Amanda tossed for the last time in bed when the clock read 11:45. With her eyes still open and both her mind and body wide awake, she threw back the covers and got out of bed. The rain had nearly stopped coming down as the storm passed, but it left streaks down the window reminding her of the way tears trail down a person's face.
As she stood in front of the window, she felt the exhaustion that had been hanging over them all for days. She needed to sleep but she couldn't. She just wanted the worrying and the treading lightly to be over with. It was hard to pretend not to notice the consequences the entire situation had on everybody in the squad room.
Lewis deserved to have been punished long before SVU had ever even come in contact with him. Amanda sighed. He'd killed people before, getting off every time. It wasn't fair or even understandable to see the justice system fail so many times in the favor of one terrible human being.
Olivia stayed quiet as Lewis stood before them both. She hoped morning would arrive sooner than it usually did. She hoped she'd still be able to see the sun rise above the city.
"Alright. I see how it is." Lewis turned his gaze, though invisible, to Emily. "You get to choose, Emily."
The strangled "no" that came from Emily's throat, knowing what awaited her newfound comforter prompted Olivia to squeeze her eyes shut, hoping not to let any more tears fall. It didn't work. They fell anyway.
"Emily." She spoke up, knowing that Lewis would threaten Emily if she didn't choose what tool would further torture Olivia.
"Emily, I'll be ok. Just pick." It broke her voice when she said it. Maybe if she repeated the words enough, she'd sound more convincing to Emily's ears than she did to her own.
"See. She'll be fine. So what will it be, Miss Emily?" He named the tools he'd discovered again.
Olivia was almost positive Emily only knew what one or two of them actually were. With a cry, Emily told him. It was the only one she'd ever heard her father say, working around the house. Little did she know what it meant for Olivia.
"Wire-cutter." It tore her tiny heart out when she said the words; Olivia could hear it. But the way Olivia's heart picked up speed in nervous anticipation made it impossible to hear anything else.
"I'd like some privacy for this one too. She'll get to watch soon. Don't worry." Lewis grabbed Olivia's arm and took the cuff from the metal-weaved window. As the last thing she did before being dragged out of the room, Olivia reminded Emily.
"Close your eyes. Plug your ears." She was sure the panic in her voice made Emily comply with her commands even more diligently.
"I'm not cuffing you for this one." Lewis let go of her when they were out of the room. "Because I know you won't run with a little girl's life on the line."
He was whispering in her ear, too close to her.
Olivia closed her eyes, waiting for the pain to erupt again. He didn't even bother taping her mouth, then. He wanted to hear her scream, trying to keep quiet for Emily. The cold metal was on her neck before she could take another breath. The sharp wire cutter moved slowly down her sensitive skin, not cutting, but unnerving her. Even though she tried to keep breathing normally, it was clear to her that Lewis felt her tension. It satisfied him.
The cold metal of the tool made its way down her neck, around to the front of her sweater. In the darkness, as she stood helpless, he drug it down her chest until it reached the belt of her pants. The injuries he had claimed to have only impaired him a little. She was still no match for his strength.
Lewis was concentrating on his work, enjoying it so much that he couldn't even speak. Then he grabbed her hand, and she bit her lip, knowing the pain about to erupt would prompt an outcry. She pushed her gaze to the dark ceiling of complex, unwilling to see it happen.
"Look at me." In the light of the dim building, she opened her eyes and looked right at him. He was hardly visible in the black. But when he smiled, the white of his teeth shown through the only barrier between them.
Olivia felt the sharpness of the cutters as he held it to the tender skin between her pointer and middle finger on her left hand.
"You did worse to me." He'd barely finished the sentence when the cutters clamped down, tearing through the skin easily.
Olivia didn't have the capability of remaining silent. She even pulled away as the shots of excruciating pain spread. She hoped Emily was silencing her cries at least a little as Lewis moved the cutter between her middle and ring finger.
"Now it's time for me to get even." He said.
There was anger filtering out from him then. Olivia knew she was going to have to fight hard if she wished to make it to the morning. The cutters sliced through her flesh again, sending a gasp and a cry from her mouth. She swayed, beginning to lose the battle for consciousness.
Lewis then dragged the open tool down the length of her right arm, cutting it from her shoulder all the way to her thumb. The scream that ripped from Olivia's throat reverberated off of the walls. She wished she could lose consciousness.
The night in the city brought a strange mist rolling across the bay. It made the tops of the buildings invisible to anyone standing below. It took each bridge, infiltrating the tops and the space between the vehicles and the water.
The mist moistened every branch, car, and street lamp in its path. An ominous presence, the mass oppressed the mood of every living creature in New York City and the surrounding area. Not Nick, Amanda, or Fin knew about what it was warning of.
The impending death of their squad leader, their friend, their leader had no premise in their brains. They didn't know. But they would.
Lewis stopped after he'd finished slicing the flesh from Olivia's right and left hand. Her mind didn't comply to her internal begging to black out. She felt him stop, putting the cutter to the side as her chest heaved. Sweat rolled down the sides of her face as she fell backward, sliding down wall. It hurt so badly she wished for an end to her life if he didn't stop.
Lewis stepped forward and knelt down so that his face was inches from hers. "We'll take a little break." He kissed her forehead, disgusting Olivia.
She turned away until he grabbed her face tightly.
He lowered his voice. "Wouldn't want you worn out for what comes next." Lewis grabbed her by the arm and dragged her, only furthering her pain.
Emily's ears were covered, her eyes squinted shut as she sat, her hands still cuffed in front of her around the pole. Lewis threw Olivia down again, grabbing the handcuffs she'd been wearing before. He tore her hands from her side above her head and cuffed them around the same pole Emily was bound to. Olivia to let out another cry of discomfort.
On her back, Olivia laid as Lewis stood up and took a good look at his success. The skin that was exposed between Olivia's sweater and the belt of her jeans excited him. He'd have to wait, though - if only for a few more minutes. Then she would be his. She would know that he had complete power, that it was over.
Sleep teased Fin, Amanda, Nick, and Munch as midnight came and went.
Cragen watched the last streaks of moonlight dance on the surface of the ocean, a reminder that he was being taken farther and farther from where he needed to be. The walk he took down the hallway did nothing to calm his nerves. He was going to get bad news eventually. He already knew that.
The new colors of dawn broke the surface of the horizon. Even the new lights rising in the distance could not settle his anxious heart.
Lewis watched Olivia from the corner of the room for only fifteen minutes before he could restrain himself no longer. It had to be then.
Olivia waited, hoping she could just lie there forever without fearing what was coming. When the scuffling of her assailant standing met her ears, she knew what was going to happen. There was nothing she could do to stop it this time. He would threaten to kill Emily if she resisted at all.
Without warning, Lewis leaned over her and kissed her violently. He grabbed her arm and bit her lip as he did. Olivia tried to turn away, but his strong hand on her jaw made it impossible. It made her stomach turn, and had she had anything in her stomach, she would have thrown up again.
"Good news." He whispered. "There's a pole just like this one on the other side of the room."
The grip he had on her arm didn't pain her at all with the rest of the agony coursing through her body. He pulled her up and uncuffed her, forcing her to walk unsteadily the few steps to the pole, in front of which sat the old mattress. Olivia pulled away from him, but stopped her resistance when the barrel of the gun settled on her head.
"That's enough." Without pausing, Lewis kicked the back of her legs, landing her on the floor again. She fell hard against the concrete floor, missing the mattress as he'd planned. Her hands were cuffed above her just as they had been before.
"We can finally finish this." He smiled down at her as he moved her onto the bed.
The flashlight in the middle of the room turned on when Lewis grabbed it. Olivia could see Emily. She could hear her.
"No! Please don't - please don't hurt her." Sobs were rolling out from the girl again.
The cries sent a shockwave of reality into Olivia as well. It was happening. There was no stopping him now. The thing she worked her hardest to fight every day was going to happen to her. She swallowed hard as a tear escaped her eye. Another followed, and another. They weren't stopping.
"Emily." Olivia lifted her head with great effort to look at her. "Emily I'm going to be ok."
She heard the shaking of her voice, but she could do nothing to remove it. "You do what you did before. Close your eyes. Plug your ears." She ordered.
Emily nodded a little. "Ok." She did as Olivia said immediately.
Lewis lowered himself to Olivia, still smiling. He straddled her, sitting heavily on her pelvis. Olivia cringed as the burns sounded their pain.
"Come on. We can pretend it's just you and me." Lewis was so proud of the way she looked. Her blood crusted on her face, her arm. The way she refused to look at him, just like before, made him sure everything was worth it.
As he leaned down to kiss her again, Olivia's eyes closed, her head lulling to the side. Her body went limp. She lost her battle, finally being plunged into a darkness much more consuming than the one in the terminal.
Lewis sat for a long moment, for once unsure of what he wanted. He wanted to be able to look into her eyes, make her look into his when he took her. That wouldn't happen if she was lying unconscious beneath him. He weighed his options for a long while, still perched upon his victim. Then he chose what he wished to do.