Seized and Treacherous

Hello. It has been awhile since I last wrote. Those of you wondering, this series is a lot more mystery and thriller mixed with powerful friendships and subtle romances rather than sex with a backdrop. I did try placing this series in the correct section, however, I could not seem to find a suitable section. So forgive me if you were expecting something different!

Important disclaimer:
This story contains mature themes, violence, gore and homosexual sex. You must be at least 18 years of age to read this story.

I appreciate comments and criticisms of all kinds. Email me at:

mask4truth@yahoo.com.au

I hope you enjoy this series.

Chapter 1

I can’t even begin to explain how weird my day has been. I’m trapped in some dark and damp cage in some basement somewhere in this universe. The most annoying creature on the planet (who incidentally is the quaterback of my highschool) is sitting buck naked ten feet away from my buck naked self. I used to tell my friends that ‘I will never be in a room with that asshole unless someone locked us up in a cage and threw away the key’. I think I smell irony.

So how did I get here? Is this some kind of practical joke? I’m not even sure if this is not a dream. This is way too surreal.

“Hey, you okay?”

Without turning my head to the quarterback, I knew it was him. But I chose not to answer. I mean, he either said it as a greeting, or to find out how crappy I’m feeling right now. This is crazy. I shut my eyes and let out a sigh, hoping that I will see a familiar environment when I open my eyes.

 * * *

“Okay, we need summer plan,” I said to Pat, or Patrick, my sworn brother, while chewing my lunch in the school cafeteria.

“Wait,” Pat raised his index finger and audibly swallowed his chicken. “I thought you wanted to go to the bonfire.”

“I did, but you didn’t.”

“You don’t have to stick around for me ya know. And stop talking with your mouth full!”

“Of course I have to stick around. What kind of best friend would I be if left ya?” I said and gave him my best grin. “And talking with my mouth full requires real talent — do you do everything your mum tells ya?”

He rolled his eyes at me. “My mum has nothing to do with it — you spit your lunch all over me every time you talk you asshole.” He sighed exaggeratedly. “Fine, you win, I’ll go to the bonfire.”

“Yes!” I laughed in triumph.

“But it better be worth it!” he warned me.

I winked at him. “Ruth will be there.”

Pat coloured and hit my arm. The poor boy had a crush on the new blonde in school. Not that she was out of his league — I’m proud to say that my best friend was so hot that he can steam up a room within seconds and magnetically pull females (and males) towards him when he switches on his ‘sexy’ mode. Nope, his hotness was not the question — it was just that Ruth was already the girlfriend of the quarterback asshole when Pat finally noticed her.

“Speak of the devil,” I said as I watched Ruth and her boyfriend walked in.

Pat followed my eyes and saw her as she was sitting down at the dumb jock’s table with her dumb jock boyfriend. “Careful what you say next,” my best friend shot me a glare. “There are conditions of my availability for the bonfire.”

I burst out in laughter. “Okay, so my best buddy is now a lawyer wannabe. Should I draw up a contract?” I offered.

Pat straightened himself and snobbishly raised his eyebrow. “A written agreement will suffice.”

“Aren’t they the same thing?”

“Who cares? And I’m not a lawyer wannabe,” he shook a finger at me. “I’m a politician wannabe.”

I widened my eyes dramatically. “No shit, my best friend a politician? Maybe all those years of putting up with you paid off after all.”

Pat laughed, stopped his charade and threw some of his chips at me. But instead of dodging them, I caught one of them, grinned at him, and popped it into my mouth. “Thanks!” I said and winked at him.

My best friend rolled his eyes and went back to eating his chicken with a smile on his face. “You know, keep up with the flirting and I may end up in your bed after all.”

“Flirt—” I nearly choked on my lunch. “I wasn’t flirting!”

“Oh yes you were,” Pat looked at me, and winked exaggeratedly.

“That’s not how I do it!”

“Come on you know I’m best at imitating people. Being your best friend for so many years, I’m pretty sure I got it down pretty tight — your brother won’t even be able to tell us apart.”

I chuckled. “If you say so. So you’ll do me for my winks?”

“That’s so not what I said,” he laughed and threw more chips at me.

“Well since my winks are that good, maybe you should learn them and use them on Ruth,” I teased him.

“I can already do your winks perfectly, remember? Besides, I don’t need it to get her.”

“Oh really? So why haven’t you seduced her yet?”

“Because I respect her unavailability!”

I raised my eyebrows. “With that dumb jock? You know you’ll be doing her a favour, don’t ya?”

Pat sighed. “I swear you’re natural enemies with half the living things on Earth.”

“Can’t help it if I see faults in everyone and everything.”

“We have a name for people like you. Cynic.”

I grinned at my best friend. “Thanks, but lets stick to ‘best buddy’.” My best friend laughed and rolled his eyes. “Anyway, Riley’s an asshole,” I told him.

“Did he rough you up or something?”

“’course not. He wouldn’t still be standing if he did. It’s just that he mocks and pushes some of the guys around in the locker room after football practise.”

My best friend stopped eating and looked straight at me. “Did he do anything to you?”

I frowned at him. “You know me better than that — I can take care of myself.”

“Of course,” Pat looked relieved. “At least I don’t have to go around bashing jocks and stealing their girlfriends.”

“You’d do that? Damn, maybe I should have said yes after all,” I laughed and popped the rest of my lunch into my mouth.

Pat suddenly looked serious. “You know I’d beat anyone up who dares to mess with my best friend, don’t ya?”

I smiled at him. “Yeah I know. I’d do the same for mine.” Before I could stop myself, I winked at him. After a pause, we cracked up.

 * * *

“Hey, you’re from my school, aren’t ya. You know, Port Green High?” said the asshole jock in the next cage.

The cages were cramped, barely five feet in width and length. I can’t even lay down with my legs stretched. The floor was covered in straw and had the stench of piss and shit. Someone else must have been here before me. It was disgusting.

“Hey I’m talking to you!”

I shot the dumb jock a glare and I caught him flinching. “I heard you the first time,” I snapped. I tried to take a deep breath to cool down but ended up coughing from the stink instead. “Yeah we’re in the same school.”

“Finally we’re getting somewhere. I’m Riley.”

“I know who you are, quarterback.”

“Well?”

“Well what?”

“Well are you going to tell me your bloody name?”

“That’s none of your business, asshole.”

“Wait, how am I the asshole when I’ve been nothing but friendly?” he snapped.

I kicked the metal bars of the cage with my bare feet. “Dammit what kind of joke is this?” I shouted.

“Careful, don’t hurt your feet. The previous guy messed up his shoulder trying to break free.”

“What?” What the hell was that supposed to mean? “Is this some kind of reality TV prank? Well I’m not amused and you can bet I’ll press charges to whoever involved!” I yelled between the bars.

“I thought it was that at first, but I’ve been here for two days,” Riley simply said. He sounded almost emotionless. It was then I began to feel the gravity of my situation. If it was not a prank, then what was it?

“Two days? I saw you with Ruth during lunch the other day.”

“I was taken that night,” he told me. He looked at me. “No one noticed I was missing?”

I didn’t answer, instead, I asked him another question. “Earlier, you mentioned a guy who messed up his shoulder?”

He didn’t say anything for a moment. “There were two other guys before they dragged you in. We were all from Green High.”

I stared at him blankly. I wasn’t sure what to think. “Where are them now?”

The jock shrugged. “They took one out yesterday, and the other one today. Haven’t seen either of them since.”

“And all naked?”

“Yeah, freaked me out too.”

“Sick bastards,” I cussed.

He didn’t reply to that. Something about Riley didn’t fit, so I looked at him again. It was then I realised why. His body language told me he was afraid, but his eyes seemed vacant. I wasn’t sure what it meant, but somehow, it scared me.

“Riley,” I called him. He turned and looked at me. “What happened?” I asked.

He didn’t say anything, and before I could say anything else, I heard a sudden, loud and frightening scream. I jerked at the scream and knocked my head on the metal bars of the cage.

“Dammit what the hell was that?” I asked as I rubbed the back of my head. The scream came from around the corridor outside the cages.

Riley looked away and curled up. “That was the Green High guy who was here before you came,” he simply said.

 * * *

“It’s been awhile since we had sleepovers,” said Pat as he dropped his bag in my room.

“Yeah, my winks must have been real powerful,” I quipped. “It’s been what, since we were twelve?” I pulled out a spare mattress from my cupboard.

“Forget the mattress,” Pat jumped on my bed and laughed. “We didn’t use that when we were twelve.”

“Well I just want to make sure you’re comfortable and not squashed with me,” I said as I pushed the spare mattress back in. “I mean we’re seventeen and much bigger now.”

My best friend pulled his shirt over his head. “You have a queen–sized bed. I’m pretty sure we’ll fit in.”

I looked at his broad chest and narrow waist and whistled. “Swimming really did you good, damn,” I told Pat as I removed my shirt and tucked it in my drawer.

“Thanks,” he smiled and looked at me. “All the running and cycling are doing you good as well. You don’t mind if I slept in my boxers?”

“Go ahead, was about to ask anyway, sexy,” I winked at him.

He rolled his eyes and laughed. “Well, I’m gonna turn in now — long day tomorrow. History essay and bonfire. Man why did I ever agree to the bonfire,” Pat yawned and slipped under the blanket.

I smiled at my best friend. Because he could never say no to me, that was why. But I didn’t say it out loud. I climbed under the blanket and turned off the lights. It felt strange sleeping next to my best friend again.

“Night.”

“Night bud,” I replied and closed my eyes.

Before I knew it, the sunlight was on my face, and I was spooning my best friend. Pat’s blonde hair was practically in my face. I yawned and pulled my best friend towards me. I nuzzled his neck and let myself fall asleep again.

The next time I opened my eyes, I found myself staring up into my best friend’s eyes. He was on top of me and he was grinning. I felt my cheeks reddening when I realised I could practically feel the veins of his morning wood pressing against mine through our boxers.

“So the horny boy’s awake,” said Pat.

“Hey I’m not the one pushing our groins together.”

“You were humping me when I woke up. I’m glad I kept my boxers, or I could have lost my virginity to my best friend,” Pat laughed.

I felt myself colouring. “I didn’t!”

“Oh yes you did,” he replied almost huskily. He was looking at me strangely. “You did it like this,” Pat pushed his groin into me.

“Wha—” I breathed sharply. I could feel his hard nipples brushing across mine, and the length of the veins on his morning wood rubbing mine. “Pat!” I pushed him off me.

My best friend laughed at my reaction. “Still want to deny you’re horny?”

“And you’re damn flushed — I think you’re enjoying this too much,” I retaliated.

“Well it did feel good,” he winked at me.

I was lost for words at my best friend’s admission. During our many years of friendship, we have never been sexual with each other. I didn’t know what to say.

“Admit it, it felt good.”

“Pat, well yeah, but this is just weird.”

“How so?

“I dunno. I’s almost like we’re having sex.”

“We’re helping each other out. Come on, we’ve been best friends since forever. We both know that we’re gonna go to the bathroom and jack off anyway. Instead of pretending nothing’s going on, I rather we help each other out.”

“By having gay sex with each other?” I said.

“Pretty much, yeah. Well if you put it that way, it does sound weird,” Pat chuckled and climbed on top of me again. I couldn’t move away. “But we’re best friends, and we both need to get off. Dammit, stop being so homophobic and just enjoy this.”

I could feel Pat breathing on my neck as he ground our groins together, and then suddenly I felt our boxers being pushed down by his hand. I breathed hard and closed my eyes. Just helping each other out. Just helping each other out. Damn, it felt so damn good. I could feel his warm pre–cum lubricating our groins. I started to return his thrusts and our breaths started to labour.

“I’m getting close,” I heard Pat whisper.

The hotness of his veins was massaging mine, forming a hot slippery furnace around our groins. The hardness of his nipples was rubbing mine, making me feel like I’m losing myself. It was too much to take. Just helping each other out. I heard myself groaning. “Pat, I’m—” I couldn’t finish the sentence. Just helping each other out. Just helping each other out. I groaned loudly and thrust hard onto him as I came.

“Dammit, you’re so hot,” Pat mumbled and groaned louder than I did as he came. He held on to me tightly until it was all over. Then he rolled off me.

We laid there for a few minutes, not saying a word. I couldn’t believe it. I just had sex with Pat — a guy, my sworn brother, my best friend.

“I’m gonna wash up — we stink,” he said suddenly as he sat up. He looked at me. “You okay?”

I looked at him and noticed the worried look on his face. “I’m fine,” I said quickly. I must have said it too quickly because Pat started to scrunch his face up in guilt. “I enjoyed it,” I assured him and smiled.

He smiled at that and popped into the bathroom. Then I found myself thinking about what happened. What did it all mean? Just best friends helping each other out? I’ve had sex with girls before and so have Pat. Maybe not regularly, but we still did. But this was different to me. I’ve never felt so confused and unsure in my life before. I enjoyed sex with Pat more than I did with the girls. Dammit. When Pat stepped out of the bathroom, I quickly popped in the bathroom to wash up. I wasn’t ready to discuss what happened with Pat yet.

After washing up and getting dressed, I quickly headed to the kitchen for breakfast. “Bro’s gone for work,” I told Pat.

“I noticed,” he said as he grabbed a slice of bread and bit into them without any spread. He was the only person I knew who did that. “Samuel sure works early doesn’t he?”

“Yeah, he somehow got it in his head that he must pay for my college fees,” I said as I grabbed a slice of bread and the newspaper. My best friend must have noticed I was not ready to talk about what happened yet, so he let it go. I was thankful for that.

“You know, in some ways, I envy you having a brother you’re close to.”

“We only started getting close when we lost our parents, I doubt you’ll envy us,” I laughed while finishing up my breakfast and flipping to the next page in the newspaper. “Besides, being the single child, you’re real close to your parents aren’t ya?”

“I guess.”

I folded the newspaper and handed it Pat. “Well I’m gonna be late for practise. I’ll see ya at the bonfire?” It was the Saturday before the sports event and I had athlete training the whole day.

“Before that, at the Greek Cafe?”

“6pm for a quick dinner?”

“Sounds good.”

 * * *

“What are they doing to him?” I asked Riley. The screaming hasn’t stopped, and it felt like it was going on for hours — however, my internal clock knew that only a few minutes have passed.

“I don’t know. It happened to the other guy before this as well,” Riley said. After a pause, he continued. “I’m next.”

I didn’t know what to say to him, so I kept quiet.

“I searched every corner of my cage, I couldn’t find anything useful,” he said suddenly. “Can you search your cage? Please? Anything we can use as a tool.”

I nodded and began digging the hay at a corner. Riley’s right — we’re gonna need something that could be used as a weapon. Some of the hay were damp, obviously from someone else’s piss. But at that point of time, it didn’t seem to matter. I felt like my life was in danger.

“Hurry, please,” Riley urged.

Normally I would have snapped at anyone who tells me to hurry when I already am. But he sounded so desperate. “Dammit!” I kicked the hay. “Isn’t there anything at all?” The screaming in the corridors was still going on. Each minute the scream would get weaker. Eventually, it was reduced to whimpers. I started to shake. I vision was beginning to blur. This isn’t happening to me. Someone’s playing a sick joke on me.

I felt someone jerking my arm. “Stay with me!” I turned and saw that Riley had reached over between the bars and shook me back into my senses. “Please, I need you,” he said, his voice shaking. His eyes was mirroring the fear I was feeling.

I’ve never seen the quarterback so vulnerable before. “Sorry,” I apologised. I can’t afford to be weak. Not now. We’re depending on each other to maintain our sanity.

“You find anything?” he asked.

“Nothing in the hay,” I answered truthfully. “Is there anything outside the cages we can reach?”

“I can’t see anything useful within our reach.”

“There’s gotta be something,” I exasperated. I turned to the quarterback. “Who are them? Who are we up against?”

“I don’t know, they wear hoods and it’s too dark to make out their faces. Whenever they take one of us out, they put a sack over our heads so we can’t see where we’re going or who’s taking us.”

“Do they tie our hands together or something when they take us out?” I asked. It was then I realised that the screaming had stopped. I tried not to think of what could have happened to that guy.

“Yes, they tie our hands with small ropes behind our back, and they only take us out one at a time. Usually they return us here the first time. The second time ends with the screaming, and they never come back.”

“When will they come to take one of us out?”

“Soon. The last time, they took me right after the screaming ended.”

I looked at Riley at that. He had already been taken out once? This meant that if they took him out again, I would be hearing him scream in the corridors. I shivered at that thought. “What did they do when they took you out?”

“I’m not sure. They prodded me a lot. Then they rubbed some kind of oil into me. I was so freaked out, the way they were touching me, I thought they were gonna, you know. But they didn’t.”

“This is getting weirder by the minute.”

“Tell me about it. And they always come in fours when they take us. They were damn strong too, I couldn’t break free.”

“Too bad that all those training as the quarterback wasn’t enough,” I muttered.

“Not funny.”

“Sorry.”

“Wait,” Riley suddenly raised his hand. “They’re coming.”

It was then I heard it. The footsteps. Four hooded figures appeared from the corridors and walked towards us. I could see Riley shaking. “Don’t worry, they’re after me this time, remember?” I whispered to him.

He shook his head. “Either way, I have to be alone again,” he said.

“I’ll be back. You said so,” I assured him. We seemed to have formed a fragile system. Whenever one of us breaks down, the other will have to be strong and pull things together again.

The hooded men walked past Riley’s cage to mine. “Hands behind your back, against the cage,” one of the hooded man ordered with ropes in his hands. “Now.”

“Do as they say,” said Riley, looking straight into my eyes.

I placed my hands behind my back and leaned against the cage wall, allowing the hooded man to tie up my hands. I looked at Riley, and again, he was looking straight into my eyes. He was trying to tell me something, I know it. I felt the bonds on my hands being tightened uncomfortably. Then the hooded man pushed me away of the cage wall. I turned around just in time to see the hooded man pull out a key from one of his pockets and unlocking the cage door with it.

“The smell of metal stinks,” Riley complained suddenly.

“Shut up,” warned a large–framed hooded man.

The hooded man pulled me out and threw a sack over my head, and my world became pitch black. He then started to yank me around barefooted and naked, towards the direction I remembered to be the corridor. I felt my heart pounding hard against my chest, threatening to burst out. I tried to remember as much as I could during my blind journey — every turn I made, every smell, and every ambience in each step I was directed to walk. At one point, there was something that caught my attention. A breeze of wind carrying the smell of fresh air with a hint of sawdust.

That’s it! That’s my escape route. The entire journey smelled stale, except for that one part. There must be a window or a door to allow a breeze from the outside. The sawdust must have meant something too. Furniture factory? Then I caught another smell — salt. The smell of sea. We’re by the ocean in a factory? No, can’t be, salty air rusts the machines — they wouldn’t build a furniture factory here. Construction site, maybe? Or a shipyard. Maybe brand new warehouses by the docks? Where the hell am I?

Eventually, we stopped walking. The smell of metal was very strong then. I was suddenly reminded by Riley’s message. Something about metal stinks. Someone began prodding and poking me with their fingers, as if examining the firmness of my muscles. Then someone began massaging some kind of oil into my skin, starting from my feet. The oil scented strongly of spices, overpowering even the prominent smell of metal. When the hands reached my groin, I wanted to kick the hand away, but then I remembered what Riley had said and decided to not do anything. As he said, the hands didn’t stay long on my groin.

As I tilted my head back to give the hands access to my neck, I suddenly realised that I could reach the sack on my head and pull it off if I tilted my head back enough. Again, Riley’s words rang in my head. ‘The smell of metal stinks’. He must have wanted me to look for tools. Something we could use to get out. The smell of metal. Dammit, the scent of the oil is interfering with my sense of smell. But at least I know there are plenty of metal in this room. I had to sneak something into my hands before I am sent back to the cages.

Just as I thought that, someone started to push me back into towards the direction I came from. I didn’t have much time left, so I decided all or nothing. I quickly tilted my head back, stretched my arms up and pulled the sack off my head. With the short moment of vision I have, I managed to see two surprised hooded men behind me and two more in front of me, making a grab at me. I ducked under and jumped out between them. When I stood up, I expected to see something metallic on the table in front of me, and then I saw how mistaken I was. The smell of metal was not metal. It was blood. Lots of blood. I can see the rib cage of an animal sticking out of the pool of blood. But it was better than nothing. I spun around and broke off the tip of one of the ribs while scanning the rest of the room.

“Oh my god,” I muttered when I finally realised what I was seeing in front of me. “Oh my god.” I froze — my mind just stopped functioning.

One of the hooded man threw the sack back over my head and dragged me away from what I was looking at.

“Oh my god,” I was muttering. I had no control over my mind. “Oh my god.” I heard myself say over and over again as I was led back to the cages.

 * * *

“Hey Pat,” said a sweet voice.

We turned around and saw Ruth (aka Pat’s crush) smiling at us. “Oh, Ruth, hey,” said my best friend. “How’s the bonfire?” Pat was grinning stupidly at Ruth. I had to hold back from laughing.

“It’s pretty nice,” she answered. “Have you seen Riley?”

“Your boyfriend?” I asked and raised my eyebrow. “Nope, sorry.”

She frowned worriedly. “He hasn’t returned any of my calls since last night, and he was meant to come here with me today.”

“He probably ditched you for another girl,” I said a little too honestly.

“He’s not like that!” she scowled at me. Funny thing that my best friend was scowling at me too.

“Now that you mention it,” Pat said with his fingers on his chin. “I haven’t seen him today, sorry”

“Thanks guys,” thanked Ruth. With that she left.

When Ruth was out of sight, I punched Pat on his shoulder. “What the hell was that?” I demanded.

“What?” he looked at me puzzled.

“Riley ditched Ruth today and you just sent her away? Go get Ruth and do something you idiot,” I laughed and slapped the side of his head.

“Look, enough!” Pat suddenly snapped. “Stop trying to set me up with anyone. I can do it on my own!”

Taken aback, I lost my smile and looked at him. “Sorry,” I said softly. “I only wanted to help.”

He looked away for a moment, then turned and looked at me. “Look, I want to talk about what happened this morning—”

I quickly turned away. “Hey I’m hungry—”

“Stop trying to change the damn subject!” Pat raised his voice.

Surprised, I yelled back at him. “Why the hell are you shouting at me for?”

“Are you just gonna pretend nothing happened?” my best friend’s voice was strained. He was looking straight into my eyes, demanding my answer.

“No, I—” I breathed deeply and exhaled. “I just need more time okay?”

Pat looked away. “Okay,” he said tightly. “I’ll see you tomorrow, hopefully that’s enough time for you,” he said and walked away.

“Pat, wait, come on,” I called, but he kept walking.

We haven’t fought ever since we were fifteen, when we fell for the same girl. I remembered that that was one of the most bitter days of my life. At that time, we both decided to give up on that girl to save our friendship, without realising the other had decided to do the exactly the same thing. But this time it was different. I didn’t even understand why we were fighting. How could I fix something when I didn’t even know what the problem was?

Feeling too weary to do anything, I cursed myself for suggesting the sleepover to Pat, and for convincing him to come to the bonfire. Deciding that the bonfire had nothing more to offer, I went home. Without even bothering to change, I fell on my bed and let myself sleep.

I was rudely woken up in the morning when someone kicked me. I sleepily looked up at my aggressor and saw my brother.

“Saaaam,” I whined. “What was that for?”

“Lazy ass, I was practically shouting to wake you,” Samuel passed me the cordless phone. “Someone’s asking for you.”

“Oh, thanks,” I grabbed the phone from Sam and put it to my ear. “I’m speaking,” I said.

“Hello I’m–Speaking. You know who’s on the line?” said a woman’s voice.

“Oh, uh, hello Mrs Herrington,” I laughed. “Sorry about that. What can I do for my sworn brother’s mother today?” She was Pat’s mother. She had been like a mother to me since Sam and I lost our parents.

“Well dear, you can tell your sworn brother that his mother only gave him permission to stay over the one night, and that he should have called last night if there were any changes in that arrangement.”

“What?”

“And he’s also grounded for the week for breaking the house rules. Although, you can come and visit us anytime, dear. It has been awhile since you and Sam came over.”

“Wait—”

“Oh and I want my son back home within two hours or he’s grounded for another week.”

“Mrs Herrington—” I felt my heart stop. “Patrick didn’t come home with me last night.”

The silence over the phone was deafening. “Are you telling me my son is missing?”

I didn’t know what to say. I felt my hands shaking and my voice began to tremble. “You’re pulling my leg, aren’t you? Pat put you up to this?”

“I will never joke about this,” she snapped at me.

“W–we got into a fight last night. We went our separate ways, I assumed he went home,” I told her. I never felt so afraid in my life. Did something happen to Pat?

“Calm down, dear. I’ll make some calls. He’s probably with someone else,” she said gently.

“Can you call me when you find him?”

“Of course, dear,” she said and hung up.

I looked up and saw Sam staring at me.

“Is Pat in trouble?” he asked and sat next to me on my bed.

I reached for my brother’s hand. “Mrs Herrington thinks he could be staying over with someone else.”

“But you don’t think so?”

“It’s not like him,” I said and paused for a moment. “He would have called his mom.”

 * * *

I heard Riley’s voice in the background. I couldn’t move or say anything. The hooded men had dumped me back into my cage, and I hadn’t budged from the spot they had left me. My mind was spinning and I could barely see anything around me.

Then I felt a pair of hands grabbing my shoulders. I violently jerked away from the hands and crashed onto the cage bars.

“Look at me,” I heard Riley plead. “Dammit look at me!”

I felt a numbing pain on my shoulders but it didn’t seem to matter. I was lost in my own mind.

“Gary!”

I looked up at Riley.

“Tell me,” he reached out between the bars and gently placed his hand on my arm. “What happened?”

He looked as if he had seen ghost, and yet, he was determined to appear strong as he comforted me through the bars. But he couldn’t fool anyone — his eyes was betraying his fear.

“Please, talk to me,” he begged.

“It was Pat,” I suddenly heard myself say.

Riley waited patiently for me to continue.

“They strapped him down on a large table,” I felt myself shaking. “There was blood everywhere.”

His face turned white. “Is he...?”

“His arms and legs were already gone,” I felt myself feeling sick.

I could see his eyes widen. I could feel his hands shaking on my arm. My cheeks were wet with my tears.

“He’s dead, Riley. He was eaten alive,” I finally said. I turned aside and threw up everything I had.

 * * *