BOOM it's back

Kai rushed over to Aulis with open arms and embraced him once he got close enough. "Oh my god. What happened? Are you okay? " As the questions spewed out of his mouth, he pulled out from the hug and held on to Aulis' shoulders. Aulis looked like a wreck. His eyes red and puffy with tear stains down his cheek. With no Ian in sight he could only assume something happened to him. How did Aulis get away though? He wasn't the most athletic person.

As he felt the warm embrace of Kai, Aulis held back more tears and took the hug. The questions Kai asked he didn't even know where to being. He stood their mouth agape but no words came out. With each passing second hours lungs became tighter, making breathing a chore. "I..I don-…" His eyes darted around looking for his son "Where's Quinton?"

"Ah...I think he's inside." Kai said "Come on let's go in." He walked Aulis back inside the house.

The thought of it still being his brother's doing was swarming around Ahriman's head. It seemed unlikely. However his brother was known for letting things go, only to come back when you think he was gone for good. No one would really know when or why he would come forth from the shadows, he just did things on his terms.
Ahriman perked up when he heard Kai's voice yet he continued to follow Quinton.

"Quinton." Ahriman called out as he entered the backyard. He bit his lower lip, pondering his next choice of words. "Kai is calling for you. By the sound of it I think Aulis has been found." He said and took a seat next to him.

Cyrus gave Willow a small nod in agreement and with everyone back inside the house he managed to get a few words out "Whatever you need." He said placing a hand on his shoulder and gave him a quick kiss on the side of his head. Rescue missions were his speacltiy, but not knowing the area all that well could be quite the challenge.

---

Kurai was minutes away from Ian's house. As he grew closer to his destination he couldn't help but feel a sense of dread filling up inside him. What if something really bad happened? What if he was too late? He took a deep breath and sighed through his nose. There was no treason to project anything. Not until he knew for sure what was going on.
As the small thought begin to fade he felt a small vibration in his pant pocket. The dreadful feeling sunk deeper into the pit of his stomach. His first thought it was Kai calling, probably still concerned over the situation. As he pulled the phone out of his pocket he noticed the caller ID read "Willow". For whatever reason that seemed a bit more unnerving. His gut tightened as he answered the phone. "Hello?" He said, quickening his step as he listened in to what Willow had to say.

"Uh, hi, Kurai," Willow bit his lower lip. "You're a tad late. Ahriman brought us here because we were worried. Aulis seems physically fine, but the kids a wreck." He paused. "House is bad too, Ian's gone."
He felt his stomach knot. First Jin-soon spilled the beans to Cyrus. Now, he had to spill his own jar of beans to these guys. If he didn't, Jin-soon would again. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't so sure everyone would be as understanding as Cyrus.
Especially not Kurai. He wasn't entirely sure what happened to him as a kid but he knew it wasn't pretty.
He glanced at Cyrus and Aulis. "I also have some important things to tell you, and the rest of the squad, when you get here."

Quinton leaned into Ahriman and let out a sob. He opened his mouth, rubbed his eyes, and let out another.
"Why does this keep happening?" He wrapped his arms around one of Ahriman's and put his face on Ahriman's shoulder. "What if he doesn't come back safe? What if he doesn't come back at all? Aulis or I could be next." He held back another sob and took a deep breath.
"I don't know what to do. What can I do? I can't do anything." Tears squeezed their way out of the corner of Quintons eyes, leaving a shiny trail in their wake.
He thought about searching some more, to find some piece of evidence that Ian was okay. But, what was the point? He was obviously no longer here.

"Ah shit…." Kurai thought to himself as he listened to Willow over the phone. He sighed heavily before replying with "Alright. I'm almost there. "

It was only a minute or two Kurai approached the home of Ian and Aulis. He walked up to Cyrus and Willow. "Aulis is inside, I take it?" He took a glance at Willow, who appeared to be a bit nervous about the situation. "You say we need to talk? Then let's go inside, Aulis may know more about what happened here anyways."

He moved paced the two and headed inside. Eyeing the shatter door in front of him, his gut tightened at the the uncertainty of what took place. It was quite obvious that something with great force managed to break in; but who or what it was, was the question.

Getting past the bits of scattered wood, he noticed Aulis being held up by Kai. "Aulis? You alright?" He called out and Kurai placed a hand on both his shoulder and Kai's.

Aulis immideately turned and placed himself into Kurai's arms. A sense of slight relief filled up inside of him as tears began form once again. "I-I just…Ian…and c-chainsaw…a-and they took him…and I don't know where."

Kurai held Aulis and gave an attempt to calm him down "Shhh it's okay...we'll do what we can to find him. But in the meantime you're going to have to tell us everything."

"Hey I'm not going to let anyone take you away again alright?" Ahriman said leaning his head onto Quinton's. "Ian will be back…I mean I'm sure he'll be back. " He paused "I mean just say the fucking words and I'll murder whoever was involved in his kidnapping, if it comes to that. " Ahriman turned his head to give Quinton a small kiss on his temple. "But really...I'll do what I can to get him back in one piece for you."

Kurai's arrival should have eased Willow's mind. That was not to say that Cyrus and Ahriman weren't capable of holding their own, the two most certainly were, but like Ian, Kurai was sort of a father figure to Willow. Self incriminating to a respected figure was never easy.
His legs begged to inch away.
For compromise, he slipped into the house.
Beyond the shattered door, their home was rather peaceful. The beta blubbed away, the water heater groaned, and their dog was God knows where. The poor thing was probably terrified.
Willow began to pick of shattered pieces of the door and place them on the counter. Hopefully this wasn't symbolic of Ian and Aulis's relationship in the future, neither being the ones at fault.
His hand began to tremble come his third handful. Jin-soon was going to be helpful, right? Even if his confession left a foul taste in his friends mouths, Ian returning home safe was the top priority. He wasn't expecting anything to last long term anyway-- nothing seemed to be permanent.


"Did you see the door? For all we know he's already in two or more pieces." Quinton took one of Ahriman's hands into his own to embrace them against his chest.
"It's not fair," he thought out loud. "I don't understand why anyone would want to hurt him. He hasn't hunted demons in years. His current employer doesn't know he's gay and they don't need to know. He does a lot for the community. What is there to hurt?" He squeezed Ahriman's hands, released him, and approached the koi pond.
His mind had already declared Ian dead. He knew there was a chance he could be saved, but if not, then what? They wouldn't be able to have a wake. There would be no body. The funeral would feel shallow for the same reason. A lot of people knew Ian, and everyone knew he wasn't the type to up and disappear. He was a master at martial arts so taking him down would be equally hard as well. There would be no easy way to explain his disappearance.
The koi began to swim over where Quinton was seated. Each fish poked their head out of the water and briefly opened their mouths. Quinton dipped his hand into the water and pet the larger fish along the shore. Ian had spent a lot of time and effort keeping the koi healthy. He had no idea how to take care of them, Aulis probably wasn't as well versed as Ian, and he had no clue if Ha knew anything.
Quinton sprang up. "Oh my god, we have to tell Ha!"

Everything…. the thought repeated in Aulis's mind. Everything happened so fast, the details were so blurry at this point. As he leaned into Kurai more he stared blankly towards the opened entrance way. A moment passed before he spoke "S-someone broke in...well…two people did. One with some kind of…mechanical arm that formed out of his back. " He slowly slipped out of the hug and whipped any remaining tears from his eyes and cheeks. "Then within seconds, another somehow pulled me into the neighbor's yard and I couldn't see the rest, but I heard everything...it was h-horrible." His voice became shaky as the memories of the recent events flowed back.
"B-but, the person who I guess saved me, knew who Willow was and told me to give him this." He unfolded his hand, revealing a crumpled up piece of paper.

Kurai took the note from Aulis "Willow, this seems to be for you." He extended the note out from his hand. "Someone had spared Aulis and gave him this. Does this have anything to do with what you wanted to talk to us about?"

"Who knows. My brother came after you and I haven't came in contact with him on god knows how long. Why he decided to show up now is beyond me. " Ahriman stood up and brushed off his pants.
" And like you, I think your father is still alive…for now at least."
He peered inside the house, witnessing the others consoling Aulis. "Perhaps you should go see your other father while you're at it. He's looking pretty rough. "

Each crunch of the splintered wood shoved a stake further into Willows heart.
This was it.
He was done.
If no one had been hurt, which was unfortunately not the case, he could leave and never show up again.
Once Ian was back that was probably a good idea. He could take what little he had and find another apartment. Paying for this other apartment, until his lease was up, was no big deal.
Willow attempted to hide his jaundiced frown as he accepted the paper.


Hi Willow,
If you are reading this, fantastic! That means there may be sunshine and rainbows in the future. If you're not, then well, I'll have to inform you in person.
That means you might punch me please don't do that when you see me.
As you probably know, Ian has been kidnapped. Oh no!
Hopefully Aulis is fine.
I'll be scooting back down town once I get out of work. I know where Ian is. Without me, you know you'll have one heckin' bad time trying to find him. We both know Saul has too many German Sex Dungeons to keep track of.
Chao!"


A signature was unneeded. No one but Jin-soon came to mind with the tone of this message.
He crumpled the paper in his hand and placed it next to the pile of woodchips.
"Yes," he breathed. "This letter has more to do with what I need to tell you than I care to admit." He paused. "I don't feel ready to but I don't have much choice."

Quinton thrust his phone at Ahriman. "You call Ha. I don't want to talk about it. He might think something happened to me again if he hears you, but it's fine. Just tell him what we know happened."
While it was true that they didn't know much, it would get him here faster.
He decided to follow Ahriman's advice and go find Aulis. He was there to see it all happen so he had to be much worse.
He walked past Willow and Kurai, Willow appearing rather off, Kurai as unreadable as ever. Something in the back of his head was telling him to not hug Aulis, it would be awkward, but he wasn't sure why. There was nothing he wanted to do except mope in the back yard.
Since he knew that wasn't the right thing to do, and was anything but productive, he pulled Aulis into an embrace. "Are you okay? ... Physically. I'm sure that you're the least well of us all since you saw everything happen."
The worst part? Both of them were useless. There was nothing they could do to get Ian back.

Quinton was really the one person Aulis truly wanted to see. There was no hesitation when his son came over to hold him tight in the warm embrace. In attempt to stay strong in front of his son, he took a deep breath and with a shaky breath he said "Y-yeah I'm okay."
Releasing Quinton from the hug he kissed the side of his head. "I think we'll find him...at least I hope."
Him hoping for Ian's return was an understatement. Ian was his rock in many ways. Of course he had Quinton and wonderful friends, but it wasn't the same.

Kurai ran a hand through his hair. He had no knowledge of what the note could've possibly have said but the tone in Willow's voice was rather troubling. Despite the fact that Willow seemed to know what was going on, he didn't seem like the type to purposefully turn his back on their group. Unless he was putting up a damn good facade, Kurai didn't believe that he was truly guilty of whatever was happening to Ian.
"Willow, whatever it is I'm sure we can work through it, however we need to know what's going on. We need to know why Ian went missing and how can we get him back safe and sound. Not to mention, making sure this won't happen to him again. " Kurai spoke and though he remained monotone as ever, there was a hint of concern in his voice.

Willow appeared to be pained. Granted it wasn't easy to tell a whole group of friends a dark secret that you weren't necessarily proud of But they were his friends right? Surely they would have some part of them that would be of understanding. That this wasn't what Willow truly wanted.
It had been a little over a week now since Cyrus knew about said secret. Though it was never really mentioned again since that time. And though he knew the truth of what he did every day now, his feelings towards him remained the same.
Boyfriend status aside, Willow was his friend and while they had only been friends for a few months now he knew this occupation that Willow was currently in was not one he wanted.
This group of people knew Willow for much longer, they had to be more understanding of his situation…right?
Cyrus nibbled at his lower lip. Times like these he wished he could speak up for Willow, but the inability to do so had full control. He placed a hand upon Willow's shoulder and gave him a small yet warm smile to try and comfort him during this time.

"Why me???" Was the first thought to enter Ahriman's mind when Quinton shoved the phone into his hands. It's not like this was his idea or anything.
As Quinton left he stared at the phone with a distasteful look. Great, now he has to explain this one to Ha. Other than Ian being kidnapped he had no idea what the fuck was going on. Then again no one really did, but that was besides the point.
He let out a heavy sigh. If he didn't do this Quinton would eat him alive. That's not something he wanted to risk atv the moment.
He sat on it for another minute before dialing Ha's number.