VeronicaWeasley: Well I sure hope you have a sweet tooth for this fourteen chapter fic! You're right, the first chapter totally feels like the Twilight Zone, I never even thought of that. I really hope you enjoy this chapter! Thanks so much for reading!
TW: Implied Rape/Non-Con
Tyler yawned when he heard familiar beeping. There were always six of them before something buzzed above him and a soft scraping noise signaled the opening of the metal door into space. Spider lived in space. He wasn't an alien, but he could live out there. Jack didn't like Spider even though Spider brought them Sunday Treat by magic. Tyler didn't really know him. He was never allowed to speak to the man.
"Hey… I brought jeans," the old man said. He was always loud. Daddy didn't answer. "Got you canned peaches. And no, I'm not wasting my money on any breakfast meat. You don't need it…" Still, Daddy remained silent.
Tyler let out a breath as he slowly sat up, tracing the broken board of Wardrobe that let him see into Room at night. He could see Spider set down a bag of groceries as he laughed, looking down at the table. "What is that? A birthday cake?" Spider took a fork and took a bite out of what was left. "That's why you asked for flour instead of new socks… you're such an idiot," the man laughed, almost playfully. "How old is the little guy now? Four?"
"Five," Tyler whispered, knowing the man wouldn't hear him. He watched the old man step out of his pants and walk closer to his daddy. "I'm five…" Daddy didn't correct the man. In fact, Daddy didn't say a single thing.
"You should've told me. I would've gotten him a present." The words made Race curious. He tried to peer out, but he wasn't allowed to open Wardrobe when Spider was in Room. Daddy wouldn't be happy with him if he did.
It was not the first time Race had seen this happen. Daddy had drawn little ticks on the wall above him. Race was supposed to count them when he woke up in the night and heard the squeaking coming from Bed.
So that's exactly what he did.
"One… two… three… four…"
It was easy to count those marks. There were at least a hundred of them. So Race often let his mind wander while he counted, not liking the sound of that creak that always seemed to happen when Spider came into Room.
He thought about Room. There was Room and then outer space where all of the TV planets were. Then there was heaven. It's where he was before Room. He couldn't remember it. Daddy said that it was another life, one where he was free and happy. Race never understood that. He was happy here, with his daddy, in Room.
One day, he promised his daddy that he would take them to the TV planets. He thought Daddy might be happy if he saw the TV planets. He knew his daddy wasn't happy here. He just pretended because Room was all that was here and the aliens couldn't hear them when they called. But one day, Race was going to change that.
The TV persons weren't real, they were flat and made with shapes and lights and colors, but the aliens that made them were. Plant was real but trees weren't and forests and oceans were much too big to fit anywhere. Spiders were real though and not Spider the old man but the bugs. And one time a mosquito had sucked Race's blood. Cats and dogs weren't real though. Well, except for Hammer. He was Tyler's puppy that was going to come for them as soon as he could hear them from space.
But for now, he was in Room. And he was with Daddy. And he was just fine with that.
Jack stared straight up at the ceiling. He breathed evenly as the man beside him held a strong arm around his bare waist. He stared up at the sound tiles that made up the ceiling and tried to forget that he could feel Spider's breath on his neck. All he could do was wait, counting the second until the old man finally left him alone.
It had been nine hundred and seventy six second since he'd started counting. He didn't stop. It helped him lose focus on the things his mind would tend to wander to when things were quiet and he was alone and he didn't have a five year old to focus on. He didn't like where his mind went at night, but he couldn't get himself to sleep. Not when Spider was here, making him feel like another object in Room, like he only served a single purpose.
Maybe he did.
He kept counting, forcing himself to continue breathing normally. Spider wouldn't sleep in Room. Not for much longer, anyway. Soon enough he would go back into space. Then he'd come back tomorrow night and the horrible cycle would begin again.
Nothing was going to change now. It was useless to dream. It was useless to imagine what might have been had things been different, where he could have been had there been a single thing he'd done differently on one particular day of his life that had seemed just like any other. This is where he was. This is what the universe had chosen for him.
Room was the whole world. There was nothing else out there.
Not for him.
When Spider finally left, Jack swallowed the lump that always seemed to make itself known in the back of his throat. He waited until the big metal door was shut again before he pulled his pajama pants back on and carefully shuffled his way over to Wardrobe. He let out a breath as he opened the doors of the thing to find a little boy sleeping. He expertly scooped the child up in his arms, careful not to wake him as he whisked him back to Bed and lay him down, cuddling up against him as he pulled the single blanket he had over the both of them.
Tyler stirred only a little as Jack shushed him.
Jack pressed his head into the boy's small shoulder and let his eyes close, allowing himself to drift off into oblivion with his baby in his arms.
The next day began just as the last one had. Quiet. Nearly silent.
It was just a little bit harder for Jack to get out of bed.
Running low on cereal, Jack knew that they had to have a small breakfast and he begrudgingly cut up an apple, using a knife with its tip broken off, barely sharp enough to cut through the fruit. He didn't care. His wrist throbbed but he ignored it, sniffling and rubbing at his exhaustion stung eyes as he continued on, eventually handing his son, who was banging on the bottom of a small bucket in the bathtub, half of the small thing without a word.
Quietly, the child put down his wooden spoon and accepted the food, taking a bite of it immediately. He watched Daddy curiously, wondering if this would be one of the days that he didn't speak at all before he saw the man wince.
A pain spread throughout the back of Jack's mouth. He felt something come loose and he placed a hand over his mouth as he began to try and assess what had just happened. After a moment he reached inside his mouth and tugged on the tooth that had been bothering him for weeks.
It came out without any more trouble.
Tyler's eyes widened. "What is it?" he asked, not understanding at all what had happened.
As Jack inspected the small thing, he sighed. "It's a bad tooth." The small molar that was supposed to be white had a black hole in it and Jack could taste a little bit of blood where he'd just pulled it out. Emotionlessly, he held the thing down towards his son who was ever so inquisitive and let the boy's wide blue eyes linger.
"Can I hold it?" Squinting a little bit, Jack bent down to hand the child the blackened tooth and he watched the boy gaze in awe. "Whoa…"
Jack smiled for only a second before it was gone again and he looked back down at the apple on the counter. His stomach was tight with hunger but he didn't want to eat. For a long while, he just stared at the fruit like it had betrayed him somehow before his mind wandered back to what would happen that night. He put his head in his hands and rested his elbows on the counter.
His head hurt. He was exhausted and he didn't want to be awake. So he set the apple back in the fridge and wandered back over to the bed, curling in on himself as he pulled the blanket up and closed his eyes.
Today was just one of those days.
Still fascinated by the tooth, Race only knew Daddy had walked away because he heard Bed squeak. He looked over to find that Daddy's face was covered by Blanket. Race knew right then that it was going to be a gone day.
On gone days, Race would read. Daddy said he was still learning, but he was a really good reader. Only, Race didn't want to read right now. He wanted to play. He wanted Daddy to dance with him and run around Room with him. He wished his daddy would smile. He loved hearing Daddy laugh.
But he knew that he had to be quiet now. So he climbed out of Tub and wandered over to Egg-Snake, fiddling with him instead of running around and making noise. Egg-Snake was his best friend. He was the best at hiding from Daddy. Sometimes they'd play hide and seek when Daddy was happy. And when Daddy found Egg-Snake, he would pick Race up and hand Egg-Snake back to him with a smile and say "Nice try, Tyler James." Sometimes he'd get sad and say that there was nowhere to hide in Room. Tyler just thought he liked playing games and he wanted to be able to play himself, but he didn't know why.
Daddy was really good at finding things.
So lost in thought, Tyler didn't even notice that hours had passed him by. Rather than continuing to rattle Egg-Snake or bang on buckets, the little boy found himself picking at the loose edges of Rug after getting bored of staring at pages of his book that he couldn't get himself to read. That is, until he heard a squeaking noise.
It wasn't like the squeak that Bed made at night or the one Wardrobe made before he slept. It was much softer and much faster than that. So those big blue eyes peered up from Rug. That's when Race saw it.
He'd seen one once, in a movie, he thought. It was so small and such a soft looking grey color. It was eating a crumb of bread from the birthday cake. Spider must have dropped some of it last night. Daddy never left crumbs on the floor before they went to bed.
Fearing the small creature might be hungry, Race stood silently, reaching for the plate that still held their birthday cake, carefully taking a fist full of crumbs and letting them fall into a pile on the floor before he scurried away quietly. He lay on his tummy on the ground, not wanting to scare his new friend away. He believed the animal's name was Mouse. Mouse looked at him. Tyler could see every breath the animal took as it hesitantly crept forward towards the cake crumbs.
He'd never seen a real live Mouse before. He hadn't thought they were real. They were supposed to be made up, just like cats and dogs and dragons. Daddy had said that bugs could get into Room because they could fly, but Mouse couldn't fly.
The tiny thing began to nibble on the small peace offering as Race's mouth opened, creating the shape of a perfect circle as he gazed up at the creature in pure amazement. He crawled closer to it, watching it for another moment longer before he carefully and gently reached towards it, his hands cupped so he might carry it.
He flinched when something flew past him, hitting Mouse dead on. Race gasped and scrambled back, glancing up to see his daddy walking with purpose towards the crumbs to see if he'd hit Mouse. "Hey!" Race cried.
Jack sighed, grabbing the book he'd thrown from the floor and making sure the rat was gone. He tossed what was left of The Bible back onto his bed and kneeled down, trying to figure out where the thing came from, but he couldn't find any visible hole. Maybe if the rodent had gotten in, there was a weakness in the wall somewhere. Somewhere their noise could be made louder.
"Mouse wasn't doin' nothin'! He was bein' quiet!"
"It would've eaten our food," Jack stated, nearly monotone as he still found nothing. Sometimes he wished he would just turn to metal.
Tyler pouted, stomping over to his daddy and glaring up at him. "I gave him some food! He was hungry!"
"That thing's filled with diseases. It would've bitten us in our sleep." Race lightly hit Jack's leg at the words, letting him know that he didn't believe that.
"You killed him!"
Jack let out an irritated breath. "No, I didn't," he assured, running a hand through his hair. It was down to his chin now. He hated how long it was. He tried to ignore the fact that it immediately fell back in his face as he began to pick the crumbs up off the floor. "Mouse is just fine in the backyard with his family."
"The backyard?" It wasn't until Race asked that question that Jack realized his mistake. The young man paused for a moment, glancing down at his son. "Mouse lives in a backyard like in TV? Does he live on a TV planet?"
Biting back a frustrated groan, Jack shook his head, reaching over for the stupid book he'd thrown back onto the bed. "Here… why don't you go draw a dinosaur 'r somethin'," he suggested, trying to change the subject as quickly and calmly as he could.
A small sigh escaped the child and he looked at the torn up Bible for a moment, almost doing as he was told. But he paused. "Why didn't you tell Spider it was my birthday?"
Biting his lip, Jack stood, fighting back the only feelings he ever seemed to have anymore. Anger and despair. "Tyler," he warned, really not wanting to have this discussion again. "You're supposed ta be asleep when Spider comes."
"He said he would bring me a present!" Tyler whined. "I've never had a present…" he wondered.
Jack knew that his son hadn't meant those words to be so hurtful to him, but that didn't mean they didn't hurt more than anything. "He was lyin', Race. Spider ain't our friend," Jack said, throwing away the crumbs and dragging his feet back over to his bed.
The child stood up fast, watching Jack nearly collapse on the bed, wanting to just let the world swallow him whole. "It coulda been my puppy!"
"We can't have a puppy, Tyler. There's not enough room— space," Jack corrected himself, sitting back up and rubbing at his eyes again and not looking back at his little boy. "We don't have enough space n' I can't handle the scratching n' the biting an' the barking—"
"Hammer promises he won't—"
"There is no Hammer!" Jack argued, his head pounding. He'd kill for some pain killers right now.
Stomping his foot, Tyler screamed, "Yes there is!"
"No, he's not! You made him up in your head! He's not real!"
The words came out much harsher than Jack had meant them to. He froze, finally letting his gaze trail back down to his son. His heart tore apart at what he saw.
Tyler's bottom lip trembled as his big blue eyes welled up with tears. The child's shoulders slumped a little as he turned away. Jack melted. "No… no, baby, I'm sorry…" he tried, getting up and quickly gathering the five year old up in his arms. "Come here, come here, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it, please don't cry…" The boy turned to him and rested his head on Jack's shoulder as he cried. "Please don't cry, sweet boy, I'm so sorry…" Jack climbed back onto the bed with his son snug in his arms. He tried not to break down right along with the child. He rubbed the boy's back and kissed his head and played with his hair. He sniffled, closing his eyes and resting his forehead against Race's temple. "I'm so sorry…"
His child whimpered and sniffled against him, not understanding why Jack had gotten angry. To be honest, Jack didn't understand why either. Getting angry and irritated didn't help anything. It just made the weight of everything else sit heavier on his shoulders. He rocked the boy back and forth, swallowing hard as he shoved back his own sobs.
"Shhhhh… I'm sorry…" Jack hushed. "How about a story, huh? You wanna hear a story?" he tried, his voice shaking just a little. When Tyler nodded his head, Jack sniffled and relaxed back onto the bed, letting his back hit the mattress as he played with the child's hair. "Okay…" he began, staring up at the ceiling for a long moment before he tuned out the sound of his own voice. "Did I eva' tell you the story about the boy who lost his shadow?"
The story would only last so long, but Jack could at least get lost in the images and pictures that he'd had as a child. His imagination used to run wild with this story; a tale of adventures, ruthless pirates, beautiful mermaids and a boy who would never have to grow up and face the reality of the world that didn't exist to Jack anymore. That boy could just fly away from his problems and never have to return.
It wasn't fair.
Despite his jealousy of a fictional character, Jack managed to continue on with the story, calming the boy in his arms as he spoke in a soothing, slow voice until he managed to force himself onto his feet. He held Tyler in his arms as he turned the stove on and began boiling up some rice for dinner as his boy nearly fell asleep on his shoulder.
"... and up in the sky, they could see it," Jack whispered. "A pirate ship in the stars flyin' away while the Darling children went to sleep, believin' all of it was just a dream."
Race yawned, nuzzling his head beneath Jack's chin. "Was it?"
Jack peaked down at him. "Was it what?"
Lifting his head to face him, the child watched the water in the pot boil. "A dream?"
Pausing, Jack sighed. He bit his lip. "I don't know…" he admitted. "Maybe…"
It wasn't long after that that the rice was cooked and Jack served Racer some in his bowl. He let the kid take it to his chair that was pushed in front of the TV and started eating as Jack joined him. For a moment, it was quiet as the television was clicked on and Race chose a channel to watch. "Where do we go when we sleep?"
Only glancing at the small child, Jack replied, "Right here in Room."
"But what about dreams?" Race challenged. "Do we go into TV for dreaming? Or to Neverland?"
Taking another reluctant spoonful of rice, Jack shook his head, reaching out to smooth back his son's hair. "We're never anywhere but here," he assured brokenly, glancing at the metal door, agony in his gaze as he ran his fingers through Race's long blond curls. He forced himself to keep eating as his mind went blank and he watched three cartoon ducks get into trouble over and over again.
The rest of the night went on like normal. Jack got Tyler bathed along with himself and he helped the boy into his sleep shirt, running a comb through his hair to calm him down enough to sleep. He sang until those blue eyes closed and then he shut the wardrobe, leaning his head against it and closing his eyes, sending a wish into the heavens or higher that this boy would sleep through the night.
He didn't think he was asking for a lot.
Then he trudged back over to the bed and lay down, curling up tight and closing his eyes. He tried pretending to sleep before. It never worked.
When those six beeps and a buzz sounded over him, he remained motionless, letting a hand tug on his hair.
He didn't move. He just lay there and let the man talk. "Your hair is much too long. We'll have to cut it soon." Jack stared straight ahead at the wall. "I brought you something…" The young man stopped listening. He just let the old man roll him onto his stomach and he didn't say a word.
He didn't want to wake Tyler.
But by the time it was over, Jack could hear a soft whispered voice coming from the Wardrobe, counting, "Thirty three… thirty four… thirty five…" Jack swallowed back a whimper as he turned his head away from the man who was practically on top of him, his eyes meeting the scribbled, left handed drawings he'd managed to create on only pages of that horrible book people meditated and prayed on. The sketches looked back at him, smiling gently at him and Jack almost reached for them, stopping himself when Spider grunted in his sleep.
Of all the cruel things Spider could do to him, what he'd done tonight was among the worst. Jack felt a tear fall down his face, but he refused to cry. He just kept looking up at those pictures of those people instead of looking back to the kitchen table where that thing sat. He didn't want to think about what it meant, what the Spider was thinking when he bought it. It was all too much.
Jack just wanted to be able to sleep again.
Arms around his waist and breath on his neck, Jack swallowed hard, silently listening to the breaths and whispers of his little boy. The arm that tightened around him made him bite down on his tongue. He tasted blood but he didn't care.
When Spider stirred beside him, Jack refused to look at him. The man sat up beside him and pulled his pants back on. A hand brushed through his hair and lips pressed against his cheek possessively. Jack didn't react. "Make sure Tyler gets his present. I'll see you tomorrow night."
Still staring right past the man, Jack set his jaw. But the hand that brushed through his hair tightened and turned his head.
Jack hated looking into those black eyes. "Say 'goodnight'."
Scowling a bit, tears still in his eyes, Jack couldn't argue. "Goodnight," he breathed.
The hand released him and Jack glared at Spider all the way out the door. The second the door was shut, Jack stood, nearly stumbling to the ground as he pulled his pajama pants back on. He caught himself and made his way to the wardrobe, opening it up to find his little boy, nearly back asleep. Gently, he scooped the child up in his arms. Tyler moaned. "Shshshshshshhhhh…" Jack coaxed, cradling the boy to his chest before he lay the child in the bed to tuck him in.
This is normally when he would lay down beside the child, cuddling against him and shielding him from the cool air that the door had let in. But tonight he didn't even want to sleep. Instead he sat down at the table. He sat in his yellow chair and he stared down at the box in front of him. He glared at it.
Five years and he'd never been able to so much as buy his son a birthday present. He should be happy that this year he'd gotten one at all. But all he could feel was anger and resentment.
There was no sleep for Jack that night. He just watched over his son, knowing nothing would happen to him. Not in Room.
Nothing new ever happened in Room.
It was just Room.
I'm so sorry. I hope that wasn't too intense, but now we should be understanding a bit more of what's really going on...
As always, thanks for reading! Make sure to tell me what you liked, what you didn't like, what you would change or what you'd improve by leaving me a review! Love ya, friends!