"Hello?"

"Alice?"

"No this is her mother."

"Is Alice there?"

"Yes, who's speaking please?"

"Ummmm, a friend."

"Oooo, how mysterious?"

"Mmm."

"Come on, tell me your name. It doesn't matter if you're dating her, I'm not old fashioned. I know she has boyfriends."

"Can you just get her for me… please?"

"No need to be rude."

"You're being a pain in the arse. I need to talk to Alice."

"I hope you're not her boyfriend. You're very rude."

"Yeah, well I'm not her boyfriend. She's not my type. Can you get her?"

"Not until I know who I'm getting her for?"

"Vince."

"No, no, no, no! Not that Vince. Not the poof that turned by son gay."

"The very one. Now I need to talk to Alice, it's really urgent."

"You are a two-timing queer. You tell my son he can do better. Tell him to get himself a nice girlfriend. Is he there? I'll tell him."

"He's not here!"

"Where is he?"

"Get Alice for me!"

"Where is he?"

Vince snapped. "He's been kidnapped!"

Silence.

And then, "W-what?"

"He's been kidnapped." Vince sobbed. "I didn't know who else to call. I don't what to do?"

"Have you rang the police?"

"No, not yet. I… couldn't, I…"

"Get off the bloody phone and ring the police then you morron! I can't believe you've got my son kidnapped."

"It's nothing to do with me, the text said that they loved Howard."

"Text?"

"Yeah, it's like a letter you can send through your mobile."

"I know what a text is you idiot. What I meant was, you've been contacted by the kidnapper?"

"Yeah…"

"And you still haven't thought to ring the police?"

"My mind's all over the place." Vince whimpered.

"Your mind's all over the place! what about me? I might have lost my only son because of you."

"It's not my fault!"

"You keep telling yourself that. I love my son, if I've lost him, I'll never forgive you."

"You love him? That's a joke! You kicked him out of your life because he wanted to be a musician. And you refused to listen when he told you he was gay, you don't love him. I do."

"Whatever you two have is not love! Love is something sacred between a man and a woman."

"You bitch!"

"How dare you?"

Then, Vince heard Alice's voice in the background. "Mum, what's going on? Who are you talking to?"

"Vince."

"Noir?"

"Yes."

"What does he want?"

"The idiot's managed to get your brother kidnapped."

"What? When? What happened? Is he sure he hasn't just left him? Give me the phone."

"Do you really want to talk to him?"

"Yes."

Vince waited whilst the phone was passed over and eventually he heard Alice's shaken voice.

"Vince?"

"Yeah."

"What's happened?"

"He's gone." Vince suddenly burst into tears.

"Okay, where are you?"

"H-home. I had to check you know, I didn't want to believe he wouldn't be there."

"Right, do you want me to ring the police?"

"No, I, I can do it."

"You sure?"

Vince nodded, then, realising he was on the phone and Alice couldn't see his gesture he said,

"Yeah." And "Will you come and stay with me?"

"I… I thought you hated me."

"It's not about me, is it? It's about Howard. Please, I've got no one. I can't sit here on my own, I'll go mad."

"Okay, I'll leave now. I'll be there in about 3 hours."

Vince nodded pointlessly again but Alice continued. "Don't worry about the police. I'll ring them."

"Okay."

"See you soon."

---

Vince just sat in silence, allowing the darkness to engulf him. He was vaguely aware that Howard's dad had shook his hand and he was pretty sure Alice had given him a tentative hug, when they had arrived. He was so numb he couldn't really remember. He hadn't taken much notice of Howard's parents, though he did notice that Howard's dad looked remarkably similar to his son. This only made him feel even worse, he couldn't sit across the room from someone who looked so much like Howard. They hadn't been there long when Vince had had enough and decided to go to bed. He pulled the covers over his head and hid from the cruel world. He pretended everything was fine. Under those covers he could be anyone and anywhere he wanted to be.

He just sat for a while thinking, or more accurately, trying not to think about what could've happened to Howard. Until, beyond the darkness and the silence, he heard the doorbell ring followed by the sound of solemn voices.

"Good Evening."

"Hello Officer."

"Can we come in?"

"Of course, of course."

And it wasn't long before there was a gentle knock at his bedroom door and Alice walked in.

"Vince." she said softly to the mound of bed clothes. "The police are here. They want to talk to you, is that okay?"

Vince pulled the duvet from over him, and looked up at her. His eyes were wide like a frightened child and, on seeing the pair of fluorescent yellow of the police uniforms, he shook his head determinedly. He couldn't speak right now.

"I know it's hard Mr Noir, but the more information we can get about Howard now, the more likely we are to find him." smiled the policewoman gently.

Vince nodded, he still couldn't bring himself to speak, and the woman sat down on the bed. The male police officer opted to stay at the doorway; 'trapping me in,' Vince thought. Not that he'd ever want to leave the safety and warmth of his bed ever again anyway.

"Okay Mr Noir. Tell me what you know."

Vince suddenly broke down into tears. Head in his hands. He sobbed loudly until he felt the bed sag slightly as Alice sat down next to him and rubbed his back soothingly. He could tell without looking that she was tearful too.

The policewoman looked incredibly apologetic and said, "Okay, okay. I can't even begin to imagine how hard this is for you, but it'll be better if you can tell us something."

Vince didn't look up but he nodded his head slightly.

"Alice has told me some of it, so I'll tell you what I know and you can fill in the blanks. Is that okay?"

Vince nodded again and Alice gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

"So you were on stage…"

"At the Royal Albert Hall, it's was a charity thing."

"And then you went to an after show party. Is that right?"

Vince nodded.

"Now, when you were there I understand there was some kind of… disagreement between you and Howard. Can you tell me what that was about?"

"I was dancing with this guy, Chad." Vince sobbed "We were just dancing I swear, b-but he was a bit… full on. Howard got jealous and punched him. He was just protecting me. He was only trying to help me because I couldn't get Chad to stop. But I'm stupid. I yelled at him and we argued, in front of everyone until eventually he ran off."

"What time was this?"

"I dunno, about quarter to 11."

"Was that the last time you saw him?"

Vince nodded, bursting into a fresh set of tears.

"Okay, so that's a reason why he might have run off." The policewoman said to the officer by the door. He nodded writing something down on a notebook.

"He hasn't run off!" Vince sobbed, "I've got a text. It says it's not Howard, he can't text anyway. I've got it here somewhere." he looked around frantically for his mobile.

"I know, I know. But Vince, you have to remember that when someone runs away it's usually because they don't want to be found."

"Howard wouldn't do that." Vince said, trying to convince himself as much as the police.

"Okay, but we have to consider all the options. You say you've got messages on your phone, would it be okay if I took that with me?"

He nodded again.

"Now, we're going to assume he's been abducted, for now, but we're not going to dismiss the fact he may have run away."

"He hasn't run away!" Vince gave a strangled sort of shout, "He loves me. He couldn't do that to me. Alice tell them. He wouldn't have just run away."

"They're just covering their options Vince." she answered truthfully. She wasn't always sure what her headstrong brother was capable of.

"Exactly, we're just going to do everything we need to do to find him, okay? Now, what we're going to do first is locate Howard's phone, that shouldn't be too difficult. Maybe take us a few hours at the most. He had a tracking chip in it, didn't he?"

"Yeah." sobbed Vince, "Frank puts tracking chips in all the phones I buy. In case someone abducts me."

"Okay, so we'll ring you when we find the phone. I'm not saying it'll be with him mind but it might be and it's the only lead we've got so far."

Vince nodded. The policewoman held out her hand and he took it gingerly.

"I'll show you to the door." said Alice, standing up and ushering the police from the room, leaving the cold air to surround him once again.

Vince went to the window and watched the police push through the crowds paparazzi to get to their car. Unbelievable, he thought, they can't even leave me alone now. He wasn't crying anymore. He was pretty sure he didn't have anymore tears to cry. When Alice had finished showing the police out she returned to the bedroom, to find Vince once again wrapped up in the blankets like a caterpillar in a cocoon.

"Why don't you come downstairs?" she said, "You said you didn't want to be alone. This is tough for all of us."

"Imagine how hard it would have been if you'd let him die." Vince said bitterly,

"I guess I deserved that. I just thought I was doing what was best, you have to believe that. I do love my brother, I just wanted him to happy. He's had such a hard life. He was the black sheep of the family, our mum never really accepted him because he had ambition. He actually wanted to better himself, no one in our family did that. We all just accept what is. You know, when he tried to come out, mum told him she'd knock him back in. That's when he married Charlotte."

"Was that her name?"

"Yeah. Eventually, he just stopped trying to please everyone else and just started being himself. But I've never seen him as happy as he was with you. I only want what's best for him and I realise now, that's you. I'm sorry about everything at the hospital. And I'm sorry I didn't trust you when you told me that the papers lied. I saw that article that said that me and you were together. I didn't realise they made things up so much. I am sorry. Please Vince, forgive me."

Vince lifted his head and looked her right in the eyes and said,

"I'm not sure I can just forgive you for what you did. But we used to get on, didn't we? And this is all about Howard now, we need to put this stuff between us behind us."

"Thank you Vince. Come downstairs, you can't sit up here alone. I'll make you some tea.""I'm gonna need more than tea." he said, raising himself laboriously from the bed, still refusing to let go of the duvet.

"Ofcourse." said Alice, linking his arm so that he could lean against her. He wasn't strong enough to carry himself. Slowly and carefully they made their way down the massive staircase and into the living room.

"Vince." smiled Howard's dad weakly, as they walked through the door. "You look awful son, would you like me to get you a whiskey?"

Vince nodded, he didn't normally drink whiskey but this wasn't exactly a normal situation and the thought of burning alcohol in his throat didn't seem that bad. He couldn't hurt inside anymore than he already did. Howard's dad, went to the whiskey cabinet in the corner of the room and pulled out a bottle.

"Perfect." he remarked, pouring two large glasses of the brown liquid. "You must call me Jim by the way, Vince, and this is my wife Helen." he said handing over one of the glasses.

"You must call me Mrs Moon." scowled Helen.

"Mum!"

"Ignore her Vince, you call her Helen. I mean, you're practically family, right?""Don't say things like that!" scowled Helen. "He's not practically family at all. He's the man who ruined my sons life."

Vince's insides twisted painfully. There was an element of truth to that. Howard had nearly died last year and Vince had been yelling at him almost non-stop for the past few months and now. He had made Howard's life a living misery. Maybe the older man had run off. Maybe he'd just finally fed-up of everything and left. But without Alice to run to, the question was… where would he have gone?

"You ignore her." Alice whispered in his ear, "It's the grief talking. Anyway, she only ever see's what she wants to see. She was still refusing to admit Howard was gay right up until your kiss at the train station was plastered all over the news."

Vince almost smiled, almost. Then, he winced sharply as he took a sip of his drink.

"Not a whiskey drinker son?" noted Jim.

Vince shook his head.

"Their sort aren't." snarled Helen.

"Howard likes whiskey." Vince said quietly, "That's why I bought the cabinet."

"Like I said." repeated Helen. "Your sort aren't whiskey drinkers."

"We're not all the same, you know. We do have different interests and opinions on things. We're not all hair dressers and make-up artists who walk around talking about Gucci and Prada. There's even a few premiership football players who are gay. That defies the stereotype, right?"

"I'm not doubting all that, all I'm saying is my son isn't gay."

"If he's not gay then he wouldn't love me."

"If he loved you then he wouldn't have run away."

"Mum!"

"Helen!"

"It's fine." smiled Vince weakly, patting Alice's hand that had shot to Vince's shoulder in protest of her mothers words. "She's got a point."

"I have. My son is not gay Mr Noir and neither are you. I've seen you in the papers..."

"Papers lie."

"…Out every night, with a different girl. I don't know why, but you clearly think that you're going to sell more records if people think you're gay. It's Elton John and George Michael all over again, though why you chose to drag Howard into it I'll never know."

"I chose him because I love him." Vince said bravely.

"I highly doubt that." scorned Helen, taking a sip of cherry from the glass that she was holding.

"Helen, stop being so rude." warned Jim, smiling pleasantly at Vince. He really did look like Howard. His eyes had similar small brown eyes, with crinkles at the corner when he smiled. Vince returned the gesture weakly before looking at the floor and taking another long sip of his drink. He choked slightly at the unfamiliar taste, provoking another cruel look from Helen.

"You know," said Vince suddenly, breaking the uncomfortable silence that had built up in the room. "love, to me, isn't about being gay or straight. It's not about falling in love with a gender It's about falling in love with a person. I'd never been in love until I met your son but I know now that it's the greatest feeling in the entire world. If I've lost him…" Vince trailed off.

"Hey," Alice said, "Think positive yeah Vince. Like you did when he in a coma."

Vince nodded.

"Coma?" exclaimed Helen, "When was this?"

Vince wanted to scream 'see you don't care about him. You don't know anything about him anymore.' but he couldn't be bothered. She wasn't worth it. So, instead, he leant back into the sofa, pulled his duvet around him and closed his eyes, allowing the comforting darkness to trap him in. He blocked out the sound of Alice explaining what had happened a year ago. He blocked out the cruel accusations flung at him by Helen. He blocked out the sound of Jim pouring himself another glass of whiskey. He blocked out everything, letting the nothingness take over. Eventually, he must've fallen asleep because when he opened his eyes again there was sunshine streaming through the large bay windows, a blanket had been laid over hm and Alice was talking on the phone looking incredibly anxious.

"You've found his phone?… Where?… At the bottom of the river."

Couldn't resist sorry!!

6 days till Santa comes!!! AHHHHH, so excited!!
Thanks for reading!
Sisi...xx