A/N: IT'S GOING DOWN! I also need to sleep.

Chapter 21: Into the abyss

The first thing Darren felt on that day was a cold wind on his face, and an intense calmness brought by the waving of the sea that started being repeatedly broken by a distant voice, increasingly becoming louder and suddenly annoying.

"Morning, sunshine."

Darren held back the urge to roll over the mattress, away from that upsetting voice and face, and continue sleeping.

"Get the hell away from me, Brian."

The day was clear, it should be sometime around mid-morning. Brian was sitting down in front of their tent, lying back as he rested the weight of his body on the palm of his hands. Lauren half-growled against his chest, in an indication that she was asleep, but not more disposed than him about waking up.

"Well, that's rude." He said, offended. "I'm waking you guys up for breakfast. I'm doing fried eggs, do you want some?"

Darren yawned as he settled his weight on an elbow to answer him, "You should've said it before; that's a yes. Of course."

A few fingers threw Lauren's hair off her face. Her eyes were still closed, but he knew she wasn't asleep anymore.

"Want eggs?"

"Does he have to ask us while staring at us in this exact circumstance?" Lauren's voice was thin, though willful.

"Yes, I do." Brian's smirk said enough.

Lauren rolled over and concluded with a grin, "Then yes, I'm hungry."

"Got it, but you better hurry before the rest finishes your part." Brian stood up in a slight jump. He made a tilt with his head after giving a few steps, like if he almost forgot of something, and he added with a wink, before vanishing from their sight. "Also, congrats on the sex."

Lauren let out a laugh that hid more embarrassment than anything else.

What are you doing? Darren almost asked when her arm passed over his head, before her hand reached out a lost shirt next to the mattress. Her stomach was growling, the eggs better be ready soon.

The chef earned a round of applause after they finished the improvised breakfast, which he –obviously- humbly accepted with a bow.

"Well, I still need to wake myself up, so if anyone wants to join me…" Darren stood up, took off his shirt with a quick pull of his hands, threw it to Brian's face and ran to the water, at the sight of everyone. He dipped in for a moment and then emerged, the water to the height of his ribs, and with a whip of his head he flipped backwards the hair from his face.

Brian slapped the shirt from his face to the ground, rolled his eyes and then continued to eat his eggs like if nothing had happened. Joe, who was next to Rachel, leaned a bit towards her to say with a raised eyebrow:

"You said you felt tired, so you should consider doing the same."

"Keep dreaming about it." The girl grinned, but gave him a warning look.

Joe simply shrugged, "Had to give it a shot." Then he stood up, and did the same as Darren before running to the water that, due the hour of the morning, was probably cold and uncomfortable. The two boys didn't let that show, though, and they looked so content like if they were kids in a warm pool.

When Darren decided to go out of the water again, it was almost midday. Lauren was reading a book she had brought, sitting down on the mattress inside of their tent, legs crossed and hair tied into a ponytail. Darren scrubbed a towel strongly against his hair, turning it into a mess, and then threw himself on the couch, wetting the blankets under him.

He turned his head to Lauren, his eyes slightly red and tiny because of the water.

"What are you reading?"

Lauren folded the corner of the page she was reading before closing the book, and then she showed the cover of her Love in the time of cholera copy.

"Re-reading." She specified.

"I shouldn't ask if it's good, then."

Lauren shook her head. Her gaze distracted with Darren's wet feet on the sand before it fell on his eyes.

"Listen, last night was… you know, special to me. I just wanted to thank you for being respectful over my past decisions. It made everything feel right."

"Stop." Darren cut, suddenly uncomfortable. "You don't have to do that."

Lauren's lips tightened before the answer came along. "My ex-boyfriend wasn't much like it."

Darren sat up, clearing his throat. He had heard her talking about him in various occasions, but she never really let him know something relevant. "What happened?"

Lauren looked at the sea while saying it, "When I told him I wanted to wait, he was initially very understanding and all, but it wasn't even one month before he started getting impatient and tried to make a move every time we made out or something. At first, it took only a second to get him to stop, but he started to lose it after a while. I still didn't take the alarm signs, or I choose to ignore them because he was really charming and I liked him a lot, I don't know… I was quite blind through most of it."

Darren's teeth felt like pressing against each other at the thought of the possible answer of his question, "Did he force you?"

"He tried to." Lauren quickly replied. "But I got to escape before he had the chance to… Well, I kicked him in the balls and ran off."

"Of course you would."

Lauren giggled before concluding, "He never even called me to apologize or something afterwards. Everything just finished there, like that, horribly."

Darren felt a bit sick of the stomach, words coming out rougher than expected. "What a complete asshole, if you let me say."

She looked at him, "He wasn't what he looked like. I guess you should never judge a book by its cover."

Darren sighed slowly, "I'd never hurt you." He breathed, his head falling against her neck, humid hair wetting her skin and giving her goosebumps. "And if I do, you can kick me in the balls as much as you think necessary."

"Count on it," She agreed, grinning. She tilted her head against his, but whispered later "You're going to moisten my book."

To which he replied by unexpectedly and strongly wrapping his arms around her waist and throwing himself against her, playfully (but not too gently) pushing her to the warm sand.

"Mmm, get off." Lauren cried, unable to fight against him while she tried firstly to resist from laughing too hard.

"Okay, that's enough. I'm going to throw up." Rachel had walked to their tent and was watching them with a frown of apathy. "Listen, you have to dissemble your tent, we gotta get going. A policeman got near us and made us a few questions; I think he didn't really buy the story we made up. Probably some snitch neighbor called them."

"That's a bummer," Lauren said, and then sighed. "It's such a nice day… though I do want to sleep for a few days when we get home." She turned her head around to give one last look at the sea, accomplice of the night, before Darren pulled from her hand to get up.

Darren recalled that phrase once he dropped her off at her apartment, many hours later and with an intense tiredness on their shoulders that barely allowed them to gather the logic to talk.

"I promise I will. I can't really think of anything else besides my bed." Lauren assured, giving him a quick kiss.

"For once, I trust you." He replied, feeling no less than the same. He took the blue pen drive out of his pocket, turning it around between his fingers. "We'll check this baby out tomorrow, so I'll see you soon?"

"Right. Sure."

Lauren had almost forgotten completely the true reason of that trip, and she felt a bit saddened for remembering it. She smiled before climbing up the stairs and disappearing from his sight behind the front door.

Caroline was making tea when she came back. Her hair was tied into a messy bun, strands of hair falling on her face and neck.

"Hey," the girl greeted her, "How was the trip?"

She didn't know if the resentment she sensed in that question was true or something her mind made up, but she didn't feel with the nerve to decode it out.

"It was really good," she merely said. "Very fun."

"I'm glad." Before the deceit in that statement sank in, she added quickly, "Your dad called you, by the way."

"What did he say?" Lauren snapped. It wasn't usual of him to call, so she had reasons to worry.

"He said he called you to your phone, but you weren't answering, so I did the same but you didn't answer neither-"

"I ran out of battery." She cursed internally, immediately grabbing her phone out of her bag and charging the battery in the plug next to the oven.

"That's what I said to him that I guessed it happened. Anyway, you should call him now." Caroline said, gently dipping the tea bag into the hot water.

She was practically doing it before Caroline finished that phrase, calling the minute her phone turned on.

"Dad? Hey. What's going on?"

A deep, sort of hoarse voice in the other side of the line. "Darling, I've been trying to call you for…"

"I know, I know. I wasn't home and my phone died. What happened?"

The man gave a long, exhausting sigh before talking. "It's about your mom."

There was a silence and Lauren felt something in her throat. She suspected of where the conversation was diverting to.

"Dad, what happened?" She asked again, unable to hold that horrible silence.

"She's not doing all right. She's had another crisis two days ago. Her doctor called me since, you know, my number is the only one they could contact."

"Is she okay?"

"She's fine. At her house, now. But I was wondering if you could check up on her. Maybe spend a few days there, with her. She shouldn't be alone right now. I know you have classes, but-"

"Of course. Yeah, I can do that. Don't worry about it."

"Thank you, sweetheart, if you two need anything-"

"I know, don't worry." Lauren said. Her father would always remain inexorably kind, and would call her childhood names, no matter her age or the circumstances. "I'll call you soon, okay? Bye."

Lauren rubbed her eyelids with a few knuckles, sitting down on a chair at the table, before walking to her room to grab a duffel bag from the top of the closet. She needed to pack, therefore, sleeping would still have to wait.

"Caliban, don't!" Darren's index finger warned ominously, but the aforementioned didn't seem intimidated at all, and continued to jump on the sofa. "Brian, I swear to god…"

"Come on, he's just happy to see you." Brian defended the dog, and Darren was going to add that the smell wouldn't leave the room within three days, but Joe cut him off.

"Is this happening today? Because I should really be studying right now."

"I'm trying." Joey, who was acting moderately more prepotent than usual, said behind the screen of the laptop, his right hand grabbing a few excessively long hairs at the top of his forehead in a cue of exasperation, and the other one clicking repeatedly and then just lying over the computer's mouse for a while, waiting for the mechanism to work –a deep sigh coming out of tight lips when it didn't. "It's been particularly more difficult than what I thought."

"You don't have to stay if you don't want." Darren cleared, with a tone that hid more than just a bit of challenging hostility. While he left next to the computer a cup of coffee that Joey had asked him, a defiant gaze shot Joe.

"And you'd love to scheme what comes next without me, would you?" Joe didn't hide it at all, though the grin on his lips and the volume of his voice seemed to contradict it.

Darren laughed and shook his head because –what else could he do? Joe had seemed way too indulgent after he and Brian had decided the majority of their plan without even one consult to him, he had agreed on everything and allowed him to do his way all along, until the thing was over, the storm passed and everyone felt sort of safely again. Darren couldn't be surprised, he sensed it coming and just tried to ignore it until the moment arrived.

"I'd never dare to." The sarcasm was obvious, but the jest made it casual and avoided surely a fight. He didn't have such a good humor for that in that moment.

Joe tried to laugh it off, but he kept observing Darren as he disappeared behind the door of his room to make a call.

"Hi."

"Hey, Lo. The guys are at my place, and Joey's trying to hack Tyler right now. You're coming, right?"

There was a short pause before she replied, "No, I can't. I'm sorry. I'm in my house right now, I mean my mom's house. I'll have to stay here indoors for a couple of days to take care of her. She's a bit sick."

"That's too bad. What happened to her?" Darren sat down on the bed, a hand carelessly rubbing the back of his neck.

"She's had a nervous breakdown. This happened a year and a half ago already, a few months into her divorce and while under a lot of pressure in work. I can guess it's pretty much the same thing now."

"Is she okay though?" Darren's question was more due his concern for Lauren than for the woman who had the power to get him behind the bars.

"She's fine now, it's just that she can get severely depressed and she needs someone to check up on her. She shouldn't be alone right now." Lauren explained. It was true, although her mother would never admit it. Since the moment she put a step in the house, she kept claiming that she didn't have to be there in the first place.

"And how are you dealing with this?"

"I'm okay. I still couldn't get a proper night of sleep, but that's all." Lauren said, her fingers playing with the details on the pink fabric of the blanket over the bed.

"Will I at least see you in class?"

"I'll try not to miss on anything, but I might have to." She didn't need to add that she hated that possibility, because she knew Darren knew. "Caroline said she'd take notes on everything, though. So for once, I'll have to trust on her studying abilities."

"I'm sure you still are ahead of everyone with your reading. Don't worry." Darren assured.

"I guess. I don't know." Lauren rambled, lying on her back in the bed. "It will probably be just a couple of days, though. It depends." She considered, in her head, asking Darren to come visit her there sometime, but the consequences of it made a mess in her head, and she decided to let that decision for later. "You'll have to call me and tell me everything about the website later."

Darren stood up and walked to the door, "That if we get in."

"Still no luck?"

"YES! I did it!" Joey shouted as his figure appeared when Darren opened the door, fists being thrown into the air in a sign of victory.

"Seems like we just got lucky." Darren informed, grinning and almost running to the table. "I'll call you later."

He approached Joey, standing up behind him, his hands on his shoulders and watching at the screen in front of him, though he didn't really understand most of what he saw.

Joey had brought another device with him, a sort of white modem that –according to him, would allow them to browse in the website without leaving a trace, and not letting them to know they logged in with one of their accounts.

"It wasn't easy." Joey said. "I probably will only be able to do this once. At least, without being tracked down."

Darren's lips tightened, worried.

"Then let's seize it." Joe said, dragging a chair next to him. Brian, Jeff and Rachel proceeded to do the same.

Joey entered into what it seemed like a forum, maybe one they'd have used five years ago, since its design was simple and even archaic. They had to browse for a lot of text, sometimes entirely html which they couldn't get to understand, long, exhausting minutes of scrolling, and there were also sections of chatting. There were many names and faces they didn't recognize, but Michael, Tyler and others they had seen and even had been friends with showed up there. They didn't bother to read most of the part, once they realized they couldn't either understand what it was about, or it was completely useless for them.

Then Joey came across through the first shocking, disturbing section of the site. Darren told him to enter as soon as he recognized the name of the pub Michael and his brother owned until the scandal destroyed everything, next to a numeral date from a few years back. Once they were in, there were pictures of girls, of different age and characteristics, wearing more or less clothes, and it didn't take them too long to figure out what was that fold about.

Joey looked at him, his eyes wide and a bitter expression, hoping to hear Darren saying exactly the opposite of what he actually said.

"Those are the girls they had up there."

"Against will?" Joey asked.

"I'm not sure." Darren replied. "Keep going."

All of the pictures were taken in the same room, with white walls, a window behind, and in a brown bed. The expression in the faces of the girls were emotionless, it was impossible to decode whether they were there because they had decided it or not. Under the photographs, a full name, age and date –probably of when the picture was taken. Listed one through another one, like stiff replicas coming out of machines. It seemed endless. Date changed.

"Yeah, I can't watch this anymore." Jeff said, walking to the other side of the room, looking disturbed. He ran his hands through his face and hair several times, shaking his head like if this would wipe out the memories.

Brian followed him not long after. Joey's constant looks at him indicated he wanted to do the same, but they couldn't stop until they got what they needed, especially if this was an exceptional only chance.

Darren shared with them the clear urge to stop the browsing and stop watching that, something tightening his shoulders and jaw, but at the same time, there was something that would not allow him to blink and miss a detail from what it was on the screen. There was a feeling of rage towards the people responsible of it that felt logical, but for him it felt rarely estranged from reality and people he knew, it was almost for a moment pure curiosity and morbo about humanity's brutality.

"Stop it." Rachel said after a while. "There's nothing that we can use there. It's sickening, and I don't wanna see it."

"But you're downloading all of this, aren't you?" Darren asked. Rachel looked at him. "We don't know if it can be useful in the future."

Darren wondered if Lauren would be moved more by the morbid fascination or the disgust. She rejected ignorance above everything, after all. And they had to be sure of what these people were capable of.

"All of this is being downloaded right into the pen drive. I won't save it in your computer, and I recommend you not to ever put it in any computer. It can be tracked that way, too." Joey explained.

"Okay, let's see if there's something else." Darren finally yielded. There was something in his stomach that didn't relax until the pictures disappeared. The expression of the rest showed the same. Joe was quiet and distant.

There were numerous files with encoded names they couldn't figure out, so they clicked on random ones, coming across texts, conversations and pictures they didn't understand, for a long while.

"That picture, that one." Brian, who had come back once they told him the worst was over, almost shouted. "It's in the bathroom of NYU. I'm sure that's it."

It was a mostly casual photograph of Michael, Tyler and –according to Jeff another guy called Hector, with a few small packages of different types of drugs in the lavatory table. They weren't looking at the camera, but they knew it was them. Of course they'd be selling it at their university, and it was flawless.

"This is perfect for our first step." Darren bit his lip in excitement.

Joe patted Darren's back. "We did it." He said proudly.

"Not yet," Darren corrected. He wet his lips, "It's just starting."

"I'm gonna cook something for my coffee, want anything special?" Lauren took a walk by the studio before heading to the kitchen.

"You know, there's parfait in the fridge." Kate, her mother, answered from the desk. There were books and papers all over the surface, most of them neatly fixed, a half-empty bottle of whiskey and worn out cigarettes still laying off smoke from the ashtray.

"I wanna cook something." Lauren explained. It was Sunday, and she was bored of being alone in her bedroom. She didn't want to fall asleep and wake up the next day, neither. "And you should come downstairs as well, it's six pm in a Sunday and working is something like illegal, I'm quite sure. I know you're the lawyer but..."

The woman's lips grinned under the thick glasses and dark eye-bags, but she didn't look close to leave her seat. "Thank you, dear, but I need to deliver a few things tomorrow and…"

"I didn't come here to be by myself all the time."

"And I told you that you didn't need to come here, for a start." She said calmly, though at guard. "We both have many things to do right now to force the standard connivance."

Lauren sat down on the empty edge of the table and looked at her, arms crossed over her body. She knew she was upset about her going there because she didn't let herself to admit that she was ill, but there'd have to come the time when she accepted it, and accepted the help she was handing her as well. She didn't enjoy being disregarded.

"But clearly you won't leave until I accept the offer, so…" Kate continued, finally closing the folder facing her. Lauren glanced, almost without wanting to, and her breath stopped for a second because she couldn't allow herself to admit what her eyes caught.

It was only a second, but she was sure. She was completely sure there was a picture of Darren inside of that folder. She'd recognize that hair anywhere.

She remained there, staring at the yellow portfolio, now closed, like if someone had frozen her in that position. And she was so caught up in the fear and anxiety that photograph caused her, that she gasped quietly when a feminine voice called from the door of the studio:

"Lauren. Are we coming downstairs or what?"

Lauren blinked, jumping from the table. She nodded in agreement while she grabbed the doorknob, her mother heading downstairs already. Before closing the door, she glanced once again to that folder, that remained there, at the table, on her own house. Disposed to shown to anyone who had the guts to stand what carried inside.

Did she?

A/N: As I always say, all the support you guys give me completely make my day, please keep the reviews comming! It makes me SO HAPPY to read your thoughts, any thoughts, and helps me to keep going. I love you, bai.