“Ugh! Let me go shortie! Why are you so short anyways? Did you just not drink your milk when you were young or something?” He began to toss insults at the man, who smirked behind his mask and pushed Tao into the wall. The man leaned forward, getting uncomfortably close to Tao.

Wh-why are you so close? I don’t want your ert germs,” he stuttered until he saw the message the masked man had typed.

“You’ve been naughty today and naughty young boys like you deserved to be punished,” the message read. The masked man lifted his mask just enough to expose his lips. Tao was incredibly scared,  not knowing where those lips had been.

“Punishment?” He gulped and the prospect, fearing what the man might do.

Tao tried not to look scared but with the proximity between him and the masked man, he was petrified with a fear that he couldn’t overcome. Tao knew that he couldn’t scream for Luhan or Yixing because they still needed to save Chanyeol, who needed more help than he did at the moment. The only way that he could get away from the man and his punishment would be to distract him and hope that he would forget about it. Tao wasn’t sure whether he could handle the punishment that the kidnapper had in mind.

Tao was so distracted by plans to distract the kidnapper that he didn’t notice the message held in front of him. He didn’t notice until he felt the warmth of another body pressed against him. He snapped out of his thoughts.

“Don’t think you can get away form this punishment. No matter what, I will deliver it, even if there are people watching. When people watch, I get to show that I have the power to do whatever I want to boys when they’re naughty,” the message read. Tao couldn’t think of how he could deal with this insane kidnapper when all of his thoughts were erted.

“No you stupid shortie! I wish I could just punch you in the face!” he grumbled quietly with his head down, hoping that something would come to mind that would help hi escape. He didn’t know that his words would backfire on him.

The masked kidnapper tilted his head to one side as he began to type another message. “What did you ay? I didn’t quite catch it,” the message read. The kidnapper didn’t hear what Tao had said. He knew that the boy had said something but he didn’t hear it clearly. Tao shook his head, not wanting to repeat himself because he knew that he shouldn’t have said it and that if the man knew what he had said, Tao would be in trouble, even more trouble than he was in at present. This time nothing would come out of his mouth but he had a brilliant idea.

“Tell me what you said, unless you want to have your punishment now. If you don’t tell me, I swear to make it twice as bad as it was going to be before,” the message read. Tao looked up with wide eyes but he shook his head vehemently. He didn’t want the worse punishment, but he also didn’t want to repeat what he had said either.

“I didn’t say anything, you just thought I said something. You should probably get your crazy erted head checked you little short stack.” Tao squeezed his eyes shut when he felt the masked man punch the wall after hearing this and he realised that he had done it again. The fact that his mouth had no filter on it was just getting him in deeper trouble. He promised himself that he would try to think before he spoke so that he didn’t say things like this.

Tao felt hands gripping his shoulders tightly and pushing him to the floor. “Don’t touch me!” Tao cried, trying to kick the man so that he could escape the grasp but each time he tried, he would miss, only causing harm to himself. Only the panda could get injured himself in an attempt to injure someone else. He only hoped that he wouldn’t do enough harm to himself to cause scars. Tao heard a loud thump from where Luhan and Yixing were. He was about to look in that direction when he felt his body being lifted by the kidnapper.

He was being carried over the masked man’s shoulder, which was surprising given the fact that the man was so small and Tao was so tall. He started blabbering again with his painfully honest mouth as fear coursed through his veins. He wanted a distraction from the panic, that and when he was especially frightened, he would just blurt whatever came to mind. He knew that some day this horrid habit would get him into trouble however he couldn’t help it. This was the only way that he could suppress the fear in his heart.

“How the hell can you carry me shortie? Are you taking steroids or something? I bet that you are. A midget like you could never carry someone like me. I’m not calling myself fat because I’m not. I have muscles even though they aren’t really noticeable. So you have to be taking steroids in order to carry someone taller than you,” he blathered honestly. The next thing he knew, he felt a pinch on his arm.

“Yah! Pinch me again and I swear I really will get my pandas and use them to suffocate you!” he growled. If there was something he really hated, it was getting pinched. He didn’t like the feeling in his body; it brought up too many bad memories that he would rather just leave forgotten.

The masked man began to type on his cellular while carrying the boy over his shoulder and Tao wondered briefly how the little man could manage to carry all his weight and still be able to type.

While the other was typing, Toa tried to wriggle out of the tight grip but he couldn’t because the other was much stronger than he was. He tried to use his long legs to kick the man but he couldn’t manage that either. After a couple of swipes, he finally gave up not wanting to waste any more energy on this man. Instead, he just waited for the man to finish typing. In the meantime, he just continued to blab, asking questions that he wanted answers to but also adding insults in between questions as a force of habit.

“Why do we have these barcode tattoos? Why did you guys give them to us? Tell me what they mean!” No response. “Why don’t you talk? Are you scared? Is the shortie a scaredy cat?” Still no response came.  “I hate the notes you leave on our trays every day. They’re stupid. Why the panda balls would you say ‘I love you’ when you don't even know me? Are you a stalker?”

The man didn’t reply. “I bet that’s it. You’re just a stalker with no life who is willing to kidnap someone in his sleep. You’re pathetic,” he grumbles. Tao had so many questions that he wanted to ask but he also knew that they wouldn’t get answered so he decided to stop for a while. He was getting lightheaded from being upside down. Hanging upside down, he noticed something and his mouth opened once again. “Your but is very big and squishy looking shortie,” Tao commented. Suddenly, there was an unfamiliar voice.

“What—“ the masked man suddenly shouted before realising what he had done. He dropped Tao onto the ground, horrified by what he had done. His eyes went wide behind his mask and he couldn’t believe that a simple insult had made him speak.

Tao groaned in pain from his place on the floor, sore from the sudden collision, but the pain didn’t distract him for long. He looked back up at the frozen masked man before him. “Oi! I can’t believe you finally said something,” he gasped, just as surprised as the man before him.

For the first time, Tao had head the voice of his kidnapper. It was the first time he had heard the kidnapper make an actual noise because the rest of the time, he stayed silent. All four of the kidnappers were always silent and they only ever communicated through written words or typed messages. The notes in themselves were creepy and the captives always felt uncomfortable reading them. At this point, they didn’t even look at them anymore because they knew exactly what they would say. Tao had to notify the others of this momentous occasion.

“MAMA! YIXING! THE KIDNAPPER TALKED!” Tao shouted as loudly as he could.

“WHAT?” they screamed in unison.

--

A few minutes before Tao’s kidnapper dragged him away, Luhan and Yixing were pounding furiously on the door and valiantly fighting their own kidnappers off. The kidnappers were doing their very best to pull the two away from the door.

“What did I say about you touchi