Chapter 23 – Part 2

 “Hey, rat, how are you doing?” Blaine heard his boss’ voice. “Take that thing out of his mouth.”

Someone came and ripped the tape off. He spat the sock out of his mouth and inhaled some air through the mouth.

“So, ready to talk?” the same man asked.

“I told you, I work for you,” Blaine said, his voice harsh. He needed some water.

The man sighed loudly. “Oh well, I hoped we wouldn’t need this but you brought it on yourself. See this man? He is very interested in medieval times. Especially in their torturing methods. Well, I will leave you two to get to know each other.”

The doors opened and closed.

“It’s very nice to meet you,” the other man said, leaning close to his face. “You know, if you just told me what the boss wanted to know, we wouldn’t need to do this.”

“I told everything,” Blaine said.

“Pity… Okay, now what’s going to happen. I have this little fellow with me. I thought it would be funny for a rat like you to meet my rat. Unfortunately, I haven’t fed it for a while now. Poor thing is so hungry,” Blaine could hear the man smiling. “Now, tell me, are you familiar with the ‘rat torture’? If not, you will be soon because I will give you a chance to experience it firsthand. Tell me, is there anything you would like to say?”

“Your breath stinks.”

<~*~>

It took a few seconds for everyone to realise what had happened. Nobody said a thing and it frustrated Tina.

“I saw how Tom handed Blaine a piece of paper. When he left, I approached Blaine silently and he didn’t notice me. I saw an address written. I always had a good memory and I still remember it. It happened in the morning when Blaine left, it must be where he is now,” she said.

Mike opened his mouth but closed it in a second. When he tried the second time some words actually came out. “You are talking,” he managed.

“Of course I am,” Tina rolled her eyes. “Do you expect me to sit silently and wait for a miracle? Yes, I could write this down in a text but we have no time for that bullshit. We have everything we need – the address, people, guns, equipment, perfect timing as it’s dark already. Now we need transport and a plan how to leave this place. Tom will make sure it’s near impossible.”

Still nobody said a word.

“Snap out of it!” she shouted. “Let’s get moving.”

<~*~>

Sebastian decided to come back sooner than he had originally planned. He was glad he could get a plane ticket. Though it wasn’t surprising – people rarely travelled on the twenty fifth of December.

He knew that Sam wouldn’t be in the base for at least another week but he could work out on his own. Sam once told him that he was probably better than him. So Sebastian was very proud of himself. He was already very close to the Purple Squad and it was only December. He had a lot of time to get even better.

He was going to his room when he heard whispers coming from around the corner.

“The only problem will be leaving. We can get a van but we don’t have a permission to leave,” that was Finn’s voice.

“Hey, guys,” Sebastian greeted them when the group of people, all wearing black, saw him. “Merry Christmas.”

“You too,” Mike said smiling a little. “I didn’t know you had come back.”

Sebastian shrugged. “I just came back. Where are you planning to go? And why are you not wearing your uniforms?”

Noah opened his mouth to answer.

“No,” Jeff whispered.

The boy rolled his eyes. “We could use one more person. The deal is that Blaine got caught. Tom doesn’t want anyone to help him so we are sneaking out. Wanna join the party?”

Sebastian raised one eyebrow. “You are going to disobey a direct order?”

“Yes,” Sugar said as if it was something natural.

“Good luck with whatever you are planning to do. I’m not in,” Sebastian said and passed them.

Finn grabbed the boys arm tightly. “If you tell anyone–”

“I won’t,” Sebastian said and left.

“He will,” Jeff said. “I know he will. You are a dumbass, Noah!”

“Calm down. We just need to be faster now,” Noah said and they quickened the pace.

<~*~>

“How did you like it? By your screams I’m guessing you loved my fellow,” the man laughed softly. “Let me see the wounds.”

The man came closer and looked at Blaine’s abdomen. There was a lot of blood around him. He knew some wounds had to be quite deep while the other ones were just scratches. He had had worse in his life than that.

“Let’s try again. Is there anything you would want to tell me?” the man asked.

“Why would I? Nobody is listening to me any–” he said and felt some water being poured onto his abdomen. He couldn’t help but scream.

“Salty water. Simple but painful,” the man giggled.

<~*~>

“Sarah,” Sebastian said loud enough to be heard by the woman. “I need to tell you something.”

“Yes?” Sarah asked, tiredness in her voice.

“A few people are sneaking out at the moment. They said something about saving Blaine. I thought Tom should know but I couldn’t find him. Can you tell him?”

Sarah thought for a moment. “He left me responsible for them. Thank you for letting me know. I know exactly what to do,” she nodded seriously.

<~*~>

“Okay, Lauren will be driving. Nobody will be sitting in front just in case,” Jeff said as everyone was getting into the van. It was a bit too tight for everyone given that they had a lot of equipment in it but they didn’t care even if they had to lie on each other. “We can just hope that the person by the gates can be bribed.”

“Jeff!” they heard a woman’s voice. It was Sarah.

“Shit!” Noah cursed. He and Jeff were the only ones not in the van.

Jeff went to meet her. If she got closer, she would see people in the van. “Sarah, I–”

“You don’t have a permission to leave,” she said. There was a moment of silence. “That’s why I brought it for you.”

“You… what?” Jeff couldn’t believe it. Sarah was always loyal to his father. But here she was – handing him a permission to leave for a mission that Tom strictly forbidden.

“You can’t go by one van. You need two. I will drive the other one. Come on, split into two groups and let’s get going. We don’t have much time,” she said and went towards the other vans, keys already in her hand.

Jeff and Noah exchanged a confused look.

<~*~>

“Why do you keep doing this to yourself?” the man asked. “A few words are all I want. A few simple words and this will be over. Don’t you want that?”

Blaine could hardly see anything. His vision was blur, he was so weak. And cold.

Kurt would put him into bed. He would put the thickest duvet and a few blankets on him. He would make him some hot tea. With a piece of lemon maybe and a teaspoon of honey. He would make him drink it all. And then Kurt would get under the pile of blankets and keep him warm with the heat of his body. He would smile and fall asleep in the arms of the love of his life.

Blaine wanted to sleep.

<~*~>

“Van Two, do you hear us?” Jeff asked.

“Yes, Jeff, we hear you,” Tina’s voice came from the speakers.

Van One consisted of Lauren as a driver and Jeff, Kurt, Sugar, and Finn. Van Two had Sarah as a driver, Noah, Mike, Tina, and Santana were with her.

“Fine. I checked the address. There is no such place on the Google maps but I didn’t expect it to be. But I have my ways and found it. I’m sending coordinates to Sarah.”

“I got them,” they heard Sarah say. “We should be there in fifty minutes.”

“We have time to plan everything. I couldn’t find out who are on this mission as well. But we may see familiar faces,” Jeff said.

“Normally you shouldn’t show that you know them,” Sarah cut in. “But in this case it’s no longer a secret mission. They will find out we broke into, sooner or later, hopefully, later, so there will be no need to pretend anymore. I contacted some agents who were not in the base. I told them to go near that place and wait for my order. In that way, Tom won’t find out about our plan. Well, I hope so.”

“So we break in, as silently as we can, find Blaine, grab him, and run away? Awesome plan,” Santana smirked.

“Evidence,” Kurt said. He didn’t speak much; only when he had to.

“Kurt? What are you talking about?” Finn asked gently.

“Dave died on this mission, Blaine is probably being tortured at this moment. We can’t let their sacrifice be wasted,” he explained.

“Kurt,” Sugar took his hand. “We are planning to take over that place. There will be enough time to find what is necessary later. The agents will lock everyone until they find evidence of their illegal activities and then arrest them officially. All we need to do is find Blaine. Let’s not get distracted.”

“Okay,” he whispered in response.

<~*~>

“What should I do to you?” the man asked tiredly.

“Let me go maybe?” Blaine mocked him.

He was so tired. He wanted to go home. Kurt was his home. Kurt…

“Maybe you are not cold enough,” he said and Blaine felt some more icy water being poured over his whole body. But he hardly felt any difference now.

<~*~>

“We can’t get any closer,” Lauren said when the van stopped. “It’s too dangerous; they may spot us if we do.”

Jeff checked something on his computer. “That will be fine. Everyone, check if you have your microphones. Check if they are really working.”

“This place is a fucking manor,” Noah cursed. “Blaine can be anywhere.”

“This is why we will split into smaller groups than we originally planned,” Sarah said. “We will go in pairs. Except for the basement. I have a feeling about it. Mike, Finn, Kurt, Noah, you will go there. They are probably keeping Blaine there. Sugar and Santana will check the ground floor. Tina and Jeff will go to the first floor. I will check the other ones even though I highly doubt he will be there. Let everyone know if anything happens. Be as silent and careful as possible. The sooner any of us will be spotted the less time the others will have. If you need to kill someone, you have permission. I will make sure it’s filed under ‘self-defence’ later in the statements. Now, let’s go.”

<~*~>

The moon is bright tonight, Blaine thought. Otherwise it wouldn’t be so light in the room. Or maybe the garden was lit up for the night. But what if he was looking into another world? He didn’t feel pain anymore. He wasn’t cold anymore. It was almost peaceful. It must be heaven.

That angel looks just like Kurt, Blaine thought and his eyes closed.

<~*~>

The garden wasn’t guarded as much as they thought it would be. They had some chloroform and used it on a few guards. They should be out long enough for them to safely get out of there if they didn’t get caught.

Mike, Finn, Noah, and Kurt separated from the rest of the group and went to look for the way into the basement. They went around the building silently looking for any basement’s window they could open. After good five minutes Noah motioned them to come closer.

No glass, he mouthed.

They nodded. Mike took his flashlight and checked what was inside.

Empty, he mouthed.

They nodded again and one by one they silently got into, Kurt with a help from Finn. They found the doors and listened carefully. The place, corridor they guessed, was silent and probably empty. It was dark as well because no light came from under the doors. They slowly opened them and saw it was really empty.

They left the room very silently and started going through each doors. Luckily, there were only storage rooms or some empty ones.

Noah opened his fifth doors and flashed the light. He saw feet. Two bare feet. The light went up and reached the face. Blaine. Noah gave a signal for the others with a flash and went into the room. Blaine’s eyes were open but he didn’t react.

In no time Kurt came and saw Blaine. He kneeled at his side and saw Blaine closing his eyes.

“Open your eyes… please… baby…” Kurt sobbed and kissed the boy’s lifeless dark purple lips.