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It was a late night in the darkest parts of the city. The sky was dark and cloudy, not letting any light through, a moonless night.
Michael had decided to go to a concert of a metal band he liked, alone. He hadn’t wanted to force Armaros into a concert of a type of music he wasn’t really liking.
Everything had gone fine, the concert was fire, the band was so good the crowd was going crazy.
Concerts were one of the rare times where Michael wasn’t bothered by the crowd, too focused on enjoying this one to care.
He’d quickly made his way out at the end of it, going through a dark alley to take a shortcut, but also to avoid crossing paths with too many people.
Of course, it had to come bite him in the ass.
As he was cutting through a long and dark alley, he suddenly heard voices calling out to him, a light suddenly blinding him.
He found himself in the middle of a group of men, holding baseball bats.
“I don’t suppose you’re here to talk, huh?” Michael huffed, more annoyed than anything.
Of course, he knew he had little to no chance against all of them, when he was alone, but he could always try to find a way out of this.
“No one for talking much, huh?” He huffed again as they launched at him, avoiding most of their hits. “If you think I’ll let myself be taken out so easily, you’re wrong!” He exclaimed as he punched one of them in the nose, making him step back and hold his bleeding nose, in pain.
They didn’t let that stop them, however, as they attacked him again, managing to get a few hits on him this time.
Still, Michael fought against them, managing to give them a good beating, but not enough to be able to get out of there, as he was soon taken down, knocked out by their many hits.
When he woke up, he quickly realized that he was stuck in a dark place.
Two men were talking together, holding a flashlight and turning their backs to him, facing the door of what looked like a container.
Michael looked down at himself. He was tied up. But it wasn’t tight enough that he couldn’t slip out of his bonds.
He tried to stay quiet as he worked around to get his hands untied.
Soon enough, he was free.
He carefully made his way behind the two men, before, as they heard his footsteps, making them turn around, he punched one of them, quickly taking hold of their only source of light and knocking out the first one with it.
He stepped away after that, avoiding getting him by the other one, and turned the flashlight off.
One good thing about having been killed and brought back to life, and having ghost vision, was that he had his night vision, allowing him to see everything while the man in front of him could only see his shining white eyes, making it easy to avoid all his attempted hits.
It didn’t take long for Michael to take this guy out as well, knocking him to the ground.
After that, he tried to make his way out of there, only to find out that the door was sealed shut.
He tried banging on it, kicking it, but it wouldn’t budge. It was a metal door after all, it wouldn’t be that easy to break down.
Still, he continued to try to force his way out, throwing himself at the door, despite the pain in his shoulder from it and in his body from the hits he’d received.
It took a long moment of him trying to force his way out, before he finally stopped, collapsing against the door, out of breath, and too hurt to continue.
He tried to think of a way out, but he couldn’t see any in view, and knew, by now, that he would have to be freed from the outside.
As he looked around, he realized that the two men could easily wake up again and finish the job.
Huffing, he got up to go towards them, only for a loud thud to resonate in the empty container.
He looked down towards the source of the sound, only to find that they hadn’t taken his phone.
“Yes!” He said in victory, thinking he’d found his key to getting out.
Still, he took it step by step, starting by going back to the men and tying them up, back to back, with the rope that had been used on him. It was a bit hard to make the knot, but he managed to do it, and made it really tight to make sure they wouldn’t free themselves how he did.
After that, he took out his phone again. He quickly tried to call Armaros, knowing he would be waiting for him at home, and that he could ask ghosts to find him.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” He cursed as he realized he had no signal. “Work damn it!” Still he kept trying to get one, continuing to try and call Armaros, even trying to call his brothers, but failing.
He continued like that for long minutes, pacing around painfully in the small space as he tried to get a signal.
“No, no, no! You can’t do this to me!” He started to panic, realizing that his only way out was practically out of the window. “FUCK!” He let out a pained cry.
He fell to the floor, collapsing against the door again, and started to cry.
“Please…” He was desperate. “Please…” He kept trying, alternating between trying to call them all, and trying to send them a message. “Get me out of here…” He cried, finally giving up.
He wasn’t sure how long it had been by now. All he knew was that his phone had run out of battery. His only way out was gone. And he hadn’t even managed to get one call, one message, to go through.
Suddenly, he felt the door behind him moving, making him sit up again, looking at it in surprise.
Was it them? Was it the group of men that had come for him, to finish the job? Could he have a way out? But he was too hurt by now, he’d been sitting up without taking into account his own pain, and he knew that he would have a hard time getting up, which would mean he would be at their mercy for a while, too long for him to have a chance against them.
The door opened before him. Light suddenly blinding him, making him put a hand up in front of his eyes to protect them from it.
“Michael!” A familiar voice echoed as the door was finally fully opened, people running to him.
“Big bro!” Was that?
His eyes finally adjusted to the light, allowing him to see familiar faces all around him.
It was his siblings, and Armaros. They’d come for him. They’d found him!
“Michael! Are you alright?” Armaros quickly kneeled by his side, putting a hand on his shoulder as he tried to assess the damage.
“You found me…” Michael could only muster, too much in shock to really realize what was happening.
“You’re hurt!” Keith pointed out with worry.
“We have to take you home.” Raphael stated.
“Are you feeling okay? Are you hurting?” Khole asked with concern.
“Can you get up? Do you need to be carried?” Armaros asked him.
“You found me…” He only repeated, his eyes filling up with tears.
“Of course, we found you.” Raphael replied. “You sent us so many texts.”
“Texts?” Michael wasn’t sure what he was talking about at first, until he understood. “They went through?”
“They sure did.” The older brother confirmed.
“You spammed us so suddenly.” Khole said sadly. “We were so worried.”
“You’re lucky I can get the help of the ghosts. I wouldn’t have been able to find you without them.” Armaros noted with a slightly scolding tone, although it was clear he was just relieved to see him.
Michael didn’t really notice when he started to cry, but suddenly, his baby brother was hugging him, soon followed by Khole.
Armaros and Raphael looked at each other with concern, but let the young man have a moment to cry it out.
After a moment, Michael was calm again, his siblings letting go of him.
“Can you get up? Can you walk?” Armaros asked.
“I don’t know. Probably…” Michael replied quietly.
He didn’t really wait for more cue before he started to try and get up, quickly helped by Armaros and Older Bro.
His legs were shaky, but he could stand. He could probably walk on them.
“I think I can walk…” He said.
“Not on those shaky legs, you won’t.” Raphael scolded him. “Get on my back. And I won’t take any complaints from you.”
Michael wanted to argue, but he was too tired to do it, slowly getting onto his brother’s back.
“Now, let’s go home.” The older brother said as he started to walk, followed by his siblings and Armaros.
Once they arrived home, at his siblings’ home, they first put him onto the couch, taking a moment to take care of his battered body, before leading him carefully to his bedroom, where they forced him to get some rest.
Later, Armaros would explain to him that, as he was waiting for him at home, starting to worry about him as he should’ve been home hours before, he received a sudden spam of messages from here. ‘Get me out of here’. Of course, it was soon followed by Raphael calling him to ask him if Michael was alright. Then, they all rejoined, to go search for him together. Thankfully, Michael had mentioned to his baby brother where he was going to go, as he’d been excited about the concert and wanted to share it with someone other than Armaros, who wasn’t too much of a fan of this group. They’d searched for hours, until Armaros finally found the right ghosts that knew where he was.
Ultimately, Michael was glad they could both see ghosts, as it kept saving their asses.