They sat opposite each other. One man had no choice in the matter, bound to the chair as he was; the other lounged on the backwards-facing chair with his arms resting on the seat back. Neither spoke for a little while after Kyle put Syed's phone in his own pocket. As he had done so, Syed had seen the glint of the gun in his waistband and at that moment he realised he had to be incredibly careful.

Somehow they'd attracted another unstable person to themselves. Maybe it wasn't so odd that two men like Alec and Kyle would bond in their latent insanity. It had all stayed hidden until Christian and Syed got involved in their lives but it could have been anyone to pull these parts of their personalities to the forefront. He felt some pity for Kyle though. The man had suffered the loss of a dear friend, and any loss deserved sympathy. It was how he was handling the loss that was a problem.

As he sat there, he realised just how scared Christian must have been when he'd gone to rescue Kamil from that warehouse. He was in a similar environment himself right now. He could tell, now that his brain was less fuzzy from the chloroform, that he was being held in a room inside a dingy old warehouse, as he could see through an internal window into what looked like a vast space beyond. The metal of the building was rusting and old and there was no electricity in the place. Now that it was getting dark, all they had were the battery operated lights that Kyle had brought with him.

It seemed whatever Kyle was doing, he'd had it planned for a while.

Syed cleared his throat and decided to break the silence, carefully. "Revenge... it's not the answer."

"Oh please, spare me the lecture. Besides, 'revenge' is such a nasty word. I prefer 'justice'."

"Justice?" Syed scoffed. "What about this is justice? You kidnapped me, you've got a gun... isn't all that against the law? Will you then have to face justice for whatever you do to Christian? To me?"

"Yes." Kyle said, calmly.

Syed hadn't expected that. He'd hoped to jog some sense into Kyle but it was as if Kyle's addled brain still knew precisely what it was doing. But then, maybe it had to be to plan all this and to put it in motion. He was the most dangerous of lunatics. He was a smart, calculating one.

"What do you mean, 'yes'?"

"I fully expect a jail sentence, if I'm caught."

"Jail, for... murder? Cos that's what you're planning, right? But you're taking justice into your own hands. An eye for an eye, yeah? Who's to say someone won't come after you in the same way for all of this?"

"Maybe they will. The same applies to them if they catch me too."

"It's a vicious cycle. Kyle." Syed tried to put some force into his voice. "No good can come of it."

"I don't care about good!" Kyle shouted. "I care... cared... about Alec. Without him, I don't have anything. He was everything to me and I lost him. First to his distraction and then he died..." Kyle scooted his chair closer and when he was only about a foot away from Syed's face, he looked him square in the eye. "Tell me, Syed... tell me; what would it be like to lose Christian?"

Syed stayed quiet. He dropped his eyes. He didn't want to think about the prospect. He'd had enough close calls from the Vic fire to the Argee Bhajee to think about it and he never liked where his darker thoughts led him to.

"TELL ME!" Kyle screamed in Syed's face, bringing his attention back onto him. Kyle had taken the gun from his belt and pushed it into the side of Syed's head, betraying his calm exterior for a moment before settling back down. He waved the gun in front of his face again and shrugged as he played with it. "Tell me. I want to hear it," he said again, more calm.

Syed swallowed; he didn't want to anger Kyle any more so he just had to be honest. "It would rip me apart."

Kyle smiled, though it was the dark smile of a satisfaction borne of someone else's pain. "Keep going."

"... I've had times when I thought I hit rock bottom but I haven't. That would only happen if I didn't have Christian..."

"You see?" Kyle gestured madly between them. "You understand better than you realise. I'm pretty much at rock bottom, Syed. This is what I chose to do with it. When you hit rock bottom in a few days, then you can decide what you do with it."

"A few days?"

"You didn't think this would all be over in a day, did you? I'm going to enjoy this, Syed. I'm taking my time with it."

Kyle had left Syed alone for a little while. He occasionally saw the other man through the window as he paced the building. He saw him on a phone at one point but wasn't sure if it was Kyle's own one or Syed's confiscated one. While he was away, Syed had tried to loosen his bindings but to no avail. This wasn't a television show and he had no idea about getting out of whatever knots were being used. As much as he struggled, he just didn't seem to be making a dent.

Kyle wandered back in, making a show of tucking his own phone back into his pocket. "Never underestimate the importance of a good alibi," he said.

Syed looked away from him. He could barely stand to look at him and he knew his disdain was obvious.

"I need to go out for the night."

"Make sure people see you in clubs or something?"

"Something like that. I need to take a detour through Albert Square though."

"The Square?" Syed was surprised that Kyle would mention it. "Why?" He asked warily.

"I need to see what's going on. See if anyone is actually missing you, if they care. Everything in this plan is timed. I need to find out when to play that next card..."

"You're leaving me here? Tied to the chair?"

"Yes."

"What am I supposed to do?"

"Sit there. I thought that was obvious."

"What about food, water... other things..."

"Well, I'll give you something to drink before I go, you'll be fine without food for the night and as for that other thing well... when you've got to go, you've got to go."

Syed just stared after Kyle as he went to a bag to grab a bottle of water from it. He couldn't believe this. He hadn't even given it any proper thought. The idea of being here and tied up had initially thrown him into some kind of shock and he'd only thought about the here and now. Suddenly thinking about how he'd cope for a night like this, his brain had immediately thought about going to the toilet. Still, if Kyle went away he'd have more time to try and think up a way of escaping.

Kyle forced the bottle of water into Syed's mouth and urged him to drink. He kept the water there, a lot of it spilling over and down Syed's neck as he tried to drink as much as he could, knowing that if this was all he'd get then he should make the most of it. After, Kyle dropped the empty bottle beside Syed's chair and laughed, "Maybe if you could reach it, you could use it to pee in."

Syed didn't have a response. Slowly it was sinking in just how much trouble he was in and that Kyle certainly didn't care about his welfare. He'd fasted before, so he knew he could go a length of time without food, but that was so much different to this situation.

Kyle wandered out of the room and then, moments later, came back, this time with the gun out of his pocket.

"Oh and, I don't want you getting ideas about escaping while I'm gone. I know what's in your head. Those knots aren't easily undone but... I think you need something to take your mind off escape."

"What would that be?" Syed didn't mean to taunt, and he regretted it the moment he saw that dark smile return to Kyle's face as he pointed the gun at Syed properly.

"This should do the trick."

Syed didn't even have time to gasp before the shot rang out around him. The sound of it was all he noticed; along with a brief flash of hope that other people had heard it. He didn't register the pain until he looked down at himself and saw blood.