There was something about the sunlight that crippled hope. That singular beam, dancing with the dusts sank Drake's resolve and left him empty. He'd been bound in this closet all night and no one had found him. They might never, not in time anyway… How long would it take before what was left of him became another bit of dust, dancing emptily in the sun?

He had no doubt that his father meant to kill him. He held no delusions of his father having a change of heart. No, everything was as it was, reality was coursing through every pain in his body, reminding him that there was nothing else.

He wasn't sure how long he had been awake, too afraid of what might happen if he closed his eyes. He knew that he had drifted off a few times, caught a glimpse of that empty oblivion and tried to welcome it. If he could only hold onto it, fall into it's arms and leave all of this behind.

There were footsteps outside, instances when his glimmer of light shut out of existence and then blinded his with its return. His dad was up and moving, whistling a taunting tune as he moved around the house. Drake pushed himself into his corner in an effort to melt into the wall. He didn't want his dad to open that door.

A final footfall and his bit of sun was gone, swallowed by the darkness his breath caught in his throat as the knob turned. His dad was a dark silhouette against the garish light, standing before him featureless and terrifying.

Without a word Devon dragged Drake out of the closet, dropping him onto the floor like a rag doll. He stared down at his son in distaste for uncountable minutes before pulling him to his feet and leading him thought the house.

The entire building was falling apart, like no one had lived there in years. Broken glass and porcelain glittered in the sunlight, jagged little sparkles against the filth that covered the floor. Dirt and debris shifted with every step he took. There were holes in the walls where vandals had ripped out wires, and something that looked like aged blood on the floor.

Im going to die here… The thought was a whisper through his mind.

Devon pushed open the door to reveal a small, moldy bathroom. The only window was heavily boarded. "Water works." He muttered as he cut the tape from Drake's wrists and pushed him in. "You have five minutes, use it wisely." He said before slamming the door.

Drake pulled the tape off his mouth and stumbled toward the sink. He was so thirsty. The water was dirty, but he didn't care. He cupped it into his hands and drank greedily for long seconds at a time. When he looked into the mirror his eyes burned with unshedable tears. There were dark circles under his eyes. Empty eyes… His lip was cracked. He lifted his shirt and examined the bruises across his abdomen, touching them lightly. He was a mess, and he knew that it would get worse.

He didn't look directly at the toilet, just closed his eyes and relieved his body of it's extra weight. His stomach jerked and he thought for a moment that he'd be sick. He managed to keep down what little was in his stomach and moved quickly toward the boarded up window. His fingers traced the frame, each piece of wood sealing away the gateway to freedom, pressing over the nails. What was out there, watching from the other side?

"Times up." Devon's voice shook him from his thoughts as he watched the door swing open. "C'mon." he father said, grabbing him by the arm.

Again Drake was lead through the house toward a room at the end of a narrow hallway. The blue and white striped wallpaper was peeling away from the white walls, exposing their yellowing color. The floor was a dark, sturdy wood. The window in this room was open, the shattered glass letting the cool morning air blow in. He shivered as he was pushed to his knees.

"All the fight out of you already?" Devon laughed.

Drake didn't reply. Anything he said might get him hurt.

"You're as weak as ever, boy." Devon mocked as he pulled a pair of handcuffs from his pocket. He snapped them over Drake's wrists and then held his arms above his head, leading a length of thick chain through them and fastening a large lock through the links. The chain was held by a thick, exposed pipe in the ceiling.

"Pull as much as you like, that pipe won't break." He said before pulling a stool in front of Drake and sitting down with a brown paper bag. From it, he pulled what looked like a bologna sandwich. "This house belonged to a friend of mine. Met him in prison." Drake's mouth watered as he watched his dad eat the sandwich.

"He killed his whole family in this house. Wife, son, back-stabbing brother. All of them butchered like cattle." Devon laughed, bits of chewed food falling to the floor. "He told me if I ever got out I could hide out here, was the first place I came to. Looks like shit, but I don't need anything fancy for what I'm gonna do to you."

"What are you going to do?" Drake asked, looking away from the half eaten sandwich into his dad's eyes.

"I spent seven years in prison, watching the world pass me by." Devon said, hate in his voice. "You get seven days. Seven days of pain before you die, and you get to watch the world outside that little window pass by you."

"It wasn't my fault," He tried.

"It was!" Devon yelled, rising up and forming a fist. "All of it, and don't you forget it. I missed out on a perfectly good life because of you. Got that shitty job when you were born and worked everyday to bring you up. You were nothing but a disappointment. I drank because I hated what I had created, but I loved your mother. I couldn't just leave. I tried to like you, but you looked just like me, like my father. And I hated that man, more hen you could imagine hating me." Devon growled. "That's the curse of our family, Drake. All of the men look alike, these features never change. I saw you and all I could feel was hate."

"That's not fair, I never did anything to you." Drake snapped. He'd never known that his dad's hate was based off of something so trivial.

"Life isn't fair." Devon snapped back. "I drank to try and lessen the hate and I lost my job. How was I going to give my little girl a better life with you around? Now she's living with some other guy pretending to be her father. I'm her father." He hissed.

Drake swallowed his fear, making his voice colder then it had ever been. "Walter's a better dad then you ever could have been." He meant every word of it.

That had done it. Devon hit him so hard his head spun. He could feel the handcuffs biting into his skin as he jerked back with the force of the hit, causing him to cry out. Devon hit him again and his ears rang.

"I hate the sound of your voice." Devon growled as he reached into the bag and pulled out a length of thick, green cloth.

Drake pulled at the handcuffs as he tried to move away from Devon, trying to avoid his ever reaching hands. He wrapped his fingers around Drake's throat, squeezing until small fingerprints rose on the skin. "You'd do best to keep your mouth shut, unless I ask you something." He advised as he tied the cloth into Drake's mouth.

Angry, Drake tried to scream, his muffled cries echoing against the bare and broken walls. Devon grabbed his hair and pulled his head back, holding his knife against the taunt flesh of Drake's throat. "Seven days," he chuckled, lightly tracing the blade over the skin.

Then he was gone, nothing but a cruel laugh and heavy footsteps as he left Drake alone in the cold room. Panic set in, numbing his mind and sense of reason as he pulled at the restraints. He pulled until his wrists bled, trailing down his arms like heavy tears. With his arms bound above his head, it didn't take long before they became cold, a feeling of emptiness setting in.

Drake turned his eyes toward the window, the chilled kiss of the morning on his cheeks. Outside there was a rusted swing-set, and a line of trees. Back beyond the house was a forest, countless trees shielding the house from the civilized world. It was dark within those trees, the kind of unknown darkness that made a person afraid to keep going. Just like the center of his father's eyes…

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A/N: Originally, i wanted to do more P.O.V.s, but aside from being short on time to write this in, I think that to have thrown more in would have taken away from what is there. Im trying to keep regular-ish updates...