Here's the next...well...part. I don't know what to say or how to introduce this...just read it...and hate me (bows head)

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Warnings: The things that take place in this chapter may not be suitable and/or acceptable by most audiences. And if this story weren't already rated M, this would certainly make it so.


Two days. Roxas had been gone two days, and there was still no sign of him anywhere.

Axel rubbed a hand over his eyes, turning away from the window. It seemed that, more often than not, he found himself there, staring out into the city and wondering where Roxas was. Wondering if he was alright.

Wondering if he was even alive.

Asmara stayed with him, and he wasn't sure whether to be grateful for her constant presence or not. He supposed he should be thankful. After all, if she weren't around to watch him, who knew what he'd try to do.

The neighbor's search party had turned up nothing, but they refused to give up. The police had found no trace of Edmund either. They'd gone to his apartment, and found all of his belongings there, but they'd found no signs that he'd been there since before Roxas went missing. It all but pointed the finger at him as the kidnapper, but it did nothing to bring him to justice and Roxas home.

"How are you feeling?" Asmara asked as she sat next to him. Dark circles around her tired eyes were a visual tribute to her suffering. To all of their suffering. Dominay had gotten released and was currently forming her own search party of co-workers with Demyx's help. Zexion was watching the hospitals and police stations for any reports of anyone matching Roxas' description, and Riku had his hands full keeping the publicity on their side and consoling Sora, who'd fallen into the depths of despair.

Axel shrugged at Asmara's question, realizing that he'd gotten lost in his thoughts again. "Do you have to ask?"

"I guess not…it's pretty obvious…" she reached into a bag and held out what she'd retrieved to him. Axel accepted it with thanks and opened the package. "You know," Asmara began quietly, the hoarseness of her voice made more prominent by her exhaustion and emotional turmoil. "Roxas would kill you if he knew."

"Well, he's not here, is he?" Axel countered sadly, lighting the cigarette pressed tightly between his lips. He'd needed an outlet. It was either smoke or scream uselessly at nothing. At least this way, he wouldn't suffer a constant headache or lose his mind.

Asmara wiped at her eyes, still trying to be the strong one. "It's only been two days…why are you giving up?"

"I'm not," Axel replied, taking another long drag. "But today…today was supposed to be special. Today was our two year anniversary."

"Is," Asmara corrected, wiping at her eyes again, harder this time. "Today is your two year anniversary."

Shrugging, Axel turned away to stare out the window again. "Whatever." He wanted to be out there, helping to search for Roxas, but he'd been sent home, practically falling over from exhaustion after searching non-stop for sixteen hours. "I never thought we'd be spending it like this…"

"No one did, Axel." a knock broke into their heavy conversation, much to Asmara's relief. She went and answered the door, inviting the person on the other side to come in.

Axel glanced over to see Namine standing in her clean white outfit, eyes shimmering with tears, her face stained with them. "I heard about Roxas just now. I'd like to help, if that's alright with you?" Asmara readily accepted the girl's offer, while Axel just flicked the butt of his cigarette out the window and lit up another. Great. Another sympathizer. He sighed. He was sick of people telling him how sorry they were. Sick of them offering to help in any way that they could. He had help. He knew they were sorry. He didn't want their pity.

He wanted Roxas back.

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"Sora? Are you going to be alright?"

Sora didn't even blink at Riku's worried words. He continued to stare at the wall. Nobody understood, nobody could. He could almost swear that he was sharing in his twin's fright, sharing his brother's pain.

Something was very wrong, and Sora just wanted Roxas with him, to know that his brother wasn't in the fire of it any longer.

Riku sat next to him, running a hand gently through his hair, and Sora closed his eyes for the first time in what felt like forever. "We'll find him, sunshine. Everybody is looking for him. And Edmund couldn't have taken him far."

What a lie. Edmund could have taken Roxas across the country at this point. They didn't even know where to find their prime suspect. The police's efforts were dwindling slowly down to nothing, since the forty-eight hour time mark had passed.

There wasn't any need to rush a search for a dead body, right?

Sora lay there, guilty that he was taking comfort in the warmth and strength of Riku, while out there, somewhere, Roxas was afraid and alone, with a dangerous man. He felt another fit coming on and held tightly to Riku as the first tears in a long stream began to fall down his face.

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Groaning, Roxas twisted his wrists again, trying to loosen the gigantic knot Edmund had tied before leaving. He couldn't be sure how much time had passed, the only sense of time passing at all that he had was the brief glimpses he got of sunlight streaming through a small hole in one of the windows. He guessed it had to have been at least a day, if not more. If felt like more than a day.

Wincing as the rope dug into his already raw flesh, Roxas stopped struggling for a moment to take stock. Since he'd first been dragged into this room, Edmund had only beaten him twice, the first time that night he'd arrived, and the second time Roxas had simply been on the receiving end of the psycho's inner battles with himself for obsessing over a guy.

He ached in places he didn't even know could ache at this point, and he was sure there wasn't a single part of him that wasn't bruised. Though Edmund had a habit of hitting him everywhere but his face, claiming it was too pretty to fuck up.

Taking another deep breath, Roxas sat up awkwardly and leaned forward, steadily pulling against the rope. Either the rope would snap, the pipe he was tied to would break, or his arms would come off. Whichever way worked for him at this point. He was cold, hungry, in pain, and sick of being the good little victim. He'd kept his mouth shut and been a good boy so Edmund wouldn't go ape-shit on him again. He'd learned his lesson with that. It had gotten the tape off of his feet and mouth, but it hadn't given him any more freedom.

The pipe moaned under the pressure and Roxas felt his hopes rise for the first time since coming here. He jerked harder, twisting around to kick at the pipe, arms wrapped at a painful angle above his head. When it finally gave and fell apart into a rusted heap, Roxas had to force back a triumphant smile. He wasn't safe yet. He still had to get out of the room.

Yanking the rope off his wrists, Roxas pushed to his feet, stumbling as his body screamed in protest. He must've been more hurt than he'd thought. But it didn't matter. He was free and now he had to run. Under sheer willpower, Roxas straightened, arm wrapped around his middle for support, as he wandered around the dim space, trying to find the door.

He found it, but unfortunately, it was locked from the outside. After a good ten minutes or so of uselessly kicking and beating the door with what little he could find, Roxas went back to exploring the room. There was next to nothing there. Just the pallet of blankets and him. Roxas went up to one of the windows and strained to see out if it. He tugged a board free. It tore off easily enough and he began to rip them off in earnest.

Once revealed, Roxas looked around and picked up a piece of what was left of the pipe he'd been tied to and smashed the window open. Brushing what was left of the glass out of the sill, Roxas pulled himself up, ignoring the small burning cuts he received from the jagged remains. He was almost free, his face was outside, he could feel the breeze, see the clouded sky.

Almost…

"Roxas, I'm ba—you little bitch."

Edmund.

Before he could speak or move, Roxas was pulled out of the window and thrown to the floor. He opened his mouth to scream as Edmund dragged him back to the pallet, tossing him against the wall. Pinning him there, Edmund tied his hands once more, tight enough to cut them off.

"Shut up, you ungrateful little—'' Edmund grunted when Roxas jerked away, kicking his chest. "Fine, you wanna play rough?" sitting firmly on Roxas' chest, Edmund pulled out a knife and began to cut off his clothes. Realizing his intent, Roxas fought back harder, screaming for help, wrists beginning to bleed as he tried to get free of the ropes.

Once he was naked, Edmund gave him a good punch in the stomach, making Roxas gag, turning his face to retch. Stunned, Roxas couldn't move, barely breath as Edmund flipped him onto his stomach.

"I'll just have to remind you who you belong to…" he muttered. As the words clicked in his brain, Roxas attempted to roll away, only to have Edmund hold him in place with a hand on his back while he forced something cold and hard into his body.

Screaming in pure agony, Roxas fought to get away, but his movements only served to hurt him more.

"What's the matter, Roxas? I thought you liked to take it up the ass." Edmund taunted, reaching around to cover the blond's mouth, stifling the pained cries. "Oh, that's right, you only like it when it's a person…I can arrange that."

The piece of pipe Roxas had used to break open the window was tossed aside with a clatter as Edmund undid his zipper. Choking on whatever protest would have come up, Roxas squeezed his eyes shut in pain as Edmund forced himself inside this time. Tears fell down his face, joining the blood that had already begun to stain the ratty blankets beneath them. His blood.

Edmund finished, standing to fix himself and give Roxas a good stomp on the back for good measure. When Roxas just lay there, sobbing, Edmund knelt back down.

He froze, sucking back his tears as he felt Edmund press something cool against the inside of his thigh.

"Do you need any more convincing?"

Head hanging limply off his neck, Roxas moaned a denial, unable to keep his body from trembling. In pain, in humiliation, in defeat.

Seemingly satisfied and over his anger, Edmund put his knife away and twisted Roxas' head around to see his face. "We've learned our lesson, haven't we?"

Roxas opened his mouth, but all that came out was a soft, desperate sound. Edmund interpreted that as an agreement and nodded, dark eyes burning into Roxas' face.

"Good. I don't want to have to do that again. So be good, and don't try to escape again, we clear?"

Another soft sound. Edmund released him and Roxas collapsed onto the blankets, sobbing anew at the painful throbbing, the burning in and outside of his body. Why? What did Edmund really want with him? Was this it? Was this why Edmund wouldn't kill him? Did the bastard get a sick satisfaction out of being in control? Did he enjoy seeing Roxas hurt? But he always claimed that he didn't want to hurt him.

It made no sense, but for now, it was over. Edmund had cooled off and was now murmuring soft words as he cleaned up the mess he'd made. Once that was done, he lay down beside Roxas, holding him and stroking his hair. Roxas turned his face away and threw up, physically ill from having the monster touch him.

All he could think about in that moment was his mother. Why now, of all times? Perhaps it was how cold he suddenly felt inside. Maybe because he was getting attention he didn't want, when all his childhood was spent convinced that he didn't want affection of any kind. His past was playing over and over in his head, his mother trying to drown him, Sora saving him. All the years she ignored the fact that he even existed, referring to him as either 'it' or 'that one'. That time when he'd been eleven and he'd gotten sick of his mother's crap. The two of them had fought, and she'd thrown him to the ground, a lot like Edmund had just done. She hadn't raped him, but she had kicked him, screamed at him, called him names…

And then, then she'd admitted that the only reason she'd kept him alive and then in her house was because she wanted to keep Sora, her on again off again angel, from crying and annoying her further.

Was he really only a means to an end?

"Don't piss me off again, alright?" Edmund whispered.

That was why. His mother only ever paid attention to him whenever he got in her way, whenever he pissed her off. It seemed that it was the same with Edmund. If Roxas kept his head down and his mouth shut, he'd be fine.

Hands tightening in his hair, Edmund tilted his head back. "Alright?"

Feeling himself retreating into some far corner of his mind, an escape from the pain he suffered and knew was yet to come, Roxas answered hoarsely.

"Alright,"


Just be glad I didn't go into filthy detail. I don't care if you think I'm rushing through this, but I don't want to spend any more time in this part of the story than I have to. It's really making me depressed to write it, and I just want it over with. I'm sure by now, you all agree.

And yes...Edmund is a f#cking psycho who should die a thousand deaths.