Chapter Seventeen

We're nearly done here, but Cesare has to make his final appearance. The song featured in this Chapter is 'Needle and the Damage Done' by Neil Young. It's pretty self-explanatory.

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Rei found himself waking slowly, which was strange because he couldn't recall going to sleep. He had been avoiding sleep since leaving the hospital. Sleep only brought him nightmares. His entire body ached from the inside out, especially in his throat and lungs. He blinked once, twice and opened his eyes fully…

… a steel barb was inches from his eye.

He recoiled quickly, only to feel a sharp sting in his back. When he reached behind him, his fingers came across a jagged surface that drew blood. There was one above him, digging into his scalp. One underneath him, breaking skin on his hip. He raised himself off the ground to take a good look at his surroundings. Immediately he wished he hadn't.

He was in a large room, about the size of your average hotel room. The floor was musty grey tile, covered with little spots of unidentifiable brown muck. The only source of light came from a single bulb dangling from a thin black wire in the middle of the ceiling. And the tiny amount of light glinted off the surface of coils and coils of shiny, new razor wire.

The wires were everywhere. The room was bare but for those wires, and they covered every square foot. There wasn't a space that Rei could stretch a limb without being cut. Even sitting still wasn't safe. There were at least six piercing him on all sides. If he looked, really hard, he could see the door of the room, and it was wide open. The space beyond the door was pitch black, but it promised freedom. It was at least sixteen feet to the door, and there was no safe way to make it through the wire.

At the edge of the room, he saw Io. The belladonna was out of his system, why was he still seeing her? Her mouth widened into a charmless smile as one chubby hand took hold of her golden curls. Her eyes rolled in her head and she rocked back and forth. A song drifted from her mouth, sounding like a nursery rhyme until Rei heard the lyrics.

I caught you knockin'
at my cellar door
I love you, baby,
can I have some more
Ooh, ooh, the damage done.



I hit the city and
I lost my band
I watched the needle
take another man
Gone, gone, the damage done.

If there was only one reason for him to make his way over to the door, it would have been to make her stop singing. Either way, Rei knew he'd have to move. He sat for a few more moments, thinking long and hard about how best to prevent injury to himself. He took off his shoes and slipped them onto his hands. He then removed his shirt and tore it in half, then wrapped the two pieces around his feet. He delayed his actions for another minute or two, but finally he had to move. Slowly, he places his hands on the wire in front of him, on the smooth space between the barbs. Closing his fists around the wire, he pulled himself forward, wincing as one of the barbs at his back tore into his skin.

His plan was to bend a tunnel into the wire that he could pass safely through. Leaning his weight on the wires in front of him, he dragged his feet forward and slid under the barbs overhead. For every metre he cleared, he was scratched at least three times. By the position he had forced himself into, he had to look down at the ground. He saw drops of blood become puddles, and those puddles became a lake. Slowly, so slowly, he made his way to the top of the wire structure. Had a normal, 150-pound human being tried this, the whole construction would have crumpled underneath him and he would have been impaled by the spikes. Luckily, Rei's weight and sense of balance made him just about able to pull off this manoeuvre. Io's reedy voice rang in his ears.

I sing the song
because I love the man
I know that some
of you don't understand
Milk-blood
to keep from running out.

I've seen the needle
and the damage done
A little part of it in everyone
But every junkie's
like a settin' sun.

Wrapping his fingers, through his cloth shoes, around the wires, he supported the weight of his body on his arms. Then he lifted his feet off of the last wire, pulling them forward until they rested between his arms. Then he purposefully fell forward until he was in range of the next wire, and reached out to catch it just before he dropped. He repeated the procedure, time and time again, until he was nearly out of the room. He reached the door, from where he was he could almost see the corridor, and Io had disappeared. He was so close…

… there was a snapping sound, unlike that of a bone breaking but equally as ominous. He looked down at the wire, and saw the already thin metal strand sporting a tear. The thread was only held together by a shard of steel, and if that snapped, he'd be dead within minutes. Rei racked his brain, trying to come to a decision. If he stayed where he was, there was a chance his muscles would go numb and he would fall anyway. If he made a jump for the door, the sudden shift in balance could cause the wire to snap and it would wheel around and hit him. It was no contest. He'd have to risk the jump.

He braced himself carefully, coiling the muscles in his legs like a spring. He heard the metal shard groan under the strain, and knew he didn't have any time to waste. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and threw himself forward in a graceful arc.

Success! He landed on clear ground, just inches from the closed door…

… when had the door closed? Panicked, he threw the shoes off of his hands and tugged at the door handle. It was locked. He put his entire weight against it, but it didn't budge an inch. From behind him, Rei heard the sickening sound of the metal shard snapping. Quickly he curled into a ball to minimize the damage.

The snapping of the shard set off a chain reaction through the room. The broken wire cracked against the wall, throwing two sets of wires into the air. They snapped against a series of lines near the floor, causing them to jump to the side. One by one, each of the wires whipped about the room as though they had been infused with bolts of electricity. They made their way to where Rei was crouched, flogging his legs and back like whips. The force of the blows knocked him off balance, he sprawled across the floor. Two wires wrapped around his legs, the barbs forcing their way into his skin. All he could do was look up to see the jagged whip hurtling towards his face. It cracked over his eyes, he was blinded in a sea of red. The last thing he felt was his limbs being ripped from his body...

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Rei woke, taking in great gulps of air. For a moment, the dream had so terrified him that he hadn't been able to breathe. He groped at his face in the dark, the feeling of pain across his eyes carrying over from his subconscious into his conscious. There was a feeling of wetness all over his back and legs, but he realized with palpable relief that it was cold sweat and not blood. The blankets of the bed were twisted around his legs, in much the same way the razor wire was n his dream. Rei clutched the blankets to his chest and tried to calm down.

A soft touch to his shoulder wrenched a scream from Rei's dry throat, and he clenched his hands into fists to defend himself if it was necessary. The bedside lamp was turned on, and he found himself looking into Kai's concerned face. He calmed down, but found he couldn't stop shaking. Kai noticed this.

" Are you okay?" Kai asked, although he knew the other boy was clearly not. Rei didn't answer, just ran a violently shaking hand through his sweat-soaked bangs. Kai sighed wearily.

" You're exhausted. Maybe you should have taken those pills you were prescribed…"

" I don't want them," Rei cut in sharply, " it's just nightmares. I don't feel so scared outside."

" Yeah, but you haven't had a full night's sleep since you left the hospital," Kai countered, " You need it badly. You'd feel better if you just took them."

" I wouldn't feel better. I wouldn't feel anything, and when I wake up I'd feel paranoid and twitchy. I'd rather be awake and terrified."

" What was the dream about?"

"…"

" You might feel better if you talk about it."

" I was in a room full of razor wire. I tried to reach the door, but when I got there it was locked, and then the wires split. They ripped me to pieces."

" Christ. No wonder you were screaming in your sleep."

" I was?"

" Yes. I thought you were dying."

" I thought I was. You know why? It's because he's still out there somewhere."

" This kind of trauma's to be expected, Rei. The doctors said it could take years to recover from something like this."

" That's bullshit. Nothing happened to me, at least compared to what that psychopath did to the others. I'd be fine if he wasn't still out there. I think he may come back for me. And God help me, I'm scared!"

Rei's voice broke at the last word, but Kai could see he was resisting the urge to cry. That was fine with him, if Rei didn't want to cry, Kai wouldn't force it out of him, whether he would feel better for it or not.

" Why don't you take a shower? You're soaked through."

" No. I must have bathed at least three times a day while I was inside. I want to be dirty, just for a while."

" Okay." Kai chuckled softly at that. Rei wasn't even dirty, as such, but the sweat must have been uncomfortable. " But at least change your clothes. You can't sleep covered in sweat."

Rei left the bed, and Kai got back into his own. Rei stripped, and Kai politely averted his eyes, but they were drawn to Rei's back. The previously smooth expanse of caramel-coloured skin was littered with black bruises and tiny cuts. No wonder he can't sleep, thought Kai, that must be terribly uncomfortable.

Rei finished dressing, and was about to return to his bed. But before he could climb in, Kai caught his arm. The covers on his bed were pulled back, Kai gestured to the empty space beside him. Rei looked at him dubiously.

" The blankets are soaked too. Hop in."

Rei blinked, confused.

" You want me to sleep with you?"

" That's a loaded question," chuckled Kai. Rei blushed as he realized what Kai meant. He smacked the other boy lightly on the arm.

" Not like that, pervert! I mean, that's a little… out of character for you."

" Call it extenuating circumstances. If you have another nightmare, I can wake you up. Hop in."

Rei did so, blushing like mad. He'd had dreams about this scenario. Though they had been considerably less tame. Kai, for his part, did his best to think unsexy thoughts. As Rei felt his eyelids grow heavy, he unconsciously slid closer to Kai and ended up practically wrapped around his handsome team captain as he slept. Kai sighed deeply. He was sleepy, but how could he sleep when the object of his affection was actually cuddling him? He steeled himself for a long, pleasant night.