Monsters and Men ~ Rosenwalker & Richpez

Chapter 45

"I mean, they have to be together, right?"

"Where else could they be?" Lauren asked anxiously with a shrug. As soon as Joey had gotten Darren settled, he'd caught up with Lauren, who was searching for Brian. They'd been wondering around outside and the living room for around ten minutes, but no luck. "It can't be a coincidence that right after Brian disappeared, Joe disappeared, right?"

"It'd be one hell of a coincidence," Joey agreed. "He must've found him and they got so caught up talking that he forgot to let you and Nick know that he found him. With luck, they're off making out in a closet or something by now."

Lauren laughed, rolling her eyes. "Wouldn't that be something? Maybe they'll become hug buddies," she teased, playfully punching Joey's shoulder.

Joey wrapped an arm around her, surprising himself with his confidence. "For real. Who needs to spend seven minutes in heaven when they can just get a quality Richter hug?"

"Couldn't agree more," Lauren giggled, wrapping her arms around his chest. She glanced up at him, the younger boy blushing as they made eye contact.

He reached down and gently brushed one of her hairs out of his face, getting lost in her eyes. "You, um, you think we did it?"

Lauren bit her lip, still staring up at him. "I sure as shit hope so. This entire ordeal has been such a slow burn." She blinked, looking away from Joey. She took a step back, even though she immediately missed his warmth. "We, we really do make a hell of a team Richter. I'll be sad when our business is over."

"Oh no, I'm the one that'll be crying once our business arrangements come to a close." Joey turned back on his goofiness, even though he was crushed that she'd stopped hugging him. "But at least we can still be hug buddies, right?"

Lauren cracked a huge smile. "Of course, you know that you're my number one fuck buddy," she said with a wink. "And who knows? Maybe we can figure out some other forms of business to collab—"

BANG! Everyone in the room turned their heads towards the staircase, where the sound of something crashing had come from.

"What the fuck was that?" Lauren whispered to Joey, trying to hear. Some people were being quiet, but there was still too much chatter in the room for anyone to make out what was going on upstairs.

Lauren's question was answered a moment later, when there was a scream followed by another crashing noise. Someone came tumbling down the stairs, screaming as they fell.

Brian brought his arms up over his head, trying to let his back break his fall. If the room hadn't been spinning before, it was now. Amazingly, he'd managed to roll down the stairs without breaking anything, but that didn't stop pain from shooting up his entire body when he finally slammed into the bottom.

He'd lost track of how long they'd been torturing him for. Sam had continuously alternated between choking him and beating him—among other things—before deciding to kick it up a notch by hurling him into the wall. If he had just stayed down, maybe Sam would've let him off the hook after that. However, being his stubborn self, he'd tried to rise back to his feet the second he was no longer being pinned down. In response, Sam decided to hurl him down the stairs before he could catch his bearings.

Brian tried to take in his surroundings, but his vision was blurry and he felt like he was going to be sick. He was still bleeding profusely from his nose and mouth, and rolling down the stairs had caused some blood to cloud his vision. He rolled over to his side, coughing up more blood as tears rolled down his face.

"Damn, you just won't give in, will you?" The sound of Sam's voice set off the alarm in Brian's brain, and he shakily began to roll over to his hands and knees. He had to get away; this was his chance to run.