Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

   "Sorry guys, I have to go. Goomer texted me and said I need to go and get him." Dice checked his phone from the booth of their favorite restaurant, Bots. He sat next to Sam, who was admiring her new Mexican driver's license that he had just gotten her and Cat was enjoying a small order of fries.

   "What's it say?" Sam popped a fry into her mouth.

   "Hey Dice, I went into a bathroom that turned out to not be a bathroom. Please hurry." Dice stood up from his booth.

   "Come back soon, we're in charge of you until Monday." Cat said in her squeaky voice while Dice waved goodbye and walked out of the restaurant. He walked over to his bike when he heard somebody grunting and complaining.

   "Nobody will help me!" A woman yelled out while trying to load an inflatable kayak into her trunk.

   "Excuse me, miss? Do you need any help?" Dice walked over to the lady.

   "I'm trying to load this inflatable kayak into my car, but it won't fit." She grunted.

   "Why don't you deflate it?"

   "I can't do that! It takes forever to inflate it again."

   "Well, unless you deflate it, it's not going to fit."

   "Oh no, my car is very roomy on the inside." She pulls out the kayak. "Go in and see."

   "Okay." He hopped inside and looked around. "It really isn't that roomy." Nora pulled out a knife and pointed it at Dice's heart, touching his shirt with the tip.

   "Turn around, Dice, unless you want to see what I'll do with this knife." He carefully turned around while Nora pulled out a roll of duct tape and began taping his hands, then his feet. She turned him around and placed a final piece of tape on his mouth, eyes wide with fear. She closed the trunk and hopped into the driver's seat and drove off, Dice trying to bang the trunk and escape.

   "Did you find him?" Cat asked when Sam walked back in.

   "No. I looked everywhere!" She threw up her hands in frustration. 

   "He won't pick up his phone, where could he be?" Cat was really worried. One of her closest friends was missing and she had no clue where he was. A knock sounded at the door and Cat felt relieved.

   "Where have you be..." She cut herself off when she saw only Goomer at the door, not Dice. "Where's Dice?"

   "I was waiting for him, but he never came." He walked inside and sat on the couch.

   "Wait, he isn't with you?" Sam walked over, worried.

   "No. Isn't he here?" Goomer began to look worried as well.

   "He left Bots once you texted him. You haven't seen him all tonight?" Cat explained and joined him on the couch, dread setting in. Goomer shook his head when there was a knock at the door.

   "Dice!" He opened the door, but there wasn't anything there. "He's not here!" Goomer stumbled back to the couch and put his head in his hands, but Sam noticed an enevelope on the mat.

   "Look." She held up the envelope and brought it over to the couch, opening it up.

   "What's it say?" Cat asked.

   "Dear Sam, this is Nora. I've broken out from prison and I have your friend Dice."

   "What!? Who's Nora?" Cat cried out, but Sam put up a hand to silence her so she could continue reading.

   "If you don't believe me, then here's a picture." Sam pulled out a photo from the envelope of Dice duct taped in the back of a car. "I will finally get revenge. Signed, Nora." Sam lowered the letter and stared at the picture of her friend captive in a car by a psycho.

   "Who's Nora and why does she have Dice?" Cat asked, peeking at the picture, terrified.

   "It's this crazy chick who kidnapped me, Freddie, and Carly. We sent her to jail and she promised that she would get revenge on us, I guess that's what she's doing." Sam shoved her hand in her hair, scared. For the first time, she felt vulnerable. Her pear phone rang and she pulled it out of her pocket, showing the screen to Cat who saw Dice's number on the phone. They shared a worried glance and Sam tapped the speaker button.

   "Hello?" She asked, worried about what would answer.

   "Hey Sam, did you get my letter?" Nora asked.

   "Yes, where's Dice?" 

   "I have him of course."

   "Why are you doing this to him? It's me you want to get revenge on."

   "Exactly. You seem very close with the young boy and this time I will really make you suffer. I hope you ended your conversation on good terms that last time you saw him, because you will never see him again. Well, not in person."

   "What's that supposed to mean?" Cat asked loudly.

   "I'll send you videos time to time to show you all the fun we're having."

   "I want to talk to him!" Sam yelled into the phone. There was movement on the other end and the sound of ripping tape.

   "Sam?" Dice asked quietly.

   "Dice!" They all yelled at once. Sam held the phone to her mouth. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

   "I'm not okay." Sam's blood turned to ice at his words. "She cut me with a knife."

   "Alright, that's enough." Dice tried to call out while Nora took the phone from him, but it sounded like she placed another piece of tape on his mouth.

   "What did you do to him? What are you going to do to him?" Sam yelled out.

   "You see, I managed to steal a taser when I escaped prison, that is going to be very useful. Bye Sam, Dice and I have a lot of fun things to get to."

   "Give me back my Dice!" She screamed into the phone.

   "No. And good luck finding him, cause you won't. Sweat on that!" A beep sounded and the call ended.

   "She's going to hurt Dice!" Goomer yelled out, angry and terrified at the same time.

   "We have to find him!" Cat cried out, but Sam was already on her phone. "What are you doing?"

   "I'm going to need some help from some old friends." She pressed the phone to her ear.

Chapter Text

Goomer was sitting on the couch crying his eyes out and Cat was doing the same thing. She looked up, he face red and puffy, at a very worried Sam.

"Where are they?" It had been a very stressful night for the three of them, not knowing what was happening to Dice or where he was. Before Sam could answer, a knock sounded on the door and Sam ran over to open it up. The door opened to reveal Carly, Freddie, and Spencer.

"Sam!" Carly smiled a big smile and wrapped her friend in a large bear hug. Sam just stared blankly at her two other friends standing in the door, both wearing the same expressions. Carly pulled back and examined the expression on Sam's face.

"Sam, what's the matter?" Carly asked, concerned.

"Yeah, why did you call us?" Spencer asked. 

"Come in." Sam sighed. Her three friends entered to get view of the two crying people on the couch. Cat looked up at Freddie.

"Hey Cat, it's good to see you again." He tried, but she just burst into more tears. Goomer looked up this time.

"Are you the people who are going to help us?" He asked. 

"Sam just called us and said that we needed to get over here immediately, it was an emergency. She was lucky Carly was visiting me. What did you need?" Spencer looked up at Sam's face again. She walked around them and closed the door before getting on her pearphone and showing them a picture of he and Dice smiling and hugging each other.

"This is Dice. He is my neighbor and all of our friend. He's like a little brother to me." Sam turned the phone back her way and gazed longingly into her friend's big eyes. She went into here message app and opened up the latest picture that Dice sent her. She turned the phone back towards them and watched all of their smiles fall away as they gazed at the terrifying picture. It was sent right after Nora's call. It revealed both Dice and Nora. Dice was still duct taped, but this time he had a black eye and the imprint of a knife on his neck while Nora was hugging him with one arm, acting as though they were having a wonderful time.

"Nora!? What is going on?" Carly screeched and buried herself in her big brother's chest.

"Nora broke out of prison and came here to get revenge on me. She took Dice since we are so close and says she is never going to give him back. You need to help me find him, please! She is psychotic and is going to torture him!" It took everything in Sam to not burst out crying. Cat hopped up and hugged her best friend, trying to comfort her but was still crying herself.

"Sam, of course we are going to help! I can't believe that Nora would so low that she would get a child and torture him." Carly was interrupted by a beep from Sam's phone.

"It's Nora, she wants to do a video message." Freddie leaned over and did something to project the phone on the tv screen. Goomer sat up and looked at the screen, tears still leaking from his eyes. Nora's evil face appeared on the screen with Dice behind her.

Dice was standing up with his arms handcuffed to a pipe above his head, causing him to slightly dangle. She said that she got the handcuffs from a guard at her prison, but they were now digging into his skin. Nora had taken him into the basement of a building in the middle of the woods and was currently preparing for a video call with a tv screen on the far wall. On the screen he saw Sam with Freddie, Spencer, and Carly who he recognized from icarly. Goomer was sitting on the couch next to Cat and it was clear they had been crying. His right eye was all red and swollen and the cut on his arm had opened up from him dangling from the ceiling, but that was nothing compared to the fear. 

"Sam, Cat, Goomer!" Dice yelled out as soon as he saw their faces and broke out into a smile at the sight of them. He didn't, however, see Nora until she had punched him in the stomach as hard as possible. She clutched his chin in her hand and squeezed, probably leaving bruises for later.

"Do not speak out of turn!" She slapped his face, hard, and turned her attention back to the screen.

"Don't you touch him!" Sam was literally screaming out. "How dare you hang him up like a piece of meat. When I find you..."

"Oh, shut up! I see you have enlisted the help of your other icarly friends. I hope seeing your friend like this is really getting to you. As you just saw, I have had to give the little boy some lessons on how to properly behave, I hope you give me a thank you, I am doing your job after all." Nora had a sickly sweet voice that filled Dice with dread.

"My job is not to hang him up from the ceiling and torture him." That word sent a shiver down his spine. Sam's eyes redirected to look at Dice. "How are you, kid? I'm going to bring you home, don't worry."

"Oh he should worry, very, VERY, much. I haven't started to torture him, so here we go!" She ended the last bit in a sing song voice and pressed the taser to his side. A lightning bolt shot through him and his vision turned white. It ended quickly, but he was already tired. The psycho then pulled out a large steak knife and pulled up his shirt before pressing the sharp metal on his stomach, slicing a large line on his abdomen. Blood poured out and Dice started to cry in pain, the blood warm and sticky. 

"Don't you hurt my little friend!" Dice heard Goomer yell from the screen. Nora paid it no mind and walked away for a moment.

"Hey Dice, you remember Freddie, right? Well, this is Carly and Spencer and they are going to help us find you, okay?" Dice nodded at Sam's words through his tears, but all hope was crushed when he saw Nora walk back in.

"You wanna know what was my favorite part of my birthday?" Nora shoved her face in his. "The pinata." 

And then she started swinging her baseball bat.