In Safe Hands
IN SAFE
HANDS
By: Anime Angel~^0^
It was happening again.
Seven year old Jim ran down the alleyway as
quickly as he could, trying desperately to escape the men behind him. He hadn't
wanted to steal, but when the small boy had seen their heaping plates of food he
couldn't help but feel like God had put them there for him. But now, as he ran
for his life, Jim realized his mistake in taking what he needed.
"Come back here you little brat!"
one of them yelled, the others laughing cruelly behind him. Jim shuddered in the
cold as their footsteps grew nearer...he was at a dead end.
"No...no please don't!" he
whimpered, backing as far as he could into the back corner of the alley. The men
were almost on top of him now, all of them grinning demonically. Why were they
doing this? Judging by their size, they didn't need that food! Were they after
the boy for just pure enjoyment?
But Jim didn't have much more time to think
about this as he realized that the men were now standing directly in front of
him, glaring menacingly. They were huge, especially to Jim, who was only about
four feet tall, and very thin. The men in front of him were like giants, exactly
like the monsters the boy had always imagined were hiding in the dark.
"Now boy," the biggest one hissed,
grabbing the much smaller Jim by what was left of his shirt. "You're going to pay...I
had to pay for that food and planned on enjoying it. You filthy bastard! You
just had to go and knock it all over the ground, didn't ya?"
"Please....I'm sorry!" Jim wailed,
inching away from the rough, calloused hand that was slowly closing itself around his
throat.
"Really....well it's a little late now,
isn't it?" the man sneered, his face now inches from Jim's. "'Sorry isn't going to help bring back my money...or my food! IS IT?!"
"No...STOP PLEASE! I--" The boy's
frantic wails were cut off the man began to throttle him harshly,
shaking the boy back and forth violently and all the while forcing his thumbs down harder and harder
into Jim's small neck....
"C'mon wake up! It's just a
nightmare!"
Jim jolted awake with a start, thrashing about
wildly, and immediately
found himself looking into calm, dark eyes. He blinked once or twice before
finally realizing that it was his older partner's eyes that he was staring into.
The boy forced his frantic movements to a stop.
"A...Ani....An...." Jim found himself
suddenly unable to speak, and licked his lips in frustration. His throat...his
throat felt odd. Tight almost...
He opened his mouth again, and this time words
came out. "Aniki...what happened?" The sentence came out almost as a small sob, and Gene put an arm around Jim reassuringly.
"You were having a nightmare kid," Gene
informed the sweat-soaked boy. He shook the blond a little, just to make sure
that he was awake, and his gesture was met with a small whimper. "Hell, you almost woke everyone in the house
up with all of that yelling!"
Jim looked around wearily. As his eyes shifted
slowly around the room, he realized that everything really had been just a
nightmare, something in his mind. But the images were still there, the images of
those three men...the feel of their hands around his neck...
"Hey, you okay?"
Jim looked up at his older partner and let out a
sigh of relief. "Yeah," he whispered, falling
against Gene's shoulder. For a moment the boy felt the outlaw's muscles tense,
but then they relaxed and instead Jim felt himself being lowered back down into
his awaiting pillow.
"Well, I'm goin' back to bed then...you sure
you're okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine Aniki. Just don't worry
about it..." Jim forced a smile. He really didn't want Gene to leave, but
then again he also didn't want his partner to know anything was wrong either. He
didn't want the outlaw to know that he had been having these horrifying
nightmares for almost three or four nights...
With a slight nod, the outlaw grinned back.
"All right then, but next time try not to be so loud!" And with that
Jim's older partner was gone, leaving the boy alone in his dark room.
Subconsciously Jim rubbed his throat. That
nightmare had marked the fourth one that week, but the thing was that
they were always the same; the men and the fear and the pain were always
there. The one that he had just experienced, though, seemed worse than the
others. Worse in a way that he couldn't describe.
Everything about it had seemed so familiar, but
what was it? Jim couldn't recall ever being strangled by a bunch of dirty men,
so why did he feel like it had happened to him before? Then a frightening
thought pushed its way into his mind: did it happen before?
"Must be the TV I've been watching
lately," the boy said to no one in particular, dismissing his previous thoughts and slowly
drifting off to sleep, this time a more peaceful slumber.
Gene sat down with a heavy thud at the kitchen
table that morning, groaning. It had been the fourth time that he had been rudely awaken
during the night, and the lack of sleep was really getting to him. That morning
alone he had slept in far too long (even for Gene) and the girls were already
gone....shopping, working, or whatever it was they did.
"Dammit," he mumbled, resting his head
on the table. For the last four days he had awaken to the same sounds of his
young partner thrashing about, and each time he had laid awake for hours on end,
just listening to the boy. But that night...that night had been different. Jim
had seemed more frantic, and instead of the usual murmurs the boy had begun to
scream.
But it wasn't the fact that he was losing sleep
that frustrated the outlaw, it was the fact that he had no idea what to do about
his partner. There had to be something wrong -- something causing the nightmares
-- but what was it? Gene just had no idea how to handle the situation, besides
comfort the boy and wake him up from the dreams.
"Hey Aniki...sorry 'bout last night."
Gene rose from the table with a start at the
sound of Jim's soft, tired voice, and whirled around. There, standing in the
doorway to the kitchen, was the blond. Wonder how long he's been standing
there...
"It's okay, kid. I mean, I have nightmares
too ya know." The outlaw sat back down, and motioned for Jim to come over.
"You wanna talk about anything...? I mean, is there anything wrong?"
Jim shook his head. "Nah, I'm fine." He
grinned. "Just the usual bad dream that all kids get. I think it's from
watching that horror movie, you know? The one we saw last week." He rubbed
his chin for a moment. "The....The...."
"The Revenge of the Mummy!" Gene
laughed, recalling the dubbed, black and white film that he and his younger
partner had gone to see just a few days before. Remembering that night lightened
the outlaw's mood a bit, but Gene couldn't help but wonder about his young
friend. A movie seemed a good enough excuse for having bad dreams...but was that really what the kid
was having nightmares about? Jim had seen worse movies than that, WAY worse
movies than that.
"Yeah...that one!" the boy said after a
moment of thought. Jim sat down next to
the outlaw, and smiled again. "So you gonna go get us a job today?"
"Sure...whatever. Do I have ta?" Gene
inquired, knowing the dumb question would throw Jim into a frenzy. Maybe
it'll get him to act normal.
"Duh...we're FLAT BROKE. If you wanna eat
tonight, you gotta go get some money, baka!"
Gene groaned, an actual, annoyed groan. He was exhausted and really would
have preferred just staying home that day, but his young partner looked at him
expectantly. At least he's not upset anymore...
"Fine," he said finally, smiling for
the boy's sake and getting up from
the table. "You look...I'll work."
"Got it!" Jim got up as well and headed
off to find his laptop.
"I dunno Gil, what do you think is
wrong with me?" Jim whispered softly,
running his gloved hands swiftly over the keyboard. He had to be quiet, for his
partner was in the next room.
"Well, what are they about, Jim?"
Gilliam inquired in his usual monotonous voice. The small computer/cylinder was
currently sitting on the desk right next to Jim, his large eyes following the
movements of the blond's quick hands.
"Men...and...and strangling. I think it's
when I'm younger." Jim ran a hand through his matted, light hair, and let
out an exhausted sigh.
"Well, what do they do? Are they the ones
that strangle you?"
"Yeah."
"And then what happens?"
"Then I wake up...." Jim shook his
head. "Every night it happens...it's always the damn same! I can't sleep
either, once I wake up I really never get any rest after that." The boy
shut his eyes, and after a moment opened them again. "Damn, it's really bad
when your vision starts to blur, ain't it Gil?"
"I suppose so, Jim, but these nightmares
could be from a number of outside influences. According to past records and
tests, dreams, good or bad, are caused by what you see during the day.
Sometimes, images in a dream are things that your brain has learned to ignore.
For example--"
"Gil, do I really need to know all of
this?"
"Well, there may be something here that can
help you," the small pink cylinder said a-matter-of-factly, waving his
mechanical arms slightly.
"Fine...go on..."
"As I was saying," Gilliam continued,
"If you see a flower along the street, your brain learns to ignore it
because you see it every day."
Jim sighed. "So? What does that have to do
with my nightmares?"
"Well, as I was going to say, when you
dream, it's your brain's way of acknowledging that flower really existed. Only,
in your dream, the flower may appear with other experiences during the day, and
seem more extreme. And...that's the end of the record that I have."
"But I didn't GET strangled yesterday, the
day before, or the day before that! How could my brain be 'acknowledging' that I
got strangled when I didn't?!"
"Well--"
"And besides! I really doubt my brain would
ignore getting strangled!"
"I was just trying to provide you with
information that might have been able to further help you discover what is
causing your unusually frightening dreams." Gilliam crossed his arms almost
a bit indignantly, causing Jim to smile sheepishly.
"Sorry, Gilliam. I'm just
frustrated...that's all."
"I am sorry, too, that--"
"Nah, ya don't need to apologize." With
that, Jim continued his search for jobs, rubbing his eyes occasionally to get
rid of the blurred vision that was constantly plaguing them.
"AHA!" Jim let out a
triumphant cry as the screen in front of him loaded, revealing tons of jobs.
"ANIKI! GET YOUR ASS IN HERE!" he yelled.
"Yeah?" the outlaw said, trying his
hardest to conceal a yawn as he entered the room. "Gots any jobs up yet?"
"Yup! Just choose the one..."
Gene took a moment to eye the jobs, and then
wrinkled his nose.
"Jim....these are all low paying scum
jobs," he said simply, looking at the boy next to him.
"What?!" Jim took another look at the
screen, wiping his eyes, and he too realized that all the jobs were indeed for the scum of the
town. On the screen was everything from plumbing to prostitution.
"But...but I don't understand. I could have sworn that I typed in
differently!" Jim slammed his head down on the table with a loud thump, and
sighed. "Dammit Aniki...what's wrong with me?"
Gene didn't say anything, and instead watched his
younger partner intently. The boy seemed unusually disturbed by this mistake,
and was currently scolding himself over and over...
"DAMN! That's ALL I have been doing lately!
SCREWING UP! Stupid stupid stupid..." Jim looked up at Gene, and for the first time the outlaw
noticed that the boy's eyes were bloodshot. Must be the lack of sleep...
"Hey Jim, it's probably just because of the
nightmares you've been having...don't worry about it!"
Jim's eyes suddenly widened. "You...you
know?"
"What, that you've been having nightmares
the past few nights? Yeah! You're pretty loud there, kid."
"Yeah yeah..." Jim's voice was suddenly
calm, and soon he was up from the desk. "Why don't you look for jobs...I
feel really tired."
"Didn't get enough sleep last night
eh?" Gene almost laughed, stopping when Jim winced. What the hell is up
with this kid? I gotta find out what those nightmares are...
Jim shook his head slowly.
"Nah."
"And...you still don't want to talk about
it?"
Jim turned away from his older partner. What
could the outlaw do? "....I'm fine."
Jim turned over once again under the unusually
cold sheets, trying his hardest not to let his eyes close. It had been a hard
day -- again -- and the other half of Starwind and Hawking was beginning to
wonder if there was truly something seriously wrong with him.
"Let's see...." he murmured out loud.
"I could let myself go to sleep, then wake up Aniki and have him wake me up
a few minutes later... or I
could just stay awake all night and not get any sleep anyways." He sighed.
"Stay awake....have nightmares.....stay awake....have
nightmares...."
After a few minutes of chanting this, Jim felt
his eyelids grow heavy. Soon the familiar feel of sleep crept up on the boy, and
before he could force himself awake, he was fast asleep.
I had to pay for that food, the all too
familiar voice said as Jim realized that he was back in the alley again. And
now you're gonna pay.
To be continued....
*sigh* I needed to write something else so I
wrote this...pretty quickly actually. It is still in its 'unrefined'
form...which means I might be adding/editing to this chapter later. Oh well!
There will be more...why is Jim having these dreams? What do they mean? Will the
next chapter suck more than this one? Find out when I get the next one done! If
of course I get it done. With the mood I am in right now, it could be
days....months....years.....okay maybe not that long. Please review people, and
drop me a line! Thanks Hanmyo for the nice e-mail! And um...I think that is all
I have to say now...