(Chapter 9)

He was running, his breath coming fast as he weaved his way through the tree-lined swampy grounds and finally ducked behind an old rotten stump and crawled inside.

"Com awn ot bo! Yew no aye'm gon fine yew! Aye mad tis place, sitee bo, an ur gon du wha I teh ya!"

He cowered, one dirty hand over his mouth to keep himself from crying out. He was shivering from the cold and wet from wandering in the swampy forest. The huge cypress trees towered above him like so many giants or the legs of adults.

He was small for his age but he was no coward. It was enough to say he picked fights where he shouldn't but only when it was needed. He liked helping people even though he was no more than eight. He wished he was back with his parents safe instead of here. He wasn't even sure how he had ended up in this awful place.

"Com awn bo... com awn ot! Aye ken smeh ya!" He shivered, drawing himself in closer inside the rotted stump. He just barely fit and now he was shaking in terror as the voice grew nearer. Would they find him and who would help? He was alone. He closed his eyes and started to wish for someone to help him when he felt a hand on his. He nearly screamed but another covered his mouth gently.

"MawMaw?" He muttered in a hushed whisper. He was looking at an older woman, her face actually quite young looking for her 50 years. Her stringy brown hair was wrapped up in a loose bun on top of her head and she smiled down at him with eyes nearly as blue green as his own.

"Beb, der bay nuttin' ta bay scard ub. Sha, gib meh ur han." He looked up at her and did as she asked, her delicate fingers gently wrapping around his and placing something gently around one wrist. She smiled as she took his hand and pulled him from the stump. While he was cold and wet she felt warm and seemed unaffected by the place they were in. She took him in her arms and he curled up and closed his eyes.

"Sha, yul com wak sun. Jus listn." She spoke gently and he nodded to her, keeping his eyes closed and hearing her sing to him some old Cajun song he never understood. It was her voice lulling him into security, the sounds of the swamp and bayou fading as the nightmare ended and he started to wake up.

Galen Ambrose opened his eyes, sitting up where he sat at his desk. He must have dozed off a few minutes but it was long enough for him to remember about a visit with his late grandmother when he was just a child. He had caught cold his parents thought while on a visit but his grandmother had insisted it was something else. He had ticked off a neighbor boy earlier that week and the family was known for throwing curses around at anyone they wished. That's when he had gotten sick and not only that, started to have nightmares of running through the swamps, someone yelling as they chased him. Finally he saw his grandmother and she had put something around his wrist. From then on, the dreams changed to much happier things and his fever had finally subsided.

"You can't believe in this stuff son. It's not real!" He heard his father say, turning as his maternal grandmother poked her head in and smiled. His father frowned at her slightly, holding up the bracelet.

"What is this thing? Is it even safe to wear? Are those animal teeth? I don't want my son wearing this!" His father sounded angry, his mother walking in behind his grandmother and looking worried.

"Honey, she didn't mean any harm. That's how things are done here. He's been doing so much better. She walked over and whispered although Galen could hear just fine.

"It makes her happy and it makes him feel better. Please, let him wear it till we leave." She pleaded gently but his father was not from this place and didn't understand. He had grown up in the East Coast and never knew about such things as voodoo and curses other than stories and movies.

"No, it's fantasy! I don't want him to grow up thinking these things are real when they aren't." He threw the bracelet in the wastebasket and left the room angrily.

It was as if someone had opened a door. Galen's fever returned with a fury, causing him to be bedridden. His parents were worried sick about him when the fever refused to go down. Even the doctors they called were uncertain how to treat it. They recommended they take him to the nearest hospital in New Orleans. Once he had been moved, the fever persisted and his dreams of being chased returned. That's when he had dreamed of hiding in the stump and his grandmother had showed up. She placed something on his wrist and he'd waken up a few hours later the doctors trying to figure out how and why his fever had suddenly vanished.

His mother noticed the bracelet first but said nothing. Galen tried his best to follow her example till his father found out. It was an odd thing though as his father seemed to finally accept things he didn't understand. He wasn't totally convinced but he knew his son was better so he wasn't going to complain.

Galen thought about the memory, drawing from it all he could to help his current patients. Agent Burke was stuck in some nether place as was his partner, Neal Caffrey. They were fighting what he could only call a 'psychic' attack but for how long could they hold on without help? The physician sighed, standing up and walking out of his office. He made his way to the staff room to look for some coffee. He noticed something sparkling ever so slightly in the lights as he passed the wastebasket. He bent down and pulled the item out and saw it as the bracelet he'd given Burke. Neal had been wearing it when they'd gone to ICU but he wouldn't have trashed it. Galen tried to think how it would have ended up here when he left the room and made his way to the security office.

"Dr. Ambrose, how are you doing sir?" The main guard for the evening waved to him as he entered the small office. The room was dimly lit and was covered on one wall with nothing but screens showing the various parts of the hospital being monitored. Only the inside of regular hospital rooms and bathrooms were not included for patient privacy. He smiled back and shook the man's hand.

"Tom... I was wondering, did the FBI come to look at the tapes yet? They wanted to see the surveillance footage of what happened to Agent Jackson and Mr. Caffrey." He sat down beside the guard who nodded.

"Yeah, working on it now. I had to go through quite a bit of footage to find what they wanted. ICU is under surveillance but the camera's been buggy for a few days so I had to take footage from the hall cameras. Maintenance knows so they're working on fixing them. I just finished it up and was going to contact Agent Hughes and Jones to pick it up. You're welcomed to look it over." Galen nodded and watched as one of the screens went to black then back up with the acquired footage.

The film showed movement inside the small ICU room although it was hard to see who. He could just make out a chair flipping over and then someone standing up and leaving the glass enclosure. It was Sam Jackson. Nobody had kidnapped him but here he was conscious and walking away. The camera scene changed and Sam was walking down the hall till he entered the staff room and Galen saw that he had changed in the staff bathroom, exited and dumped the bracelet on the way out.

He stood and patted the guard on the shoulder with a smile.

"Thank you, Tom. I think the Feds will be happy with this footage."

()()()

Peter watched in horror, unable to react as Goru tortured Neal with the acupuncture needles. He struggled but the faceless mob held him securely. Sam was also held, bound and secured to a chair off to the side.

"Stop it... please!" Peter tried to make himself do more but whatever Goru had done to him, he was helpless to do anything more than sit there and watch as Neal was broken down.

"Your friend is holding on despite my methods. Maybe something a little more overt." He made a motion and Peter was pulled back to his feet and strapped into a chair nearby. Neal was unbound from the gurney and placed in another chair, strapped securely. They were facing one another, Neal's head slumped, eyes closed, chin resting on his chest. Peter's hands were flat on the arms of the chair, secured so they were immobile but would remain flat.

"Wake him up..." Goru pointed at Neal, a nurse holding something under Neal's nose. The young man twitched slightly, nose crinkling as he started to come to. His blue eyes fluttered open, a dull glazed look on them before they finally focused in on Peter.

"Pe..." He didn't say anything else before a rag was pushed into his mouth and tape pulled across this lips. The same was done with Peter, both men trying to figure out what was about to happen. Everyone had forgotten about Sam, the agent off to the side on his own, strapped into a chair and watching with only a minimal amount of attention. He seemed to be mumbling to himself about a dream or something.

"I believe you're both educated enough to know the story of Prometheus? He brought fire to man and thereby enraged Zeus who tied him to a rock and tortured him by having vultures tear his liver out every day."

Peter kept his attention on Neal, the young man looking around dazed. They had to get out of here and soon. He could feel himself giving in to this place and he could see the same happening to Neal.

"Well, let's just say I'm going to let you experience a little of what Prometheus went through." He made a motion and two sets of faceless minions showed at the sides of Peter and Neal. They held their hands flat on the chair arms, Goru standing between them both and holding what appeared to be a pair of pliers. He walked over to Neal first, putting a single finger between the pliers and yanking hard. The young man gave a muffled scream. Goru moved the pliers to the young man's nail and yanked it off. Neal made no noise, his body shuddering in pain as he slumped, head lolling over the chair back loosely.

Peter struggled to free himself, muffled sounds of protest as he watched. Goru smiled and made a motion towards Neal. The young man's head was held up, eyes opened and looking at Peter despite their glazed look. Goru moved to Peter, pliers in hand as he hooked them around one finger. Peter saw Neal's eyes widen despite the blank expression of shock on his face. He wasn't out of it and now he would have to watch Peter go through the same thing. Neal's head shook ever so slightly in protest, tears rolling down his cheeks.

Peter jerked as his finger cracked. He gave a muffled groan as his nail was pulled off the same finger. Goru chuckled, pointing down at the finger and missing nail.

"Now this is the fun part. Watch... watch..."

Peter didn't want to look, he didn't think he could under the circumstances his mind numb from pain. The faceless minions held him so that he was forced to watch. Slowly the finger began to crack and twitch. It hurt almost as bad as what Goru had done, the finger returning painfully to it's original unbroken form, the nail growing like some kind of small bean sprout back into place. He looked up briefly to see the same happening to Neal, the young man squirming as the pain hit him again.

"See how much fun this is. Now we can do it all over again and again."

()()()

The paramedics checked out the patient and pulled a white sheet over the body. A doctor stood nearby and nodded.

"I'm sorry Warden, but he's dead. It looks like kidney failure and perhaps malnutrition. I know that you take good care of your prisoners but you said he wouldn't eat? He was always listless and sitting cross-legged in the cell? I remember reading of Yogi's that did that but they didn't do it to this extent. I don't know what kind of 'guru' he was supposed to be but he failed miserably. Are there any family we need to inform of his death?" The doctor looked tired, rubbing at his eyes and moving aside with the Warden as the paramedics took the body down to the ambulance.

"No, he had no family other than the people he scammed and most of them have died already. I will need a copy of the death certificate for the Feds. They have a pending case on the man. He hurt two of their men investigating him for fraud. I'm also going to need an autopsy. He hurt a few of my own guards and their families are curious what this mystery ailment is they all seem to have come down with." The Warden sighed deeply, showing the doctor into an office once they arrived on the staff side of the prison. They had already removed their masks and gloves outside in the hallway, a guard with haz-mat experience taking them in a red bag. Both men sat in a roomy sitting area near the desk. He offered the doctor a drink.

"I shouldn't but under the circumstance, why not. This has been a weird case to work on." The doctor took the amber colored drink and sipped at it, the Warden doing the same with his own.

"Any idea what he could have done to cause people to fall into comas? It doesn't make much sense. I figured he must be contagious mostly why we've kept up the mask and glove routine. They're going to scrub down that area like they did the interrogation room and his cell before that. We don't want to take any chances. The doctor nodded in agreement.

"Nobody can see anything obviously wrong with this individual, but it is possible he is a carrier for something he never succumbed to. The autopsy will find that out. Toxicology will run as many tests as are necessary."

()()()

Elizabeth woke up to the sound of someone strangling. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and sat up looking across the room from the sofa. She saw Neal shuddering, his face contorting in pain. She stood and ran over to him, holding his hand.

"Neal? Neal what's wrong?" She brushed a few strands from hair from his face and realized he was feverish, his forehead covered with sweat. She reached around and pushed the nurse call before she turned to hear similar sounds from Peter. She moved towards her husband and hugged him, holding his hand in hers tightly.

"Peter? Peter what's happening?" She saw him struggling in the same manner as Neal, his own face twitching ever so slightly as if from pain. He too felt feverish, his hair damp from his efforts.

After a few minutes a nurse appeared and walked over to Elizabeth and Peter.

"What seems to be the matter?" She started to check Peter's pulse and vitals but she was more interested in his fever. It had come on suddenly, his forehead hot to the touch. She made a phone call and walked to a shelf to pull out a bottle of what appeared to be aspirin.

"How long has he been like this?" The nurse popped out two before she saw El looking over at Neal as well.

"I actually saw Neal first. He's also feverish. Then I heard my husband reacting in a similar manner and he was feverish too. I only just woke up and found them this way." El watched the nurse nod, the door opening as Dr. Ambrose walked in. He gave El a quick pat on the arm and started to examine both Peter and Neal. His lips curved into a frown, reaching into his pocket and looking at something he had pulled out. Elizabeth recognized the ugly bracelet her husband had the other day but said nothing in front of the nurse till she had left and just the doctor and her remained.

"You had another one?" She asked as he turned and looked at her, his eyes glancing down at the bracelet. He shook his head sadly.

"No but I wish I did. I don't want to choose which should live. I know as a doctor I have to do that daily but it's never an easy decision. Both men have sacrificed for the other but I don't want to be the one who chooses which one comes back." He pushed the bracelet back into his pocket and sighed.

"What's wrong with them, Doctor? They told me something about dreams and faceless people but I just don't understand. What did you tell my husband that made him believe? I... " She turned a moment to look at Neal then back towards him, her hand wrapped in Peter's.

"I'm not sure how to make you believe what's going on, Mrs. Burke. I grew up where this stuff was commonplace. Your husband must have visited with the man who caused this if he believes now. There's no other explanation for his symptoms. To know is to believe whether you choose to or not." He handed the bracelet to her.

"It's your choice if you want to make it. I know you want your husband back. I can't make that decision knowing what I know. I'll do what I can to make them comfortable." He shook his head sadly at her, giving her a small hug before he left.

Elizabeth pulled a chair up and sat down, one hand still hooked into her husband's. She held the ugly bracelet up to the light and really looked at it. It consisted of several preserved wild flowers that had surprisingly survived over the years, snake fangs that had yellowed ever so slightly, and some small animal bones possibly from a rodent but she didn't want to go there. The beads were what drew her to it. They were shiny without being distracting. They were natural uncut stone smoothed as if by wind and weather, some of them blue, green or even amber in color all swirling with natural highlights. She sensed a kind of electricity about the object which made her look between both her husband and Neal as she twirled the object in her hand.

()()()

Sam was in his own world. He barely saw what was happening around him. He was still in shock at having returned to this place when he thought he had escaped it. He found himself mumbling quietly before the muffled screams woke him. He finally looked to see what was going on.

Goru was torturing both Peter and Caffrey. The agent watched in horrified fascination, memories of what had happened to him returning. Caffrey had been forced to watch him be tortured, helpless to assist. He had hated the con, wishing it was him getting hurt instead. He had felt such anger and rage at the CI but now he was beginning to see another side. He was just as helpless to assist Peter or Neal. He saw Neal glance ever so briefly his way but there was no rancor there. The young man looked pained and even concerned it seemed.

No... this can't be happening. Why did I do it? I should have helped them and I... caused this.

Sam stood up, walking towards Goru and turned him around. The man looked at him, a curious glance on his face.

"How did you free yourself, Agent Jackson? That should not have been possible. No matter... I will have my minions put you back." Goru made a motion but nothing happened. Sam continued to stand there looking at the man who had terrorized him and smiled. He saw Goru shrink back ever so slightly.

"I think we both know why I'm immune."