Syndrome

Rated: NC-17

Chapter I: Going Under

Author's Note: This story is by FAR not for everyone. It was inspired by the movie "The Poughkeepsie Tapes" and is going to be brutal and unforgiving. I'm sorry if it offends or sickens you but I am writing it so too bad. Anyway if you don't like it, let me know, just don't be nasty. Enjoy!

Cuddy had been missing for six months. House was losing his mind. Every day was spent on the phone with the cops, asking about new evidence and such even though they had given up on her as a missing person almost three months ago. He wanted to find her more than anything. A dead body would be better than nothing at all. In fact he expected the call that her body was found more than he expected them to find her alive. Not that he wanted her dead, but it was much more likely, and he wanted closure.

He had made friends with a cop at the station, her name was Lila Hendrix and she was the detective on the case since the beginning. They had been going out a few times a week for almost three months now. She was good for a cheap fuck but he really ached for Cuddy. The only reason he had gotten so close to Lila was because she held information. Things that she wasn't supposed to tell him but did because they were sleeping together.

That day he was in his office after giving orders to his ducklings when the phone rang. The ID said that it was Lila. He answered it, anticipating the worse. Lila almost never called him unless she had bad news. He always ended up calling her to set up a date or a quick lay. "Lila?" He said into the phone. He wanted to hear that Cuddy had been found, but he also didn't want to hear that she had been found. It was really a catch-22 at that point.

"I got my hands on some things I think you should see. I'm not supposed to take them out of the evidence locker but it's only fair. I'll meet you at your place tonight at 8:00." She said, whispering into the phone. House blinked a few times, what could she have? What was he not supposed to see? He swallowed hard. Did he really want to see this? The way she was talking it sounded bad and the last thing he wanted was to get bad news.

"What are they?"

"I gotta go. 8:00." She said and then hung up. He sighed loudly, wanting to call her back. He knew, though, it would do no good because the phone would either just ring off the hook or her partner would answer and divert him away from her. He guessed he could wait until 8:00 to see what this was all about, but his stomach was starting to knot. He popped two vicodin and downed a few gulps of water. Little did he know he was in for horror that he never thought possible.

When 8:00 rolled around he was sitting on his couch, smoking a cigarette. He had picked the habit back up quickly when Cuddy had gone missing. He knew it was bad, and gross, and addictive but at that point he really didn't care. He vowed to give it up if Cuddy ever came back but a big part of him believed that she never would. About five minutes past the hour, there was a knock on his door before it opened and Lila poked her head in. In her hands she held two black cases that looked like they held DVDs. He didn't know why she would have a bunch of DVDs but whatever it was, it seemed important.

"Hey." Lila said and then came over to him after shutting the door. She sat down on the couch and grabbed one of his cigarettes and lit it up. He looked at the two cases she had set down and then looked at her. Each one looked like it held over 100 DVDs.

"What's with the cases?"

"Well," Lila said slowly, "They are videos, of Lisa." She said, her voice barely above a whisper. House reeled from the shock of that news like it was a blow to the face. Cuddy was alive? How alive was she? Were these recent videos or were they of her death? There were obviously over 200 of them, and if they led up to her ultimate snuff he didn't think he wanted to watch them.

"What are on these videos?"

"The things he has done to her. We believe she is still alive, due to the time stamps on each one. They chronicle what he has done to her over the past six months. They date up to a few days ago with her still alive and well." Lila explained. House leaned forward and tapped some ashes into the ashtray on the coffee table in front of them.

"Done to her? Alive and well? Those two statements don't jive." House said. If they were tapes of what had been "done" to Cuddy then of course she wasn't "well". She may be alive, according to them but there was no way she was in her right mind. He was already picturing what was on it, torture, sex, mutilation...the list went on and on.

"I thought you might be interested. If you aren't then I can take them away." Lila said, "I wasn't supposed to show them to you in the first place and-"

"No, I want to see them." He said definitively. He would rather know than not know even as bad as he was anticipating they were going to be. Lila nodded and opened the top case, the first DVD was labeled 1 with a date corresponding to the day Cuddy had been taken. Lila slid it out of it's slot and walked over to his DVD player. She placed it in the tray and shut it, pressing play.

The scene opened and it was indeed time stamped. Everything was dark for the moment but there was audio and House could hear someone breathing and moving around on the screen. Then a very bright light came on and shone over a body, which he quickly recognized as Cuddy's. She was on a table on her stomach, her wrists were tied behind her back to her ankles and she had some sort of leather harness on her face. She was struggling as much as she could and crying.

Then a man came on the screen. He was dressed in all black and wore a mask that completely covered his face. Cuddy's eyes went wide as she saw him and he leaned in to talk to her. "What is your name?" He demanded and she winced, screaming out in fear. House had never, ever seen Cuddy that scared in his life. "YOUR NAME!"

"Lisa!" She cried struggling even more, "Lisa Cuddy!"

"WRONG!" The man yelled and then punched her in the side brutally. Cuddy screamed out in pain and started crying even harder as she tried to catch her breath. "Your name, is slave." Cuddy screamed and tried to wriggle away but there was no way she was going anywhere with the way she was tied. House could only imagine what was going through her head at that point.

"Please, please don't hurt me, I'll do anything you want, just let me go just let me-"

"What is your name?" The man repeated, grabbing a chunk of her hair and yanking her head back violently. It looked like he was trying to look into her eyes but she was avoiding his gaze like the plague.

"L-Lisa." She whimpered and he punched her again, right where he had hit her before. She screamed and then started to cough as she tried to catch her breath.

"YOUR NAME...IS SLAVE!" The man yelled. Cuddy started hyperventilating, it was clear that her mind was starting to crack. House didn't know how much of this he wanted to watch. He wanted to tell Lila to turn it off, yet he couldn't look away because it was like a train wreck. "What is your name?"

"S-slave." Cuddy whispered and the man reached out and started to stroke her hair gently, as if he was rewarding her. She continued to cry harder she obviously knew that she had been caught and there was not going to be an easy escape this time. Lila picked up the remote and paused the DVD. She turned to House who was just stunned into silence.

"It gets a lot worse." Lila said softly, "I don't know if you want to see-"

"I want to see all of it, Lila." House muttered and then snuffed out the end of his cigarette. It didn't occur to him that these tapes might be the last he ever saw of Cuddy. He hoped that wasn't true, but there was no way to know. Besides if they ever did find Cuddy he wanted to know what he was up against in way of mental and physical abuse.

"Well, I've seen it all once. I can leave these here with you for a few days but then I need to get them back." Lila said softly. House nodded and reached for another cigarette. He had a feeling that over the next few days he wasn't going to be getting any sleep.

After Lila had left, he turned the DVD back on. As she had said, she had seen all of it, but this seemed like something he had to do in privacy. The scenes were congruent but they skipped without warning. They weren't continual, and he was glad for that because he didn't think he wanted to see absolutely everything.

The next shot was Cuddy standing in the middle of some desolate basement. Her wrists were tied behind her back and chained up above her in what looked like a horribly uncomfortable position. It wasn't clear how long she had been standing like that but her legs looked ready to collapse at a moments notice. She was also blindfolded and her crying had ebbed somewhat but it hadn't stopped. That's when the man stepped into frame again, she obviously heard him coming and started crying harder, yet it was a weak cry and it sounded very pitiful.

"Please..." She begged, "Please I just want House." He was surprised to hear his name. He was the last person he thought she would ever want to see at that point. It made his heart ache even worse knowing that she was begging to see him.

"I killed him." The man said to her and she screamed. She, of course, had no way of knowing that he hadn't been killed. Logically, she would know that he wasn't dead, but she had clearly been tortured before this and was probably losing her grip on reality.

"NO! NO! HE'S NOT DEAD!"

"Yes he is. You're mine now." The man said taking a strand of her hair and wrapping it around his finger. He was still in his mask, and all House wanted to do was rip that mask off of him so he could be identified. This predator was clearly smart, cold, and calculating. If he had left these videos to be seen on purpose then there was no chance that any of the footage showed his face. "You're happy I killed him."

"NO!" Cuddy screamed, "NO! I want House, please I just want House!" The man punched her in the stomach hard. She let out a choked cry as the wind was knocked out of her. That's when, in the foreground, House noticed the sink filled with water. This was obviously about to be used for something.

"Say you're happy I killed him."

"NO!" Cuddy screamed and then tried to spit in the man's direction blindly. Roughly, he took her down from the chain and forced her over to the sink. She was struggling the whole time, but it was a weak struggle. House was guessing that she had been deprived of water and food for some time at this point.

The man bent Cuddy over the sink and pushed her head into the water, holding it under for a good ten seconds. Cuddy struggled fiercely at this and bubbles came to the surface as she struggled to get out of his grasp. After what had probably seemed like an eternity to her, he pulled her head back out. "Say you're happy."

"NO!" Cuddy coughed, expelling water from her lungs. Before she could get in another good breath, her head was back under water. The man held her in there for ten more seconds and then pulled her back out. She was coughing and screaming alternately, trying to get in some good air. "I'm...I'm..."

"What? WHAT?"

"I'm happy you killed him!" Cuddy cried and then burst into sobs. House couldn't believe what he was seeing. She was being brainwashed right before his eyes. Surely she didn't believe he was even dead, yet now she was admitting that she was happy for his death as fake and weak as it seemed.

"Good girl." The man said and then pulled her back over to the chain hanging from the lone pipe and chained her back up. Cuddy was forced to stand on her own two feet now, which was hard. If she just let herself go then chances were her arms would become dislocated and she would be in hideous pain. Her legs were trembling horribly and she was still crying. Now she was all wet, probably freezing, and convinced House was dead. How could watching this get any worse?