Okay, I'm going to confess that I have no idea what I'm doing in this chapter. But I do know that nobody is completely evil. Everyone human has something sympathetic about them, and if you can keep that in mind and take advantage of it, you can befriend those who might otherwise be abhorrent.

I'm going to re-warn you guys that this can be pretty triggering, so if you think you'll get triggered, skip everything between the first and second set of song lyrics (the lyrics that aren't just single lines), or even skip the entire chapter, since it keeps referencing that part. I'll include a short summary at the end of the chapter.


Chapter VII: Sebastian

One year and two days ago:

If Sebastian had to go to one more of these stupid galas, where his father mixed and mingled with Ohio's finest (and kinkiest, but no one talked about that) he was going to scream. In fact, he did scream, mostly because he walked into a waitress who looked at most twenty, holding a tray of scalding-hot soup.

"Shit!" the young woman cursed, then scrambled up. "Are you okay?" she asked, despite the fact that her chest (what Sebastian could see of it, anyway) was an inflamed red and her distinctly un-waitress-like dress was drenched in what looked like uncomfortable patterns.

"My father is going to kill me," he muttered, getting up and slipping so that he landed hard on his sore ass. "This suit's a rental."

"Don't worry about it," the young woman offered her hand and helped him up. "You can blame it all on me if you want."

"That'll never work," Sebastian said.

"I can see that," she said, staring at a point past Sebastian's shoulder. He turned around and saw his father's angry glare being masked by a thin veneer of shallow concern. Before he could cower and trip over his tongue, explaining, the young woman grabbed him and jerked him to a back room, saying just loudly enough for Damon to hear, "You're going to come fix the mess you caused." But when they got to the back room, instead of finding mops, Sebastian found bandages and first aid kits and some sort of soothing ointment that was skillfully applied to his red and swollen hand.

"What was that look?" she asked.

"What do you mean? He was angry," Sebastian wondered if he looked as nervous as he felt. He hoped not.

"He wasn't just angry," the maybe-waitress-maybe-not retorted. "I know angry, and he looked like he was going to hurt you."

Sebastian shrugged. "Who cares?"

"I do," she said.

Sebastian was angry enough to smack her arm. "What can you do? You're just the help! My father's lawyers will crush you!"

"Oh, the soup," the woman shrugged. "One of the waitresses twisted her ankle. I helped her get ice on it and promised to take over for her."

Sebastian's heart opened a little. If this woman was willing to help someone she had never met, maybe she would be willing to help him too. So he spilled his life story and watched the woman's face grow grimmer and grimmer.

"If what you say is true, sir, then I will contact the police right away," the woman said. "I'm friends with the chief of the Philly PD, and I will get things done."

But someone must have tipped his father off, because the next day, Damon booked a red-eye flight to his brother in Paris. As the taxi drove Sebastian to the airport, it passed by a large, imposing black SUV. Sebastian saw that woman driving, and one year later, he would meet her again and decide to hit her where it would hurt—her son.


Present Day:

The first thing Damon noticed was that Blaine was defiant. He wasn't like Sebastian, willing to do whatever his father said as long as it didn't get him beaten. Well, that meant that the first guy, who requested a bathtub, and whom Damon knew was the harshest, would have the honor of breaking Blaine's spirit.

"You have thirty minutes to do whatever you want, but you get to keep the tape forever," he told his first customer of the night as he set up the camera. Then he left. He couldn't be charged if he had no idea what was going on.


If I could find a way to see this straight I'd run away
To some fortune that I should have found by now.

No, no, no, Blaine did not want this. He didn't want to be chained to a bathtub as some strange man came over him. This was all too reminiscent of his past. He closed his eyes and tried to pretend that he wasn't here. But this time, he couldn't quite find his happy place.

And then someone pushed inside him, hard and brutal, groaning while Blaine screamed and arched his body from the pain. The cries of agony only made the man drive into Blaine harder. Each yelp and groan of pain grew more and more desperate and hoarse. Blaine began to jerk—partly in pain, partly to fight the man off—but all that happened was the man jerking his arm painfully back, twisting it until Blaine could swear it had been ripped off. And yet Blaine was still fighting, still bucking up against the man despite the pain, so his head was forced under the water. The boy stiffened, then strained against the pain, and after a few more brutal, forceful thrusts, the man let him up for air. Blaine's brutalized, bruised body was then pulled out, sputtering and choking, out of the tub by none other than Sebastian Smythe.

"Sebas-? What?" he coughed out, unable to form a coherent syllable.

"Alright, you're done here," Sebastian told Mr. Thanatos. "Take your tape and leave," he threw the small cassette tape at the man and walked over to Blaine with a washcloth. As gently as he knew how, he wiped the blood off.

"Let me out, Sebastian," Blaine said hotly.

"I can't do that, okay?" Sebastian looked more terrified than Blaine had ever seen him. "I don't have the key." And I don't want to be in your position.

"Why are you doing this then?" Blaine nodded to Sebastian's hands.

"Because I know how bad it hurts," Sebastian said, looking directly at Blaine with completely honesty for the first time.

"Is this what he does to you?" Blaine asked with dawning awareness. He had known something was off. He just didn't know it was this bad.

"Not always," Sebastian answered evasively. "Not since, you know, I started bringing other people over."

Blaine nodded. "I see," he said. Suddenly, upstairs there was yelling and Sebastian froze, terror shining in his eyes.

"Look through my clothes," Blaine stopped Sebastian by grabbing his hand tightly and got his attention. "You'll find this necklace. You have to press on the eyes, okay?" he said.

"You should've run," Sebastian tried to catch his breath, clutching his ribs. "He would have killed me this time."

"Exactly!" Blaine hissed. "Now, you need to press the eyes, okay? Press the eyes, a hospital will send an ambulance, and my mother will know where you are."

"Stop being so noble," Sebastian insisted, tugging on Blaine's shirt.

"Stop being so ignoble," Blaine hissed.

So I run now to the things they said could restore me
Restore life the way it should be
I'm waiting for this cough syrup to come down

Sebastian dropped the washcloth and grabbed Blaine's clothes from where they were scattered on the floor just as his father cleared his throat from above him. Suddenly, a loud crack split the air and both Smythes turned to see Blaine tug his broken hand out of the cuffs that bound him to the tub and charge Damon. Sebastian got up slowly, mindful of his injuries, and ran out of there. The sounds of flesh striking flesh told him that Damon had struck Blaine as hard as he could, and the sound of Blaine's voice, in genuine pain, rubbed him raw, much like the sound of Damon calling someone back down the dungeon to "finish what he started" and "get his money's worth."

Sebastian turned and ran out the front door while everyone else was occupied and dove into his car. Once he felt like he had driven far enough away from his house, he took out the toy lion in Blaine's pocket. It was a cheap little toy, probably worth less than the sum of its materials. Still, he could see why Blaine would want to poke it in the eyes. Sebastian wondered if the toy would let out a delightful, high-pitched squeal of pain when he did that.

It didn't. It didn't do anything. Sebastian was so angry, he threw the toy against the windshield and it cracked. It was just as broken and weak as him, except they both appeared whole. Suddenly, Sebastian was exhausted. It was as if that one action had drained him of all his energy. Something warm grew against his cheek. Part Sebastian's brain recognized that it was his blood, just flowing in a different direction. He wondered how much blood he had lost, and whether or not he was going into shock right now. Actually, he didn't care about that either. He lacked the energy to even crawl into the backseat, so he put his face against the steering wheel.

When Sebastian woke up, he was on a stage. A band appeared behind him, and he was Blaine. Okay, this was definitely not waking up. He supposed this was Blaine's fantasy, Blaine's happy place, a way to get away from all the things that were probably being done to him right now. He hoped that his being here didn't mean Blaine couldn't be there. A band behind him played, and he was shaken awake.

"Who are you, and why do you have this?" the woman Sebastian recognized as Blaine's mother demanded, slapping his face gently.

"He gave it to me," Sebastian was surprised at how weak he sounded. He hoped he never sounded like that again. "He, please, he needs help."

The woman said something else, but her voice was drowned out by sirens in the background, then by the sounds of a song Sebastian was singing under calm blue lighting.

One more spoon of cough syrup now.


"If that's true, Sebastian, then we need to find your father, and we need to get my son out of there," Pearl said, helping him up. "Come on, I have to take you to the hospital."

"No," Sebastian fought her off. "You don't get it! Father won't let me go if he sees me in the hospital with a stranger; he'll kill me this time. And in the meantime, what do you think he's going to do to Blaine?"

"We can go to a judge right now. I can call the police, file an arrest warrant, and in the meantime, find Blaine," Blaine's mother tried weakly.

Sebastian chuckled. "He's going to contest the warrant, and then it could be days before you get Blaine back," he swayed a little where he stood. "Seriously, the best thing to do right now is to just let me go back in and get Blaine."

"I can't let you do that," Pearl bit her lip. It was one thing to risk her own life for her son. It was quite another to risk someone else's, especially when she knew there was a far bigger chance of both boys dying.

"I can tell you what he did to me, and while I'm doing that, you can remind yourself that it's what he's probably doing to your son while you're running around trying to do things the legal way," Sebastian panted, looking up at her.

Pearl sighed. "I'm going to drive you back to your house," she said, "then I'm going to drive to my friend's house, drop off my badge, and break into the house after you while she calls the police. If I'm not involved in the investigation, your dad can't claim conflict of interest. Now, Sebastian," when she turned to the boy she saw someone who could help her instead of someone who needed her help, "what do you need me to do?"


Stupid camera. Stupid, stupid camera.


Pearl was shaking as she carefully maneuvered Blaine toward the door, allowing her son to pull his soaked (not just bathwater, was it?) pants back up. Only then was he aware of screaming upstairs. He began to tremble. "What's going on up there?" he asked, turning to look at his mother.

Pearl pressed a hand over his eyes. "Don't look, Blaine. Don't look at Sebastian, don't look at me, and for goodness sake, don't look at the man who were threatening to have sex with you! And if anyone asks, I didn't do it, okay? Just like I'm totally not doing what I'm going to do to Sebastian's father as soon as you're in the car."

"Mother, what are you talking about?" Blaine asked, terrified. "What do you mean, don't look at Sebastian? I thought he left."

Pearl paused, and Blaine took advantage of her momentary hesitation and broke free, only to find the second most horrifying sight he had ever laid eyes on.


Sebastian turned away from the sight downstairs, knowing his father was due to hear the ruckus at any minute. He swallowed hard when his eyes fell on his father's favorite hunting trophy. It was a rare stuffed fish's head, easily breakable, which was exactly what he was going to do now. His hands shook as he picked up a lug wrench and smashed it against the fish's mouth. The crash was horrendous and brought Damon upstairs, where his eyes narrowed at the extent of the damage Sebastian had done.

"What on Earth are you doing?" he demanded.

"I'm keeping you from doing something stupid," Sebastian glared. "Who's down there?" he nodded toward the stairs. "The rope guy?" he shook his arm so that his sleeve would reveal thick scars on his arms, where they had been rubbed raw. "The water guy again?" he sneered. "The fire guy?" his voice grew soft as he remembered what he had done.

"Sebastian, you shut up and go find me somebody for-"

"No, Father! I'm done!" Sebastian roared. "Tyler, J.P., Jon, Jake…I let you have them because they were assholes to me! But Blaine was nice. When I tried to attack his boyfriend, he jumped out in front of him to protect him! He forgave me. When I tried to attack him for real, he just let me, to try to protect his friends again! And when I started to cry, because I couldn't do it and it wasn't fair, he actually comforted me. He has more reason to hate me than you ever have, and he's been nicer to me that you ever have been and probably ever will."

"You put down that lug wrench and listen to me!" Damon responded.

Sebastian swung it at his father's head instead. A combination of concussion and blood loss kept him from actually making contact. Instead, Damon grabbed the lug wrench and raised it above his head. Sebastian's legs gave out and he cowered, only to see Damon turn around and hit Blaine in the side, knocking the boy all the way across the room.

Somehow, Sebastian got back up again and jumped on his father's back. Damon shrugged him off, only to have a woman far too strong for her 120-pound frame to attack him head-on. He swung the lug wrench over and over, but it was like damaging a corpse; it seemed to make no difference to her, but she was making a huge difference to him with her hands around his neck.

"Pearl!" Blaine cried.

Pearl let go and Damon massaged his damaged, almost completely-crushed throat. When the woman turned back to Blaine, the boy was looking at her with something akin to horror in his eyes. She had lost him.

One more spoon of cough syrup now. Oh-oh, oh-oh.


Yeah, here we are. "Damon" means "to tame," which was what he was doing to Blaine. "Thanatos" is the personification of death, and you'll see why I chose that name next chapter. Damon runs an illegal child porn operation in his basement. Sebastian's job, if he doesn't want to be in those videos, is to find other people to be in them. He wanted to seduce Blaine into the operation because he thought Blaine would survive it for longer and he could relax for a while, but realized that Blaine was a good person and tried to keep him out. Blaine overheard Sebastian being taken downstairs and ran in to help him, so now he was bound to the bathtub as a customer named Mr. Thanatos does what he paid for. Sebastian feels guilty and goes back in to kick Thanatos out and clean Blaine up, but Thanatos complains to Damon and Sebastian has to run when both men come downstairs. Sebastian gets Blaine's lion and Pearl comes back. They form a plan where she goes down to take care of Thanatos and Sebastian takes care of his father.

Next time, David Mele ("mele" means "singer" in Hawaiian, where Titus, the actor who plays David, is from) makes an unexpected decision, and Pearl realizes she got a little carried away with the violence.

And yes, there is a reason that Blaine called her "Pearl" and not 'Mother."