A/N Possible trigger warning! I tried to beat around the bush as much as I could because I don't like writing that deeply into traumatic things but  is heavily insinuated in this chapter guys.

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Cheshire looked at the door that Hamilton had left through not that long ago. She had been staring at it for what felt like hours. Her whole body was numbed to the point where she didn't even attempt to make a sound, surely no one would have heard her anyways. Thoughts came slowly too, most of them reflecting on what her life could have been like if she had never met the demon that captured her.

After the ordeal that Hamilton had made her go through with her outfit change he had tied her down again. This time to a mattress she hadn't noticed before that was in the back of the room. He had done unspeakable and horrendous things to her on the mattress but she never struggled. Hamilton had made sure to hold the knife tightly to her neck though, just in case she tried. In the beginning she had cried, sobbing without sound. When the realization of what was happening to her came, she quickly felt her body go numb and turned her face away to stare at the corrugated metal of the door.

She was going to die here.

That was the only thought in her head as her torture continued, as Hamilton fixed his clothes and headed out of the door, and now as she lay on the mattress wishing that her death would be swift. She knew that her body was numb as her brain's way to cope with the trauma but she couldn't bring herself to change it. She was terrified that if she made any attempt to move or scream that she would feel every ounce of pain that she was blocking out. She couldn't even bring herself to think of the outside world.

Her mind reeled with the dissociative feeling that was keeping her going. She couldn't quite figure out if this was what people would call an out of body experience or if they would just call her crazy again. Chess had felt this feeling only once before in her life and that was when she had found her family murdered. That was the first time Chess had ever been called crazy and have someone actually mean it. Now it would happen again.

She was going to die as a crazy person in this room.

Thoughts started to edge their way into her mind, though they did nothing but make things worse. Chess thought of Ezra, who was probably going to suffer at work for this. She thought of Christina, who would be devastated about losing her again. She thought of her fans, who would mourn her passing and have vigils in her name. She thought about Starship and how they would have difficulties with promotions. She thought of RI5E and how they would never be the same. She thought of Mad Clown and Eun Hee, who would put their marriage on hold to mourn. She thought of Giriboy and how he would stop making music without Swings telling him to. She thought of the Monsta X boys and how they would cancel their tour and upcoming promotions. She thought of Jooheon, who would enshrine the Majinbu plush that she had given him for his birthday. Lastly she thought of Changkyun.

The vision of his face being distorted in grief caused tears to stream down her face. Changkyun had never known a grief like that and Chess had wanted to do everything she could to prevent it. Now he would feel the hole that she had felt before. Would he numb himself the way she had? Would he seek the help he needed? Would he rely on his bandmates? Would he follow Chess's lead and abandon everyone he loved? The thought of him dealing with the loss in the same way she had made Chess's chest tighten even further than it already was. She didn't want to leave him that way.

Cheshire began to fight a war with herself. Her brain still trying to numb her to block the trauma and her soul desperately pleading for her to move or scream. She fought hard but couldn't tell what would win. Did her own brain want to end her life here? She fought the internal battle as hard as she could but soon her head began to spin. She was dizzy and couldn't focus. Her vision tunneled and she thought she heard a metal clicking in the distance. Before she could identify the noise her vision went dark and she passed out.

The police had initiated a county wide search for anything that could lead them to Cheshire but due to the late hour they were unable to get search warrants for the properties that Hamilton owned, including two storage facilities, an abandoned warehouse, and an old farmhouse two towns over. Since they weren't technically breaking any laws by walking around the outside of the farmhouse and warehouse, or the halls of the storage facilities, they did just that hoping beyond hope that Chess was awake and able to make enough noise to give probable cause for them to enter. A few police men and women had taken to knocking on storage room doors, warehouse windows, and plumbing pipes, trying to rouse Chess to answer but they had no luck. They searched every building three times that night hoping and praying that they could get something from it but nothing happened and they had to resign to the idea that she was drugged or, even worse, dead.

Ezra tried his best to stay calm given the circumstances but he constantly found himself pacing his office, waiting for the phone to ring. The officers had let him leave after Hamilton had lawyered up and refused to speak anymore. He had made his way back to his office then to try and figure out something that he could do, though he hadn't been able to find much of anything to help on that front so far. His mind whirred with visions of Chess beaten, lying motionless, and bloody on a cold concrete floor and he couldn't focus on anything else. He may not have known her for long but she was just one of those people that could connect with anyone and make them care about her without having to even try.

When the phone rang and the police told him they had turned up with nothing, all he could think of was how many hours had passed. Nine. Nine hours had passed since he heard her laugh at him and tell him she was a big girl and could go up one floor on her own. Nine hours since that bastard had drugged her outside her room. Nine hours since she had been stuffed unceremoniously into the trunk of her car losing her necklace that she never took off. Nine hours since he knew that she was safe.

Ezra slammed his fists onto the desk in front of him out of frustration and anger and hatred that someone would do this to her. There was nothing about this situation that was okay and he hated himself for not being able to prevent it. There was a minor tingling sensation in his hands as he brought them up to rub his face. He knew feeling sorry for himself wasn't helping to bring her back but he had no idea how to stop it this time. His phone ringing brought him out of his thoughts. It was Si Dae. .

“Is there any news on Cheshire? Has she been found yet?” Si Dae hadn't even waited for Ezra to greet him before he began his interrogation.

“No, sir. We haven't been able to find her yet. The police sent out search teams but without a warrant they couldn't do much. They have to wait until the judges get into the courthouse tomorrow to be able to get one signed off on. They're working as hard as they can but the bastard has four different places that we know of that he could be keeping her. Two of them are storage facilities,” Ezra explained slowly hoping that the man on the other line understood what he was saying.

“They need to hurry. She's already been traumatized more than enough for someone so young. I can't begin to imagine what this will do to her,” Si Dae sighed and Ezra could swear that he heard the older man sniffle. “She doesn't deserve this. Make sure that son of a doesn't get away. We're going to crucify him.”

“Yes, sir. I'll personally make sure that he doesn't go anywhere,” Ezra hadn't really been sure what the Korean word the man had used meant but he was pretty sure that it was something pretty bad. The phone call didn't last much longer, mostly just enough to say that Ezra would fill the man in on the details as he got them, and the two hung up. Almost as soon as Ezra brought the phone away from his ear it rang again. This time it was the police.

Hamilton had been released from holding.

Ezra had asked how that was even possible but the cops themselves didn't understand. Under normal circumstances they would have been able to keep him for a full twenty-four hours before indictment but they hadn't been able to keep him for even twelve. The officers had strict orders from their higher ups to stay away until they could get an arrest warrant after they found Cheshire so they couldn't keep watch over him. Those orders meant nothing to Ezra though, and the cops knew it. They wanted this sociopath caught as badly as Ezra and Si Dae did.

It didn't take very long for Ezra to start packing everything he could into a bag. He didn't know how long he would have to follow Hamilton before the arrest warrant came through. As he was leaving the building to get into his personal, and far more discrete, car, the officer on the phone told him to be careful and that they would be in touch with him as soon as they had any information. The officer also held the phone away from their ear, so that Ezra could hear, them ask their fellow officer how long Hamilton's release would take. Ezra had five minutes to make it to the station before Hamilton would be gone. He prayed that the officer would figure out someway to buy him just six extra minutes.

Cheshire woke up to vomit. She could hardly even turn her head enough so that she wouldn't choke on it but that was the least of her worries. The numbness she had felt had left sometime in the few hours she spent passed out. The pain was unbearable. Her whole body ached, but she tried to move regardless. She tried to turn herself over to move to some semblance of a sitting position, so that she could reorientate herself in the room. It was no use though. Her wrists were bound so tightly to the pipe above her head that she would have to break them to move that much.

Chess took inventory of the room, noticing that there was nothing but the mattress and chair. There wasn't even a bucket to serve for a toilet. She knew she was screwed but she wasn't going to let herself give up. She was going to make it out of this, just like she had made it through her family's slaughter. She was going to live and there was nothing that could change her mind. She thought long and hard about what she could do and determined that making noise was her best bet but she needed to be careful or she could simply wear herself down more. She did the only thing that she knew she could do for hours on end without a break. She started singing, hoping that dehydration would wait until she was found to destroy her voice. She sang to save her life.

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A/N Hey guys! New chapter! Yay! Sorry it took so long again but I've had a lot on my plate... At least this update didn't take me a year! As always Thank You for Reading! Kamsamnida!