Y’all wanted this scene so...
I’m so glad you guys loved (or hated XD) the hostage video and a few people asked about seeing it from the team’s perspective. I think it was @sableflynn, @walkingchemicalfire, and @my-whumpy-little-heart who specifically asked, but I’ll tag the whole Honor Bound crew. Let me know if y’all wanna be tagged in all updates! Hope y’all like it.
This is a series. Start here. Continued from here.
Honor bound - 24 (requested other POV for my last chapter)
“So you’ll do the trade?” Ellis’s voice was hard as their fingers tightened on the phone.
A low laugh. “Yeah, I’ll do the trade. Let me hear from him. I need to know he’s still alive.”
Ellis tore the tape from Mark’s mouth and held the phone close to his face. “Say something.”
Mark sneered. “I’m here, Gavin.”
Ellis slapped the tape back over his mouth and stepped away from where he was still sitting in the chair, hands bound. “There. He’s alive.”
A sigh. “When should I expect you?”
Ellis’s jaw flexed. “A little more than five hours. Be ready with Isaac or you’ll never see your cousin again.”
“Can’t wait.” Gavin hung up.
Ellis squeezed their eyes shut, tapping the phone against their forehead. They drew in a deep breath, let it out. They turned to see their team all watching them intently. “It’s happening. Let’s go.”
Everyone seemed to let out a breath.
“He really agreed?” Sam’s voice was shaking.
Ellis blew out a steady breath. “Yeah. He agreed. Let’s get moving. I don’t want to leave Isaac with him any longer than we absolutely have to.” They turned to Mark and reached out, grabbing him by the shirt. “Get your ass up. Try anything and I swear to god…” Mark laughed past the tape and shook his head. He stood and started to move. Vera fell in beside him and Finn walked behind him. Gray held a hand out to Sam, still slumped on the wall.
“I’m ok,” they whispered, pushing themselves painfully to their feet. “The antibiotics are working. I’m feeling better.”
Gray wrapped their arm around their shoulders. “Ok. Just let me know if you feel like you can’t make it, and I’ll carry you. No problem.” They both followed the team out of the room, down the hall, and out of the building.
They blinked at the sun in their eyes. As they approached the car, Mark snorted. “Shotgun.”
Ellis glared at him as they opened the trunk of the car. Mark’s face fell a little as he climbed in. As Ellis slammed the lid down, the phone in their pocket buzzed. They pulled it out and opened the notification.
Vera looked up. “What is it?”
A chill ran down Ellis’s spine. “I don’t know. I got it from Gavin’s number.”
Gray leaned into Ellis, trying to look over their shoulder. “But what is it?”
“It’s…it’s a link.” Ellis’s hand shook as they tapped it. It opened to a blank screen with a small circle spinning slowly above the words please wait.
Finn swallowed hard. “That’s from Gavin?” Ellis nodded slowly.
“What does it mean?” Sam’s voice was strained with dread.
Abruptly the link loaded and Gavin’s face filled up the screen.
Sam gasped and jumped away like Ellis was holding a snake. Their eyes were fixed on the phone as they dragged in panicked gasps. Gray pulled them into their arms as Gavin began to speak.
“Hey team, Gavin here. Just spending some quality time here with Isaac. I wouldn’t want you to get bored on that long car ride over here, so I figured I’d provide some entertainment for the drive.”
The screen went black for a moment and Isaac’s face appeared. Vera let out a scream as her hands flew to her mouth. Gray cringed back, holding Sam tighter in their arms as Sam began to sob.
“No,” Finn breathed as Isaac turned away from the screen. Gavin’s hand was wrapped tight around his throat. His face was ragged and drawn with pain. His lips were cracked, his eyes raw from crying. Red marked his cheek in the clear pattern of a handprint.
“Aw, he’s being shy. Leo…”
The camera jostled as Gavin handed it off to whoever else was in the room. The image zoomed out until Isaac’s whole body filled it.
Gavin was straddling Isaac, his legs pinning Isaac’s chest and arms to the floor. The team watched in horror as Gavin stood, revealing a mess of gauze and tape on his chest and abdomen. Isaac rolled to the side, his eyes fixed on the camera in hollow desperation…
“No. Don’t come, please, he’ll hurt you, he won’t let you -”
Gavin kicked him viciously in the ribs and he cringed onto his side, pressing his face into the floor as he screamed. The air rushed out of Sam’s chest like they’d been kicked, too. They watched as Gavin dragged Isaac up by his hair, showing his bandages more clearly.
“I’m ok. It’s ok, please don’t -”
Finn hung on Ellis’s arm as Gavin threw Isaac to the ground in front of him.
“Does he look ok to you?”
He dragged Isaac forward and the team gasped at the sight of his back. Angry purple bruises and bleeding welts crisscrossed his back.
“We’ve had a lot of good times already. I’ve whipped him a few times, beat him…oh!”
A cry rose from Sam’s throat as Gavin wrapped a hand around Isaac’s neck, wrenching him up and tearing the gauze and tape away from his chest.
Sam gaped at the screen as Gavin revealed the mess of cuts across Isaac’s chest and abdomen, tearing a tortured scream from him.
“Let’s see, what else have we done…”
Isaac slumped to the ground as Gavin released his throat. Vera was weeping softly.
“Oh! I drowned him…thanks, Sam, for spilling the beans on his fear of drowning…”
Sam slipped out of Gray’s arms and fell to their knees with a scream, nearly drowning out what Gavin was saying next. “No…” they wailed. Gray tried to pull them back up into their arms but Sam was inconsolable, hands pressed against their mouth, unable to look away from the screen Ellis was clutching in their shaking hands. “I…I told him about that, that’s my fault, no…”
Ellis’s hand shot out and grabbed Sam’s shoulder, their eyes still fixed on the phone.
“…I made him think I was going to kill him for not giving me more info on all of you! He didn’t break, though. Take a leaf out of his book, Sam. I guess the title of that book would be, ‘How To Not Betray Your Friends For Fun and Profit’. He’s been telling me all about how he doesn’t think you guys care enough about him. It’s been really heartwrenching stuff. Seriously, you should appreciate him more.”
Sam cowered on their knees from the words, incoherent wails pouring from between their hands. Finn’s mouth was open in a silent scream of despair. Vera wobbled once and stumbled against Gray. They held each other as their faces burned with tears.
Gavin pulled Isaac’s face up and pointed it at the camera. They could see how lost he was in the agony of what Gavin had been doing to him for the past few days.
“He’s a really great guy. Loves you all to death. Especially you, Sam. Oh man, the torture he has taken without complaint for you… Anyway, I’m not used to having an audience. So I’m gonna just…do my thing… I know you can’t send your own reactions through, since this link is one-way and I have no service for phone calls down here, but I can just…picture it.”
He turned away, moving towards a table the team couldn’t see clearly in the dim light. It broke the spell for a moment.
Ellis pulled their fingers away from the phone, their hand spasming from how tightly they’d been gripping it. Their voice was icy. “We have to go. We have to go right now. We can’t let him do this.” They lurched towards the car, thrusting the phone into Finn’s fumbling hands.
Everyone stood frozen for a moment.
“Hey, Isaac. I can’t decide. Should I whip you again, or -”
“Make up your mind, Isaac, or I’ll do both.”
“Please…don’t come for me…”
Ellis’s body convulsed as if they were going to be sick. “Come on!” they shouted. “We’re going!”
Finn tripped forward to the passenger seat. Vera walked to the back on shaking legs. Gray lifted Sam from the dusty concrete of the parking lot. They were limp in their arms, weeping bitterly. Gray eased them into the middle back seat and climbed in after them. The door wasn’t fully closed before Ellis turned on the car and slammed the accelerator.
Finn held the phone in numb hands so everyone in the back seat could see. Ellis kept their eyes firmly on the road, tears of rage pouring down their face. They angrily scrubbed their nose with their sleeve.
Gavin had handcuffed Isaac and was pulling him to his knees with a chain clipped to the cuffs. Vera bit her lip as Isaac’s injuries were displayed for them, rivulets of blood running from some of the cuts and lashes. Gray’s arms were wrapped tightly around Sam like they would fly apart if they didn’t have something to hold on to. They watched as Isaac gasped in agony, trying to lift his head.
“Choose one, Isaac. Choose or I do both. Whipping or waterboarding. What will it be?”
His eyes bored into the camera, bright with pain.
“Please stay away, please…don’t come for me…please…he’ll kill you…”
“Waterboarding first, then.”
“No!” Sam lurched forward, hands outstretched like Gavin could hear and obey their plea. “No no no…”
“Please. Please don’t come, I’m not…”
“You’re not what, Isaac?”
Finn felt like their eyes would melt out of their head as Gavin jerked Isaac’s head back by his hair.
“You’re not what?” A pause. “Suit yourself.”
The sound of Isaac’s choked scream cut through them all like a knife. Ellis’s hands jerked on the steering wheel. He gasped wetly through the soaked washcloth. Sam sobbed desperately.
“Something really interesting is that I don’t even have to pour water over this for you to feel the effects.”
Gavin finally let Isaac up. Gray and Vera took in the breath they didn’t know they were holding as Isaac gasped for air.
“Now, you were saying something. You’re not what?”
“No,” keened Sam. “I can’t, I can’t I can’t I can’t.” They pressed their hands against their face and sobbed against Gray’s shirt.
“We can’t stop watching, Sam.” Vera’s voice was hollow and haunted.
They turned their eyes to her, desperation making them wild. “Why?”
She pressed her lips together as she slowly turned to look at Sam. “We need to know if Gavin kills him.”
@untilthepainstarts, @womping-grounds, @blue-flare10, @free-2bmee, @quirkykayleetam, @walkingchemicalfire, @inpainandsuffering, @redwingedwhump, @burtlederp, @castielamigos-whump-side-blog
