When Manny woke up for the second time he found himself laying on the floor in a dark room and everything was eerily quiet until he heard it, the sound of a phone ringing. Groaning, he slowly pulled himself to his feet and followed where the ringing was coming from until he came across a small red phone sitting on the ground at his feet.
"Huh?" he questioned "how did I get here and why is this phone ringing?" the boy crouched down and picked up the receiver and as he put the phone to his ear, he heard a familiar voice on the other end.
"Manny, Manny, are you there?" the voice asked "it's me Harry, you've got to listen very very carefully, you need to get out of there, that place, it's not safe, you have to get out."
"Harry?" Manny asked with a puzzled expression on his face "why did you leave me behind, why did you and Robin leave me behind, I thought you guys where my friends."
"I never meant for this to happen"the voice on the other end of the receiver replied "if they told you that we weren't your friends anymore then they are lying, they're lying to you Manny, me and Robin, we're still your friends and you need to get out of there before it's too late, you see, if you don't get out soon then you'll..." the reciever was snatched from the boy's hand and he looked up to see that Tony was now holding the receiver.
"I would advise you not to call this number again" he warned in a low tone as a still sick and feverish Manny collapsed on the floor but still kept his eyes on the tall clock man who turned to him with a smirk whilst still holding the receiver to his ear "Manny doesn't need you anymore, you and your other pesky friend left him behind without even saying much as a goodbye, I don't think he would want to be your friend after that now would he."
"Put him back on right now you son of a Bitch, he's going to find out sooner or later that you're..." Tony hung up before the voice on the other end got a chance to finish their sentence before crouching down in front of the small child that lay curled up on the ground, barely awake.
"He won't be bothering you anymore" he told Manny, putting his hand on his shoulder "we're your friends Manny, you're true friends and you will never ever leave this place again, we won't allow it, we will not allow our friend to leave us behind." Manny didn't say anything, he only groaned in response as he vision slowly faded and when he woke up again, he found himself back in his room, in his bed and began to wonder if maybe the dark room and the phone call was just some weird dream.
"Oh good, you're finally awake" a voice said from behind the boy who turned around to see Tony and Paige standing at the side of his bed, Paige holding what looked like a medicine bottle.
"What's that?" he asked, pointing at the object that Paige was holding, his voice still rasping.
"It's your medicine sweetie" Paige replied in a sickly sweet voice, sitting on the edge of the bed "it's to help get rid of that nasty fever you have." Manny grimaced at the thought of having to take some medicine, he always found it to be pretty revolting.
"Why are you pulling that face young man?" Tony questioned when he noticed the disgusted expression on Manny's face.
"Medicine, it's gross" the child implied as Paige put some medicine on the small spoon she was also holding and leaned closer to the boy, urging him to take some
"Well it's your choice, you can stay sick and get worse or you can take some medicine which will make you well again" Tony stated firmly as Manny attempted to pull away but was too weak to do so and all he could do was clamp his mouth shut.
"Open your mouth sweetie" Paige encouraged as she brought the spoon closer but the child shook his head, still keeping his mouth clamped shut refusing to take some despite his head burning with fever, the clogged nose and tight chest which had stemmed from the bad cough he had.
"Why don't you want to take any medicine little one?" Shrignold asked "do you think it tastes bad?" Manny nodded whilst still keeping his mouth clamped shut, fearing that if he opened it, Paige would shove the spoon in his mouth, forcing him to take the revolting stuff "well I do agree, medicine does taste kinda icky but it will get rid of that nasty cough you have and you don't want to stay sick and get worse do you?" Manny shook his head "well why don't you try taking some medicine, it'll help and that cough did sound pretty bad after we brought you back here." After some persuasion, Manny reluctantly opened his mouth and allowed Paige to give him some of the medicine and it did taste quite revolting.
"yeuck" the child responded after the medicine slid down his throat "that tasted icky."
"Here, drink some water, it'll get rid of the taste" Tony said, handing the boy a glass of water who drank some before pressing the cool glass against his still burning head "now that wasn't too bad was it?" Manny shook his head and winced "what's wrong, are you still burning up?"
"I think so" Paige replied as she put her hand on the child's forehead "he's still burning up but not as bad as he was when we found him out in the woods."
"Where was we last night?" Manny asked Tony who gave the child a puzzled expression.
"What are you talking about my boy?" he asked.
"I woke up in a dark room and there was a phone, I heard someone speaking to me at the other end, I think it was one of my friends and then you came along and I fainted before I woke up here again" Manny explained before letting out a handful of coughs as Shrignold patted him on the back.
"I believe you were dreaming, neither of us went to a dark room with any phone in it" Tony explained "and besides, I don't believe your friends would try and contact you, not if they just upped and left without taking you with them, they just left you behind, goes to show how much they care about you." Manny slowly nodded, beginning to accept that the two people he had been living with in this world really did abandoned him but little did he know that this wasn't true, the Teachers where slowly convincing him and making him believe that his two missing friends had just left him behind.
"Well you don't need those two anymore, you've got us now and we're not going anywhere" Paige said "we will never abandon you and i'm sure you're not going to run away again are you."
"There's no point anymore" Manny said sadly "if they don't care about me, then there's no point in running away again, so I guess I'll just have to stay here."
"Well now that's settled we need to make a few rules around here" Tony informed "once you are well enough, you can roam around the house but only if one of us is with you at the same time."
"Why can't I walk around by myself?" Manny questioned.
"You may do so but you will have to ask permission first" Tony replied "also we'll be taking it in turns to stay in this room with you every night and I believe that tonight is my turn." Manny groaned and flopped back down on the bed, he was getting tired of having this bad cold and having to stay in bed, but it had only been a few hours since he fell sick when trying to run away so it would be a least a few days until he recovered.
"Can I go downstairs?" he asked timidly.
"Not just yet" Tony stated as he put his hand on the child's forehead "you're still running a fever, it wouldn't be a good idea for you to be up and walking around just yet, no, I think you'll need to stay in bed for at least a few days until your fever breaks."
"M,kay" Manny groaned.
"So, do you understand about the rules?" Tony asked and Manny gave a small nod "good, now those rules will begin to apply once you have recovered, which reminds me,I think it's time that you had your temperature taken again" he picked up the thermometer that was laying on the bedside table and told Manny to open his mouth and the child immediately obeyed.
"I can see that you're going to be an obedient one" Tony stated "now keep that in your mouth for a few minutes." The boy lay there with the thermometer in his mouth for a few minutes before Tony took it out again and looked at it.
"Is it bad?" Manny asked before coughing again.
"Well your fever's gone down a little since last night but it's still pretty high" Tony explained "so they'll be no getting out of bed for a little while my boy, do I make myself clear?" Manny nodded and let out a huge yawn, the medicine was making him feel sleepy and it wasn't long until the child had drifted off whilst Tony looked at the other two with an evil smirk.
"Looks like the plan is working" he said "it seems that the boy is starting to trust us, it won't be too long now until he completely forgets about those two friends of his and when he does, then we'll break him completely, he'll no longer be the child he is right now."