Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters of Third Watch
Author's note: Thanks for all the reviews.
~The Dead Of The Night~
~Sunday, two Days after Halloween
The mind is more fragile than one may realize. The smallest points of pain can make the most damaging fissures in the psyche, allowing reason and sanity to drain away. Something as simple as scratching an itch...an almost involuntary reflex of comfort...when suppressed for two days...drains something from you, mentally.
The simple act of not speaking, when it's all that's been left to you, causes an inner struggle that you loose, no matter what you do. You cry for help, and get beaten, so you beg them to stop, and the beating increases. You say nothing...you become even more helpless.
Faith's body already feels like a corpse. Her skin is cold to the touch, and her clothing is damp like the wall and the muddy floor beneath her. The beatings have become more frequent. She is shivering less than she was before, and she knows that can't be good. Her body is either becoming hypothermic or it's shutting down. And her stomach hurts but she doesn't feel hunger any more.
Faith struggles to stay awake, because each time she sleeps, she is startled awake by something crawling on her. Sometimes it's rats, sometimes it's bugs and the last time it was Benny, testing the limits of his childish demeanor, with his adult body and urges. She awoke screaming and scared him off of her, but the body warmth and human contact made her realize how far she's already slipped away. It almost felt...comforting.
***
Bosco has been adopted by a guy they call Will. He's a scrawny, skeleton like man, with sunken, black agate eyes, and patchy hair from having ring worm. He looks diseased. His bony hands clutch a book that he uses as a bible, but it isn't really...it's way too thin. He holds it upside down sometimes, when he is pretending to be reading from it. And Bosco doubts that this loon can even read at all.
He prattles on all day misquoting passages from the bible to Bosco, his captive audience, ending almost every paragraph by pointing to the sky, looking up and resounding, 'So help me God!'. He has taken on the mission of saving Bosco from the hell above, and is trying to exorcise the evil out of him, down here below ground, which he calls 'heaven under earth'. How's that for twisted. They seem to worship rats, feeding them scraps of the rotting food they steal from dumpsters, which they try to feed to him but he refuses, repulsed beyond the aching need for it.
This guy preaches that God sent rats down to spy on us and we are being judged on how we treat them. Rats are disgusting scavengers, dirty and vile, living in the most horrible of conditions, and only the people who can look at them with love and treat them tenderly, will be accepted into heaven.
Bosco starts believing this is true...and that God has judged him, because these people are rat-like, and Bosco treated them horribly. He treated his partner just as bad and she represents everything good to him. He is doomed and he is being punished in this hell.
Bosco sleeps most of the time, his pain making him immobile, and his sorrow has consumed him to the point of not caring. The pain from hunger is as poignant as the pain in his shoulder. He has given up on waiting for help, and is now only waiting to die. He has lost all hope and his will to live.
He has even given up on shutting out Will, because when Will is silent, Bosco can only think of Faith...how he let her down and became the person he despises the most...his father. She was his family and he destroyed her. Although he never hurt her physically, he pushed her around emotionally with no regards for what she needed...ever.
***
R.D. decides to take Benny to the school around the corner today. They are having a charity costume party for the homeless children, and will be serving hot food and handing out candy to the kids. Benny can go as a cop.
They dress him up with the hat and jacket, complete with badge, and let him carry the night stick. The two of them climb out into the cold November air on their mission to bring back food for everyone. Benny is excited and R.D. thinks to remind him not to tell any one where he got his costume.
***
The principle of the school had contacted the precinct and asked if they could send a unit to attend their party to talk to the children about safety, but what he really wanted was security for the undesirables that they are throwing this charity event for.
Sully and Davis were the chosen unit.
Sully is his gruff self, standing around mostly, talking with the principle and the teachers, keeping a keen eye on the homeless families. He assumes the majority of them are there to steal any items that are not nailed down. Davis on the other hand, is getting into the festive atmosphere, and interacting nicely with the children.
They ask Davis questions like how fast does his police car go, and did he ever shoot anyone. And then one boy asks if he works with the other cop that is at the party. When Davis points to Sully and tells him that is his partner, the boy says he meant the other cop, the goofy one.
Davis spots Benny sitting at a table eating cookies and drinking hot cider. Then R.D. joins him with more food. Davis walks up and greets them.
"Hey, are you from the 55?" He asks.
"No...I'm a policeman." Benny says. "Wanna see my stick?"
Davis realizes that Benny is slow, and is actually in a costume. He smiles genuinely. "Yah...let me see your stick."
Benny shows him the nightstick, and Davis tells him what it is really called. Then he asks R.D. "Where'd ya get the costume...it looks real?"
"It is real...My father was a cop. He's gone now."
"Oh...I'm sorry. Was he with the 55?"
"No...we were from Jersey." R.D. says convincingly.
Sully walks up thinking, as Davis did, that Benny was a real cop. He catches on quickly that Benny is not really an adult, and also makes conversation. "Catch any bad guys today?"
"Yup...I got a hundred of them so far." Benny says, all proud of himself.
"1141...that badge number seems familiar. What is your last name?" Sully asks R.D..
"Lester. My father was Marcus Lester. Did you ever work in Jersey?"
"No. The name doesn't sound familiar either but the pin on the jacket says he's from the 55." Sully says pointing to the pin.
"Ah...actually he did work in New York for a few months before we moved to Jersey. That was a long time ago. It must be from that. I got the jacket out of a trunk. My dad gained a lot of weight by the time he died. His newest outfits didn't fit Benny."
"Oh...that badge number sure seems familiar though. Lester huh? It doesn't ring a bell."
"Well...officers...it was nice chatting with you. We gotta go. I have a job interview at six."
"Hey good luck. And Benny...if I ever need back up...you're my man." Davis says, pointing his fingers at him like he's holding a gun.
"Nice people huh?" Davis says to Sully after they leave.
"Yah. I hope the job comes through for him." He stands, staring at the ground for a minute. "It's gonna drive me crazy trying to figure out why that number is so familiar." Then he gets a forlorn look in his eyes. Putting his hand up to his mouth he says, "Oh...man."
"What's wrong?"
"It's Yokas...her badge had a lot of ones in it."
"Could it be...do you think that..." Davis doesn't know how to finish the statement.
"Do I think that...what...a retarded homeless child abducted her?" Sully says.
Davis sighs. "Yah...it's crazy. I know. I just want to find them...I wanna know they're ok. Do you believe what the detectives are saying?"
"That they ran off to Barbados together? Not for a second. All they have is the fact that two plane tickets were bought with cash and a stewardess thinks she recognized them from a photo. That's crap. Faith would never leave her family...especially not for Bosco. But when they told their suspicions to Faith's husband, he threw a tantrum saying that he knew Bosco would ruin their marriage, and he should never have let them be partners. That cast enough suspicion for them...another case solved."
"So they've closed the case?"
"No...not really, but I'll bet they've stopped looken into it. We may never know what happened to them, unless their bodies turn up somewhere."
"Well...if it comes down to that...I hope they are in Barbados...but the homeless retarded child theory seems more believable to me."
***
Benny and R.D. return back to their home. R.D. watches Bosco for a while and realizes that Bosco has given up on life. That is not acceptable. R.D. knows that this little prick would rather be dead than live as a transient, and he won't let Bosco have his way. He decides to revive him by teasing him with hope.
His desire to live is deadened by the physical pain he's feeling from his shoulder and his emotional pain from the belief that his partner is dead. R.D. can fix both of those things.
First he un-cuffs Bosco's hands. Bosco looks up at him but doesn't appear to really see him. His eyes are bloodshot and glassy. The dark rings around his eyes look as though he'd been punched. He doesn't seem aware that he's even been un-cuffed until R.D. grabs his wrist and moves his arm from the position above his head to straight out at his side.
That simple movement, sends a white hot pain through him. He croaks out a yell through his dry throat and grabs for his chest with his right hand. This movement also stabs him with pain, with his arms having cramped into that position, and he takes a hard breath and holds it, as he prepares himself for what may happen next.
R.D. puts his foot against Bosco's underarm, and placing one hand just above his elbow, and holding his wrist hard with the other, he pulls with all his might, one hard snap of his arm. Bosco yells out again, louder this time, and his shoulder and arm lurch up with a loud crack.
R.D. releases Bosco's arm and it falls limp to the floor. Bosco draws a breath with a raspy grating sound, which sends him into a coughing fit momentarily. Then he suddenly realizes that the pain in his arm has deadened to a dull throb. His eyes open wider and he stares at R.D. in disbelief. His pain has lessened...although his agony has not.
***
R.D. wanders back to where they left Faith. She doesn't look good at all. He realizes that Benny has been pretty rough with her, he should have kept a better eye on him. The pillow case over her face is very bloody. He isn't ready yet for her to die either.
Dying, would let them off the hook too easily. He isn't done punishing them. He is going to bring them together, let them comfort each other back from the doorway of death. He can always open that door for them again later...when he chooses.
He kneels down next to Faith and removes the pillowcase from her head. She is awake but not at all alert. Her face is pasty white and she has bruises on her left cheek, a welt on her forehead, and her right eye is purple and almost closed. The right side of her face is caked with dried blood.
He un-cuffs her hands, and pulls the tape off of them. Her fingers barely uncurl giving her hands a crippled, witch-like appearance. She moans and tries to speak but it doesn't come out legible. He has Benny help him lift her to a standing position. Her frame, is shaky and frail, as if she has aged decades in this few days.
As they walk her to the other side, she speaks only one word over and over... "No"...as if her mind can't quite wrap around it. Like a record skipping, with the needle hopelessly stuck in a mar, that it just can't break out of and continue on.
They walk her right over to Bosco, who looks up indifferently, not recognizing the feeble figure they are bringing towards him. He ponders for a moment that they have captured some other vulnerable person from the world above, and he should do something to help, to get involved...to do his job. But it is fleeting, with the feeling of 'who cares' pushing it away. He even feels pissed, for just a split second of lunacy, that Faith will probably make him get involved anyway, even though he doesn't feel like it. The bleeding heart that she is...was.
His heart feels suddenly heavier, weighted with guilt at the fact that his shoulder actually does hurt less, and he shouldn't be allowed to feel this new comfort. He wants to just curl up in a flash of pain and flicker out in the darkness. He defiantly does not look up as they approach.
They bring her over, next to him, and set her against the wall, which she immediately slides down like she's made of paper. He closes his eyes, to show he is not interested.
"What's the matter...does she repulse you now? Are you too good for her, too? You acted like such a big man...saving the world from us...but you can't even save yourself. Look at you." He kicks Bosco in the legs.
"Screw you." Bosco says bitterly. Then he glances to her. It sinks in so slow as he watches her struggling, not daring to believe that he could be given a second chance, to be relieved of the guilt, and of the finality of his loss. He stares, cautious of breathing life into to the deflated essence of her being.
"Faith?" he says softly, afraid he may wake himself if this is only a dream that his mind is playing for him. "Faith? Is that you?" He gets no response beyond a whimper and the tormented word she is still repeating... "no." but he recognizes her voice in it. It really is her.
He tries to roll to his side and lift his body to a sitting position, but the dull throbbing turns instantly to pain. His good arm shakes, trying to lift his battered frame, like a ninety year old man trying to do a push up.
"What the hell did you do to her. What's wrong with her?" Then his voice gets harder, almost threatening. "You told me she was dead...you son-of-a-bitch!"
R.D. laughs back at him. "I never said that. You must be loosing touch with reality. Ya know they say all homeless people are insane. And you two broke so easily." He laughs again as he walks away, calling to Benny to follow. "Lets let him spend some quality time with his transient partner."
Bosco slowly crawls over to her, oblivious to the pain, focused only on the fact that he is no longer alone. That the other half...the better half, of 55 David has been resurrected from the dead, and now there is a chance...a slight hope, that they can still get out of this alive. But in the back of his mind a warning keeps sounding off that they are still at the mercy of a very dangerous and demented mind, and if he allowed them this small hope, there is an ulterior motive behind it. He has no idea of what it may be, but he is confident that Faith will figure it out.
He knows now, that he needs to rejuvenate...if only he hadn't turned down the morsels of food that had been offered to him. As disgusting as they were, he needs strength. That is what he brings to the table, while Faith is the voice of reason. The one who will have to figure out what they have to do, to get out of this trouble.
He can see that she is in very bad shape physically. The bruises to her face are startling in their severity. He touches her arm gently, to show her that he is here for her now, assuming that she was also told that he was dead. She is cold to the touch, and he notices that her clothing is wet, and also torn, revealing bite marks and deep gashes, some looking already infected.
Her body is trembling and her hands...her fingers look crippled, possibly broken. Tears form in his eyes from the emotion that is overflowing in him. They are tears of frustration at their dilemma, tears of joy at her return, and tears of anguish for what she must have gone through.
When he touches her arm, she pulls away from him, speaking the redundant "no". He cradles her face in his hands and says reassuringly, "Faith it's me. It's alright...I'm gonna help you."
She stares at him, eyes wide with terror and void of any recognition of him. She starts fighting him off, trying to speak, but saying only the first syllable of the word "don't", programmed to not actually say the word to avoid a beating. But he doesn't understand this.
"Faith it's me...it's me...Bosco. Stop it...stop. I'm trying to help you." He finally releases his hold when she pounds him in the chest and shoulders, sending him reeling back from the pain of his broken ribs. She backs away and curls up, covering her head. And he is stunned with the feeling that she may be too far gone emotionally to help him plan an escape. And he knows that he is also teetering on the brink of insanity.
*****
*****
Author's note: Thanks for all the reviews.
~The Dead Of The Night~
~Sunday, two Days after Halloween
The mind is more fragile than one may realize. The smallest points of pain can make the most damaging fissures in the psyche, allowing reason and sanity to drain away. Something as simple as scratching an itch...an almost involuntary reflex of comfort...when suppressed for two days...drains something from you, mentally.
The simple act of not speaking, when it's all that's been left to you, causes an inner struggle that you loose, no matter what you do. You cry for help, and get beaten, so you beg them to stop, and the beating increases. You say nothing...you become even more helpless.
Faith's body already feels like a corpse. Her skin is cold to the touch, and her clothing is damp like the wall and the muddy floor beneath her. The beatings have become more frequent. She is shivering less than she was before, and she knows that can't be good. Her body is either becoming hypothermic or it's shutting down. And her stomach hurts but she doesn't feel hunger any more.
Faith struggles to stay awake, because each time she sleeps, she is startled awake by something crawling on her. Sometimes it's rats, sometimes it's bugs and the last time it was Benny, testing the limits of his childish demeanor, with his adult body and urges. She awoke screaming and scared him off of her, but the body warmth and human contact made her realize how far she's already slipped away. It almost felt...comforting.
***
Bosco has been adopted by a guy they call Will. He's a scrawny, skeleton like man, with sunken, black agate eyes, and patchy hair from having ring worm. He looks diseased. His bony hands clutch a book that he uses as a bible, but it isn't really...it's way too thin. He holds it upside down sometimes, when he is pretending to be reading from it. And Bosco doubts that this loon can even read at all.
He prattles on all day misquoting passages from the bible to Bosco, his captive audience, ending almost every paragraph by pointing to the sky, looking up and resounding, 'So help me God!'. He has taken on the mission of saving Bosco from the hell above, and is trying to exorcise the evil out of him, down here below ground, which he calls 'heaven under earth'. How's that for twisted. They seem to worship rats, feeding them scraps of the rotting food they steal from dumpsters, which they try to feed to him but he refuses, repulsed beyond the aching need for it.
This guy preaches that God sent rats down to spy on us and we are being judged on how we treat them. Rats are disgusting scavengers, dirty and vile, living in the most horrible of conditions, and only the people who can look at them with love and treat them tenderly, will be accepted into heaven.
Bosco starts believing this is true...and that God has judged him, because these people are rat-like, and Bosco treated them horribly. He treated his partner just as bad and she represents everything good to him. He is doomed and he is being punished in this hell.
Bosco sleeps most of the time, his pain making him immobile, and his sorrow has consumed him to the point of not caring. The pain from hunger is as poignant as the pain in his shoulder. He has given up on waiting for help, and is now only waiting to die. He has lost all hope and his will to live.
He has even given up on shutting out Will, because when Will is silent, Bosco can only think of Faith...how he let her down and became the person he despises the most...his father. She was his family and he destroyed her. Although he never hurt her physically, he pushed her around emotionally with no regards for what she needed...ever.
***
R.D. decides to take Benny to the school around the corner today. They are having a charity costume party for the homeless children, and will be serving hot food and handing out candy to the kids. Benny can go as a cop.
They dress him up with the hat and jacket, complete with badge, and let him carry the night stick. The two of them climb out into the cold November air on their mission to bring back food for everyone. Benny is excited and R.D. thinks to remind him not to tell any one where he got his costume.
***
The principle of the school had contacted the precinct and asked if they could send a unit to attend their party to talk to the children about safety, but what he really wanted was security for the undesirables that they are throwing this charity event for.
Sully and Davis were the chosen unit.
Sully is his gruff self, standing around mostly, talking with the principle and the teachers, keeping a keen eye on the homeless families. He assumes the majority of them are there to steal any items that are not nailed down. Davis on the other hand, is getting into the festive atmosphere, and interacting nicely with the children.
They ask Davis questions like how fast does his police car go, and did he ever shoot anyone. And then one boy asks if he works with the other cop that is at the party. When Davis points to Sully and tells him that is his partner, the boy says he meant the other cop, the goofy one.
Davis spots Benny sitting at a table eating cookies and drinking hot cider. Then R.D. joins him with more food. Davis walks up and greets them.
"Hey, are you from the 55?" He asks.
"No...I'm a policeman." Benny says. "Wanna see my stick?"
Davis realizes that Benny is slow, and is actually in a costume. He smiles genuinely. "Yah...let me see your stick."
Benny shows him the nightstick, and Davis tells him what it is really called. Then he asks R.D. "Where'd ya get the costume...it looks real?"
"It is real...My father was a cop. He's gone now."
"Oh...I'm sorry. Was he with the 55?"
"No...we were from Jersey." R.D. says convincingly.
Sully walks up thinking, as Davis did, that Benny was a real cop. He catches on quickly that Benny is not really an adult, and also makes conversation. "Catch any bad guys today?"
"Yup...I got a hundred of them so far." Benny says, all proud of himself.
"1141...that badge number seems familiar. What is your last name?" Sully asks R.D..
"Lester. My father was Marcus Lester. Did you ever work in Jersey?"
"No. The name doesn't sound familiar either but the pin on the jacket says he's from the 55." Sully says pointing to the pin.
"Ah...actually he did work in New York for a few months before we moved to Jersey. That was a long time ago. It must be from that. I got the jacket out of a trunk. My dad gained a lot of weight by the time he died. His newest outfits didn't fit Benny."
"Oh...that badge number sure seems familiar though. Lester huh? It doesn't ring a bell."
"Well...officers...it was nice chatting with you. We gotta go. I have a job interview at six."
"Hey good luck. And Benny...if I ever need back up...you're my man." Davis says, pointing his fingers at him like he's holding a gun.
"Nice people huh?" Davis says to Sully after they leave.
"Yah. I hope the job comes through for him." He stands, staring at the ground for a minute. "It's gonna drive me crazy trying to figure out why that number is so familiar." Then he gets a forlorn look in his eyes. Putting his hand up to his mouth he says, "Oh...man."
"What's wrong?"
"It's Yokas...her badge had a lot of ones in it."
"Could it be...do you think that..." Davis doesn't know how to finish the statement.
"Do I think that...what...a retarded homeless child abducted her?" Sully says.
Davis sighs. "Yah...it's crazy. I know. I just want to find them...I wanna know they're ok. Do you believe what the detectives are saying?"
"That they ran off to Barbados together? Not for a second. All they have is the fact that two plane tickets were bought with cash and a stewardess thinks she recognized them from a photo. That's crap. Faith would never leave her family...especially not for Bosco. But when they told their suspicions to Faith's husband, he threw a tantrum saying that he knew Bosco would ruin their marriage, and he should never have let them be partners. That cast enough suspicion for them...another case solved."
"So they've closed the case?"
"No...not really, but I'll bet they've stopped looken into it. We may never know what happened to them, unless their bodies turn up somewhere."
"Well...if it comes down to that...I hope they are in Barbados...but the homeless retarded child theory seems more believable to me."
***
Benny and R.D. return back to their home. R.D. watches Bosco for a while and realizes that Bosco has given up on life. That is not acceptable. R.D. knows that this little prick would rather be dead than live as a transient, and he won't let Bosco have his way. He decides to revive him by teasing him with hope.
His desire to live is deadened by the physical pain he's feeling from his shoulder and his emotional pain from the belief that his partner is dead. R.D. can fix both of those things.
First he un-cuffs Bosco's hands. Bosco looks up at him but doesn't appear to really see him. His eyes are bloodshot and glassy. The dark rings around his eyes look as though he'd been punched. He doesn't seem aware that he's even been un-cuffed until R.D. grabs his wrist and moves his arm from the position above his head to straight out at his side.
That simple movement, sends a white hot pain through him. He croaks out a yell through his dry throat and grabs for his chest with his right hand. This movement also stabs him with pain, with his arms having cramped into that position, and he takes a hard breath and holds it, as he prepares himself for what may happen next.
R.D. puts his foot against Bosco's underarm, and placing one hand just above his elbow, and holding his wrist hard with the other, he pulls with all his might, one hard snap of his arm. Bosco yells out again, louder this time, and his shoulder and arm lurch up with a loud crack.
R.D. releases Bosco's arm and it falls limp to the floor. Bosco draws a breath with a raspy grating sound, which sends him into a coughing fit momentarily. Then he suddenly realizes that the pain in his arm has deadened to a dull throb. His eyes open wider and he stares at R.D. in disbelief. His pain has lessened...although his agony has not.
***
R.D. wanders back to where they left Faith. She doesn't look good at all. He realizes that Benny has been pretty rough with her, he should have kept a better eye on him. The pillow case over her face is very bloody. He isn't ready yet for her to die either.
Dying, would let them off the hook too easily. He isn't done punishing them. He is going to bring them together, let them comfort each other back from the doorway of death. He can always open that door for them again later...when he chooses.
He kneels down next to Faith and removes the pillowcase from her head. She is awake but not at all alert. Her face is pasty white and she has bruises on her left cheek, a welt on her forehead, and her right eye is purple and almost closed. The right side of her face is caked with dried blood.
He un-cuffs her hands, and pulls the tape off of them. Her fingers barely uncurl giving her hands a crippled, witch-like appearance. She moans and tries to speak but it doesn't come out legible. He has Benny help him lift her to a standing position. Her frame, is shaky and frail, as if she has aged decades in this few days.
As they walk her to the other side, she speaks only one word over and over... "No"...as if her mind can't quite wrap around it. Like a record skipping, with the needle hopelessly stuck in a mar, that it just can't break out of and continue on.
They walk her right over to Bosco, who looks up indifferently, not recognizing the feeble figure they are bringing towards him. He ponders for a moment that they have captured some other vulnerable person from the world above, and he should do something to help, to get involved...to do his job. But it is fleeting, with the feeling of 'who cares' pushing it away. He even feels pissed, for just a split second of lunacy, that Faith will probably make him get involved anyway, even though he doesn't feel like it. The bleeding heart that she is...was.
His heart feels suddenly heavier, weighted with guilt at the fact that his shoulder actually does hurt less, and he shouldn't be allowed to feel this new comfort. He wants to just curl up in a flash of pain and flicker out in the darkness. He defiantly does not look up as they approach.
They bring her over, next to him, and set her against the wall, which she immediately slides down like she's made of paper. He closes his eyes, to show he is not interested.
"What's the matter...does she repulse you now? Are you too good for her, too? You acted like such a big man...saving the world from us...but you can't even save yourself. Look at you." He kicks Bosco in the legs.
"Screw you." Bosco says bitterly. Then he glances to her. It sinks in so slow as he watches her struggling, not daring to believe that he could be given a second chance, to be relieved of the guilt, and of the finality of his loss. He stares, cautious of breathing life into to the deflated essence of her being.
"Faith?" he says softly, afraid he may wake himself if this is only a dream that his mind is playing for him. "Faith? Is that you?" He gets no response beyond a whimper and the tormented word she is still repeating... "no." but he recognizes her voice in it. It really is her.
He tries to roll to his side and lift his body to a sitting position, but the dull throbbing turns instantly to pain. His good arm shakes, trying to lift his battered frame, like a ninety year old man trying to do a push up.
"What the hell did you do to her. What's wrong with her?" Then his voice gets harder, almost threatening. "You told me she was dead...you son-of-a-bitch!"
R.D. laughs back at him. "I never said that. You must be loosing touch with reality. Ya know they say all homeless people are insane. And you two broke so easily." He laughs again as he walks away, calling to Benny to follow. "Lets let him spend some quality time with his transient partner."
Bosco slowly crawls over to her, oblivious to the pain, focused only on the fact that he is no longer alone. That the other half...the better half, of 55 David has been resurrected from the dead, and now there is a chance...a slight hope, that they can still get out of this alive. But in the back of his mind a warning keeps sounding off that they are still at the mercy of a very dangerous and demented mind, and if he allowed them this small hope, there is an ulterior motive behind it. He has no idea of what it may be, but he is confident that Faith will figure it out.
He knows now, that he needs to rejuvenate...if only he hadn't turned down the morsels of food that had been offered to him. As disgusting as they were, he needs strength. That is what he brings to the table, while Faith is the voice of reason. The one who will have to figure out what they have to do, to get out of this trouble.
He can see that she is in very bad shape physically. The bruises to her face are startling in their severity. He touches her arm gently, to show her that he is here for her now, assuming that she was also told that he was dead. She is cold to the touch, and he notices that her clothing is wet, and also torn, revealing bite marks and deep gashes, some looking already infected.
Her body is trembling and her hands...her fingers look crippled, possibly broken. Tears form in his eyes from the emotion that is overflowing in him. They are tears of frustration at their dilemma, tears of joy at her return, and tears of anguish for what she must have gone through.
When he touches her arm, she pulls away from him, speaking the redundant "no". He cradles her face in his hands and says reassuringly, "Faith it's me. It's alright...I'm gonna help you."
She stares at him, eyes wide with terror and void of any recognition of him. She starts fighting him off, trying to speak, but saying only the first syllable of the word "don't", programmed to not actually say the word to avoid a beating. But he doesn't understand this.
"Faith it's me...it's me...Bosco. Stop it...stop. I'm trying to help you." He finally releases his hold when she pounds him in the chest and shoulders, sending him reeling back from the pain of his broken ribs. She backs away and curls up, covering her head. And he is stunned with the feeling that she may be too far gone emotionally to help him plan an escape. And he knows that he is also teetering on the brink of insanity.
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