AN: Okay, I know I said it was going to be a minute before the next chapter, but this time I really mean it lol. It's probably going to be at least a couple of days to a week until I get the next chapter out, maybe a little longer. But I just really wanted to get back to the boys since they weren't in the last chapter.

No updated warnings really, but the bad guys continue to be super creepy and the boys figure out more about their intentions. Also, I guess language warning, but for the subject matter I think that's probably the least of anyone's concerns lmao.

Enjoy!

His head was pounding. There was nothing worse than waking up in the morning and already having a headache. Drake groaned, squeezing his eyes shut tighter. Maybe if he could just go back to sleep, he'd feel better when he woke up again later. His neck was so stiff too. And why was he sitting up?

"Drake? Drake, are you okay?" Josh asked from somewhere close by. He sounded weird. Quiet, nervous, and not in the normal way that Josh was always nervous. He sounded scared.

Drake forced himself to open his eyes and whimpered as the memory of what happened came flooding back to him. Those two men that he'd thought were going to help them had kidnapped them instead.

He saw Josh sitting across from him, one bent knee up and the other leg extended out towards Drake. Josh's arms went behind his back, and his hands were out of sight. He looked just as scared as Drake felt.

"What's going on? Where are we?" Drake asked. He tried to stand, but his hands wouldn't move. He heard a rattle behind him and felt a sharp pressure on both his wrists. Drake craned his neck to the side, trying to get a good look at what was stopping him. His heart dropped at the sight of handcuffs encircling his wrists, wrapped around bars. Drake followed the bars up and looked around him again. They were the bars of a cage. He and Josh were handcuffed inside an animal cage, one large enough for something bigger than a dog. He squeezed his hands into fists and wrestled against the cuffs, trying to break them or pull his hands out or something, anything at all.

"Drake, stop, it's not gonna work," Josh urged him, still speaking quietly. "You're just gonna make your wrists bleed."

Drake did as Josh said, but shook his hands around once more for good measure. He took another look at Josh. Josh's socks, shoes, belt, vest, and bowtie were all gone. His dress shirt was unbuttoned, revealing the plain white tee shirt beneath. A quick glance at himself revealed the exact same situation. Around them, outside their cage, were dirty, cement brick walls. Maybe they were in a basement of some kind? To Drake's left was an industrial looking door, and to the right of the cage was an old bucket. The room was dimly illuminated by two single bulbs. Craning his head behind him again, Drake saw what looked like a shower curtain hanging on a pipe, but it wasn't drawn across. Beyond, Drake glimpsed what was maybe the most disgusting, bare, dirty mattress he'd ever seen. He didn't want to know what all the stains were. The cement ground was also stained between the cage and the mattress. Drake didn't want to say it, but he was pretty sure it was blood.

"What are we gonna do?" Drake asked his brother, his voice shaking more than he'd thought it would. This was the worst situation they'd ever found themselves in, by far. It was also the most serious, and by the looks of things, possibly the last.

"I don't know," Josh replied with a slight shrug. He was supposed to be the smart one between them, but Josh sounded helpless and scared, and Drake hated it. Josh was scared and Drake couldn't do anything about it and Drake hated that more than anything else. It was all Drake's fault, so why couldn't it have just been him? Josh didn't deserve to be there. "Mom and Dad will figure out that something's wrong when we don't come home, then they'll find the car, and then, I don't know, they'll find us somehow, we're gonna be okay."

Drake nodded, even though it didn't make sense. Sure, their parents would figure out something was wrong and probably would find the El Camino, but Drake wasn't sure how they would find them after that. But Josh was the smart one, so if Josh said that they were gonna be found, then Drake was sure they would be. Josh knew what he was talking about.

Drake flinched at the sound of a deadbolt being undone. The door opened with an ominous creak, and in stepped the two men who'd stopped on the road. They looked just as normal as they'd looked then. The shorter Hispanic man was in front, while the taller white guy stood slightly behind him. Both had a strange, almost fond look in their eyes as they stared down at Drake and Josh.

"What do you want?" Josh quietly asked. Drake was impressed that his voice didn't shake. He was sure that his own would.

"Yeah, why are we here?" Drake asked, proving himself right as his voice shook. He clenched his fists behind him and forced himself to take deep breaths. His heart was racing so quickly he felt as though he might pass out.

"You're here to be sanctified," the shorter man said, as simply as he would state something he was reading in the morning paper. "And once you are righteous and holy, you will serve me. And James. And once you've given everything to me, well, I'm sure you can guess what happens then." He smiled at them, but it didn't offer Drake any comfort. Drake didn't even understand what the man was saying, other than the implication that they were going to be killed after the men were finished doing whatever they wanted to them. Drake glanced over at Josh, hoping that his brother would have understood more, but he found no answers there either.

The man crouched down in front of the cage and pulled out a single key attached to a chain around his neck. He used it to unlock the cage and pulled the door open, then the other man - James? - tossed in a single water bottle.

"Thanks but how are we supposed to get at that?" Drake angrily asked, shaking his arms behind him and creating as much sound as he could with the cuffs.

"Patience," James growled at him, but Drake just glared. James came to kneel behind Drake, and a hand wrapped itself around one of Drake's wrists.

"Don't touch me!" Drake shouted, trying to pull away, but James' grip was iron. He felt breath on his neck, then on his ear, then something in his hair. Drake cringed and pulled his shoulders up as far as he could, but he couldn't get away from the man.

"You smell beautiful," James whispered.

"Leave him alone!" Josh shouted, thrashing against the cuffs the same way that Drake had been.

"Alright, that's enough for now," the other man said around a chuckle.

Drake let out a shuddering breath as James moved away just a bit, and forced himself to just look at Josh.

"I'm gonna let you out for a moment, just to use that bucket," James said. "If you try anything, your friend will be the one to suffer. Do you understand?" Drake remained silent, just looking at Josh and trying to keep it together. Fingers grabbed at his hair and yanked his head back. Drake gasped and grit his teeth. "Do you understand me?" James asked again.

"Yes," Drake quickly answered as Josh started thrashing against the handcuffs again, despite being the one who had told Drake it was pointless.

The moment his hands were released from the cuffs, Drake moved away from the wall of the cage and towards the middle, resisting everything in him that told him to grab onto Josh and never let go. James motioned to the door, and despite how scared he was, Drake did as he directed. He couldn't risk anything happening to Josh because he was scared.

As Drake crawled out of the cage, James grabbed onto his bicep and yanked him roughly to his feet. The cement ground was cold on his bare feet, seeping into his bones. He glanced at the other man, who was silently watching, his arms crossed over his chest as he looked Drake up and down in a way that would've still made Drake uncomfortable even if it had come from a pretty girl instead of the man who'd kidnapped them.

James brought him over to the bucket on the other side of the cage and motioned for him to use it. Drake shrugged slightly and shook his head. In front of Josh was one thing, but not in front of these men.

"No, I don't want to."

"You must be purified," James said. "Use it, or Miguel will begin purifying your friend another way himself."

Drake glanced over at the other man - Miguel - and saw him twirling a knife between his fingers. With a shuddering breath, Drake squeezed his eyes shut and used the bucket for its intended purpose. He stepped back the moment he was done. James let go of his bicep.

"This is for talking back to me, twice." James slapped him across the face, hard enough to send him back a step with a cry of pain.

"Leave him alone!" Josh repeated, craning his neck to see Drake and thrashing in the cuffs again.

"Alright, that's enough," Miguel said. He grabbed Drake by the arm and pulled him away from James, and uncomfortably close to him. "We're not here to hurt you. We're here to make you holy for us." Miguel reached up and gently caressed the side of Drake's face, right where James had struck him. Drake let out a shuddering breath and squeezed his eyes shut once again as he fought tears. "You're so beautiful," Miguel whispered, his voice taking on a hungry tone as he leered at him. Then he blinked and roughly shoved Drake to the ground in front of the cage. "Get in, now," he ordered. Drake did as he was told, and crawled over to Josh, rather than to where he had been sitting when he woke up.

"Hands, now," James ordered. Drake obediently stuck his hands back out between the bars behind him, grateful that at least they'd let him sit next to his brother. The feeling of Josh's shoulder against his was the first bit of comfort he'd felt since waking up.

But it didn't last. Once Drake was once again cuffed, Josh was uncuffed, and made to crawl out of the cage and brought over to the bucket, just like Drake had been. But Drake knew his brother, and he knew that Josh wouldn't be able to relax. He couldn't even when it was just Drake there.

"I- I can't, I'm sorry," Josh stammered. Drake craned his neck to the side and could just barely see his brother standing near the wall with James' hand wrapped around his bicep just as it had been around Drake's.

"Do you want Miguel to start purifying your friend now?" James asked.

"No, I just can't do it unless I'm alone, I've never been able to, don't-."

"Do it, now," Miguel interrupted. A hand clamped around Drake's wrist, and he felt something cold and metallic placed next to the cuff on the side of his arm. "You must be made pure."

"No, wait, he's telling the truth, he can't," Drake rushed out, but it didn't help.

"Too late."

Drake cried out again as the blade cut into the side of his wrist, just above where the cuff was resting. It didn't feel very deep, and it wasn't the most painful thing he'd experienced, but it did hurt and he was scared and he just wanted to go home.

"Stop, stop!" Josh shouted. "Leave him alone! I'll try, okay? I'll try."

Drake closed his eyes and focused on calming his racing heart. It didn't help. He pulled his knees up to his chest and set his forehead down on them. He didn't relax at all or open his eyes until Josh was once again in the cage with him.

Miguel closed the door to the cage and locked it, sticking the chain with the key under his shirt once again. Drake flinched at the feeling of hands on his wrists again, but relaxed when the cuffs were unlocked.

"I'd make that water last," Miguel said. "It's all you're getting."

Without another word, Miguel and James left the room, the deadbolt turning behind them with an ominous click.

Drake's tears immediately began to fall. He reached out for Josh and let himself fall into his brother's arms, wrapping his own arms around Josh's back and holding onto his shirt so tightly it was probably going to rip.

"What are we gonna do?" he asked, trying and failing to stop his shoulders from shaking with his sobs.

"I don't know," Josh admitted through his own tears. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean for you to get hurt." He held onto Drake tighter, practically pulling him into his lap, but Drake was okay with that.

"No, this is my fault, this is all my fault, you shouldn't even be here," Drake insisted. "If I hadn't given Craig and Eric your cell phone and the keys-."

"Stop, okay? This isn't your fault," Josh interrupted. He broke their embrace and pulled away from Drake just enough so that they could make eye contact. As much as Drake hated seeing his brother cry, it did make him feel a bit less embarrassed about his own tears to see that he wasn't the only one who was terrified beyond belief. "There's no way you could've known this would happen," Josh continued. "I promise this isn't your fault, okay?"

After a moment, Drake wiped at his eyes and nodded. He didn't agree, but he knew it was no use arguing with Josh that it was his fault. He reached for the water bottle, opened it, and took the smallest sip before handing it to his brother, who did the same.

"I know this doesn't help, but I think I know who these people are," Josh said. Drake just stared at him in lieu of verbally replying. "You know that serial killer in the news, the San Diego Snatcher?" Drake nodded. "I think this is him, or them, I guess."

"Of course," Drake scoffed. "Because how could you and I possibly get into anything better than this? Of course we'd get stranded on the side of the road and kidnapped by fucking serial killers," he said, slamming his wrist against the bars of the cage in anger. He grimaced as his wrist landed right on the open wound.

"Hey, gimme that," Josh gently said, holding his hand out. After a moment, Drake acquiesced and allowed his brother to look at his bleeding wrist. "It doesn't look bad. Just put pressure on it and that should probably stop the bleeding. And don't slam it into the bars. That's not gonna help." Josh offered him a slight smile, which Drake tried to return as he pulled his hand back. "But Drake, they're not just serial killers," Josh hesitantly continued.

"What do you mean?" Drake asked as he pulled his sleeve down over the cut and pressed down on it.

"Were you not paying attention to the news?" Josh asked. Drake shot him an incredulous look. Drake didn't pay attention to the news and they both knew it. "Dumb question. But Drake, they've found like six bodies at least now, and all of them…" he trailed off for a moment and looked away. "All of them were young men, and had their throats slit, and all of them had been raped. The only good news, if you can call it that, is that police think that they were held by the Snatcher for at least a week before they were killed. So we have a week until, you know…" he trailed off again, and didn't continue.

Drake took a breath and nodded. They had at least a week until they were killed, which was good, but that didn't mean they had a week until Miguel and James did anything else to them. There was no telling how long they had until that.

Drake moved back to Josh's side to be shoulder to shoulder with him, then adjusted himself a little bit more so that he could rest his head on Josh's shoulder. He tried to make himself relax, and at least take comfort in his brother's presence.

"I know you said you don't blame me, but I'm still gonna do everything I can to protect you," Drake said, staring straight in front of them.

"You don't think I'm gonna do the same for you? No matter what happens, we're in this together, and I'm not gonna let anything happen to you if I can help it," Josh replied, letting his head rest on Drake's.

"How are we gonna get out of here?"

Josh sighed.

"I don't know," Josh said. "But I'm with you no matter what. You're not alone, not anymore."

Drake wasn't sure how long they'd been gone for, but since being kidnapped, he'd already learned two things. One, there were people out there more terrifying than his father. And two, when Josh was next to him, everything felt a little less scary.