Trigger Warnings:
Referenced Rape/Torture/Abuse(Yk, the usual)
Implied Substance Abuse on Midnight's part

Enjoy!

Unfortunately, the raid of Midnight's old hideout proved fruitless, and the case was again growing cold.

Cornflower refused to give up, however.

King didn't give up, either. He knew Purple was a strong kid, but Midnight was capable of worse things than they thought, and it worried the hell out of him.

The thought of Midnight seriously injuring any of them, especially Purple, was enough to drive him mad.

The day they raided the shack again, they noticed the photo Purple left behind with an address scribbled on the back.

King, however, almost couldn't make out the handwriting. Cornflower still kept it as evidence.

Missing posters with the other four teenagers filed up next to Purple's on electrical posts and billboards all over town. Second and the others joined every single search party, and King stayed with Cornflower to assess every piece of evidence for anything they missed.

And it stayed that way.

For almost two months.

A month and a half into the group's normal routine, Cornflower had no choice but to call the case cold.

Purple's address couldn't be identified, and while the handwriting was confirmed to be his, it couldn't be identified.

King felt horrible. They had gone through almost two months of time, and nothing had come up.

Parts of Midnight's plan were still missing, and the raids of the shack hadn't come up with anything besides wine bottles and blood stains.

King and the others were devastated.

Purple was gone, and without a new lead, he would stay that way.

And King hated it.

By the two month mark, Lilac and the others had accepted their fate as Midnight's slaves.

They were kept in what was probably an even small cellar at the new hideout, and Midnight drank himself silly more than ever.

Ruby was counting the days between each separate visit from Midnight, and they hadn't gotten one in a few days.

And those fees days felt like either a blessing or hell.

Whether Purple would get raped, or they would all just get beaten, it always seemed like Midnight was drunk.

The other times, he seemed perfectly fine whenever one of the two somewhat physically capable boys snuck up to grab anything.

From what they could grab from the news, it took the cops that entire two months to call it a cold case, only because Cornflower knew Midnight would only kill if he had a motive.

Cornflower and King were also more stubborn than they actually realized, and refused to call it quits until they really had nothing else to go off.

There really was also no point in killing five teenagers. He didn't show it all that often, but he wasn't heartless.

He would, albeit reluctantly, let Sage and Ruby help him with hangovers the day after his drunk mayhem party, while Lilac and Saffron treated what they could for Purple with medical supplies Ruby smuggled from upstairs.

There also was no outside exit from down there, so unless they had a plan, and Midnight was passed out from a hangover and wouldn't wake up for a while, they had no chance of escaping.

That still didn't stop the kids from trying, however.

Sure, Midnight didn't see the point of killing five teenagers and traumatizing a whole town in the process, but they knew that if they gave him a reason, he would kill them.

Or, he'd at least kill Purple,who he was really holding hostage. He saw the other four as people who could have an eye on him 24/7, or at least still saw them as his partners in crime.

What he didn't know was that Lilac and the others were doing all they could to protect Purple, and eventually help him, and themselves escape.

But those two months were proving that they couldn't protect him forever, and the constant rape and abuse was taking a major toll on the kid.

Major enough to where the kids began fearing that if they didn't get him out soon, he would die.

After a few weeks, Second and his friends finally decided to return to Alan's desktop.

It wasn't easy, having to leave King all alone without Purple, who was probably dead by this point, but Second could feel Alan worrying about him, and as much as he hated leaving King, he had no choice.

They couldn't risk having Alan more worried, even if it meant risking leaving King all alone and potentially his recently growing depression spiking higher than hell.

Not like it hadn't done that already.

Second stared at the portal with sadness, knowing it was going to be hard knowing Purple was gone, King's phone rang.

"Cornflower? What-"

"Get to the hospital now."

The entire group was caught immensely off guard by this statement.

"Wh-what? Why?"

"I'll explain when you get here, just get to the hospital. Now."

And with that, Cornflower hung up.

King stared at the others, the gleam in his eyes returning in an instant.

"Purple."

The second the car was parked at the hospital, King almost fell out of the driver's seat and ran into the hospital, followed by the kids.

Cornflower was patiently waiting in the lobby.

"What happened?!" King asked frantically, grabbing the man's shoulders.

"Relax. It's not Purple, in case you're wondering. But…It's his friend, Ruby."

"One of Midnight's former cohorts?" King asked worriedly.

"Yep. She's been taken into surgery with major blood loss, among other major injuries. I doubt Midnight was drunk for this, but my guess is he tried hurting Purple, and the others tried to stop him. And from the looks of Ruby…it didn't end well."

"Was it just her that came in?" Red asked.

"Just her. I think the others are partially alive, and Ruby got out, barely. Or the others are out in the woods somewhere." Cornflower explained.

"Oh, God…" The thought of Purple being out there, seriously injured or maybe even dead, was enough to send King into a panic.

"I've already sent out a search party just after police were notified of Ruby's escape. They're on patrol for Midnight as well." Cornflower reassured.

"And if they're found?"

"They're being taken straight to the hospital, and Midnight is immediately put in custody."

The doctor came out a few moments later.

"How is she?" Blue asked.

"Well, she's lost a lot of blood, that's for sure. A few major stab wounds, which we got patched up with stitches. She also has a mild concussion, probably from hitting concrete. Luckily, no major organs were damaged, but I did notice that she does look quite familiar, Detective Cornflower."

"She's a missing person, doc," King answered for him. "My son is one of her friends, and he's also been missing for two months."

"I've heard of the case," The doctor said. "She's awake if you two adults want to see her."

"Thank you." Cornflower led the way to the room.

King wasn't sure what he was expecting, but holy shit, Ruby didn't look good. Her stomach was covered in bandages.

"C-Cornflower?" She asked weakly.

"Yeah, it's me. Where's everyone else?"

"I…locked em in the cellar." She pointed to the key on the nightstand. "Midnight doesn't know I took it. I was trying to protect Purple."

"Good job, kid." King said to himself.

"Are the others alright?" Cornflower asked.

"Mostly. We were barely able to stop Midnight from raping Purple again, and Lilac got a few good slashes with his blade before he got me. I'm only here because he chased me out and I couldn't get back in to save the others."

"And the others? They're locked in that cellar, right?"

"Yeah. And until the cops find the shack…they're not getting out."

"How long is that gonna take?" Cornflower asked. "I was already planning on reopening the case as soon as I was informed that you were in the hospital, but it could take months for them to be found. Is there any food or water in there?"

"We've been sneaking out in disguises to get food and water, so any thefts from the southern outskirts of town came from me or Saffron. They have food down there, but not enough to last more than a few weeks."

"Then we've gotta get moving. I've got cops swarming the woods, and if you could try and give me an address, we might find them faster."

"There's a small problem. Purple's handwriting is barely readable. We have an address, but we can't read it." King noted.

"That's it's registered address. 87 Blockwoodow boulevard? It's registered address, but it's in the middle of the woods, far from any roads."

"So that means?"

"You find Blockwoodow boulevard, you find Purple and the others."

Anyways, keep running up those hills, dreamchasers! And stay tuned!