It had been almost two hours since he had received the email. It had been fairly short, consisting of a few uncaring words and a photograph. A photograph that made Arthur's blood run cold; Merlin lay naked in an empty room, his hands were tied behind his back and his eyes staring into the camera, full of fear. It made Arthur nauseous just thinking of it, and as the taxi pulled to yet another stop, Arthur rested his head against the window, ignored the babbling driver, and thought of his journey ahead. The email gave him a specific address in a specific town, and Arthur couldn't help but wonder if it was all a trap. Was Merlin even at this address? And why would the kidnappers even give him the location, unless they wanted him, too, of course. But honestly, all that mattered to Arthur was getting Merlin home, safe. Alive. The taxi kicked into action once again, and Arthur peered out of the window for the remainder of the journey.

'G-go on, you can walk from here.' The man sputtered nervously from the driver's seat, as he pulled to a stop at the bottom of a steep, misty hill.

'What? Why?'

'I aint goin' no further, the- the fog, it's too thick, and…'

'If you hadn't noticed,' Arthur stated, unbuckling his seatbelt and leaning forward. 'I'm in a bit of a hurry! Now I paid you to take me the whole way there. So do it!'

'Can't go no further, mister, I do apologise. What with the sink 'oles and all…' The driver's knuckles turned white as he gripped the steering wheel, and he sank lower in his seat.

'Then…' Arthur lifted his jacket from the seat next to him and turned to the door. 'I want my money back!' he said, angrily as he pushed open the door and stepped out into the cool night air.

'No can do, sir.' The driver said, as he began to reverse back down the road, leaving Arthur stood in the stillness of the night.

'Bloody cab drivers…' Arthur mumbled to himself as he pulled on his jacket. He watched as the headlights slowly faded to darkness and when they were finally gone, he shoved his hands in his pockets and began to make his way up the hill, and towards the town. At least, he hoped he was heading the right way. He barely knew if this was the right direction. The cab driver hadn't said if they were anywhere near the town, and the night was getting darker by the second. This hill was steeper than Arthur had anticipated, and as he reached the halfway mark he had to stop for a moment to catch his breath. Looking around him, Arthur stood up straight. All around him, he could see eyes appearing from the darkness around him, staring at him hungrily. Turning back to the bottom of the hill, he squinted his eyes in an attempt to see if there were any headlights making their way towards him, but he saw nothing but the night. Stumbling forwards, Arthur started to walk, a little quicker now, as he felt himself being watched, and his childhood fear of the dark slowly started creeping up on him. Breaking into a run, Arthur

was soon out of breath. He hadn't needed to run since high school, which was more that ten years ago now, and his body was not used to exercise as he spent most of his days now lounging around his home, making business calls and organising meetings. All too suddenly, Arthur found himself falling to the ground, and he threw his arms out in front of him. Landing with a thud, Arthur lay on his stomach for a moment, expecting something to jump out of the darkness and grab him. Of course, nothing did, and eventually Arthur lifted his head and looked around him. To his left, there was what appeared to be a bench, perched at the very edge of the forest and slowly freezing over. Getting to his knees, he brushed dust and dirt from his shirt (brand new that morning) and looked ahead, surprised to see in the distance, a faint shimmer of light. Looking back over his shoulder, Arthur placed a hand to his chest, counting the number of times his heart thudded against his ribcage, then slowly he got to his feet, checking for any damage the fall might have caused. Other than a small ache in his knees, Arthur could feel no pain, so he walked on, slowly growing calmer as the lights got brighter.

The town of Hollygrove was nothing like Arthur had seen before. All around him were grey buildings, abandoned and falling down, and the streets were littered with people's belongings; mobile phones lay discarded and smashed to pieces on the pavements, a child's pram was crushed under the tyres of a crashed mini cooper. A breeze floated through the empty town centre, making Arthur shiver, and he pulled his jacket tighter around him. The source of the light was straight ahead of him, flickering off and on and off and on. Arthur made his way towards the shop window, constantly looking around him.

The path that lay head him was long and dark, with the only source of light disappearing once again as Arthur reached a still-working water fountain. He reached down and touched the cool marble circle that contained a few gallons of freezing cold water. Floating face-down in the water was a limbless rag doll. Red thread slipped from the places where her eyes used to be, almost like blood, and around her neck was a thin piece of string with a small, square piece of paper attached to it. Leaning forward, Arthur squinted his eyes as he stood on his knees on the marble wall. Rolling up a sleeve, he peered behind him before reaching into the water and picking up the doll. Turning her over, he examined the child's toy, noting the claw marks that trailed across the fabric of the dolls stomach. Lifting the piece of paper, Arthur could barely make out three words that were scrawled across it, as once again the light flickered off.

Sighing loudly, Arthur ran a hand across his tired eyes and stood, dropping his hands to his sides. He turned and once again headed for the shop with the flickering lights.

Lifting the doll close to his face, Arthur saw that the words on the paper had been scribbled in pink crayon, in a child's handwriting. As he read the sentence, the hairs stood up on Arthur's arms, as a chill ran through him:

He's behind you!

Almost instantly, Arthur spun around, dropping the doll to the ground and lifting his arms in front of his face, not knowing what he expected to see standing behind him. There was nothing but a lamppost, upon which a bicycle was chained, forgotten by its owner. Squeezing his eyes shut, Arthur repeated to himself in whispers: There's nothing there, there's nothing there. Nothing there. Turning back round, Arthur leaned against the window of the shop to steady himself before pressing his face to the cold glass of the shop window and peered inside. It seemed like any regular convenient store to him. Shelves were piled high with bread and tinned soup, and bottled of fizzy drinks. Next to the window were three check-out points. Looking up, Arthur saw a light, the cover smashed to pieces exposing the cracked bulb to the world, and off to the right of the tills, he could make out the faint glow of the fire exit sign.

Arthur made his way around the side of the building, careful not to step on any of the things that lay strewn around the pavement. Reaching out a hand, Arthur gripped the handle and began to turning it.

'Ar- he—- need hel-. Q-ic-'

Arthur spun around and pressed himself tightly against the door. His breath seemed too loud, and Arthur held a hand over his mouth to quieten it, unsure of where the strange voice had come from. Darting his eyes around the empty street, Arthur was frozen to the spot. Somewhere in the distance, he heard the faint crackling of a radio, and as he slowly moved his hand from his mouth, he began to laugh.

'Radio. It-it was only a…' he pushed away from the door and straightened himself. 'Radio.' Turning back to the door, he waited for his heart to get back to it's normal rate before turning the handle and pushing on the door. Locked.

'Damn.' Arthur whispered.

Rushing over to the opposite building, he tried the handle and was once again disheartened to find it locked. Pushing against the door, Arthur groaned.

'Come on!' he strained, using all his energy trying to open it. Finding his efforts useless, Arthur stopped and stood in the middle of the street, gazing at the ground and trying to think of a plan.

'Alright,' he said, quietly. 'Alright, think Arthur. I have to- to find Merlin, he has to be here somewhere, and I have to man up and stop jumping at the smallest sound.' Putting up his hood, Arthur rubbed his hands together and turned in circles.

'Okay, now that,' he points his clasped-together hands towards a small building, with a strip of red running along the wall. 'Looks like a post office… maybe a- a bank?' Arthur sighed and faced another direction.

'Ah, a school? A-a… offices?' Arthur groaned loudly, unsure of what to do next.

After a while of wandering around, Arthur finally gave up. Heading for the nearest bench, he sat down and put his head in his hands. All this time, he had tried his best to keep his mind away from Merlin, from that photograph that had been sent to him, but now, in the silence, it came flooding into his mind, and all too soon, Arthur let out a sob. Out of all the people who Arthur cared about, why had they chosen Merlin? The one he cared about the most. Ever since their first meeting three years ago, Arthur knew that there was something about the man, and that something made Arthur's stomach do cartwheels every time he set eyes on the raven haired man. The man that had saved him from himself on more occasions than Arthur had thanked him for, and now he was the one doing the saving. He had to save Merlin, at any cost, and as he sat himself up, Arthur swiped the tears from his eyes.

'I'm coming, Merlin.' He said out loud. 'I promise.' Getting to his feet, he clenched his fists together to stop them from shaking as he made his way along a dark side street. A block of flats stood, unstable, straight ahead of him, and all around him were narrow alleyways

that seemed to beckon Arthur to them. Moving to the middle of the road, Arthur kept his eyes fixed on the block of flats, refusing to answer the darkness that was calling him. All of a sudden, Arthur found the world around him starting to spin, and Arthur began moving faster, desperately searching for a way off the streets, for a nice warm house.

'M-Merlin…' Arthur mumbled, drowsily, as he slipped into blackness.