Author's Note: Sorry for another long wait, I'm still struggling with my mental health at the same time a lot of things are going on in my life but I will try to update sooner next time.
As always thanks for all the reviews/follows/favourites it always makes me very happy.
All mistakes are still mine.

Just to be safe I am going to put a TW for child abuse on this chapter and probably some future chapters as well

CHAPTER 8

When Mozzie woke up the next morning, Neal was already awake and was quietly playing with his teddy bear.
His brother noticed that he was awake and looked up at him, and Mozzie could immediately see by the look on his face that something was wrong.
He didn't have to wonder for even a second what it was, because he felt the hunger too.
He then realized that they had been to occupied with the whole FBI ordeal and then facing Keller to eat anything at all yesterday and now they were stuck inside this small room, without any food at all.
Mozzie wasn't sure what hurt him the most, the hunger he felt himself or the fact that his brother felt the same hunger as well.
He prided himself with the fact that he had never let his little brother go hungry, he had always made sure to get Neal fed, every single day since their mother got too sick to cook.
Mozzie suddenly felt like a terrible brother and he hoped that Keller would return to the apartment and not just leave them here to starve to death.
At least Neal stayed quiet and didn't whine, but Mozzie knew better than to believe that it would last for much longer and he was soon proved to be right.
Unfortunately, Neal had the same attention span as all four-year-olds and the teddy could only entertain him for a while, and once it was put aside, the lack of other entertainment caused Neal to start his whining, despite his best efforts not to.

"Mozzie."

Neal pleaded, hoping that his big brother would be able to get them out of this situation, but Mozzie had no idea what to do and he was afraid to admit it.
He had always done his very best to never show his fears or insecurities to his baby brother, he had constantly made Neal believe that he always knew what he was doing and that he always had a plan.

Mozzie spent hours, or maybe it was just minutes, it was hard to tell without a watch, thinking about a way to break them out of the room or a way to make Keller forgive them.
Normally Mozzie used to be quick on his feet and could always come up with some sort of plan, but now his mind had come to a complete standstill and he couldn't even come up with a bad one.

"Hungrryyyy."

Neal whined, dragging out the word, and something inside Mozzie just snapped.
He was tired of the constant whining and Neal's inability to understand that Mozzie did the best that he could and that he was just as hungry as Neal.

"Shut up, Neal!"

He yelled but immediately regretted it, Mozzie knew that it was the hunger getting to him but he didn't see that as an excuse to be mean to his little brother.
Neal was clearly both surprised and frightened by the yelling, it was rare for Mozzie to show any aggression and even rarer for him to show it towards Neal.

"I'm sorry Neal, I didn't mean it."

He said but his brother didn't answer, instead he just started to play with his teddy again, avoiding to even look at Mozzie.
Keller better let them out of this room soon or they would end up driving each other mad and perhaps that would end up breaking the strong bond between the brothers.

It was several hours later that they finally heard a door open, then some footsteps and lastly the sound of their door being unlocked.
The door opened and Mozzie had never been so happy to see his uncle before.

"Aw, why the long faces?"

He asked in a mocking tone and the brief happiness that Mozzie had felt over his uncle's presence disappeared just as fast as it had come.
Mozzie didn't get the chance to answer, his stomach did the work for him.

"If you want to get some food, you're going to have to earn it."

He looked back at Neal who had started to chew on the teddy's ear, and he sighed as he realized that he would be forced to play along if he wanted to be a good brother.
Sure, they wouldn't die if Keller didn't feed them today, they could survive another couple of weeks without food, but the hunger pains and Neal's whining wasn't worth it.
So, he pushed away the need to show his anger to Keller, and instead he got up from the bed, showing that he was willing to earn his food.
Keller, however, walked into the room and picked Neal up from the bed, the four-year-old releasing a surprised yelp.
Mozzie felt his protective urges activate, while he was willing to do whatever it would take to get them food, he wasn't willing to let Neal become a pawn in Keller's games.
Neal looked at him, and Mozzie could see the panic in his blue eyes, and it was hard for him to stay calm, especially when he noticed how tight their uncle's grip around the small body was.
Keller left the room and Mozzie followed him, not daring to let them out of his sight for even a second.
Without any warning, their uncle opened a small closet in the hallway and forced Neal inside before shutting the doors on him.
Neal immediately started to pound on the door with his tiny fists while yelling his brother's name, desperate to escape the dark closet.

"What are you doing?!"

Mozzie exclaimed before rushing towards the closet, but Keller blocked it.

"If you want your food, you have to make it through 10 minutes of being subjected to your greatest fears."

The darkness was truly Neal's greatest fear, while his own was this situation.
Mozzie's greatest fear was to know that his brother was scared, to hear him desperately call for help, to know that his little brother needed him, but he couldn't help him.
It was unbearable to listen to Neal's crying, and it didn't take long for Mozzie to sink to the floor and start to cry as well.
Keller was just standing there, leaning against the closet door with a big smile on his face.
Normally when people got angry they would yell and they would get physical, but not Keller.
He only lashed out physically when he was in a blind rage, otherwise he liked to show his anger by messing with them, making them suffer without physically harming them.
Mozzie wasn't sure what was worse, being used as a punching bag or being subjected to this kind of torture.
The 10 minutes felt like 10 hours but finally Keller moved away from the closet and Mozzie got up on shaking legs and opened the closet door.
The poor kid was sitting in the corner, curled up into a ball while shaking like a leaf.

"Neal."
As soon as he heard his name, Neal threw himself at his brother and Mozzie hugged his little brother tight, ignoring the warm wet patch on his brother's pants.

The were told to return to the room while Keller got the food, and Mozzie helped Neal change his clothes before they sat down on the bed to wait.
It took several minutes and Mozzie started to fear that their uncle had tricked them and they had gone through that horrible experience for nothing.
Thankfully, Keller did follow through, he came into the room 30 minutes later and placed two happy meals on the nightstand.

"I was even nice enough to leave the toys in there."

He informed them before he left the room, locking the door shut before leaving the apartment again, going off to god knows where.
The food was cold, but they didn't care instead they practically inhaled their food.
Mozzie frowned his face in disgusts when he saw the two yellow characters they had received as their toys, he really couldn't stand those annoying minions.
Luckily, the annoying little minions managed to bring a smile to Neal's face and as they went to bed that night, they were clutched tightly to his chest together with the teddy bear.
Neal drifted off pretty easily, but Mozzie stayed awake for a long time with a knot in his stomach and thousands of worried thoughts in his head.
He understood that Keller was pissed about the whole FBI thing, but there had to be some kind of limit.
Mozzie hoped that their uncle wouldn't continue playing these wicked games with them, even though he deep inside knew that their uncle was just getting started with his revenge.