Chapter Text
The day he was abducted, Cadel woke up in a pretty good mood. It was a lovely Sunday morning and both Saul and Fiona had woken up early. The commotion they made caused Cadel to wake up at 8 in the morning. Not that he was particularly upset about it. He didn’t even think they were being too loud. It was just something about their energy that stirred Cadel out of bed that day.
When he reached the dining room of the tiny cottage, he was greeted with the wonderfully ordinary sight of Fiona cooking breakfast as Saul read the newspaper. “Oh! Good morning Cadel!” Fiona had chirped from her place at the stove. She was scrambling eggs. “How are you doing this morning?”
“Oh, I’m great. How are you?” Cadel responded.
“Oh, I’m doing alright. Thanks for asking.”
“What’s for breakfast?” Cadel asked peeking around his mother to see what she was cooking on the pan.
“Oh, just some eggs and bacon. As well as some French toast.”
“Oh! That sounds nice!” And with that Cadel sat at the table next to Saul Greanius. Saul, his father, looked up from his newspaper and spoke to Cadel.
“Ah, good morning Cadel.”
“Good morning!” Cadel chirped pleasantly. It was an exceptionally ordinary conversation Cadel was having with his parents and he loved every minute of it.
Back when he was growing up Cadel had been raised in a world of lies and deceit. His main father figure at the time, Prosper English (Then called Thaddeus Roth) had manipulated him into being a perpetual liar, and overall nuisance to those around him.
Then he had met Sonja, over the fake dating app he had created. Sonja was a girl with cerebral palsy but she had used her identity of her then caretaker (Kaylee McDougal) so she wouldn’t have had to be honest about it. Eventually they met in person and became good friends.
After his attempts to escape Prosper English, the man had attempted to abduct him two more times. The first was right after he had broken out of jail. He drove Cadel and Sonja out to Judith’s mansion, as part of a plan to fly out of the country. This plan failed and Prosper became a fugitive once again for another nine months.
The second time was after Prosper had fought an all-out war with Cadel. After landing Sonja, his friend Hamish, and Saul in the hospital on separate occasions, Cadel tried to track him down to put a stop to the madness. This resulted in a trip to America where Prosper captured Cadel once again and tried to escape to Mexico in a rowboat in the middle of the sea.
It was no wonder that he drowned.
But Cadel tried not to think about that sort of thing. It depressed him. Even though Prosper had been a terrible person, and he knew that, there was still something special about him. About the way he had raised Cadel through his school years, and how he could never bring himself to shoot Cadel. Not even when he learned he wasn’t his biological son, after all.
So that was why Cadel enjoyed this conversation. After all the chaos and pain of his youth normality and calm was just what he needed to grow into a healthy young man.
“So, Cadel, what are your plans for today?” Fiona asked as she set Cadel’s plate on the dining room table.
“I was thinking about visiting Sonja today. At Judith’s house.” Cadel said as he picked up his fork.
“Oh! That sounds like a great idea Cadel!” Fiona said as she sat down to eat.
“Just remember to be home by 9 o’clock.” Saul said.
“Okay. I promise I’ll be home by then.”
“Saul!” Fiona shouted from her place at the table. “Put down that newspaper!”
“But-“ Saul tried to argue, but Fiona wouldn’t let him get a single word in.
“No Buts!” Fiona shouted as she snatched the newspaper away. “We’re going to eat our breakfast together, talking face to face!” She then lightly swatted at Saul with the newspaper and the two of them laughed.
Cadel laughed too and ate some refreshingly normal French toast with his refreshingly normal family.
Because it was a Sunday morning Cadel expected to be the only one at the bus stop. It was 9 a.m. now so Cadel assumed that most people would be at church or sleeping in by now, and he had been the only one at the bus stop for eleven weeks in a row now. But Cadel was mistaken. When he walked up to the bus stop, he found one other person sitting there. Cadel noticed this but didn't really register it or care. Instead, he took out his laptop since he had no intention of talking to this person.
The mysterious man seemed to have other plans though.
"Hey kid. What're you doing?" The man began. Cadel ignored him and kept typing. "Hey kid?" the man asked again. Cadel continued to type, the stranger's voice barely registering as he worked away in his own virtual world.
"Hey kid! I'm talking to you!" Cadel had only a second to move his hands out of the way as the stranger slammed his laptop shut. Cadel looked up and gaped at him, appalled that anyone had touched his precious device.
"What the heck!" Cadel shouted. He tried to open his computer back up, but the man beat him to the punch, snatching it away from him. This made Cadel seethe. "That's mine! Give it back!"
"Sorry, kid. I kept trying to get your attention and you didn't respond. You young people today are too obsessed with your electronics." The man handed the laptop back to Cadel who snatched it out of his hands. Now that he was glaring up at him Cadel really had the time to study the man before him. He was overweight with pudgy arms and legs. He had a shaggy brown beard and dark brown curls tied back into a bun. His dark shades obscured the color of his eyes.
"Who are you, anyway?" Cadel asked. Either the mysterious man didn't register the anger in his voice, or he didn't care because he answered Cadel's question in a pleasant tone. He even extended his hand.
“Sorry. My name’s Doug.” He answered. Then he laughed. Doug kept his hand to shake but Cadel didn’t take it. He just glared up at Doug with a face that was hastily turning salt white.
“What do you want?” he finally spat.
“Just wanted to tell you that the bus is gonna be running a little late today.” Doug said with a shrug.
“Are you sure?” Cadel said. He couldn’t help feeling skeptical of the man who had just stolen his laptop from him.
“Really. I am.” When Cadel continued to look up at him with a distrustful expression Doug attempted to prove it to him. “Look. You can look it up on the internet. There was a crash on the highway.” Cadel did decide to look it up and sure enough, all the local news stations were reporting a crash on a highway that Cadel often took to get to Judith’s house. Cadel sighed.
“I don’t know why you had to steal my laptop to tell me that.” Cadel mumbled to Doug. Doug shrugged again.
“Sorry man. I had to get you to listen to me.” Cadel rolled his eyes and stood up. He didn’t quite know what to do now. It’d be hard to get to Judith’s house to visit Sonja when the main road there was blocked. He knew there probably had to be some other way though. He’d probably have to call a taxi or Uber. Cadel wondered if a driving service would be more or less expensive than a bus ticket.
“Hey. Where ya going little man?” Doug asked.
“Back home.” Cadel said without looking back at Doug.
“Don’t ya got somewhere you gotta be? You did come to the bus stop to go somewhere didn’t you.” Cadel kept walking. He didn’t want to associate with Doug any longer.
“I could give you a lift you know.” This made Cadel stop. Slowly he turned around to see Doug smiling at him with his hands at his hips. “I could give you a ride.” Doug pointed to a white van that was a little bit of a way down the sidewalk. The only windows the car had looked into the front seats. There were no windows for the backseats. If the car even had any at all.
Cadel was completely appalled as he gaped at the stranger who was still smiling. Cadel knew that this man had no intention of taking him anywhere except the basement of his own house. “N-no thank you.” Cadel stammered. He was suddenly very afraid of Doug. If that was even his real name.
“Oh, come on. You had to come here for some reason?”
“No. It’s fine really.” Cadel said, trying to sound more confident then he felt.
“You know…” Doug began as his smile slipped of his face. “It can get pretty dangerous for a kid all on his own.” Doug stepped forward. Cadel stepped back.
“I’ll probably be fine.” Cadel said cautiously. “It’s 11 am in the morning. There probably aren’t any dangerous people here.” Excluding you of course, Cadel thought, but he didn’t dare voice this aloud.
“But there’s no one around.” Doug said in an ominous way. “What happens if someone tries to mug you or something. There won’t be anyone to come to your aid. You’re better off coming with me.”
“NO!” Cadel shouted and he took off running. Or at least tried to. Cadel barely made any progress before Doug grabbed him from behind and held on to him like a football.
“FIRE!!” Cadel screeched, as he kicked and screamed against Doug’s overweight body. “FIRE!! SOMEBODY HELP!!!” But it was no use. Cadel doubted anyone heard his pleas for help and within seconds he was in the back of Doug’s white van.
“Now listen here kid. Throughout this drive you’re not to make a sound. No screaming, no asking, no nothing. And don’t you think about trying to escape. Or I’ll take care of you. Understand?” Cadel nodded wordlessly as tears formed in his eyes.
“Good.” Doug grumbled. Then he slammed the back doors shut, leaving Cadel to fend for himself in complete and total darkness.