Stockholm Syndrome - Ch13

He remained online until five in the morning. He had talked to Infiltrate for about four or five hours, then passed out with his laptop still in his lap, sprawled on the couch.

His legs were achingly hot when he awoke, the laptop having punished him for leaving it on all night with a severely red and sore lap. Wincing, Matt blinked himself awake and pushed the computer away from himself, put it on the floor, then collapsed back onto the couch with a moan.

Matt’s ears perked to listen for sounds of someone else in the apartment… but all he heard was the neighbor’s television through the wall. Mello wasn’t home yet.

He sat up, put a hand gingerly in his lap, winced as he felt how hot it was, and turned around so he was facing the television. He’d left that on all night, too, and it was now playing some game show.

Gazing blearily around the room, his eyes landed on his phone. Grimacing, he picked it up and flipped it open. Just as he figured, no new calls or voicemails.

Okay, now he was REALLY worried.

Standing up, he made the immediate decision to go and look for Mello. He would not bother showering, he would not bother putting on clean clothes. He was still wearing his clothes from the day before…. But that did not bother him. He was going to find Mello, dammit.

-----

Matt had not realized how late he’d slept in that morning. It was 3:32 when he’d stepped in from the icy gusts of wind outside, ducking into the same gas station he’d ran to a few weeks prior. He’d walked a direct route here, his need for cigarettes trumping the need for Mello to be found right away, seeing as he could look for the blonde on his way.

He flipped open his phone, biting on his lower lip. His phone wallpaper was a picture of him and his favored blonde, Matt’s arm disappearing out of the corner of the frame to hold the phone up, his arm around Mello, who was pulling a ridiculous face.

“Hey…” He approached the counter and flipped his phone shut. The girl behind the counter looked familiar, with her black hair and piercings. “I need a pack of filtered Parliaments.”

“You got it…” She nodded, locking eyes with him for a moment before turning back around to the counter. Huh. That was odd, didn’t clerks usually ask for an ID? “Is that it?”

“Yup,” Matt nodded, “And… hey, I have a quick question, if I may.”

The girl closed the cabinet full of cigarettes and raised an eyebrow. “Shoot.” She said, turning around fully. Matt’s eyes flicked to her nametag, and his eyes widened. Ohhhh, Gloria! The woman who’d served him last time he was in here…

“Oh, hey, I recognize you.” He said suddenly, smirking and taking his phone back out of his pocket. “I was in here for cigarettes, again… trying escape the very thing I’m now looking for.” He flipped open his phone, and tapped his wallpaper. “You seen this guy anywhere around here?”

Gloria squinted, gazing at the picture. “Hm… saw a guy who looked kind of like that yesterday. He was wearing a coat with a fur collar.”

Matt snapped his fingers, unable to stop a grin from spreading across his face. “Yeah! That’s him!”

“Mmm, this the girlfriend you tried to escape a few weeks ago?” Gloria raised a pierced eyebrow and began to ring up his cigarettes. “Wow. She’s pretty.”

“He,” Matt grinned. “Is very pretty, yes. Uh, in a sense, he’s a girlfriend, but I’m sure you get what I mean… ‘scuse me if that sort of thing offends you.”

“Hey, I don’t give a shit.” Gloria grinned, blushed, and dug into her pocket. “I’m technically not supposed to have this on the job,” She muttered, her phone surfacing from beneath the counter. “But here, this is precisely why I don’t care.” She showed Matt her wallpaper.

Gloria was pulling a face, her eyes shut tight and her mouth open wide in a grin, while another girl with brunette hair and pale green highlights pressed her purple lips to Gloria’s cheek, one arm up to take the photo.

“Wow… that’s ironic,” Matt chuckled, gazing at the picture with sincere interest. “She’s very cute.”

“Yeah… my ’Livvie,” Gloria blushed harder. “As opposed to Olivia.” She put her phone back into her pocket, smiling with a faraway look in her eyes. “$4.41.” She said, tapping the register.

“You got it,” Matt nodded and took a $5 note from his pocket. “My Mel would kill me if he knew I was buying more of these…”

“How come you’re looking for him?” Gloria asked, frowning with genuine concern in her eyes. “Are you two fighting, if it’s not too personal to ask.”

“No,” Matt shook his head, then began spilling the lie like it was the truth. “He was staying over at one of his girlfriend’s places for the night and told me to meet him halfway home at 3 o’clock at the corner,” He nodded outside. “But he’s not here… I dunno where he might’ve gone.”

Gloria bit the inside of her red lips. “Hmm. Well, hey, if he comes in here looking for you, I can give you a call- mind if I take your phone number?” She asked, tilting her head curiously and taking her phone out again.

Matt’s face split into a genuine grin. “’Course.”

They exchanged phone numbers- Matt asked her to put his under his alias, instead of his real name. She understood without question, and gave her name as well: Gloria Kissinger.

“Hey, thanks for the help, Gloria,” Matt gave a swift salute, grinning and snapping his phone shut. “I’ll call and let you know if I find him, okay?”

“Please do,” Gloria put her phone back into her pocket, smiling. “No problem… see ya later, Matt.”

And he left, feeling rather amused.

“Hm… small world, this.”

-----

He gave up at around 8 and went back to the apartment, dog-tired and already down to six cigarettes. Turns out he smoked more when he was scared. Seeing as 14 cigarettes in four hours was not good for a person, Matt was doing his best to ignore the waves of nausea that kept stabbing him while he trudged up the stairs to the apartment, his hands in his pockets.

He’d seen no sign of Mello, of course. Not only did his stomach hurt, but his mind was aching with worry and unease for Mello’s fate. He’d attempted to call Pilcher back using the number left on his phone, but he’d received no answer, which was probably a bad thing.

Matt opened the door to the apartment, closed it, slammed his keys down onto the counter, and went to the living room to collapse on the couch. Taking a deep breath to try and calm himself, he pulled his phone from his pocket and went to his address book, finding the name ‘Gloria K’ and dialing the number.

After two rings, a voice answered. “Hello?”

“Gloria? It’s Matt.”

“Hey, did you find him?” She sounded anxious.

“No, I was hoping you had.”

“Nope… sorry, I would have called you. I just got out of work… I left his description and my phone number with the next guy who works the night shift… he’ll be keeping an eye out for him, too.”

“Goddamn,” Matt shook his head, amazement soaking into his voice. “That’ll be tons of help… thanks.”

“No problem,” Gloria laughed dryly. “I can imagine how you feel- if Liv suddenly went missing out of nowhere… Have you gone to the police yet?”

Matt frowned. He couldn’t tell Gloria that this was not an option, was never an option, and would never be an option. He and Mello had to stay as far away from officials as possible, seeing as their real names were their most prized possessions. “No,” He said truthfully. “I was going to wait until morning.”

If Mello didn’t turn up again by the next morning, he WOULD go to the police- but not to find Mello, no, he’d go the cops to have them track down Pilcher and get that prick arrested.

“Okay,” She said. Matt could hear something jingling in the background, and the sound of a door opening. “Hey, Liv!” She called to someone else in the room. “Hiiii, Keane!” Matt could hear a weird snuffling, grunting noise. He assumed it was a dog.

Far off, he could hear a woman’s voice: “Who’re you on the phone with?”

“Just a friend of mine, I’ll be off in a tic,” Gloria said, then, back to Matt: “Well, call me if you find anything out, like I said, okay?”

“Will do.”

“Okay, thanks.”

“No problem.”

“Buh-bye,”

“See ya.”

Matt hung up, his eyes falling shut. He gazed at his eyelids, absorbing the white noise of the room around him. God, his stomach really hurt now. He wrapped one arm around himself, then shifted slightly, sighing.

He listened to the white noise for at least a half-hour: the humming of the three computers, the television next door, footsteps passing in the hall outside… he could hear a car alarm go off outside, then someone shouting something and the car alarm shutting off. Glass breaking somewhere. A dog yipping a few doors down, then a man’s voice saying something incoherent. Keys jingling in a lock, a door openi-

Matt sat bolt upright and made for the door without even realizing what he was doing, his eyes wide and his brain now fully awake and functional. “Mel?!” He stood in the archway, biting his tongue.

Mello turned to face him, and smiled weakly. “Hey…” He said quietly, putting his keys on the counter beside Matt’s. His face was in shadow, and his hair was falling in front of his face to hide it even further. “Sorry I was gone so long…”

There was something very wrong and different about the way the blonde was speaking. It sounded blank, lifeless. Emotionless. Almost zombified.

“Mello… you had me really worried…” Matt turned on the kitchen light, chewing his bottom lip. “You…” He fell silent as Mello’s face came into light.

One eye was sporting a startlingly indigo hue, and it was squinted slightly as if it was unable to open fully. A dark bruise cut through the pale of his skin on his temple, almost connecting to his black eye. A series of gross indentations on his neck that looked highly unnatural, as if they were made by brass knuckles. His hair was tousled, and slightly crusted with what looked like grime or blood. A scrape on his cheek showed where he’d probably hit a wall or fallen to the ground.

Mello smiled weakly again, and when he spoke, Matt felt a shuddering chill as he noticed the absence of one of the blonde’s teeth on the left-hand side in the middle of his mouth. “I’m sorry I scared you.”