Chapter 19 - Maybe We Should Call the Police

Regulus walked down the long drive of Mr. Simmons' ranch and turned right once he reached the road. After ten minutes' walk he reached the bus stop where he sat down to wait. He had worked at the stables a few months now and took the bus there after school a few times a week. On weekends – like today – he came in the morning. Sirius and Remus had offered driving him whenever possible, but Regulus didn't want to be dependent on them, so the bus it was. He laughed a little to himself thinking about how his old self would have reacted to knowing that he would be taking the bus with the commoners. The half year living here had changed him significantly and doing things that would earlier have felt completely beneath him didn't matter so much to him any longer. Sure, he would rather drive than take the bus, but he didn't have a license yet.

He got off the bus about a hundred yards from their apartment building. On his way through the parking lot he passed a rental van. Just as he reached the end of it, someone stepped out behind him and pressed a piece of wet cloth to his face. He struggled for a moment and then all went black.

o0o0o

Regulus woke up who knows how much later in a room with no windows. He looked around, finding himself lying on a bed. Where was he? What had happened? No matter what, this had to be bad news. He got to his feet steering towards the door, but he only made it one step away from the bed before feeling a painful jerk on his wrist. He turned to discover that he was handcuffed to the headboard of the bed. The first thought that struck him was that Remus had taken their little bondage game to a new level, but then he thought better of it. He had been unconscious and must have been drugged - something Remus would never do to him. Plus, he had never seen this place before.

At the sound of the door opening, Regulus' head snapped up to see a figure coming in. It took him a few seconds to realize who it was. "B... Barty?"

The blond brit smiled and tilted his head a little to eye at the half-drugged figure before him, the smile widening when he heard Regulus say his name. "Yes, it's me, love." When Regulus' expressions didn't change to a happy one, Barty bit his lip. "You're not happy to see me, I can tell. But don't worry. I'm sure whatever spell you have been under will wear off soon."

Regulus finally found his voice. "What are you doing here? What are you doing? You've... You've kidnapped me!"

"I wouldn't exactly call it kidnapping. I would call it snapping you out of whatever fantasy world those bloody Americans have put you in."

"It's kidnapping! You've chained me up, haven't you?" said Regulus, jerking at his handcuffs to make a point.

"It's for your own good, love. Sometimes a little force is necessary in the beginning – like when people rescue relatives from a cult."

"A cult, Barty? That's the most absurd comparison I've ever heard!" Regulus shook his head, unable to fathom the insane things that were coming out of Barty's mouth. "What are you planning to do? Keep me prisoner for the rest of my life?"

Barty shook his head. "No, I've only chained you up to keep you from running away until you've had a chance to come to your senses and realized that you belong with me. Don't you see?" he said and pointed at his own chest. "I'm the one you should be with! I'm your one true love. Remember you said that to me?"

"That was ages ago! Things have changed. I don't love you anymore. I love Remus. I love him more than I ever loved you, and you can't change that."

Barty went over to Regulus. Then suddenly his hand shot out and grabbed him by the jaw. "You do love me! Otherwise you wouldn't have answered my e-mails and you wouldn't have been so upset to see me! And you will forget about that pathetic excuse for a boyfriend. You're way out of his league, anyway – what the hell were you thinking, Reg?"

Regulus pushed Barty away with his free hand. "Don't talk about Remus that way! He's worth ten of you!" he yelled, "Let me go, you bloody nutter!"

Barty gave him a weak smile. "You always had a temper, Reg. But you'll come to your senses once you've cooled down." He then turned around and left Regulus in the small room. "I'll see you later, love."

"Barty! Barty, you can't just leave! Barty! BARTY!" screamed Regulus, tugging desperately at the handcuffs.

o0o0o

"Where the bloody hell is Regulus?" asked Sirius, checking his watch. "It's his turn to cook and it's nearly six. Wasn't he supposed to be home long ago?"

"Yeah," said Remus, looking very anxious. He had been getting more and more worried as the hours passed. "He said he was done around two. He hasn't answered his cell or texts. I don't know where he went."

"Maybe you should try calling that old guy who owns the horses?" suggested Peter.

Remus followed Peter's suggestion and the result only made his insides knot up. "Mr. Simmons said Regulus left one thirty..."

Sirius started to pace back and forth. "Try calling him again," he told Remus.

Remus called again and then hung up. "It goes straight to voice-mail. Either he turned it off or ran out of battery."

"For fuck sake, Reggie!" Sirius scolded, getting more and more worried.

"Maybe we should call the police," James suggested a little hesitantly.

o0o0o

"Barty!" Regulus called an your later. "Barty! You have to come! I need to use the bathroom!"

Barty turned up in the doorway a few minutes later, tossing a set of keys to Regulus. Regulus caught the keys and looked at them in disbelief. Then he looked back up at Barty and let out a gasp when he saw a gun in his hand.

"A... a gun, Barty? Are you mad? Are you going to shoot me?"

"No, you muppet, I'm just going to make sure that you don't try anything funny."

"Which means that if I try to escape, then you are going to shoot me, is that it?" Granted, Regulus would have never dreamed Barty would do something as crazy as abducting him, but he couldn't believe he was capable of shooting him. Still, he didn't feel like risking it. Barty clearly wasn't in his right mind.

"Did you need to use the loo or not?" asked Barty impatiently.

Regulus nodded, unlocked his cuff, and walked down the hallway, followed by Barty and his gun. They were in a basement, judging from the look of the walls and floor. In the bathroom Barty at least had the decency of letting him use the toilet behind a closed door. Regulus quickly looked around, but there was no way he would be able to squeeze through the tiny window near the ceiling.

At the sound of the toilet flushing, Barty opened the door.

"I would really like a shower as well," said Regulus. "I stink of sweat and horse..."

Barty stood there for a minute, debating with himself. "There's a towel there," he said, pointing at a hook in the corner.

When he showed no intention of moving, Regulus asked, "Are you going to stand there watching me undress?"

"It's nothing I haven't seen many times before, love."

"Yeah, but back then it was voluntary. Now it isn't."

Barty tilted his head. "I call the shots right now, so you don't really have a say, Reg. Now, do you want that shower or not?"

Regulus wanted to shout to Barty to go to hell, but he was afraid that he would just be sent back to the room, and he was dying to get that shower, so he calmed himself. "It's a strange way to treat someone you love, Barty," he said quietly. "Not showing me any respect when I ask for a little privacy."

Barty sighed and then turned around. "This is the privacy you get. I don't want you to try anything funny. "

Regulus stood looking at Barty's back for a moment. It was stupid of him to stand with his back turned. Regulus considered trying to tackle him but decided it was too risky. The gun might accidentally go off and Barty was stronger than Regulus. So he just sighed and shed his clothes quickly and stepped into the shower, drawing the curtain.

While Regulus showered, he could hear Barty sitting down on the toilet seat and begin talking. "I'm sorry about this, Reg. If there was any other way I wouldn't do it, but you gave me no choice. You wouldn't listen. If you would've just listened properly I could have explained myself and convinced you to forgive me and take me back. Because I know you still love me - you just refuse to see it because you're still mad at me."

Regulus didn't answer, pretending to not hear him over the water. Barty was clearly beyond reason, and if he started arguing now, he might cut the shower short and Regulus wanted all the time he could get. He wasn't in a hurry to get back to the bed and handcuffs.

"I get it," continued the blonde. "I treated you horribly, but I promise I'll spend the rest of my life making it up to you. I'll treat you like a prince."

"If this is how you treat a prince, then I'm glad I'm not royal!" snarled Regulus, despite having decided to ignore Barty. "You're treating me even worse now than you did when we were outed at Eton!"

"I said I was sorry, Reg," Barty sighed. "How many times do I have to tell you? I don't understand why you don't see that I'm only doing this because I love you and that we're meant to be together. You need to get over that silly fling."

"It's not a fling!" said Regulus, turning off the water. "It's a more serious and mature relationship than ours ever were! I love him." He snatched the towel from the hook and pulled back behind the curtain to dry himself in privacy.

"If that were true you wouldn't have answered my e-mails and asked me – no, begged me to come see you. I can read between the lines."

"I answered your mails to tell you to fucking leave me alone! How many times do I have to tell you? But you interpret things the way you want to, because you can't deal with not getting what you want, you spoiled brat!"

"This is not about wanting you!" said Barty, pain evident in his voice. "It's about me loving you so much that I can't live without you! What else do you expect me to do than fight for you with all that I got? Lie down and die?"

"Stop with the drama. You won't die without me. Life hurts sometimes, but you get back in the saddle and move on. Just like I did. I thought I was going to die too for a while, but I moved on and I'm actually quite happy now. Until you kidnapped me, that is!"

"I can make you happy too," Barty said. "You just have to give me a chance to make it up to you. To show you how sorry I am and that I'll never hurt you again."

"I don't want to be with you! Why can't you get that into your scull? The problem isn't that I'm angry with you – the problem is that I don't love you!"

Barty was quiet for a long moment. Then he spoke in a tone that sent chills running down Regulus' spine: "You obviously need some more time to get to terms with your feelings, Regulus. But that's okay. I have all the time in the world."

Regulus didn't know what else to say. Barty had clearly lost his mind.

"Are you dry?" asked Barty, looking at the towel Regulus was holding in front of him. "Then go to your room."

"But... I need clean clothes. Mine is smelly and dirty."

"Go to your room, I said."

Regulus quickly fastened the towel around his waist and stepped out of the tub, glaring daggers at his captor.

"Wait... go up the stairs," Barty said, evidently changing his mind. "Nice and slow. And don't get any ideas, because there's a gun at your back."

Regulus climbed the stairs, Barty following a few yards behind with the gun. As they passed the kitchen Regulus slowed down as much as he dared without being too obvious in order to get a look out the window at the street. Quickly he tried to memorize as many details as possible. The faded yellow house just across the street, the two fat garden gnomes in the front yard. Just past the kitchen, Barty told him to go into the first room on the left. It was a bedroom; clearly the one Barty slept in.

"Stand quietly in that corner," instructed Barty as he rummaged through a few drawers, coming up with a pair of boxers and a T-Shirt. "Put them on," he said, tossing the clothes to Regulus.

Regulus did as instructed, using the towel to cover up his lower body as he slipped into the boxers. Then Barty ordered him back down the hall. When they passed the kitchen, Regulus got a quick look from another angle of the street. And there - a street sign! It was hard to read because it was rather far away and dirty, so he only got to make out the first part of the name until he had passed the kitchen: Rose... something.

Back in his room he locked his left wrist in the handcuff as instructed.

"Tighter," ordered Barty.

"But it hurts," said Regulus.

"You'll just try to squeeze out of it. Pull it tighter."

"But Barty... I thought you said you didn't want to hurt me."

The blonde sighed. "I'll get you some padded ones, yeah? There must be a sex shop somewhere around here."

Regulus sighed and clicked the cuff a nudge tighter.

o0o0o

Remus walked restlessly around the living room. He was scared and getting more and more scared as the hours passed. Sirius was on the phone with the police, but after about two minutes James had to take over because Sirius was losing it over the fact that the police weren't taking him seriously enough.

"Yes, I know teenagers run away all the time," groaned James into the phone, "but that's not the case here. We're his roommates - not his parents! ... No, he wouldn't just leave his brother like that ... He hasn't moved. He left all his belongings here, okay? ... Where the hell would he go? He doesn't know anyone here but us! He's from effing England! ... No, his passport is still here. Well, I actually read somewhere that it's not true that it's a rule that you can't start looking for an adult until they been missing for 24 hours."

"Tell them to go find my god damned brother!" Sirius roared behind James.

James hung up the phone after about ten minutes. He sighed, seeing the others' expectantly looks. "They just said we should keep looking for him on our own and contact them tomorrow morning to report him missing if we haven't found him by then."

"What? No!" protested Sirius. "What if some serial killer abducted him? He could have hours left!"

"Let's try calling all the hospitals again, shall we?" suggested Lily, putting a comforting hand on Remus' shoulder, having noticed how upset he looked, although he was quiet.

"Yeah... yeah, alright..." whispered Remus and nodded his head.

"You look sick, Remus," said Lily, looking even more worried. "Come sit in the kitchen, I'll make you a cup of coffee or something, and then I'll make those calls while you drink it," she said, guiding him to the kitchen with a hand on the small of his back.

o0o0o

Regulus woke slowly, his left shoulder aching because he had been lying on it in an awkward angle thanks to the handcuffs. He adjusted himself a bit and noticed that the untouched plate of food from yesterday was still standing on the chair next to the bed. At least he thought it was yesterday. Although starving, he had refused eating, out of spite. There wasn't much he could control, but at least this he could. He started when he felt a gentle touch run along his cheek and flipped over to find Barty lying next to him. He slapped the boy's hand away from his face.

"Morning, love," smiled Barty warmly.

"What the hell? Are you feeling me up in my sleep?" snarled Regulus.

"I'm just getting used to having you in my life again," Barty said and ran a hand down Regulus' leg. "You know I missed you so terribly."

Regulus smacked away the hand from his leg even harder than before. "Don't touch me without my permission! That's sexual assault!"

Barty looked a little shocked. Then he grabbed Regulus' wrist and looked at him with narrowed eyes. "I can touch you if I want. You're my boyfriend, remember?"

Regulus felt a fleeting sense of anxiety at the intensity in Barty's eyes. Then he jerked free of his grip. "No, I'm not! I'm Remus' boyfriend! Not yours!"

"Cut the bloody act, Regulus! You belong to me! Remember what you said? You and I forever!"

"We were just kids, Barty! Kids say lots of stuff."

"It was less than a year ago," countered Barty.

"A lot has happened since then. I've matured a lot. It's not you and I forever. We barely even lasted a year."

"Well, it meant everything to me and I know you feel the same. You just forgot because you've been riding that yankee's cock for a few months."

"FUCK YOU!" yelled Regulus, furious at the way Barty was talking about Remus. He planted his feet in Barty's chest and kicked him off the bed. "He means more to me than you ever did! I'll never be yours again, and you can't force me! So why don't you just get over yourself and bugger off back to Britain! I don't want you here! You disgust me!"

Barty looked up at him from the floor, quite startled, but then got to his feet, rubbing his sore chest. "We will see," he said and left.

Regulus rolled onto his stomach and screamed his frustrations into the pillow, slamming the fist of his free hand repeatedly into the mattress, imagining it was Barty.

o0o0o

"No, he hasn't come home yet," Remus told the officer who stood in the doorway with a notebook and a pen. He took the description of Regulus and what he had been wearing.

"Tell them he looks moody," Peter said from his spot on the couch. Everyone looked at the plumb boy, who sank down in his seat. "Well... he does. He hardly ever smiles."

"Shut the fuck up, Pete!" said Sirius furiously, feeling like hitting his roommate. "My brother is missing and you just slag him off?"

"Not true anymore, either," commented James, unimpressed with Peter's bad sense of tact. "He smiles around Remus. A lot. He's changed a good deal, actually."

"Well," said the officer, "we will send his picture and description to all the police stations in the State, and I suggest you make posters and go hang them around the city. Hopefully someone has seen him and will get in touch."

o0o0o

"You have to start eating," said Barty, sounding quite worried. "I made your favorite dish..."

Regulus, kept staring up at the ceiling, ignoring the plate Barty was offering him. It smelled wonderfully, but he was not going to give up his hunger strike, which was about the only protest he could truly give. It had been five days now. Or was it six? He had lost track of time, since there were no windows in his room.

"Please?" Barty begged.

Regulus kept ignoring him. Barty sighed and sat down on the chair next to his captive. "Reg, love... Why do you always have to be so stubborn? How long are you planning to starve yourself?"

"As long as I'm chained to this bed," said Regulus, finally speaking but not looking away from the ceiling.

"You know I can't set you free."

"What exactly is your plan, Barty? Are you going to keep me chained up forever? Try to smuggle me on the plane back home? Or stay in this rotten hole forever?"

"I haven't planned that far ahead," said Barty. "I had hoped you would have come to your senses by now but I guess you need more time. "

"So what if I don't come to my senses?"

"You will."

o0o0o

Remus came home a little later than the others. They had all been out looking for Regulus most of the day - again. He found Sirius sitting in the living room, his head resting on his hands. When he looked up, Remus could see that he had cried.

Sirius didn't have to ask Remus if he had found a clue of any kind, because his face looked as ashen as it had done all day. "I don't think I'll ever see my brother again, Remus," he said in an unsteady voice. "It's been over a week now and he's vanished off the face of the earth."

Remus sat down next to Sirius and rested his head on his shoulder. They had done that a few times the past week. The others were worried too, but naturally Remus and Sirius were much more emotionally involved. "I just wish we knew what happened," Remus said, feeling himself choke up as he thought about Regulus perhaps being dead.

"I talked to the police again..." said Sirius. "They've started searching forests, lakes, and fields, and stuff. He'll probably turn up in a ditch or something..."

"Please don't say that," Remus begged and felt himself tearing up.

"What other explanation is there? If he'd got lost he would have found his way home by now, wouldn't he?"

"Someone must've taken him," Remus said. "I won't believe he's dead. I won't! Not until the police show me his body!"