Chapter 10
"So what are you going to do then?" Liam said watching Alex sink to the ground.
"I have no clue brother, I really do not. I was just sent away from my home, I have no money, no place to stay, and now my Evangeline has been taken from me" Alex said very quietly.
"Well I can fix two of your problems, I have a little extra cut, and you can stay here of course, but you must promise me one thing" Liam said to Alex.
"What is that my droog?" Alex said with a half smile.
"Don't hurt her, Evey is my little sister, and the only one I have. I'd hate to have to watch her heart get broken. I know you've suffered from the institution, but so has she, there wasn't a day gone by that her heart wasn't thinking of you, or for the matter, trying to get to you" Liam said helping Alex off the ground "Now, I ask again brother, what are you going to do?"
Alex looked up at him and suddenly Liam saw what Evangeline had seen in him the whole time. A fire, brighter than the sun glowed in his eyes, it burned and flickered and wanted to set fire to everything around him.
"I'm going to get her back" he said with a fierce look in his eye "Through hell or high water, I'm going to get Evangeline back."
"Then your going to need some help" Liam said giving Alex his hand "I work a shift tonight, but I promise I will be there at her house as soon as I get off. Here is the address and godspeed brother."
Alex thanked Liam and left his things there to go out and get his love back into his arms.
He passed by the old bridge where him and his droogs once used to beat on the tramps and homeless of their society. A man suddenly came across to Alex and held out his hand to him.
"Can you spare me some cutter, me brother? Can you spare some cutter, me brother?" the man said to Alex. Without looking Alex handed him some small change Liam had lent him and tried to make on with his way.
"Jamey Mack! Be the hokey fly! Holy Mother of God! All the Holy Angels and blessed saints in Heaven preserve us!" the tramp said to Alex "I never forget a face! I never forget any face, be God!"
"Leave me alone brother, I've never seen you before" Alex tried to say politely as the tramp tried to follow him around.
"This is the poisonous young swine that near done me in. Him and his friends beat me and kicked me and thumped me!" the man yelled at Alex awakening the other tramps and meth drinkers.
"Get him! Get him!" they shouted as they started ganging up on Alex.
They trampled Alex, spewing their hatred and anger at him, stomping their filthy feet at him but he almost lay perfectly still. He would rather take this beating then feel the sickness overtake him and be forced away from his quest.
"Young hooligan... Vagabound!.. Kill him!... Villain!... Toad!... Bastard!... Kick his teeth in... Near killed poor old Jack, he did!" the tramp yelled at Alex, coxing the crowd to beat him harder.
"Alright now stop it!" some police men yelled at the crowd, dispersing them back into the hole from which they came.
Alex looked up to thank the gentleman when suddenly he realized who they were. "Oh no" he moaned looking straight up at Dim and George as policemen.
"Well, well, well, well, well, well, well, if it isn't little Alex. Long time no viddy, droog. How goes? Surprised are you?" Dim said with a laugh.
"Impossible, I don't believe it!" Alex said.
"Evidence of the old glazzies. Nothing up our sleeves. No magic, little Alex? A job for two, who are now of job age. The police" George said picking Alex up with Dim. They were going to go have a little old ultra-violence now, for old times sake.
"Come on Alex, come for a little walkies!" Dim said laughing.
"Come, come, my little droogies. I just don't get this at all. The old days are dead and gone. For what I did in the past I've been punished!" Alex said as they walked up a deserted road in the middle of nowhere.
"Punished eh?" Dim said.
"I've been cured" Alex said defiantly.
"Been cured, yeah, that was read out to us. The Inspector read all that out to us. He said it was a very good way" Dim said now being serious.
"I just don't get this all. It was them that went for me, brothers. You're not on their side and can't be. You can't be Dim. It was someone we fillied with back in the old days... Trying to get his own malenky bit of revenge after all this time. You remember, Dim?"Alex said trying to reason with them. Evangeline was in trouble and they were wasting his time.
"Long time, is right. I don't remember them days too horrorshow. Don't call me Dim no more, either. Officer, call me!" Dim said throwing Alex down on the ground.
A water trough lay ahead of Alex as Dim whispered in his ear "This is to make sure you stay cured" and threw his head under the water several times.
They beat him through and before Alex knew it he was stumbling upon the road as the police car drove on leaving him alone in the wilderness. He needed to get to her, his mind on that one phrase as it pushed through the weariness of the night.
Alex spotted a house in the distance and fumbled and pulled himself towards it thinking only one thing over and over again "Evangeline, Evangeline..."
Evangeline sat in her room, now barren from everything except her bed. No drawings, no record players, nothing at all except her loneliness. Her eyes had gone from shining and glowing like the sunlight to dark and cold like the stars at night. She stared at the locked door, having now her window also bolted to the wood.
Her father had the Julien, the big bruiser that sat outside her door, take her from Liam's just a day or two ago. She couldn't be sure, the window had been sealed off from any sunlight entering the room and would only be granted until she "Learned to behave and respect her father."
"To hell with this" she whispered holding her knees closer to her chest. She wanted out, they could not cage her, they just couldn't. She would dig her way out if she needed to, nothing could stop her from being free. And that's what Alex was to her now, freedom.
She stood up and angrily went to the door and started banging on it loudly. "You big brute! Let me out now! You can't keep me in here you know!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. She had been at it now for a few hours, stopping for a few minutes to catch her breathe then going back and trying to bust down the door.
Her hands were blood red and she quickly sank to the ground for a rest. It was not fair, and she now feared she had lost her father and Alex forever. All she could hear was the typewriter going faster than ever when suddenly she heard the faint whisper of the doorbell ringing.
She scurried back to the door and quickly pressed her ear to the wood. She heard her father question who it could be and Julien walking towards the door.
"Dad! Let me out! I want to know who is here!" Evangeline yelled and suddenly heard her father's wheelchair scurry toward the door and unlock it.
"Are we going to have a problem?" he asked her.
"No, just let me out for a while, it's only driving me more mad being stuck in there" she said.
"Fine, just behave yourself" he said and went back into his study.
Evangeline quickly walked towards the hallway of the door and watched Julien ask who was out there. When there was no answer he opened the door and revealed Alex bloody and soaking wet fall through the door.
Evangeline gave a horrible cry and ran to Alex's side. "Oh go what have they done to you!" Evangeline cried out holding Alex's head in her lap.
"Move Miss, I'll take him into the living room" Julien said taking Alex in his arms like a baby.
Evangeline quickly shut the door and locked it and ran back into the living room to take care of Alex. Her father wheeled out from his study and stared at Evangeline's face for a moment.
"Frank, I think this young man needs help" Julien said setting Alex on the floor. Evangeline ran to his side and took his head back into her lap to feel for his temperature.
"Dear, dear, dear. Whatever happened to you, my boy?" Evangeline's father asked staring down at Alex.
Alex opened his eyes and looked at the man in panic "The police... The horrible ghastly Police. They beat me up, sir. The Police beat me up, sir" he could barely spit out.
"I know who you are! Isn't it your picture in the newspapers? Didn't I see you this morning on the video? Are you not the poor victim of this horrible new technique?" Mr. Alexander suddenly said getting frantic.
"Yes, sir, that's exactly who I am, sir... and what I am... a victim, sir" Alex said dropping his head back down on whatever warm surface they had put him on. Mr. Alexander then went on a frenzied speech as Alex drifted away from him and opened his eyes up to the most beautiful sight he had seen all day.
There staring back at him was his beloved, and he slowly drifted his hand up towards her face only to have it taken away from her. She told him to shush and gave him a look so that he knew not to reveal in front of the others that the two knew each other. But the hand motion was already caught and Julien saw the look in the boys eyes as he stared up at the girl.
"A friend of yours Evangeline?" Julien said.
Suddenly Mr. Alexander stopped and looked at the two. Evangeline felt her heart racing a mile a minute and quickly thought up a lie that would suit her father.
"Yes actually, I didn't recognize him at first but he is a boy I went to school with" Evangeline said looking at her father "He moved away a couple years ago, but I do remember him. Your name is Alex right?" She looked down at him.
"Yes ma'am, it is, I remember you quite well" he said playing along.
"Well then, we must see your friend is taken care of" Mr. Alexander said with a smile, believing the ruse the two children were playing on him "Evey, will you draw our young friend a hot bath for him now?"
"Of course" she said and let Julien take Alex in his arms once more.
"Thank you sir, God bless you sir" Alex said now able to drift off once more as the big brute carried him off for the bath.