Authors note:
Sorry this took so long! As I said, there is a warning for the end! READ WITH CAUTION…

Disclaimer:
Everything recognisable has its own respected owners. If you are unfamiliar with anything the chances are it's mine. Savvy?

Chapter eight.

The bright light blinking from the camera hurt Edward's weak eyes, yet closing them and ignoring Demetri was not an option.

"Do you remember everything that I told you?"

Edward took a deep breath, "…Yes."

Mom, Dad, Alice, Jasper, Emma…Bella.

I'm sorry, I love you all.

"Excellent," Demetri smiled sweetly. "I'm going to count to three, press the record button and you shall do exactly what I told you. If you try anything or refuse to talk, I will blow your fucking brains out. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

I'm sorry.

I love you.

Be happy, for me.

"Great, then we shall start. 1…2…3…"

Edward stared straight at the camera, and began to talk.

"My name is Edward Cullen, I am twenty-six years old and I come from a small town in the United States of America. This is a message for my family…"

0-0

'It's as easy as breathing…'

Such a phrase implies that something should be effortless and should come without an issue, but when breathing is seen as one of your chores, you have a problem.

It's not that Felix doesn't want to breathe – he has loose ends to tie and promises to fulfil – but it caused him so much pain that he often wished he could do without. His ribs were so badly beaten and broken that it felt like they were piercing holes in his lungs, his right eye could have been mistaken for a plum due to the severe swelling and bruising and his ankle is more than certainly broken. This is what he gets for helping and breaking the rules, but at least Felix could smile at the fact that he managed to sneakily send off the prisoner's letter without anyone noticing.

Felix likes the prisoner with funny hair – he had never found out their names, and so had to stick with nicknames. Big Man was the, well, the big man who left here to go home, and Funny Hair is his name for the prisoner still here. He would have loved to call them by their first names, or make up better nicknames, but he could only judge them on their appearance.

Felix has never approved of what his uncles had done and are doing, but who would listen to a wrongly mistaken, seemingly immature, nine-year-old? His mother had always taught him to see the good in people and to treat others the way he would wish to be treated, which was why he had to help Big Man and Funny Hair in any way that he could. Unfortunately, being the Good Samaritan nearly cost him his life, but at least he would have died doing some good which his mother would have been proud of, than joining these monsters and costing someone else their life.

However cruel and vicious his uncles are, they had always loved their sister (Felix's mother, God rest her soul) and that could be why they never went through with killing Felix fully, and still gave him a chance to live – not a high chance, but a chance either way.

Or he could be entirely wrong and they may have intended to finish his life, screwing whatever their sister would think, and he only survived because he had a purpose here…with Funny Hair. He remembers how his mother would end an explanation with '…because that is what God would want…' or something similar along those lines, and so he has always believed that there is a God somewhere in this world; male, female, in the clouds above or in the form of the birds flying by, watching over everybody. God has given him a purpose, and Felix must stick to it.

One Parable which he shall always remember is the Parable of the Good Samaritan – his mother's way in ensuring good in Felix's life, which she would quote to him often.

"…'Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?'

The expert in the law replied, 'the one who had mercy on him'.

Jesus told him, 'go and do likewise'…"

Funny Hair fell into the hands of robbers (so to speak) and so Felix must make sure he became the neighbour, and have mercy on him also.

Felix spent a long while working through a plan; one which meant he could save Funny Hair even when stuck in his cell, but his confidence shattered when he overheard a noise from outside.

"Come with me." That was Demetri's voice (it's hard to mistake) and he was obviously talking to Funny Hair, unless someone else had been taken and thrown down here. Felix recognised the sound of shuffling feet and the crying hinges of the cell door. They appeared to get louder and were soon walking right past the cell. His door has a window which he is tall enough to look through, but he couldn't find the energy to move.

Picturing a map of the holding cellar, Felix managed to calculate where his cell was in addition to Funny Hair's, where Big Man used to stay, and the other rooms which his Uncles all have different uses for.

His cell is on the left side wall as soon as you get down the stairs and Funny Hair's is on the opposite wall, further to the right. You have one cell, then Felix's, then another and another before reaching the end of that wall. The last cell was the dreaded room which you are forbidden to enter, unless the Uncles told you so. It is the room you never want to go in.

He instantly knew that door was being opened by the way it seemed to tear the concrete as it scrapped along the ground.

Please don't…please don't…please don't…

He knew what was about to happen, yet still prayed for a miracle.

But when the gunshot ran out and everything went scarily quiet, he knew his prayer had gone unanswered.

0-0

Author's note:
I know it's short, but this had to be a chapter on its own.

PLEASE, PLEASE, TRUST ME! I ALWAYS END ON E/B HEA!