Disclaimer: Don't own, not profiting.

A/N: ...So, yeah, 6 monthes passed by really fast... I am so sorry guys i have no idea what happened or where my mind went to, but I'm back. And, finally, here is the last chapter to Into the Darkness. I apologize if it sucks. Itallics indicate flashbacks from previous chapters.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

Drake opened his eyes, the sunlight leaking through the windows dancing across his face. He coldnt remember what he'd dreamt about that night, but that was okay. Lazily he crawled out of bed, Josh was all ready up and out of the room. He heard a russle of bedding and a few joyous sqeaks as Reginald pressed his face against the bars of his cage. Every morning he waited for Drake to wake up, to get his first treat of the day and be let out.

With a tired smile Drake sat on the couch in front of the rat, pulling out his treats and opening the cage door. He placed the treat in his palm and held out his hand. Without hesitation Reginald crawled into Drakes hand, eating the treat happily as Drake brouhgt his hand against his chest, petting the small creature. Over the past two monthes Reginald had grown trememdously, it took both hands to pick him up now, and the bond between them had grown as well. Reginald showed no fear of him, even seemed deighted for the time he spent on Drake's shoulder while he practiced his music.

Drake looked over to his guitar, remembering the sound of it snapping under his father's foot the night he'd been kidnapped.

~Devon spun to his side and grabbed Drake around the waist, one hand over his mouth to stop the screams. "Shut up!" He growled as he dragged Drake back to the couch, stepping on his guitar.

Drake heard the crunch of the guitar and fought harder to get away. Jerking his head back, he freed his mouth and bit Devon's hand, drawing blood. He was thrown onto the couch and punched across the jaw. Momentarily dazed, he felt himself being forced onto his stomach.

Devon pulled Drake's wrists behind his back, securing them with his right hand while he dug through the deep pockets of his coat for the roll of duct tape. He pulled it out, using his yellowed teeth to pull the strip free before wrapping it violently around Drake's wrists. He flipped Drake over, slamming his back against the lip of the couch and pressed another strip across his mouth.

"Let's go," He snarled, pulling him to his feet and forcing him forward.~

He shuddered at the memory. Leaving the guitar where it sat he held Reginald close. Those memories would never fade and die, no matter how much he wanted them to. They came back less now, not as vivid, not as terrifying. Absentmindedly he moved his fingers over Reginald's head, petting his ears. The rat licked his fingers hoping for a secound treat, which he got.

As he nibbled it happily a knock sounded at the door. Audrey walked in, looking at her son as he sat back on the couch, the rat in his hands, looking at her curiously. It looked so much like the one from the house, and it was just as close to Drake. She'd never forget that rat, the comfort it had given Drake in that horrible place. The way it had died to help him.

Slowly she approached Drake, sitting on the couch and watching the distant look in his eyes dissapear. It hurt to see the pain that was still there after all of this time. "He's getting big." She said, watching as Reginald layed down in the crook of Drakes arm.

"He eats like a pig." Drake smiled. He looked at his mom, she'd been okay with him having the rat, but she avoided him. "Wanna hold him?"

She sighed. He'd been trying to get her to pet and hold him for the last two monthes. She shook her head. "I dont think he'd like that."

Drake chuckled. "Put one of those treats on your hand."

Fianally giving in, she did it. She watched the Rat alert his attention to the sound of the treat bag, its black eyes never leaving the treat as she placed it on her hand.

"Now hold out your hands, like this." He said, putting his hands together, palms up.

Audrey looked at Drake's hands, her eyes falling upon the scars on his wrists. There were three hardly vissible ones, small, pearl white lines against his skin. One larger one, barly visible at all, and then there was the one that haunted her most. The long one that had been so deep it formed a jagged bump over the skin, a pasty white reminder of the pain he'd been through.

Drake followed her eyes to his wrists and quickly turned his hands over. He looked at Reginald, who had already moved down his lap and toward his mom's open hands. He took a moment to smell her before jumping into her hands and taking the treat. he carried it back to Drake's lap before eating it.

"He doesnt like me." She laughed.

"He's just not used to you." Drake assured her.

"School starts tomorrow." Audrey said, remembering why she had come up to his room. Their summer vacation was finally over. "I've talked to your Princible, and if anyone bothers you about what happened, just call and I'll come get you."

"Thanks." Drake said, turning his eyes away from her. There had been a story on the knews about his dad's escape from prison, and about his kidnapping. His close friends had left him alone about it, but, he wasnt sure if the entire school would do the same.

Audrey stood up, whipping her hands on her pants before moving toward the door. "Lunch will be ready soon." She said as she walked out of the room.

As soon as the door was shut she leaned against the wall, tears in her eyes. She'd seen the scars o his wrists a hundred times, but they always hurt her. To see what her husband had done, to remember watching helplessly as he had hurt their son.

~"Drake?" She nearly shrieked as she saw him for the first time in four days. Hanging by his wrists from the ceiling, unconscious on his knees. She could barley see him under all the blood, cuts and bruises. "you bastard.' She spit as she pulled away from Devon, running toward Drake and kneeling beside him.

"Drake, I'm here," She said as she pulled the gag out from his mouth and touched his cold face.

Drake looked at his mom, tears in his eyes. "You shouldn't be here…"

"I couldn't leave you," She said, wanting more then anything for the handcuffs to be gone so she could hold him in her arms and try to take some of his pain away. She couldn't imagine how he felt, with all of his pain mirrored on his body. "I had to come, I had to try."

He couldn't hold the tears back and his head fell as he tried to hide them. "I'm sorry," he said. "Mom I'm so sorry.'

Audrey shook her head. "You have nothing to be sorry for, Drake. You've done nothing wrong, you never did." She leaned forward and kissed his for head. She looked to the ground, where the dried blood had turned a brownish color in small puddles around Drake.

"I'm sorry I couldn't protect you." She whispered. Seeing him like this, what Devon had done to him, was breaking her heart. She'd failed to protect him as a child, and now again.

Drake pushed away his own pain, and spoke as strongly as he could. "This isn't your fault. Mom, I love you." He thought he'd never be able to tell her that again.

She laid her hands over his cheeks, caressing his face as she smiled. "I love you too. I love you so much Drake." ~

She hadnt seen his back since they'd left that place, but she was sure there were scars there too. Ghostly reminders of a week of pain and suffering. Those memories still gave her nightmres, the pain and tears he'd shed. The night he'd asked her to kill him so he wouldnt have to hurt anymore...

Audrey swallowed the tears, forcing all of it away as she headed back toward the kitched. Drake had made it through, he was alive. That was what mattered now. She had to keep being strong for him.

Audrey whipped away the tears as Josh walked up the stairs, smiling as he came closer. "Are you okay, mom?"

"I'm fine." She smiled, walking past him. It had all been really hard on Josh ,he'd spent weeks blaming himself for the kidnapping. She was glad to see him smileing again. Josh had been by Drake's side every step of his recovery. He'd been everything tht Drake needed to move on, and she felt blessed that Drake had such a terrific brother.

"Thank you, Josh." She said, stopping at the top of the stairs.

"For what?" josh asked, confused.

"For being there for him." She said, before decending down the stairs.

Josh smiled at her as he turned to enter the room he shared with his brother, finding Drake on the couch. "Hey." he said before joining Drake on the couch.

"Hey..." Drake said quietly as he helped Reginald climb up his chest to sit on his shoulder.

"You okay?" Josh asked, seeing the hurt on Drake's face.

Drake looked at his wrists. 'They still bother her." He said.

Josh knew how their mom felt. They bothered him too. The ones left by Drake's father, and the one Drake had made himself. Knowing that Drake had done it himself, seeing it bleed as he picked it opn had all been terrible. Seeing them now, healed, but never gone filled him with sorrow and guilt.

He could remember the night Drake had been taken, watching his dad hold the knife to his throat, then leave with him. The week of not knowing if they'd get him back alive. then watching the paramedics speed off with him barly alive. None of it had seemed real until Josh walked into that hospital room, seeing what was left of the brother he loved so much, completly feeling as if all of it had been his fault.

~It took a moment for Josh to be able to do anything but look across the room to where Drake lay asleep. There seemed to be more bandage then boy laying in that bed, his breathing hidden by the sounds of all monitors and machines.

Josh walked as quietly as he could toward the small plastic chair beside the bed, sitting in it cautiously. He looked at drake's sleeping for as if it were a ghost. He was deathly pale. It seemed as though his face was the only part of him not bandaged or heavily bruised. He looked from the twitching eyelids to the bruised cheek. The cut lip to the finger shaped bruises around Drake's throat.

Holding back tears josh carefully took Drake's hand, startled by how cold it was. "I don't know if you can hear me," he started, clearing the sorrow from his throat. "but I have to try. I'm sorry Drake." He said, tears burning in the corners of his eyes. "I should have done more on the night your dad took you. There had to have been a way for me to stop this, but didn't find it." He closed his eyes, the machine reading Drake's pulse echoing into his mind.

"I'm so sorry," he choked. It took four or five deep breathes before josh could open his eyes and look at drake. Drake was his best friend, his brother, and he was alive. There wasn't much more josh could wish for at that moment. "I love you, brother." Josh said as he slowly let go of Drake's hand. He couldn't look back as he left the room because he knew that if he did he would break down completely.~

Josh loooked Drake in the eyes, hiding his pain. "It's just hard for her, that feeling of guilt that she couldnt protect you from him." Josh said, knowing how she felt.

Drake stared back at Josh, knowing that he still felt guilty about all of it. "It wasnt your fault." he re-assured his brother. "He would have killed you, and I'd rather go through it all over again then have had lost you." He said honestly. Drake knew that he wouldnt have made it through the last two monthes if Josh hadnt been by his side.

"Thanks." Josh said. "You ready for school tomorrow?"

Drake sighed. "I hate school." He said jokingly. It felt good to smile, the be happy.

Josh laughed, smiling widely as he watched Drake put reginald back in his cage. "Wanna see a movie?"

"Yeah." Drake said.

He watched Drake grab his clothes and leave the room to get changed, admired his smile. It seemed like a testimant to the strength he'd always asiciated with Drake to see him smiling, getting out of the house and living again. He'd been through something that Josh couldn't even imagine, even though Drake had told him everything. He'd faced the darkest evil, and nearly given up. Yet here he was, living past it, just, living. He was the strongest person Josh had ever known. And Josh knew that Drake would continue to fight his demons and emerge the victor. he was Drake after all.

Drake stood in the bathroom, using the mirror to look at the scars on his back. he couldnt feel the pain that had left them anymore, but he knew they were there. They always would be. But he wouldn't let them, nor the memories they held control his life. There would always be pain, and deep down inside fear. But wouldnt let what had happened define him. He was stronger then all of that, Josh had taught him that.

He turned away from the mirror, pulling on his clothes and running down the stairs to the kitchen. He kissed his mother on the cheek and grabbed one of the sandwiches she'd just made.

"Me and Josh are going to see a movie." He said as Josh entered the Kitchen.

"Have fun." She said, smiling as she watched them walk toward the door.

Meghan walked past them as she entered the house, shaking her head. "Boobs." She greated.

"Evil!" Josh hissed jokingly.

She turned around, catching a glimpse of Drake before the door shut. He was smiling. "I'm not pranking them enough." She sighed as she walked into the kitchen to grab a sandwich. She couldnt help but smile, Drake was okay now.

Drake and Josh walked down the streets, smiling at the world. Drake looked toward the sun and grinned. he knew that everything would be okay, with his family beside him, he could do this.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

A/N: I apologize if the end wasnt very good, but, I'm satisfied with it. Sorry about the 6 month wait!