.
What was surprising, was how he spoke to me.
"So this is the one they've been trying to get money for." He stepped closer, his hand coming under my chin and forcing me to look up at him. This was against everything that I knew and I tried to tear my gaze away. "No, look at me."
I raised my eyes to meet his, shuddering as his cold eyes stared right into my soul.
"You've trained him well. It's a shame we have to let him go but the money will be of much use, maybe we'll get another like this and keep him if they don't pay the ransom." He was speaking to the man behind me, the one who had forced me to the ground. He turned to me.
"You're lucky your friends coughed up the money but I wouldn't have been sad to keep you. The money would have been useful but maybe you'd have been more useful to me as you are, as some to please me." I felt sick at the meaning of his words but there was a slight hope in my heart.
I knew they had kept me for ransom, it hadn't exactly been kept a secret from me, in fact they bragged about it as they visited me.
"When should we send him back sir? The date is set but we could hold onto him for a little longer if we want to." The man tilted my head up again, licking his lips.
"You have a good suggestion for once. When is he ment to be sent back?"
"Three days sir." He crouched down in front of me so he was eye level with me, observing every inch of my body.
"I'll keep him for that time, maybe a little longer if he's as good as my men say he is. Give him back a little roughed up. Leave." He directed the last sentence towards the man and he did so, the door slamming shut behind him. I shuddered, my eyes firmly to the floor.
"I hope you'll be good for me sweetheart, give me a good time." His lips connected with mine forcefully and for the first time I didn't bother struggling because I knew that it would only end up worse for me. "Good boy."
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I couldn't stand anymore. Everything ached, nothing didn't hurt and almost every inch of my body was covered in bruises, scratches from his fingernails or bite marks from the nights with him.
He tried to give me last kiss but I decided my last act would be of defiance because I pulled away and spat at him, which just ended with a hand print of my cheek and another broken bone to go along with it. I was then hauled down the halls of his house by my shirt and into the boot of a car where for the first time I felt that maybe I was going home.
When the car stopped I froze up but nothing happened. No one came for me. I heard the car door open and close but that was it for hours, silence and the occasional chirping of birds.
Without the car running the winter air began to seep into the boot and it wasn't long before I started shivering, all of my muscles flaring up and everything started aching. I curled into the corner, crying.
I passed out.
I didn't wake until I heard someone screaming "I FOUND IT! I FOUND IT!!!" and then the boot of the car popped and everything around me was flooded with light. There was a scream.
"Lachlan!! Lachlan!!" There was a hand on my shoulder and someone pulled at me, trying to pull me from the boot. There was more hands and soon I was lifted to the ground, the cold concrete under my back making me shudder.
Vikk was clinging to me and saw me shudder and so lifted my head onto his lap, whispering into my ear. I groaned in pain, my arms seizing across my chest in a mindless movement that I had no control over which caused more flashes of pain.
"Someone call an ambulance!" I could hear someone muttering sweat words under their breath, pacing around behind my head. "Jesus Christ it's worse than we thought."
"Come on Lachlan, please, wake up?"
Part 2
Lachlan's P.O.V.
Everything was numb, I was floating in a sea of dreams and for once, I liked it. I couldn't feel anything, I was sitting on a cloud and everything was silent and for a second I thought, is this death? Did I die? And for once, I didn't care whether I was right or wrong.
Time passed slowly, like my mind was being dragged through mud and I had no recall of what was going on but slowly things started entering my brain. At first it was humming and the vibrations the came along with and the slowly voices filtered through.
They were warbled and faded in and out but I managed to pick up a few words every now and again from voices that I didn't recognise.
The humming came in odd bouts, little songs and tunes, some that I recognised and some that I didn't. It was comforting and after a little while I started complaining to myself whenever whoever was humming stopped because I didn't want them to go.
I didn't completely realise that I was waking up until I opened my eyes for the first time, hissing in pain when the bright, white, light hit my eyes and rolling my head back. Almost at once the light faded, someone clearly having heard me.
"Lachlan?" The voice was low, worried and concerned for me and I recognised it at once. It was Vikk, his hand now curled in mine. "Are you there?"
I squinted, my eyes finally picking up the details around me. Everything was white, the walls, the ceiling, the floor, the bed, everything, and it stung my eyes which we still unused to the light.
Vikk noticed and moved to switch the lights, leaving me with only the natural light to finally try and focus my eyes. I was scared, I really had no idea what was going on or why I was there, the last thing that I remembered was going upstairs at the Sidemen house to record som-
Oh.
Everything came back suddenly like a bunch in my gut, the days alone in a concrete box, the nights being visited by man after man, being sick over the side of the mattress, being unable to stomach food for days, the last awful days with that man.
Almost at once I felt sick and bile rose in my throat but I managed to swallow it again, but still all I could think of were those days. I closed my eyes again.
"Lachlan? Please?" Vikk's voice was now high and worried and I heard him press something, a nurse coming into the room not long after.
"Is he okay?"
"He's awake but he's kind of... unfocused?"
"Ah that's to be expected hun, he's just come off the medication so he won't be properly awake for at least a few hours. He's doing good though." Her hand was gently placed on my forehead. "Call your friends, tell them to come down and I'll meet them at the door. He'll be more coherent by the time they arrive."
There was a solid pause for about 3 minutes and it sounded like Vikk was crying but I was still in that concrete box mentally, unable to pull myself out of it.
"Hey Simon-" Yeah he was definitely crying. "Lachlan's awake." A pause. "He's okay, not talking or anything yet but he's awake. The nurse 'ill meet you at the door and let you in when you guys come down." Another pause. "Okay, I'll see you in a few hours."
I heard him sigh heavily, burying his head into his arms. I opened my eyes again.
"Vi-kk?" His eyes snapped to me.
"Lachlan! You're awake!" He wrapped his hands around my neck, crying. "I- I thought you died!"
I froze but gingerly lifted one of my arms and wrapped it over his shoulders. It was painful and I almost cried out when I lifted my arm but I managed it, allowing him to sob against me.
"Vi... Vikk?" I stumbled over my words, frowning as I did so. I knew what words I wanted to say but I couldn't quite get them out of my mouth and I found it strange. "Wh-at hap-happened?" I saw his sudden and shocked look.
"You remember?" I nodded and his face relaxed. "You were missing for well over a month Lachy, no one knows where you were or what happened, the police can't trace the car and they couldn't find any DNA either. Please, can you tell us anything?"
I opened my mouth but paused to think. I really didn't know anything, where I had been, names, nothing, so I shook my head because there was nothing I could say to them. If they showed me the people face to face then I could recognise them, but nothing else. He sighed.
"It's okay but without you I doubt we'll be able to catch them without your help." Gingerly I pointed up to his face. "Face? You'd be able to recognise a face."
I nodded. That mans' face, the one who had me for the last few days, was forever ingrained in my mind and I knew I would never forget it as long as I lived.
"Are you in pain?" I nodded. Everything still ached but not as much as it had the day I had been freed, although still enough that I couldn't move with wincing or wanting to cry out in pain. "Where?"
I vaguely gestured to my entire body, wincing as I did so and desperately trying to nuzzle myself closer to Vikk. I wanted him to pull me away from the nightmares, allow me to forget what had happened, not make me relive it over and over again inside my head.
He allowed me to hug me tightly, my head pressing itself underneath his chin and my hands clinging to his shirt. I didn't even realise I was whining until Vikk began to shush me, humming and rocking back and forth with me curled up against him.
"It's good to have you back Lachy." He whispered into my ear. "I love you."
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I awoke screaming, struggling against my blankets, crying heavily. Vikk's voice slowly filtered into my brain as I backed myself into a corner, unable to let him touch or hug me, even for comfort, because I was so scared and unable to pick out what was real and what was a dream.
I was backed right up into the corner, my head on my knees and my hands firmly over my ear, rocking back and forth. My nightmares were the same every night, the men coming to visit me in the night and forcing me to do unspeakable things and I relived it each and every night without fail.
"Lachlan, come on, look at me." My teary eyes met Vikk's, my chest still heaving. "That's it, you're okay, you're okay."
I launched myself into his arms, sobbing and hiccoughs tearing at my throat making it hard to breathe. He started rocking me backwards and forwards, humming under his breath again. Humming had become his number one way of comforting me especially as words often didn't make their way through my muddled brain.
It took about half an hour before my cries started to fade and the images stopped flashing across my vision. I struggled weakly out of Vikk's arms, wiping my eyes with my fist like a toddler, trying to even out my breathing so could calm myself.
"Is that better?" I nodded numbly. I was scared, the nightmares were so common that since I had been rescued, 6 months ago in a week, I hadn't managed to sleep through the entire night once.
Vikk stayed by my side the entire time, getting me to eat when I felt too sick to do so, helping me through my nightmares at night and helping me through the hurdles that came along with daily life.
There were certain things that I couldn't stomach now that I was home. I had to be in sight of a window at all time and I couldn't sleep with all of the lights off so Vikk had a low lamp beside his bed that we kept on at night. I couldn't sleep alone and I only left the house to go to counselling or the hospital because I couldn't be around people that I didn't know.
I couldn't stomach plain slices of bread because the sight of them brought memories to the forefront of my mind, if I sat down it couldn't be on the floor and if I was ever alone I had to be outside because otherwise I would freak out and panic.
Vikk was the only one who could pull me out of flashbacks and he did it often, sometimes up to several times a day. I rarely had the energy to do anything other than watch Vikk record and edit while curled up on his bed, music playing in my ears or a book in my hands.
Vikk was the biggest comfort to me and helped me with everything. Although I didn't have the words to thank him, he understood that I couldn't quite tell him everything and never tried to make me, instead letting me make my own choices.
"Vikk?" I whispered, his head turning to me from his desk. "Thank you."
"You don't need to thank me Lachy, I do it because I love you."