Chapter Text
Day 7
His hands clenched into fists, muscles coiled tightly like a serpent ready to strike. "What do you mean it's not enough for a search warrant?" Vic nearly screamed at the police officer. The police officer held considerable height and girth on him, and could easily turn Vic to dust beneath his fist. But Vic had desperation on his side.
Seven days ago his life shattered around him. Seven days ago his boyfriend, Kellin, and his boyfriend's entire band vanished. Disappeared completely off the face of the Earth. Seven days ago he'd gotten his last text from Kellin.
At hotel. Call you in a few.<3
Vic waited three hours for a call that never came. He waited three hours before trying his boyfriend's phone, sending several texts asking why he hadn't called, and calling a few times with no response. He'd hoped his boyfriend had just fallen asleep accidentally. It had happened before... maybe. Once morning came, after a long, sleepless night, Vic blew up his boyfriend's phone, calling a dozen times. When that proved fruitless, he called everyone else in the band with no success.
Then the call came.
It was the Sleeping with Sirens tour manager asking if he'd spoken with Kellin recently. The boys never showed up for their interview in the morning. She traveled separately from them, like she normally did, and went to their hotel, the Holmes Hotel as it was called, only to find there was no sign they'd ever been there.
That was strange, considering Vic had a text saying his boyfriend arrived at the hotel.
His boyfriend's tour manager called the police. Vic caught the first plane out.
Vic had been there when the police questioned the hotel manager, hovering like the worried almost-spouse he was in the background. The manager was an older gentleman, on the wrong side of 40, with considerable pudge around his midriff. The left side of his face was disfigured, covered in long-healed burns that pulled the left side of his lips up into a permanent smirk, and shriveled up the skin around his glassy eye.
The manager claimed Sleeping with Sirens never showed. Even after being confronted with the text Vic had from Kellin stating they'd arrived, he stuck to his story, even going so far as to suggest Kellin had lied to cover up 'something else,' the hotel had manager said with a wink to the cop Vic was now arguing with. The police checked the hotel, found nothing, and crossed the manager off their list of suspects.
But Vic knew his boyfriend had been there. He wouldn't lie, not to Vic. So he turned online, searching for any information he could find on the hotel.
What he found disturbed him. His search led him to an online conspiracy forum. Yeah, it was full of conspiracists, but most of them were family members of people who had last been seen at or headed to the Holmes Hotel. None of their missing family members had ever been seen again.
Except one.
She was a young woman in her late 20s that had disappeared nearly 15 years ago, but her body had only been discovered accidentally by a hiker and his dog buried deep in the forest five years ago. Though only her bones remained, there was strong evidence she'd been tortured and raped for a significant amount of time before her death.
It made his stomach churn and roil like waves in the ocean.
What if that was happening to Kellin and the rest of SWS right this moment? What if he never got to see Kellin again? Never got to spend his life with him?
He was going to propose to him.
And these cops were doing nothing, just sitting on their hands and twiddling their fucking thumbs, hoping for a lead that wouldn't come.
"We already checked out the hotel and found nothing. A bunch of news clippings and second hand accounts from family members is not enough evidence for a search warrant. I'm sorry, Mr. Fuentes. There's nothing we can do, but we'll keep –"
"This is bullshit!" Vic hissed, shrugging off the placating hand his younger brother, Mike, placed on his shoulder. Without waiting for a response, he pushed past his brother and the cop, storming out of the police station.
Tony and Jaime were both waiting outside, Tony sitting on the front steps, and Jaime leaning against the railing. Jaime perked up when he saw Vic, but deflated as soon as Vic shook his head no to his silent question. He felt his brother step up behind him, and he shot him a glare before he could say anything or place a hand on his arm again.
"I'm sorry –"
"I'm going after him," Vic interrupted Jaime.
"Say that again. You're what?" Jaime said, pulling an exaggerated face. Jaime had a flare for the dramatics, and Vic secretly thought he had undiagnosed ADHD.
"I'm going after him," Vic stated firmly.
"How exactly do you plan on doing that?" Jaime asked.
"I'm going to the hotel to look for him."
"Yeah, that sounds like a great idea," Jaime sarcastically countered. "Just walk into the hotel your boyfriend and his entire band went missing in, and sign in as a guest."
Vic crossed his arms across his chest and glared at Jaime. There was no talking him out of this. He was going after Kellin, and he was going to find him, and propose to him just like he planned to do when both their tours ended and they were home together once again. Kellin was at that hotel, he knew it. He just needed the proof now.
"Vic, you can't seriously –" Jaime said, but it was Mike who interrupted him.
"I'm coming with you. Sleeping with Sirens are my friends, too, and Kellin's like a brother to me. He will be my brother once we find him," Mike said, elbowing him in the ribs. Normally, Vic would appreciate his brother attempting to infuse hope into this hopeless situation. But Vic could not be cheered. Not with Kellin missing. "I'm not letting you go after him alone," Mike quietly added. Vic did shoot him an appreciative smile for that.
Jaime and Tony glanced at each other for a moment, before Tony said, "We're in. But if we're doing this we need to be prepared. We need blueprints of the hotel, some sort of self-defense weapons, a basic plan, and emergency medical, water, and food supplies."
Jaime's mouth hung open, his eyes wide as he stared at Tony in disbelief. "When did you become an expert on rescuing people?"
"I grew up in a rough neighborhood," Tony said, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly.
"That explains nothing," Jaime said.
Tony rolled his eyes and ignored him.
"I'm pretty sure I can get blueprints of the hotel," Vic said. After all the research everyone in his online group had done into the hotel, one of them was bound to have blueprints of the place.
"I'll get the weapons," Tony said.
"Jaime and I'll get everything else," Mike said.
"Good. Grab a couple backpacks while you're at it, and make sure everything you buy fits in them. We'll meet back at the hotel in two hours and come up with a plan," Tony said.
"It's scary how efficient you are at this. Any past kidnapping experiences you'd like to share?" Jaime said, eyeing Tony skeptically.
Vic tensed his shoulders at the word 'kidnapped.' He'd been avoiding thinking of it, but God, the love of his life really had been kidnapped, and was now potentially in the hands of a madman suffering who knows what kind of torture. Maybe even already dead ...
"Not now," he heard Tony hiss at Jaime, his eyes shooting towards Vic.
"Sorry. Wasn't thinking," Jaime mumbled.
Vic shrugged off his concern, and stalked away without waiting to hear more.
Once back at their hotel, he immediately contacted his online group.
Anyone have blueprints of the hotel? I'm going after my boyfriend.
He paced the room nervously, updating his laptop every five minutes in hope of a reply. Finally, nearly an hour later a woman named Darla replied. If Vic remembered correctly, her brother had gone missing at the hotel nearly four years ago.
My father tracked down the architect of the Holmes Hotel and bought these at his estate sale after he passed. Apparently, he was a horrible fellow, and his niece and nephew auctioned everything off as soon as they could. I don't know if the blueprints are accurate, my father passed away from cancer before he got a chance to check it out himself, but it shows an entire maze of rooms below the ground floor that doesn't show up on any public blueprints of the hotel. My father was a contractor, and he added his own notes to the blueprints.
I hope this helps, and I sincerely hope you find your boyfriend.
-Darla
Vic rushed to the closest printing shop, and printed a full scale version of the blueprints before sprinting back to the hotel to meet the guys. Just to be on the safe side, he downloaded the blueprints to his cellphone just to have an extra copy.
"Here it is," Vic said. He dragged the desk from the corner to the center of the room. He spread the blueprints out across the desk as they all gathered around it. Vic couldn't make heads or tails of the blueprints. He was terrible at reading maps and abstract concepts like this, which is why no one ever let him navigate when they drove their own van around while touring before they got GPS. Darla's father had made quite a few notes to help, though.
There were several pages of blueprints, labelled first, second, and third floor, but it was the last one that caught their attention the most.
Secret Basement? was handwritten across the top center of the page, to which Jaime muttered, "That's not creepy at all."
Possible Entrances/Exits with arrows pointing at certain parts of the blueprints was the next thing that caught his eye, as well as the word Trap? that was also written several times with arrows pointing at things Vic couldn't make sense of. It all looked like just a bunch of straight lines to him.
There were several other notes, including Main power supply-disable this first, Incinerator, and Dead End in several places, but one particular note made his entire body go cold, his heart racing in his chest.
Everything leads here, the note said, and it was circled and starred several times. It was written in the middle of what looked to Vic like six identical boxes, three on each side of a hallway, all with the dimensions of 6 feet by 8 feet.
"Oh God," he heard himself say, catching himself with both hands on the desk as his knees grew weak at the word printed under 'everything leads here' with six arrows around it pointing to each box.
Prison cells.
There was one room attached to the ... prison cells ... at the end of the short hallway. It was the second to last room on the bottom right corner of the blueprints. Vic had to force the contents of his stomach to stay down when he saw what was written in the room.
All indicators suggest this is a medical facility
Everyone looked up at him with the same shocked expression on their faces. Vic turned his back to them, and walked away a couple of paces. He took several deep breathes to calm himself. He needed to be a leader in this situation, he couldn't let the others see him fall apart.
"At least we know what we're getting into," Jaime sarcastically said, with a humorless chuckle.
"It's a maze," Tony said.
"A maze that leads to a fucking dungeon," Jaime said, causing Vic to flinch.
"This changes nothing," Vic said. "I'm still going after him."
"We know," Mike said, placing a hand on Vic's shoulder. He felt his shoulders relax under his brother's calming touch, and turned back around to face his band.
"We need a plan," Tony said.
"We have one," Jaime said, pointing to the blueprints where it said Main power supply-disable this first. "This is a symbol electricians often use for the main breaker. You can see lines running from this central point to each room. There's more than there should be running to all the places where someone put the 'trap' labels. What? My father's an electrician. I apprenticed with him one summer when I was 16," Jaime said in response to Tony's incredulous look. "You have your secrets, I have mine."
"I'm not a psychopath," Vic said, "So I can't say for sure, but I'm guessing we're meant to get lost, and confused, and terrified in this maze before ending up in these prison cells. These 'traps' could mean literally anything."
"Like blow darts coming out of the walls, or giant boulders falling from the ceiling," Jaime said. Vic, Mike, and Tony glared at him in response. "Sorry," he mumbled.
"We need to get to those cells," Mike said.
"With these blueprints, and if Jaime can disable the main power supply, we should be able to get through this maze quickly."
"And then?" Jaime asked. "We have no way of knowing what's waiting for us on the other end."
"I know," Vic said, hanging his head.
"That's why I got us these," Tony said. He snatched a black bag off the ground by his feet, and dumped the contents onto the desk.
"What are those?" Jaime asked.
"Pepper spray," Tony said with a shrug, handing each of them a small canister. "It'll spray up to 35 times over a distance of 12 feet. I also got us these," he said, hooking his duffle bag with his foot and dragging it closer. He pulled out a crowbar from the bag and waggled his eyebrows. "The store only had two, though."
"A crowbar, really? No gun?" Jaime asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Do any of us know how to shoot a gun?" Tony said, raising his eyebrow at Jaime.
"Point taken."
"Are we going to sign in as guests, or are we gonna do some b and e? If we sign in as guests and it is a trap, we'd be walking right into it," Tony said.
"It's the quickest way to get wherever this is, though," Vic said, gesturing to the blueprints. "We don't know for sure any other way to get in."
"So, we have no idea what we're getting into," Mike said.
"We have no idea how many assailants there are," Tony added. "Or what we're up against."
"And we have no idea if Kellin, Justin, Jack, Gabe, and Nick are even still alive," Jaime said.
"But we're going in after then anyways," Vic quietly said, meeting each of their eyes.
"Bring it on," Jaime said, gesturing for them to come closer, before he started clapping his hands. Vic shook his head, and backed away. "Come on, Vic, bring it in."
"Jaime, no," Vic said.
"Jaime, yes," he said, continuing to clap his hands, and nudging Mike and Tony who were on either side of him with his elbows until they both joined in. "Come on, Vic."
Vic rolled his eyes, but huddled close to his band and clapped with them.
"We're going to Mike first," Vic said, and Jaime cheered.
"Hey Mike," they all said together.
"Yuup."
"The Devil, the devil is everywhere. Hey Jaime."
"Whaaat."
"The Devil, the devil is everywhere. Hey Tony."
"Mh-hmm."
"The Devil, the devil is everywhere. Hey Vic."
"Uh-huh."
"The Devil, the Devil is everywhere. P-T-V!" they cheered together, each putting a hand in the center of the circle and raising it at the same time.
He put his arm around his brother and Tony's shoulders, and they did the same to Jaime, closing the circle, bringing them closer together for a moment.
A moment of silence and comfort before the raging storm.
"We leave in the morning. And guys," Vic said, squeezing his best friends closer. He didn't know what was going to happen tomorrow. He didn't know if they'd ever find this supposed secret basement. He didn't know if they'd even find Kellin and the rest of Sleeping with Sirens alive. He didn't even know if they would survive what was to come next. But his three best friends were willing to risk everything to help him anyways.
"Thank you."
*
Day 4
Jack groaned as a steady drip, drip, drip of water wormed its way into his subconscious and dragged him from his slumber. The last thing he remembered was ... Well, Jack doesn't know the last thing he remembered.
He remembered passing out in his hotel room, listening to Kellin bitch about the fact that there was no cell phone reception so he couldn't call Vic, only to wake up on a cold slab of concrete with the rest of the guys.
Jack had slowly come to, but he felt Justin jerk awake next to him and quickly scramble to his feet.
"What the fuck?" Justin had hissed, voice tinged with panic. Jack heard various groans from the other members of his band as he dragged himself into a sitting position.
They had been in some sort of hallway, as far as any of them could tell in the dim lighting that constantly flickered and grated on their already worn thin nerves.
"Let's not panic," Nick had said in a calm voice.
"Not panic? Not panic!?!" Justin had said, definitely panicking. "We're in a dungeon, and does anyone even fucking know how we got here?"
"It's technically a hallway," Gabe had unhelpfully murmured.
"With no windows, no visible exits, and made entirely of concrete," Justin had pissily replied.
"And panicking is not going to help our situation," Nick had said, extending a hand to help Jack to his feet. "Let's take this one step at a time. First, what kind of supplies do we have? Everyone check your pockets."
"I have my cellphone and a sharpie, though I don't know if that's helpful," Kellin had said, pulling the items from the inner pocket of the black leather jacket he was wearing.
"I have my cellphone, too," Justin had said, a tiny bit calmer than he was a moment before.
"Don't look at me," Gabe had said. "I'm in my fucking pajamas. But there's a 12-pack of water bottles here."
"I have a pocket knife, but not much else that'll be useful," Nick had said. "The water is a good sign. It means our captor doesn't want us dead right away."
"That's not very comforting," Justin had mumbled, and though no one else said anything, they had all been thinking the same thing.
"I'm assuming neither of your cellphones have signals," Nick had said, ignoring Justin. "That would be too easy. Let's turn one off for now, and then turn the other one on when the first's batteries die. We'll keep looking for a signal."
They had tried not to panic as Nick led them down the hallway, but after only a short distance the hallway forked into two directions. They chose right, and it came to a dead end.
They hadn't been trapped in a dungeon. They had been in some sort of sick, demented maze, they realized.
With nothing except the clothes they'd fallen asleep in (or in some of their cases passed out in, because Kellin and Justin couldn't remember ever actually making the decision to go to sleep), whatever happened to be in their pockets when they fell asleep, and the water, they cautiously entered through the maze.
That was four days ago as far as Jack could tell.
With only using it to occasionally check for a signal, and turning off all the apps, Kellin's phone lasted almost 36 hours. Justin's cellphone had lasted slightly longer, two days, before the battery finally gave out. But that was hours, days, weeks ago? It was impossible to tell. It didn't feel like weeks, it felt like hours, but there was no sun down here, nothing but concrete floors, and concrete walls, and the ... Well, there was no other word for it, but booby traps, Jack guessed.
In one room they stumbled into, each of them ended up getting electrocuted. Obviously, not enough to kill them, but enough to hurt like a bitch. They'd managed to get through by having one person take one step at a time, and using the sharpie in Kellin's pocket to mark points on the floor that would electrocute you when touched it. In another, the floor gave out, and they fell onto a pile of garbage.
They tried to keep their spirits high, tried to believe each of Nick's pep talks about how they had a chance, and their captor obviously wanted them alive, but it was hard when they were literally being tortured, and they didn't know by whom, or what for. They'd had nothing to eat since before they'd gotten to the hotel, too, and their bodies had begun protesting because of it.
He supposed there probably wasn't a reason to all of this. Just some sick bastard getting his jollies watching them suffer.
They worked together, they got through each trap. Nick kept telling them there had to be an end. Every maze had an end, they would get to it eventually.
Well, they found it.
The end was a fucking prison.
"Guess not every maze has an end," Justin had humorlessly joked, before everything went black.
He woke up chained to the wall in one of the prison cells. He tugged at the chain holding his right wrist captive near his head. The clanking of metal against metal was the only thing he achieved from doing that. It looked like one of those chains straight out of a medieval horror film, with thick rusted metal that chaffed at the skin of his wrist.
He heard a groan from the other side of the room, and realized for the first time he was not alone in his cell.
"Oh, thank God," he murmured, his heart pounding with relief. Knowing someone else was in the room with him slightly calmed his terrified nerves. "Nick," Jack said, stretching out his leg to kick the other guitarist. Nick jerked awake, and quickly came to the same realizations Jack just had: that they were chained to a wall in a tiny prison cell with nothing but a bucket, a leaky faucet neither could reach, and a solid, metal door with a hole cut out of it near the top. Even if they could manage to break free from their bonds, there was no way either of them would fit through that hole to escape. Maybe Kellin or Justin could, though. Maybe.
"Fuck," Nick hissed. It was the most shaken Jack had seen the other man since this whole ordeal started. They were all terrified for their lives, but Nick held them together, got them through the maze of horrors, kept his calm no matter what happened.
Only to end up like this.
Everyone had their breaking point. Maybe this was Nick's.
"You guys finally awake," Gabe snarked, his voice travelling through the window to their prison cell.
"Yup, we're awake," Jack bitterly said.
"Good. We were starting to think you were dead," Justin yelled back.
"We are. We came back just to haunt your sorry ass," Nick said, mirthlessly laughing at his own lame joke. It calmed Jack slightly seeing Nick shake off his previous horror. If Nick was okay, he was okay. Right?
"Any ideas on how to get the fuck out of here?" Gabe yelled back to them.
"Working on it," Nick answered, but Jack was close enough to see the dread on his face. Nick didn't have a fucking clue on how to get out of this one. "Is everyone okay?"
"Relatively," Gabe answered.
"My hand is starting to go fucking numb already, but I'm not dying," Justin said. "What about you guys?"
"We're fine," Jack answered for the both of them. He noticed, however, that something very important was missing in their conversation.
"Kelliiiin!"Jack exaggeratedly yelled. Kellin had been exceptionally quiet since this whole ordeal began, they all had, but he could at least let them know he was still alive. Jeez. "Quit being a bitch and say something," Jack said, trying to infuse some sort of normalcy into this terrifying situation. Him and Nick were always picking on Kellin, and he needed that right now to keep himself from freaking the fuck out. He expected Kellin to snark back at him, or to at least say he was fine.
But there was nothing, no response, just the faint drip of water from the faucet in the corner of his and Nick's cell.
"Kelliiiin. Come out, come out wherever you are."
Still, nothing but silence greeted him.
"Dude, is Kellin in the cell with you guys?" Jack asked Gabe and Justin.
"No. We thought he was with you," Justin replied, his voice wavering slightly.
"Kellin?" Jack bellowed. "Kellin?" He shared a nervous glance with Nick when no voice replied.
A moment later, the first scream pierced the silence.