Disclaimer: I don't own Suite Life and Honor Harrington series.
I like to thank Darkelements 10 for betaing this chapter.
The song lyrics are in bold while mental thoughts are italicized.
Zack was moved into the recovery wing three days after Ken arrived. The only injuries left from the accident were the bruised ribs, the broken leg and the wrapping around Zack's head. He was expected to wake at any time. All in all, Ken was impressed with how fast Zack was progressing.
There was an extra reason why he was improving so quickly.
"I am amazed how this manticorian medical technology decreases healing time." Nurse Cathy as she came in to check on Zack.
The nurse was temporarily transferred to Recovery to keep an eye on Zack at Ken's request. He felt extremely comfortable with the woman being in charge of watching over the boy. Which relieved his nerves quite a bit he realized.
"Now now we are not miracle workers though I suppose it does look that way doesn't it?" replied Ken with a questioning look.
"Absolutely," Cathy said with exuberance. "Three days and every last scratch and bruise are healed completely. I wonder what it does on bones?"
"Unfortunately the quick heal therapy does not work as fast on bones as it does on tissue injuries. Still it cuts the healing maybe in half for bones. It is still going to take about a week for the ribs to heal and 2 to 3 weeks for his broken leg to heal. Zack is one lucky man. The broken fibula did not move very far from the original spot, so it should make healing time easier. Unfortunately he is still going to hate recovering from it."
Ken did not mean to temper her exhilaration but he had to make people realize the advances in medicine the Star Kingdom of Manticore offers does not cure all ails even he wished it did. Ken looked over at Alexander who was curled up in chair next to Zack's bed watching it all contently. How he envied the treecat sometimes. He listened to Cathy as she continued on.
"I heard from the Rehabilitation wing a story of a soldier who lost an arm in combat who got a second chance at normal thanks to your medical technology."
Trisha Cunningham walked in during the conversation and sat down in a chair on the opposite side of the bed from Alexander at Zack's head. She listened with intrigue as the two sides exchange info.
Ken interrupted Cathy's energetic sermon. "I presume you are talking about regeneration therapy. It uses genetic manipulation to force the body to repair itself and this allows regrowth of lost limbs and an increased chance of survival from near fatal wounds."
Ken was interrupted by Alexander's movement from the chair onto Zack's bed. The flash of movement silenced both of them while Trisha moved closer towards the bed. Her face is almost opposite Zack's eyes.
Zack felt weird as he slowly opened his eyes. He had a headache, was stiff and sore and a throbbing pain originating from somewhere in his leg.
He had no idea where he was. His brain acted like he was on slow motion instant replay he saw when he watched basketball. The only thing he did know was the Corolla inside roof was not white, so the question seeped into conscious thought.
Where am I?
His dark green eyes slowly came into focus, blinking the fogginess from his view. His sight immediately zeroed on a pair of lighter green eyes looking at him. The rest of his vision cleared and he was looking a woman with black hair who he recognized instantly.
"Trisha"
"Hello Zack. Welcome to the land of the conscious. How are you feeling?"
"Honestly. Like I was in a car accident" Zack's voice was full of sarcasm and the tiniest smile appeared on his face for an instant.
"You scared us there for a while." A nurse appeared in his eyesight. "My name is Cathy. I will be one of the nurses on call to watch you"
Zack groaned. He hated being babied but considering the state he was in, he relented easily. He saw Cathy look past him but was too tired to move.
Zack realized as he fading away into sleep and struggled to stay awake but the Sandman had different plans for him.
"It's ok Zack. You are safe here. We'll talk more when you wake up again."
Zack heard Trisha's voice like a whisper in a dream. He felt a presence on him as he was drifting away into the blackness of his mind. But before he could further the thought, he was already asleep.
Ken watched Zack fall asleep and sighed.
"At least we know we are out of the woods with him. Now comes the hard part. Raising him."
Trisha nodded and both of them watched as Alexander lay near Zack and put his head on Zack's stomach.
Hours whizzed past Ken by as he waited for Zack to wake up and wondered how his world would change with a child in it.
"Do you have any idea about how he will react to me?" Ken asked Trisha while they watching Zack shift in the bed before settling down.
"If you are wondering what to do, you can only do your best. Granted it will be hard to start with Zack adjusting to you and his new environment."
"Oh I have no doubt it will be difficult. I would expect nothing less. But I just pray I don't screw him up more than he already is."
Trisha looked at the man who could be Zack's foster parent and hoped he would be a good fit. She was not surprised he was having doubts about his abilities as a parent. He would not be the first or the last. His file showed he was dependable, trustworthy and willing to go to the hilt for anyone and cared about people. She prayed he would be the one to put Zack back on a path to a regular life but under the current circumstances, she was not sure.
"Giving Zack a safe and stable environment, where he feels comfortable around you, that's a good start. After that, it's a matter of showing he can trust you. If he feels he is able to let his guard down around without getting hurt, he will start to go back to normal maybe. Of course having his brother around him would move mountains with him in that area."
Ken groaned as she said this. He hoped he would able help Zack but having his twin brother gone from his life could an insurmountable obstacle in the situation. He begged to whatever higher power there was out there that Cody would be found safe and sound.
Somewhere far from where a man was watching over a child, a human being was stirring from his sleep. The boy was waking up in almost total darkness, his hair covering his eyes. The eyes glowed like lighthouses in the darkness.
"I wonder where they are at now?"
The boy was asking the universe about the two people who lorded over him.
"They are not people. They are soulless and without love."
The men, if they dared to deserve the distinction in the boy's eyes, were away from the shack where they lived at in Altoona, Pennsylvania. They were part time workers in the failing industrial sector of the area. The pair had fallen on hard economic times and had more frustrating days than not.
The soulless ones end up taking out their frustration on the boy. He's just a moving target in their world. A release for them to get rid of pented up anger at the world for the injustices they see that caused them to lose at everything.
"Why me? Why did I do deserve the pain they have put in through? I have done everything they have told me to do. I was a good boy. I did not break anything. I have kept the house clean and go to school like they told me too. I get Bs and Cs and yet they still hurt me. Why?"
The boy's eyes filled with endless tears that ran down his cheeks as he endured the avalanche of agony that was his existence since he came into these men's lives over 30 months earlier. He would describe it as nothing more than mere hell.
The boy was grimacing as he moved around in the pitch black darkness that was only broken by a small light in the hallway by his room. The tears ran like parts of his soul were leaking out of his eyes. Day by day, the boy lost in the unjust world of which he experienced.
Zack
The name seemed hallow to the cosmos. A memory from a past life, however, it still held a precious remembrance to the boy. It was the last lifeline he had before he gave up on his existence.
"I don't know you. I don't know my name anymore. Who is the boy looking at me in the mirror?" The boy asks the offending mirror as he looked in it with a mutilated view of life. Rage surged through the boy, who wanted to shatter the mirror for showing him what a repulsive little worm he was.
"I don't think I do that after what happened last time" The boy still had the bruises on his chest and stomach from the last beating he received. After a while, he learned to stay out of their way, if possible.
He tried to survive and be good at school by staying out of trouble or else the misery would commence the second he got home. Whether it was the spoon hitting him or yelling in his face or being thrown against the wall, they all degraded the boy until he withered and the shield weaken around his spirit. His symbol and identity faded almost into nothingness. Only the memory of a boy named Zack kept him going at all.
The boy went to his room, which was a large broom closet, and laid down on the almost paper thin mattress. He pulled out some almost faded pictures from his pocket. They were his recall to happier times in his life. They were the only sunshine in his life.
One of the pictures consisted of his brother and he dressed Batman and Robin for Halloween. His arm around the shoulders of his best friend and their buckets overfilling with sugary bless, smiles as bright as the sun. They were 4 years old at the time. Before the incubus began and their innocence was ripped from their lives.
His eyes focused on another picture. This one had the same two boys in the picture with almost natural smiles in a pool on a hot summer day when they were 8. The two boys in the picture with blond hair and identical bottle green eyes were in their own world. They were each other's heaven and earth. Without one, the other would be incomplete and lost.
"I love you Zack and I miss you so much."
The boy realized he was crying again after water and mucus were running the ruined remains of a T-shirt he was wearing to bed. The boy used his dirty shirt to wipe his tears and snot away and continued his journey of memories.
The final picture had the same two boys dressed in their best on the first day of school. Their smiles and eyes held the promise of a better tomorrow which…
"Boy!"
The boy jumped out of his skin, immediately terrified and looking around trying to crawl into the smallest hole he could find. The hole to crawl into was never deep enough to feel safe in.
The floor creaked as two pairs of shoes tortured the hallway with their anger. The pale lad in the room turned and waited to face his doom.
The two death walkers glided into the room like evil spirits and the worthless piece of life in front of them wilted in front of their eyes.
"What have you been doing all day, knitting? This place looks like someone died in it" The apparition's tone lessened the boy until he was a small imp.
"I did what you told me. Please don't hurt me" The imp squeaked out with his terror filling the room.
"Hurt you?" The second man said with sadistic humor. The child only differentiated them by the color of the eyes. "If you had done right the first time, you not have to pay the consequences."
The two demons enclosed upon him like in a vice grip sealing off whatever hope the boy had access. The youngster backed off unconsciously as he had always had done, knowing in despair it was hopeless.
The two specters noticed three objects on the floor next to the waste of life and picked them up.
"What are these?" They asked with an evil smile.
The runt's heart stopped when he realized what they were. He lunged to grab them from the monster's hand, but was shoved to the ground, his head bouncing off the wood floor. Before he could move he was grabbed from behind and his limbs pinned and unable to move.
"Well as punishment for your actions, we are going to burn these pictures" The second man whispered into the struggling boy's ear as his arms were trapped above his head and the man had a python grip on his legs, making him totally helpless. The man's breathe smelled of alcohol and drugs.
"No Please!" The boy begged but they did not lessen.
The child watched as his memories started to burn before his eyes with the help of a lighter. The melting ashes from the pictures landed on his chest and stomach, burning him causing even more pain than any punch to the gut. The burning pictures were the last vestiges of his old life. The last physical memories of his brother triggered even more pain than he ever thought possible. The little flame bought back memories of his parents' death.
"Please stop! Please I need those pictures. Please…!" The agony dripping from his voice but was ignored by the soulless specters causing him pain.
By the time, the pictures burnt up, the boy known as Cody stopped struggling in the man's grasp. The man tossed him to the floor, repulsed by the boy's sniffling and begging. Cody's dead eyes were all that remained of him, drowned by eternal tears. The only remaining sunshine in his life was now a pile of cinders on his body and on the floor. The only sound punctuating the room was of a sobbing boy with half a life wondering what hell he deserved to be in while his soul breaks from physical and psychological wounds. All that was left was a boy waiting for the darkness to envelop him and take him away to a higher and better place.
The end for now…
I apologize to anyone who knows anyone in Altoona, PA. I did not mean to offend anyone. I just needed a town to set that section of the chapter.
The chapter was influenced by Pocketful of Sunshine by Natasha Bedingfield.
Anyway, Please Read and Review. I love to hear your thoughts. If you any questions about the story or Honor Harrington Universe, I will answer them. Thank you.
