I can taste my blood. Feel it on my face.

I sit tied to a chair in some basement, and wonder how I got here.

Really, really wonder.

It was supposed to be a romantic hike with Lauren, damn it! Well, not so much the hike, rather the promise of skinny-dipping and a little fun by the light of the campfire. It was supposed to be an out of the way spot that nobody knew about. Nobody was supposed to be there.

I suppose that's what the drug dealer thought too.

Lauren stared at the clock, watching the second hand make its way slowly around.

Dustin should have been home hours ago. He had called her around six as he was leaving work, so she threw dinner in the oven fully expecting it to be ready just about the time he would walk in the door.

But he didn't.

It was only seven. Lauren convinced herself she was just being jumpy. After all, who could blame her? She turned off the oven and cracked the door, no sense letting dinner burn. It was only seven.

Dinner got cold.

At eight she picked up the phone, only to put it down again. Dustin's phone was going straight to voicemail, but there were lots of reasons it could be doing that, right? That didn't mean he was in trouble, he was just late. Just late.

At nine she called the cops, only to be politely informed that one husband who is late for dinner does not constitute a missing person's case, and that she needed to wait twenty-four hours for him to be considered officially missing.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

When are they coming back? Are they coming back at all? Part of me wants them to come back, if only because they're the only ones who know I'm down here. If only because I don't want to be tied to this chair anymore.

They ask questions but don't listen to my answers.

"For God sakes do you really think I could have killed your brother?"

Their brother. He was the same way.

"We're not cops we own a doggie wash!"

They tie me up. They beat me. They point guns. They ask the same question over and over but won't listen to me when I'm telling the truth. They don't believe me!

"But what do we do with him now?"

"Keep him I've told you everything I told the police I didn't kill your brother here til we find out if he's lying we go back out there and we find out who did it."

"I think we should kill him now."

"Can't kill him until we find out if he's lying. If he is, he'll wish we would have killed him instead of what we're going to do to him when we get back. Y'all have a little time to mull that over now."

No, I don't want them to come back. At least Lauren is safe.

It's morning, and Lauren is at the police station. Some nameless officer took her statement, filed the missing person paperwork. She couldn't make him understand that this wasn't just some husband stepping out on an over-reacting wife. Something was seriously WRONG! Maybe the detectives who interviewed her before would listen to her?

She asks for them by name, saying she wants to talk to them about Delmore Blake, about the ill fated hike to Shannon Lake. She's asked to sit and wait.

And wait.

"Hi, I'm Officer Wu. Detectives Burkhardt and Griffin are in the middle of a police lineup, but they shouldn't be too much longer. Is there anything I can help you with?"

I never thought blood would feel like this. Not that I've ever wondered about it.

I scrunch my face. It doesn't flake off. It's hard but not, and makes my skin feel tight.

God, I want to scratch.

"Lauren? What are you doing here? What happened?"

She looks up. It's him, Detective Burkhardt, looking at her with genuine concern in his eyes. She tries to tell him, really tries, but the story's already poured out once and now her throat has tightened up and she can't utter a sound. Can't keep the tears from building behind her eyes or stop the trembling in her hands. It's Officer Wu who speaks for her.

"Dustin never came home from work Tuesday evening. There's been no activity on his cell, and his vehicle is reportedly still at Hair of the Dog. Given recent circumstances, Lauren thought it was best to speak directly to you."

She nods, and a warm hand falls on her shoulder.

"We'll find him."

Author's Notes

I was watching a rerun of "Let Your Hair Down" and it hit me... with two of the brothers killed by Holly and the third if not dead then certainly in the hospital in critical condition, what happens to the poor guy tied to a chair? Does he escape? Does he starve to death, or die of infected wounds?

Officer Wu, how many times does he just hand things to Nick and Hank on a silver platter?

And that's a personal description of blood on the face, I've certainly had enough on mine.

On a technical note, was flipping POV too confusing? I tried writing Dustin in first person and Lauren in second person, mainly to keep the flips between them less jarring.

So how do they find him? Hmmm. Well, he was grabbed from a lit parking lot and taken in a very distinctive truck, so even if there weren't security cameras in the area the Blake brothers didn't seem all that smart and probably tied him up in their own basement. He's been there a day and a half by now (kidnapped one evening, Holly returned to mom second evening, press conference and lineup next day) which means he's messed himself at least once. He's beaten, humiliated, smelly, scared, wounds beginning to become infected, and probably lightheaded from lack of water and being hit about the head.

I really have no intention of taking this any further, so if someone wants to take the ball and write about the whole rescue, reunion and recovery, go for it. And if you decide the third brother survived, even being treated at the same hospital they take Dustin, well, that's what fanfiction is all about!

And once again, my author's note rivals my story for size and/or popularity.