AN: Happy Holidays. This is Part 2 of How bad can it be?. It's a little longer than I intended, but it turned out well. Thank's to everyone for following, favoriting, and reviewing this story. Here's the next chapter everybody, enjoy. Don't forget to Review. :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Castle or it's characters.
This is Torture
3rd Person POV
Castle finished his meeting with what he thought was a potential client, but it turned out the flash drive the woman wanted to be found because it had "sensitive" stuff on it, was in her purse the whole time. She just happened to put it in the wrong compartment of the purse which she doesn't check and went unnoticed in there for several days. Castle was disappointed that he hasn't had any good cases lately, but he figures that there is always going to be some hits and misses while working as a PI.
He went home, hoping Emily kept her word about not touching his sandwich. Emily could be a sneaky little bug sometimes, but Castle enjoyed having her as part of the family even if she steals his food and drives him and Kate a little crazy.
Castle reached the door to his apartment and noticed it was opened slightly, leaving a slight crack into his apartment. He pushed the door opened slowly and looked around with nervousness. He noticed Emily's phone was on the ground, and several items in his place were overturned and on the floor. He picked up Emily's phone and looked at the slightly damaged screen.
He started heading upstairs and called out to her, "Mini Beckett? Are you here? Emily?"
He continued his way to her room and still didn't receive an answer from her. He got to her room and found the door opened, but Emily was nowhere in sight. He walked inside and saw her computer shattered and broken on the floor near her wall. Castle was worried and didn't know if this was a robbery gone wrong or something way worse than that.
Emily's phone started to ring and Castle looked down to see a picture with Emily and Mike pop up on the screen. He saw Mike's name as the contact and answered it to see if he could get some answers.
"Mike, this is Castle. Do you know where Emily is?" he asked the young boy.
"No sir. I just spoke to her a few hours ago, is she missing?" Mike asked with worry.
"I'm not sure yet. I found her cellphone damaged and her computer is broken."
The boy was quiet on the other end and Castle had a feeling he knew what was going on, "Mike, tell me what you know."
"I… I told her not to do it Mr. Castle."
"What did she do, Mike? She could be in danger."
"She wanted to find the link to the torture room. She wanted to see if it was real or fake. A couple of hours ago, another message came through. I think she might have watched it."
Castle ran a hand over his face, worried that Emily could be in some serious danger, and said, "Mike, I need you to meet me down at the precinct. Can you do that?"
"Am I going to get in trouble?" he asked.
"You're not in any trouble Mike. You can help us save Emily."
"Okay, anything for her."
"All right… Do you still have that message by any chance?"
"Yeah, I do."
"Okay, I'll meet you down there in fifteen minutes."
"See you there, sir."
Castle hung up and grabbed Emily's broken laptop. He hoped the precinct and the FBI would be able to get down to the bottom of this, before Emily became the next victim of an internet torture room.
Castle arrived at the precinct and saw Mike out front, standing nervously with his hands tucked deep in his jacket pockets. He told the young boy to come with him, trying to reassure him that everything was going to be okay. They got off the elevator and made their way towards Beckett's desk, finding her speaking with Esposito and Ryan about pertinent information.
She looked at Mike and Castle who were now standing in front of her and asked, "What's going on?"
"Emily's missing and we think they have her," Castle said.
"You mean as in our suspects pertaining to this case?"
"Yes, Mike tell her what you know."
Mike looked up at detective Beckett and said, "Emily tried to find the link and when they texted a new one a few hours ago, I think she may have looked it up. I really think they have Emily and they're going to torture her."
"I can't believe she would do this. How could you let this happen Castle?" Kate asked him with anger.
"Kate, I had no clue she would do that. I was at a meeting and she told me she had homework to do. I didn't think anything of it," he said, defending himself.
"I'm sorry Castle, I'm just worried about her, and I knew she would try to look into this. I should have just brought her here."
"Hey, don't worry about it. We'll find her, we have the FBI and our team to look into this."
"Castle's right Beckett, we'll do everything in our power to get mini Beckett back," Ryan said.
"I even brought her computer and phone with us, so Tory can find anything that may help us," Castle said while holding up the two items.
"I'll take those to her, but I have a feeling the tech guy from the FBI will take it on," Esposito said while grabbing the items.
"Speaking of FBI, I should mention this to Agent Pierce," Beckett said as she looked over to the man who was directing orders to his team in the small conference room.
"You go talk to Pierce and I'll try to find out if that lead we got earlier was anything promising," Ryan said before walking away.
"Mike," Kate said to the boy, trying to get his attention.
"Yes, Detective Beckett," he said.
"Do you think you can stick around in case we need your help?"
"Sure, anything to help Emmy."
"Thanks."
Beckett started making her way towards the conference room and Castle was by her side just like normal. Agent Pierce noticed the two approaching the room, so he decided to meet them half way.
"Do you have anything Detective Beckett?" Agent pierce asked.
"My niece watched the link and now she's missing," she said to him.
"Are you sure it was them?"
Castle interjected and said, "Yes, I'm positive. I checked my apartment and it showed signs of a scuffle, not a robbery, and her phone and computer were damaged."
"Do you have those items?"
"Esposito already gave them to our tech girl and your tech guy," Kate said.
"All right, hopefully they can get something off of them," Pierce looked over at Mike and said, "Who's the boy?"
"He's Emily's friend from school, he talked to Emily prior of her kidnapping and found out she was trying to find the link."
"So, when the new link popped up a few hours ago, she looked it up."
"We presume so."
"All right, I'll get my team on it. Can you work this case Detective?"
"It wouldn't be the first time… So yes, I'll be capable of working this case."
He nodded and said, "Good to hear. If you find anything or if we find anything, we'll be sure to keep each other in the loop."
"Yes sir."
He gave a tight nod to them and walked back into the conference room, talking to his men. Castle turned to Kate who was currently running a hand threw her brown hair. Castle placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and said, "We'll find her Kate. We always do."
"I know, but it just takes that one time to be too late. I can't even fathom losing Em, and I feel like I'm getting put to the test every time she's missing."
"I understand… Emily has been in my heart for years now, and I don't want to lose her either. But I know we'll get her back."
"Thanks Castle, you're always positive during these kinds of times."
"It's the only way I can get through it."
Kate nodded with a sad smile and said, "Let's go see what we can find out. Who knows how long we have."
Emily's POV
I started to awaken and the first sense that was restored was my smell. All I smelled was a damp and moldy type of setting and I knew it wasn't good. I could also smell a faint tint of copper from the blood that was probably shed by several different people, but it was very mellow, so maybe they're clean killers. I lifted my head slowly, because it felt like it weighed a ton and my vision was still slightly blurry. I could partially make out dark stone walls and concrete floors, but not much more. The whole sight was eerie and reminded me of all the other creepy places I've been after being kidnapped by lunatics.
"You're awake," I heard a man mumble from beside me.
I thought I would find one of my captors next to me, but it turned out to be another hostage. He was strapped to a metal chair with silver duct tape and looked around Henry's age, between late teens and early twenties.
"You watched the link too?" I asked quietly.
"Yeah… I feel so stupid," he said shaking his head.
"Don't, I was stupid for even wanting to look into it."
"You're so young… You shouldn't be here…"
"It's what I get for trying to look into something I had no business in, but I'd rather be here than someone else."
He looked at me with shock from my last statement and said, "You want to be here?"
"My aunt is a detective and the FBI are already looking into this. They have a chance at finding these perps and I've been kidnapped multiple times. I think I can handle it."
"Wow, I'm older than you and I think I'm scared senseless more than you are."
"Don't worry, after your third kidnapping it kind of gets redundant. Doesn't mean it's any less scary, but a few things still surprise and scare me. Being tortured is definitely something different and scary, but we'll make it… I know it."
"You've been taken that many times?"
"Yep, actually more than that. But each experience is something new."
"Wow, I don't think I could handle that. What's been your worse experience so far? If you don't mind me asking…"
I managed a small smile despite our predicament and said, "Probably when I was buried alive and it was freezing because of the snow… That was probably the closest I've come to death, not that some of my other brinks with death was close and scary, but being buried alive definitely scarred me for life."
"You've been buried alive!? Damn kid, you'll have one hell of a story to tell when you grow up."
"I guess so…"
"You said your aunt is a Detective and the FBI are on this, right?"
"Yeah."
"Do you think they'll find us in time?"
"There is no knowing for sure. Most of the time they crack the case right open and get their suspects, but who knows if it'll be in time or at all."
"That's reassuring…"
I gave a partial shrug since I was tied down and said, "It's the truth."
He sighed and said, "I know."
It was quiet between us and I asked, "What's your name by the way? Might as well get acquainted if we're going to be tortured together."
He gave a slight chuckle and said, "My name is Zeke. What's yours?"
"Emily."
"Nice to meet you."
"You too."
A door opened and we both went rigid in our seats. The guy with the bloody clown mask came in and said, "Well, well, well… They're both up. Aren't you two excited for tonight?"
"Let her go…" Zeke growled out.
"Wow, already complaining… Too bad we still have a few more hours to go until we start."
"She's just a child. Just use me."
"Now, now sir… We can't do that."
"Why the hell not?"
"Easy, we told our viewers that we'd have two victims. Here in our torture room we deliver. We don't have time to go out and find another one, so a youngster will have to do."
"You're sick."
The clown chuckled and said, "Far from it good sir. We here in the torture room are ridding people for our existence. This is all for the greater good and if you can't see that, I'm glad to have you as one of our unwilling guests."
"Your just taking innocent people from their homes and slaughtering them for your own sick and twisted fantasies."
"Tsk… Tsk… I didn't think you'd be so feisty. But until you can learn to be silent, I'm going to have to shut you up."
The clown guy got up and grabbed some duct tape from an old table. He started peeling some tape off from the roll and Zeke tried to plead with him, "Come on dude… You don't need to do this."
"Can't get yourself out of this one… You've already brought this upon yourself. But don't worry, you'll get it removed once we start, but only if you can behave yourself."
He wrapped the tape around Zeke's head, going around twice before ripping the piece off and sticking it to the rest of the wrap. Zeke mumbled something, but it was mumbled because of the layer of tape covering his mouth.
"Ah, that's better," the clown said before looking over at me.
"What?" I asked.
"It's crazy looking at the kid who ruined my life four and a half years ago," he said.
"How did I possibly ruin your life?"
He lifted his mask, revealing a young face, maybe around 18 or 19, and said, "You took my father away from me."
"I… Wait, I didn't… I don't know how I did that…"
"Does the name Tony Escobar ring any bells?"
Realization hit me as the name of the man who buried me alive rolled off the guy's tongue.
"You're his son," I whispered.
"Bingo, we have a winner… My name is Ethan, Ethan Escobar, and you got my father put in prison. I was fifteen years old and he was gone. I just started high school, and you know how hard it was to go around my school without people telling me I was no good like my father, and that my father was a creep," Ethan said with anger.
"Listen, your father brought it upon himself. He's the one who helped Roman kidnap me, he's the one who buried me alive, and he's the one who caused all this. This isn't any of my fault."
"The hell it isn't. You happened to put yourself in all those predicaments and isn't it the curiosity that put you in this predicament too."
"What's your point?"
"Come on… I thought you were smart… The point is, you brought all of this upon yourself. You're too curious for your own damn good, and this time I'm going to finish what my dad started."
"You won't get away with this."
"Oh, that's where you're oh so wrong, Emily Beckett. We'll be long gone before any authorities even find us. You'll be dead, and I'll have revenge for my dad and every other person whose life was ruined because of you."
The door opened and the green nosed clown came in. He walked over to Ethan and said, "Seriously dude!? You just had to give her the whole revenge speech."
"I had too."
"I told you that your personal issues aren't supposed to be put out there, just do what you came here to do and be done with it. You can celebrate later, but keep that personal shit on lock, got it?"
"I'm not going to get blinded by my personal issues."
"Could have fooled me… Now come on, you know who is here and he needs to set up."
"Do you need me to knock them out?"
"No, we have our masks. They can watch, and it might make them more nervous, which is the best."
"Okay."
The two men left and I looked over at Zeke who looked depressed and worried.
"I'm sorry…" I whispered.
He shook his head, telling me it was okay.
"We'll get out of here…. I know it," I said, hoping Aunt Kate and the FBI were closer to figuring this all out.
3rd person
It's been several hours since Emily went missing and the FBI nor the precinct has gotten anywhere with the case. Every time they find something promising with the links on Emily's phone and computer, it turned out to be a dead end, taking them back to square one. They had no clue where to begin with the whole investigation, they even set up a tip line, but none of the calls they received were useful or provided any promising information.
Around 8pm in the evening Mike received a text on his cellphone. He thought it would be his mom asking if he'd be home soon, but it was an unknown number. He walked over to detective Beckett and said, "I think it's them."
Kate took the phone from the boy and opened the new text message. The text read: "We're just an hour away from our 24-hour live torture stream. Come join us and watch the countdown till the stream begins. -Link-"
Kate walked over to the Agent Pierce and said, "They sent out a new link. Apparently their going to have a 24-hour live stream."
"24 hours, they must be confident that they'll get away with this again," Agent Pierce said.
"I agree. Do you think your tech guy can get us into the website without being detected?"
"He can try," Pierce turned to his tech guy and asked, "Kenneth, do you think you can get us into this link without being detected by these guys?"
"I can certainly try. I'll have to go through several IP addresses, and use different routers, but I think I can throw them off our scent for a while," Kenneth said.
"Do you think it'll be long enough to hack into their system and locate them?"
"I don't know, sir. If they're as good as I think they are, they'll be using the same technique, and if I try to hack into their server, they may be on to us faster than when we got in."
"Fine, we'll work with what we got. Just get us in for now Kenneth."
"Yes, sir."
Kenneth started working on setting up everything to get into the link unnoticed, and Castle walked over to Kate.
"Do you really want to watch?" Castle asked her.
Kate sighed and said, "As much as I don't want to, I need to know if she's okay."
"I understand. I want to know if she's okay too."
"I hope we get to her before they hurt her."
"Me too. Why would they even want to torture a little girl?"
"I don't think they knew Castle. They pick their targets at random through the IP addresses and servers…"
"Yeah, but we don't know that for sure."
"We don't, but so far the other crimes have been all randomized as far as we know."
"Sure, but something seems off. Most of the victims have been college students, and a few adults. No one under 18 has been targeted until now."
"Look Castle, suspects change their motives all the time, or maybe they're trying to get more views… I'm not ruling out that this wasn't random, but it seems more likely that it is."
Castle nodded slowly and said, "Sure, maybe I'm seeing too much into this."
"It's a good theory though, but I doubt it's true."
"Hey, I think I got it," Kenneth said from the tech room.
A few FBI agents, along with Pierce piled into the tech room. Castle, Beckett, Esposito, and Ryan made their way into the room, making it a tight squeeze for everyone. The link popped up and a countdown showed on screen in white bold letters: "REMAINING: 25:03"
The numbers kept counting down and Esposito asked, "How do we know this is going to work?"
Kenneth looked up at him and said, "Um… I went through several different servers and IP addresses to mask our identity. It should hold up for a while and I can try deflecting their attacks for as long as I can, but sometimes it gets a little tricky."
"Just make sure it's long enough that we can catch these guys and get Mini B back. If she dies because this fails…"
"Esposito, this is going to work and we're going to find her. We just have to stay calm," Castle said.
"Castle's right. Let's stay focused and figure this case out," Kate said before turning to Kenneth, "You said you can hack into their server?"
"Well, yeah… I mean I can try. We may have to wait a while before doing so, because if I start the process right away they'll be on to us," Kenneth said.
"Do what you can Kenneth, you've gotten us this far," Agent Pierce said.
"Yes, sir. I'll do my best."
Emily's POV
Ethan, the other guy in the clown mask, and the man who kidnapped me with the hockey mask, were finishing setting up their equipment to broadcast their torture room on the internet. They had several different cameras at different angles, but their main camera sat in the middle of the room, probably getting the view of both us and then some.
"How many minutes do we have dude?" Ethan asked the guy with the hockey mask.
The hockey masked guy took out his phone and said, "10 minutes."
"Great… Noah, get the tools, so we don't forget."
"Yo, don't use my real name," Noah, the other clown masked guy said.
"They'll be dead anyway… And we're not on air yet. So, get the damn tools."
"Fine…"
"I'm going to go set up my laptop to trace anyone who shows up… You good in here?" the man with the hockey mask asked.
"Uh… Yeah, we should be good once Noah gets back with the tools. Let me know when we get to 12 hours, so we can take a short break," Ethan said.
"Okay, how we going to do this?"
"Just pop your head in and I'll know."
"Got it… We're going to keep rolling on them, right?"
"Yup, and we'll only be gone for about twenty minutes or so. Just to take a bathroom break and drink some energy drinks."
"Sounds good, I'll go get ready."
Hockey mask left the room and Ethan yelled out, "Noah! Hurry up! The clock is tickin'!"
"I'm coming," Noah yelled as he pulled a large table filled with different surgery instruments and power tools.
"Did you get our new thing?"
"No, I couldn't carry that and this."
"Well, go get it. We only have five minutes before we go live."
"All right, geeze…"
Noah left the room again and Ethan turned to me, "Ready Emily… This is going to be so much fun."
"You're a jerk!" I yelled at him.
He laughed and said, "I don't see how I'm the jerk. Now you, you're the jerk. You destroy people's lives… That's what you do. So now, you'll be getting what you deserve. We have plenty of time and lots of different tools to choose from. Just to warn you, we have some twisted people who come into our chat rooms and they're not going to go easy on you," he turned to Zeke and said, "That goes for you too buddy. They'll have lots of fun torturing you."
Zeke grumbled something through the duct tape and Ethan said, "I didn't quite catch that, but it must have been something on the lines of that you're excited and can't wait. Well, I agree with you there."
Noah came in with some weird looking equipment and said, "Okay, I got it… How much time do we have left?"
"2 minutes… Now set it up somewhere by the wall and get in position," Ethan said while instructing Noah.
Noah placed the item where he was told and stood in front of Zeke, while Ethan stood in front of me. Ethan checked the two monitors by the camera equipment, one was showing footage of us and the other showed an empty chat room.
"Can you see the chat from here?" Ethan asked.
"Yeah… Did you make it the same size as last time?" Noah asked.
"Yep, thought it was good…" Ethan looked at his laptop on the desk and said, "Get ready, 5 seconds until show time."
A red light flicked on, telling them that they were now live. Ethan took a small step forward towards the camera and said, "Good Evening, ladies and gentleman. I hope you're ready for a fun filled 24-hours of live torture."
"It looks like this one is going to be the best one yet. We already have 200 people in our live stream and we're only getting started," Noah said.
"That's right, and to kick this whole thing off, we're going to ask our loyal viewer Killerofall57 to take his first pickings. Are you here buddy?"
Noah read the comments on the other monitor and said, "Yup, he's here and he said he's excited to have the first pick."
"Okay Killerofall57, who would you like to see get it first and with what?"
It was quiet for a few seconds and Noah said, "I think he's having a hard time deciding."
Ethan chuckled and said, "Well, it's a hard decision to make."
"Wait, here it is… He said that we should start with the guy and use the lighter on his fingertips."
"Hmm… Starting off small aren't we. I guess we don't want to go too over board, we still have more than 23 hours to go."
"Guess, so."
Ethan walked over to the table with the tools and grabbed a lighter from the top shelf. He went over to Zeke and turned on the lighter, making the flame flicker to existence and giving the cold dim room an eerie glow. Noah lifted Zeke's right hand and I could see Zeke trying to struggle, but it was no use since he was restrained and Noah had a tight grip.
Ethan placed the lighter under Zeke's pointer finger and even though his mouth was still taped shut, the scream he let out was still loud and painful to hear. Ethan laughed as he pulled the lighter away and said, "How could I be so silly? I forgot to take the tape off his mouth, so we could all hear his pitiful screams."
"We always love to hear their screams, right guys?" Noah said.
The chat was lighting up with several different comments, but I couldn't read them from where I was sitting, but I figure they weren't very good anyway. Ethan grabbed a scalpel from the table and put it against the tape covering Zeke's face and mouth.
"Let's remove this, shall we?" Ethan said.
Ethan moved the scalpel down Ethan's cheek, cutting not just the tape, but also part of his skin, making it bleed. He ripped the tape off of Zeke's face, making him scream out in agony.
"Well, that's much better," Ethan said as he tossed the tape to the side.
"Should we get back to it?" Noah asked.
"Yep, let's finish this."
Noah grabbed Zeke's hand again and Ethan lit the lighter under his middle finger. Zeke groaned loudly and grumbled out, "You guys are monsters!"
"Aww… A compliment," Ethan said.
"That's always my favorite one," Noah said.
They continued burning all of Zeke's fingers and the look of pure pain and anger on his face was hard to watch. And if this was the mild torture, I'm afraid to see what else these two psychos have up their sleeves for the next 23 hours.
Once they finished burning his fingers they walked back in front of the camera and said, "Well, that was a fun way to start our first 24-hour live stream. Why don't we kick off a new segment today and start a Q&A. How's that sound?"
"I like that idea… What about you guys?" Ethan asked.
Noah read over the comments and said, "Looks like they enjoy the idea too."
"Okay, our first question is from Dieallhumanity: How did you all come up with this idea?"
"Oh, that's a good question. Do you want to answer it or me?"
"I'll go. We actually came up with this after watching some weird documentary on HBO. I got my friend here to join me and after the first stream was a success, we decided to do it again. It wasn't hard to find our victims, but the real threat is the FBI. We know they're on to us, but we won't stop and they'll never catch us."
While they were distracted by the chatroom and answering them, I looked over to Zeke who was dozing in and out of consciousness. An idea popped into my head, and I figured since they weren't paying attention to us, I could use sign language to relay a message. I was starting to learn sign language in my sign language class in school, because all the other electives were filled, so I had to take that class. We just learned our alphabet recently and I figured it would be worth a try to attract someone's attention. I really hoped aunt Kate and the FBI were watching, but that was a long shot.
3rd Person
They were watching the stream, and they couldn't believe their eyes as they tortured the other victim they had tied down besides mini Beckett. They knew if this stream was going to last 24 hours, that it was only going to get worse here on out. Castle noticed Emily moving her hand, and said, "Hey, what's Emily doing?"
"I'm not sure… Is she using sign language?" Kate asked as she looked at the screen.
"Looks like it," Ryan said.
"Kenneth, can you zoom in on her hand?" Agent Pierce asked.
"I sure can," he said.
The picture zoomed in on Emily's hand and she went through some letters of the alphabet. They watched her closely and Agent Pierce said, "Do we know anyone who can read sign language?"
Everyone looked around at each other, and I a young man from the FBI stepped up, fixing his glasses and said, "I… I can, sir."
"Nate, you can read sign language?" Agent Pierce asked.
"Yes, I took it in college and I tutored a deaf kid at my school."
"All right, Nate. Interpret what she's spelling out," He turned to Beckett and said, "And Detective, you have a smart kid on your hands."
"Thanks, she definitely is," she said.
Nate started writing down and saying what she was signing, "E-T-H-A-N… Ethan…"
"Ethan? Who's Ethan?" Castle questioned.
"I'm not real sure."
"She's doing more," Nate said and started interpreting her second wave of signing, "E-S-C-O-B-A-R… Escobar."
"Ethan Escobar? Why does that sound familiar?" Esposito said, looking at Beckett with confusion.
"Tony Escobar…" Beckett said with realization.
"The creep who kidnapped and buried Emily?"
"Yeah, Ethan's his son."
"Why did Emily spell out his name?" Ryan asked.
"I have a feeling Ethan is one of those clowns," Castle said.
"That's what it seems like," Kate said to him before turning to Esposito and Ryan, "I need you to find out more about Ethan."
"We're on it," Esposito said.
"I'll get my men on getting any information about him," Agent Pierce said.
"All right," Kate said with a nod.
Two hours of searching and Esposito and Ryan found some information on Ethan Escobar. They walked up to Beckett and Castle and Esposito said, "We found out Ethan was in California for a school program a year ago."
"Then he went back to school a few months ago, and that was Penn State where Henry Carmichael went," Ryan said.
"So, Ethan is pretty much connected to each case," Beckett said.
"Yep, he seems to tie in with each state," Esposito said.
Agent Pierce made his way over and said, "They're right, my guys uncovered the same information. We contacted a few of his teachers and the program specialist, they said he grew attached to one of the other guys in the program Noah Ormond, and they spent a lot of time together. They even took a trip to Washington state when they were in the program in California."
"That's where two other victims were located," Beckett said.
"Exactly. More than likely Ethan and this Noah fellow, are our main suspects."
"What's our next step?" Castle asked.
"Well, we found out Ethan's mother lives about an hour from here. She might be able to help us," Ryan said.
"Okay, let's go have a chat with Mrs. Escobar," Beckett said before they took off to Mrs. Escobar's residents.
They got to Mrs. Escobar's house and banged on the door loudly. There was shuffling from inside and a woman asked, "Who is it?"
"NYPD and the FBI," Beckett said.
The door opened, revealing an older lady with short black hair, and she asked, "What do you want?"
"We have reasons to believe that your son is involved with several murders and is in the process of committing two more," Beckett said.
"No, that's not possible. My son is at school and he's a good man."
"Ma'am a kid's life is in danger. Your son is the only lead we have, we need you to help us locate him," Agent Pierce said.
"I… I can't lose him… I already lost my husband to you guys, I can't lose my son too."
Beckett sighed and said to the woman, "I understand Mrs. Escobar, but my niece is in trouble and your son could be behind the whole thing. Do you really want to live with yourself knowing you did nothing to save her or future victims?"
Mrs. Escobar let a tear escape her and said, "I do not want that. But I really don't know where my son is."
"When is the last time you heard from him?"
"A week ago, he said he lost his phone… It was a different number then before. I just thought he was on campus."
"Do you still have that number?"
"Yes, I do."
"Do you remember anything else unusual about the phone call?" Agent Pierce asked.
"He did mention something about revenging his dad sometime soon, and we'll all have closure. I thought he was talking nonsense, but since his dad got put away, he's been kind of out there."
"And that's all you can recall?"
"Yes…"
"Okay, thank you Mrs. Escobar. Once you give us the number we'll be on our way," Beckett said.
"Can you answer me this one thing?"
"Sure…"
"Will I be able to see my son again?"
"I can't answer that, but if things go as planned then you may be able to see your son."
Mrs. Escobar just nodded solemnly, before getting her phone to give the detectives and agents Ethan's new number.
They got back to the precinct where everyone was still watching the live stream. Agent Pierce walked over to Kenneth and asked, "Kenneth, can you get a location on this phone?"
"I can try, but if it's a prepaid phone, it's going to be hard to pin point an exact location, and it may take a little time to do," he said as he took the number.
"That's fine, we still have 19 hours on the clock. Just try your best."
"Yes, sir. I'll get right on it."
"Did the mother know anything?" Castle asked Beckett.
"Not much, just the weird number and that he was talking about revenge," Kate said.
"So, this wasn't just a planned attack?"
"Apparently not, Emily probably would have wound up there one way or another."
"But the others were random though?"
"More than likely. Just two teens in college, having sick and twisted fun."
"At least we're half way to solving this case and saving mini Beckett."
"Yes, if it wasn't for her quick thinking on using her sign language, I don't think we would have gotten this far so fast."
"She learned that from you."
Kate smiled and said, "I guess she did. I'm really proud of her Castle, and sometimes I don't think she realizes it."
"I think deep down she knows. She's still young, just give her time."
"Yeah, I know."
Castle hugged her close, putting a soft kiss to her temple, before pulling away, making sure no one saw their quick intimacy with each other.
Emily's POV
It's been hours since the live stream started and things were only getting worse. Zeke had burnt fingers, he had his nails ripped from his skin, and right now, they are extracting a tooth from the poor man's mouth. I think so far, I've been getting the best forms of torture, and that's a weird thing to say, but it's true. The only thing they've done to me so far was put needles in my skin, like a painfuller version of acupuncture.
They finally extracted a tooth from Zeke's mouth and he sit blood onto the floor and a bit on himself. Zeke looked in terrible shape and I felt really bad for him, especially since I'm the one Ethan really wants. All Noah and Ethan did was laugh as they placed the tooth in a metal bowl on their tool table.
"Woo-wee that was hard today. Usually we get those suckers out no problem," Ethan chuckled.
"Yeah, guess this guy's been keeping his teeth healthy," Noah said.
"I bet his dentist would be proud."
They both laughed again and I shook my head at their stupid attempts to be funny. How could anyone be funny while torturing people? I guess only pure psychopaths would know that.
They went back towards the main camera and looked at the monitor. They were silent for a few seconds, until Ethan spoke up, "It looks like everyone is having a good time, and can't wait to see more."
"I can't wait either… Do you think we can bring out the new toy now?" Noah asked.
"Well, I was going to wait until after our halfway point, but why not."
"Yes, are your guys excited?"
"I know I am, but who should we use it on? What do you guys think?"
"I think you should use it on me," I blurted out because I didn't want to see Zeke hurting anymore.
It was probably the stupidest decision ever, because I don't even know what it is, but I'll stay strong, that's what Aunt Kate would want me to do.
"Huh, aren't we a brave young girl. Just volunteering yourself like someone from The Hunger Games," Ethan said.
"You've hurt him enough… I'm the one you want, so take it out on me."
"This isn't just about you. Don't you get that… You're just small part out of this whole situation, but we won't pass up on the offer. Isn't that right?"
"That's right," Noah said.
"Go grab the thing."
Noah nodded and grabbed the large item he brought in just before the live stream started. He brought it over to my chair and they each grabbed a wire that had a small sticky pad on the end of it. Noah placed one of the sticky pads to my right temple and then Ethan placed it on my opposite one. They grabbed another wire with the same small sticky pads on it and placed them on my forearms. After they finished placing the four wires, they turned back to the camera and Ethan asked, "Do any of you know what this is?"
"I see lots of no's in the chat room," Noah said.
"I'll give you a hint. It can send high or low volts throughout the body."
"Now everyone seems to get it. Goldbarkiller said that we're going to electrocute her with an electrocuting machine."
"Yep, that's pretty much what we'll be doing. And maybe throughout the stream we'll kick it up a notch, since she so desperately wanted to volunteer herself for this new item."
"I think this'll be a blast."
"It'll be electrifying."
Noah laughed and said, "But it could be shocking."
Ethan laughed back and said, "Okay… Why don't we countdown for this monumental moment."
"Sounds good."
They held up five fingers towards the camera and said, "5…4…3…2…1…"
Ethan hit a button on the small remote in his hand, and I felt sharp electric current run threw my body. The pain was minimal at first, but I figured he kicked the voltage up another notch and my body started convulsing involuntarily. My body was twitching everywhere and since I was restrained to the chair with my body, wrist, and ankles, I kept banging into the back of it. I couldn't really register what was going on or much of the pain anymore, but I felt like a ragdoll as I shook violently.
Ethan turned it off and my head slumped down and I could barely even lift it, let alone keep my consciousness. My body and head hurt like heck and my heart felt like it was beating rapidly. I tried to catch my breath and I heard Ethan say, "Wow, that worked better than I thought it would."
"That was cool. It looks like everyone else enjoyed it too," Noah said.
"We'll definitely be doing that again."
"Yeah, definitely."
That was the last thing I heard before I passed out from the extreme electric torture.
3rd Person POV
Everyone in the tech room, including Captain Gates, who joined them just moments ago, couldn't believe their eyes after watching Emily getting electrocuted. The other things were sick and disgusting, but that moment tugged on everyone's heart strings. The one guy in the bloody clown mask walked over to her, lifting her head by her chin and said, "Aww… Look who's down for the count. I guess we'll have to wait until she wakes up to do some more things to her."
"At least we still have this guy," the other man in the green nosed clown mask said.
Agent Pierce shook his head and said, "Where are you with the phone Kenneth?"
"I'm still working on it… It's not that simple," Kenneth said.
"We don't have much time here. It's only getting worse by the hour."
"I know, I'm going as fast as I can."
Kenneth continued working and Kate said, "They can't possibly keep going higher with the voltage."
"Who knows how many voltages that thing can actually send out," Castle said.
"If they get any higher, Mini B could go into full cardiac arrest," Ryan said.
"We need to get to her before that happens."
"We sure do," Kate said before saying, "I'm going to go grab some coffee."
"I'll come with," Castle said as he followed her towards the break room.
Kate walked into the break room and took a seat on one of the chairs. She placed her head in her hands and let out a soft sob. Castle looked over her, trying to figure out how to comfort his wife at a time like this. This was always hard when Emily was missing, but what was making this even harder, was being able to watch everything that was happening to her and not being able to do anything about it. He walked over to Kate and rubbed her back gently, "She'll be okay. We're so close to finding her."
She looked up at him with teary hazel eyes and said, "What if it's just another dead-end Castle. I could possibly watch my niece die on a live stream. I can't handle that Castle… Not now…"
"It won't be, Kate. This'll work out, it has too. This is important to all of us to find Emily, and I know we will."
"I so want to believe that Castle, but as I watch that clock tick down in there, I'm losing hope each hour we don't have our next lead."
Castle shed a tear and said, "Me too, but we can't give up. Once we give up, it's over."
Kate nodded and said, "I know, I've been there too many times."
It was silent for a bit, before Castle's phone started ringing. He took it out of his jacket pocket and saw it was Alexis.
"I completely forgot to tell Alexis, and my mother," Castle said.
"Answer it, tell them what's going on. I'll make us some coffee," Kate said.
"You sure?"
"Yes, I'll see you in a bit."
"Okay."
He walked into the hall and answered his phone.
"Dad! Are you okay? Your apartment looks like it's been ransacked," Alexis said with worry clear in her voice.
"I'm fine Alexis, but Emily's been kidnapped," he said sadly.
"What? How? Why?"
"The link that's been going around the internet caught up to Emily, and now she's a part of a live broadcast. It's not looking good Alexis."
"Grams and I are coming to the precinct."
"I don't know if that's a good idea… It's hard to watch Emily and this other guy getting tortured."
"We want to be there for Beckett, you, and Emily. We'll be there soon."
"Okay, see you soon."
He hung up his phone and walked into the break room, finding Kate finishing up the two cups of coffee.
"Alexis and my mother are on their way over," Castle said as Kate handed him a cup.
"Do they really want to see this?" she asked.
"No, but they want to be here for support and they love Emily as much as we do. They want to be here for her."
Kate nodded and said, "We should head back to the room, and see what else is going on."
"Okay."
Emily's POV
I don't know how long I was out for, but when I awoke my head hurt so bad, it felt like a jackhammer was pounding away in there. I looked around the room and found the two crazies gone, but we were still on the live stream.
"They took a break," Zeke mumbled out wearily.
"We hit the 12-hour mark already?" I asked.
"Yup… It's insane how fast time goes…" he coughed roughly before continuing his statement, "while being tortured."
"What did I miss?"
"Not much… Just a lot of pain…"
"I guess that was stupid to ask."
He put on a small smile and said, "It was a genuine question."
I moved my arms in my restraints and tried to see if I could break free. It wasn't working well, but I was going to keep trying, to see if I could loosen it up enough to get out.
"Why would you try that?" Zeke asked.
"Why not? It's the last chance I got. They might be watching out there, but I don't care. I won't' make it out alive anyway, so why not fight for freedom," I said while I was still working on my restraints.
"I see your point."
The door flung open and I looked up to see Ethan come in with his mask on. Even though I couldn't see his face, I figured it was a look of pure anger, knowing I was trying to escape. He walked over to me and grabbed my face roughly and yelled, "What do you think you're doing!?"
"Getting away from you!" I yelled back.
He back handed me hard and I spit blood out onto the floor beside me.
"Don't ever try that again," he said.
"What are you going to do torture me to death… Oh wait, that's what's happening already."
He growled lowly and said, "You want to play that way, okay. Let's see if you can handle our next torture method."
"Fine," I sneered.
Noah had come in while we were busy arguing with each other and Ethan said, "hand me the pliers."
Noah grabbed them and brought them to Ethan, who took them quickly. He looked back at the camera and said, "This is what happens when you can't behave in our torture room."
Noah grabbed my pointer finger and Ethan placed the pliers in the middle of it, before clamping down hard, making the bone snap audibly through the room. I screamed louder than I ever had in my life, the pain was even worse than when I broke my leg while skateboarding. My finger was in an immense amount of pain and I couldn't fight the tears that started spilling down my face. Noah grabbed my next finger and I said, "Please, don't…."
"Oh, now you're pleading with us… I thought you were tougher than that?" Ethan asked.
"I hate you."
"Aww… I hate you too."
He broke my middle finger and I screamed at the searing pain shooting through my two broken fingers. Ethan handed the pliers to Noah and said, "I think we made our point."
"I think we did," Noah said before taking the pliers back to the table.
"But just in case we didn't, why don't we boost that up an extra couple of volts… Maybe fifty more," Ethan said while looking at his clicker.
"Hmm… That sounds good, and we still have more than eleven hours to kick it up more."
"Exactly what I was thinking."
Ethan clicked the button and my body bolted straight up before convulsing like earlier. I could see whites around my eyes and I closed them tightly trying to stay focused on anything but the electrifying pain coursing through my body. I convulsed for what seemed like forever before Ethan stopped it once again. Drool ran down my mouth as I tried to breath, and I felt nothing in my body as I sat there. I felt like I was completely out of it, almost like I was having an out of body experience, but not quite.
"Looks like someone can't handle it like she thought," Ethan said with a chuckle.
"Nope," Noah said with his own chuckle.
"These last hours are going to be fun."
"That they will."
3rd Person POV
Both of the victims looked like they were in bad shape, and the hours were still counting down, closing in on the last hope of finding them both alive. Alexis and Mrs. Rodgers were now at the precinct, but Castle didn't want them to see the horrible things that were happening to Emily, so they stayed out in the waiting room, waiting for any new updates.
Kenneth jumped up from his seat and said, "I got a basic location. I got it."
Everyone rushed over towards his computer and Agent Pierce asked him, "What's the location?"
"This circle here is east Staten Island, they could be anywhere within that region," Kenneth said as he pointed to the satellite images on his computer.
"That area is empty as far as I know," Esposito said while looking at it.
"Isn't there an old torture room there from back in the 1800's?" Castle questioned.
Everyone stared at Castle with raised brows and he shrugged, "I did some research on it when I was writing one of my Derrick Storm novels."
"I'll go look it up," Ryan said as he ran out of the room.
"Are you sure Castle?" Beckett asked him.
"I'm positive, it's an old stone place, and has several different rooms that were used for torture… I think it's been empty for years now," Castle said.
"Guy's I got something!" Ryan called from the other room.
Everyone went over to Ryan's desk and Beckett asked, "What did you find?"
"Castle is right. It's an old torture building that was used back in the 1800's. It's been empty for fifty years and every time it goes through to be named a historical sight, it gets shot down," Ryan said.
"I guess no one wants a building for torture to be a historical landmark," Esposito said.
"There's about twenty different rooms in the building and it seems easy to find. I think they might be there."
"Okay, everyone let's head out. We have a kid and young man to save," Agent Pierce said.
Emily's POV
I was losing hope quickly, and as I sat in pain tapped to my chair, all I could do was watch the time count down on the monitor. I was scared, tired, weak, and every inch of my body ached like crazy. Zeke didn't look to hot either, his cheeks were red and puffy, and he had several different places that were coated with dried blood. This might just be the end of us, and it's all because I disobeyed my aunt so many times to count. My curiosity always did get the best of me, and now it came to bite me in the behind.
I had no clue if my aunt even knew if I was here, and if she did, what was running through her mind. Was she angry with me? Was she worried for me? Was she sad? I just wish I could see her again, and Castle, along with his family, my family, and also the precinct. I couldn't stand this agony and wished it would just be over with, whether it was the FBI breaking down this door, or more likely… death.
Ethan and Noah were trying to figure out what to do next, and I hoped it wasn't anything to bad. The past few hours have been filled with terrible torture methods, and the pain scale kept growing from each new one they did.
"Is it time for our little victim to get her next shock?" Noah asked.
I groaned through a sob and Ethan said, "You know, I think it is."
"People seem to like that."
"Yeah, I do too."
Ethan grabbed his remote again and pressed the on button. I cried out in pain as I shook for the fifth time that day. I could barely even feel anything anymore, and I knew that wasn't a good thing, because once you give up hope, it's all over. And as much as I kind of wanted it to just end, there was a part of me that still wanted to fight.
Ethan pressed that awful remote once again, and I had no clue what voltage we were up to, but it hurt even worse than before. I could barely keep consciousness this time around and I didn't even know what was going on around me anymore. It kind of felt like I was in my own bubble and everything was slowing down around me. It stopped once again, and I faintly heard the two guys laughing at my pain.
I felt like my body was shutting down, and I figured that Ethan Escobar was going to stick to his word that he'd get revenge for his father. I heard a commotion coming from the other room, and I tried to lift my head to make more sense of it all. Noah and Ethan were looking at each other and Ethan said, "Dude, go check it out."
Noah went to the door and opened it, but as soon as he got it opened guns were drawn on him and he put his hands up in surrender. Ethan quickly went over to me and put a sharp blade to my neck, I was still on the verge of losing consciousness, but I could still understand what was happening around me. The FBI and Aunt Kate came into the room with their guns drawn and Aunt Kate said, "Ethan Escobar, drop your weapon."
"Why should I? I'm already going to jail for the rest of my life, probably getting the chair too. What's one more going to do?" Ethan said.
"Ethan Escobar, we're warning you," Agent Pierce said.
"I have to do this for my dad. You all took him away from me and now you're going to pay," Ethan said while digging the blade further into my skin, making it bleed.
A shot rang out in the room and the knife Ethan had, clattered to the floor and he cried out in pain. I looked over my shoulder to see Ethan holding his left shoulder, blood leaking onto his hand. My face was grabbed softly and was brought up to see my aunt's eyes looking worriedly at me.
"Em, are you okay?" she asked.
I smiled tiredly and said, "Now that you're here… But I'm so tired aunt Kate."
My eyes started getting heavy and my aunt said, "Hey, hey… Try to stay awake for me, okay?"
"I'm sorry aunt Kate… I should have listened."
"It's fine, Em. It could have happened anyway."
I started losing consciousness and I heard my aunt calling out to me, but I couldn't stay awake any longer, everything that happened to me in the last 18 hours were rough and were finally taking its toll.
My eye's cracked opened, and I let out a little yawn as I awoke from my slumber. I could smell the antiseptic in the air and I knew that I was in the hospital, which was great, because I wasn't dead nor strapped to the uncomfortable chair in that crazy torture room. I looked around and found that it was empty, besides all the machines and medical equipment that was surrounding me. I looked at my right hand and saw my two broken fingers were nestled nicely in a cast and I knew I was probably slightly sedated since I didn't feel much pain from my many bruises and cuts that I knew I had throughout my body.
I heard my door open and I saw aunt Kate walk in with Castle by her side. They were talking lowly to each other, probably thinking I was still under, and I smiled softly knowing that I'd get to see my family once again. They walked over to my bed and they both smiled at me, noticing that I was awake.
"Em, are you okay?" my aunt asked.
"Yeah, I'm okay. How did you guys find us?" I asked.
"It was all thanks to you Emily, and your smart thinking of doing sign language."
"So, you were watching… I was hoping you guys were."
"Yep, and once we got Ethan's name, we took it from there. I'm just happy to have you here Em."
"Me too. So, what happened to Ethan and Noah?" I asked.
"Well, Ethan was treated for his gunshot wound and then got escorted to prison, along with Noah and their accomplice Victor."
"The guy in the hockey mask?"
"Yep, that was Victor."
"We're you all scared watching the live stream?"
"We were very worried for you Em. We all were."
"Yeah, watching you get electrocuted had to be the hardest on all of us," Castle said.
"Well, it was hard to take too," I said with a light laugh.
They smiled softly and Aunt Kate said, "I bet it was, but you stayed strong."
"I learned I had to stay strong from you Aunt Kate."
She smiled and said, "I'm glad to hear that."
"Is Zeke okay?" I asked.
"Yes, Zeke is stable. He had to get some surgery and was in worse condition then you were, but he'll be fine."
"Can I see him?"
"Sure… I think you can go see him. Let the doctor check you out first and then we'll go visit him."
"All right."
The doctor checked me out and said that I was healing well and thankfully all the times I got electrocuted, it didn't do any serious damage. Most of my cuts and bruises were healing nicely and the worst injury I had were my two broken fingers, but I could deal with that because I've had tons of broken bones before, so it wouldn't be hard to handle.
Once she was done, we got the okay to go visit Zeke in his room and when we got there, he was actually awake and smiled at me as Castle pushed my wheelchair up to his bedside.
"Hi, Zeke. I'm glad to see that you're okay," I said.
"Glad to see you're okay too Em. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you," he said.
"It was nothing, and if the FBI and the 12th precinct didn't do what they do best, we could have been goners."
"Well, I thank them and you."
"It was my pleasure. It was nice meeting you Zeke, even though it was during an awful situation."
He chuckled softly and said, "Same to you Emily. You're going to be something special someday, I know it."
I smiled and said, "Bye Zeke."
"Bye Emily."
Castle started pushing me back to my room, my aunt walking next to us and Castle said, "So mini Beckett, think you'll be looking up any random links again."
"No, I think I'm good. Plus, I think I broke my computer," I said.
"That you did, but I know a guy who'll fix it as good as new."
"Thanks Castle… I'm really glad to be alive, and to have an awesome family like you guys."
"We are too, Em. We are too," Aunt Kate said.