How much?

Wake up

A/N

Okay guys mock week is officially over!! Woohoo! So here is the new chapter!! Fresh from my keyboard to you!!! Hope you enjoy this, the story will be coming to an end hopefully by the end of may if not before, but don't worry, there will be another story!!

Enjoy my lovelies!!

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Harding sat in his office, consumed by his grieving thoughts. It had been two days since the photo, and neither of the two men had heard anything from Patrick. He was a mess. The drugs were messing with him. His sight was blurred, his weighed a ton and swayed slightly, making him feel dizzy and nauseous. He pulled the blanket tighter around himself. His shirt clung to his sweaty body, and his trousers were barely able to stay on his waist, he hadn't eaten properly since all of this started.

'Wake up' The voices were back again, telling him to wake up, telling him they needed him and he had to wake up.

He shook his head to id the voices and the feeling of unease they brought with them. He blamed the drugs, and the endless cans of beer that littered his office. He can't remember drinking a single one of them, but they were there. So he must have.

Looking down he noticed the bin by his desk was half full of his stomach acid, he must have tried to throw up, but having not eaten he wasn't surprised that nothing came out. He stared at the vile yellow liquid long and hard, as if there was something in it he was missing, like something was hiding. His limp hand came crashing into the side of the bucket, sending its contents emptying out across the floor. There was nothing in it. He didn't know what he was expecting, but he was hoping for something.

Suddenly the phone started ringing. From all the poisons in his body the phone sounded distant and dull. There was a constant ringing in his ears that was now being pushed aside slightly by the abrupt sharp rings of the phone. He stared at it, his mouth gaping open, his body slightly hunched forwards and to the left with his hand still dangling off the side of the chair. He just stared at it, he didn't think, he didn't feel, he just cocked his head to the side and stared at the strange object on his desk, making the strange loud noises.

The office door swung open and the man came running in. Harding turned his gaze to him as he stumbled slightly in the bile, but carried on running towards the phone anyway. His suit was crumpled slightly where he had been wearing it for days. He didn't have any clean clothes in this house, so he was aware that he smelled slightly. But after everything he didn't care.

He picked up the phone when he came crashing into the desk, his palms making a loud noise on impact as he fumbled to get the phone off the receiver. 'Hello, Hello?!' He slammed the phone down cursing and pushing himself away from the desk. 'Stupid fucking companies trying to sell life insurance!' He kicked away a few cans and the bin that was on its side, a few remaining drops of bile splaying over his shoe and the clean parts of the hard wood floor. He turned to the detective, 'you're a mess! Look at you! All hopped up on drugs! You can't even lift your own head!' The detective was aware of something sliding over to him across the desk just as the door slammed from the man leaving the room.

Picking up the object he saw that it was an old photo of his and Scarlett, back when they were happy and did stuff again, back before all the money troubles and the drugs. His mind began to wander back to when they had one of their first arguments.

'Well what am i supposed to do huh? Wait

around for the debt collectors?!'

'You're supposed to trust me!'

'Trust you?! I don't even know you!'

Harding threw the photo across the room with all his might, he sat back in the chain and listened to the satisfying sound of the glass shattering and hitting the floor. He ws suddenly aware of how tired he was, how sick he felt. He didn't have the energy to move to the bucket and remove the remaining bile from his stomach, so he laid his head down on the hard wood of the desk and let the darkness take over him.

******

The man sat down on the plush green sofa in the front room. He liked it here best, he was close to the fire and could admire the way the greens and reds of the room blended well together, separated by the brown of the coffee table in the middle. He set his head back and let his breathing deepen and his fists clench at his sides as he tried to remain calm. However every time he felt calm he would be reminded of her, and how she was suffering somewhere else in the world without him to save her.

He was exhausted and he'd had enough. He decided to let the darkness consume him with its awaiting claws that had tried to drag him down many times before. He felt his eye lids get heavy and the breathing steady out slightly. Just as he was slipping into the darkness everything came crashing down.

He was jolted awake by the piercing sound of the alarm screeching in his ears, causing him to feel like his eyes were bleeding from the sudden shock. He stood up straight suddenly. If the alarm was going off then that meant that someone was in the house, someone that shouldn't be.

******

Harding was vaguely aware of the piercing house alarm going off, threatening to pull him from his slumber and drag him back into the ever waiting arms of reality. He knew that he should really wake up, but he couldn't bring himself too.

'Wake up' the voice again was in his head, but this time it was made more real by the fingers grazing through his hair. He tried to mumble some words, he wasn't sure what, just something to the strangers voice.

'Thats it!' she giggled, 'just wake up'

Harding finally managed to pull his eye lids apart, opening his eyes to the harsh, bleak world, just as the delicate figure that had been calling him was dancing out of the room. Her long black hair and tattooed arms looking familiar to him from some distant memory he couldn't quite place.

******

Scarlett felt as though she was in some place familiar. She was still somewhere dark, a basement perhaps, and still bound and gagged in her cage, but the feeling of familiarity seeped into her broken bone and dying soul, feeling her with a sense of relief.

She could hear the alarm going off above her, the warning did little to ease her confusion from waking up in this dark and unfamiliar place. She tried to call out but the gag around her mouth prevented her. She had never felt so alone and scared before in her life.

******

The man stood up now on full alert, he knew he didn't have his gun, but looking around he noticed the poker by the fire place. He picked it up and tested its weight in his hands, it was sturdy and easy to wield. He felt a vibrating in his pocket telling him that he had received a message. He pulled out his phone while keeping his witts about him and eyes still darting around the room.

Unlocking the phone and opening the message a photo filled the screen, it was of scarlett in her cage, somewhere dark and dank. It was clear she was worse, and cold due to her clothes being in tatters.

The message read;

'Come and find her... if you can...'

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A/N

Pretty sure chapter was set to kill me! My puppy decided i wasn't paying him enough attention so tried to lie across the key board causing me to lose the entire chapter just as i had finished it!!

Hope you all enjoyed it! Don't forget to comment and vote! Love you guys!!!