AN: Hey! Hope you enjoy.

Thanks to charley, SociallyAwkwardUnicorn, brightlightsbrighterdreams, HeyItsKerry, AllyKat8 and WaterlooRoad16 for the lovely reviews. You get all the virtual hugs!

An excruciating pain blasted through Kevin's head, forcing his eyes to shoot open and take in his surroundings. Everything looked disorientated. Blinking quickly in a vain attempt to clear his vision, the first thing he managed to see properly made him feel nauseous - a worse for wear Connor, dried blood draped along his forehead, hands tied behind his back. They seemed to be in a flat but the whereabouts were unknown as the curtains were pulled tightly shut, leaving the only source of light being a dull lamp in the corner.

"Connor?" Kevin shifted as quietly as he could over to his best friend, shaking him gently. "Connor, wake up." It took a fair bit of goading until Connor finally came around, looking equally as disillusioned and confused as Kevin had not long ago. "Are you okay?"

It took Connor a while to find his voice before he asked, "What happened? And where the hell are we?"

"The last thing I remember is Barry acting really shifty, apologising to us and then you fell. I woke up here about ten minutes ago. As for where we are, I honestly couldn't tell you, but I know it's Scotland. It says on that newspaper over there." explained Kevin, trying hard to ignore the powerful sensations in his head that were making themselves known every now and again. Unfortunately, the situation they were in didn't give him much to take his mind off it.

"Undo my hands, will you?" said Connor, rather sharply. He winced as the rope came undone, no longer tight around his hands but making sure to rub against his newly sore wrists as it went. He felt as if there was a thunder-storm in his head, the pain accentuated when he tried to scrape the crusty blood from it. Some of it was stuck to his hair, but now wasn't really the time to worry about that. "Have you tried the door?"

"I've been a bit pre-occupied trying to make sure you weren't dead."

"Have you got your phone on you? Go and try the door." Connor didn't know where this authoritative nature was coming from; he'd always been the shy one in most situations. But this wasn't most situations, and taking control helped to stop him drowning in the overwhelming sense of fear he could feel creeping up on him. "I'll try the window."

They didn't even have time to stand up before a new voice was heard. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." The new voice came from a man who couldn't have been more than twenty, but despite looking quite young, he oozed intimidation. His jaw and cheekbones were achingly prominent, making him look almost emaciated. This didn't do anything for his eyes, which looked as if they would pop from their sockets at any moment. He looked utterly terrifying, but oddly familiar.

Connor and Kevin exchanged a worried glance, before retreating back to where they were originally sat.

Kevin spoke first, his voice sounding embarrassingly small. "Who..who are you?"

"That's for me to know, boys."

"Where are we?" This time, it was Connor who asked the question. "What do you want?"

The stranger chuckled. "God, you're a questioning pair, aren't you?" He wandered over to the window, peering out in silence for what seemed like centuries for the petrified teenagers. He pulled out a cigarette box from his jeans, placed one in his mouth and lit it, before finally saying, "This is my mates flat, he's letting me use it for the time being. He should be round soon, actually. Oh, and I've got your phones so don't think you can try and sneakily call the coppers on me. Don't be scared, lads, 'cause as long as you co-operate with me I won't hurt you."

"What do you mean co-operate?" The weird secrecy was frustrating Kevin, and he could feel himself getting angry.

"Yeah, we can't co-operate if we don't know what you want from us."

Their captor flicked the cigarette ash straight onto the floor. "Think of yourselves as real-life blackmail. In a couple of hours, your friends and family will start to worry about you. When they do, I'm going to be sending pictures of you both looking a bit worse for wear to the people closest to you - but I won't be telling them where you are, or releasing you, until Dynasty Barry drops all charges against Steve-O."

Connor and Kevin drank in the information; realisation was not a nice thing sometimes and fury washed over Kevin. There was no way on earth he was going to let this happen, no way. "I won't let you do that to her. I'd rather die before letting that scum-bag walk free."

Quicker than anything, the still unnamed man rained punches onto Kevin's stomach, hard enough so the boy was forced to keel over in pain. "I wasn't finished. What about you, pretty boy? Got anything to say?" He said, walking over to Connor with madness in his eyes. Connor shook his head straight away, feeling ashamed for succumbing to this mentalists reign of terror. "No? Good. After she drops the charges, which she will, you two will drop the charges of blackmail and harassment. Then, and only then, will I let you go.