Enjoy . . .

A loud ringing pulled Trey back into awareness. He sat up quickly feeling disoriented, he looked around. Ryan. The oldest Atwood got to his feet and hurried to the phone. "Hello?" he spoke tiredly.

"Trey? This is Sandy Cohen," a worried voice filtered onto the phone. "Oh, hey Mister Cohen," Trey said trying to hide his displeasure. He looked towards his bedroom door. Ryan is in there, probably unconscious. But it's gonna be okay, I'll convince him to stay with me. Then we can put this whole thing behind us.

"Have you seen Ryan at all? He's really scaring us, he wont pick up his cell phone, and we've looked everywhere!" Sandy spat out, not once taking a breath. He waited patiently for an answer.

"You lost my brother?" Trey spoke into the phone. He hoped that Sandy wouldn't catch him in the lie. Trey paced all over the room, trying his best not to bite he fingernails.

"Look Trey, I know what this may sound like . . . but we had a bit of a disagreement this evening and he took off, he's been missing since around 8:30!" Sandy guiltily admitted.

Trey smiled at the last comment, he could use that against Sandy. Maybe he could convince Sandy to stay away from here. "You yelled at my brother, and didn't stop him when he left? What kind of person are you?" Trey accused.

"Please just call me if you see him okay? I'm with a good friend of mind, a police officer . . . and we're going to search for him, I'm sure he'll turn up!" Sandy said not sure of how the older Atwood would take it.

Trey had done it; he convinced Sandy that he was worried. "Yeah Mister Cohen, I'll call if he comes here, but I couldn't imagine why he would . . . we got into a fight a couple days ago!" Trey looked at his feet trying to come up with a good lie. "He was angry with me, but if he does come by you'll be the first person I call!" Trey then held his breath waiting for a response.

"Thanks, and I'll call you when we find him, which I'm sure will be soon!" Sandy assured him. "And if by some chance we don't find him by later today, we may come down to your apartments . . . you know, just in case!" Sandy told him.

The two spoke for a few more minutes and finally Trey hung up the phone. He sighed and leaned heavily back onto the wall, the cool surface felt good against his hot skin.

He trudged into the bathroom and took a look at himself in the mirror. His eyes were bloodshot, thanks to the cocaine he had sniffed hours ago. The only visible injury that Ryan had left on him were three fingernail marks across his face. They would easily pass for getting into a fight at the bar, maybe he could convince people that he was helping a drunk woman to her car and . . .

A loud moan pulled him from his silent reverie. Trey walked into his room to see Ryan rolling around restlessly. At least he's not unconscious anymore. He walked to the bed and grabbed onto both of Ryan's shoulders, and held him still. "Ryan!" Trey shouted trying to pull him from his nightmare.

Ryan's eyes snapped open, once his eyes laid upon who was shaking him, he tried his hardest to get away. He pushed Trey back with all of his might, and even with one arm handcuffed to the bedpost he was able to knock Trey off of his feet.

Dizziness enveloped the youngest Atwood; he rested back against the bed praying that the room would stop spinning. Nausea filled all of his senses and he knew that it would take nothing short of a miracle to keep him from expelling the items in his stomach.

Rage pushed into Trey's senses. He gazed back up at Ryan and felt only a hint of remorse when Ryan couldn't even hold himself up. His brother swayed back and forth on the bed, a sound of utter surprise stealing his voice.

Trey found his feet and stood up. He sat down on the bed and looked at his brother, Ryan's eyes were closed again, and he was in the land of unconsciousness. "It's going to be okay Ryan, we're gonna be fine!" Trey spoke quietly, noticing that Ryan's head wound had reopened and was bleeding heavily.

Trey found a dirty T-shirt on the floor, sopped up the new blood from Ryan's face. "We're gonna be fine!" He began again. "You'll see!"

TBC