Freezer Burn

Chapter Nine

This chapter is SFW!

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"I haven't seen him since Saturday - I went to bed early, I didn't see him that night or -" Lucius spoke on a jumble of fast paced, nervous words. His breathing was shaky and he was in tears with everything he said. "Okay, could he have sent any messages? Could he have tried to call you?" Nabil questioned, his voice was soft. He gently rubbed small circles into Lucius's back, glancing towards Allen who had always been much more logic-focused, he quickly proved that he was horrible when it came down to comforting someone.

"He has his phone but - I didn't get any messages." Lucius said with a sniffle, wiping his cheek,"He left Malcolm's, I don't know what else happened - I thought I heard him come home but he wasn't there in the morning. I don't know where he was." Lucius continued to sob, he was practically frantic with worry at this point.

"If he wasn't responding, why didn't you call the police as soon as you noticed he was gone?" Allen questioned, ignoring the glare from Nabil. Lucius looked up, wiping his sleeve across his face again. "He had habits of - disappearing for a while. I just thought he was taking a day away because his backpack wasn't there, but I haven't heard anything from him. I thought maybe he was spending a day away - but he won't respond on his phone. Malcolm hasn't heard anything either." Nabil nodded reassuringly as Lucius explained, sighing as he glanced back to the waiting room. Malcolm was there waiting to talk to them as well. Typically, a missing person would've been assigned to someone else - but the police were low on people, and there were no recent updates on the serial killer case.

"Could he have ran away?" Allen finally spoke up, leaning onto the desk in interest. "I guess so - I think he would've said something. Or - left a note, even just told Malcolm. And - he was always prepared. He would've packed his bag, he wouldn't have come home at all that day-" Lucius was quickly interrupted with a sigh from Allen. "Many times a person of his age goes missing, they ran away. It was probably on a whim, hence why he wasn't prepared. There's no reason to assume the worst, we can send a group out to search for him."

Lucius glanced between them, sure it was relieving news - but his mind was still focused on the worse. "But what if he didn't run away?" Lucius immediately questioned, leaning closer to Allen. "What if someone took him? Like - like some creepy old man - or The Manne-" Once again, Allen shook his head in interruption. "The Mannequin Killer follows a distinct pattern that your brother doesn't classify for. He only has a history of killing young women." Allen stated matter-of-factly, receiving another glare from Nabil.

"What Detectice O'Connor means is that your brother is probably fine." Nabil smiled, looking to Lucius once again. "You should go home and get some rest, we'll take care of this." He gently patted Lucius's leg and moved further back, watching as the boy wiped his face one more time and reluctantly got up to leave. "That's definitely not the way to deal with that." Nabil quickly accused, huffing as he leaned back into his chair. Allen rolled his eyes lightly and sighed, looking over the case file. It really did seem to be just any other missing person's case, a young boy deciding to run away from his home.

"This isn't our jurisdiction. We still have some houses to go to, we can't focus on a missing kid case." Allen explained in frustration, though Nabil just shook his head. It wasn't like Allen didn't want to help, but there was a lot on their shoulders, and it seemed like Mr. Laquris wanted to pile it up more and more. Nabil was definitely handling it better, at least it seemed that way. His own frustration was shoved down with cups of coffee, they both had their own problems going on.

"We can still go to those houses, you know that. There's just a shortage of cops for interviews at the moment." Nabil explained with a sigh, he really didn't need to explain it to Allen. He was smart, that was obvious, he was just letting his frustrated words escape before thinking about the answers to them. Nonetheless, he believed in the likelihood that Fabius Morgans did nothing more than run away from home in a fit of thoughtlessness.

"How much longer do we need to do this?" The boy spoke up, his voice quiet and wary as his captor rubbed different lotions and serums onto his arms for the third day in a row. He had done it in the morning and at night, offering Fabius no conversation nor explanation. Fabius looked away from his frail arm and Harvey's gloved hands, instead focusing his line of sight on the man he has been so attracted to upon first meeting. "How much-"

"I heard you the first time." Harvey replied bluntly, keeping his eyes on the boy's hands and wrist, rather than actually acknowledging him. Fabius thought Harvey an enigma, he heard his questions and processed them fine, yet he offered no answer to put Fabius's mind at any sort of ease. Maybe it was on purpose, or maybe it was better if the kidnappee didn't know his intentions. Fabius let out a defeated sigh, gulping nervously as Harvey finally dropped his arm again. It took an hour everytime, he focused so much on caring for them, yet it was something that never even occurred to Fabius. Considering he was the one who had to look at them everyday, Fabius was a lot less bothered by his own scarred wrists than Harvey was.

Harvey began putting the lotions and strange serums back into the plastic bag they initially came in, standing up from the cold, damp concrete floor. He began his wall back upstairs, though Fabius spoke up to stop him. That alone was a rare occurence, normally he was quiet and reserved, even when he woke up with a kidnapper angry with him for something he had done long ago.

"Wait," he interrupted, his voice hesitant and shaky. Surprisingly, Harvey actually paused in his footsteps, albeit it seemed to be with reserve. "Can I - can I come upstairs?" Fabius questioned, his voice as weak and quiet as before, which seemed to annoy Harvey even more. "Speak up." He simply demanded in response, his own voice was monotonous and borderline emotionless. Like a demand from a robot to a human.

"I asked if I could come upstairs..." Fabius reiterated, louder, though his voice was still soft as to avoid causing any further problems between them. Fabius was locked away in a stranger's basement, he really didn't want to come off as short tempered to the man. Harvey was silent, which immediately made Fabius assume the worst. He hated being locked away in the basement, but maybe it was still better than the alternative option, which he figured would be a skinned corpse dumped on the road somewhere.

"You'll have chores." Harvey explained coldly, though the response still surprised Fabius. He generally expected a strict no, followed by Harvey leaving - but here they still were, Fabius surely looking dumbfounded with surprise. It took him a moment to muster up the ability to form a coherent sentence once again.

"That's fine - I-I can do chores." He assured, not that it was true. Fabius grew up in a very privileged family, he had never done chores like normal kids had. He knew how, of course, but in practice he wouldn't perform well. He knew that already, but at this point he was willing to lie just to get some decent air. Harvey turned to face Fabius further, the scowl adorning his features never seemed to leave.

"Cooking. Cleaning. Clothes." It seemed like at this point Harvey was trying to make it sound unappealing, but Fabius simply nodded in excited agreement. "I can do all of that - please, just let me try-" Fabius pleaded, receiving a quiet scoff from Harvey. He wasn't sure why, maybe he sounded just that pathetic, or maybe Harvey was just amused by how eager he was to get out of the basement. Though it was only a few seconds that followed, it felt like years to Fabius. A silence settled between them as Harvey debated on accepting the offer, "Get up." He instructed once again, heading back towards the door.

Fabius stood up as soon as he was told, though his legs were shaky with how long he had just been sitting. He leaned on the wall, regaining his balance before he slowly, and unsteadily, followed Harvey out of the basement.