I don't own Race to Witch Mountain, or the game Risk. I do, however, own the plot and the other characters.
Chapter Twenty-Six: The Kids' Trouble
(Jack Point of View)
Though Seth didn't know it yet, Sara had been thoroughly convinced that Emily and Jared were her parents. Part of what convinced her was that she began to remember some things the more she was around where she had once been. Her parents and Jack and Alex began to show her some things that she had once owned on earth and places she had been on earth to help spark her memory.
But Seth resisted. To him it was all a trick to get him to trust them. Henry had way too much hold on the boy for them to convince him of anything. He refused to look at the evidence, and even when he did he fought them hysterically. It always ended in him being sedated. But Jack noticed that he was beginning to remember. The man could see it in the boy's eyes, especially when he looked at things like the picture album, places of the house, various things he had been given, and pictures of the school he had attended.
It was too hard for him to accept it though. Only five days had passed and the more they showed him, the more he resisted. He became dangerously violent to himself as he attempted to escape several times, injuring his guard and himself in the process. He would throw things around in his room and scream and yell whenever they brought him the evidence. Such was the state he was in. "IT ISN'T TRUE! IT ISN'T TRUE!" he would shout, and afterwards they would end up sedating him for his safety.
Because of his precarious state Sara wasn't allowed to see him which in Seth's eyes gave the boy further proof that he and his sister were prisoners.
His parents were desperate. They couldn't have him going back to Henry Burke or even attempting to make contact with the man.
Even Sara was struggling still with everything and would become dangerously violent when things got too much for her. But not as much as Seth. She would spend some time in her room, cooped up and crying. When they came to get her and tried to push her to go with them downstairs to eat, she'd resist. They'd push her further, trying to get her to come down, and Jared had tried to carry her downstairs at one time. But she began fighting them, telling them that they didn't respect her. When they tried to calm her down she got even more hysterical and started throwing things at them, telling them to get out of her room.
"GET OUT!" she screamed at them, tears rolling down her face. "YOU'RE JUST LIKE HENRY BURKE! YOU HAVE NO RESPECT FOR WHAT I WANT!"
"Calm down, Sara," Jack tried to urge her.
"GET OUT!" she screamed some more, throwing more things. "YOU THINK YOU CAN PUSH ME TO DO WHATEVER YOU WANT? NOT ANYMORE! NOT ANYMORE!" When they finally left she would collapse on her bed and start crying. She wouldn't let them come in her room for hours. Sometimes she and Seth refused to eat.
"They're having trouble adjusting," Emily hopelessly commented. "I don't know what to do! I don't know how to help them!"
The doctor looked at her gravely. "They're traumatized," he explained. "And at this point I don't know that you per se can help them."
"What do you mean?" Jack asked.
The doctor, Arnold, sighed. They could tell that he didn't want to say what he thought he had to. "They changed environments too quickly. They're becoming dangerous and it's not their fault. It's the trauma. They're having trouble working through things. What they need is careful guidance and to be watched twenty-four seven. They shouldn't even have anything sharp in their reach. My greatest fear at this point is that they might start directing their emotions towards themselves in a negative way."
"What do you mean, 'a negative way'?" Alex asked, a bit sharply, wanting him to spill it out.
Arnold shook his head. "You're not going to like what I'm saying."
"I don't care, spill it out," they replied, impatient now.
Arnold looked at Emily, pity in his eyes. "I fear that they may begin harming themselves. They're showing the beginning stages of people that always end up hurting themselves, even trying to commit suicide. It's possible that Henry Burke and his men helped to encourage it, helped to encourage that they harm themselves for the sake of his gain."
Emily had taken a breath in and she hadn't let it out. "What do we do then to prevent that?" she asked, masking her carefully contained emotions.
"You have to let them go," replied Arnold. "They can't be around you for now. The simple situation of them being here is too much for them and they can't have that. It's actually pushing them in that direction. That and you can't keep an eye on them to the point that they need."
"What do we do then?"
The doctor looked away. "You have to send them to a mental hospital. It's for their own good. They need to get to a point where they can deal with things and they'll be able to keep an eye on them really well over there."
Jack stood up. "No," he pounded his hand on the table in front of him. "I won't let you do this. They can't be trusted. For all we know some of those doctors could work for Henry Burke. I can't let the kids go missing again."
Arnold turned back, looking into Jack's eyes. "You'd be able to visit them."
"But it won't even give Emily and Jared control over their treatment plan! They'd essentially be giving up their rights on the kids to the hospital!"
Arnold looked at her now. "Do you want to risk them harming themselves? Even dying?"
"Do you want to risk them getting caught again?"
Arnold sighed again. "It's your choice. I'm just saying what I've observed. They'd be able to go home once they were cured."
Jack narrowed his eyes at the man. "We won't let them do it. We won't let Emily and Jared do it either. You'll have to figure out another way to help them. I don't trust the hospitals. Emily and Jared would have no say in the treatment plan and they would have to fight the hospitals for it. It would be extremely hard to get them out once you get them in."
Emily stood up. "I won't do it either. Before we got the kids back I actually did a little bit of research on these 'mental hospitals'. I thought the kids might be there, hidden there. All it is, is a place where they brainwash people to make them so-called 'better'! And you call that help? They wouldn't be allowed their own views! The only way they'd be let out is if they agreed with the doctors! That's essentially what Henry Burke did! That and I've talked to a few patients enough to know that their inhumane and not a good place for anyone to go. They use propaganda to make the public think that it's a good thing but it's really not! It's a prison! That's all it is! They feed a lot of misinformation to the public! I'd die before I let my kids go there!"
"Yeah," Jack replied. "Perhaps you're just going by all the misinformation that they've given you."
Arnold looked away. "Suite yourselves," he muttered.
But no one trusted the man after that. They wondered if he was connected to Henry Burke in some way. But without a way to prove it they couldn't very well accuse him. Instead they had people follow him without his knowledge until they could see where his loyalty lay. But he wasn't allowed near the kids anymore.
"What now?" Jack asked a day later.
Emily shook her head. "We be patient. Perhaps we should slow down on all the information we're giving them. Maybe that will help."
"Perhaps," Alex agreed.
(Seth Point of View)
Tears were rolling down the boy's face as he lay in bed. He glanced over towards his guardian, Jack, who was reading some kind of book.
They had just gotten through another fight and had had to sedate Seth. The boy wasn't happy with his situation and he wanted badly to go back to Henry Burke. He wanted to be in the safety of his mother's arms, where he knew he would be protected from everything. He wanted his father, Henry Burke, to assure him that everything would be okay and that everything the Bruno's and their friends had told him was a lie. He needed the reassurance.
Moreover, he felt tired and exhausted. Fighting them seemed to drain what little energy he had and he wasn't sure how long he'd be able to hold on and resist their teachings. He cried silently, praying and wishing that his parents would come soon and take him away from that terrible place.
Jack looked up from his magazine. "Are you all right, Seth?" he asked, his eyes also tired. Jack liked to look after Seth a lot, just as much as Alex liked to look after Sara as often as time permitted. Usually, they were the ones in the rooms with them. But they did everything in shifts so that the kids were constantly watched and so Alex and Jack got a break to rest and relax.
Seth turned away from him, trying to avoid him.
Jack came over, sat on the bed, and started patting his back. "Some of this is probably my fault," he admitted. "In more than one way, too. Perhaps I have been telling you more than you can handle, and I should have slowed down. But I want you to know that we do care. We want to see you get better. Please," he begged the boy, and Seth turned around to look in his eyes. The boy had the most miserable look on his face. "I know that you're going through a lot and I'm sorry. I assure you that everything we have said is the truth. Why can't you believe us?"
Seth looked away, not wanting to respond and tears crept to his eyes. Then, suddenly, he was sobbing again.
"Shh, shh, shh," Jack hushed the boy and scooped him into his arms, rocking him back and forth.
"You know you do things that father also does?" Seth told him. "He rocks me back and forth to."
Jack froze for a second, not knowing what to say or how to respond. Finally he responded, "He does, does he?"
Seth nodded, and then he sighed. "I don't know why I'm telling you this. It's not as if you're interested."
"No I am," was the quick reply and Seth looked up into the man's face.
"Why are you so eager for me to believe your way?" whispered Seth in wonder, as he stared up at him.
"You don't have to believe our way," was the soft response. Jack sighed, stressed. "I know you, Seth," he murmured. "And this isn't you. This isn't you. The boy that I once knew was taken away, stolen, and he's still stolen. I want the old you back, the one that was so vibrant and fun to be around, and the one that was happy. But you're... you're just a shell of what you used to be. This isn't you."
Seth looked away again, not knowing how to answer that. Memories seemed to try to surface but they were so deep inside him that he couldn't even reach deep within himself and pull it out to discover who he truly was. "What was it like?" Seth suddenly asked longingly. "To live on another world?"
Jack shook his head. "I've never been to another world. I wouldn't know."
The boy turned back to Jack. "Did we never take you there?" he asked, and then added on the end as an afterthought, "If I am an alien like you say I am?"
Jack smiled a bit. "See?" he pointed out. "You are beginning to remember."
"Not really," Seth honestly replied. "I just don't know what to think anymore. I don't know who's right and who's wrong."
"And how would you decipher the difference?"
"I don't know." Tears were once again flowing down the boy's face. "When I woke up," he sobbed. "I didn't know who I was. I was so scared and frightened and confused. But then father was there to reassure me that everything was all right, and that made things better, to see a kind face made things better. I didn't know anything. I only knew what he told me, and it made perfect sense." Seth looked up at Jack, and the boy's distress and uncertainty were obvious. "But here, everything is beginning to make perfect sense also. How can I tell who's right?"
"When the time comes," Jack replied in certainty. "You'll figure it out. You'll know."
"And how soon will that be?" Seth asked.
Jack shook his head. "I don't know. You just have to piece things together. Granted, it may take time, but I'm fully confident that you'll figure things out."
"You mean think you're way," Seth grumbled. He sighed and leaned back, closing his eyes, the fatigue evident on his face. "I wish for a simple life," he murmured.
"We all do," Jack reassured him. "But unfortunately life doesn't give us that.
"I wish it did," the boy responded.
Jack sighed and placed the boy down on the bed again. "Get some rest," he commanded gently and stroked Seth's hair. To the boy's own surprise, he didn't seem to mind the gesture and it made him feel better and loved. He didn't flinch away, which he was sure also surprised the man from the look on Jack's face. 'What am I thinking?' Seth questioned himself. 'These people kidnapped me!' 'But did they?' another voice in his mind asked him. 'How can you be so certain that it isn't the other way around, that father kidnapped you, and Emily and Jared really are your parents?'
He sighed and curled up into a ball, trying to avoid all the questions that he knew that he was going to have to eventually answer.
"I wish for a simple life," he repeated. Soon he was fast asleep.
(A few hours later)
(Seth Point of View)
The days had been difficult for him. He was constantly told that Emily and Jared were his parents, and that Jack and Alex were his friends. What was worse was that he was beginning to believe them. What was he thinking? Why should he believe someone who had kidnapped him?
But he began to remember the times he had spent with Henry Burke before the memory loss had occurred. They weren't pleasant and he tried hard not to think about it. The torture had been excruciatingly painful, and he was not pitied except by two people, Timothy and Andy. He wondered silently what had happened to them.
Seth lay curled in his bed, just waking up to a fresh new day. As he turned around he saw Jack in his room, again. "Hey," Jack greeted him, happy and eager to see his friend awake.
"Hey," Seth murmured back, trying to rub the sleep from his eyes. "What's for breakfast?"
"Why don't you come downstairs and see?" was the reply. Seth nodded sleepily and trudged out of bed, walking like a zombie to the door. Jack sighed. "Didn't you sleep at all last night?"
Seth nodded. "Uh-huh," he replied slowly, eyes closed and feeling for the door knob. Jack came over and scooped him up and then brought him to his bed again.
"Maybe you should rest more," Jack encouraged.
Seth was out in an instant. By the time he woke up it was mid-day. He looked over to see Jared in the room. Seth was hesitant at first, not sure how Jared would respond to the greeting he had chosen to use in an effort to test him, to see if he really was who he said he was. "Dad?" he asked.
Jared looked at him in shock. "You called me 'dad'," he stated in surprise, but his face split into a smile. "What can I do for you, son?" he asked warmly with a fatherly air about him as he spoke back.
Seth was relieved that Jared had accepted his greeting, and he knew instantly that Jared was indeed his father as much as Emily was his mother. He knew he had figured out the puzzling question of who was right and he felt relief from the truth. They were his parents; they had been his parents all along. Jack was right. When the time was right he was indeed able to figure out the truth. "What did I miss?"
"Hmm," Jared replied. "Well we had breakfast and you should have seen your sister. She scarfed everything down."
"I'm hungry," the boy stated and Jared smiled encouragingly.
"Lunch is almost done. If you want, we can go downstairs? Everyone's been playing board games downstairs as we've waited for you to get up."
Seth walked over and out the door as Jared followed him out. The painful memories kept returning and he was hoping to get through this stage so that he could start remembering the time he had spent with Jack and Alex and the time he had lived at home with his parents. He wanted to know what that mission was that Jack had mentioned to him sometime ago when he had opened the picture album. But unfortunately, the memories were coming back to him in reverse order, which meant he would suffer before he got to the good memories.
He felt fragile. How could Henry lie to him like this? He was his uncle! Sure, Jared had explained to him, just like Emily explained to Sara, why their actions had provoked Henry, and why they had stolen the Burkes' kids, but why did Henry blame him? Just because he was Emily and Jared's son didn't mean that he agreed with them!
Seth didn't talk about these feelings with anyone. He didn't think that he could. As he went downstairs he was greeted with wonderful smells floating towards him, and he saw a board game that looked like a map of the world with various pieces and some dice scattered around.
"I forfeit and fortify," he heard county marshal Anthony say and he stared at them in confusion. When Anthony saw the boy he immediately grinned and then upon seeing Seth's confused face Seth realized that the man hadn't initially known that Seth had overheard what he had said. "We're playing Risk," Anthony explained and the boy nodded, still confused.
But Sara turned around, delight in her face as she saw her brother. Seth observed that this was the first time in a long time that he had seen his sister wear anything but scrubs. Even he was no longer wearing scrubs. It had taken some time for his parents and Jack and Alex to get him out of the habit of wearing scrubs because this was what he had been used to wearing and told to wear. In Henry's place he hadn't been allowed to wear anything but scrubs, so it was hard for him to get used to the freedom he was being given. From what he understood of the conversation he had overheard between various people, Sara had also had the problem of giving up her scrubs and wearing other things, except it wasn't as bad as Seth's had been. It seemed like whenever it came to Sara that everything wasn't as bad as Seth's was. Seth seemed to be having the hardest time of them all.
"SETH!" Sara screamed in delight, rushing over to him and crushing him in a bone-breaking bear hug. Her delight was infections and Seth delicately wrapped his arms around her waist in a hug, crying into her shoulder.
"I missed you," the boy whispered, crying. He was happy to see her but he was also grieving in a way, grieving at what they had been put through by Henry Burke, grieving that they had been abused and yet told that they were loved. He still thought that Henry Burke loved them, in his own way, but not in the way that his parents and true friends loved him. The difference between them and Henry Burke was that Henry Burke was willing to put aside his love and concern in order to complete certain excruciatingly 'painful' procedures on them, and then he had the guts to not only tell the kids that he loved them afterwards, but that the procedures were good for them and that they benefited from them somewhat.
Sara pulled back to look at him in the eyes and Seth could see the same emotion playing in her eyes as well. "I know that," she murmured lovingly, and she buried her face in his shoulder. "I thought I'd never see you again!" she cried, long and hard, letting her emotions out.
But Seth was having a hard time letting his emotions out. So he stared at the other people in the room who were watching them carefully, and when he and Sara were done they sat down. "Can I play with you guys?" he begged, hoping that they would say 'yes.' To his surprise they smiled.
"Sure!" Anthony cried out in delight and then began explaining the rules of the game to him. But Seth never got a chance to conquer, for Alex called out that lunch was ready. The group walked over and Seth's mouth watered as he saw tacos, refried beans, and nachos on the side.
"I know it isn't a very healthy meal," Alex explained. "But I wanted to make something special." She turned to Seth and Sara and for the first time Seth noticed the love for him and his sister in her eyes. Then again he could see it in all their eyes. It's amazing what suffering can do to you and make you aware of. "It's in honor of you," Alex announced, coming over to hug Seth and Sara. Her warm embrace made Seth feel safe. "I know that you've both been through a lot," she murmured, her voice soft as she rubbed both of their backs, messing some of Sara's hair up as she tried to comfort the girl. "But I want you to both know that you're wanted and loved." She pulled away, but she still had one hand on each of their shoulders, her right hand on Sara's left shoulder who was to her right, and her left hand on Seth's right shoulder who was to her left. "The two of you are very, very brave."
"I don't feel very brave," Seth immediately protested, his voice showing how ashamed he was of himself. "I didn't even recognize you, let alone believe you at first."
But Alex shook her head as Jack stepped up to intervene. "On the contrary," Jack replied, behind them as he also placed a hand on each of their shoulders that weren't occupied by Alex's hands. "It takes a lot of bravery to go through what you went through. You may not feel strong, but you are. But being strong doesn't mean that you aren't invincible and that you won't be hurt. It is true that you both still have a lot of emotions that need to be worked out, and I promise you that we'll help you with that the best that we can. But you're still brave, even if you don't understand the meaning of bravery."
Alex gently took Sara's head in her hands. "Don't be afraid," she encouraged. "We're going to help you through this, we all will. Don't be afraid."
Sara started crying again. "How can I not be?" she cried. "More than likely Uncle Henry and Aunt Mary will still come after us and I don't think I can face them again. What happens if I have to face them? I don't want to face them!"
"Don't think about it," Jack encouraged her. "We'll take one day at a time. Let come what may. But don't forget that you have us by your side now. We won't abandon you."
Seth started shaking at this. "He'll hold us accountable for escaping the facility, even though it was you kidnapping us at the time. Sara's right. I don't how I'll face him!" He turned to Jack for answers but was disappointed when there was none.
"Come," Alex beckoned, ending the conversation where it stood when she saw how stressed out it was making Seth and Sara. "It's time to eat. We'll have a meal and then we'll have an activity together. How does that sound?"
Seth nodded eager to have warm food melt in his mouth. He immediately headed towards the kitchen and sat down, waiting for the others to get situated so that they could get started. When they did Jack took his plate. "What would you like, Seth?" the man asked him.
"Tacos," Seth responded right away. "I'd also like some refried beans with cheese on top, and some nachos on the side."
Jack nodded, dishing out the refried beans and nachos first before turning his attention to the tacos. "What kind of shell would you like?" he asked the boy.
"Soft."
"And what would you like in your taco?"
"Some meat, some tomatoes, some lettuce, and some cheese."
"Anything else?"
The boy shook his head and Jack handed him his plate. "Why don't you start out with this and if you're still hungry then you may certainly have more." Jack gave Seth a funny look as he muttered more to himself, "I'd like to see you have more. Goodness knows that you starved enough and you and Sara need to get some nutrients in you. You need to get some fat on your bones."
Seth shifted uncomfortably in his seat at this, knowing well that Jack was referring to the fact that he was skinny because Henry Burke and his men had been starving him for a while before he lost his memory. He didn't like to be reminded. With his memories coming back he remembered well the time when Henry had abused him, including the times that he would starve in a cold cage-like prison cell, curling up in an effort to get warm but still quite cold, his belly empty, his entire body pained because he was so hungry and had nothing to eat. He had gotten very sick in these times and had thrown up some, and just as he was wishing for death and was indeed on the verge of death they would give him a big meal to eat and lots of water.
They usually kept him more hydrated; giving him about a cup of water each day which Seth would finish quickly. But a cup was not enough to survive on. But every third day they would give him a lot of water, about a gallon's worth which he would consume quickly and didn't dare scatter his drinking of it throughout the day, and then they would take the jug away at the end of the day.
But the starving had been worse. In fact it had reached the point that when they'd bring him food he was wishing for death to come and he'd refuse to eat. Then they'd put him on IV's against his will to support and save his life even though he still wanted to die, and he'd was right back to square one. Sometimes they would force him to eat, but he'd always throw it up purposely afterwards, which angered everyone, including Henry Burke. But Henry didn't dare hit him in this state like he usually would because the boy was so fragile and could die if he did. So Henry then allowed Timothy Matheson to come see the boy and nurse him back to health. Timothy did a good job and helped the boy cope with his emotions, but sometimes Seth still wondered if he shouldn't have let Timothy do that. Maybe he should have died, or killed himself. He knew that even during that period he'd been suicidal before Timothy was able to convince him that that wasn't the way to go.
Seth shook his head, trying to escape from these depressing thoughts that he didn't want to think about. It still felt so real like it had just happened a minute ago. The last thing he needed was going back to that state because he had gotten so depressed just from thinking about it.
He began eating, conversing with the others, but as he did the memories still haunted him. 'Will I ever truly feel better?' he thought to himself shivering. He remembered that he had once had abilities to phase and other things but now neither he nor Sara had those abilities. He knew his parents knew because they had asked him about it before, asked him why he wasn't phasing. He hadn't known what they were talking about until he had remembered what his abilities had been. Then he told them that he couldn't any more.
He was continually haunted by his experiences and as he ate he tried to distract himself. But he knew that sooner or later he would have to face what had happened. He would have to confront the memories that he didn't want to remember. He would be forced to talk about them, maybe with his parents, maybe with Jack and Alex, maybe with some therapist that wouldn't understand him. They would make him tell them what he had gone through under Henry's hand, and then he knew that the worst memories would end up popping up. He was scared for that day. He didn't want to do that! But he knew that it would happen. The only question was if he could handle it when that time came, if he could handle the emotions and memories and keep himself from going into a state where he lost his mind from remembering the pain he had gone through.
'Will I be able to handle it?' the boy asked himself. He was shivering intensely from fear and he tried hard to mask it, pulling the sleeves of his sweater down in an effort to fool the others into thinking that he was cold. But to his relief, though they noticed, no one asked. He didn't want to end up lying to them and he knew that's what he would have done if he asked. 'Or will I go insane as I face what happened to me?' he continued his thoughts when he felt safe from their questions.
Seth didn't have an answer but he had to wonder. And as he ate he successfully distracted himself with the conversations about him.
Oh no! Do they have a spy in their midst? Could it be that Arnold works for Henry Burke and is waiting for an opportunity to turn Seth and Sara over to them? What do you think?
All right! I'm excited! I've updated several times this week (and I think last week also, or maybe I'm thinking of the fact that I updated my Forbidden Kingdom story) and so I'm giving you guys a treat!
Please read and review, even if you are only skimming this story. MayAngelsLeadYouIn, I miss your reviews! They give me courage!
I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to tell me if you think I need to improve in any area. I love criticism! It helps me learn and grow! I love that kind of feedback. I don't consider it negative at all, in fact I consider it helpful.
Enjoy! Until next time, my readers and fellow writers!