A/N: I'm a piece of crap, i know.

Third Person POV

"Mom" he desperately called out in the darkness. "Mom can you hear me?". The only thing that answered him was the deafening silence in the room. He pulled and tugged weakly at the rope on his hands as he called out once more. "Mom please. Mom answer me, please. Mom" his voice cracked as his throat tightened. 

It had been about an hour since Dorian's father had left. Kruz had answered all his questions as promised. But he was careful with his answers. He didn't lie, but he didn't exactly tell the whole truth either. He approached the situation in a way that if they were supposed to do a research, they would find the truth in Kruz's statements, but they wouldn't be enough to cause any major damage to their gang. Of course, he knew that they weren't fools. They weren't the second most powerful gang in the country for no reason. They'd eventually realize that Kruz was playing a twisted game and the boss would only come back with more anger. So while they were occupied, he'd try to figure out a way to get out of his ropes to help his mother. His original plan wasn't to leave until Ryder and the rest had found him, but now he had his mother to take care of, which made that plan seem impossible now.

His mother still seemed to be unconscious. The cut on her neck wasn't exactly tiny, but it was small enough where it should've already started clotting. But his mother's thick, red blood still trickled down the side of her neck as her body laid lifeless on the ground. They must've given her some Anticoagulants, which would explain why, after almost an hour, she's still bleeding.

"Mom" he called out again. The responses were the same as before. "Dammit!" How did she even get there? How could they have found her? How did they know that she was even related to him? They sure had done their digging.

They must've been so sure that they wouldn't be able to capture any of the members so they found someone else close to him, someone vulnerable. Kruz mentally cursed himself as soon as he realized. Why oh why did he ever think it was a good idea to leave his mother without any sort of protection, he hung his head in Shame.

The thought had never crossed his mind before because she had never once been put in harm's way. He even reduced the amount of times he visited her just so he could ensure her safety. She was well aware of what her son and his friends were involved in. Sure she wasn't happy at first, but after finding out that it really wasn't something that they could escape, she had no other choice, she had accepted with the condition that her son would never be put on the battlefield if he didn't need to be and also to ensure her safety. Ryder's father had been the leader at the time and he had agreed to her simple requests. That was how Kruz had first started his training for being the tech person for his team.

But now Kruz had failed both her requests. He remembered how Jyrein, Ryder's father, had kept him behind a computer, even during field emergencies. Every time he protested about wanting to be in on the action too, the leader would remind him of the promise he made to his mother. Sure Kruz knew self defense and a few other tricks with his gun just  incase a war was ever brought to him- because you can never be too careful in a business like this- but he'd never really have to use them because Ryder, after he was appointed the new leader, still made sure that that promise was kept.

But now here he was, breaking not just one but both promises. What he had thought to be a smart decision turned out to be foolish and he repranded himself over and over as he stared at his mother on the floor of the room.

Sighing bitterly, he decided that he needed to fix this, and quick before Dorian's dad returned. He looked at the ropes that bounded him. There were so many knots, he lost count after 11, and that was only on the front-the ones he could see. There was no way he'd be able to get out of them with the skills he'd learnt. 

Instead, he directed his attention to the chair-board. He smiled victoriously. There was always a flaw in every plan. He used his feet to push himself off the chair, only a few centimetres since he was still tightly bound, but a few centimetres was enough for him. He slammed himself back down on the chair. A sharp pain shot up his backside and he winced, but the small creak he heard from the chair made him push on. He repeated the movement again, continuously lifting himself from the chair and slamming his whole weight back down onto it. Each time, the pain would increase. His back felt stiff and sore and his head pounded in opposition to his movements, but the chair was wobbling now, he couldn't give up yet.

He persisted with his actions after four more tries, the seat of the chair gave way, splitting in half, causing Kruz to fly right through it.  As a result, the ropes no longer bounded him as tightly to the chair as before since the chair was now broken, so he had more freedom of movement. He fell t the ground with a loud thud and he bit his lip, drawing blood, to prevent himself from crying out at the pain that now wrapped and embedded itself into his spine. His head was pounding so hard now that his vision started to blur and he felt so nauseous he could throw up. 

But despite his entire body opposing him, he lifted his arms and used them to untangle himself from the ropes and untied the knots at his feet before gingerly crawling over to his mother on the other side of the room. He laid his head gently on her leg and winced as he shut his eyes to will the pain away. He opened them and saw black dots in his vision but he ignored them and reached over to his mother to feel for a pulse. 

He sighed in relief when he felt a faint thump beneath his fingers. It was faint and abnormally slow, but it was still there, which means that he had time to get her out of there.

He raised his throbbing head to look around the room for a something he could use as a weapon of some sort that he could use against the guards he was sure were posted outside his door. What kind of prison doesn't even have a weapon the escapee can use when they actually escape? He wondered incredulously why prisoners were only given hope in the movies and books but not in real life. He hit the wall behind him frustratingly after realizing that the room was quite literally just steel walls and tiles. 

His eyes drifted over to the splinters of the chair he just broke away from.  They would have to do, he shrugged. Before he could crawl over to get them, an earsplittingly loud sounding alarm blared through the entire building. Kruz's heart rate quickened in panic. Had they found out that he had escaped? Had someone breached their security? Had Ryder finally come to his rescue? A small smile graced his face as he thought about his leader, but it quickly washed away when he heard overlapping voices coming from outside. He had no time to waste.

He crawled over to the splinters and looked for one sharp and sturdy enough to injure. He'd only killed one person before and he hated it. It wasn't his intent to repeat his past ever again, but he knew that he would need to injure these people bad enough so that he could escape without an issue. He could try to fight his way out, he knew that. He wasn't that inexperienced after all. But he had his mother to lug around now, and that would make it increasingly harder for him to engage in anything physical with anyone.

"Mom? Mom, come on, you need to wake up" He shook her aggressively. "Mom come on, wake up! Wake up mom, we need to get out of here!" He exclaimed. He heard her groan as she slowly opened her eyes. It took her a while to come to, but when she did, her eyes widened slightly at the sight of her son.

"Kruz? Baby!" she gasped as she sat up and threw her arms around her son, ignoring how her head spun and how stiff her body felt and the throbbing pain in her neck. "Whats going on?" she asked, a bit startled at the alarming sound she heard going off around her.

"Mom" Kruz exhaled as he squeezed his mother tight, a single tear escaping from his eye. As long as she was ok, that was all that mattered. "Mom we need to leave ok? We have to go, like, right now" he said as he pulled away from the hug and looked into her confused, and scared chocolate brown eyes. Her hair was sticking up all over her head, her face was oily with dirt. She had a busted lip and the blood that had trickled down her neck before was dried and clumpy in some areas, but Kruz thought his mother was still such a sight for sore eyes, though his heart pained him that he was the cause of this. He needed to get her out.

"Can you stand?" He asked as he raised himself from the ground. He was a bit wobbly on his feet after sitting so long in a chair but he soon caught his balance and was able  to help his mother up. She stumbled a bit, her legs and body weak after losing so much blood, but with the help of her son, carrying some of her weight as she slung her arm over his shoulder, she could help herself to move a bit. Kruz took up the splinter he was going to use and they both made their way towards the door slowly. 

Halfway across the room, the door burst open, startling the two prisoners. In stepped Dorian's father with a look that could kill. "You think you're soo smart don't you?" he sneered at Kruz. His eyes flickered between the startled mother and son. "Kill her, and take him" he commanded. Four men appeared from behind him and went towards the duo. One of the men went forward to grab his mother but Kruz lifted the piece of board in his hand and stabbed it right through the man's hand. The man withdrew his hand and screamed in pain as he clutched his hand to his chest.

The other three men rushed forward, two to grab him and one to grab his mother. He swung a fist to the face of one of the men and went to hit the other when the one with the injured hand reached forward to grab him.

His mother screamed and thrashed in the hold of another man. He watched her with fearful eyes and got ready to lung forward to help her, but the momentary distraction gave the other two men the opportunity to tackle him, bounding his hands behind his back so that if he moved even in the slightest, he would feel pain.

Kruz yelled and and struggled in agony to get out of their hold, but the more he tried, the more pain he felt, the more work out his body got. Eventually, he stopped and looked at his mother with sad, regretful eyes, silently apologizing to her. His mother stared back, tears pooling out of her eyes, her heart ached seeing her son like that.

"Take him" he heard Dorian's father say.

Kruz's eyes flickered back and forth between his mother and the door as the two men lifted him and dragged his helpless self to the door.

"W-wait! My mom-"

"She's going to die" Dorian's father sneered as he grabbed kruz's cheeks between his fingers. "And you my boy, will be joining the party"

"No! Mom! Mom! Let me go! Please, mom. Don't hurt her please.." Kruz yelled and begged and wailed as the men dragged him out the door. The door slammed shut behind them, locking his mother and the other man inside.

A resounding gunshot was the last thing Kruz heard as they dragged him up the stairs and out of the cellar.

_________
I bet you all want to crucify me.....

I had three chapters written to publish on this book's anniversary but, i lost access to my account for a while. After I got it back, all my drafts were deleted. Joy.

I was too upset and honestly too lazy to rewrite them afterwards so I kind of just procrastinated for a long while....

But, as you can see, I'm back with what was supposed to be a double update but yk, stuff happened.....This is where you console me so i know that your thoughts to kill me have vanished .....

Anyway, i bet this chapter was a bit boring....or not? Thinking about it now, you guys might hate me more for the chapter than my absence....

But anyhoo, more exciting things to come, as the book draws to a close, so stay tuned. *Winks violently*

I love you all (insert hearts and flowers and candies and all things good)