~The Dead Of The Night~
~ Friday, All Hallows Eve, 10:00 p.m.
Faith struggles against the hands that are shackling her, but there are too many of them, and her strength is exhausted. Her eyes dart around in the darkness, as she tries to see the horror that is upon her. But she can see nothing. She can only hear the gruesome sounds of their excitement at having captured her. Her attempted screams have been reduced to sobs, as her mind races through the terror she's feeling.
Where is Bosco. Where is their backup.
Beyond her stifled squeals for help and the sound of her frantic breathing under the grip of her unseen assailants, she can hear someone yelling, "Don't kill her yet". She sees her flashlight click on and off somewhere beside her, then start making circles on the ceiling. Then a man's voice rises above all the other sounds in the dark.
"Give me that. You're wasting the batteries."
"Can we kill her now?" Another voice says, sounding adult, yet child-like.
"No...remember what we discussed?" the first voice spoke again, patronizing...patient.
Suddenly the light is turned on her face. She squeezes her eyes closed. Her tears feel hot as they run down her cheeks. She wishes she could speak...beg for her life. This one voice doesn't sound threatening, if only she could talk to him. She tries to shake off the hand covering her mouth, only making it increase the pressure on her and pushing her head to the right, pinning her face to the dirt floor. Dust bellows up off the floor from under her nose and stings her eyes. Her breathing becomes increasingly more labored with her neck in this twisted position. She waits...unsure of what will happen to her next.
"I know this cop." the patient voice says.
She feels the weight shifting above the hands that are holding her down. They are leaning over her to get a better look. She tries again to struggle against them, but they push down even harder, making it more painful.
She's sure her finger is broken but her whole hand is throbbing. The pain and fear...mixed with the smell of urine and sweat emanating from these people, over comes her in a wave of nausea. She swallows the feeling down, knowing she will choke if she gets sick.
"So...can we kill her now?" The child-man asks again excitedly.
The same voice reprimands him. "Benny. Be quiet."
The flashlight moves off of her. She can only see white spots in the blackness, but she can tell the patient voice has walked away. Oh God don't leave, she screams in her mind. She knows they would have killed her if not for him. "Please...God." gurgles out illegibly, from under the smothering grip over her face. "Help me."
R.D. steps over to Bosco's form, laying still at the base of the steps. He shines the light down on him. Bosco is laying face down, with his left arm twisted in an unnatural position. He is unconscious. R.D. grabs him by his left arm, and it pulls easily away from his shoulder, obviously dislocated.
He kneels over him and takes Bosco's pulse to see if he broke his neck in the fall. He finds a strong pulse. He flips him over onto his back, and shines the light on him to verify what he already had guessed.
"These are the bastards that took the reverend away." The voice changes from patient to enraged. Angry chatter rises up from the group and the energy in the room becomes volatile. The hands Faith feels on her, begin tearing at her, ripping her clothing and gouging her skin. They start beating her with their fists and one of them even bites into her arm.
She tries thrashing away from them, her fear so heightened, that she actually kicks her legs free for a second. The hand comes off her mouth so suddenly that she only has time to gasp for breath, as the approaching flashlight swings like a pendulum out of the dark, hitting her hard in the face. She releases a moan before the second strike hits her, coming from the other direction. She feels herself fading away.
She becomes unattached from herself, and melts into the darkness.
In the distance, they hear the sound of sirens approaching from the street above. R.D. has to now make a decision on what they are going to do with these officers. He had always instructed them, especially after the reverend was taken from them, to avoid the police. The chance meeting with these two tonight was unplanned and dangerous.
He had taught these people, his family, that if any of them were threatened, to pull together silently in a surprise attack, which they executed well. Normally the unsuspecting victim would be bludgeoned to death. But they are never to kill police officers. That would bring too much trouble.
However these two are responsible for taking the reverend away from them. And he wants to punish them. Especially the mean little one. He needs to be taught a lesson... they will eventually be killed...but first he wants the male cop to become the very thing he detests, and the female to experience the fear that the reverend is experiencing, being incarcerated.
They drag the unconscious officers to the other side of the building, up to the first floor, and take them out of the dilapidated building through a broken loading dock door. They stand them up, wrapping their arms around the shoulders of two of the stronger men in the family, and drag them back to their own hideout.
They creep along the streets and back alleys unnoticed, giving the appearance of helping their drunk friends home. The officers, being stripped of their equipment, jackets, and uniforms, do not look like cops. Soon they are hidden away in the old coal basement, two stories down, under the streets of New York.
*** [11:49]
Bosco tries to move and pain grips him like a vise, holding him fast to his reclined position. He yells out, squeezing his eyes closed, and tears roll out involuntarily. He calls to Faith. When he gets no response, he looks around, searching for something familiar. Anything that will touch a memory of what has happened and where he is.
He half expects to see a nurse lean over him...or worse...Doc. That would mean he was shot on duty. He doesn't remember what call they had responded to. The pain in his arm is excruciating...he must have been shot...but he is not in the hospital. It doesn't smell like disinfectant, it smells musty and dirty...smells like garbage. It's dark...and damp, yet it doesn't feel like he is outside. He tries to clear his head and think. What the fuck has happened. Where the hell is Faith...why would she leave him alone like this.
He tries to move his arms. They are painfully stretched over his head, and he finally realizes that his wrists are handcuffed to something. He strains his neck to see what he is cuffed to, but it pulls at the pain in his shoulder and his body convulses, taking his breath away.
This doesn't feel like a bullet wound. He absolutely can not move. He feels as though he's been speared to the ground. Pain is pulsing through him and he can't think straight, but he knows he is injured really bad, and he needs help. Where the hell is Yokas. Panic is starting to fill the void in his memory.
"Faith!." He yells out to the darkness. As soon as he hollers, his chest seizes up in pain. He grits his teeth and growls out a moan, then gingerly calls out, "Faith...I need help." When he gets no response...his thoughts take him to the reality that maybe she is hurt too. Maybe they were in a car accident. That would explain the pain all over his body...but what about the cuffs?
He catches a glimpse of something moving towards him. It's a flashlight bouncing in the dark. Then he recalls that at some point he had been watching Faith walking with a flashlight...she must have gone for help. Someone walks up and crouches down next to him.
"Thank God you're here." Bosco says, his breath coming in pants now.
"Oh...now you're glad to see me." A strange voice says to him as he shines the light into Bosco's eyes.
"My arms...the pain...I can't stand it...you gotta help me. What happened?"
"You don't remember? Maybe we can reenact it for you." He starts laughing. Beyond the voice Bosco hears a soft clamor but he can't make out yet where exactly he has ended up.
"I think I'm hurt pretty bad. Please...you gotta get these cuffs off of me."
"Oh...are you uncomfortable?"
"Who are you? Where's my partner...is she alright?" Bosco asks.
"The lady cop? I'm afraid not." He pauses. "Does that make you feel bad?" he says, repeating Bosco's words from the day before.
"Are you a paramedic?" Bosco asks confused.
"I am the meek...and I just inherited your world." Then he waits for a reaction. In the silence, Bosco realizes that there is a group of people just beyond his visibility...in the dark. That feels vaguely familiar. He still can't think straight. None of this is making any sense to him and he starts to feel an uneasiness drifting in. His body is throbbing all over and his head is spinning from the pain.
"Where the hell is Faith. Was she hurt? Was it a car accident?" He raises his voice and all the pain he's feeling intensifies. The light in his eyes is turned off and a hand reaches out from the dark and grabs his face hard, digging their nails deep into his cheeks.
Bosco yells out in surprise but it squeezes out of him as a low groan. His body is trembling now, from fear and from the pain that surged through him as his body tensed. He is helplessly in the hands of a lunatic...and he's sure he's about to die. His breathing increases as the man speaks again, this time his voice is only inches from his face.
"You took someone from me, so I took someone from you. You laughed at us. You mocked us with your insults. Pushed us around like a big man, and then you took him away...my best friend. Tell me...is your partner your best friend?"
The words don't sink in. His mind can only skim the surface of what's happening...the fact that he is injured, the fact that he needs help, and the fact that this guy isn't going to help him. "Faith." He yells out expecting her to emerge any second, and pull this guy away from him.
The man laughs, "She's gone now." He lets go of Bosco's face and backs away. "She can't help you."
"She wouldn't leave me like this." Bosco growls at the man.
"She didn't have any choice. But she went kicking and screaming." He laughs casually.
Bosco hears the voice drift away and he tries to move again. The movement sends pain coursing through him in waves, and this time he rides the wave, as his thoughts roll away in the undertow.
***
***
~ Friday, All Hallows Eve, 10:00 p.m.
Faith struggles against the hands that are shackling her, but there are too many of them, and her strength is exhausted. Her eyes dart around in the darkness, as she tries to see the horror that is upon her. But she can see nothing. She can only hear the gruesome sounds of their excitement at having captured her. Her attempted screams have been reduced to sobs, as her mind races through the terror she's feeling.
Where is Bosco. Where is their backup.
Beyond her stifled squeals for help and the sound of her frantic breathing under the grip of her unseen assailants, she can hear someone yelling, "Don't kill her yet". She sees her flashlight click on and off somewhere beside her, then start making circles on the ceiling. Then a man's voice rises above all the other sounds in the dark.
"Give me that. You're wasting the batteries."
"Can we kill her now?" Another voice says, sounding adult, yet child-like.
"No...remember what we discussed?" the first voice spoke again, patronizing...patient.
Suddenly the light is turned on her face. She squeezes her eyes closed. Her tears feel hot as they run down her cheeks. She wishes she could speak...beg for her life. This one voice doesn't sound threatening, if only she could talk to him. She tries to shake off the hand covering her mouth, only making it increase the pressure on her and pushing her head to the right, pinning her face to the dirt floor. Dust bellows up off the floor from under her nose and stings her eyes. Her breathing becomes increasingly more labored with her neck in this twisted position. She waits...unsure of what will happen to her next.
"I know this cop." the patient voice says.
She feels the weight shifting above the hands that are holding her down. They are leaning over her to get a better look. She tries again to struggle against them, but they push down even harder, making it more painful.
She's sure her finger is broken but her whole hand is throbbing. The pain and fear...mixed with the smell of urine and sweat emanating from these people, over comes her in a wave of nausea. She swallows the feeling down, knowing she will choke if she gets sick.
"So...can we kill her now?" The child-man asks again excitedly.
The same voice reprimands him. "Benny. Be quiet."
The flashlight moves off of her. She can only see white spots in the blackness, but she can tell the patient voice has walked away. Oh God don't leave, she screams in her mind. She knows they would have killed her if not for him. "Please...God." gurgles out illegibly, from under the smothering grip over her face. "Help me."
R.D. steps over to Bosco's form, laying still at the base of the steps. He shines the light down on him. Bosco is laying face down, with his left arm twisted in an unnatural position. He is unconscious. R.D. grabs him by his left arm, and it pulls easily away from his shoulder, obviously dislocated.
He kneels over him and takes Bosco's pulse to see if he broke his neck in the fall. He finds a strong pulse. He flips him over onto his back, and shines the light on him to verify what he already had guessed.
"These are the bastards that took the reverend away." The voice changes from patient to enraged. Angry chatter rises up from the group and the energy in the room becomes volatile. The hands Faith feels on her, begin tearing at her, ripping her clothing and gouging her skin. They start beating her with their fists and one of them even bites into her arm.
She tries thrashing away from them, her fear so heightened, that she actually kicks her legs free for a second. The hand comes off her mouth so suddenly that she only has time to gasp for breath, as the approaching flashlight swings like a pendulum out of the dark, hitting her hard in the face. She releases a moan before the second strike hits her, coming from the other direction. She feels herself fading away.
She becomes unattached from herself, and melts into the darkness.
In the distance, they hear the sound of sirens approaching from the street above. R.D. has to now make a decision on what they are going to do with these officers. He had always instructed them, especially after the reverend was taken from them, to avoid the police. The chance meeting with these two tonight was unplanned and dangerous.
He had taught these people, his family, that if any of them were threatened, to pull together silently in a surprise attack, which they executed well. Normally the unsuspecting victim would be bludgeoned to death. But they are never to kill police officers. That would bring too much trouble.
However these two are responsible for taking the reverend away from them. And he wants to punish them. Especially the mean little one. He needs to be taught a lesson... they will eventually be killed...but first he wants the male cop to become the very thing he detests, and the female to experience the fear that the reverend is experiencing, being incarcerated.
They drag the unconscious officers to the other side of the building, up to the first floor, and take them out of the dilapidated building through a broken loading dock door. They stand them up, wrapping their arms around the shoulders of two of the stronger men in the family, and drag them back to their own hideout.
They creep along the streets and back alleys unnoticed, giving the appearance of helping their drunk friends home. The officers, being stripped of their equipment, jackets, and uniforms, do not look like cops. Soon they are hidden away in the old coal basement, two stories down, under the streets of New York.
*** [11:49]
Bosco tries to move and pain grips him like a vise, holding him fast to his reclined position. He yells out, squeezing his eyes closed, and tears roll out involuntarily. He calls to Faith. When he gets no response, he looks around, searching for something familiar. Anything that will touch a memory of what has happened and where he is.
He half expects to see a nurse lean over him...or worse...Doc. That would mean he was shot on duty. He doesn't remember what call they had responded to. The pain in his arm is excruciating...he must have been shot...but he is not in the hospital. It doesn't smell like disinfectant, it smells musty and dirty...smells like garbage. It's dark...and damp, yet it doesn't feel like he is outside. He tries to clear his head and think. What the fuck has happened. Where the hell is Faith...why would she leave him alone like this.
He tries to move his arms. They are painfully stretched over his head, and he finally realizes that his wrists are handcuffed to something. He strains his neck to see what he is cuffed to, but it pulls at the pain in his shoulder and his body convulses, taking his breath away.
This doesn't feel like a bullet wound. He absolutely can not move. He feels as though he's been speared to the ground. Pain is pulsing through him and he can't think straight, but he knows he is injured really bad, and he needs help. Where the hell is Yokas. Panic is starting to fill the void in his memory.
"Faith!." He yells out to the darkness. As soon as he hollers, his chest seizes up in pain. He grits his teeth and growls out a moan, then gingerly calls out, "Faith...I need help." When he gets no response...his thoughts take him to the reality that maybe she is hurt too. Maybe they were in a car accident. That would explain the pain all over his body...but what about the cuffs?
He catches a glimpse of something moving towards him. It's a flashlight bouncing in the dark. Then he recalls that at some point he had been watching Faith walking with a flashlight...she must have gone for help. Someone walks up and crouches down next to him.
"Thank God you're here." Bosco says, his breath coming in pants now.
"Oh...now you're glad to see me." A strange voice says to him as he shines the light into Bosco's eyes.
"My arms...the pain...I can't stand it...you gotta help me. What happened?"
"You don't remember? Maybe we can reenact it for you." He starts laughing. Beyond the voice Bosco hears a soft clamor but he can't make out yet where exactly he has ended up.
"I think I'm hurt pretty bad. Please...you gotta get these cuffs off of me."
"Oh...are you uncomfortable?"
"Who are you? Where's my partner...is she alright?" Bosco asks.
"The lady cop? I'm afraid not." He pauses. "Does that make you feel bad?" he says, repeating Bosco's words from the day before.
"Are you a paramedic?" Bosco asks confused.
"I am the meek...and I just inherited your world." Then he waits for a reaction. In the silence, Bosco realizes that there is a group of people just beyond his visibility...in the dark. That feels vaguely familiar. He still can't think straight. None of this is making any sense to him and he starts to feel an uneasiness drifting in. His body is throbbing all over and his head is spinning from the pain.
"Where the hell is Faith. Was she hurt? Was it a car accident?" He raises his voice and all the pain he's feeling intensifies. The light in his eyes is turned off and a hand reaches out from the dark and grabs his face hard, digging their nails deep into his cheeks.
Bosco yells out in surprise but it squeezes out of him as a low groan. His body is trembling now, from fear and from the pain that surged through him as his body tensed. He is helplessly in the hands of a lunatic...and he's sure he's about to die. His breathing increases as the man speaks again, this time his voice is only inches from his face.
"You took someone from me, so I took someone from you. You laughed at us. You mocked us with your insults. Pushed us around like a big man, and then you took him away...my best friend. Tell me...is your partner your best friend?"
The words don't sink in. His mind can only skim the surface of what's happening...the fact that he is injured, the fact that he needs help, and the fact that this guy isn't going to help him. "Faith." He yells out expecting her to emerge any second, and pull this guy away from him.
The man laughs, "She's gone now." He lets go of Bosco's face and backs away. "She can't help you."
"She wouldn't leave me like this." Bosco growls at the man.
"She didn't have any choice. But she went kicking and screaming." He laughs casually.
Bosco hears the voice drift away and he tries to move again. The movement sends pain coursing through him in waves, and this time he rides the wave, as his thoughts roll away in the undertow.
***
***