Chain Reaction 3.1.45: What We Find

Alaric

      I hung out at Dirk's house last night. Tonight, I want to go see Kyra. I'm talking to her on the phone when I get a text from my dad.

Come home right now! 

  

     I scowl. My first instinct is to argue with him, but I don't think it'll do any good. "Kyra, I gotta go. I'll call you back," I tell her. Then I text Dad back.

Fine. I was on my way anyway. 

     I start walking towards where I parked, but a man distracts me.

     "Hey, kid."

     Kid? I'm not a kid. I look at him curiously.

     His eyes... It's like looking in a mirror with the eyes.

     "You're Alaric Goth. I ...sort of... know your parents."

     "Okay?" I back up a step. I can run faster than this older man if I have to. There's something strange going on here, and I look around for any possible accomplices.

     He notices. "It's okay. I just... I have some information."

     "Who are you?"

     He puts his guitar down. Then he sighs. "Your grandmother. She's Brielle McKi- ...Taylor."

     "Yeah. But I asked who are you." I back up another two steps.

     "I'm Logan McKinney, your grandmother's little brother."

     "I... didn't know she had a little brother. You're lying."

     "Look, I have valuable information about the abduction... if it's happened yet." He sizes me up. "That is, unless you're loyal to your brother."

     Brother... "My brother's a snake." I pull out my phone, maintaining my distance and looking around. I call my dad.

     "I can't tell you how I know, but if we can act quickly, we might be able to save your cousin Michael."

     "Huh?" The phone rings. Dad answers.

     "Dad. Do you know a Logan McKinney?"

     There's a pause. "I know of him, but I've never actually met him. I think he's dead."

     "Well, then he's a dead guy up and walking around." I watch Logan smirk. "Dad, what's going on? Is there some trouble with Mike?"

     "Alaric, get your ass home right now!"

     "But he says he has information."

     Dad asks me to hand the phone to him. Logan says he'll only talk face-to-face. So, he ends up following me back to my house. The entire time, I don't hang up with Dad. 

     "I'm home." What's going on?

     Several things happen at once: Mom goes over and slaps Logan across the face; some dude in a fedora starts handcuffing him; Uncle Ethan pushes me to the side to make sure I'm out of the way; Dad tells me to go over to him.

     "You as-hole! You have some nerve showing up like this! Stay away from my son!"

     I fold my arms. If he were going to do anything, he'd have already done it. 

     Logan remains calm. "I know where he is." Fedora dude pauses.

     A dude with a man-bun speaks up next. He looks familiar, but I can't place him right now. "How do you know?"

     Mom gets shriller by the second. "Because you're part of it, aren't you?"

     Now Logan looks mad. "No, I'm not! But I have ears! Some men are getting paid an awful lot by The Snake, and I don't think it's the kind of 'friendly' kidnapping he arranged for you that time."

     Several of us say things like 'what?' or 'huh?' Mom sounds shaky as she asks, "What are you talking about?"

     Logan struggles against fedora-hat-man. "Un-cuff me! I'm here to help!"

     "Do it!" Dad yells from where he was sitting at the table still. He leaves what he was working on and walks over. "Where did they take him?"
     "I'll be glad to show you--but only if I'm un-cuffed." He glares at fedora-dude.
     "Do it, Marco," man-bun guy says.

Darrin

     We rush over to where Detective Taylor's long-lost uncle advised us to go. Of course it's in the worst section of town. On our way there, Marco gets a call from the station that an anonymous tip was left stating where Mike was. It was made from a payphone. I didn't even know those were still in use. At any rate, we can't possibly know who gave the tip. For all we know, it could've been Drake himself. If it was... I get a sinking feeling... If it was, that means he's done with him.

     We arrive and dash down a flight of stairs to a musty underground network of tunnels, almost like it was originally designed as a fallout shelter and is no longer in use.

     We enter the room Logan McKinney tells us to, always on the lookout for a trap. But what we find is far worse.

     "No." I can't believe my eyes.

     Detective Taylor stands motionless behind me for one second before dashing over to his son. Logan McKinney starts throwing up in a corner of the room. Marco finds a set of keys on the table. And on the table, displayed like a forgotten trophy, is... is...

    I start screaming in rage, and I run over to the love of my life where he hangs on the wall. My gun still in my hand, I shoot the chains, breaking them, and Mike's father barely catches him before he can hit the floor.

    He quickly removes the cuffs from my beloved Michael's bruised wrists.

     Michael moans, and his father whispers to him that it's going to be okay. Marco calls up to dispatch, but he doesn't have a good signal, being underground like we are. He's yelling at them to get a f--king ambulance over here and how they need an ice chest.

    It's too much. It's all too much. I can't handle it! Oh f--k, he chopped Mike's d*ck off! I'm shaking and doing the best I can to keep from screaming. I don't want to risk waking him up. In my days, I've seen some horrible sh*t, but seeing it done to Michael has done me in.

    Drake even took the time to bandage him up before he left. He obviously wanted Mike to live, to live with this horrific thing done to him.

    "Darrin."

     I can't look. I failed Michael. It's all my fault.

    "Darrin, he's going to be okay." It's Detective Taylor. 

    I whine and cry. "No. No no no."

    Paramedics rush in, put Mike's chopped off member in a cooler filled with ice, and load him onto a stretcher. Detective Taylor and I both ride in the ambulance to the hospital.

     They rush him into the OR. After a little while, other members of the Taylor family show up. I can't show my face. It's all my fault. Mike got abducted because I had to pee. It's all my fault. I shouldn't have let him go outside alone. It's all my fault. He'll never be the same, and he'll blame me. It's all my fault. I never should've left him. It's all my fault. He's been mutilated, and it's all my fault.

     He's going to hate me! Just when we were patching things up for real, this happens. I know him; he's going to try to push me away, thinking he's ruined. I don't care! I mean, I do care. I loved his d*ck, but it doesn't affect how I love him. I'm just heartbroken that my beautiful Michael is scarred for life. And it's all my fault!

     The twins are having an argument, something to do with Tommy. I think that's the name of one of their husbands. Mrs. Taylor and Detective Taylor are talking about Logan. Logan vanished by the time he finished vomiting out his stomach. Marco got pissed off about that, and he went out looking for him. He won't find him.

    No one wants to talk about what Michael's going through. What's the use if they did? We're all worried. I wish I could think of something else, even if only for a moment, but I can't. I'll never get that picture out of my mind.

     He was hanging from cold steel chains attached to a brick wall. That snake had cut his pants before chopping more than half his d*ck off. Then he stuck around to bandage him up. He further ensured he'd remain alive by calling the police before vanishing. He wanted revenge on Michael, and he got it. 

    I can't raise my head. I can't. I feel guilty even sitting here with his family. As if I belong. As if I'm one of them. They all should hate me. It's my fault. Some police officer I am. Can't even protect my own boyfriend. Can't even get to him in time. Can't even catch the guy who did it.

    "Darrin." Detective Taylor is trying to get my attention again. 

    I start rocking, unable to handle it. He should just ignore me.

    "Darrin, he's going to be okay." Now even the twins have shut up, and I can feel everyone looking at me. I shake my head no, still holding it in my hands.

      "We got to him in time. The doctors are giving him excellent chances." He must be watching me shake my head still. "Look, at least he didn't throw it into a meat grinder."

     "Dad! Augh! Ew!" one of the twins exclaims. They even sound exactly alike. If they didn't style their hair differently and one of them like makeup more than the other, I'd never be able to tell them apart.

     "Well! It's true. He could've mutilated it beyond repair. He could've thrown it out somewhere we couldn't find. Yet he left it for us." He sounds like he's trying to figure out why.

     "Ethan, stop talking about it," his mother shushes him.

     I love Mike's dad. Now he's a detective, not some full-of-sh*t loser like me. Already, he's trying to get into Drake's mind, figure out the motivation. I wouldn't doubt he's now hellbent on catching the rat bastard sonofab*tch. Detective Taylor isn't cracking apart at the seams. Back in the hell chamber, he was more relieved than anything, relieved Mike was alive. Oh, I'm not saying he wasn't/isn't horrified, but he's using his emotions constructively, unlike me.

     My phone chirps. I pull it out, keeping my head down.

I told the chief you're not coming in today as well. 

     Marco. F--k, it's already five in the morning. In all the mess, Marco had also told the chief I wouldn't be in yesterday either. I owe him one.

Thanks

     I put my phone away and go back to rocking in place. 

     Then the doc comes out. Mike's coming out of surgery. His prognosis is good, but I know this is nowhere near over.