Into Darkness We Walk

Near and Far, Loud and Quiet

"Let the fire consume you... See? Everything is yours... No more pain, no more sorrow... the fire is yours... the fire is YOU."

This time, Gavin didn't wake up scared; he felt, peaceful. But there was something... different. Ominous, even, about the atmosphere he woke up in. Evan felt it, too, for he told Gavin, "Come on, we should get going, I wanna make it to Seattle before nightfall."

Gavin didn't argue; he simply nodded and went along, twirling his metal pole and seeing how many tricks he could do with it before it slipped out of his hands.

They came across a half-destroyed house and decided to search it for food, since the small bit they had left wouldn't last them a day, even with their eating-every-other-day rationing.

Inside, they found some edible fruit and vegetables, as well as some canned goods, but nothing more than that. Either these people were modest eaters, they took most of the food with them when they fled, or looters had already been through here. "Aww yeauh, chips, score!" Evan exclaimed, raising the chips in the air.

"What kind?" Gavin asked as he made his way over to him, having found nothing good on his side of the kitchen.

"Regular; nothing special."

"Cool with me."

"Eh, I woulda prefered barbecue or some shit,"

They didn't see any other houses after that; although the foundations of some of them could be seen if one looked closely.

"I'm bored," Evan complained. He fell back behind Gavin and began to rummage through his pack. "Got anything fun in here?"

Taking out his iPod, Gavin waved it behind him in front of Evan's face. "Here,"

Evan had just barely grabbed it when something hit him over the back, causing him to sprawl to the ground. He had regained just enough consciousness to see Gavin be grabbed by the arms and roughly dragged away, and to hear him scream out for him.

"Gavin..."

~

Water splashed onto Gavin's face, waking him with a start. "Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey," said a kindly, but sinister voice. Gavin squeezed his eyes shut, and then opened them again to try and clear the water from them. When they were open and focused, they rested on the face of a man somewhere in his early-to-mid-twenties, early thirties at the very latest. Seeing that Gavin was fully awake, he smiled brightly and exclaimed, arms wide open as he leaned back, "Evening, young one! Welcome to my humble abode."

Not bothering to give Gavin the chance to turn his head, the man moved on. "Now, you're probably wondering where you are, and I'll tell you, in due time. For now, all I can say is that you're not far from where we picked you up at; a few miles at the most from the road, maybe less. Next," he stood his full height and paced around Gavin, hands behind his back, "you're probably wondering what became of your friend; I can tell you with utmost certainty that he is absolutely fine. Lastly,"

This he said loudly, as he was now far back behind the unfortunate teen tied to the chair, "you might want to know why you're here," He walked about the room until he was in front of Gavin. Lowering his voice, he smiled wickedly. "Take a look for yourself."

Stepping aside, he allowed him the view of the poor boy that had been before him; at least, what was left of him, for he had been cut into several different pieces.

Of the many times that Gavin had wanted to vomit on this journey- and the one time he had- he felt the need to again, so he did. His captor laughed.

"You motherfu-" Gavin was interrupted by a vicious slap across the face. "Nahahah, no need to get short with me, not when I'm the one that practically saved your life," The man stroked Gavin's cheek, his hand Gavin violently pulled away from.

Glaring, Gavin looked up at him. "What do you mean?"

His captor smiled his evil smile. "You'll find out soon enough-" the clanging of a metal door behind him cut him off. "Or maybe, sooner than you think."

~

Screaming was the first thing that Evan woke to; coldness and something hard cutting into his wrists was the second. Groaning, he blinked hard and tried to lift his head. "Ugh... what the motherfuck..." He pulled at his arms, finding them to be chained up, judging by the sound. "Where... the living hell...?"

Tugging harder at his restraints, he didn't hear the door open until his face was flooded with light, which was then blocked by the shadow of a man. "Weeeell, look who's up," a voice smirked, strutting into the empty room. The door clanged behind him, plunging the world back into darkness, which Evan didn't mind because he could see perfectly fine in the dark. "What's your name, hon?" The man asked.

Evan could feel him close by his face, and didn't like it. "Evan," he grumbled.

He saw the man smile. "Pretty," reaching out, he stroked Evan's cheek, "and such a pretty face with lots of pretty freckles." Evan tried not to bite the man's hand off, and settled with yanking his face away. Smile less wide, the man pulled his hand back. "I'm Reddrik. Everyone calls me Red, though." Upon getting no response, Red leaned in close to Evan, whispering, "But you can call me whatever you'd like, little boy."

Evan didn't like the way he was talking to him, and he certainly didn't like the way he was looking at him... Eyes gleaming, Red looked Evan over, fiery red-browns slowly coming back to his glaring face. "They did well to take off your clothes, however formfitting they may have been," Lifting his hand, he barely touched the now slightly scared teenager across his broad, muscular chest and then down to his sort of chubby abdomen.

Reaching the waistband of his boxershorts, Red's eyes darted back up to Evan's, which were now slightly wider and flitting between his accoster's hand and face.

Red sure seemed to get a rise out of that. Laughing, he gripped the underwear by the sides and yanked it down. Evan snarled and barred his teeth- an unexpected reaction for the convicted child molester, but a reaction all the same. "My my, what do we have here?" Red petted Evan's hair, but stayed away from his face, since his expression was still hostile. "You certainly are no child,"

"No fucking shit, I'm fifteen, you asshat. If you so much as touch my junk I will break your skull open."

Red didn't seem the least bit concerned. "If you value your friend Gavin's life you won't."

At the mention of Gavin's name, Evan's expression went from hostile to feral. "What did you do to him, you son of a bitch?! I swear, if you've touched ONE HAIR on his head I will-"

"Now now, we haven't done anything to him, yet. If you cooperate, and do what I say, I will spare him the more advanced stuff." Standing, Red stretched, and turned to leave. "I'll give you some time to think about it. In the meantime, I think you'll want to listen to the wall to your left; it might help motivate you."

When the door had shut, Evan listened to the left wall, but when he heard what was coming from it he wanted to die.

"Wait, what're you doing? Stop! Don't-AHH! EVAN! HELP! HELP ME!! EVAN!!!"