Chapter 47:

He felt exhausted, deeply, deeply tired after his conversation, his confession to the senior agent. This last three quarters of an hour seemed to have lasted for eternities and they had been a living hell. But he had to admit that he was feeling a little better now – he didn't feel good though, he was still far, far away from that. But he was relieved to finally have the certainty that he wasn't being blamed for what had happened, that apart from sympathy and the wish to support him there were no other feelings brought towards him.

Still he was afraid – afraid of being forced to repeat what he had just told Jack about. He hadn't been able to announce a single sentence without hesitation or his voice breaking. How was he supposed to testify in a courtroom in front of a bunch of strangers. He didn't know if he was capable of doing so. He knew he had to – for Elizabeth and for his very own sake, but he really wasn't sure he could.

The one thing he was most threatened of was facing his attackers. It was a strange realisation he had right now – he had never seen their faces before. The darkness he had been kept in for the whole time had prevented it. Actually he didn't wanna be forced to deal with this on top of all the other memories. He didn't want the voices his memory haunted him with over and over again to get a face, too. It was bad enough already.

He couldn't even imagine to ever get in the same room with these men ever again, to see them, face them and stand up against them to testify. He knew they couldn't harm him in that courtroom, he would be safe. But the sheer sight of them, the memory being connected to it, was terrorizing enough. However he knew he couldn't very well avoid it – he had to testify.

He remembered what he had told Jack earlier – he had been the one with the evidence, the one able to harm the Chileans – they had been supposed to be afraid of that. They hadn't been threatened though – they had been angry and they had severely hurt him for what he knew. But now he had a chance to threaten them once again – by testifying – he simply had to make that decision.

He needed to sleep – get some rest before he would have to enter that courtroom. Thinking about it wasn't helping him in any way, it simply increased the level of exhaustion. He knew it was late, but he didn't bother to check – closing his eyes, breathing in deeply, trying not to think and to relax. He was close to falling asleep when something, some change in the scenery around him, made him feel uncomfortable and then he was addressed in a low, calm voice.

„Agent Taylor."

Every last emotion he thought he had been able to suppress and calm down came back on him full force. He knew that voice and he was terrorized with fear about his realization. He was unable to react – he knew he needed to try to escape from the bed and out of the room or at least scream for help – but he couldn't. The very presence of the other man in his hospital room left him completely unable to do anything after all.

He had no more chance to protect himself from any further attack as he felt the cool blade of a knife brought down to his neck. He was aware that the Chilean male had no scruples to make use of the weapon Danny was threatened with right now. He hadn't had any before, when he had first... Danny wasn't able to think any further.

„I don't think I have to tell you that I will make use of this utensil if you don't do exactly what I want you to do. As you chose to live past the earlier events, I believe you have a certain motivation not to make me do this."

The damn bastard was as polite as always, even while threatening Danny to kill him. But he was right – Danny couldn't risk to move away from the other man... Apart from the fact that he physically wasn't capable of doing so, anyway. But if he would get himself killed tonight, there would be no chance to serve justice any more. Anyways – Danny had the impression that this whole incident was about him not testifying.

He tried to get his emotions under control and find his voice to talk to the other man, question him about his motivation. But it was barely possible – this whole scenario just felt too goddamn familiar. The bed, the inability to move, the semi-darkness of the room and his attacker's threatening words. But he knew he needed to try and stay strong this time – he wouldn't give him the satisfaction of seeing his fear.

„What do you want from me?"

„You won't testify."

Danny had been right with his suspicion, but he still didn't get what this whole event was all about. Why did he tell him that? If he really wanted to prevent him from testifying he had his one chance to do so – right here and now. Danny knew it was a dangerous question to ask, but he was actually quite curious about the answer.

„Why don't you just kill me?"

„I already told you that. I wouldn't do that. I'm not willing to grant you that favor."

Danny swallowed hard as the other man reminded him of the last few words he had been saying to him. Danny knew what the elder Chilean was up to – he tried to trigger his memory to haunt him, he wanted Danny to break down – physically and mentally – which would leave him unable to testify. Danny knew he couldn't let this happen, but he was almost sure he wouldn't be able to prevent it.

„I'm going to convince you instead."

Danny knew the only thing he could do to prevent this from happening, prevent the Chilean from making him not testify was to scream for help. But he would risk to get killed then... So far he had been able to convince himself that he hadn't done it because if he would scream and the Chilean would slash the knife across his throat, he wouldn't be able to testify.

But he wouldn't be able to do that either way. If he would yell for help now, there would at least be a chance the elder man would be caught by the hospital security staff. But he couldn't, he didn't want to die – he wanted to live. As pathetic as it was – he wished to protect that miserable excuse of a life they had left him with. It was a selfish, cowardish decision – a decision which would set the Chileans free, would set his assailants free and he had just made that decision.

„You wouldn't want to end like Señora Tejar, would you? The poor young woman... You wouldn't believe one single person could endure that much pain, would fight for the life left in her so hard, although she was doomed, although dying would have been much easier and a lot less painful..."

Danny wished not to be forced to listen to this. He was aware that the medication was supposed to keep his emotions at bay – but he couldn't keep the memory away. The memory of Elizabeth's broken body, her contorted features and the pain still visible on her face, although she had been dead for several days.

He could feel the slight trembling in his hands once again and he knew he couldn't listen to much more of this – not without a disastrous, psychological reaction.

„Do you want to know what happened to her?

Do you want to know how she was screaming in pain, crying in desperation and pleading for mercy for weeks and weeks of torture?

Do you want to know about the sickening sound of a bone breaking and her agonizing screams afterwards?

Do you want to know how she had this very same blade cutting deep wounds into her flesh, how she was violated over and over again though she begged us to stop?

How her rips were broken, blood seeping into her lungs from the injury, and how she gurgled and gasped for air for hours and hours while she was slowly drowning in her own blood.

Do you want to know?"

It took nothing more but the other man's gentle touch to cause another episode of extreme psychological trauma. The soft touch of the other man's hand, the warmth radiating from his body and the words he had been saying were enough to cause Danny to shake violently. Every last piece of memory was mixing with the newly encountered information about Elizabeth's torment and leaving Danny completely unaware of his surrounding once again as his mind came up with the most basic security measure to protect his broken psyche.

Adamén took the knife away from his victim's neck in triumph and satisfaction. Both emotions clearly visible on his face. He put the knife away and made his way through the room. He knew that sooner or later a nurse would check on his victim and he couldn't risk to get caught – not after achieving his goal. But he couldn't keep himself from turning back and facing the deeply traumatized man for one last time.

„I told you, you wouldn't testify."