AN.: Thank you for the reviews! I'm glad someone is enjoying this story.

Laughing

"Joe! Joe wake up already!" Someone was shouting his name, gripping his shoulders and shaking him. Suddenly being aware that this was not a normal way to be woken up by, Joe sat up sharply, his heart beating a mile a minute. He looked around with wide eyes, waiting for his view to clear. He was disorientated and searched for a clue to explain the feeling that something was utterly wrong. His gaze landed on the silhouette, who was hovering over him, still clutching his shoulders painfully and recognized it as Hoss, as his eyes finally decided to adjust to the bright light.

"Hoss! What is wrong?" Little Joe asked, his voice shaking from the abrupt use after a long, peaceful sleep. The sun was up already, dancing in the sky and greeting them with its warmth. Suddenly, Joe's mind was flooded with memories of the last day's events: The trip to Reno, the hours of exhausting negotiations, them setting up camp and Adam's nightmares and him being too stubborn to accept help from his brothers. Adam. Joe finally decided to tune in to Hoss' panicked ramble Joe hadn't even realized he'd zoned out from to catch the last few words.

"-could be dead! We have to pack and go! Now!" Little Joe blinked a few times in confusion. Wait what? "What do you mean Hoss? What is going on?" Joe asked, his breath suddenly trying to catch up to his heart's rhythm. He was already dreading the answer. "Joe! Ye were supposed to wake me up but ye fell asleep and now Adam's gone! Were ye even listenin'? We have to go and look for 'im!" Hoss repeated, turning away from Joe to pack their stuff. With Hoss gone from his frame of view, Joe was finally able to glance at the place Adam was supposed to be. His blanket and bedroll lay discarded in the dirt and traces of someone stumbling away from their camp littered the dusty ground. No sight of his oldest brother. Joe's world started to spin. He had been supposed to watch his older brother, to keep him safe and prevent him from walking off but instead, Joe had fallen asleep. It was his fault. One task and Joe had messed it up. He had failed his brother. Suddenly, there was a firm grip on his bicep, hauling him to his feet.

"Joe, now's not the time to feel guilty. Ya can help 'im by helping me trackin 'im down." Hoss was dragging him over to their horses, their stuff already secured in their saddle-bags. Joe commanded his legs to work properly again and swung himself up into Cochise's saddle. Adrenalin and determination took over. Hoss was right. Joe should focus on helping Adam in the best way possible now and that was finding him and assuring that he was safe and unharmed.

"Yeah, let's go. We're going to get our brother back." With that, Joe and Hoss rode off, following the tracks into the unknown.

Adam woke up slowly, feeling really exhausted. His whole body ached all over, especially his back and shoulders. Adam knew that it was getting more and more difficult to get a full night's rest camping outside, nature providing only the ground as mattress, with growing age, but the pain he felt right now was almost overwhelming. To get at least a bit of relief, Adam decided to stretch his abused and aching limbs only to realize that they didn't comply as Adam wished. Tugging at his hands with more energy to get them out of the uncomfortable position behind his back send a sharp pain upwards and made his arms tingle as if thousands of ants were crawling under his skin. He was tied up. Testing his feet revealed that they were bound together as well. Adam snapped his eyes open, half expecting to see his brothers stare down at him apologetically, but instead, he stared at a stony ceiling which was lulled in a dim light coming from somewhere behind his head. A cold breeze licked at his face making him shiver and a foul, wet smell assaulted his nose. Adam's heart sunk into the pit of his stomach, his pulse spiking and his breath hitching in his throat. He wiggled around, aggravating the tender flesh on his wrists further with every pull at his bonds. This wasn't the work of his brothers. They would never do something like this to him. Even when Hoss had first tied him up, he had also insisted on padding the rope to prevent Adam's wrists and ankles from bruising.

"Hello?" Adam tested his voice, not quite expecting to get an answer back when he heard a shuffling sound coming from directly in front of him, further down in the darkness of what Adam assumed had to be a deserted mining shaft. Straining his neck, he lifted his heavy head from the ground, trying to lay eyes on his abductor. There he was, Sherman Wright, sitting on a rock only a few feet away. He stared at Adam, a malicious grin plastered onto his dirty visage, his head slightly tilted in a crazed manner and his eyes sparkling, telling tales of agony and murder. Adam couldn't believe his eyes. I must be having a nightmare again, he thought. Wright was in prison. Adam had send him there. This had to be another illusion his broken mind was providing to remind Adam of his sin. That's what he might have believed... until Wright spoke up.

"I've waited quite a while for you to wake up." Wright got up from the rock, stepping closer to Adam. "You know, the coldness and the darkness of this lovely place helps me think." He squatted down right in front of Adam's feet. "About all the things I could to with you." He grabbed one of Adam's foot and enjoyed Adam's miserable try to wiggle away from him.

"You are supposed to be in prison! What are you doing here!?" Adam screamed in his face, suddenly furious. His anger gave way to fear quickly as Wright was hovering over his face in the blink of an eye, grabbing Adam's throat tightly and choking him.

"Watch it Cartwright! You should watch your darn manners!" Wright spat into Adam's face while squeezing harder and harder until black dots started to dance at the rim of Adam's vision. Adam's fading gaze caught Wright's face. The man before him had an expression of pure euphoria etched into the wrinkles tracing his face. His steely blue eyes were unfocused, as if he wasn't even realizing what he was doing. Wright licked his lips, his breathing increasing. Adam was struggling with his bound limbs, trying to fight Wright's weight off of him. His conscious was slowly fading and right there and then in Adam's dying moment, a peaceful thought crossed his mind: He had been right the whole time. Wright was a monster and a murderer. He had brutally choked a young woman to death -just like he was choking Adam right now. The shadowed figure in the alley, releasing a limp body from their grip, had finally a face and Adam's little lie had been a service to Virginia city and its people. He felt like a huge weight was lifted off of his shoulders. He stopped struggling, feeling so tired. Adam's decreasing movements seemed to snap Wright out of his reverie. His gaze focused on the dying man's face beneath him. He released Adam's abused throat and moved a few paces away, staring at Adam's chest, searching for a movement indicating that his captive was still breathing. After still not spotting a breathing motion, Wright cursed out loud, kneeled down besides Adam and started slapping his face, hoping to startle the imbecile back to dragging breaths into his lungs. Wright's anger was flaring up hotly. After all the weeks of imagining and planning out the perfect revenge on Adam, he had lost his temper and with it possibly the opportunity to quench his thirst for said revenge to Wright's satisfaction. Cartwright couldn't die like this. Wright let his anger take over and was now furiously beating Adam's limp body, putting his fist with as much force as he could afford down on Adam's chest. He felt a sick crack beneath his fist as one of Adam's ribs gave way, breaking because of the inflicted violence. Finally, the beaten man beneath him convulsed as he desperately tried to fill his burning lungs with air, making Wright freeze mid-motion. Without another word, Wright stoop up, turned away from Adam and left the mining shaft, leaving Adam alone in his misery. Adam peeled his eyes open, letting his tears flow which burned in his eyes after every torturing intake of breath. He took a moment to even his breath out as much as he dared to until he looked around, searching for the man right out of his nightmares. After not spotting him, Adam started to work on the rope on his wrists again, the sudden Adrenalin rushing through his veins blocking out the pain he inflicted on himself with the movement. He needed to get away from Wright as fast as possible. He was going to die if he stayed put. His thoughts went out to little Joe and Hoss. He fell asleep while being together with both of them. He could only imagine what had happened that he found himself in this mess as soon as he had woken up. Did Madam take over and made him walk right into Wright's arms? But Joe and Hoss were on watch to make sure I don't wander off... Adam's blood ran cold as a tiny voice in the back of his head whispered to him. What if Wright killed them when he took you? Adam shook his head, telling himself that little Joe and Hoss had to be already on their way to find him.

"It's useless..." A voice echoed through the mine, coming from behind Adam's head. "Even if you manage to get your arms out of those ropes, you won't be able to outrun me."

Adam stopped tugging at his ropes. His unconscious action resulted in his wrists being raw and bloody by now. He bent his head until Wright was walking into his view, staring down at him in disgust. Adam had to know... He feared to provoke Wright into accidentally killing him but Adam couldn't help himself from asking the question he feared the answer for the most.

"What about my brothers? What happened to them?"

"I killed them both. Slit their throats in their sleep." The answer came faster than lightning, Wright himself sporting a rather nonchalant expression as if he was talking about the weather. "Well to be honest, the little one was still awake while I did it. I don't know why but he was awake... as if being on watch." The killer shrugged and took a sip from a canteen he produced from a bag lying at his feet.

Adam was in shock. There was a chance that Wright was lying to him, to inflict emotional pain, but if he simply took Adam when he wandered off as Madam, how would Wright know about Joe being on watch? If Wright had taken Adam from their camp, didn't that mean that little Joe had seen it happen? If that was the case... Adam didn't even realize that Wright had come over to him and snapped his fingers in front of Adam's empty face. Not caring about Wright's temper any longer, Adam forced his upper body upwards to scream into his face.

"You monster! How could you lay hands on my brothers! You will regret what you've done!" Adam was wheezing and had to lie back down on his back after the pain in his chest became too much to bear. Adam didn't know if it was because of his apparently broken rib or his broken heart. And Wright? Wright was laughing into Adam's face.

AN.: I hope you enjoyed this chapter :) I'm posting this even though I have no spare chapters written.

Also, I'm on vacation in London for a week so I'm super excited ^^ I'm gonna update (hopefully) as soon as I get back here. Leave a me a review to show me what you think about this chapter.