Realistic or Modern Gone But Not Forgotten

[Jupiter]

Eddie let out a deep sigh of relief. He'd been to gigs before, with Milo, god he hadn't thought about Milo in days. He had been to gigs with him though, he knew what it was like, this ringing, how hard it was to fall asleep listening to it. God. He couldn't even hear his own breathing anymore, let alone get the song out of his head. He looked over at Lucas, then at the others, nodding at them. Bill was bright red in the face, his anger clear.

That was going to make what happened next even worse.

When the bag was tossed in, Elizabeth looked at it before looking at the others, and was the first one to make a move to the bag, made of a burlap sack type material. She opened it, and pulled out pillow after pillow, stopping at three. "There are only three..." She gulped, and looked around. "It's like the bowls again, isn't it?"

"I should get-" Bill started.

"Lucas should get one." Eddie interrupted. "He's only a kid."

Sarah nodded. "I'd feel bad having a pillow if Lucas didn't."

"Agreed." Elizabeth mumbled. "And Eddie."

Eddie shrugged his shoulders. "No, I don't think so. I don't mind not having one..." He trailed off, and then held up a finger, signalling to wait while a thought popped into his head. "If you put it this way, you might be able to keep the burlap sack and make that into a pillow, which means there's four, although one is slightly less comfortable. I mean..." Eddie walked over to the pillows and looked at them. "They're regular pillows. We could attempt to share them, two to a pillow, but that sort of relies on how close we don't mind getting to each other." Eddie stated.

"I don't mind sharing." There seemed to be a chorus of agreement, at least from my lot, but Bill had his face slightly scrunched up in disagreement. Selfishness, however, would not get him anywhere.

"There's eight of us, if we can share the pillows we will all have at least a slight bit more comfort, depending on the sack situation. If he takes it away, we can't use that to make a pillow." Eddie gulped.

 

[DrTrollinski]

That right there was the point of this game. Kid sympathy. It was going to play a big part in things. It was the bargaining chip. The general rule of dire situations was things like 'kids eat first' or 'kids get the warmest clothes' or 'kids get the most sleep out of all of us', 'kids never keep watch' - the list goes on. How long would that keep up in this group of misfits? Who knows, right? It could only go on for so long before someone said "hold the fucking phone". But let's hope that that doesn't happen too soon.

After all, Lucas is only a little kid.

Weak. Defenseless.

Vulnerable. An easy target. An easy decision.

Let's just hope it doesn't come down to that.

"I have to agree." Riley nodded, too. "Kids get one. Eddie, that means you as well. If we have to share pillows, sure, but you get to have one the first night. You've taken a lot of gambles for us and you've helped keep things cool. It's only fair." He said.

James nodded, "I'm fine with sharing. Just make sure Lucas gets one."

"Mhm, I'm down with that." Melissa agreed. She gave Lucas a small wave and flashed him a smile, and he gave a weak smile in return. "We're all friends here. Sharing the other two won't hurt anyone. We all get at least one good night's sleep every couple of days that way, don't we?" She said.

"Yup." Riley leaned back against the wall. "I'm used to no pillow anyway. Perks of backpacking. You take what you can get when you can get it."

The speakers crackled.

"Oh, shit, not again." Riley covered his ears.

But it wasn't music this time.

"Now that you've all arrived, I think it's time I formally introduce myself. I am Alpha and Omega. The beginning and the end." A voice said. "Many of you do not know why you are here, but, many of you also do. I'm sure all of you can find a reason - whether or not you decide to share that is down to you. The way this is going to work is you do what I say, when I say it. If you don't play ball, I draw a random card for you all to see. Metaphorically speaking. Refusal to take part will only end in more suffering, so you keep that in mind." He said. "You're a group of people with different skills, backgrounds, and secrets. All of those will play a vital part on whether or not freedom stays as an illusion."

"You may all get out of here."

"Or you may all die."

"Maybe some will win, some will lose. How this ends is in your hands." The voice said, "As time progresses, I will reveal something about everyone. I will not say who it is, but you'll have to figure that out. Because as it goes, the truth is an ugly thing. And you are all ugly people in one way or another." He said. "You now know that you've been specially picked, I'm sure, so don't play dumb. You are all here because you either need to be, or deserve to be."

Silence.

"Good luck."

The speakers crackled again, and that was it.

Riley slowly looked at everyone in silence.

 

[Jupiter]

"No, no. I want everyone to get a pillow. Lucas and I are only small, if you're insistent on giving us a pillow each, which thank you by the way, I know it's a really hard choice... If you want us to have a pillow each, we can share pillows. We're both not exactly gigantic, if we sleep back to back we get one half of the pillow each, if we can even do much sleeping." Eddie nodded. "I think we all deserve at least one night even if it's only with half a pillow..."

"We can talk about this later on, I mean I doubt any of us are going to go to sleep so soon with that ringing in our ears anyway." Bill reasoned. "But if we have to share, who are we going to share with? Some of us are bigger than others, surely it would do good to do a girl boy pairing, that way the body shapes and sizes compliment and sharing is easier, right?"

Eddie would have groaned if he didn't slightly agree that it would probably be easier than two large men sharing a pillow. "Well... It's not up to me, it's up to everyone else. If we do share pillows out, if we all share a pillow, then it's up to you. Lucas, would you mind sharing a pillow? See, I want to try and make sure everyone has something. If you don't want to, it's okay."

He waited for a response, but then... The announcement.

After that, Eddie figured that people were going to have a hard time sleeping anyway, even though there wasn't much else that they could do with their time.

Ugly secrets?

Eddie glanced around, and even at Lucas. No... He could believe it about the others, surely there was something that they had done that got them put here, of course it didn't warrant them deserving this torture, did it? Eddie didn't know. But... He hadn't done anything, had he? Was he here because of something his father did? Was he there because of something to do with Milo, or... God, he didn't know. Why could he possibly be here? He supposed he had to wait for a relevant hint for that.

Not that he wanted to tell people about his father. God, if these people were criminals... What would they do to the son of a member of the FBI?

But... A pressing concern was how could Lucas be guilty of anything?

He shook it from his head. The seed of distrust had been planted. Everyone was thinking the same things.

He didn't know what to say, and instead of his usual ability to try and offer some kind of support and better feeling into the group, some kind of decipherment, Eddie had nothing.

"I guess we have to figure out if we need to be or deserve to be." Bill spat.

"I don't think anyone deserves to be here!" Sarah sobbed out, and Elizabeth put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her.

"You heard the guy!" Bill stood up, beginning to pace the room.

"How can a child need or deserve to be here though? Look at those two, they're not even old enough to do anything yet!" Elizabeth gestured to Eddie and Lucas.

"I don't know. Maybe Eddie sells himself for drugs, how would we know? Maybe Lucas is some kind of child psychopath?" Bill turned to the two of them. "What kind of people are we messed up with now..."

"Hey!" Eddie barked. "Calm down!"

"You know this is what he wants, right?" Sarah coughed, her eyes wide. "For us to not trust each other! He probably gets off on it..."

 

[DrTrollinski]

"We don't need to do this." Riley said.

Lucas did indeed cower when Bill flared up. He cowered behind Eddie as a response. He didn't want to believe that he was some sort of child psychopath, and now the bond had been made. Eddie had stepped in and looked out for him, made sure that they could get a pillow. He didn't know what to think of this whole situation. He hated it here but he at least had a few people that were on his side.

"We can't run on speculation here." James shook his head, "It's not going to work." He said, "If we start speculating, we're going to make assumptions about people that are wrong. And we can all assume that everyone in this room is a murderer right now. It could be something trivial. If a kid's here, then some of the things might be really minor." He said, "Lucas, you ever done something that was 'against the rules', or anything? No hard feelings."

Lucas looked around, nervously.

"I... I cheated on a test one." He said, shakily.

"See, guys?" James looked around again. "He cheated on a test. That's hardly a crime punishable by death." He said. "That's just my point. Minor things. Hell, one of us might be here because we stole ten dollars out of a wallet someone dropped. We've all done things like that. Maybe we hit a car while we were driving and drove off, maybe we- maybe we spent a night in jail for being too drunk? I'm sure some of us have done that. I certainly have."

"Fair enough." Riley. "Yeah, yeah, makes sense. No need to stress." He said.

Melissa nodded a few times. "Sure..." She said, "I can work with that. Let's not give this bastard what he wants. If he wants us to fight he's going to have to try harder than that." He said. "Eddie and Lucas can share a pillow. That can't hurt, right?" She asked.

Lucas tugged at Eddie's shirt.

"Do we get food here?" He squeaked. "I'm hungry..."

And that was challenge two. Kids can be a handful when they're hungry.

 

[Jupiter]

Eddie, with Lucas behind him, was glad that the others stepped up to intervene with Bill's bullshit. He knew that Bill was a big problem, it had the potential, he believed, to get so much worse. He wondered what it was that the guy wanted everyone to do, what he wanted people to obey. A small, sick part of him had a moment where he hoped, slightly, for something horrible to happen to Bill.

He shoved that down. Despite Bill's willingness to jump to conclusions, and his selfishness, Eddie didn't want him to suffer too much, not yet at least. He just had to shove the feelings he had about him away, because they were all on the same side at this moment in time. They just handled things differently, he supposed.

"Maybe it is something trivial. Maybe the guy wants us to believe that we've all done something horrible to deserve being here." Elizabeth agreed. "Let's not jump to conclusions."

Sarah calmed down slightly at the thought of that, pressed up in her corner and glancing around.

Food.

God, she wished they could eat soon. It always felt like eternities between meals.

"We... We usually do, in the mornings. It's not very nice." Eddie admitted, and he turned around and knelt down besides Lucas, beckoning for him to sit down with him. "There's no use us all getting worked up and wasting whatever energy we have. Fighting and arguing is going to make an already unpleasant situation even worse, so..."

Bill huffed a bit before he sat down again.

"So who shares pillows with who, if we are all sharing, plus the sack?" Eddie brought up again. "I think... We should focus on that first. Focus on the things at hand for now, until he reveals some bigger picture, we're all still only people who just want food and sleep."

"And to get out." Sarah mumbled.

"I think he's thinking of the realistic things we can have, right now." Bill sighed.

"So, me and Lucas."

He could guarantee that no one was going to want to share with Bill.

 

[DrTrollinski]

"Oh." Lucas said.

The food wasn't nice. Damn.

"The food they gave me at the Chinese man's house was nice." He gulped, "But if it's not that nice here I guess that's okay. I'll... Just deal with it, I guess." He said.

That's what kids are good at, too. Some of them cry over shit, others? They take it in their stride and just do what they can to cope. He was going to be clinging to Eddie for a while. He went and sat down with him when he was prompted to, though. He was bunking with him, it seemed, so they had to get to know each other.

Lucas couldn't remember the last time he shared a pillow with someone.

Eh.

Oh well.

"Melissa, you want to buddy up with me?" Riley asked. "I don't snore much."

"Sure." She shrugged, "Or me and one of the girls. Hold a vote." She said. And she just had to address it.

"Who's going to go with Bill?" She asked.

 

[Jupiter]

A few people looked between themselves when they asked about who would go with Bill.

Elizabeth wondered if Bill could have the burlap sack and three people could share a pillow. She supposed not. "I'll go with Bill." She sighed. Bill looked both disappointed and happy at the same time. Perhaps disappointed because he was the one person no one wanted to share with, and perhaps happy because Elizabeth was quite the looker, and was wearing nothing but revealing clothes. Elizabeth, on the other hand, was only disappointed.

"If we go boy girl, like I said, one of us will always be smaller and be able to accommodate more pillow sharing." Bill smiled.

Sarah sighed. "James, looks like it's me and you." She gulped.

"I figure this is at least worth a try for a night. The worst that can happen is we end up sleeping without the pillow by rolling to the side, and a few of us are going to end up that way without trying this. If it doesn't work, then we can just alternate who gets to sleep with the pillow." Eddie shrugged his shoulders. The pillows were passed out to the people who would be sharing, but no one, or at least Elizabeth, Eddie, Sarah and Bill didn't make a move to go to sleep just yet.

No, they had new meat.

Putting it one way.

Eddie looked at Lucas. "So... Where are you from, Lucas?"

 

[DrTrollinski]

"I think we've got a pretty solid plan." Riley nodded. "I know it's not the best right now, but who knows what might happen, right?" He asked. "We can all try this out, swap with other people, see what works best. We can manage this, don't worry." He nodded. He leaned back against the wall again. "Hey, Luke. Was it dark out when you got here?" He asked.

"Um..." He squeaked, "Yeah, sorta'."

"Okay. Night time." He nodded, "Time to sleep soon enough, then... But for now, I guess we can wait and see if there's anything else planned for the night. You never know." He shrugged. He didn't want to imagine that the psycho had more in store for them, but... They'd have to wait and see, he supposed.

Lucas looked back to Eddie and crossed his legs, "Um, well, I'm from Colorado." He said, "Aren't we all from Colorado?" He asked, looking around them all. "Except you. You're Australian." He smiled a tiny bit as he looked at Riley.

"Kid's going places." Riley chuckled.

Lucas looked back to Eddie, "But yeah, aren't we... All from the same place? I mean, we're all together and all, so, we must be, right?"

You're a long way from home, kid.

He had another look around. He frowned at their living quarters. He looked at Eddie, then pointed at the bathroom stalls. The ones that were doorless and just... Exposed and basic.

"Is... That really what we gotta' use?" He asked. "Like, with no doors?" He asked.

 

[Jupiter]

Eddie's smile faltered slightly when he realised the kid thought he was still close to home. He supposed, or maybe he thought that the kid might have not realised how long they'd been driving, or such. He gulped and shook his head. "No... I don't know if I've ever been to Colorado. I... I'm from Washington." Eddie explained.

"Las Vegas." Elizabeth sighed.

"New York." Bill added.

"Me and Melissa are both from _____." Sarah smiled. "We arrived together, we think it's because we're from the same city."

"And I think that that's one of the variables this guy wants to test. You came together, so you have a bond, you were both there on your first night which means you have this person that you have a connection with, whereas we were all alone and then thrown into here." Eddie pointed at Sarah, and Sarah hid her face behind her hair. "Don't worry, it's not your faults. It's him who wants to fuck with us and test things, like throwing a child into the mix."

"Can you stop with this experiment theory?" Bill complained.

"Why? It's possible!" Eddie looked to him, and Elizabeth clapped her hands together.

"Alright, guys, we don't need another noise complaint." She reminded. "Besides. We're all tired, and hungry, so if we want to talk about these things, we should talk about them when we've had some rest."

Eddie sighed and nodded. He still believed in his theory, he would until something did add up to it, and then he'd reassess. In here, you didn't have much else to do other than to think. He looked to Lucas when he spoke again. "Yeah, sadly." Come on, make it happier. "It's alright, we'll all turn around and cover our ears." He smiled at him. "And if you need to go, don't hold it, it'll only make you uncomfortable, and I don't think you want that on top of being here... We'll all go when we need to go, and we won't make a spectacle out of it if you do."

He remembered very vividly the fear of going to the bathroom he had when he was younger. Especially around people he didn't know. It was embarrassing, but sadly in this instance it was unavoidable.

 

[DrTrollinski]

Lucas looked around them all.

Oh.

They were from all over the place. That was saddening. They could see the moment he realized that maybe, just maybe, he was a long way from home. "But... Vegas is close to Colorado, right? Sorta'?" He asked. "Maybe... Maybe we're all in Colorado, or all in Vegas. So... That might mean... That might mean by parents could find us pretty easy, I bet, so that way..." He looked around them all. Some of the adults (at least of my guys) didn't look all that hopeful. That sort of got the picture across, really. It sucked, but that's the way it was.

He looked back to the stalls and shook his head. "No, I'm okay. I was just wondering." He shrugged, "But thanks... I guess." He nodded again.

Riley looked over them all.

It was going to be a long night, and honestly, he was terrified as to what the new day might hold. It could be any level of horrific and they'd just have to deal with it, wouldn't they? He couldn't say he was looking forward to that one, though.

Now they were all here, it could only be downhill. And they thought loud music and less food was bad.

Riley set himself back and shut his eyes, sighing to himself. "We'll discuss theories more tomorrow." He said. "Whenever tomorrow is, I mean." He said.

At least they knew it was night time, thanks to Lucas.

Lucas looked at Eddie.

He didn't know if he was really going to sleep tonight.

"Is it safe to sleep in here?" He whispered to him, hugging his knees up close to his chest. "Maybe if we wait up a little longer, someone might find us and let us out. If we're... If we're all asleep we won't... Know if they're here." He said, and eventually, he accepted defeat and set his head on top of his knees, looking at the floor.

 

[Jupiter]

"I... It's safe. It's safe enough, at least so far it has been." Eddie didn't know how long he'd be able to have the energy to look after this child. Part of him was already annoyed that he'd been thrown into the mix, some selfish, deep part in him knew that now it would always be Lucas first. That fight for survival, that little piece, knew now that it would be that much harder. And he didn't owe anything to this kid.

But the actual part of himself, the Eddie part, knew that this boy was someone he was going to look after, the same way he did it all at school. God, how tiring that was sometimes, how painful. The amount of beatings he took from bullies for protecting someone every day, the amount of bruises. Sometimes it got tiring, even if sometimes that was what he wanted.

Eddie knew that looking after this kid could potentially mean a lot more than just getting bruises.

But he'd do it. Until he couldn't anymore.

God, that was a hard thought.

"I wouldn't count on it. So far we haven't been found. Maybe one day we will, but we're not deaf in here. We can hear footsteps if we listen, so we wouldn't not hear someone come in. We'll know they're there." He sighed. "I think we should just get some rest though. I... I have a feeling we'll need it."

 

[DrTrollinski]

It was going to be hard, Eddie. I won't deny that in the slightest. It's going to annoy you beyond all extremes, but try and stick with it, don't forget who you are. Remember that he's just a little kid. He's not really capable of protecting himself or sticking his neck out to make big decisions. Kids crack under pressure, and I don't know about you, but a crying kid is a lot harder to deal with than a scared or hungry one. No one promised it to be an easy thing to deal with, but come on, don't give up. Your dad believes in you no matter how miserable he may be right now. He hasn't given up just yet.

But you have no way of knowing that.

So have fun.

"Oh, okay." He nodded. It wasn't the best news to hear, but, it was definitely better than being lied to, in the long run. "Well as long as we can hear things I suppose that's okay."

"You'll be fine with us here, kid, don't worry." Riley murmured. He shut his eyes again.

Lucas nodded, quietly.

He laid down and took up one half of the pillow, as it was discussed. "Well, um... Goodnight, Eddie." He said. ".. Sleep well."

It was going to be a long night. But he'd do his best to go to sleep, too.

--

Meanwhile back at the house, even though Marc invited them back for food and drink, he knew that a lot of them were eventually going o have to go home anyway. There wasn't enough room for everyone and he was sure they had other things to be doing. That was the assumption he was going to make, anyway. Not that it mattered too much. After forcing down some food he took to drinking. It wasn't casual drinking, either. It was heavy drinking. He could knock back the scotch and no one was really going to complain, were they? There was nothing more they could do for tonight. They'd seen everything. Continuing to dig after all the information they'd gotten wouldn't leave them time to process it and figure it out.

Now they just had to wait.

Not for long. But for a little while, at the very least.

Now? He was sat upstairs in his room, on a chair (not lying in bed), watching home videos. He had a lot from back when Eddie was a kid. He had them from all throughout his life. He'd watched a few already, the most memorable. Now they were approaching the year where mom died, but, he was still a few videos away from where she stopped appearing in them. He'd bask in the moment for a while.

Home videos. The only place his family would ever be complete again. It was a sad thing, really.

 

[Jupiter]

Eddie stared up at the ceiling, before turning onto his side and instead staring at the wall. He was still impressed that he managed to sleep in this place. The adrenaline that pumped through his veins when he was faced with danger always died down to a numb hazy feeling of tiredness. Without the adrenaline that seemed to happen at least once a day, when food was brought, or when a new person was held captive, he would feel numb and hazy always.

It wasn't a feeling he liked.

It was something slightly reminiscent of a lazy Sunday afternoon, just without the knowledge that tomorrow life would go back to normal. He felt trapped in an eternity of Sunday's, doomed to live them forever.

-

Home.

Years ago.

Things were innocent then.

He was 13, the only worry was mom was sick but he didn’t quite fully grasp yet that she was dying. Milo lived across the road, they played video games all evening. The family dynamic was still there.

No one was in danger.

Eddie, in this particular scene, was looking to his father and asking him, “put the camera away!” Laughing, holding his hands up to his face. For sake of argument, let’s suggest that this took place on a warm summer day, having a picnic out in the very park that Eddie would later come with Milo, and be last seen. He was sat with his mother, looking to his father.

God, back then, things were so easy. He wasn’t ever afraid.

He didn’t have to be.

 

[DrTrollinski]

Faye was sat on the grass and just taking it easy. She had been taking it easy a lot recently back then - it would all dawn on Eddie soon enough but for now he could be happy with how things were. He didn't need to know how bad things were really getting or how fast things were really spreading.

In recent days Marc had hugged his wife a lot longer and held her hand much longer. Maybe Eddie noticed it. Marc never knew if he did. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know. He just wanted his son to be okay- this was his family and he was going to make sure it stayed as pure as it could until the day the family broke.

Which would sadly be quite soon.

He laughed as he pointed the camera at Eddie and zoomed it in as much as he could.

"Turn it off? Why would I go and do a thing like that?" He asked.

He ran at him and grabbed one of his wrists, forcing his arm down playfully. "Come on. Give me a nice smile. You've got a face for a reason so you may as well put it to good use." He said.

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way." He quickly poked him in the stomach.

 

[Jupiter]

Eddie never noticed. He was young, he was carefree. He was a child. Thirteen is so young, so innocent and so... Oblivious. But the good kind, in a way. Oblivious to dangers but just starting to grasp that bad things happened in the world, but it never happened to you. It was the kind of oblivious where it only mattered if somehow it was you, and soon things would matter. Soon he'd lose half of his world, and soon after that... In that little moment of time he'd lose his other half too.

But for now, in this bliss, this breath of fresh air that Eddie remembered now as he looked up at the ceiling of the place he now considered a cell, he was oblivious.

"I've got a face so I can give you this." Eddie laughed, and he pulled the most hideous face he could, distorting his face and using his hands to pull at certain areas, pulling flesh so playfully that the putrid future seemed perfectly far away in comparison. Playfulness, so sweet and clean. "And this!" He pulled another face, and then struggled his arm free so that he could poke his stomach back. "Why don't you give me the camera and we can see how pretty you smile!"

 

[DrTrollinski]

"Oh, come on now." Marc said.

The days where life was much simpler.

He looped his arm back around him and this time swept his legs from beneath his feet by using a kick sweep of his own leg. He made sure he didn't get hurt, though, and he gradually eased him to the ground before he looped one leg over his waist and sat there (obviously not directly on top of him. It would hurt if he did that) - he just wanted to pin him there.

He handed the camera off to fade. "You'll wanna' get this all on video." He said.

He looked down at Eddie.

"If you're not gonna' give us a nice smile, then punishments have to be handed out." He said, and he delivered a quick poke to his left side, and then over to the other as soon as he recoiled on the first one. "Are you sure you don't want a normal family video?" He asked. Poke. "Are you sure you're sure?"

 

[Jupiter]

"Stop! Stop! Stop!" Eddie was laughing hysterically with each poke, tears squeezing from his eyes and his face a bright red. "Oh my god, please! I submit! I'll have a normal vi-vi-video!" He laughed.

He tried to wrestle his father off him, but a thirteen year old against a grown man was sadly no match. Did this predict the future? Not being able to wrestle him off, the man in the future? None of that was in his eyes though. None of that was there, right now all that was happening was the family moment, caught on camera forever, an innocent bliss.

"I can't s-s-smile without you stoping poking me-eeeee!" He laughed, and tried again to push away.

In comparison to now, the boy laying on a floor, trapped, prisoner, staring up at a cold ceiling, remembering but not quite seeing. Remembering the last time he remembered that family life, memories slipping further and further away. He'd cling to them, yes, but all memories from before his mother died were a distant blur. And the ones that came after, he remembered that they felt bleak in comparison, but they were all he had.

At least Marc could watch these now.

Eddie stared up at the ceiling and he tried to watch them in his head, but the grey was too present, the ceiling much too close, the breathing much too short. Suffocating.

"I'm suffocating! Get off!" Eddie, thirteen again, laughed out loud one last time.

 

[DrTrollinski]

Tomorrow the truly fucked up trials would be starting. Tomorrow it was going to be a matter of survival - not just sharing food and pillows and blankets. It would be far more than that tomorrow. They would have to giveth and taketh, but mostly giveth.

That was the scary part of all of it, and it was something that none of them saw coming.

At the end of the day, who were the ones that would walk out? The ones most willing to do what it takes to survive, simply put.

Anyone who got close to saving them would most definitely end up dead. It would be something of the kind. No one was letting anyone near this operation.

And tomorrow the real mind games would begin. You think this even compared to some of the things our joyful psychopath had in mind? Most definitely not, but, there was no time to really contemplate that. There was no time to really think about what would and wouldn't happen. Whenever it happened, they'd know. Now was just the time to get some rest.

...

"Oh, now you want a normal video?" He finally stopped poking him. He stopped. He sat there on top of him, though, and he looked at Faye. "Okay, right, get that camera ready, because we're going to get some father-son footage before you're in there." He said, and he climbed off of Eddie and pulled him up into a sitting position. He sat behind him and got him in a light headlock. "Even a photo if he doesn't want a video. This is a good one." He chuckled.

Home.

What even was home to Eddie anymore? Because whatever it was, it definitely wasn't this.

He was somewhere much darker.

 

[Jupiter]

As the video rolled on and the scene changed to a happier and less mock-violent one, the past played on the screen that Marc was watching. A lot of the people who were now involved in this investigation were bunking downstairs. Some people had driven a lot further out than they intended to be here and help someone like Marc, and some of them couldn't afford to put up in a hotel for too long. Some of them just wanted to stay staring at the case files to try and figure something out.

One of those people was Jones.

Archer was at home, with his family, taking nothing for granted after the day that he had had, but Jones... Jones was staring at the same notes in his notebook to try and make something add up. By the time he had got back to the house, Marc had already been upstairs. He'd been driving around for hours trying to piece things together, waiting at the park to see if someone returned to the scene, retracing the footsteps of the boy who was at the centre of this investigation.

He wondered, if there were really other victims, if people were looking for them in the same way as they were looking for him.

He looked from the book to the newly set up board that he'd purchased and leant against the wall of Marc's kitchen, pinned to it only a picture (one that Jones had printed out, not one of the family ones, no he'd hate to put a hole through the head of a picture that Marc had given him, even if only a pin) of Eddie, the park, and the girl who'd helped take him, and was now waiting to be taken somewhere else, somewhere safer, but never as happy as what she had before.

Jones wondered if Eddie was going to have to go into witness protection.

If they got him back.

He wondered if Marc wouldn't just kill everyone involved.

If they could even find who was involved.

Jones let out a sigh and and folded the cover of his book over, shutting it and retreating away from the table and, instead, up to where he knew Marc had retreated hours before. He listened at the door, wondering if it was too late to knock, too late to tell him what he'd found, all the things he'd heard her say... When he heard those happy childish voices, those nostalgic memories, Jones knew that the man behind the door wasn't going to be happy, but would he ever be without finding his son? And though he hated to be the bearer of what he felt might be bad news, or might just be a look into the way to get him back, he knew Marc needed to know. And... He needed advice, to tell the truth.

He'd backed himself into this corner, he'd found these things. And he needed to know where to go next.

He knocked lightly on the door. "Marc?"

 

[DrTrollinski]

Marc was practically in pieces. The deeper they went into this, the more he just wanted to give up. He knew that wasn't a good thing. He knew it was bad that he wanted to give in so easily but right now it felt like the only option. It felt like Eddie was already dead. And it hurt to say that - it was how he felt. Usually someone is dead within 3 hours of being taken. Days later... If they weren't dead they were probably wishing that they were. Either that or they were never going to be found, dead or alive.

America was a big fucking place. There was no chance they were ever going to find him. He could literally be anywhere. Marc specialised in finding people but he couldn't even find his own son. How the fuck was he meant to feel about that? There was no way anyone could ever offer him comfort, or at least that's how he felt. He felt like he didn't stand a chance.

These family videos were all he had left. He was all alone now. Eddie would live only through memories and it was just all fucked.

He heard a knock at the door. He looked over at it and soon walked to it. He opened it up and looked at... Jones. Jones of all people had been the one to come and find him drinking himself to death? Marc had friends... But after how hostile he'd been this was the last guy he was expecting company from.

"Come in. It's not like I'm doing anything." He whispered. He let him inside and he went and sat back down, reducing the volume of the video and just... Staring at it.

"This is one or those moments where you don't truly know what you've got until it's gone." He whispered, shakily. "I didn't realize how alive he made this house feel. I didn't see how much of a bright light he was in my life until it was too late." He gulped. "And now he's gone. He's gone and we don't know where he is or if he's dead or alive. We just don't know, do we? Everywhere we fucking turn it's just another mystery."

He shut his eyes and sipped his drink.

"My own son is the only person I haven't been able to find. Dead or alive."

 

[Jupiter]

What a mess. Jones’ eyes lingered on Marc for a moment before surveying the room around him, light filtering slightly through the curtains or blinds of the place, moon light. It was eerie.

When stepping into Eddie’s room he’d found a sense of life was left in there. It was left the exact way that he had left it that very morning, you could see every decision that led him to the door of his room for the last time, you could see the clothes he’d discarded and you could see the sense of temporary-ness that Eddie had regarded it with, he would be back later.

This room, however, was the epitome of mourning. Loss. Grievance. This room was permanence and sadness, every negative emotion merged into a pulsating ball of funk that couldn’t be removed from the chest, or the throat, of the person who stepped across the definitive threshold.

“I... I know you don’t want pity; but I’m sorry Marc.” He gulped. “I don’t want to look at this from statistical standpoints, I don’t want to say it’s understandable because that distances it from me and makes you feel more alone. But I... I do understand. I’ve felt it, I know it. It’s the worst feeling in the world. I...”

I think I felt better when I found out he was dead.

Jones shrugged off his intended words and instead glanced at the screen showing the boy in his more lively and of course, present, times.

“We can still find him. I... I have reason to believe that he’s alive, and will be for some time. He’s your son, for one, his sensibility and reasoning will have been ingrained into him from a young age, having grown up around what we do.” Jones reasoned. “But I have more reason... I- I spoke to the girl, who saw him last.”