CHAPTER 5
So this has actually gotten a really good response in just 5 days. I just wanted to thank all of you and apologize for what I'm going to do to you in the future. As always, thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, faved, and followed, you're all amazing. And I hope none of you are a little bothered by how short these more recent chapters are, because I wrote this in half an hour. I also want to say that tomorrow is Monday and I might not be able to update every day like I have been, but I'll write when I can. You see, I have this terrible habit publishing something right after I write it, so the next chapter isn't even started yet. But, anyway, thank all of you and sorry if I can't update tomorrow.
It's been three months since we last heard from Danny. He used to call us every day, once he figured out how to use Vlad's phone. We've tried calling, but nobody ever picks up. The only thing on the other end is a polite voicemail message, monotone and impersonal. Whenever we call, that voice mocks us. Like it knows how desperate we are to see Danny again.
We'd accepted Danny into our lives and our family. He was like a little brother to me, and I know for a fact that Dad thought of him as a son, and I'm pretty sure Mom did too.
We're on our way to Wisconsin right now. We have to get Danny. The Agents from the Facility left almost a month ago. Danny could've come home anytime he wanted. Only instead of a little brother, we got a dreary voicemail.
The neighbour's kids come over sometimes and ask about him. Apparently, Sam and Danny used to talk from their windows. They're right next to each other and Sam saw the poster and got worried. We told her that we took Danny in because of an abusive home, which isn't exactly all that far off from the truth. She nodded and said that she'd spread the word to stop people from turning him in. Her friend, Tucker, is doing the same thing, I guess.
They were supposed to be getting back from camping tomorrow.
There was a knock at the back door. I stood up and walked back to go see who it was. The cold knob twisted in my hand and I pulled the door open.
Sam and Tucker stood their, in all of their fourteen year old glory, Tucker supporting a thin, filthy figure.
It was Danny.
"Danny!?"
He looked up at me tiredly and smiled weakly. "Hello, Jazz…" he dropped his head and closed his eyes. Sam decided to speak up.
"We found him wandering around the woods when we went camping. He said he hadn't eaten in a few days. We gave him the rest of our food, but it wasn't much. We hopped on a bus and came back right away." she paused for a moment, shifting uneasily on the doorstep. "Can we come in?"
I jolted and stepped aside. They walked in and Tucker plopped Danny down on the couch. Danny groaned and fell onto his side.
"Danny, what's wrong?"
"Side hurts…." he mumbled. I grabbed his bag from off of his back and lifted his shirt. A purple and yellow bruise covered his whole side. In the middle of the blotch, a huge rusty red and dark green scab stretched from the bottom of his ribcage to his waistline. I gasped.
"Tucker, go get the first aid kit, it's under the sink. Sam, go call my Dad up from the lab. I'll call Mom."
The two ran off to go do their jobs and I called Mom, Danny started falling asleep. Eventually, Dad came sprinting up the stairs and Tucker came back with the first aid kit. Dad and I started bandaging Danny up and cleaning his wounds.
How did he even get like this? What happened to him? I thought Vlad's was supposed to be safe.
Mom barreled into the living room, a look of motherly worry on her face. Her eyebrows were creased and her eyes were wild. She ran up to Danny and helped us patch him up.
After some time, Danny woke up. He groggily sat up and tensed when he saw Sam out of the corner of his eye. His head whipped towards her in alarm and his eyes glowed green. He finally noticed it was Sam, and quickly relaxed.
He would do this when we first took him in. It's a symptom of PTSD and a few other mental illnesses. Before we had to send him away he didn't even flinch when someone closed the door.
"Danny?" Mom called to him when she saw that he was awake. He turned towards her and blinked. "Maddie?" She rushed at him and held him in a tight hug. He stiffened in her grip, but relaxed after a few seconds before he hugged her back.
"We missed you, sweetie, but, what happened?" Danny looked down and opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again. "I missed you too." he said. Dad furrowed his eyebrows and spoke up.
"Danny, what happened with Vlad?" Danny flinched at the name and looked down again.
He told us then. About how Vlad welcomed him into his home and gave him a room. He told us how this room was like the one at the Facility. Cold, dark, and damp. His mattress in his room was thin plastic and the blankets were stiff and scratchy. He told us about how Vlad would come down to feed him once a day and would bring down a phone a few times a week to call us and threaten him with beatings and starvation if he didn't say he was fine. He told us about how Vlad locked him in that room. He told us about how Vlad was the one who called him 'Daniel' in the Facility. One of Danny's first handlers who was fired for his compassion towards Danny. He told us about how Vlad believed that Danny was below him, but didn't turn him in because the 'GIW were too low, even for something like Danny.' He told us about how Vlad forgot to lock the door one day, and how Danny turned into his ghost form and flew out, only grabbing the backpack I had packed for him. He told us about how he wandered around Wisconsin for a month , hunting Tucker, being glad to have found some friendly faces.
By the end, we were all crying and Danny was shaking and pleading."Please don't send me back with him."
"Of course not, Danny! You'll never leave us again, sweetie, we're so sorry, please, forgive us!"
Danny stared at Mom, his eyes wide and wet with tears. "I forgive you. It wasn't your fault. You didn't know." He glanced down at his feet at the last part before looking back up at us.
"So, so we have any food?" he asked with a sheepish smile. We all grinned at him and Dad walked into the kitchen to make something. Mom laid Danny down on the couch and made sure he was comfortable.
Dad came in after a few minutes with a cup of soup and some crackers. Danny ate them slowly and sat watching TV with Sam and Tucker. I had explained what Danny meant by his ghost half and the Facility to them and they took it surprisingly well. Eventually, they all drifted off to sleep.