Disclaimer: I don't own anyone.
Rated: M
Warning(s): Slash, Kidnapping, Threats, Non-Con, etc.

Ryback started to shift uncomfortably. It was clear that he had not planned to be down on one knee for such an extended period of time. "Well?" His tone was terse, tight. It took everything in him not to pounce on the two-toned man before him. "I don't have all day."

Seth sat there on the bed, unable to keep himself from trembling slightly. He tried to tell himself that marriage was a legal bond, not necessarily a romantic one. He didn't have to love Ryback to marry him. But then, he thought of his bond rings... Ryback had taken them. "Where are my rings?" He asked.

"This isn't about your stupid fucking rings!" And finally, he snapped. He grabbed Seth's left wrist a little too hard, trying to force the ring onto Seth's finger. Seth was jerking about wildly, though, and before the ring could slide on, there was an awful snap. Seth screamed. "Look! Look at what you made me do!"

"Ah!" Seth was kicking, screaming, clawing, biting... desperate to pull his wrist out from Ryback's vice-like grip. "Let go - that fucking hurts!"

Within seconds, there was a gun pressed to the junction between his head and throat. Ryback's eyes were cold, hard, and uncaring. "I want an answer... and I want it now."

"My wrist! Let go of my fucking wrist!" Seth was still screaming, black dots dancing behind his eyes. Crystalline colors melded together, creating a painfully vivid picture that was slowly conquering the reality of that dank, dismal hotel room. Shock was creeping in, taking hold of Seth's being. "Let go of me! Let... go!"

A hard twist of Seth's shattered wrist left the two-toned man a shivering mess of painful agony. "Not until I get my answer!"

"I can't... I can't b-breathe." Even as Seth moaned and writhed upon the bed, the Swiss Army knife never left the corner of his eye. He sucked in a breath, "Stop... please."

"You must think I'm an idiot. Don't you think I know what you'll do if I let go?" Ryback twisted harder, pressing down hard on the broken bone. "Marry me!"

Seth had just enough wit about him to mutter out a strained, "No."

"Marry me!" Ryback was yelling now, not quite comparable to the fever-pitch of Seth's screams, but still rather loud.

It all happened so quickly after that. Seth, straining against the handcuffs that bound him to the headboard, tossed himself onto his back and landed a hard, solid kick to the side of Ryback's bald head. The force of it was enough to knock him off of his chair and onto the floor, which he hit with an awful thud. No time to waste, Seth scrambled onto his stomach and reached for the knife with his uninjured arm - unfortunately, this also happened to be the wrist that was still cuffed to the headboard. Cursing under his breath, he pressed his knees into the bed and pulled as far forward as he could. With his injured hand, he grabbed the knife, biting down on his lip to keep from screaming.

A meaty hand enclosed around his ankle, pulling him back down. All too quickly, he was dragged off of the bed and landed, strewn, over Ryback's lap. The jostling of his wrist left Seth's mind blazing, but he knew that he was still very much in danger. It was difficult to keep firm hold of the knife, but even more than that, he knew that, if he released it, Ryback was apt to kill him then and there. So he held on to it, waiting for that one moment... Ryback spun him around so that they were facing each other, Seth's one arm contorted wildly as the handcuff chaining him to the bed remained intact. His other arm, the left one, hung limply to the side.

"I'll ask you one more time." Ryback growled, taking hold of Seth's hair and pulling him up so that they were at eye level with one another. "Marry me." But it wasn't a question, and Seth knew for a fact that it never had been.

Leaning in close, staring deep into the monster's eyes, Seth whispered the word that would seal both of their fates. "Never."

Before Ryback could even comprehend what it was that Seth had said, Seth took the knife and impaled it into the man's meaty neck, hitting dead-center on a major artery. Ryback's big blue eyes bulged and his body was hit with one major convulsion, before he promptly (and rather unceremoniously) dropped Seth onto the floor. The smaller man gave a weak whimper, which slowly morphed into a full-out scream as his arm was roughly torn from it's socket. Monstrous, meaty hands fumbled with the Swiss Army knife impaled in his neck... and then, possibly making the worst decision possible, he tore it out.

Throwing the knife to the ground around Seth's feet, he gave one mighty waver, before tumbling forward and landing flat on his stomach. Seth watched, more than a little disgusted by mess of blood all over the floor, but feeling the undeniable rush of relief that came with knowing that everything was over. Ryback was dead. Seth was safe. But he was also badly injured, slowly falling into shock as the pain in his arm and shoulder subsided and all he could feel was numb. Acknowledging how dangerous that was, he started to fumble with his feet to grab hold of the knife, kicking it up toward where he could reach it more easily.

Again, forcing his broken wrist to bend and contort, he took hold of the knife and started to work the different parts, anxious to find anything that looked like it would even remotely fit into the lock that bound him to the bed. Upon finding the piece that he had been looking for, he found himself faced with an even more daunting task... climbing onto the bed and unlocking it. Turning back toward Ryback's fallen form, he noted that the giant was still grumbling, but the sound had turned more into a gurgle and was fading fast. Using that as his incentive, he clambered onto the bed and jammed the instrument into the lock, determined to either unlock it or break it.

When he finally heard the telltale snap, he gave a cry of relief and collapsed onto the bed. "Holy shit." He didn't know whether to try and pop it back into place or not. Looking back at Ryback, who had just fallen silent, it occurred to him. "Phone. Phone, phone, gotta find the phone..."

Upon finding the hotel landline, he did what he normally did in situations where he found himself frightened. He dialed Dean's cell phone number, hoping against hope that he wouldn't just ignore the unfamiliar number. After several painful seconds of waiting, there finally came a "Who the hell is this?"

"D-Dean?" Seth was barely able to choke out the word around his excitement. "It's... It's Seth. Can't... Ryback... blood... mess... pain..." With that, his wrist gave out and he dropped the phone. Grunting, he barely caught it with his shoulder and awkwardly cocked his head to hold it in place.

"Wait? Seth?" He seemed surprised, and while Seth didn't want to believe it to be true, he acknowledged the fact that they might not have even realized he was gone. "What do you mean, Ryback? Is he there with you? Are you bleeding? I swear, if he laid a fucking finger on you, I'll -,"

"Already dead." Seth forced out. "Knife... to the neck. Must've... hit an... artery or somethin'." A pause, in which he swallowed hard, "My wrist is broken."

Dean was cussing on the other end of the line, muttering things about 'bringing the damn bastard back to life, just to kill him over again'. "Do you have anything to splint it?"

Seth stared at the warped area that used to be his wrist. "Can't. Dislocated... shoulder... fell off the bed."

There was a ruffling sound on the other end of the line, followed by a change of voice. This time, it was Roman who asked, "Do you know where you are, Seth?"

"Hotel." Seth grumbled. Unable to move very much, he strained his neck to see out the window. He could see the first couple of letters in the hotel's name, and inferred, "The Blackwater Hotel. It can't be... very far..."

"Okay. Just hold on, Seth. We're gonna keep you on the line until we get there, okay?"

"Okay." Seth slurred, once again feeling the undeniable call of sleep.

Roman talked him through what had happened and even earned a measly confession to the fact that Ryback had stolen Seth's submissive rings and he did not know where they were - it was quite possible that he'd never know, given that Ryback was now dead. Roman comforted him (in the strange way that only Roman could) and assured him that it wasn't his fault that the rings were missing. He also confirmed that they were leaving the hotel then, and would be there as soon as possible. All he had to do was hold on until they arrived. Still listening to the sound of Roman's voice, the darkness finally took over and Seth succumbed to the beautiful numb taking hold of his body.