Sawliday AU
Adam and Lawrence wake up in an old ranger station in the middle of nowhere two weeks after the New Year. They have no way to contact anyone and no idea where they are. What they do have are the clothes on their backs, a torn up map that only shows them where to go, and a six-foot chain locking them together.
Chapter 1, Chapter 2,
I know it's almost May. I just want to start posting this fic because I really like it. This was inspired by @turnipoddity's art. Specifically, her banner with Adam and Lawrence chained together.
Nothing too graphic happens in this story, especially compared to the original Saw. There will not be much blood except maybe some mild injuries. (Sorry Jigsaw)
Adam hated people. Sure, it sounded like something the cliche angsty teenager would say. But it was true. People were unpredictable, untrustworthy.
Adam preferred animals, specifically cats. That’s what brings him to this dark, cramped alleyway one afternoon with a bag of cat food. Adam walked with careful, even movements until he was in the middle of the alleyway. He stopped then whistled three high notes in quick succession and shook the bag.
The alleyway came alive as several cats emerged from their hiding spaces and ran to Adam. He knew they were mostly excited about the food, but their tails were all up, so they were still happy to see him. Even if it was just because he brought food.
Adam crouched down, then spread out some newspapers he picked up from someone’s driveway. He knew the cats probably ate off of the ground all the time. But who knows what humans dump back here… Adam poured the cat food onto the newspaper. It was a small bag, so he poured out the whole thing then dumped the bag in a trash can.
He crouched by the cats again, just watching them. There were seven in total: three tabby’s, two calicos, one maine coon, and one small black kitten. Adam had no idea who the black kitten’s mother was. All he knows is that she’s been coming to greet him ever since he started doing this. He nicknamed her Blue, because she had bright blue eyes.
Blue was the first to pull away from the food to go to Adam, as usual.
“Hey, Blue! How ya doing, girl?” Adam asked, holding out his hand for her to sniff. Blue, instead of sniffing it, rubbed her head against his hand and purred. Adam began to gently scratch behind her ears. “Aww, such a sweetheart!”
The other cats gradually came away from the food to see Adam. The orange tabby liked talking to him, filling him in on everything that happened since he last saw them yesterday. Adam couldn’t translate it word for word, but he learned the tones of his “meows” to mean good or bad things, so he could respond accordingly. He was glad to hear lots of happy meows.
A door down the alleyway opened, startling all of the cats except Blue, who was still getting pets from Adam. Adam and six of the cats all turned to watch as a young woman with short, dark hair came out and lit a cigarette. She didn’t seem to notice Adam.
Adam was perfectly fine with that.
After a few puffs, the woman, Amanda, finally looked over and saw him sitting with the cats. She paused for a moment, eyes wide with uncertainty.
Adam decided to be nice. He nodded his head in a “what’s up” gesture. “Very rockstar.”
Amanda paused. Her brows furrowed in confusion and she looked around.
Adam mentally face-palmed. “Your hair. I like it. It’s very rock star.”
“Thanks,” Amanda said, still anxious.
Adam smiled a little. “It’s okay, I don’t bite. Some of these guys do though. Looking at you, calicos!” He said the last part in a teasing manner. One calico flicked her ears in response while the other continued to bite Adam’s shoe.
Amanda smiled and gave a small laugh. “You don’t have names for them?”
“I only named one, because I know she’s the same one every time. This little black kitten, her name’s Blue, ‘cause of her blue eyes,” Adam explained. “You can come see them if you want. I smoke down here, too. They’re used to it.”
Amanda didn’t need to be asked twice. She cautiously approached the cats, then crouched down a little ways away so they could come to her. And sure enough, the maine coone, one of the tabby’s, and the two calicos came to see her. “I’m Amanda.”
“Adam. You work around here?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Amanda nodded. “Had to take my break early because a stupid customer pissed me off and my manager took his side.”
Adam scoffed. As he spoke, he lit his own cigarette to join Amanda. “Typical. Bosses only care about themselves and their profit.” He took a puff, then continued. “Bosses, and landlords: biggest douches I’ve ever met.”
As he says this, a dark figure in a pig mask comes out from behind a dumpster. He slaps a hand over Adam’s mouth and injects a syringe into his neck. Adam doesn’t have time to react before he loses consciousness. All of the cats run away. Except Blue, who hisses at the figure.
Amanda puts out her cigarette with the heel of her boot and stands up. “Huh. Can’t believe you pulled that off.”
Hoffman pulls up the pig mask to glare at her. “Just get the doors to the van.”
They both walk over to a van parked just outside of the alleyway. It was the middle of the work day, so very few people were around to notice the kidnapping.
Blue chased after Hoffman, meowing incessantly.
Amanda opened the doors, then crouched beside Blue so she wouldn’t jump in the van. “Sorry, Blue. I promise this is for his own good.” She reached down to pet her, hoping to calm her down. Blue swiped at Amanda’s hand, giving her a good sized scratch and hissing. Amanda didn’t seem to care. She hops into the passenger side as Hoffman closes the doors. He gets into the driver’s seat and they pull away, leaving Blue still meowing and hissing in their direction.
****
Lawrence was beginning to hate people, too. Which was ironic since his job as a surgeon and oncologist was to save people. The only two people he didn’t hate were his eight year old daughter, Diana, and his wife, Allison. Although he will admit Allison was getting on his nerves more than usual today.
“Why can’t you just cancel, Lawrence? They’re calling you away for a week and they only gave you a few hours notice,” Allison argued, glaring daggers at her husband as they both sat in the kitchen. It was the farthest room in the house from their daughter’s room, so she hopefully wouldn’t hear them argue again.
Lawrence sighed. “One of the other speakers at the convention caught pneumonia. If I don’t cover for him the hospital will lose a lot of funding. People’s lives are-”
Allison cut him off. “I swear if you use the ‘people’s lives are at stake’ excuse-”
Lawrence cut her off. “What else am I supposed to say?”
“I don’t know! Something that doesn’t make me feel guilty for wanting you to stay. My parents were really looking forward to seeing you.”
“That’s not a guilt trip?” Lawrence asked.
Allison sighed and put her head in her hands. “You don’t get it, do you?”
“What is there to ‘get’ about this?” Lawrence asked, putting air quotes around “get.”
Allison stared at him directly in the eyes. There was a hint of sadness in her anger. “I don’t know how long I can go on like this.”
Lawrence raises an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
Allison sighs again. “I mean, you walk around pretending to be happy-”
“I am happy,” Lawrence cuts her off, trying his best to smile convincingly.
“Let me finish!” Allison snaps. “You walk around pretending to be happy, but you don’t feel that way at all. You don’t feel anything! At this point I’d rather you just break down and tell me you hate me because at least that’d be real.”
Lawrence scoffs. “So, what you want me to tell you I hate you? You’re being ridiculous.”
Allison reaches behind her to grab an expensive looking vase off of the counter. “Should I smash something to get a real response out of you? Start screaming? I know you’d care what the neighbors would think of that.”
Lawrence gently takes her hand holding the vase and guides it back down to the counter, being sure to set the vase in the exact same place.
Allison lets go of the vase to cross her arms. “There’s the way things look, and there’s the way things are, Lawrence. Which one do you care more about?”
Lawrence takes out one of the realistic but still artificial flowers from the vase. He holds it out to her, flashing what she dubbed his “Prince Charming” smile.
Allison can’t help but smile in response. She takes the flower, staring at it. It looked so similar to a real flower, yet it was just plastic. “These are fake. I want the kind that lives and breathes.”
“And dies in a week.”
Allison glares at him again.
Lawrence sighs. “Fine. I’ll bring some back when I come home. I need to finish packing. My plane leaves in a few hours.”
He walks down the hall to the room he shares with Allison. He doesn’t call it “his” room because it never felt like his. He spent so many late nights working either in his home office or his real office that they felt more like his room, especially since he slept on those couches more than in his own bed.
Lawrence walks into the bedroom. His suitcase is open on the floor, his clothes folded on the bed just above. Lawrence chuckles when he sees Diana trying to fit into his suitcase, a black blanket over her so she could blend in.
“What are you doing, Di?” Lawrence asks, sitting beside her.
Diana pokes her head out from under the blanket, her hair messed up. “I wanna go with you!”
Lawrence smiles fondly. He picks her up and sets her in his lap. “A suitcase is no way for a princess to travel!”.
Diana pouts. “But you won’t let me come with you.”
“That’s because you have school,” Lawrence says.
“I hate school! It’s boring.” Diana crosses her arms as she says this.
Lawrence does his best not to laugh. “Well, I hate to tell you this, honey, but my work trip is going to be even more boring than school. There won’t be any recess or snack time or playgrounds.”
Diana looks at him, her eyebrow raised in confusion just like her dad does. “Then why do you go?”
“It’s one of the many fun things about being an adult,” Lawrence sighs, running his hand over her hair to smooth it back down.
Diana pouts again. “I don’t wanna be an adult.”
This time, Lawrence lets himself chuckle. “I don’t want you to be an adult either. Luckily, neither of us have to deal with that for another ten years or so.”
A clock in the hallway chimes, signaling it’s four in the afternoon. Lawrence has to be at the airport by five to make his flight. Not to mention he scheduled for a taxi to pick him up at four thirty.
“I have to finish packing now, sweetie,” Lawrence says. For once, he sounds sad to be leaving. He sees the frown on Diana’s face. Lawrence suddenly has an idea. He lifts her up and sets her right in the middle of the bed. “Why don’t you tell me about school while I pack?”
Diana lights up and begins excitedly telling Lawrence everything she can.
The time goes by too quickly for Lawrence and Diana. They finish saying goodbye just as Hoffman comes to the door, dressed like a taxi driver. He leads Lawrence to the same van where Adam is currently unconscious, only this time, the words “Air Transit” are on the side, making it look genuine.
Hoffman puts the suitcase in the very back of the van with Adam as Lawrence sits in the back seat. He’s too busy checking his watch to notice anything unusual, until Amanda, wearing the robes and pig masks, injects Lawrence with a syringe too, knocking him unconscious.
Amanda moves Lawrence to the back with Adam. She climbs up to the passenger side again as Hoffman gets in the driver’s seat. Neither of them say a word as they drive away with the two unconscious men in the back.