Safe?.... Hardly! (Re-edited for easier reading)

It was 8:30 in the morning, and since Mikey, Ray and Bob arrived at a little after 4:30, none of them had moved from their spots on Franks two beat up sofas. Frank sat curled into Bobs side, staring into space on the grey couch, and Mikey cuddled up to Ray on the black one.

None of the four men had spoken a word after their brief, tear filled greetings, and Franks sobbing account of the nights events, which took quite a while as he kept collapsing in fresh floods of tears. But now, all they could do was wait!

The officers had told Frank that detectives would be round at about 10, 10:30 to introduce themselves and ask any further questions they might have. Until then... Frank didn't know what he was supposed to do, not that he'd be able to do much anyway, he was pretty well numb.

Memories of the phone call flashed through his mind, making him shake with fresh tears as he clung onto Bob's shirt, that he absently noticed was inside out, as Bob, in turn, clung onto him.

Suddenly there was a small thud, over by the front door, but, even though the four of them were currently sitting in a stunned silence, Ray was the only one to hear it. Turning to look, he saw an envelope sitting on the mat. Strange! Ray frowned. There's no post on Sundays!
Gently he extracted himself from Mikeys clinging arms, earning himself a soft whining sound from the stupefied male, and crossed the small space to retrieve the mystery item.
Ray bent down and scooped the envelope into his hand, before returning to his place beside Mikey.

"What's that?"

Bob asked, the only one to even really notice that he'd moved.

"Dunno!"

Ray turned the envelope over in his hands.

"It's addressed to Frank!"

At the sound of his name, Frank blinked slowly and raised his head from its spot against Bobs chest.

"For me?"

There was a whimper in his voice, a broken, scared quality that had only been there a couple of times his entire life, both of which when he'd believed that his Gee was gone.

Ray nodded as he handed it over, not missing the tremor that ran through the smaller man's hand as he accepted the package.
Frank tried to open it, but his normally dexterous fingers just wouldn't cooperate, and in the end, Bob had to carefully remove it from his shaking hands and open it for him.
Peering inside the envelope, Bob saw a small black plastic object. Frowning, he tipped it onto his hand.

"It's a memory stick!"

He told them.

"Where's your laptop Frank?"

Ray asked quietly, not wishing to startle the already very frazzled male.

"Hmmm?... Oh... Err... My..my bedroom!"

He stuttered his response.
Ray stood up and left the room, returning a minute later with Franks ancient computer.

"Bob?"

He inclined his head, indicating the stick. Bob passed it over without a word, and Ray plugged it into the side of the laptop.
Placing it on Franks coffee table so everyone could see, Ray accessed the memory stick, and pressed enter. After a couple of seconds, a video file began to play. All eyes on the screen, they watched with growing horror as they realised just what this was.

"Hello there Frank."
Bert smirked out at them.
"I know you got to see the effects of my last session with the lovely Gerard, but you didn't get to witness just how much fun it was! Well, I consider the aftermath to be secondary! The really good bit, is the bit you missed! So, I'm going to stage a little reenactment for your viewing pleasure! Enjoy the show!"

Frank started to feel sick.

Bert had moved out of shot, leaving the camera trained on Gerard's still form, when he came back, he had a hypodermic syringe and tourniquet in his hands.
"This is a little formula a friend of mine cooked up for me!"
Bert said to the camera, as he leaned over Gerard's left arm, securing the tourniquet, and preparing the needle.
"It wakes you up..."
He slid the needle in.
"...then...it keeps you awake, for hours, and hours!"
He removed the needle from Gerard's arm and dropped it in a bin under the chair. Five agonising seconds later, Gerard jerked awake, mouth gasping for air and fingers clenching and unclenching at his sides.
"It doesn't matter how much pain he's in, or how tired he gets, the drugs just won't let him sleep! Fun! Huh?"
Bert smiled.
"Now, let's see how loud I can make him scream!"

By this point, Frank was white as a sheet, eyes wide and terrified as he stared intently at the horrific sight before him.
They all held their breath as Bert began to turn the handle to spread Gerard's legs, but the moment they heard the pop of his hips disconnecting, and the bloodcurdling scream that ripped from his throat, Ray knew that they couldn't watch any more, and reached over to quickly turn it off.
His hand was stilled however, by Franks light touch.

"I need to know!"

Was all he said, and Ray understood.

"I can't watch this!"

Ray said quietly, pausing the recording and standing to leave the room, gently pulling Mikey with him.

"Come on Mikes."

Silently, tears streaming down his pale face, Mikey complied. He was too out of it to argue right now!

"Bob?"

The other man looked up at him with haunted eyes.

"Can you stay with Frank? He shouldn't watch that alone!"

Bob nodded slowly, tears sliding down already wet cheeks. Ray sighed heavily and lead Mikey from the room.
Frank unpaused the film, and as Gerard's terrified screams came from the laptop's crappy speakers, Bob quickly reached out and turned off the sound, Frank turning to look at him.

"I c..can't l..listen to th..that."

Bob stuttered. Frank paused it again.
Bob was normally so strong, so tough, but right now, he was falling apart as much as any of them.
Frank nodded, but then sighed, saying.

"I have to!"

Bob seemed to blanch even more.

"But you should go check on Mikey and Ray!"

He was giving him permission to bale, and Bob, even though he wanted to support his friend, accepted, and, with a quick squeeze of the younger mans hand, rushed from the room.
Taking a deep breath in, holding it for a moment, then slowly blowing it back out, Frank pressed the button to continue, and turned the sound back on.

After many minutes of Bert sexually assaulting the bound man on the screen, and Frank nearly throwing up several times, that portion of the film was over. Then came, what Bert had called "Water-boarding"
Frank thought vaguely that he had heard of it, but, until Bert began pouring the water, he didn't know what it was.
As he saw Gerard's body thrash and flail beneath the restraints, the water flooding into his nose and mouth, Frank knew that this was the end! He knew that he was never getting his Geebear back! And he knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that his own life was over too! He had no life without Gerard, simple as that.
When Gerard's movements stopped, Frank held his breath...

"Gerard?... You still with me, Hun?"
Bert placed the water jug on the floor.
"Gerard?"
Then Bert turned towards the camera.
"Oh well, guess the fun's over Frankie, bye for now."
He disappeared from view, and a few seconds of Gerard's cold, wet, still body later... The recording ended.

Frank could hear screaming, but as his mind gave way, he completely missed the fact that it was his own.

"Frank?...Frank?...Can you hear me?"

Frank had stopped screaming some minutes ago, but somehow, this was worse! Now, he sat, staring at nothing, a totally blank look on his abnormally pale face, and no one could get through to him.

"Frank? Come on Frank. Please?"

Ray begged, holding his friends shoulders and shaking him firmly. Nothing!!
Bob had just called the police and told them about the recording, they'd told him that the detectives were on their way and would handle things from now on.
As he returned to the living room from wherever he'd gone to make the call, Bob could tell that Ray was about to break, and gathered his last reserves of strength to take care of all his friends. He had to be the strong one again! He couldn't afford to lose it now!
Crossing the room, he gently removed Rays quivering hands from Franks still arms, and pulled his afroed friend into his chest, wrapping his arms around him. Ray finally broke down then, huge sobs wracking his body as he soaked the front of Bobs shirt. This was a HELL of a time for Ray to try quitting the weed, cold turkey, especially after how many years he'd been on the stuff.

Bob looked at the other two, Mikey, passed out from exhaustion on the other sofa, Ray had carried him in there when Frank began to scream like his insides were being torn out, and Frank... well, it appeared that his mind had just snapped, and Bob wasn't at all sure it could be mended.

Sitting there trying to work out what he should do, Bob was startled when a knock suddenly came at the front door.

"Stay here."

He spoke softly to Ray, pulling free from his grip and standing up. He saw Ray curl in on himself, crying quietly, as he turned to answer the door.

When he opened it, there were two men standing there. One, tall, slim, with light brown hair and bright blue eyes, though not as bright as Bob's. He looked serious, like, maybe he never smiled. And the other, shorter, with scruffy black dyed hair and thick eyeliner, he looked like a rocker. And Bob couldn't be certain, but he thought that perhaps, he was a little drunk.

"Hello?"

He asked.

"Hello."

Said the taller of the two.

"I'm detective Blue, and this is detective Armstrong!"

"You can call me Billie!"

The rocker added.

"Oh..."

Bob was stuck for words for a moment.

"come in."

Notes