Far Too Young to Die

It’s 2 AM in Baltimore. A familiar figure is standing at the end of an alley, smoking a cigarette while observing the club on the other side of the street.
It looks like an ordinary club, with flashy neon signs at the front and the sound of muffled club music. And of course, the security guard at the door keeping everything under control.

However, it’s not the club itself the person is interested on. They’re interested on a person inside.

Finishing the cigarette and throwing it to the ground, the figure walked to the club, entering as the guard opened the door.

Inside, they looked around, searching for their victim. And they found it a minute later, the unmistakable skunk hair standing out in the crowd.

Jack was at the bar, of course, getting drunk and trying to flirt with a woman by his side. “Trying” being the appropriate word, as the woman seems to have no interest on him.

The figure walked to him, gently pushing people to the side – they didn’t want to cause any alarm.

When they reached him, Jack turned around, giving them a half-drunk smile.

“Dude, what a surprise! I wasn’t expecting to see you again, not after what happened at the awards!”

The figure gave him a cold smile. “Yeah, it’s exactly because of that I’m here. We need to talk.”

Jack looked at them, his smile fading a bit. “What’s wrong? I know we went a bit hard on you that night, but we were only kidding. We’re still good, right?”

Discretely, the person took a gun from their pocket and pointed it at Jack’s chest. “Why don’t we talk in another place?”

The sight of the gun sobered Jack almost completely, and he looked at them with eyes wide.

“Trace, what the fuck are you doing?”

“Move your ass.”

Jack stepped off the chair, tripping on his feet, and slowly walked to the back door, with Trace behind him, pressing the gun on his back.
When they got outside, Jack turned around, completely terrified.

“Trace, dude, come on, we can solve this in another way. I mean, is the thing really that bad that we can’t solve it without, uh, that?” he asked, pointing to the gun.

Trace turned the gun around on his hand. “Sorry Jack, but this is necessary.”

He stepped forward and hit Jack on his head with the holder, strongly enough that Jack fell on the ground, unconscious.
He then picked him up and put him on the car parked nearby, and drove off, disappearing in the night.

2 days later…

Alex was officially in full panic mode.

He had seen Jack for the last time two days ago, when he said he was going to a club to have some fun. Alex was expecting him to come back in the morning as usual, but he didn't.

He had called Jack countless times, but he never answered. And his worry only got worse after calling pretty much everyone he knew only to find out no one knew where Jack was.

His mind was running wild, creating the worst scenarios, and Alex was getting desperate. Jack would never disappear this way without warning unless something serious had happened.

He was considering calling the police when his phone beeped.

He picked it up, slightly shaking, and saw the notification of the incoming video call. From Jack.

Relief took over him as he answered the call.

"Jack you asshole, where are you? I was so fucking worried about you!"

"H-hey, Alex." Jack stuttered, and Alex noticed the panicked look on his face.

"What's wrong, are you alright?"

The camera moved to the side, revealing Trace.

"Hey there Alex. Looks like I have your precious little Jack here with me."

Alex looked at him, confused. "Trace? What the hell is going on?"

"You see," Trace grinned, moving the camera back, "I didn't like the thing you did to me in the awards. Not one bit. So, I thought of getting a little revenge."

Alex glared at Trace, completely shocked.

"You want to get revenge for that? We weren't even being serious about that, we were only kidding!"

"You killed my career!" Trace shouted. "I'm a joke now because of you! But you'll get what you deserve. Both of you."

The camera moved back to Jack, now in a full body shot, and Alex could see that he was completely naked.

He looked at the scene, confused, until he noticed a big metal door behind him. It had a big handle and a small screen to type a code to open the door.

Alex stopped breathing as he realized where the door led to.

"No..."

"I see you understood what I'm gonna do." Trace smirked, pointing at the door. "I was lucky to find this freezer still intact, seeing as this place is completely abandoned. And it's rather big, too."

"You sick bastard, don't you dare..."

Trace's grin widened. "How much time do you think someone lasts inside a freezer, Alex? Doctors say 6, 8 hours before the person enters in such severe hypothermia state their heart just stops. And of course, having no clothes fastens the rate of temperature drop."

Alex looked at Jack, desperate. Jack was terrified, his eyes wide with fear as he glared at Trace.

"Let's play a little game, Alex. I'll lock Jack inside that freezer - which is at what, 0ºF? - and you have 6 hours to find him and get him out before he dies. If you don't find him in time, well... I hope you said everything you want to already."

"No!" Alex screamed, completely panicked. "Don't do this Trace, for God's sake! I was the one that went harder on you, do whatever you want to me, but please leave Jack outta this!"

"I'm sorry, but that's not an option." he said, grabbing Jack by his arm and dragging him to the already open door.

Jack desperately tried to free his arm, but Trace's grip was too strong.

"No, stop!" he screamed, nearly crying. "Don't do this! No! Alex!"

Alex froze as he saw Jack being thrown inside and the door closing with a loud ‘thunk’, Jack's screams still playing on his head.

Trace walked to the camera with a smug grin. "You have 6 hours Alex, starting now. Good luck."

The call was finished, and Alex threw the phone with a scream. His vision was blurred with tears, and his breathing was coming in gasps as the panic grew.

He couldn’t believe in any of this. It looked like something taken out of a movie, or a dream, a really bad one.

But it wasn’t. This was really happening, Trace had shoved Jack in a freezer in god-knows-where, and he only had 6 hours before he…

And the clock was already ticking.

He got out of the house in a rush, running to his car. He couldn’t find Jack on his own, and he knew the perfect person to help him.
_______________________________________

Jack fell face first on the cold floor of the freezer, hearing the door heavily closing behind him.

He slowly got up, shaking, and walked to the door, banging on it while screaming in panic.

“Trace, let me out! Please, I- I’ll do anything you want, but please get me out of here! For fuck’s sake, it’s freezing here!”

He heard no answer, and deduced Trace must have already left.

He turned around, shivering like mad and rubbing his arms in a half-assed attempt of getting warmer.

But it had no effect as he was stripped out of his clothes.

He slowly walked to a corner of the freezer, his feet hurting like hell as they got colder, and sat on the floor.
He regretted it in the same moment, though, as his ass made contact with the cold floor, and groaned in pain.

I’m gonna die in here…

Jack closed his eyes and rested his head on his knees.

He knew that messing with Trace at the awards was a bad idea; he still remembered how pissed off he was when it ended.
But fuck, he never imagined Trace would be such a psycho.

And now he was stuck on a freezer, with no clothes on, only hoping Alex will be able to find him before he freezes to death. All of this because of a stupid joke.

He opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling, imagining the sky outside.

God, help me…
______________________________________

Alex parked the car in front of the city’s police station, and ran inside.

“Brendon! Brendon, where are you, I need your help!”

Alex looked around, searching for his friend, but he couldn’t find him.
Everyone was looking at him, confused to why he was screaming like mad.

A minute later, a tall guy with dark hair and blue eyes walked to Alex.

“You’re looking for Officer Brendon Urie? He’s at a reunion right now, he can’t speak to you.”

“But I got to!” Alex exclaimed, agitated. “I need his help, it’s an emergency!”

“Well sir, he can’t see you right now, but I can help if you need.”

“It’s okay Dallon, I got this.”

Brendon appeared behind the tall officer, walking to Alex. “What’s wrong Alex, you look terrified.”

Alex was breathing heavily as he spoke. “Can we talk somewhere more private? This is really bad.”

“Sure. Come with me.” Brendon gestured to the interrogation room at the end of the corridor, and they entered it.
Once inside, Alex sat at the table and started crying.

“Hey, Alex, it’s okay, calm down.” Brendon said, rubbing his back. “What happened?”

“He- he has him.” Alex stuttered between sobs.

“He who? Who’s got who?”

“Trace. He… he kidnapped Jack a-and shoved him inside a freezer.” He said, looking at Brendon. “And if I don’t find him in 6 hours, he… he…”

Alex broke down crying again, and Brendon looked at him, worried.

“Alex, look at me.” He said, lifting Alex’s chin. “We’ll find Jack, okay? We’ll find him and he’ll be alright. And that son of a bitch is gonna go in jail for hurting him, I promise.”

Alex nodded weakly, wiping the tears off his face as he took a deep breath.

When Brendon saw he was somewhat calmer, he started talking.

“Okay, now I need to know what happened in concrete. Why did Trace kidnap Jack?”

“When Jack and I hosted that award show, we joked around with Trace, and he got furious, he even threatened us with a fight and all. And today, he made a video call with me and made me watch as he shoved Jack inside that damned freezer. He said it was revenge for that night.”

“Wait, you said ‘video call’?” Alex nodded, and Brendon smiled. “So he used the phone. That’s good; we can track the signal and find out where they are.”

“Really?” Alex’s face lighted up.

“Yes, it won’t take more than a minute. That hoping the phone is still on.”

They got out of the room in a rush, walking to the tech department. Brendon explained the situation to the officer, and after giving the number of Jack’s phone, he started tracking the signal.

“Will this work?” Alex asked, worried.

“Yes it will. We found a lot of missing people and criminals using this. We’ll find Jack with no problems.”

A minute later the machine beeped, and the officer gave Brendon the address it showed.
Brendon ran to the door, Alex following, and entered the car.

When Alex tried to enter, however, Brendon stopped him.

“Sorry Alex, but you can come with me, this-”

“I can’t go my ass, Jack is my best friend and it’s not you who’s gonna stop me from finding him!” Alex exclaimed, entering the car, and Brendon sighed.

They drove to the place, nervous. Brendon was apprehensive; he couldn’t believe Trace would be so stupid to still have the phone with him.
Alex was looking at the clock, worried. An hour has passed since the phone call. Jack’s screams played on his head again, and he looked out the window in an effort not to cry.

“I’m gonna kill him.” He muttered. “When I find him I’m gonna kill that fucking bastard.”

Brendon looked at him for a moment. He didn’t say anything; he knew Alex didn’t mean it.
But he couldn’t blame him if he did; he too wanted to kill that psycho for hurting his best friend. For hurting both of them.

“Okay, we’re here.”

They got out of the car in a rush, Brendon saying the place was around the corner.

However, the moment they rounded the corner they stopped, shocked.

Something was terribly wrong.
________________________________________________________

Jack was a shivering mess. He had retreated to fetal position in an attempt to keep the little heat he still had, and as hypothermia settled on his body every single muscle of his body was shaking, and it hurt like hell.

He couldn’t even form a coordinated thought at this moment; it was like his brain was refusing to work. Must be the lack of oxygen; this place doesn’t exactly have an air duct.

Jack started to doze off, the cold making him sleepy. He fought this feeling; he didn’t know if sleeping was a good thing when you’re about to die frozen.
But the sleepiness was getting stronger, and he just gave in, slowly closing his eyes.

His body slowly fell to the ground, leaving him in a laid down position, and the shivering got worse.

But he didn’t care. He didn’t care about anything, really. He just wanted to sleep. Who knows, maybe it helps fighting the cold.

A second later, he was fast asleep, laying on the freezing floor.
__________________________________________________

“What the fuck?”

The address given to Brendon was on an industrial place, which was completely abandoned. It seemed the perfect place for Trace to be.

It would be, if it wasn’t for the fact that all the buildings were completely destroyed.

Brendon and Alex looked to the scenario in front of them, completely stumped.

“Something’s not right here.” Brendon muttered.

“You think?” Alex asked, looking at his friend. “Are you sure this is the right place?”

“Of course I am, the tracker is pointing directly to this place!”

Brendon took the little machine off his pocket, and sure enough the signal was coming from this location.

“Wait here.” Brendon said, walking to the debris.

He followed the steady beep of the tracker, looking everywhere.
Five minutes later he returned to Alex, holding a phone on his hand. Jack’s phone, Alex recognized.

“I found this on the trash can of the first building.” Brendon said. “Trace was clever in leaving it here; he played us like fools.”

“That fucking son of a bitch!” Alex shouted, grabbing his hair. “What do we do now?”

“We come back to the station; this is not over yet, I still have some tricks.” Brendon said, walking back to the car. Alex followed a second after.

Half an hour later they were entering the police station, walking straight back to the tech department.

“Dallon I need you to find out Trace’s cell phone number and track the signal.”

“I’m on it.” He said, typing on the computer.

Brendon walked to another part of the station, looking for a map.

“Alex, when you were talking to Trace, do you remember him saying anything about his location?”

Alex thought for a second, replaying the video call on his mind.

“Yes, he said that, uh, the freezer was working even though the place was abandoned.”

“So he’s on an abandoned place. That’s helpful.” Brendon said, looking at the map of the city.

They marked every place they considered abandoned, reducing search locations.

Alex looked at the clock halfway, his breathing quickening as he realized he had less than 4 hours to find Jack.

Just when he was going to warn Brendon his phone ringed.
He looked at the screen, anger growing when he recognized Trace’s number.

“Wait, don’t pick up yet.” Brendon said, looking at Dallon. “You’re tracking it?”

As Dallon nodded, Alex picked up the phone.

“What the fuck do you want?”

“Wow, calm down a bit, will you Alex?” Trace laughed. “I just called to warn you that you’re running out of time.”

“I still have 4 hours, and I’m close to find you.” Alex growled.

“Oh, that’s where you’re wrong.”

Alex froze. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that you might have less than 4 hours. Maybe 1 or 2.” Trace said, smile evident on his voice.

“What!?”

“You see, I wasn’t expecting Jack to give up so easily. He looks like a tough guy, I thought he’d be able to resist. But I’m looking at him right now, and he’s sleeping.” There was a pause before Trace continued. “You know what happens, first you start getting sleepy, then you fall asleep, and finally…”

“You fucking bastard, I’m gonna kill you.” Alex hissed, pissed. “You better say your fucking prayers soon, ‘cause when I find you, you’re a dead man.”

Another pause, and then a throaty laugh. “Oh ‘Lex, you still think this is my fault? You did this to yourselves. You should know better than to mess with me.”

Trace ended the call, and Alex looked at his phone, controlling himself not to smash it on the wall.
He looked to his side, expecting Brendon to be there, but he wasn’t.

“Brendon?”

He was walking to the front door with decided steps.

“Didn’t you say you wanted to find Jack? Then come on, I know where Trace is, it’s fifteen minutes from here!”

Alex ran after him and they got in the car, driving speedily to the location. They had no time to waste.
______________________________________________

Jack woke up, disoriented.

He opened his eyes with more effort than he had thought, looking at the white wall of the freezer.

He felt numb, but he couldn’t think of why. He couldn’t think of anything, really.

Except for one thing.

Damn, I really need to pee.

He tried to get up, and soon found out he couldn’t move a muscle. He was too weak to do anything except open and close his eyes.

So he just stood there, staring blankly at the wall.
_____________________________________________

“Are you sure this is the right place this time?” Alex asked, looking through the window.

“Yeah, I checked on the map. A butcher used to work at that warehouse ‘till a few years ago, so there’s a big freezer there. The reason why it’s still working it’s because the guys who’d take care of shutting it off refused to do so as they weren’t paid enough.”

Alex groaned. “Well, that’s just great.”

They arrived at the place twenty minutes later. Alex hopped off the car before it even stopped, and ran to the building.
Brendon followed after parking the car, walking rapidly. He looked at the building and a shiver went down his spine; the place looked creepy as hell.

Brendon caught up to Alex a minute later.

“How do you wanna do this?” Brendon asked, and Alex huffed.

“Me? You’re the cop here, you should know what to do in these cases!”

“Well, Trace must be here, so it’s better we don’t split up. And this place is not that big. If the freezer’s here, we’ll find it.” Brendon looked at the clock. “We have around 1 hour and 30 minutes.”

Alex swallowed hard and started walking, looking around in the dark.

“What if-”

“Don’t.” Brendon interrupted. “Don’t even finish that sentence. We didn’t get too late, Jack is still alive and we’re about to take him out of the damned freezer. And that bastard is gonna pay for what he did. Okay?”

Alex took a deep breath and nodded, slowly walking, and trying to see anything in the dark of the place.

After 15 minutes of searching, Brendon shouted.

“Alex, I found it!”

Alex ran to Brendon, who was trying to open the door to the freezer.
But he soon found he was unable to.

“What the fuck, the handle won’t bulge!” Brendon screamed, frustrated. “How the fuck do we open this thing?”

“Tic tac, tic tac, tic tac…”

The duo turned around, meeting a smirking Trace.

“I’m afraid that opening that door won’t be as easy as it seems. If you look closely you’ll see that this door needs a code to open. And the only one that knows the code is me.”

Alex was already sending Trace a furious glare, but these words made him lose it.
He ran to him and threw him to the ground, punching Trace with all the strength he had.

“I’m gonna kill you!” he screamed between punches. “You’re gonna pay for what you did to Jack, you sick psycho!”

“Alex!” Brendon called, trying to drag him away from Trace. “Don’t do this, he’s not worth it!”

“Let me go! He has to pay for this, he almost killed him!” Alex exclaimed, squirming his arm in an attempt to make Brendon let it go.

“If you kill him, you’re going to jail and you won’t see Jack for a long time, is that what you want?”

Alex seemed to calm down at these words, but still glared at Trace with a murderous look.

“What’s the code?”

Trace, who by now was a bloodied mess on the floor, chuckled.

“You really think I’d give you the code after this? No way, you’re gonna have to watch Jack die.”

Brendon tightened his grip on Alex’s arm, though his will was to let Alex kill the bastard.
He glared at Trace up and down in disgust, but something caught his eye.

“You gotta be kidding me…” he muttered, walking to Trace.

Trace tried to get up to run, but Brendon pinned him to the ground, grabbing his right arm.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Alex asked, confused.

“Seems like he’s more stupid that I was thinking.” Brendon smirked. “Look at his arm.”

Alex got closer, and smiled as he saw it.
In Trace’s arm, the numbers “1512” were written in black ink.

Trace went pale, stuttering as he yanked his arm from Brendon’s grip.

“That’s- that’s not the code, you dumbasses. Do you really think I’d be that stupid to write the code on my own arm?”

“Honestly, I do.” Alex laughed, turning to Brendon. “I’m gonna open the freezer, can you call your friends?”

“Of course.”

Alex ran to the freezer’s door, writing the code on the machine. His heart was running fast, afraid that Trace was telling the truth and that wasn’t the right code.

After two agonizing seconds, the screen turned green and the door opened.

Alex ran inside, momentarily blind at the sudden white light of the place.

And then he saw him. Laying on the floor, his skin almost blue, and he didn’t move.

“Jack!”
________________________________________

Jack was starting to doze off again when he heard something.

It sounded like someone was screaming outside.

He wondered what was going on outside. Maybe someone was rescuing him.
Plus, he couldn’t help but feel like he knew who was screaming, but couldn’t remember of the actual person.

The screaming stopped suddenly, and silence filled the place again.

Jack closed his eyes; he knew he was going to die there. It was just a matter of time.

After a moment that seemed longer than it was, a long beeping sound was heard, and he heard steps coming closer to him.

“Jack!”

He surely recognized the voice. He couldn’t remember who was speaking, but something told him it was a friend. Maybe more than that.

The steps sounded faster, and a second later he felt someone picking him up, the heat coming from their arms feeling like burning against his cold body.

Jack slowly turned his head to see his savior. His vision was blurred, but the purple hair clicked something in his mind, and he instantly recognized them.

“Alex…”
_____________________________________

Alex got out of the freezer in a hurry, with Jack on his arms.

The panic was growing again; Jack was literally freezing, and he looked like he was going to pass out any second.

“C’mon dude, keep your eyes open, don’t black out on me…” he muttered, walking fast to Brendon, who had found a big towel on one of the rooms.

“Alex…”

“Yes buddy, it’s me.” Alex said, eyes tearing up. “You’re gonna be alright, ‘kay? You’ll be okay…”

Alex placed Jack on the floor, and Brendon immediately wrapped the towel around him.

“The ambulance is coming any minute now.” He said, looking at his friends. “And the police too.”

“Thanks for helping me, Bden.” Alex said, smiling.

“No prob. Make sure Jack gets better, I want to party with him soon!” Brendon exclaimed, making Alex laugh.

The ambulance arrived a minute later, followed by two police cars.
Brendon followed the cars, making sure Trace does go to jail, while Alex entered the ambulance, following them to the hospital.

Alex walked around the hospital room, trying his best not to just enter the bathroom and drag Jack out of there.

The nurse had told him that when they’d get to the hospital they’d give Jack a warm shower to rise his temperature, and that as his body temperature is really low, the warm water would feel burning hot to him and he’d scream.

But Alex wasn’t expecting his screams to be so painful.

He sat on a chair, closing his eyes and taking deep breaths to calm down.
It just didn’t seem fair, after all Jack had been through these 4 hours he still had to suffer to get better.

Five minutes later the screaming stopped, and the door opened. Jack walked out, helped by a nurse, and laid down on the hospital bed.
After a quick checkup and some recommendations, the nurses left, and Alex jumped off his chair.

“You’re okay?”

“Yeah, just freezing cold.” Jack said, smiling. “I heard you kicked Trace’s ass back in the warehouse.”

“More like punched that fucking smirk off his face. My knuckles still hurt.” He chuckled.

He noticed Jack was shivering, and his smile faded. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

He nodded weakly. “I’m just cold, I’ll be okay.”

Alex looked at him for a second, and then got up, rounding the bed.

Jack looked at him, confused.

“What are you doing?”

“Sit down for a bit, okay?” Alex said, helping him get up.

Jack watched incredulous as Alex took off his shoes and climbed to the bed, sitting down behind him.

Alex noticed his surprised stare and shrugged.

“What? You’re cold, I can keep you warm. And I’m fucking tired, searching for your sorry ass wasn’t easy!”

Jack laughed, leaning back on Alex’s chest. Alex wrapped his arms around him, his chin resting on Jack’s head.

“Are you sure we can do this?” Jack muttered.

“Uh… I have no idea.” Alex said, making them both laugh.

Jack yawned, tired.

“Thank you for saving my sorry ass, ‘Lex. I really thought I was gonna die there.”

“I wasn’t going to let you die without a fight.” Alex kissed the top of his head, smiling. “You’re my best friend, I-”

He stopped as he realized Jack was fast asleep, snoring peacefully.
Alex smiled, pulling the covers up and leaning his head to the wall, closing his eyes.

'I love you.'