I had the worst time ever trying to publish Chapter 31 today. It came out jumbled all together, and wouldn't fix. I tried totally deleting it, but it was still there. Out of frustration, I've posted it again as Chapter 32 so you won't wreck your eyes trying to read the way it had earlier turned out-lol! Enjoy!
Richelieu walked through the halls of the palace, inwardly enjoying the bows of respect he received from everyone he passed.
His mind turned to the imprisoned Musketeer, and he almost smiled at how easy it had been to resolve that problem.
He made up his mind to get a report in the morning. The man should be dead by now, or very close to it. No one gets away with crossing me, or making a fool out of me, he thought.
If only he was able to remove the Spanish queen's presence, as well. But he knew that was next to impossible right now. But he could be patient. Possibilities might open up in the future.
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Athos awoke feeling the tension in his brother. He was shaking badly. What had happened? he wondered.
"N..no! Y..you're not ..here!" Aramis whispered.
Who wasn't here? Athos thought. He is having a nightmare, laying his hand atround the back of his brother's neck gently to ground him. But Aramis' panic level increased as he felt a hand touch him.
"I..I'm s..safe now. Y..you're not h..here," he whispered again.
"But I am," the figure confidently asserted. "You thought you left. You will never leave here. You will stay here until you eventually die. Some day, perhaps centuries from now, someone may find what remains, a few bones."
"Noooo…"
He felt hands on his arms, and his panic increased. "No, p…please….."
"Aramis! Aramis! It's all right!" Porthos had been sitting beside Aramis' bed when his brother began to move restlessly under the blankets. Alarmed, Porthos tried to lift him into his arms, only to find that when he touched his brother, it increased the frenzy he was under as it had with Athos.
D'Artagnan was now at his bedside as well. Aramis' eyes were open wide, but not lucid. He was seeing or hearing something they couldn't understand.. They could all see the abject fear in his eyes, his desperate struggle to get away from Porthos' arms.
"He is having a nightmare. We need to hold him still or he will open that wound yet again."
They caught his now-flailing limbs and restrained him as firmly as they could, not wanting to cause him any more hurt, but not wanting him to hurt himself.
Aramis continued to hear the voice he dreaded. "I will never let you out of here!"
He struggled harder, trying desperately to break loose. But his mind and body finally exhausted itself, and his body went entirely limp. He had never recognized that it was, in reality, the brothers he loved who were holding him.
His efforts had left him drenched and spent. His brothers looked at one another, shaken by the wild frenzy they had seen him go through.
D'Artagnan finally broke the silence. "What kind of games did they play with his mind?"
Athos shook his head sorrowfully. "I think this fear is being caused by the oubliette itself. Aramis has never liked being in small, enclosed spaces, and he was locked into an underground pit, made even worse by high walls he had no hope of scaling. The total lack of light and being left utterly alone for days at a time added to the desolation he was made to feel."
Continuing to watch their traumatized brother as he now slept, Athos continued softly. "We need to continue to give him all the love and presence he has been deprived of for so long. respond, I am sure of it. And we need him to feel our presence when he is sleeping."
Suiting his actions to his words, he lay down next to Aramis, drew his brother closer, and pulled the blanket over them both.
They would not leave Aramis to face his darkness alone.
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Mattieu and the rest of Richelieu's hired men scoured the area surrounding the prison, figuring Aramis was in no shape to be taken too far by his brothers without stopping to tend to him.
But they found nothing. No trail. No Musketeers. Nothing. It was like the earth had opened and swallowed them up, one of the men said.
Mattieu was of a far less superstitious mind, and said, "They're hiding somewhere. It's just a matter of time until we find them."
Sending one of them back to Paris to inform Richelieu of what had happened, he and his men continued to search for their missing Musketeer.
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Aramis didn't come around again until early in the morning of the following day. His brothers were very concerned, because they knew they needed to get him to eat and drink something. He had been unconscious almost the entire time since they had found him.
"Let us try to get some water into him," Athos said. "We can try massaging his throat to help get him to swallow. We do not know how long it has been since he was given anything."
After several tries, they finally got a little water into him. He had not had any more nightmares so far, for which they were all grateful, but he also showed no signs of waking up, either.
They decided it would be a good idea to check out his injuries while he wasn't conscious, so they would hopefully put him through no added pain. The wound in his side was looking a little better, and showed no signs of infection. The bruise marks on his body were still angry and red, though. The red circles around his wrists from the shackles were still swollen and painful-looking.
They figured he had yanked on them repeatedly during his captivity to cause that much swelling. He had been desperate. They all thought once again what a horrible thing to do to a person. What kind of a mind thinks up such things?
When he didn't awaken that day, they began to wonder how long this might last. They resolved to keep feeding him the water, but were concerned with his lack of any solid food.
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That night, when Porthos' was laying beside him tending to him, the nightmares returned. Aramis flailed his arms, one of them landing on Porthos' shoulder, but with all the force of an infant's strength behind it. His brothers joined him, and once again, although dreading to have to do so, held him firmly down.
He cried out in panic, but was unable to move. "Please!" he begged. "P..please don't h..hurt…" and then, just like before, his body went completely limp again.
"He is remembering something specific they did to him that caused him pain," Athos softly murmured.
The brothers had no way of knowing he was remembering Laurent's brother's savage visits with the accompanying 'punishments'.
They resolved to make sure he was never alone, always with one of his brothers.
Later that day, he finally awoke agaim. Weary eyes opened to find three sets of very concerned eyes looking at him.
" 's w..wrong?" he asked, voice barely audible.
"Nothing, Aramis. We are very glad to finally see you awake again," Athos replied.
"Didn't I just n..ap for a w..while?" he asked.
D'Artagnan answered before Athos could warn him, saying, "You were out for over a day, Aramis."
At these words, Aramis frowned, confused to hear that he had slept for so long. Athos decided to change the subject, not wanting Aramis to dwell on why he was out for so long.
They let Aramis know where they were, and the couple who took them in, telling them about their kindness.
He was still exhausted and in considerable pain, but otherwise calm.
They persuaded him to try a little broth. He took a few mouthfuls before shaking his head, indicating his stomach hurt. They hoped there wasn't anything happening to him internally. They had no way of knowing.
He wasn't awake very long before his eyelids closed in sleep once again.
He hadn't mentioned any disturbances, obviously not remembering having any nightmares. They just hoped the nightmares wouldn't happen again while he slept.
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About an hour afterward, Athos, Porthos and d'Artagnan were awakened by a loud disturbance coming from above their heads. They all drew their weapons, fearing the worst.