So Many Lost Ones - II

Summary from before - Tino, Lukas's boyfriend, goes missing. Lukas doesn't know that Tino's being abused by his new boyfriend. Lukas had previously given information to the police, but when no results turn up, he realizes the address he submitted was wrong. Every minute he wastes lowers Tino's rate of survival.

--

Lukas forgot searching for Tino himself for a moment before arriving at the police station, explaining that the address he’d given was wrong and he didn’t find out until now. He felt no better when the chief of police explained that they’d continue to work on the case with the scanty amount of information available. They’d told him that on his phone, he’d receive texts with updates on the case. 

Rain dripped down onto his black umbrella as he walked back, falling off the lining onto the sidewalk. The clouds were a hazy iron gray that were only a few shades lighter than the pavement. The pattering of the raindrops calmed Lukas, and he inhaled the fresh air. He had chosen a different route that wouldn’t remind him of Tino’s face - The posters were to be avoided at all costs.

He arrived at his house in no time, pulling open the dry door handle. Lukas put the umbrella in its holder, and glanced to the right. The photo of Tino and him together at the beach was taken, and so was the nail.

A section of the wall that it lay on was cruelly hacked off, the remnants still on the ground. Lukas scanned the rest of what he could see - All the lights had been shut off, but everything else in the house was in their normal place.

Why did the criminal want him to know?

The Norwegian stared at the remnants, calculating them. The drywall had fallen in dusty splinters, spelling out letters and a symbol on the floor: “FIND ”

Lukas’s breath hitched, and his heart thrummed frantically under his chest. He slipped off his wet shoes and followed the direction of the arrow, which lead to the spiral staircase not too far off. Gripping the wooden railing, he climbed upward in silence with keen eyes and ears.

--

Has Tino been here?

Did he take the picture to have something to remember us by?

Why did he damage our home?

--

At the top of the stairwell were more fragments of the wall, but they had been jumbled by an unknown force. Bending down, Lukas rearranged a few lines to form the words “THE CAM”

The ‘cam’? Did Tino, or whomever, mean the camera?

Lukas gulped, and went downstairs for the small, loaded, handheld pistol he had which was only able to fit three bullets in it. After checking behind him twice, he climbed up the stairs again. He recalled the camera was in Tino’s room, which Lukas had left untouched ever since. The camera was sitting on Tino’s fluffy throw pillow with a sequin paisley embroidered on it. Lukas bent down, picked it up, and pressed the black on button.

--

Tino adjusts the camera, propping it up on a stack of books. “Day one of not being with you. I hope you won’t have to see this, ever, but this is just in case something happens.”

He smiles at the camera, brushing a strand of his hair away. Comfortably, Tino reclines on a gray sectional, hugging a pillow. The Fin wears his expression like nothing happened a few nights before, where he had been screaming, crying, and praying for a change. Tino wanted to move on to someone newer, however, but Lukas’s presence seemingly wouldn’t let him.

“Ber isn’t home right now, and that’s time I have to record…”

--

Lukas watches attentively as Tino documents all of his days living with his new boyfriend - They’ve done all the things Lukas did with Tino. Shopping. Road trips to the countryside. Movies. Late-night confessions. Why is it all the same?

On some days, Tino chooses not to record, but he explains in the videos that he’s so busy having fun he can’t remember or make time for it. Lukas notices, however, the expression in his videos is changing. The smile is waning, like the moon hanging in the sky. Tino’s eyes have lost their jubilant radiance after a month and a half.

Anxiously, Lukas clicks on the next video, after another week-long hiatus.

--

“Lukas, I found something in his room.”

--

No greeting. No smile.

--

“Empty beer bottles. Three of them, and they’re all pretty large. He’s been acting off lately...What’s going on?”

Tino shifts uncomfortably on the sofa, averting his gaze from the camera. “Ber doesn’t do things with me anymore. He just tells me what to do. He doesn’t say he loves me. He doesn’t hold my hand.”

“Lukas, why am I still talking to you? You did this to me in the end. Why do they always leave me?”

His voice cracks, and tears threaten to spill over his brilliant blue doe eyes. “I’ve done something so, so, wrong.”

--

It’s the alcohol, Tino.

It wasn’t you.

It isn’t you.

My biggest mistake was leaving you.

Please, come back to me.

--

Tino’s crouched down in dim light of what appears to be the closet, with clothes strewn on the ground in a mess. He fixes the camera, attempting a halfhearted smile.

“Lukas, I love you,” he says, blowing a kiss into the camera.

Footsteps, loud and thundering, clamber in the distance. Tino trembles, his eyes glazing over for a quick moment.

“Oh God, he’s coming!” Tino gasps, scrambling to the camera before hastily turning it off. His expression is, at the end of the video, paralyzed in a fear.