It took several moments for Luke to fully process the words that had just come out of Casey's mouth.
"What?" he blurted out, his voice shaky. "What are you talking about?" He was terrified that this was a lie, a cruel joke at his expense… that he would get his hopes up and then it wouldn't be true.
"He's alive, Luke," Casey repeated, rather emotionally. "My mom told us they've arrested some guy, some doctor, who's been helping this scumbag," he indicated Col. Mayer, "And he admitted that the plan wasn't to kill Noah. The Colonel just wanted you to think he was dead."
Luke lowered the gun and shook his head to himself, trying hard to grasp all of it. He was already getting weak in the knees, and not in the good way. "But why?" he asked helplessly, before turning to the Colonel, rage flooding his eyes once more. "Why?!"
"To hurt you," Ali realized. She looked horrified. "He knew that it would rip you apart if you lost Noah… didn't you?" she asked the Colonel angrily, before turning back to Luke. "This whole thing wasn't meant to hurt Noah… it was meant to hurt you."
The Colonel just grinned in that maddeningly self-satisfied way of his.
"You bastard…" Luke muttered, and raised his gun again. He was fighting to keep himself from crying or yelling, or maybe both at the same time. "You fuckingbastard…"
"Luke, stop," pleaded Ali. "Don't do this."
"Why not? He would," Luke retorted, his glare boring holes into the Colonel's skull.
"You're not him!" she protested in agitation. "You don't kill people just because you'd rather not have them in the world."
"He deserves to die," Luke insisted, but his words were coming in between fast breaths by now; they weren't as confident as he'd have liked.
"Yeah, he does," allowed Casey, "But you don't deserve to become a killer for him."
Torn inside, Luke bowed his head down in an attempt to think rationally. He wanted to kill the Colonel so very much, it was almost scary… yet what Casey and Ali were saying made sense…
"Do you remember what I said back at my house? About what Noah would have wanted?" Casey continued. "Well, he's not dead, Luke, and he needs you. The Colonel wants to tear you guys apart, that's what he always wanted… if you pull that trigger, they're gonna lock you up for life, and then he wins anyway." As Luke began shaking, Casey held out of his hand. "C'mon, man, just give me the gun."
A beat, then Luke slowly handed the pistol to Casey. Ali stepped forward to pull Luke into a hug. He glanced over her shoulder at the Colonel, his face filled with more hatred than he had thought he was capable of.
"So, are you satisfied, boy?" the Colonel managed to snark through his pain. "Now that you've proven you're so much better than me?"
"He doesn't need to prove anything," Ali said sharply, pulling away from Luke. "He's not like you."
Casey leveled the pistol at the Colonel again. "Where's Noah?" he demanded, in a tone that will brook no dissent.
"He's safe… you and your faggot friend can never hurt him again," spat the Colonel.
It took every ounce of self-restraint in Luke not to forget about guns and simply lurch forward to throttle the man with his bare hands.
"Watch your mouth," Casey snarled, before noisily cocking the gun to make his seriousness clear. "Where's Noah?"
"Wait," said Ali suddenly. "What's this?"
Casey's eyes traveled over to her, and he realized what she was pointing at: a black oriental carpet on the far side of the room. There was so little light inside the shed, it was no wonder they hadn't noticed it until now.
"You spent time on interior design, Colonel?" asked Casey, raising an eyebrow.
Ali walked over to the carpet and pushed it away with her foot, to reveal a trap door embedded in the floor. Luke quickly joined her, staring at the door in surprise.
"No – " the Colonel gasped, suddenly panicking. "Don't go there – stay away from it, do you hear me?!"
"Hey, fuckface," Casey seethed, "Nobody's asking for your opinion."
Luke bent down and pulled the trap door open with some effort. His eyes landed on a narrow wooden staircase leading to a subbasement.
"C'mon," said Ali, taking his hand to lead him downstairs.
The room they found themselves in after descending the stairs was even darker than the one they'd just vacated, given that there wasn't a single window. Luke felt along the wall, his hand landing on a light switch after a few seconds. He flicked it on, and his heart immediately skipped a beat.
They were in a makeshift medical room, filled with equipment and supplies. And lying on a bed in the middle of it, hooked up to several monitors and machines, was an unconscious Noah.
"Noah?" Luke breathed, quickly stepping forward to take his boyfriend's hand. He was asleep, but didn't appear to be hurt in any way. Luke's anxiety ebbed away a little.
Ali examined the monitors for a moment. "He's in a medically induced coma," she realized.
"What?" asked Luke, unwilling to look at her and thus have to take his eyes off Noah. "Why would the Colonel…" he trailed off, too confused and too focused on Noah to concentrate on the issue. As long as he knew that Noah was going to be all right, it didn't really matter to him, certainly not at the moment.
Ali whipped out her cell phone and called an ambulance. Luke only vaguely heard her, his attention devoted exclusively to the comatose Noah. He raised his hand to lightly caress his boyfriend's cheek.
"You're gonna be okay, baby, do you hear me?" he promised, once again struggling not to cry. "You're gonna be okay."
Tbc...
