Lights (Scomiche)

Hope

He groaned as he slowly opened his eyes, his head throbbing. He realized he was laying on a very hard, very cold floor. He slowly sat up, trying to figure out where the hell he was.

'Thank God! I was worried they'd killed you and just left you there.'

He turned towards the voice and looked over to see Jeremy with his hands and ankles tied.

“What the hell?” He hurried over and after quite a bit of cursing he managed to get the other boys hands undone and then helped him with the bindings around his legs.

“What happened? Where are we?” He finally took the time to look around and let the situation sink in.  He felt his heart drop as he looked around the tiny room that seemed almost like a metal cell. “No….” He ran his hands over his face. “No, no no. Not again.”

Jeremy looked down at the floor. “I’m sorry, Mitch. I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you. I didn't even realize what was happening until it was too late.”

He should have said it was ok, that it wasn’t his fault, but all he could think about at that moment was Scott. “He was finally getting better. Things were good, we were finally fucking happy.” His shoulders slumped as he slid down the wall, already giving up.

“We’re gonna get out of here. You’ll get back to him. We’re going to be okay. They won’t just leave us here.”

Mitch shook his head, the cold metal on the back of his hair giving him goosebumps. “Even if we do somehow manage to survive this, and we somehow get out of here and get to go back home, it won’t even matter. Scott isn’t going to be able to just bounce back from this again. He’s never going to be the same. Scott's gone.” He looked down, picking at a thread on his jeans.  “I’m sorry he dragged you into this. Kirstie is probably going out of her mind right now.”

Jeremy looked like he might cry, but he knew he needed to stay strong, not only for himself but for his friend who had already been through this hell once before. He knew Kirstie was strong and strong-willed. She would be ok, no matter what happened. He just hated that she had to go through it.

He was amazed that after everything he’d been through that Mitch was so calm, but it also bothered him that he’d seemed to already give up.

“I’ll get you back to her. Somehow.” 

He gave the other man a weak smile. “And I’ll get you back to Scott…  somehow.”

______

He couldn’t deal with it. Kirstie’s crying was driving him insane. He felt like he was suffocating. The FBI was back, and the familiar faces just were not very comforting. Scott’s phone had been confiscated again along with Kirstie’s and it was giving him anxiety like nothing else. They’d all been relocated to some ‘safe house’ in the middle of God knows where and he could feel the tension radiating from everyone.

It was making him crazy. He wanted his phone back. No one had called and asked for anything yet, no demands, no requests, no contact at all. He knew it didn’t bode well. At least if the psycho was trying to torture Scott then they knew he had a reason to keep him alive. What if he was just dead somewhere? What if he never found him and that was what that bastard meant to do, leave Scott in limbo forever, never knowing what happened to him, never having closure.

He picked at the skin on his bottom lip, leg bouncing with nerves.

Mitch had already been through so much, too much. This wasn’t fair.

He’d let his guard down and he’d lost the man he loved more than anything. What was he going to do without him? He already felt a giant void inside of him, he wasn’t sure he could continue on without him by his side.