Title: knew I was going to fall and fall, knew in my evil heart I was going to eat it all
Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Diane Lockward
Warnings: AU; dark&creepy
Pairings: none
Rating: PG13
Wordcount: 285
Point of view: third
Prompt: Pretender, Jarod, "I decide who lives or dies"
He remembers when he wasn't like this. Remembers it perfectly, sometimes almost with regret.
one two, tie your shoe
He was just a kid with a good memory. With interesting ideas. And they played a game called "What If?" and he was really good at it. The best.
three four, shut the door
He didn't like it there, the place where they caged him and asked him questions all day. The game changed, to "Maybe?" and "How?" and it was nowhere near as much fun.
five six, pick up sticks
When he was eighteen, one of the men (so many, and he knows their names, he just doesn't care) leaves him an opening any fool could see. He's not a fool, so he takes it, and when he walks out of the building into the sun for the first time, there's bloody footprints following him.
seven eight, slam the gate
The world isn't ready for someone like him. Completely unprepared, and he looks so innocent, so young. Anybody could fall in love with him.
nine ten, begin again
And people on the outside... they're so easy. A smile here, a touch there, and one boy after another follows him home, not noticing the bloody footprints. And they play games like "Doctor" and "Experiment" and they scream so much, so loudly, and he loves it.
They beg and they cry, and he wipes away their tears and kisses their foreheads and he twists the knife just so.
The games are so much more fun outside, and the world is spread wide for the taking.
And he hums a childhood nursery rhyme he never heard till he left as the next boy writhes.
one two, tie your shoe
.