'MORNING.' David's blurry face smiled at Lou, standing at the far end of the room by the door with two items in his hands. He began to walk towards her, all chirpy and enthusiastic, and Lou did her best to push himself away from him, every inch of her body aching. She didn't get very far, her back collided with a wall behind her, and he was still walking towards her. 'Don't hurt yourself, now. Don't need any more injuries, do we?'

She heard him faintly through the ringing in her ears, blinking long and hard to try and get rid of the fuzziness in her eyes. Eventually, the world drifted into focus again, but her head began to ache, ten times worse than it had been beforehand.

'I checked you in with Howard before I brought you back here.' David explained, sounding much closer. She turned her head, feeling awfully nauseous as she did so, and found him sitting next to her with a welcoming expression. She also realized that she had been lying on a bed, which was most likely why she didn't wake up any sooner.

She was in a bedroom, actually. And it wasn't an abandoned one like one of the apartments they had snuck through in K.C., this was a lived-in bedroom. It was dull, with clutter on the nightstands and the desk with a Bible perched up on display, peeling wallpaper, and a dirty carpet. It had a wooden cross, opposite the head of the bed, above the entrance to the closet. It looked like something from a horror movie, something from a cult-y, Christian camp.

Lou made the connection that she was in David's bedroom fairly swiftly, and the man continued to speak through the static in her brain. 'He says that there's nothing wrong with you, but you still took a fall. Pretty bad one. Here.'

He reached out, palm splayed out across Lou's wrist, and grabbed her. She fought back, shoved him away from her the instant they came into contact, but he got her by the ankle instead.

'It's alright.' He assured her, smiling wide, as if he had enjoyed that brief encounter. He let her go with a sudden, strange amount of fondness, the grin spreading to his icy blue eyes. '...Just trying to help you, kid. I'm sorry if I startled you.'

He stared at her, and Lou realized he was waiting for a response.

'...It's okay.' She whispered, voice hoarse and throat dry, still watching him with huge eyes and tremors in her limbs. It wasn't really okay, but she knew better than to be honest to someone who could overpower her so easily.

David shifted, reaching for the nightstand where he had placed his two items, and poured a glass of water from the pitcher of the ice-cold drink. He held it there, over his lap, forcing her to go and get it.

She did, very hesitantly. Very slowly too because her legs and arms were still killing her and she felt deathly nauseous every time she turned her head. She sat next to him, pulling her sore legs over the edge of the mattress and accepting the glass when he handed it to her.

The ice made it slippy on the outside, and she was frightened for a moment that she was going to drop it, but David leaned forward and pressed the heel of his palm to the bottom of the glass when he saw how she was struggling. She looked at him and offered him a half-smile before downing the water like it was her last drink.

'You're far more calm than your friend, I'll give you that.' He chuckled to himself, taking it from her and refilling it. Lou had intercepted it before he could even hand it to her, chugging it in an instant and handing it back to him for another refill. The ice made her head hurt less- It made her freezing cold, and it was something to distract her from her stinging body. 'That little maniac was still trying to threaten me, even after everything. Can you believe that?'

'Where is she?' Her voice was clearer now that her throat wasn't parched and it didn't feel sharp whenever she swallowed. Her words came out smushed together, slurred, and she blamed that on the fact that the room was spinning and her brain was asleep. That was the first sentence she had spoken of her own accord, and David didn't look very surprised.

'She's someplace else.' He said vaguely, the pitcher half empty by now. 'We couldn't have you two together, for obvious reasons. But, she's safe. Nothing bad will happen to her, not yet.'

Lou looked at him, confused by what he meant - worried by what he meant, but he offered no explanation. She didn't not believe him. He had many men who would hurt her and Ellie in a heartbeat, and he could send any one of them into a room with her and have the job done within a minute. She did doubt that David would be the one to do it.

She wished she was at home, back with Joel and her dad, but, if she had to be stuck here with one of these psychos, she would've picked David a million times over because he was the only one that actively wasn't trying to kill her.

'What's your name?' Just because David liked her didn't mean that she liked him, however. She shook her head.

'No? That's your name?' He mocked. 'Wow. That's a weird name, never heard that one before. Where're you from? Must be out of the States.'

It was stupid. It was so fucking stupid. And it was so inconvenient that Lou's sense of humor was fucking stupid as well, because she smiled over the rim of the glass. David smiled back at her, and then wiggled his head a little bit.

'Seriously, though. You don't have to rat out your friend or anything. I just think it'd be nice to know the name of the random little girl sleeping in my house.' He laughed to himself, looking around the room for a moment, not pressuring her to reply. She felt the need to, anyway.

'Lou.' She croaked, looking him up and down.

'Lou.' He repeated with a tone in his voice, almost singing it. 'Is that short for something?'

'Louise.'

'Louise.' Again with the voice. He nodded, approvingly. 'Louise. That's a beautiful name. It's a popular Christian name, y'know.'

'I'm not a Christian.' She shook her head again.

'Then, what are you?' He questioned.

'I dunno. My dad never taught me all about the God stuff. I never really wanted to learn 'bout it either.' She shrugged meekly, wondering if this would be the nail in the coffin to tip this crazy guy over the edge. He didn't budge. In fact, he seemed interested. '...His dad, he was big on religion. And, my dad and his dad aren't friends anymore. So, he hates it.'

'You see, that's the thing I don't understand.' David shook his head. 'How can someone hate God when God doesn't believe in hate? How can he hate his own father, let alone our father? You know, It was Luke that said, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you and pray for those who mistreat you."'

Lou's eyebrows raised at his ability to just know that quote like the back of his hand. She didn't like how serious this was getting, however. Wasn't a big fan of the long monologues. So, she attempted to lighten the mood. 'Yeah, well, his dad was, like, bad.'

'How so?' David tilted his head, invested. Lou scrunched her face up, considering it.

It had taken Ralph a while to even bring his dad up to her. It was when she had been told about Grandparents Day in second grade that she discovered that she had a pair. He ranted and raved about how wonderful Lou's grandmother was, but avoided the topic of the man for ages. Until fifth grade when Lou's best friend, Penny, got picked up from school by her grandpa and Lou raced home with a bunch of questions about her own. Seeing as Penny's grandpa was so sweet, she expected her grandpa to be the exact same. Oh, brother, was she wrong.

David's eyebrows twitched, becoming a bit restless with the wait for a response, and Lou jumped the gun, still a little dazed and a whole bunch scared.

'He was a bad guy.' She said vaguely. Fuck David and his nod for her to continue. 'I mean, so I'm told. I never met him, I was born after everything. I guess he just never really liked my dad. Also, my dad's... He likes boys, so that wasn't great to grow up in a religious house with. And, I mean, obviously, not all Christians are like that, but his dad... He used to, like, hit him and shit. So, he's just...'

'...Some people need tough love, Louise.' David said calmly, looking over at her. She wasn't expecting a reaction like that, or the usage of her full name.

She attempted to scoot away from him, but a hand came down to rest on the top of her knee. 'But, your father has done wrong. He's killed people, he's killed my people. He killed a father, and a married man, and a baker. And, sometimes, tough love doesn't work. Sometimes, the only way for people to learn, is for them to have a taste of their own medicine.'

She looked at him, eyes darting up and down over and over again, fearing about the men who had come into the neighborhood in search of them, wondering if they had found Ralph or Joel. Maybe Ralph and Joel. What the hell was she going to do without them? Oh, shit... Oh, shit.

'Don't worry,' David's other hand rested on her back, palm between her shoulder blade as he assured her.

'Your dad won't get anything that he doesn't already have coming to him.'

...

RALPH HAD NO IDEA HOW LONG THEY HAD BEEN AT THIS FOR, but it was probably very sadistic to say that he was enjoying it. Dragging the two unconscious bodies inside had been a hassle, sure, but getting to beat the fuck out of them kind of ruled, actually. It was a fun stress reliever, but it also stressed him out even more because he was not getting the answer that he needed. Fuck these stubborn pricks and their sworn secrecy.

'Okay, listen to me.' Ralph leaned forward, hands on his thighs as he spoke. He had already beaten the fuck out of this freak, so he had no clue what else this dude thought he had to live for. If he did make it out of here alive, by some miraculous turn of events, he wouldn't make it half a mile out before dropping dead or getting mauled by a bear. 'I'm gonna ask you one more time- One more fucking time, Marco... I'm gonna ask you where my daughter is, and you're gonna tell me the truth. Or...!'

Ralph wiggled his pistol between his thumb and forefinger, nodding at him to let him know that the question was upcoming and he had to be ready to answer or his brains would be painting the wall. 'Okay. Where's my daughter?'

'You can't shoot me, you stupid fuck.' Marco spat, glaring daggers. He laughed, smiling behind a bruised face, and that only made Ralph far more annoyed than he already was. 'You need me to tell you where she is. Can't shoot me, not yet. And I ain't gonna tell you shit, you dumb fucking- Jesus Christ!'

The scream came after the gunshot, a bullet piercing through his thigh and, in turn, a hole in the base of the chair he was tied to. The shout of agony didn't last for long because a fist met his face for the millionth time that hour and left him coughing up more blood than before. The man in the chair began to sob, shaking and wailing in misery with every breath, and still not fucking answering him.

'I swear to fuck!' Ralph yelled in frustration, shooting him in the left leg this time to even things out and walking away from him to begin pacing again. Another yelp of pain came, this one uninterrupted and longer, slurring curses and begs and apologies all at once. Ralph spun on his heel and stood in front of him again, bashing his gun against his forehead. 'You better hurry the fuck up, or your dick is coming off next!'

'Fuck you, fucking... Bastard, you're fuckin... The two of you are...' Marco swallowed the lump in his throat when the deathtrap in Ralph's hands clicked again, reloaded. 'She's- She's in the town.'

'The town?' Ralph repeated frantically, eyes wide in anticipation. A smile broke across his face, sudden and joyful and not at all reflecting the shit that he was doing. 'That's great, Marco, that's great. What town?'

He hung his head, and that probably had something to do with the massive amounts of blood gushing from either one of his legs, turning his jeans dark red and dripping off the chair and onto the floor beneath him.

So, Ralph reached forward and gouged his fingers into his right bullet wound, crooking and twisting them and tearing open even more flesh in his wake. Marco wailed, trying to flail his legs out and kick him away, and Ralph caught him by the jaw.

'Couple'a miles out, in the forest!' He sobbed, tears slipping in Ralph's clenched fist as he held his head up. His other hand continued to dig. 'There're people out there! They took your girls... Please, I don't know anythin' else, please...'

Ralph took his hand away, brushing his fingers off on his thigh as he turned and looked at Joel over his shoulder nonchalantly. The man on the far side of the room held up a map, a janky line connecting their current location and where they needed to be, and gave Ralph a small nod to shoo him away.

He did as he was told, putting his gun away and grimacing at Marco one last time before turning his back and walking across the living room and out to the garage, leaving Joel alone with their final victim.

Still unsteady on his feet, Joel staggered over to the couch and ducked forward, reaching for the metal pipe that had been used to knock the guy out in the first place.

'No, no, no! We told you what you wanted, motherfucker! ...Fuck you. Fuck you, man, I ain't telling you anything else, you fuckin' bastard!'

'It's okay. We believe you.'

...

NOTES!
david's pedophilic ass is just lucky that it dont gotta encounter ralph and joel 🤷‍♂️