When Eden opened his eyes, someone was standing over him and looking down at him.

    It was blurry; as were the effects of whatever he had woken up from. Slowly by slowly, his brain started to piece together what had happened.

   As the thoughts came back to him, he suddenly jolted upright, only to find out that he was weaker than he expected.

   "Mik–" he said weakly. "Mikhail..."

    Eden noticed then that he wasn't even tied, just weak and exhausted. It would only be wise to regain his strength first.

The figure then crouched as the blurriness started to clear out. But not enough to make out anything useful.

  "There's no use struggling," he said. "You have no strength yet."

He kinda figured that out already.

"Where's Mikhail?" Eden gathered the strength to ask as it returned to him.

"The next room," the man said with what looked like amusement on his face. "Who are you to him?"

    In all honesty, Eden didn't know how to answer that. Technically, he wasn't much to the boy, but in the span of a few weeks, he'd come to mean so much to him that he wasn't even sure how to put it.

"Hmm?" He smiled. "You can't answer?"

   Eden decided to remain quiet.

"I couldn't care less," said the man. "But who are you to Linder?"

  Eden didn't know how to answer that either. They weren't exactly friends. He hadn't seen a lot of him, but there was something there, he just didn't know what.

  "That's none of your business," said Eden. The man's face turned sour.

He grabbed Eden's face with a hand and squeezed until it was painful. "The right answer is nothing. He is nothing to you."

That was the moment Eden finally began to understand the situation. Whoever this was, seemed to be crazy about Linder. Weird, and unhealthy crazy.

Everything suddenly brightened and Eden finally saw him perfectly clearly.

"You look a little too much...like Jet," said Eden.

The man smiled. "And who the fuck is that?" He asked.

They almost had the same face, it was too much of a coincidence. He even wore two earrings like Jet did, their black hair was almost the same length, not to mention the amount of tattoos they each had.

"An intimidating looking man, who unlike you, is actually really kind." Eden told him.

"Sounds like a pussy," he said and smiled.

Eden didn't really reply. He just stared at him. Why did they look so exactly alike? Even the smile was Jet's.

He shook his head and tried to focus. "Why did you do this? To grab Linder's attention?" Eden asked while rubbing his neck. "There's better ways to do that. Normal ways."

Eden's captor ran a hand down his chin. "I only came for Mikhail, but you were in the way."

"What do you want?" He asked. Was Mikhail okay?

"It's simple," the man replied. "I only want Linder."

His face completely changed. All traces of bitterness were gone from it as it was replaced with a very moony smile.

"I doubt it's mutual," Eden dared to say. A little part of him was angry at everything. And angry at the fact that Linder's life was so messed up.

It was a little thought but somehow, he longed to comfort him.

He earned a slap with the back of the man's hand. It was a slap heavy enough to make him sway and dishevel most of the hair falling onto his forehead.

"Shut up! You don't know what you are talking about," said the delusional man. "He and I are perfect, we were made for each other."

Eden felt a pang of sympathy for Linder, wherever he was. He shouldn't be going through this. "I don't know what you think, but Linder... doesn't deserve this."

"He doesn't say it, but he wants us to be together. I don't know why people won't let us be together in peace!" His eyes seemed to be genuinely twinkling when he spoke again. "He really makes me happy. I...I think we make each other happy."

"You think taking his brother, is going to help? Do you know how much he loves him?" Eden honestly asked because this was a madman with a madman's line of thought.

"What the fuck do you know?" He asked with a voice full of spite.

Eden ignored him. The conversation wouldn't go anywhere productive at this point.

"I need to see Mikhail, he must be scared," said Eden. He couldn't stop thinking about the child.

The man studied him first. And just when Eden thought he wouldn't, he spoke. "Makes it easier for me to watch you both anyway."

He roughly pulled Eden to his feet and tightened a firm hand around his wrists, dragging him forward to follow him.

It really wasn't necessary. As long as they were going to Mikhail, he'd gladly follow.

Eden pulled his hand out of his grasp the moment he saw Mikhail sitting in one corner of the room, staring at nothing in particular. He rushed to his side.

He checked the little boy's hands first, then the side of his head, where he dropped a kiss. Mikhail was not hurt and that's all he was glad for.

When he hugged him, the boy didn't hug him back. It stung so bad. He seemed to be far away, getting further in his shell. Eden hurt inside.

"Sweetie, please talk to me," Eden tried. "Did he do anything? Are you alright?"

Mikhail didn't really look at him. "I want Lin," he said in a small voice.

He saw a hand come to rest on Mikhail's shoulder. It was large compared to the small shoulders. Eden immediately got up and slapped the hand away.

"Don't fucking touch him!" He raged. This man was obviously the reason why Mikhail was suffering internally. And he had the guts to touch him.

When their abductor smiled and tried it again, Eden gathered all the force he could and drove his knee to his groin.

The man fell on his knees with both hands covering the area where the damage had been done. He groaned in pain. "You'll pay for this...fuck!"

He took Mikhail further away from the man, the door was locked so there was no escape. There was no question of who would win if he decided to fight him to get the key, there was nothing he could do.

"You just made a grave mistake," the man said as he recovered and slowly started to get up.

"Don't you dare come any closer," Eden warned.

He obviously didn't listen. He moved forward a bit and stood to shake his hair, arrange it and put his cap back on. Eden didn't miss the smirk on his lips either.

He shielded Mikhail with his body, pushing him behind him, at the same time their abductor charged.

•••

"You called," said Carl. He was suddenly in a good mood with his feet up on the desk before him and leaning back on his chair. "I knew you would."

"I know you have Mikhail," Linder said from the other side. "If you've done anything to them, Carl–"

"Relax... they're fine," replied Carl. "He even tried to cripple me for touching your brother."

"Where are you?" Linder asked.

"I'm going to give you that information my love," he said. "But you have to promise to come alone, I really need to see you."

"You can see me all you want Carl," Linder said and it made him feel excited. "But you have to let them go."

Carl frowned. "Not so fast," he said. "You forget that I know everything about you. I know you are extremely smart. You have some sort of plan I can tell."

"My plan is to get to you, so that you'll let them go," said Linder. "Where are you?"

"You have to come alone, I'm dead serious about that," he said.

"I know," said Linder. "After everything you've put Mikhail through, I'll never take that chance."

"Come on... you make it sound like I'm evil."

"You're sick."

"I'm not sick!" He said in a sharp voice. "I'm sorry Lin, you know I hate raising my voice at you."

Linder didn't reply to that. So Carl let it go and gave him his address. "I'll be waiting for you."

"You probably gave me a wrong address just to test me," said Linder. "I don't want to play games, get to the point."

"My heart beats faster when you speak like that," Carl couldn't stop smiling even if he tried. This time, he gave Linder the right address.

"Fine." Linder said. "I'm going to leaving now."

"If you try anything, you'll be putting that man in danger. The other one I saw you with," said Carl, thinking about the man he'd only ever seen in a suit.

Linder made a sound like a gasp. "What is wrong with you?" He asked like the most frustrated person ever.

"I'm just protecting what's mine," he said seriously. "Remember, I'm good at this, and I do my research really well."

He didn't say it but the jealousy was killing him, he felt like he could threaten anything that moved near Linder.

"I'm coming alone, right now," said Linder. "Leave everyone else alone."

He couldn't wait, so much it made him giddy.

"Alright. I love y–" the line went dead, forcing Carl not to complete his statement. To him, it felt like a slap on the face.

Carl's hands that were now on the table, slowly balled into fists. So tight his nails began to dig into his palm.

•••

Hi! Sorry about this late update some of y'all probably wanted to kill me😂 but thanks for reminding me 😌😌

Oh and Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates it! 🌲