"Nice try Trash Heap, I want my money…and the count down before you are dead meat has begun." Robert replied with a malicious tone to his voice.
"Don't you touch me!" The camera was swinging free and the sound of skin meeting skin in a sharp 'slap' sound was heard. Alan was was heard whimpering from the smack in the face, but all that was being filmed was Robert's torso. Robert's arm was held in a backhand swing, preparing for a second shot.
"Alan!" Jamie's voice was heard and he sounded distressed and for good reason. "Keep away from us! We didn't do anything to you!" Suddenly the camera was blocked by a black and green jacket as Jamie stepped in front of Alan.
"You did everything to me. You took my father away from me, you made my mother have to work four jobs just so she could put food on the table and you ruined my life. You should have never been BORN!" A clatter as something wood toppled to the ground before a pained cry was heard before a choking sound. Alan obviously stumbled back into whatever had fallen, because suddenly Jamie and Robert were no longer visible in the frame.
"Get off of him! You're going to kill him!" It was Alan. He sounded furious and the laptop's audio kind of gave a high pitched whine at Alan's bellowing voice. The camera continued to swing around in a dizzying manner as Alan apparently rushed to his friend's defense.
"Good! Maybe then my father will have time for me again!" Robert sounded very enraged, but swung around so much so the vision was severely distorted.
"Get off of him!" All of a sudden another clatter was heard as two bodies apparently collided. The camera whirled around, before it stilled, capturing Alan on top of Robert. The blonde was pinning the enraged dark haired boy to the ground, his arms out to the side.
"Get the HELL off of me!" Robert roared.
"No! Not until you calm down and leave us the hell alone! We were doing just fine up here before you came up to harass us!" Alan sounded as though he were trying to control his temper. "Now I'll warn you one more time. Stay away from Jamie, Fermat, Eddy, Todd, Josh and me. I won't warn you again!"
Alan remained on top of Robert pinning him down until it appeared that the situation had calmed. Robert refused to look Alan in the eye and for several minutes nobody said or did anything. Mason and Kolby stayed away from the conflict, remaining off camera. Jamie was heard scuffling around, coughing occasionally as he regained his air. When Alan finally stood up from kneeling on Robert's torso, he turned to Jamie…the camera slightly swung from the strap around Alan's neck.
"Come on Jamie. You can finish your painting from my dorm." Alan spoke somewhat softly, but firmly.
Alan approached Jamie and stooped to pick up the fallen easel, the wooden easel caused the loud clatter of wood earlier when Alan stumbled back into it to avoid Robert and Jamie falling into him. The two boys began to walk the back path around the student walk, taking them to the covered staircase which took them from the roof down to the courtyard. They hadn't reached the stairs yet when a loud cry of 'get them' was heard.
"Jamie run! Get to my dorm and get Fermat and the guys. Go tell your father, I'll try to fend them off!" Alan ordered the younger boy.
"I'm not leaving you to fight them alone Alan! You're like the big brother I never had, brothers and friends stick together!" Jamie defiantly refused to flee.
"Be that as it may Jem, I don't want you getting hurt! Please, if I'm really like your big brother, you'll listen to me and get the hell away from here!" Alan was beginning to sound desperate and the angered call of three boys this time instead of one was heard. "Please Jem, just do it! I can't protect myself if I am trying to protect you too!"
A frustrated cry was heard, before the sounds of feet running down metal stairs was heard. A distant cry of 'I'll be back with help' was heard as Jamie apparently ran for safety. The camera swung a little as Alan turned to face the boys that were pursuing him and Jamie. The maliciously grinning boys were caught on camera. The two other boys, Mason and Kolby appeared older than Robert, but he seemed to be the ones calling the shots for the moment.
"I don't know why you'd bother to save the little brat; everyone here at the school knows he was a product of an affair." Robert approached Alan slowly, Mason and Kolby following his every move. Gordon who was in the third row narrowed in anger at the view of these boys advancing on his brother. He thought of them like a pack of wolves going after a lone animal. The three boys and their malicious smiles gave them the appearance of twisted glee as they approached the boy willing to stand up to them.
"I don't know why you are blaming Jamie for your father's infidelity. You dad was the one that fooled around, don't blame Jamie for being born, his mother loved him." Alan replied as calmly as the situation would allow.
"Unlike yours, eh Trash Heap? What did your mommy get tired of you so she threw you away?" Robert began to taunt Alan.
"You'd better watch your mouth Robert. Don't you dare talk about my mother like you knew her." Alan remained surprisingly calm during the altercation.
"Oh, that's right…she didn't throw you in the dump…trash heap. She went off and killed herself in an avalanche." Robert's voice dropped lower as his mocking tone became more patronizing. "Or perhaps, she was really trying to kill you. The monster."
"You're wrong, my mother loved me. Her death was an accident." Alan's reply started to sound choked up.
"Aw, the wittle Tracy baby is gonna cry! Boo-hoo!" Mason sneered at Alan while he mocked the boy's display of emotion. Mason and Kolby gathered around Alan in a deformed triangle. Robert stood directly in front of Alan, with Mason and Kolby off to the left and right sides of Alan.
"You gonna cry wittle Tracy? Bet you need your bottle and pacifier now huh?" Kolby mimicked Mason's condescending tone of voice.
"I wonder what we could get done while that little freak is gone to rally the troops." Robert snickered as his voice remained quiet and spiteful. "I say we rough him up a little, don't you think so boys?"
Mason and Kolby replied with snide remarks and laughs at Alan's precarious position. It was three against one, and while Alan was the youngest of five boys, he hadn't finished childhood training for how to defend oneself from a group ganging up on you. If this was going to be tickle torture, Alan would have no problem defending himself…but it was unlikely that these three boys would be like Alan's brothers. Alan however wasn't going down without a fight.
"Don't you touch me Robert. I'm warning you three, keep away from me." Alan was trying to diffuse the situation with warnings.
"Since when have we ever heeded your warnings Trash Heap?" Robert leaned closer to Alan and the camera caught the movement. Robert's eyes narrowed dangerously before he smirked. "Grab him!"
A power struggle ensued as Alan was grabbed around the arms and the camera swung around several times as Alan struggled to free himself from Mason and Kolby; because the camera was in motion and not currently stationary, only the audio was picked up. It sounded as though several punches or kicks were thrown and there were several pained groans from Alan.
"Aw, what's the matter little Trash Heap, did you get a boo-boo?" Robert inquired, his voice sounded condescending. Mason and Kolby both barked a laugh at Robert's question. Alan still sounded as though he was struggling to free himself from the tight grips of Mason and Kolby, but he couldn't succeed. "Oh, well, well, well what do we have here?"
The camera around Alan's neck moved around as Robert moved to grab it. Alan resisted Robert's attempts to grab his camera, and Mason and Kolby became irritated with Alan's struggles.
"Hold still you little brat!" Mason grunted out as Alan struggled. Alan groaned when he was hit. Mason apparently punched Alan in the stomach because there was a sharp wheeze and coughing.
The camera was removed from Alan's neck and Robert spun it around to look at it, not realizing that he was incriminating himself in the assault of Alan. He held it up towards Mason and Kolby, getting video footage of Alan who had dropped to his knees and was working to regain his breath. Mason and Kolby were each holding one of Alan's arms around the bicep. Alan's head was hanging down as he coughed.
"Yo, Trash Heap! How do you run this camera?" Robert called from several feet away.
"Like I'm telling you! It's my camera, give it back!" Alan grunted out, his voice roughened from pain.
"No, if you won't give me the money that I asked you so kindly for…then I'll just take this in exchange. Consider it a down payment." Robert started tossing the camera from hand to hand.
"Why can't you just listen to what I'm telling you? My group and I won that money fair and square! If you have problems with it take it up with the judges!" Alan raised his head to look at Robert while he spoke. "That camera is my personal property; it was a birthday present from my friends!"
"Oh? You mean those old crones that died last spring? Good, then that means nobody will stop me…when I do this!" Robert's smirk was caught on camera.
"No! No! Not my camera!" Alan sounded panicked, but suddenly the camera went black and there was a loud 'bang' as the camera was slammed into the cement roof panels. The audio continued to record, but the visual was destroyed. "Why would you do that?! That was mine! What did I ever do to you to earn this kind of treatment?!"
Alan sounded noticeably distressed, after all some of his personal property that had meant a lot to him had just been destroyed. Anyone that wasn't upset after something of theirs was destroyed intentionally either had the patience of a saint or what had been destroyed didn't really mean much to them. Another 'bang' as the camera met the ground again was heard, Alan becoming more distressed as he was kept from salvaging his belongings.
"Please stop! Please!" Alan's voice cracked as he pleaded with Robert to stop destroying his camera.
"Fine, then you will bring me the money that belongs to me. If you don't bring it to me before you and the basketball team leaves for that little championship game, I can promise you that you will regret crossing paths with me. Mark my words; you and James will be as good as dead." Robert's voice dropped down dangerously low as he threatened Alan.
"I can't give you the money! I don't have it anymore! I split it between me and my group, what parts of that don't you understand?" Alan stated, his voice rising slightly as his distress became more noticeable. "Please, can I just have my camera back?"
"Yeah, when you go fetch it yourself. My warning still stands Trash Heap, if I don't get my money before you and the basketball team is due to leave, you the golden boy will be dead meat. I will make good on my promise. Mark my words." Robert began laughing while Alan was heard struggling before everything faded in the distance and all that was heard was a faint air rushing by sound, before the video footage ended abruptly.
When the film ended, there was utter silence in the courtroom. Robert's face was as pale as a snake's underbelly. He remembered that and he didn't know that camera was actually recording. When the lights came back up, Barrett sent a smirk that told Robert he'd been caught.
"Now you were saying about being in your bedroom?" Barrett knew that he'd tarnished the credibility of Robert having caught and proved him to be telling a bold faced lie to the court. "Need I remind you that you're under oath son?"
"You're not my dad!" Robert argued.
"Doesn't matter. You can't just lie in court and think you won't be found out." Barrett admonished softly before going back to the questioning. "Why were you so mad over money? If like Alan emphatically stated in the video he'd won it fair and square in a science fair – why would you be mad at him and not the judges? What did Alan do to deserve your grudge? And by association, what did Fermat do to you to be hurt? Can you tell me that?"
"Uh…" Robert stammered but remained quiet. He wasn't going to answer the question. He shouldn't have to but one look around the courtroom told Robert that everybody even his lawyer was curious over what possessed him to be so mad over a $600 kitty in a contest being lost to an opponent.
"Do you even know what the money went towards?" Barrett asked, about to reveal something that nobody but the boys he was counseling for.
"I don't care." Robert snipped to which Barrett became increasingly irritated.
"The money, though split between each boy in the group was put toward the commission of proper headstones for James Mueller's grandparents Elsie and Hubert Mueller. Those headstones cost roughly $500. The money wasn't squandered. Not like you'd like to believe.
Robert flared his nose in irritation, but said nothing more to dispute the accusations. Barrett quirked an eyebrow at the boy before he stopped directly in front of Robert and met his gaze. "What do you think I just told you?"
"I don't care. The money is gone now, so why should I give a damn?" Robert said, his hair falling into his eyes to obscure his eyes.
"Come now you don't actually believe that." Barrett said, trying to get Robert to slip up and say something.
"Yes sir I do. And I didn't use lighter fluid…I wasn't anywhere near the source of the fire when it started." Robert said and Barrett smirked before he walked back to his bench. He pretended to sift through the papers in the file folder he'd brought with him. The room was silent. You could've heard a pin drop for how silent it was.
"Okay…and that brings me to another question involving the night in question. The night the fire occurred." Barrett said before he turned to face Robert.
"Care to tell me where you were the night the fire started?" Barrett inquired as he narrowed his eyes at the lad in front of him.
"I already told you…I was in my bedroom." Robert replied.
"No, actually you told me you were in your bedroom during the rooftop attack on Alan and James Mueller, which we've already seen from video evidence that you lied under oath. Now, care to tell me where you were the night of the fire?" Barrett asked as he walked in front of the lawyer that was supposed to be defending Robert. She was staring ahead at Robert, but didn't bother to do or say anything in his defense.
"I was in my bedroom." Robert said as he leaned back in his seat.
"Now why don't I believe you?" Barrett asked as he held up what appeared to be an official document. "I'm giving you a chance to admit to what you did."
"I didn't do anything! Why are you so set to believe I did anything the night of the fire?" Robert argued.
"Because, for one…you knew that lighter fluid was the accelerant that was used to start the fire…and that's not something I made public knowledge. And second, I've got a report from the investigation that found a set of hand prints that were an exact match to your prints on the empty bottle of fluid which was discovered in the dumpsters outside on school grounds. You've got one more chance to tell the truth." Barrett said as he handed the document to the judge. "We have you on film making death threats to my client and his friends, we have official documents pinning you as the suspect in the arson of Wharton's and in the attempted murder of Alan Tracy and Fermat Hackenbacker. What reason did you have to want to harm these two boys and to destroy public property?"
Robert sat by, his eyes wider then they had been by far and it wasn't lost on anyone in the room that Robert was shocked by the revelation. He looked around at everyone and was eventually prodded by the judge.
"Answer the question, Mr. Flynn." The judge said.
When Robert remained tightlipped, the judge leaned down and whispered the command at the boy to answer the question. When Robert did finally speak, it was soft – barely discernable in the quiet of the courtroom.
"I never fit in at any school I attended. It didn't matter if it was a public school or private or like Wharton's was…preppy. I was always singled out by my peers. My mom enrolled me in private schools at first to prove that she could provide a good education to me…not at all like she did for my older sister. My sister was kicked out when she was sixteen for getting pregnant. When it was found out that I had an anger problem and difficulty focusing in class, it just made it harder for my mom to keep me enrolled. They always wanted to put me in remedial classes to cope with my focusing issues. When I got expelled from my last school and my dad paid for my tuition, I was warned by my mom not to screw it up." Robert replied softly as he kept his eyes focused at the floor. "I was doing okay in classes, my dad made sure I got the help I needed to stay focused and made it so that I had extensions of homework due dates to give me time to finish homework and understand it. Then I had the misfortune of running into that…Alan kid and suddenly I was the laughing stock. I couldn't focus because I was being picked on everywhere I turned. I wanted him to suffer like I had suffered."
"But I don't know why you continued, making him cry in gym class…beating him up, tormenting him day in and out. Why couldn't you have just left it at that?" Barrett inquired as he leaned against his own bench.
"Because…it wasn't enough. He hadn't suffered as bad as I had before and I wanted him to curse the day he was born." Robert said as his face took on a completely different look.
"But why?" Barrett couldn't wrap his head around it.
"Because I could…someone like him…rich enough that all he'd have to do is snap his fingers and people would drop to their knees to clean his shoes with their tongues. Why should he have the life that I deserved? I was born in squalor…I come from a broken household and a blue collar family. He's the son of a powerful and fearless man…mine is a coward. His mother loved him so much she died for him…mine couldn't give a rat's ass if I died on the streets. He has brothers that adore him…my sister tolerates me but won't let me see my nephew. How is that any way to live?"
"So you're saying that you tortured Alan so badly because you were jealous of his life?" Barrett questioned in surprise.
"Not at all…had I made him suffer, he'd know the hell I faced day in and day out…never assume you know a person until you've walked a mile in their shoes. And he hasn't yet." Robert replied cryptically.
"So did you start the fire, or was there an accomplice?" Barrett asked as he felt like they were preparing to reach the boiling point in the courtroom that day.
"Oh I started the fire…and I'd do it again if it got the point across that there are far too many brown nosing snobs living in this world and not enough sane people that work to make an honest living." Robert said with a sadistic smile which stretched across his face like that of an evil clown. "I didn't succeed the first time, but I most certainly will the next time."
TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB
Dr. Andreesen knocked timidly on the boy's room door before he walked in. Both boys were engrossed in a TV movie and he hated to break the news to them, but it was quite urgent. Ruth looked up from beside Alan's bed and tilted her head in question.
"Boys, I don't want to make you panic…but a court protection order had been issued and we're moving you to a different facility for the time being." Dr. Andreesen stated as he garnered both boys attention.
"What do you mean?" Alan asked as he sat up from under his grandma's arm.
"There's been a threat made against you and Fermat – and the judge was concerned for your safety. We are moving you to an undisclosed location for your safety as well as temporarily evacuating the hospital until we've had bomb dogs and a full sweep done on the facility. Myself and a few of the nurses will be coming with to keep an eye on you boys and your health but we need to get you out of here…now." Dr. Andreesen said before he let a few nurses and Dr. McNulty in to disconnect the varying cords and wires or to reconnect tubes and IV's. Soon Alan and Fermat were both laid in their beds and blankets pulled to their chins before they were evacuated from their room. Ruth hurried along behind the doctors and was permitted to ride along to the safe house with her boys.
When they reached the new facility, it wasn't quite a burn unit but more a rehab facility that was tailored to burn victims. Alan and Fermat were rushed into a room and the curtains were closed tight to minimize anyone else from seeing in. The boys were set up and though they were a little freaked out, they knew it was for their own good and that it was nothing to be afraid of.
TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB
"So you started the fire for no reason other than to prove a point?" Barrett asked as he looked back at the family in which he was fighting to defend and saw how pale their faces were. Even the ever calm Lady Penelope seemed shook up.
"Hit the nail on the head there…Captain." Robert replied sarcastically.
"But you know you almost killed not only him and Fermat but almost every student in that school. You're fourteen, how can you have such a low regard for life?" Barrett was baffled. In all his years as a lawyer, he'd never dealt with someone as insane as Robert. Sure he had his occasional fruitcake but never one as bad as Robert.
"And the world would be much better off without them. If it wasn't for those bumbling oafs they call guards discovering the fire, I would have succeeded and I could rest easy knowing I'd rid the world of such snobs." Robert said, his voice carrying a flat affect.
"Rest easy…where you trying to kill yourself?" Barrett inquired.
Robert didn't saying anything, merely nodding in agreement to Barrett's question.
"Why?" Barrett questioned, trying to make heads or tails of what Robert was telling him and the court.
"Because my life was not worth living…I was a washed up has been and would never amount to anything." Robert admitted.
TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB
Alan sat in his temporary bed, still in shock that they'd been moved to a new albeit temporary facility. He wondered when the threats would stop. He didn't like feeling like he had to look over his shoulder constantly. He gently stroked Gemma on the head to keep himself calm despite how terrified he actually was. It wasn't something he wanted to deal with anymore, being scared. That was no way to live.
Dr. Andreessen and Dr. McNulty both paced around the room before a knock was heard. Mary and Jennifer both entered and provided a brief run through. Officer Pellegrini was taking Lulu Bell through the halls to check every nook and cranny in that hospital. It may have been paranoia making them act so quickly and to take a verbal threat so seriously, but they didn't want to take anything Robert said lightly. So they took the threats seriously and this was the result. Last time threats made by Robert weren't taken seriously, a fire occurred and very nearly claimed multiple lives that night. This was no laughing matter, especially with such a high profile name currently being involved in a trial.
TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB
The crowds in the courtroom began murmuring, all eyes affixed intently on the boy that sat in the stand. Robert didn't look to anyone like he cared. He showed no emotion, no real outward appearance to how he was feeling on the inside.
Jeff, Scott, Brains, John, Virgil and Gordon were both left speechless. To them it sounded like an attempted murder suicide, not that that made them feel any differently towards Robert. It just made them sick with fear that someone that mentally unstable had been left alone with Alan more than once.
It made Jeff think back to when Alan was attacked in the bathroom by Robert the day of the fire. Robert had apparently been planning to start the fire and Jeff couldn't help but to wonder if Robert might have tried to drown Alan when he pushed the boys head into the toilet. Alan said he struggled for a while before he was able to come up for air. Jeff wondered if Robert was going to kill Alan and just what stopped him. Did Robert get startled by someone coming in and run or did he get scared at what he was doing?
"Robert, I'm sure you didn't really want to hurt any of your classmates. Why if as you claim would you have started the fire?" Barrett questioned.
"Really want to know why?" Robert asked as he looked back at the Tracy family and he smiled maniacally at them all. "To make each family that had a boy in that school suffer. Make them feel the loss I felt when that little prick that's my half-brother was born, taking what was truly mine. I was supposed to have what that Tracy kid was supposed to have. A family that cared, money, a pretty girl on my arm but instead I got jack squat. He got the perfect life, he got what was supposed to be mine!"
TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB
Elijah whistled as he unhooked Lulu Bell's leash before he commanded her to do her job. The dog ran eagerly forward as her nose started hovering over the ground. She zigzagged back and forth through the hallway before reaching one of the emergency staircases and whimpering. Elijah opened the door and watched as Lulu Bell gave a quick sniff before backing away from the door with a distressed whimper.
"What is it girl?" Elijah asked as he stuck his head through the door and looked around. He couldn't smell anything, but after watching Lulu Bell's reaction, he knew to call it in to his captain. "Captain, Lulu Bell alerted on something in one of the emergency staircases – but she's too distressed to go in. I'd advise a bomb bot be brought in to check for explosives."
"Roger." Elijah's captain said before he disconnected.
TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB
"I want to see them die." Robert said sharply to which the courtroom erupted into low whispers. The judge pounded her gavel before ordering Robert be removed from the courtroom. But Robert wasn't removed in time for the family to not hear his latest threat. "Mark my words that Tracy trash will die!"
The Tracy family felt sick at the threats made to their youngest member's life. John was shaking in rage while Virgil had his hands buried in his hands. Gordon sat numbly by just staring ahead while Scott stared at the ceiling, trying to get his emotions under control.
Lady Penelope was hugging Jeff while Parker was whispering with Brains. Camera flashes were going off in the room and nobody bothered to stop them. They were too in shock at the latest turn of events.
TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB
Elijah breathed a sigh of relief as he entered the rehab center a few hours later with good news, bad news and even better news. He approached the room where Alan and Fermat were being kept and he spoke with the three officers that had been stationed outside the door for the boy's protection.
Raising his hand, Elijah knocked before being granted permission to enter the room.
Alan was lying on the bed, his grandmother tenderly hugging him while Jennifer and Mary were doing the same for Fermat. Both boys were pale, most obviously scared out of their wits at the unannounced move to a new and very private location for their safety.
"Brother, I hope you bring good news?" Dr. Andreessen said as he sat up from his seat. He'd been talking with his brother in law Dr. McNulty and both were surprised to see their relative so soon.
"I do bring some news." Officer Pellegrini said as he released Lulu Bell's leash so she could walk over to greet both boys.
"So spill." Dr. McNulty said as he grew impatient.
"We did a full sweep of the hospital and it's been given the all clear. You all should be able to go back here soon." Officer Pellegrini said with a small smile.
"There's bad news though, isn't there?" Dr. Andreessen asked.
"Yes…I won't lie. We did locate an apparent pipe bomb in the stair well on Alan and Fermat's floor, but our explosives robot was dispatched to receive the bomb and it was removed from the premises to be detonated." Officer Pellegrini reported. "The other side of the coin was that whoever built the bomb didn't know what they were doing. It wasn't your typical pipe bomb, but a half assed one if you'll excuse my French. It was poorly put together and wasn't handled properly."
"So…anything else?" Dr. McNulty asked. Not to say he disliked the boys as patients but he'd be really happy when this whole case was over.
"We've got our ace in the hole. Located the person who placed it and they've already squealed." Officer Pellegrini said.
"So who issued it?" Ruth asked.
"I'll give you three guesses who." Officer Pellegrini said morosely. "Name begins with an R and ends with a T."