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It was when his sister Antoinette asked how long they’d been together when he realized they’d never really made it official. It was just now assumed. Still, he told her almost a month, now. And of course, his entire family hoped it would last long.

Now the Friday night after, all of his family had already left to catch their flights back to Louisiana. Another night gone from home wasn’t anything to write home about, but Chris at least hoped that he would be home by then. Maybe he was wrong, though. Maybe their relationship was just that-- an assumed boyfriend/boyfriend thing and not the real thing. It hurt him to think about, but it could very well be a possibility. In which case, he was stupid to open his heart again. Stupid. It reminded him why he never did it in the first place.

He could feel dark thoughts creeping their way to the surface. Before they could fill his mind though, he shook his head and told himself to stop. He’d been down that road once already; he wasn’t about to go there again. Instead, he grabbed his coat, scarf, and put on his boots to take himself a brisk walk in the freezing cold.

Opening the front door, he almost tripped over what was on the porch-- a heel. A heel that he immediately knew was Chris’. A heel with a sticky note on the tip that read, “I have what you want.” Christopher’s heart dropped, hand flying to his mouth. He’d been taken. Kidnapped. And.... he was being held for ransom? Whatever the case, it made Chris sick to his stomach. He dropped the shoe and backed into the house to find his phone. The first person he called was, of course, Chris. To see if he would pick up, if this was all just a sick joked. When he didn’t get an answer, he called again. And again, and again.

After oh so many calls made, he knew he had to call the police. But he didn’t know who he could trust, anymore. He knew this was his fault, knew that this was the doing of Alaric to prove what he could do when someone said something. But he didn’t say something, he was just thinking of saying something.

Instead of calling the police, he called Danny, who he knew he could trust. And after Danny arrived and calmed him down, and after much convincing, Chris called the police about it. Told them he needed to file a missing person’s whatever, that his boyfriend was missing and that whoever took him left a note. They told him to bring the heel in, asked him questions over the phone. And when they were done and hang up the phone, Chris stood there for a moment. Just a moment.