A/N: THIS CHAPTER WAS EDITED. Just to let you all know. I found tons of spelling and grammar errors, because before I was using WordPad. I still need to buy Microsoft Word, because I only had a free trial that came with the computer. Lame.

"Yeah it's holding me, morphing me
And forcing me to strive
To be endlessly cold within
And dreaming I'm alive
Cause I want it now (I want it now)
Give me your heart and your soul
And I'm breaking down (I'm breaking out)
Last chance to lose control."

-Muse: Hysteria

Often the nose senses things before the eyes are able to open; catching especially familiar scents. This was a smell that Krad had known...slightly too well. Days, and days, turning to weeks and weeks, cooped up, tired, hungry, dirty, and sick, then the stench to top it all off. The cliché scent of blood--it was basically permanent in that particular room along with others in what he assumed was a building. The few times that he had found himself able to wander around, he noticed elevators. They were broken down and obviously not operational. Any windows and doors that may have been there weren't able to be seen from the areas that he had been to.

When Krad was finally fully awake he sat up groggily, taking in the visual surroundings. It wasn't that dark, oddly enough, but there wasn't enough light to see certain things like the colors of the walls, if the door was open or closed or simple things like that. However, he did recognize the sofa he had been lying on, and the table right next to it. He chuckled bitterly, running a hand along the worn out wood of the end-table and taking another full scan of the area. "Nothing's changed..." he said gravely. "But I suppose hell doesn't often change, does it?"

"Oh, Krad, there's no reason to be so negative." A voice said sarcastically.

Immediately Krad looked up at the door in horror and his hand fell off of the end-table, falling straight to his side. The monster had already begun approaching the shaking teenager by the time he had even noticed the movement. The memories came flooding back in rapid waves; things that had not touched the edges of his mind since his day of release all those years ago. Due to this "reunion", tears easily made their way down the blonde's face, and his eyes already reddened.

"Odd. You seem completely uninterested in where your brothers are. Don't you want to know if they're okay?"

Krad nodded quickly, leaning forward. "Please, tell me where they are! They're okay, right? Right?" The panic was extremely obvious in his voice, along with desperation. Dark gave him a fake look of hurt, as if he were offended.

"I would never hurt them! How could you accuse me of such a thing?"

There was no answer, only more panicking. The teen's words were jumbled together with lack of thought or sense. Not even Dark could make out exactly what he was saying, but he got the general idea. Krad was definitely freaking out. 'Well, that doesn't play out very well, now does it?' So, instead of taunting Krad further, he sighed and sat next to the hysterical blonde.

"I promise they're okay. You know how this works. I know you remember. I have no reason to hurt them."

The statements were calmed, neither harsh nor caustic, but blunt, and also true. As much as Krad was scared for his life and those of his brothers, and wanted to believe that the creature was lying, he knew that it was all on target. Realizing this, he took one deep breath and laid his face in his hands and closed his eyes as the shaking hindered.

Now his only insecurity was this; how could one be so calm around such a terrible "person?" A person that tormented you, abused you mentally and physically? The person who brought you to a prison out of nowhere while you were minding your own business, and treated it like it was nothing horrible. The one who used you to keep themselves alive and plenty satisfied, then dropped you off in the middle of an unfamiliar place, with nothing to eat, nowhere to live, and no one to go to. It was a puzzling thought that Krad was actually...trusting of the being that had, as he put it, "ruined his life" and now seemed to be after the lives of his two brothers.

"Take me to them. I want to see them right now, and they'd better be alive."

"Excuse me? Damn, you've turned into quite the brat, haven't you? Just because you're a few years older doesn't put you in any better of a position, Krad. Do us a favor and use your brain while you're here. You didn't last time, and it did cost you dearly. You wouldn't want to repeat that part of your history, now would you?"

'Yeah, and I really wanted to repeat this part, I'm sure.'

He got the message, no doubt about that, and he wouldn't be forgetting it anytime soon. He also got the notion that it was only the demanding tone in his voice, and so he decided to try again. Instead of that demanding tone, he turned his gaze to the floor, staring now at his bare feet with a look of sincere regret and fear on his face.

"Can you please take me to see them? I just need to know if they're alright."

"That's much better. Was that so hard? Of course I'll let you see them."

Dark stood in front of the opened door, and motioned for Krad to follow.

xXxXx

Krad stared almost aimlessly at his two sleeping brothers. He was admittedly disappointed that he didn't get to talk to them, to tell them that everything was going to be okay. At the same time, though, he was glad that they weren't awake to even know the situation. He smiled a bit at the thought of how much luckier they were than he had been. Now his only hope was that Dark would be nice enough to let them sleep through it all. Maybe he would let them go if he agreed to stay.

"See? You know I'm not a liar."

Krad mumbled something in response, but it couldn't really be heard.

"What'd you say? I couldn't hear you."

"I said…" he trailed off for a few moments and then began again. "I said that I never doubted it for a moment."

This immediately caught the creature's interest. Getting the blonde to trust him when he was even younger and more gullible had been proven to be an impossible task. Then there he went in the complete opposite direction. Dark smiled as well. The comment gave him a strange feeling of accomplishment, mostly because he hadn't really ever tried to gain this trust. Krad turned and left the room with Dark following close behind and then closing the door quietly behind him. Suddenly the thief got the feeling of extreme light-headedness. 'It's amazing how happy he is right now. His brothers' lives are all that matters to him. So…he's happy if they're okay…' Dark's new discovery sure did give him leverage, and a renewed life-source.

"Hey, Krad."

He turned around, and it seemed almost as though he knew what was coming. Then again, at the same time, he looked completely oblivious. Sort of like how the glass is technically half empty and half full. He was suddenly pulled extremely close to the older one, and a pair of hands intertwined with his own. Then Krad felt the familiar daze taking over. During which, he heard Dark's voice from very close to his ear; not whispering, but in a low and controlled monotone.

"You do trust me, don't you, Krad?"

He breathed in deeply, trying to control the light-headedness he was experiencing. And in that same breath Dark could barely hear him say yes. His accomplished smile was almost automatically replaced with a cocky smirk. Then everything was silent for a few moments, and during the quiet they could only feel the pulsing and heart beats. Each pulse sent off waves to Dark's own body, while draining Krad's. The dizziness was almost completely in control, and Dark's smirk fled after he heard the blonde speak again before he fell unconscious.

"Just please, please, please…don't disappoint me…"

"Don't you disappoint me.
You can lay me on your table and cut me up with your scalpel
I'll slip on the concrete just to get it right.
I'm your fool of all fools."

-Wow, Owls!: 1989: The Best Four Years Of My Life