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"'Thomas, I always looked up to you. You're a true role model and a great person and I miss you. Please come home. Hashtag bring Thomas home.' That's sweet, if a bit generic."

"Stop it."

"Here's a good one. 'I hope that the person who took Thomas gets what's coming to them. There's a special place in hell reserved for people like that.' Huh. Maybe if they got to know me they'd like me."

"Stop it."

"What do you think, Thomas? You've gotten to know me."

He glares at the woman. Lavender shrugs and continues to read from her phone.

"'I miss him so much! I miss his smile everyday. It breaks my heart to think about it. Hashtag bring Thomas home.'" Her mocking high-pitched voice makes his blood boil.

"Shut up!" Thomas shouts. He yanks against the zip ties holding him to the post at the base of the stairs. Lavender put him there so she could clean the basement and keep an eye on him at the same time. But chores are boring and at some point Lavender just stopped so she could read all the mournful Facebook posts just to make Thomas cry.

"Let's see if we can find anything from Nico, shall we?"

"Don't. Please don't do this again. I can't take it." Thomas's voice wavers.

"What? What's wrong?" she coos.

"You can't keep torturing me like this!"

"Sure I can. Don't you wanna know what your boyfriend's saying about you when you're gone?"

"No! Just stop!"

Lavender swipes her thumb across the screen a couple times.

"Hm. Can't find anything. I'm looking at his Facebook page right now. He hasn't said a word." She smiles coldly. "How long have you been dating?"

Thomas clenches his teeth. He knows Lavender's just trying to get to him again, but it hurts.

"I thought he would have at least said a short 'I love you.' Or maybe given an update on the case. Maybe he just stopped working on it. You think he's given up?"

"Shut UP! Just leave me alone! Nico will find me!" he jerks against the zip ties again.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he's let go by now. I mean, one can only hold out for so long... How much do you think you mean to him?"

Thomas balls his fists.

"From an outsider's perspective," she taps on the screen and pouts her lips, "it doesn't look like you mean a whole lot!"

"SHUT UP!" Thomas yells. He writhes against the plastic bonds. She can't just say things like that and get away with it! He knows he's close to freedom, he's so close, he just needs to keep fighting and-

SNAP. The zip ties break.

The zip ties break!

Oh my god, what does he do? He looks down at his bruised wrists, he looks at the wooden post, he looks at her- she's still looking at her phone. He doesn't waste another heartbeat and fucking BOOKS it up the stairs and through the door, blocking it by tipping over a shelf. It's not gonna hold, but it doesn't matter. He barrels down the hall to the front door, sees it's locked, and dashes for the back. The heavy sliding glass door is stuck with grime, but he manages to force it open and run out into the hot outside air.

Thomas's bare feet patter on the uneven earth, stepping on sharp twigs and whatnot, but nothing feels better than this. He's free. He's unbound. All he needs to do now is find someone to help him.

"THOMAS!" Lavender bellows. "THOMAS, GET BACK HERE OR YOU'LL BE SORRY!" She sounds so far away. He keeps going. He feels like he can run forever.

But wait, didn't Lavender mention that she ran varsity on her cross country team?

No time to think about that now. Just keep going. Where was he going? He slows down and looks around him. Those trees look familiar. So do those ones over there. Maybe those other ones too. It never occurred to him that this forest could go on for miles and miles. But the house, the driveway must connect to a road eventually. He just has to find the road... by going back in the direction he came from.

Does he keep going or does he go back? He can't think clearly. The adrenaline, the thought of being free, seeing Nico and his family again, it all crowds his mind. He can hear Lavender yelling his name. She's catching up. Where is her voice coming from? Thomas spins around and picks a random direction.

Just keep going. Keep running. That's all he's thinking. His jeans get snagged and ripped by the bushes around him. He's pretty sure he swallowed a bug. His lungs burn and his legs ache but he doesn't care.

"THOMAS! YOU'RE GONNA WISH YOU WERE NEVER BORN WHEN I CATCH YOU! JUST YOU WAIT!" Lavender's voice sounds close. That's not possible. No, she can't be!

"I'M GONNA RUIN YOU, THOMAS. I'M GONNA FUCKING DESTROY YOU."

He sees something! Over there, past those trees! He can almost reach it!

But he can't. Not before Lavender catches him. She grabs onto the back of his shirt and pulls him backward, knocking the wind out of him as he falls to the ground. She climbs on top of him and holds his collar in her fist.

"You shouldn't have ran. You shouldn't have fucking ran away, Thomas." She shakes him violently. "I'll fucking DIE before I let you go. You and I aren't finished." Lavender strikes him on the side of the head and he goes out like a light.

--------

He can remember being dragged through the forest. Sticks and rocks poking him as he traces a line in the dirt.

He can also remember being thrown down the stairs and onto the cold hard basement floor. Dust choking him and clouding his sight. Thomas hurts all over. He groans and clutches his head.

Lavender says something but he can't make sense of it. It's hard to hear, hard to see.

But he can feel the duct tape being wrapped around and around his wrists in front of him. Thomas grumbles weakly and tries to resist. Lavender grabs his chin and barks something at him. He doesn't quite understand yet. She moves on to his legs. The boy stares blankly at the ceiling as she keeps talking, winding the duct tape around his ankles, halfway up his shins. Lavender's warbled voice gradually becomes clearer.

"-I promised, but I'll make you suffer all I want."

Thomas croaks. "Lavender, I'm sorry, please don't-"

"Shut it," she snaps, ripping off a short piece and plastering it over his lips. He moans softly, trying to apologize, trying to beg her not to hurt him. Lavender ignores him. She just forces his hands to his chest and wraps the tape around his forearms and shoulders, preventing him from unfolding his arms. One last time, she looks him in the eyes. Her angry brown ones are unapologetic. His green ones are welled with tears of pain. Then she takes a strip of tape and covers them.

Thomas squirms, groans, shakes his throbbing head, but he can't remove the uncomfortable blindfold. He demands Lavender to stop what she's doing, but she's already across the room, fussing with something else. She goes back over to him and drags him by the shirt to the other side of the room again. Thomas does his best to wiggle away, but she promptly slaps him and hoists him up so that he's sitting on the edge of something. It's- it's like a-

"It's not the boot of a car, but I figured it would do the same." And with that, she pushes him down into the thing and shuts the lid.

Oh god.

Not this. Anything but this.

Thomas writhes in the wooden chest, trying not to go into panic mode. Stay calm, stay calm, she'll open the box and let him out soon. He opens and closes his fists, tosses his head, tries to convince himself that it's not that bad. It's not that bad. He'll be okay. He'll be just fine, if he doesn't think about the walls around him, the tight space and hot air constricting his lungs, darkness seeping in and strangling him.

It doesn't work. The walls are too close. Any way he turns he's met with solid wood trapping him in a crate that's way too small for him. Thomas starts to kick, starts to scream, starts to cry and beg for Lavender to let him out. It's too close, it's too close, he needs to get out, he's gonna die in here! He trembles violently, desperate for escape, but he can't move. It's dark, it's hot, his chest is burning, tears are streaming down his face. His mind is a mess of crisscrossing thoughts all leading nowhere but more terror. When he screams, he doesn't hear a sound, so he screams louder and louder. The duct tape uselessly flakes off his lips but it doesn't help a damn thing. He's going to die in here. Nobody will save him.

Screams turn into sobs turn into weak voiceless whimpers. He shakily gasps in air but he still can't breathe. This is it. He's going to die. He doesn't want to give up, but it all seems so heartbreakingly hopeless. Feebly he thumps on the sides of the chest with his bruised fists, begging Lavender to have mercy. He doesn't even know if she's still there. He cries out, his hoarse voice pitifully echoing around. He's so alone.

Thomas loses all sense of time in the box. It could be hours or days for all he knows. He's hot and thirsty and sore and miserable. His own pained sobbing is the only thing he can hear now. The box messes with his mind, injecting awful images and sapping out hope. He's nearly surrendered, save for the occasional fits that throw him against the walls, battering him even more and leaving him in an even deeper pit of despair. He just wants this to end.

--------

"You ready to come out?" Lavender shines a flashlight in the boy's tear-stained face with one hand and holds open the chest with the other. Thomas moves his head towards the light, only able to see the beam peeking around the tape over his stinging eyes. He gives out a faint whine. The woman smiles a bit.

Hauling him up so he sits on the edge of the chest, she strokes his cheek. He starts sobbing again.

"Don't keep doing that. You'll drown yourself." She peels the duct tape from his face with ease. His skin is slicked with sweat so it's not very sticky anymore. Thomas sniffles and blinks, trying to adjust to his surroundings after being in murkiness for so long. He looks to Lavender. She's completely expressionless.

"How c-could you...?" His raspy voice is barely above a whisper. He's gonna start bawling any second now, but he pushes back his emotions.

"Thought you needed to learn a few things. If you're gonna be good, I won't make you go back in there. Are we clear?"

Thomas swallows hard and nods, then breaks off into a fit of coughs. Lavender cuts only the duct tape around his shoulders with her knife and Thomas loses his balance and tumbles to the floor. She doesn't help him up. She just goes off to the corner, picks up a broom, and starts cleaning the basement just like before.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

if I could give a name to each chapter, this one would be called Lavender's Time-Out Box.

but seriously this was tiring to write. she promised she wouldn't make him go through this again way back in chapter 3. lavender's determined to make thomas miserable. maybe it's going too far.

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Description

"'Thomas, I always looked up to you. You're a true role model and a great person and I miss you. Please come home. Hashtag bring Thomas home.' That's sweet, if a bit generic."

"Stop it."

"Here's a good one. 'I hope that the person who took Thomas gets what's coming to them. There's a special place in hell reserved for people like that.' Huh. Maybe if they got to know me they'd like me."

"Stop it."

"What do you think, Thomas? You've gotten to know me."

He glares at the woman. Lavender shrugs and continues to read from her phone.

"'I miss him so much! I miss his smile everyday. It breaks my heart to think about it. Hashtag bring Thomas home.'" Her mocking high-pitched voice makes his blood boil.

"Shut up!" Thomas shouts. He yanks against the zip ties holding him to the post at the base of the stairs. Lavender put him there so she could clean the basement and keep an eye on him at the same time. But chores are boring and at some point Lavender just stopped so she could read all the mournful Facebook posts just to make Thomas cry.

"Let's see if we can find anything from Nico, shall we?"

"Don't. Please don't do this again. I can't take it." Thomas's voice wavers.

"What? What's wrong?" she coos.

"You can't keep torturing me like this!"

"Sure I can. Don't you wanna know what your boyfriend's saying about you when you're gone?"

"No! Just stop!"

Lavender swipes her thumb across the screen a couple times.

"Hm. Can't find anything. I'm looking at his Facebook page right now. He hasn't said a word." She smiles coldly. "How long have you been dating?"

Thomas clenches his teeth. He knows Lavender's just trying to get to him again, but it hurts.

"I thought he would have at least said a short 'I love you.' Or maybe given an update on the case. Maybe he just stopped working on it. You think he's given up?"

"Shut UP! Just leave me alone! Nico will find me!" he jerks against the zip ties again.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he's let go by now. I mean, one can only hold out for so long... How much do you think you mean to him?"

Thomas balls his fists.

"From an outsider's perspective," she taps on the screen and pouts her lips, "it doesn't look like you mean a whole lot!"

"SHUT UP!" Thomas yells. He writhes against the plastic bonds. She can't just say things like that and get away with it! He knows he's close to freedom, he's so close, he just needs to keep fighting and-

SNAP. The zip ties break.

The zip ties break!

Oh my god, what does he do? He looks down at his bruised wrists, he looks at the wooden post, he looks at her- she's still looking at her phone. He doesn't waste another heartbeat and fucking BOOKS it up the stairs and through the door, blocking it by tipping over a shelf. It's not gonna hold, but it doesn't matter. He barrels down the hall to the front door, sees it's locked, and dashes for the back. The heavy sliding glass door is stuck with grime, but he manages to force it open and run out into the hot outside air.

Thomas's bare feet patter on the uneven earth, stepping on sharp twigs and whatnot, but nothing feels better than this. He's free. He's unbound. All he needs to do now is find someone to help him.

"THOMAS!" Lavender bellows. "THOMAS, GET BACK HERE OR YOU'LL BE SORRY!" She sounds so far away. He keeps going. He feels like he can run forever.

But wait, didn't Lavender mention that she ran varsity on her cross country team?

No time to think about that now. Just keep going. Where was he going? He slows down and looks around him. Those trees look familiar. So do those ones over there. Maybe those other ones too. It never occurred to him that this forest could go on for miles and miles. But the house, the driveway must connect to a road eventually. He just has to find the road... by going back in the direction he came from.

Does he keep going or does he go back? He can't think clearly. The adrenaline, the thought of being free, seeing Nico and his family again, it all crowds his mind. He can hear Lavender yelling his name. She's catching up. Where is her voice coming from? Thomas spins around and picks a random direction.

Just keep going. Keep running. That's all he's thinking. His jeans get snagged and ripped by the bushes around him. He's pretty sure he swallowed a bug. His lungs burn and his legs ache but he doesn't care.

"THOMAS! YOU'RE GONNA WISH YOU WERE NEVER BORN WHEN I CATCH YOU! JUST YOU WAIT!" Lavender's voice sounds close. That's not possible. No, she can't be!

"I'M GONNA RUIN YOU, THOMAS. I'M GONNA FUCKING DESTROY YOU."

He sees something! Over there, past those trees! He can almost reach it!

But he can't. Not before Lavender catches him. She grabs onto the back of his shirt and pulls him backward, knocking the wind out of him as he falls to the ground. She climbs on top of him and holds his collar in her fist.

"You shouldn't have ran. You shouldn't have fucking ran away, Thomas." She shakes him violently. "I'll fucking DIE before I let you go. You and I aren't finished." Lavender strikes him on the side of the head and he goes out like a light.

--------

He can remember being dragged through the forest. Sticks and rocks poking him as he traces a line in the dirt.

He can also remember being thrown down the stairs and onto the cold hard basement floor. Dust choking him and clouding his sight. Thomas hurts all over. He groans and clutches his head.

Lavender says something but he can't make sense of it. It's hard to hear, hard to see.

But he can feel the duct tape being wrapped around and around his wrists in front of him. Thomas grumbles weakly and tries to resist. Lavender grabs his chin and barks something at him. He doesn't quite understand yet. She moves on to his legs. The boy stares blankly at the ceiling as she keeps talking, winding the duct tape around his ankles, halfway up his shins. Lavender's warbled voice gradually becomes clearer.

"-I promised, but I'll make you suffer all I want."

Thomas croaks. "Lavender, I'm sorry, please don't-"

"Shut it," she snaps, ripping off a short piece and plastering it over his lips. He moans softly, trying to apologize, trying to beg her not to hurt him. Lavender ignores him. She just forces his hands to his chest and wraps the tape around his forearms and shoulders, preventing him from unfolding his arms. One last time, she looks him in the eyes. Her angry brown ones are unapologetic. His green ones are welled with tears of pain. Then she takes a strip of tape and covers them.

Thomas squirms, groans, shakes his throbbing head, but he can't remove the uncomfortable blindfold. He demands Lavender to stop what she's doing, but she's already across the room, fussing with something else. She goes back over to him and drags him by the shirt to the other side of the room again. Thomas does his best to wiggle away, but she promptly slaps him and hoists him up so that he's sitting on the edge of something. It's- it's like a-

"It's not the boot of a car, but I figured it would do the same." And with that, she pushes him down into the thing and shuts the lid.

Oh god.

Not this. Anything but this.

Thomas writhes in the wooden chest, trying not to go into panic mode. Stay calm, stay calm, she'll open the box and let him out soon. He opens and closes his fists, tosses his head, tries to convince himself that it's not that bad. It's not that bad. He'll be okay. He'll be just fine, if he doesn't think about the walls around him, the tight space and hot air constricting his lungs, darkness seeping in and strangling him.

It doesn't work. The walls are too close. Any way he turns he's met with solid wood trapping him in a crate that's way too small for him. Thomas starts to kick, starts to scream, starts to cry and beg for Lavender to let him out. It's too close, it's too close, he needs to get out, he's gonna die in here! He trembles violently, desperate for escape, but he can't move. It's dark, it's hot, his chest is burning, tears are streaming down his face. His mind is a mess of crisscrossing thoughts all leading nowhere but more terror. When he screams, he doesn't hear a sound, so he screams louder and louder. The duct tape uselessly flakes off his lips but it doesn't help a damn thing. He's going to die in here. Nobody will save him.

Screams turn into sobs turn into weak voiceless whimpers. He shakily gasps in air but he still can't breathe. This is it. He's going to die. He doesn't want to give up, but it all seems so heartbreakingly hopeless. Feebly he thumps on the sides of the chest with his bruised fists, begging Lavender to have mercy. He doesn't even know if she's still there. He cries out, his hoarse voice pitifully echoing around. He's so alone.

Thomas loses all sense of time in the box. It could be hours or days for all he knows. He's hot and thirsty and sore and miserable. His own pained sobbing is the only thing he can hear now. The box messes with his mind, injecting awful images and sapping out hope. He's nearly surrendered, save for the occasional fits that throw him against the walls, battering him even more and leaving him in an even deeper pit of despair. He just wants this to end.

--------

"You ready to come out?" Lavender shines a flashlight in the boy's tear-stained face with one hand and holds open the chest with the other. Thomas moves his head towards the light, only able to see the beam peeking around the tape over his stinging eyes. He gives out a faint whine. The woman smiles a bit.

Hauling him up so he sits on the edge of the chest, she strokes his cheek. He starts sobbing again.

"Don't keep doing that. You'll drown yourself." She peels the duct tape from his face with ease. His skin is slicked with sweat so it's not very sticky anymore. Thomas sniffles and blinks, trying to adjust to his surroundings after being in murkiness for so long. He looks to Lavender. She's completely expressionless.

"How c-could you...?" His raspy voice is barely above a whisper. He's gonna start bawling any second now, but he pushes back his emotions.

"Thought you needed to learn a few things. If you're gonna be good, I won't make you go back in there. Are we clear?"

Thomas swallows hard and nods, then breaks off into a fit of coughs. Lavender cuts only the duct tape around his shoulders with her knife and Thomas loses his balance and tumbles to the floor. She doesn't help him up. She just goes off to the corner, picks up a broom, and starts cleaning the basement just like before.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

if I could give a name to each chapter, this one would be called Lavender's Time-Out Box.

but seriously this was tiring to write. she promised she wouldn't make him go through this again way back in chapter 3. lavender's determined to make thomas miserable. maybe it's going too far.

PREVIOUS:

NEXT:

Mature Content