The kid didn't wake up again in the time it took for sirens to be heard outside the house. My heart leapt into my throat –how would I get away with trespassing when being caught in the act? For a moment I thought maybe Cam and even Hunter were right in leaving (though at least I would've called and then bolted. I wasn't gonna leave the poor guy to die down here.) But that thought quickly dissipated when something told me I'd done the right thing, and that even if I got in trouble with my dad or even with the police for this, I could sleep okay tonight.
While the two of us were still alone in the awful room, I took a second to just look him over one more time. By now the shock of his physical state had kinda worn off, but I was still feeling a bit sick wondering how he'd gotten himself down here in the first place. I didn't live very near here; I didn't know the guy who lived here before the house was abandoned. I'd probably seen him once or twice in such a small town, maybe shopping at the mall on Christmas Eve, but I wouldn't have been able to pick him out of a crowd. I'd never thought about any psychopaths living in my little town, but this probably proved it to be true. At least he was gone, and good riddance.
I stepped quietly along the length of the metal table the boy was shackled to. He was indeed missing his knees and below, but at the same time it wasn't bloody, and looked to be stitched well enough. He was still alive and those scars didn't look new, so it must've been taken care of at the time –well, as taken care of as I could give the bastard credit for.
The chrome surface was covered in something grimy, darker than the dried blood, and I could only imagine all the bacteria down here. Looking a bit closer, some of the kid's more open wounds did look infected, but I could only hope the doctors at the hospital would be able to take care of that before the damage was too awful.
Soon enough I did hear the front door open upstairs, and the thudding of many footsteps that followed. I stepped back from the scene, worried I'd be in the way when they came down, and wanting to be as helpful as possible given the circumstances.
A stout female officer was the first one downstairs, and she saw me through the shadows immediately. I stared down at the dirty ground and tried not to draw too much attention to myself; she relayed orders to others upstairs who were yet to see the scene for themselves. Then she turned to me. "Do you know what happened here?" The look in her eyes told me there was a right and wrong answer to this question, and my voice shook when I gave one.
"No, I don't." I had to think up an excuse, but I was rather quick on my feet for a stressful situation. "I was just wandering around the neighborhood when I heard something, and came to investigate." It was probably the more obvious lie, but it was what I came up with on such short notice.
She nodded her head a little, and shouted some more up to her colleagues. After someone called back, she moved over to the boy on the table. I didn't notice I'd taken a cautious step closer as well, until I'd already done so. She gave me a strange look but ignored me right after. "Sir?" She addressed him like she would some grown man on the street, but with a kinder voice. "Help is here. We're gonna get you to a hospital. You're safe now."
I thought about how I'd told him much the same thing, and almost smiled to myself knowing I might've done a good job in handling it.
But while I got a choked expression of gratitude, the officer got no response at all. The boy's eyes were glazed over and he seemed almost unresponsive, but his head lolled a bit when she spoke again.
"Can you tell me your name?"
But by the look on his face, you'd think he didn't remember. At a loss for what else could get a reaction from him, I looked frantically around the room for anything that might remind him of his name. A young man came down then, and the officer asked him to take a DNA sample. "Maybe he's in the system."
I was startled by that, like he might've been in prison at some point like most DNA "in the system" on the crime shows that would come on at two in the morning. It actually took a moment of frozen confusion to realize she might've meant he was a missing persons case.
But that realization, and the stack of papers in the corner, gave me an idea of what to look for. Without thinking of how either of the two responders would've reacted, and getting in the way of the descending gurney for a moment, I hurried around the room to the papers and searched through them carefully but quickly. It took a minute, but I eventually found what I was looking for, and brought it over while the paramedics started their work.
"Phil? Is that your name?" I asked gently, not wanting to frighten the poor guy. The officer just stared at me, but I showed her the paper, and she asked him the same question. His head moved again, but this time it seemed a bit more a deliberate nod than just falling to the side had been.
The officer looked at me and gave a nod of her own, and I felt something well up inside me. "Good work, kid," she sort of praised. I thanked her and went to fold up the paper to shove into my pocket for later, but she told me to hand that in as evidence. I didn't argue.
