Author's note~ I hope you enjoy.

Adrian dug to the very bottom of the box and pulled out a large brown envelope. His name was written across the front in an untidy scrawl. The boys held their breath, curiosity burning as they edged closer, trying to see.

Adrian ripped the envelope open, shaking the contents out into his hand. A small device fell into his hand, hardly larger than a wood chip. It was followed by small packet of silver capsules, and a piece of black wire with a metal tip on one end, two rubbery buds on the other. Adrian looked at the odd things for a moment before stuffing them into his pocket. Reaching into the envelope again, he pulled out a single folded sheet of paper, unfolding it carelessly.

Something small fell from the folded paper and landed on the ground at his feet, but Adrian didn't move to pick it up. He couldn't, he was completely frozen by the message on the paper. Five words that stole the breath from his lungs. Five words in block printing, written in a dry but smeared rust colored liquid. Jeff and Newt each peered over a shoulder, reading the note.

WATCH YOUR STEP

DON'T FORGET

Uneasy at the cryptic message, Newt spotted the sparkle of the fallen item at his feet and leaned over to pick it up. It looked like some kind of cheap metal hair thing, a rippled pin sticking out from a flimsy silver butterfly, dotted with colored stones. The same rusty substance that had been used to write the note had coated part of the little jeweled clip. Both boys took a big step back, Newt clearing his throat nervously, his earlier anger at the man overridden by concern.

"Adrian..."

The man turned to face them; his eyes totally blank and unresponsive. Newt wondered if he could even see them. He held out the pin, offering it.

"...What does it mean? What's going on?" The trepidation at the strange, vaguely threatening message had Newt's voice coming out soft, and a little scared.

Adrian's eyes focused on the hair clip, he reached out a hand that visibly trembled, delicately taking it from the blonde boy. He turned it over and over in his fingers, studying it with that same unresponsive look. In a sudden blur of motion, and without a single word Adrian grabbed his crutch and limped quickly out of the hut, almost at a run, disappearing into the brush of the forest before either of the boys could get over the shock. They looked at each other in dismay, their stares speaking volumes.

What the hell had just happened?

Concerned, and more than a little freaked out, the boys shook themselves into action and hurried out of the building, crashing into the undergrowth in pursuit of the man. When minutes passed with no sign of him, they started calling his name, feeling more urgent by the second.

"Adrian!?"

"Adrian, where are you?!"

After more than fifteen minutes of frantic searching they finally spotted him across a smallish clearing, sitting with his back against a huge tree right by the edge of the forest, barely ten feet from the eastern wall of the maze. He was sitting with his knees drawn up to his chest, his arms folded across them, his head buried in his arms, his crutch carelessly tossed aside. Even from a distance they could see he was shaking like a leaf. Jeff moved to rush forward but Newt threw an arm in front of his chest, stopping his friend cold. The man was clearly having some kind of crisis; everything in Newt's gut told him to proceed with caution. He called out softly, trying not to alarm the man.

"Adrian?"

No response. No acknowledgement.

The boys started moving towards him slowly, as they would with a wounded animal. Newt tried again.

"Adrian? You okay, mate? Talk to us, tell us what's going on."

Still no response, just the same horrible shattered silence. They managed to get within about a dozen feet of the man when he suddenly threw out his arm, palm up, a violent, angry and very clear gesture.

Stop.

Even his hand shook, it looked like he was barely hanging on.

Both boys halted, a small sick fear burning in them. As they watched, the arm retracted, the hand moving to cover Adrian's hidden face in a gesture of pure misery. The boys held their ground, distraught at the erratic behavior. After a few tense minutes of watching, Newt took Jeff's arm and used his head to gesture back the way they came; the boys silently moved back to the far end of the clearing, giving the man some space.

"What the shuckin' hell is going on?! What's wrong with him?!" Jeff whispered, eyes cutting back and forth from Newt's face to the curled figure in the shadow of the tree. "What are we supposed to do?"

"I don't know!" Newt whispered back, frustrated and concerned. "I don't bloody know! I've seen some boys have a bit of a tantrum, or a jag, or even a good old mope. Everyone does, once in a while. But I've never seen this before."

"What do we do?"

Newt hissed through his teeth, trying to decide on the best way to handle the situation. "I think...I think we should give him some space. Leave him here for a while, until he pulls himself together."

"That's your brilliant plan? Leave him here?"

"Bloody hell, Jeff! I don't hear you coming up with something better. Just leave him be for now, I say. If he doesn't show up for supper, I'll come find him myself and...I'll think of something."

Giving the blonde boy a very doubtful look, Jeff finally nodded once, acquiescing. They turned and walked back the way they came, neither feeling much like talking at the moment. Newt stole one more glance over his shoulder at the hunched and trembling form of the upset man, wondering how things could have gone so sideways so quickly.

Adrian heard their calls, their soft words, the indistinct hissing of their whispered conversation, the rustling of their departure. Everything seemed to be funneling through a thick wad of cotton; he knew he should understand the words, but they might as well have been in a dead language. Alone, grasping at his few threads of control, he fought with everything he had to not just fall to pieces. Every muscle shivered with the effort, and despite his desperate attempts to clear his mind, horrible thoughts circled like buzzards at a fresh kill. He squeezed his head viciously between his hands, trying to push the images out of his mind.

Big green eyes, a brighter cleared color than his own, rimmed by long thick lashed. Sparkling with interest, intelligence, adoration. Love.

"You said that you were going to tell me a new story. You told me that one last night!"

Pale skin, dainty frame. Small feet in scuffed black dress shoes. Such tiny, delicate hands. He was always afraid that he would hold too strongly, crush the tender hand when it slipped into his.

"Another! Another piggy back ride! Go Adrian, go go go!"

A mass of curling strawberry blonde hair, never quite tidy no matter how hard they'd tried. Tendrils and wisps pulling out of the most favorite butterfly clips; a precious gift from long ago.

Screams of laughter from funny stories, from being swung in the air, from being tickled breathless. Glorious joyful sounds that turned ugly, hauntingly to screams of fear, horror, despair.

They'd tried for weeks, beating him, burning him, hitting him with shock after electrical shock. They starved him, they stabbed him, they threatened to take his eyes, his tongue, his hands. They'd inflicted upon him everything they could think of, and through it all, he had refused to break.

Sitting at the base of a tree, alone but for his own memories and dark thoughts, tears poured like rain down his face and his shoulders heaved with wracking sobs. He felt something crack inside him as he, finally, broke.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was a somber pair that walked back into the med-hut; both boys too lost in their own heads to bother with casual conversation. A flurry of movement and voices in the construction area at the back of the dwelling pulled them both back to the present moment; the builders, finished with hauling supplies to the main site, had returned to finish working on their project. Gally hailed them as they stepped through the door.

"Hey guys. Coming along in here, dontcha think? Where's the greenie? He was supposed to be here helping us complete his 'vision'. " Gally said, a hair sarcastically. "We can finish these walls, get some of the other bits he asked for done, but as for the trimmings...I can't build something I've never done before if he's awol."

"He's unavailable at the moment," Jeff stated, not meeting the taller boy's eyes.

"Unavailable?" Gally sneered, "Mister important desperately needed elsewhere? Gone off to 'improve' something else, while we're here, busting our asses on his 'special project'?"

"Mind your own and just get it done, Gally." Newt said curtly. "Finish what you can for the day then knock off, get yourselves a meal. Anything else needs doing, it can get done tomorrow. You worry about building; I'll take care of the bloody green bean."

Gally gave Newt a mocking two fingered salute and turned back to his crew without commenting. Newt pulled Jeff to one side, speaking quietly so that his words wouldn't carry.

"I figure Adrian probably told you his plan for this place; can you keep an eye on things here? Take a look through some of that...junk that got sent up, sort it out best you can. After they're done and gone, head for dinner yourself. I should get to the homestead, help sort and organize the supplies."

"What about..."

"I'll keep an eye." Promised Newt. "If he doesn't show by supper, I'll go find him. We'll just give him some space for now. No need to tell the others."

Jeff nodded, rolling his eyes in agreement.

Newt started back towards the main area, leaving the med-hut in Jeff's capable hands. He had no doubts that the med-jack would keep an eagle eye on the builders; it was glaringly obvious that he already had a bit of hero worship going on for the new guy. Unable to stop himself, Newt threw one last worried glance at the forest over his shoulder, looking back the way that the man had gone. Then, shaking himself, he trudged off to meet up with the rest of the guys and do his duty.

~Ruby