Disclaimer: Don't own them. Don't even remember them that much! But it was a good show. So, I'm just playing with them.
Chapter 2
Nick looked at Derek and exhaled the air from his lungs along with his little good mood. It had to be done. Derek's eyes never left the still form of his friend, taking in all the details. The remnants of his dream, still lingering in his mind, were being broadcasted for all to absorb. The only time those walls the size of castles came tumbling down. Because of a nightmare, in the middle of the night.
"Well, I'm in the rover. I keep looking straight ahead, as if I know it's not going to last." Nick started, after inhaling deeply, as to still himself against the onslaught. "Outside, the night is still, dark. No moon light. No moon. The road is easy. Slight curves adorning a straight line. At your right the river keeps you company. At your left a forest of dark green stands frozen in all it's might" He stops, looks to his right, as if looking for something... or someone. "Alex is right here, besides me. I look at her face. She's smiling. Head tilted to her right side. She's asleep. A very peaceful and relaxing dream, by the way she is smiling. I look at her again. Just to make sure she's really asleep in a good place. Just for a second. Then... the road turns left some time later and I hear Alex mumbling something. I look back at Alex. Can't hear it... but she keeps mumbling something." He stopped, tilted his head to the right, trying to hear her better. "I'm sorry Alex! I really can't hear what you're saying. Maybe it's time to wake her up. Than I take my eyes off of her and there, in the middle of the road...there's this kid."
Nick slows down, as if not believing himself, or just bracing for the hardships to come. Trying to capture the moment. Trying to stop what is sure to happen. "The kid is a mile away... far, I don't know how I can see that far in a very dark place. But I try to slow down. No good. The car doesn't obey. Now the kid is just up ahead. Closer. Very close. I... I can hear him talking... But I'm not listening. I'm trying to stop the car. But he keeps talking. At me... straight at me. Too far away for me to hear, but still so close. Looking me straight in the eyes. He won't let the car stop. I'm sure of it. It's him. He wont let me stop the car."
"Nick?" Alex prompted.
"I'm locked with him... Eyes frozen like a reindeers in a headlight. And he is just there. I can only veer the steering wheel to the right at the last possible moment. There... in front of me... Why can't I stop?" Nick's breathing was getting more labored by the second, caught in the turmoil of that night. "The rover veers off the road, to the right. It stops short of taking us for a cold night swim. I hear the river claiming my soul... It sends shivers up my spine. I look back. Almost at once. There is no one there. Alex is awake by the time the rover stops working. I guess she's awake by the time we leave the road." Nick grabbed a hold of his dark blue robe, by the end of the bed, and puts it on, shivering. As if the river's waters had frozen his heart, and his body. "We looked, Derek. We tried to find the kid for over half an hour".
"Let's go back to the kid" Derek's words seemed to break the spell. Nick looked up, a bit lost in his own thoughts. His eyes unfocused, he felt guided by the sound of his boss's voice. "The kid?"
"Yes. Look at the kid. While he is still in front of the car." Derek's voice took him back to that moment, before he crashed the rover. Still lost in his own mind.
"What is he doing?"
"Doing? Nothing. Just standing there. Right in the middle of my lane. Looking... odd! The first time I see him he is looking away from us. He is so far off, but I can tell he is looking away. Than he disappears and next he reappears right in front of us. He is looking straight at me. He disappears again and almost causes me a heart attack because when next I see him, he is almost inside the car with us! He is looking at us. Measuring us up. No... he is looking at me... whispering something I don't understand. I really can't hear him. I'm too busy trying to stay away. But he is right in my face now. He is cold. Glacial cold. And… oh man. The smell... It's a rotting corpse! I could identify that smell with my eyes closed. It's a rotting corpse."
"Nick is shivering bad, Derek. Think it might be shock? Maybe I should call Rachel."
Nick turned around, closed his eyes and when he got to open them again, the shivering was gone. "I'm fine, Alex. Thanks. Nothing a good run won't fix."
"What is the kid wearing?"
"Wearing?" Nick must be really out of it, repeating every question.
"Yes. What is he wearing, what do his clothes look like?"
"Nothing much. Shorts. He is wearing shorts." Nick's eyes loose their focus and he is back in that night. Details keep coming to his mind and he whispers them, afraid they might go away at the sound of his voice. "He looks Caucasian, no. There is definitely some Asian ancestry. He is a white kid, very white before all the bruising. Tall, no more than 12, 14 years old. Brown tousled hair. The kid looks sickeningly skinny. He keeps his arms wrapped around himself. It looks like he was beaten. Several times. On different occasions or the bruising would not be all the colors of the rainbow. He is not wearing a shirt. His torso is naked. That's how I can see the markings of the abuse. His eyes are a dark shade of brown, but he looks sad. Not mad. Not angry. Just sad... And I really can't hear what he is saying. I wish I could listen... or that he could speak louder..." Nick lifts his head, taking his eyes off the floor and looking straight into the eyes of his boss, as if wishing him to see what he was seeing. To share the pain and the anguish of not knowing if he really saw what he thought he did, and at the same time of knowing that they had Legacy work ahead of them and that at the end of the rainbow they would find the kid's corpse. "And the fear. I remember the fear I felt for him"
"I feel fear, yes. But somehow," Alex cut in, almost in a whisper. "it's not your fear." She looks for his hand, and grabs it, taking solace in the moment. "Your fear is very controlled. You know why you're scared. But I also feel a different kind of fear. A hysteric uncontrolled fear. But it's not you. The kid is absolutely terrified of whatever is happening or has happened to him." She started shivering, feeling as if that night they had gone for a swim and were still in the freezing winter waters. She had to sit down in the bed, besides Nick, just to control all the shivering. She got a hold of herself, looked down at her hands, still wrapped in his and all the shivering, all the fear ramming into her like tidal waves, was gone. She looked at Derek and Nick and then stood and got closer to the window, drawing energy from the now beautiful moonless night outside. The deafening silence that followed was the absolute confirmation that made them understand that somewhere, out there, a kid was looking for help. "Oh Nick. What have you gotten yourself into?"
Nick put one arm around Alex's shoulders, took a deep breath and tried to leave the nightmare behind. "Sorry Alex. I'm sorry that both, you and Derek, got dragged into my nightmares."
"Oh honey, that was no nightmare. That was real."
"And you know that, Nick. But we will get to the bottom of this. We will find that boy. And end your sleepless nights." Derek got to the open door, ready to leave Nick's room. But right now I want you all to have a good night's rest. We will need it."
"You need some rest Nick." Alex said. "Think you can sleep?"
"Doubtful"
"Will you be OK?"
"I will be OK. Go Alex. It's your third sleepless night too. You need rest as much as I do. Go back to sleep. Both of you. I'll be OK."
"Sleep safe"
"You too." The bed was looking good right about now. But sleep was not on his plans. Not again. Not tonight. The moment Derek and Alex left his room, he really tried to go back to bed. Just to rest. Not sleep. Not again. Not tonight. Sleepless nights always took their toll. So... rest for a while. Don't sleep. Not again. Not tonight, he said to himself.
But sleep he did. Until he woke up again. "It wasn't real" he kept telling himself. "It wasn't real" He kept trying to convince himself of that every time he woke up scared and drenched in sweat.
