As One || A Skep6dHalo AU

15: A Mysterious Container

Morning arrives again at Annecy as always, and the streets were busy like normal. People were walking on the streets with their families, friends and loved ones. As for Zak and Darryl, they were not like the others. They still were searching for Vincent and the search will not stop until they find him. 

They walked down the streets, side-by-side, heading to a cafe to get breakfast. Along the way, they came across Damien, who looked like he was panting and he held his phone tightly in his left hand. Zak and Darryl were shocked to see him so tired. 

"Demi? What are you doing here?" Darryl asks while adjusting his glasses. 

Damien could barely speak. "I...found...something...last night..." He panted between his words and took several deep breaths. The cafe was just in front of them so they brought him there so that he could rest. 

Inside, Damien drank almost two full cups of water. Zak looked at him, worried while Darryl was still confused at what was going on. Zak tilted his head. "What did you find?" 

Damien calmed down and opened his phone. He showed them a picture of a container that was extremely suspicious. 

"I found this container by the port last night on my way back home. I was driving and I saw flashes of light coming through this one small hole. I stepped out from my car and went closer to inspect the container. Just before I could look through the window, it was closed by someone using a curtain. Luckily, I managed to take a picture of the inside."

He swiped to the left to show them a picture of a person sitting on the bed and another person standing in front of him, holding a bat with stains of blood on it. Darryl closed his mouth looking at the bloody bat and Zak was terrified. Damien continues.

"I'm Vincent's best friend since school, and I know what he looks like, from behind, front and his sides. This-" He points to the person sitting down on the bed. "-it's obvious that he's Vincent." Zak shook his head. "No way...he's in there? And don't tell me he's getting-" "I'm afraid so." Damien cuts off Zak. They all looked at each other with fear in their eyes. 

###

Alex walks around Vincent's room as usual, but this time, he's holding a bat. Vincent doesn't even care at this point. He stares blankly at the floor. Alex drags the bat on the floor and goes in front of Vincent to gain his attention. "Il leur reste deux jours, tu sais? (They have four days left, you know?)" 

Vincent lets out a sigh. "Pourquoi leur faites-vous ça? Pourquoi leur mettez-vous autant de problèmes? (Why are you doing this to them? Why are you putting them in so much trouble?)" His hands suddenly formed into fists.

"Quoi? C'est votre seule chance de vous échapper, vous savez. Vous ne devriez pas laisser tomber. (What? This is your only chance to escape you know. You shouldn't let it go.)"

Vincent looks up at Alex and frowns. "Échapper? Même s'ils m'ont sauvé, tu ne me laisserais pas partir aussi facilement. (Escape? Even if they did save me, you wouldn't let me go that easily.)"

Alex smirks and leaves the heavily locked room. Vincent starts crying but he tries to hold it in. After almost 2 months of being held hostage, he misses his family, his friends and the people that mean the most to him.

 He curls up into a ball and cries, for who knows how long. Alex stood in front of the mirror where they could see Vincent from the outside, and his heart started aching, looking at the lonely 19-year-old. He started feeling sorry for him, but due to his revengeful heart, he couldn't simply let him go. 

###

Night time arrived quickly than usual. Damien was still at Zak and Darryl's hotel room, trying to investigate about how to get to Vincent, who is still stuck in there. Damien zoomed into the photo he took, and he sees the locked door. He calls both of them over to have a look at the door that was almost stuck onto the wall. 

"I have a feeling that this door is heavily locked. Looking at the way it's almost one with the wall, it's definitely heavily locked." Damien says, having a point. Zak nods and looks around the picture. "Do you think there's a way to escape from that door?" he asks. Damien shakes his head and says, "I think it's almost impossible for him to open the locks from the inside. There's probably 10 or more different locks on there." Zak sighs and walks to his bed. 

Darryl also tries to takes a clearer look at the photo. He looks at the mentally drained Vincent, who looked like he didn't have any hope left in this world. "Poor a6d...I really want him back." He touches the screen, as if he could touch Vincent. "Look at him, poor muffin. He looks tired. His hair is messed up, he has bruises all over his arms and legs-" He started choking on his words as he teared up. He couldn't take another look at his best friend, and ran into the bathroom. 

Zak looked worried at Darryl, and he started tearing up as well. But he stayed strong, and wiped his tears away quickly using his sleeve. Damien looks at his childhood friend. He felt sad, that his friend, who was a energetic, talkative and awesome guy, turned into a person who didn't even care for the world. He said quietly under his breath, "Je suis désolé de ne pas être là plus tôt... (I'm sorry I wasn't there earlier...)"

Darryl slowly came out from the bathroom, his eyes all red and puffy and he felt like he couldn't breathe again. He opens up a bottle of water and sits down next to Damien, who was controlling his sadness and continued searching for ways on how to let him out. Suddenly, Darryl says something out loud that both Damien and Zak were not expecting. 

"I wanna go there."

Damien looks at Darryl with a serious face, and Zak was confused. "Bad, it's too dangerous. We can't-"

"-We can't what?" Darryl cuts off Zak. Zak shakes his head and hangs his head low. "This is our best friend, Skeppy. Do you want to leave him just like that? He has bruises and cuts all over his body, for crying out loud." Damien stayed quiet. Zak looks back up at Darryl and nods. "You're right. But do you really think we could do this alone?" 

Darryl starts getting hints. "Wait, don't tell me that-"

"-I called them. Almost all of them. Techno, Finn, Spifey, Zelkam, TapL, Vurb, George, Dream and Sapnap. I also called your friend, Louis. He could be a big help to us." 

Darryl couldn't believe what Zak had done to rescue his best friend. He was surprised, but happy and relieved at the same time. "So where are they now?" "They just arrived at the airport. They will be at Annecy tomorrow by noon." Darryl nods and lets out a sigh of relief. Damien smiles at them. "So, we'll be having a full army of YouTubers tomorrow?" says Damien.

Zak smiles and lies down on his bed.

"Yes, we will."

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hi just wanted to say thank you for 1k reads and i love y'all so much <3333333

sorry if this chapter was shorter than usual, i'm kinda sick rn so my mood ain't having it :L

ok i need to go now byeeeeee （づ￣3￣）づ╭❤～