"No, no no no, please," Luke begged.

It had been a couple of hours since Michael had taken him hostage. From what he gathered—which wasn't much as he was unconscious most of the time—Michael had set them up in a motel room maybe an hour from the bar, somewhere in New Jersey. He woke up just as Michael was stuffing him inside, forcing the door shut, and tying him to the bed.

"It didn't have to be this way," Michael shrieked. He was pacing back and forth in front of the musty bed. The room itself was rather small, just a queen-sized bed with ratty yellow blankets, and a wooden nightstand on either side of the bed. Only one table held a lamp, and there was a small desk across from the bed, underneath the mirror. Luke didn't like that mirror, because it showed him how terrified he really looked. There was a small door that led to a bathroom and another that led to what he assumed was the closet, tucked away in the back of the room. The blinds covering the window were drawn and covered in layers of dust that would bother anyone's allergies.

He really hoped they weren't planning to stay here for long.

"Let me go,"

"No, that's the problem, Luke. You're mine, and I don't let go of things that are mine that easily, see?" Michael seemed unhinged. His eyes were blown wide, so much so that Luke couldn't see any color, just the pupils. When he got too excited, he sprayed spit everywhere, but didn't seem to care. "Now, you need to be punished."

"Please, no," Luke was crying. He couldn't help it. He'd let his guard down, and now he was back in an even worse situation.

"Stop crying, Luke. Accept your punishment and let's move on," Michael growled, mood shifting from crazy to angry in seconds. Luke was worried something was seriously wrong with him, he'd never seen Michael act like this before. This was extreme, even for him.

"I-I'm sorry," Michael liked it when he apologized. "Michael, please I'm sorry,"

"Hm, what to do with you...You're never going to see your friends ever again, so I don't have to worry about marks," Michael mused, ignoring his pleas and rubbing his chin with his fingers as he looked over the trembling boy in restraints. "We'll never have to worry about your meddling friends or troublesome lovers,"

Luke shook his head. Michael probably wouldn't listen, but he felt like he needed to try.

"I never cheated, Michael, please,"

"You're a liar," Michael sang, resuming his pacing. "You lied to me all the time, and I don't need to take that anymore. I don't deserve a lying, cheating, whore of a fiancée."

"But I-I'm not,"

Michael looked at him in confusion for a moment before he shook his head.

"I don't trust you. I tried to give you some freedom, I let you do the play, let you work at the bar, but you still never listened and didn't appreciate me."

"Please," he whispered.

"I gave you chance after chance, but you squandered them. You would have made a wonderful show husband if you hadn't fucked it up. You could have been the perfect little candy on my arm, been treated like my little prince, a precious baby. But you wanted more. So for the next, hmm, few months, you're going to be stuck to this bed. I can't trust you, can't trust you." He trailed off, speaking quietly as he continued pacing the floor. "So now I have to take away all your chances to hurt me."

"Michael, if you'd just talked to me, we could have made things work."

"I tried! You didn't change,"

"No, but you did. Y-you aren't the same man I fell in love with," Luke hiccuped. He needed to take some calming breaths or he was going to work himself up so much that he'd throw up. He wasn't sure if Michael would let him clean himself up, so he really didn't want to do that. Deep breaths, deep breaths.

"Are...are you saying you don't even love me anymore?" He said darkly, moving to hover over Luke's body.

Luke's eyes widened and he fumbled over himself trying to get the words out quick enough.

"Uh, no, n-no of c-course I do! Mikey, love you so m-much, but I don't understand why you're d-doing this to me." Michael nodded, moving away and Luke sighed in relief. That was a close one.

"If you don't get it, I can't make you understand. I've explained it so many times." Michael sat down on the chair under the desk, looking like a sad child who'd been told they can't have a cookie before dinner. It almost made Luke feel pity for him, but he was also tied to the bed by that same man, so there wasn't much room in his heart for pity at the moment.

"Michael, I'm sorry. I didn't need you to control me like that, if you'd just believed me when I told you the truth, we could have been okay."

"Oh, sure, blame me!" Michael shot up from his seat. "Of course it's my fault because I'm the one who was actually trying to get our relationship back on track. Right, it's my fault because I cared enough to do something about it."

"That's not fair, Michael. You could have talked to me, sat down, and spoken to me like the adult I am instead of taking away things from me, forcing me to stop doing the things I loved because it made you insecure."

Michael's face became red, Luke saw dark splotches spread across his chest and neck.

"That is not my fault, Luke. If you hadn't been running around wild, I wouldn't have had to."

Luke just shook his head. There was no sense arguing, there was nothing else he could say. Michael was going to believe his own story, and nothing else. Everything Luke said he had a crazy response to. It was enough to give him a headache.

"I'm sorry, Michael. I really am."

"You're only sorry because you got caught. I know you were with Ashton today. I can't believe you and my best friend..." Michael shook his head. "You're mine, not his, and you ran away from me." Michael walked over to the bed and sat next to Luke, who tried to scoot as far away from him as he could. "Why did you do that, Lukey?" He asked in a small voice, sounding like he was the one who was upset by everything happening.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't...it's just..." Luke babbled, but Michael put a finger to his lips, quieting him.

"Hey, it's okay, baby. Don't worry, I've got all sorts of ways you can make it up to me, hm?"

Luke tried to pull away, but Michael straddled him and held him down to the bed.

"P-please, stop,"

He felt the familiar stinging feeling on his cheek before he saw the hand move.

"We're going to set up some rules to make sure we can get our relationship back, yeah?" Michael squeezed Luke's wrists when he didn't answer. Luke yelped, nodding his head. "Good boy. First rule, don't tell me stop and don't tell me no. All you're allowed to say is 'yes, Michael' like a good little boy, got it?"

Afraid of what would happen if he disobeyed, Luke lowered his eyes and nodded.

"Yes, Michael."

Michael smirked. He was so happy now that Luke was complying. He knew he would, Luke truly was a good boy—his good boy. Michael recognized how hard he tried to make things better, but Luke was the one who messed things up in the first place, so he needed to do the work to make it right again.

"Excellent. Rule two, you're going to do exactly as I say when I say. I don't want any backtalk or explanations, you just need to obey. You've never really been one to complain, but with all that sass you gave me before," He glared at Luke who still wasn't looking at him. "I don't know what's gotten into you, but it needs to stop."

"Yes, Michael."

Michael patted his head gently; Luke flinched, expecting it to hurt.

"Good. We'll talk about more later. I need to use the bathroom."

He jumped up from the bed, scaring Luke at the abrupt movements as he skipped over to the bathroom. He left the door open just a crack as he went about his business.

Luke took that moment to try to escape the bonds. He didn't know where he'd go or what would happen, but he knew he couldn't stay here. Michael was mental, Luke knew he wouldn't survive long if he kept this up.

There was movement at the door. He heard it faintly from outside.

There was a light knock at the door.

    "Housekeeping!" the female voice called. Luke opened his mouth to shout for help, but Michael came out of the bathroom, diving across the bed, and slapped his hand across Luke's face, shoving his fingers in his mouth to keep him quiet. Luke struggled, trying to bite down, but when Michael moved his other hand over his nose, there was no way for him to breathe to make noise.

    The knock came again.

    "Housekeeping, can you open up please?"

    Michael moved the hand in his mouth away so Luke was able to take a gasping breath. He quickly moved it back after he did.

    There was movement outside the door.

    "Housekeeper, please open up."

    Michael moaned loudly.

    "Go away," he gasped loudly. "We don't need anything, uhh, please, right there, oh god," he shrilled.

    Luke's lungs were burning, he wished the person would go away so he could take a proper breath. Michael removed his fingers from his nose so he was able to take a breath that way at least. His chest heaved as he filled his lungs with oxygen, listening to Michael moan continuously. There was no sound at the other end of the door, but Luke screamed when Michael punched him in the stomach. He let his hand go as Luke sung soprano, then his mouth was covered again.

    "Yeah, baby, so good, ugh." Michael cried.

They heard the sound of someone speaking at the other end of the door before a loud bang and a crash. Luke whimpered as Michael gasped, trying to pull him someplace, but he was still stuck in the bed. Michael couldn't get the restraints loose quickly enough.

    The door swung off its hinges as four people in full body armor and shiny black guns burst in.

    "Get on the floor, now," one of them shouted. "Don't hesitate or we won't either,"

    Michael yelped as one of the men kicked him in his sternum, forcing him to the floor. Another man trained his gun on Luke, which instantly caused him to burst into tears.

    "P-please don't, c-can't m-m-move," he managed out through his tears. "I-I-I-"

    "Relax, it's fine," they took the gun off him.

    "Where is he? I want to see him!" Luke heard someone shout.

Ashton walked through the door, pushing past the armed police.

"Ashton!"

    "Luke!"

    "Hey, you can't come in here," but Ashton burst past the officer and forced his way into the room.

    "Oh, my god, are you okay?" Ashton asked, rushing over to him despite the fact that Micahel was sprawled out on the floor, three guns trained on him and the other man was eyeing Ashton.

    "Y-yeah, j-just scared," He whispered.

    "Don't worry, buddy. You're safe now, okay? I promise," Ashton insisted. Luke started sniffing, then full blown sobs wracked his body. "Oh, Luke, what's the matter, hon? Here, let me get you out of there, Lu, god," Ashton kept talking, saying anything he could think of just so Luke might calm down.

"I just—j-j-"

"Calm down, yeah? Everything is going to be fine." Ashton assured him.

It was at that moment Michaels sprung up from the floor, gun in his hand, and fired.

The BOOM from the gun and two screams were all anyone could hear before the sirens blared and lights filled the room.

***

Another cliffhanger? Why yes, yes indeed.

IN HONOR OF PASSING MY CNA EXAM I CAN'T GO BACK TO SLEEP SO I FINISHED THIS UP AT 6AM YAAAYYYYYYYYY. couldn't sleep waiting for my results and can't sleep now that I have it. *shrug*

Can you believe it's just the epilogue left and then this book is over?!

~ashtonfortherwin