Look After You

The Hostage

     What happened came back to Ryan in an instant.

     He didn't have a few blissful seconds to himself, a couple of joyous moments spent in ignorance. He didn't even have the chance to open his eyes before memories piled on top of each other, stacking until they toppled over and crushed him. Being threatened by a stranger, forced to drive for hours just to find out that the man had been Bo's father all along. Those things and more were hard to forget about while his mind smothered him back into reality. A terrible fire in his head stopped him from opening his eyes right away, though he wished that he had kept them shut and let the inferno take him again after getting a look at his surroundings.

     Wood. All he saw was dark, sturdy wooden planks around him. They made up the floor, they made up the walls, they made up the door that he could see on the other side of the room he noticed he was in. Sturdy and strong, that door stood like a lighthouse in the fog around him. Even while analyzing the rest of his surroundings, it stayed at the forefront of his aching head. The dark sofa that sat yards away from him, facing a bookshelf that was crammed with books. The dining room table was only a handful of feet away from him, coupled with three empty chairs around it and a familiar knife resting on top. A dim light hung over the whole room like a flickering halo. For some reason, Ryan didn't need to look behind him to know that there was a kitchen somewhere back there. It almost felt like he had been there before. Had he been there before?

     His head was killing him.

     The realization that he was bound to a wooden chair with old, dirty rope hit him much later than he would've liked. The dots only connected when Ryan tried to make his way over to that wooden door he was so obsessed with. Trying to move more than his neck was met with resistance all over his body. From wrists that were secured behind the chair and legs that had been tethered together to knees and ribs that were crushed by rope. Trying to pull himself apart only resulted in more resistance, more pressure, more blood being separated inside his veins. He knew that he should stop but he couldn't. Something was ringing in his ears. The more he wiggled like a worm stuck in a bird's mouth, the louder it became. It sounded like a leaky faucet dripping mixed with the chime of a hundred different alarms at once. It harmonized well with his heartbeat.

     "Oh, good. You're up."

     Ryan finally went still.

     Something inside of his stomach tangled up when he saw that man emerge from a hallway out of the corner of his eye. He watched that red hair he knew so well come closer and closer until it was standing in front of him, feet together and arms crossed behind his spine. His posture gave him a migraine that he swore he had felt a long time ago.

     "It had been so long, I was worried that I had accidentally killed you." He uncrossed his arms and showed off a gun that wasn't his to hold. "What would I do then, hm?"

     Ryan had to remember that all they had in common was their hair. If that thought slipped his mind, he'd confuse the blurry man before him with the king that he knew and loved. He'd mix up their face shapes and which one of the two didn't have a beard. There was no way that he'd mix up their eyes though. This man had malice swirling around in his coal colored pupils, twisting his whole face around to create a vortex of violence that would gladly send him to his knees if it was provoked. He masked the storm under an eerily calm exterior, but Ryan could still see it as clear as day. The day he saw that expression on Bo was the day heaven itself burned down.

     "How long have I been out?" His gaze was fixed on the gun. "H-Has it been 24 hours?"

     "No, not yet, but the sun is out now. You might be here all day if that damn boy is too cowardly to show his face in broad daylight."

     All day, huh? Luke was going to be worried sick.

     "He's not cowardly." Ryan glared at him. "Bo's not going to come because he knows better than to surrender his whole kingdom to a monster like you."

     "I think you're confused about which one of us is the monster." He said, "And for your sake, you better hope that he comes. I don't know what exactly I'll do to you if he doesn't."

     Well, now Ryan was worried sick.

     "Why are you doing this?" He asked.

     "I'm not doing anything except for taking back what's rightfully mine. That kingdom and everything inside it belongs to me and me alone. I earned it!" He jammed a finger into his chest. "That boy doesn't know what I had to do to get my chance to rule. He doesn't know about work or leadership. He doesn't even know how to be human! The dirt on the bottom of my shoes deserves the crown more than him."

     Bo's father sighed as he made his way over to the back of the sofa. He pinched the bridge between his nose as he leaned on it. Ryan still couldn't take his eyes off of that gun.

     "I had to do so much damage control over him. I had to work day and night to try and erase the stain that his birth had on my reputation, and what did I get in return? My power, my wealth, my authority, my status, my servants. All stripped away!" He moved his fingers from his face. "And that's without even mentioning how poor of a ruler he is. Have you seen all of the trouble he gets into? Do you know who gets blamed for his reckless actions?"

     Ryan raised an eyebrow. "Him?"

     "Me!"

     He rolled his eyes. It was unsettling how similar this guy and William were. Self-centered creatures that shriveled up like raisins once their power was snatched away. If he heard from one, he had heard from them all.

     "Really, giving the throne back to me would be a blessing for the whole kingdom. Possibly even the whole world."

     Ryan rolled his eyes. "You have no idea how often Bo beats himself up over his mistakes."

     "He shouldn't be making mistakes at all."

     "He's not perfect—"

     "Obviously." He looked away. "He's far from it."

     Oh, if his hands weren't tied up he surely would've beaten the teeth out of this man.

     "You're a terrible father," Ryan said.

     He never responded to that.