Chapter Text
Darkness.
Nothing but pitch black darkness filled Lucas’ vision. And pain. A lot of pain. Lucas had the feeling that his head was going to burst any second from now on.
Where am I?
What happened?
Where are Eliott and my family?
What…
But suddenly, his memory returned.
The speech in the hospital.
The man with the black hat.
Eliott’s expression of pure shock and his bloody shirt.
And then… nothing.
Lucas didn’t remember what happened next. He just knew that… something was indeed very wrong. Because as Lucas finally opened his eyes, he was still blind. That was when he realized that he was blindfolded. And tied up. When he tried to move his hands, his feet – nothing happened.
Realization hit him like a hammer.
He had been kidnapped.
Someone brought him here in this ice cold place with violence and no one was here to save him.
I’m alone. On my own.
I am going to die here.
Panic made Lucas move more quickly, made him try to wriggle out of his chains but nothing worked. He was impaled, the blood was still fresh on his head and the injury made everything even more dizzier. But his movements apparently didn’t go undetected.
Lucas stilled as he heard a door open and close again.
“Ah, his highness is awake”, said a deep voice and Lucas could hear a grin in these words. Another one chuckled and Lucas’ shivered at this strange sound.
“Seems like we should greet him, shall we?”
And in the next second, Lucas’ blindfold was ripped off of him and he blinked into the sudden bright light, thunder rolling around in his head while his eyes tried to adjust to the sudden brightness.
“Where… where am I?”
“We are the one who ask questions, not you.”, snarled one of the guys. Lucas couldn’t make out there faces since they were wearing black masks which made him even more uncomfortable. He tried not to fall into a mode of panic, tried not to freak out that he was tied into a room where he never had been before and that he was injured without anyone helping him.
“It doesn’t matter where you are, your highness”, said the taller one from them both, a grin stretching onto his face while he slowly leaned over Lucas, “It only matters why you are here.”
Lucas was too paralysed to speak again, too shocked about this whole situation. But one thought kept spiralling around in his head, no matter the circumstances and no matter the situation he was in.
Eliott Eliott Eliott Eliott Eli—
“We want money. Your family surely has enough of this, am I right?”
Lucas could only stare at them. They kidnapped him… because they wanted to have money? Because they wanted to exploit the royal family?
“Your family is sitting on their throne, being happy with their riches. And the common folk… the common folk is hungry. Wealth is nothing we ever saw in our whole lives. And you?”
The man suddenly came closer and Lucas really tried hard to stay where he was, to maintain his dignity. The man was now looming over where Lucas sat in the chair, tied and in pain with nothing do but wriggle against the chains.
“What did you do to achieve all these riches?”, whispered the main dangerously.
Lucas didn’t see the strike coming. His head flew to the side as the man struck him in the face, drawing blood on Lucas’ lips. He gasped and breathed heavily, slowly but surely losing his temper while the panic crawled up his throat.
“My family did EVERYTHING to keep their people safe. To keep them healthy and safe. You have no idea of how hard it is to rule a kingdom, to be there for everyone, to be sure that everyone has the same quality of life”, whispered Lucas breathlessly but he couldn’t hold back now. Panic made him courageous and he could definitely need that right now.
“If you failed in your life, if you took the wrong path… don’t make us the villains in your story because we have nothing to do with your misery and your pain.”
Another strike. The other cheek this time. The man grabbed Lucas’ collar and pulled him close, his foul breath making Lucas even more dizzy. Foul breath mixed with alcohol.
“One Million. Not less. If your family is as heavenly as you describe then it will be no problem for them to pay this sum and free you.”
“We do not even own this much money”, exclaimed Lucas now, his hands slowly shaking and turning colder with every second. Every money they had, they invested in the wellbeing of their people. Of course, Lucas’ family was rich. But not that rich. And even if they had the money… Would they spend it to safe him? Would they risk a ruin of their own for one person…?
“Well”, said the man now and the other one suddenly blindfolded him again, “Then you have to stay with us. Until you rot.”
And when the light left Lucas’ sight this time, he didn’t had the power to struggle against it.
“We cannot just sit here and do nothing!”
Eliott paced the room like a caged tiger, one hand on his still fresh wound which was hidden under a layer of bandages now. Days had passed and they still didn’t know where Lucas was.
And Eliott was slowly but surely going insane.
At night, he was waking up with a scream on his lips when the nightmares had caught him again. He dreamed of Lucas being hurt, being dead in some alley where rats where slowly invading his body. There had not been one night since the incident where Eliott didn’t cry himself to sleep, where he didn’t feel like the guilt might drown him alive.
He had been responsible for Lucas.
And he failed.
“Sit down, Eliott. Your wound isn’t getting better through all your pacing.”
Eliott stopped and turned around to Lucas’ family who all sat together in the throne room. Lucas’ mum had not been herself after all of this happened. Her eyes were puffy all the time from crying and she shook and looked so fragile. Cece had not talked at all since all of that. But Eliott didn’t need to hear the words from her mouth to know how scared she was to lose just another brother.
“How can I sit down when Lucas is out there, maybe hurt?”
“Our guards and soldiers are searching the whole city. Every house, every corner. They will find him.”
“And what if they don’t?”
Silence.
Eliott’s eyes filled with tears and he held the king’s gaze.
“They will find him”, he repeated and his gaze suddenly turned suspicious at something he saw in Eliott’s eyes. The king just opened his mouth to say something when a servant stormed into the room, a letter on a little plate in his hand.
“This was found on the palace’s steps, your majesty”, said the servant breathlessly and Eliott was next to him in two big strides. All of them gathered around the letter.
And all of them held their breaths, as they read.
One Million. Or your precious prince will die. Tomorrow, 11am on the main bridge.
The text was made of cut out letters from several newspapers. But that was not all there was inside of the envelope. The king pulled out something else but when he realized, what it was, he lost its grip on it and it fell to the floor. The queen gasped and Cece was immediately at Eliott’s side, gripping his leg with tiny shaking hands.
And Eliott…
Eliott could only stare at the bloody tie on the shining floor of the throne room.
Lucas’ bloody tie.
“We have to get the money. Now”, said Eliott with a hoarse voice, his gaze still fixed to the tie on the floor. The queen was crying again and Eliott looked finally up.
“We don’t have his much money.”
Eliott stared at the king as he said this and he couldn’t help it. He laughed out loud.
“What?”, he asked, a hysterical laugh escaping his lips, “You are the king, for fucks sake. You have all the money in the world!”
“Don’t you dare to speak to me like that!”
“I speak with you as I like”, replied Eliott with so much anger that he didn’t realize what he just did and said, “I want to safe Lucas. And you will get the money. You can take every salary I ever got and give it to these… these pigs who keep Lucas. Who kidnapped him. Your own son! And you… you have the audacity to say that you don’t have enough money?”
Eliott’s voice rang in the big throne room long after he was done with his speech.
And the king realized.
He took one step towards Eliott and looked him in the eyes. Deadly.
“You are in love with him.”
These words knocked out the air from Eliott’s lungs. He didn’t realize how passionately he just spoke, how… how he just laid his heart bare for the boy he loved because he was so fucking afraid.
Eliott held his gaze and said nothing. The king’s eyes widened as he didn’t protest. Why should Eliott protest in the first place when every word from the king was one hundred percent true?
“Oh god, you really love him. How could I be so blind?”, whispered the king and took one step backwards, looking at Eliott now with so much disgust as if he was a fly under his shoe.
“You were responsible for taking care of my son. Not to see how he is in bed!”
Eliott gasped, as did Cece and her mum.
“How dare you—”
“You will deliver the money. And you will bring Lucas back. And then you will never see him again.”
“I am not taking advantage of Lucas! He loves me back, we are—”
“I don’t want to hear any of this”, spat the king and Eliott took one step backwards, involuntarily.
“This will be your last job. And you will leave this place and never come back.”
And Eliott’s world crumbled down for the second time in the last few days.