Brian found himself running for coffee refills less than what he did any other night. The thoughts of Olivia at home, not able to sleep, penetrated his mind deeply. He knew, at least he thought he knew, that Nick would be staying with her until he got home.
Brian had seen the protection Nick gave Olivia against Lewis and anything related to him. He was aware of the guilt Nick had felt after the attack. Now it hurt him to know that Olivia's partner, instead of him, was the one comforting her more than Brian could ever hope to with the hours he was now working.
Nick fell asleep briefly on the couch, the files still littered around him. He slept for two hours, silently, restlessly. The roof that he'd been trying to hold up felt like it was finally collapsing. Fighting Lewis was one thing. Fighting a ghost was another. Lewis hadn't appeared, hadn't surfaced since the second day he'd been out.
Nick sighed heavily when he jumped, waking from a vivid nightmare. He checked his watch and then thought about how the rest of his squad was sleeping. They were all in his same position. Except for Olivia, he was sure. Even though he was able to catch winks of sleep by hour increments, Olivia was probably not sleeping more than a few minutes at a time.
He thought of her then, sleeping in the comfort of her own bed, Brian finally home to keep her company. Little did he know that Olivia had been left alone. He didn't know where she'd gone.
Lewis waited for over two hours, watching Olivia in her unconsciousness. Every once in a while, he put a lit cigarette on her, testing if she really was out, not just playing him. She was good at that. He'd never admit it to anyone but himself.
Emily watched him anxiously, suddenly alone with him again. Olivia wasn't there to tell her it was going to be ok.
"You better hope she wakes up soon." He commented dryly. He didn't hide his impatience. "I'm getting tired of waiting."
Emily couldn't know what that meant. Lewis had a backup. That's just another reason he'd brought another person into the equation. If Olivia didn't wake up, it would be just Emily and him to finish what he had started.
Munch was asleep in the night, moving in his bed constantly as his mind was assaulted by an onslaught of terrible nightmares. The first image he saw was from his own perspective, standing in the edge of a deep canyon. Fog settled on his shoulders as he stared into the cloudy, dark abyss. Then he took one unsteady step forward, plummeting into the hole in slow motion. He watched the sky's stars grow faint as he fell toward what he thought would be worse than death itself. He sat up as the clouds took the stars from his sight altogether.
Munch breathed heavily in his bed as his heart pumped viciously from the dream. The thing was, he often felt like he was the man in the dream. He saw others around him like that too. They all fell farther into the unknown as life grew dismal. There would never be life without pain. There would never be life without darkness.
Olivia's feeling began to return in her body in painful slivers. Her eyes remained closed, her entire frame still as the burning and aching settled on every inch of her skin. It moved down from her neck. Her eyes flew open when the numbness disappeared in her right arm. She moved too, immediately being drawn back into the knowledge of where she was.
It was a mistake - what she'd done. She wished she could have tolerated the pain in silence so that Lewis would be unaware of her consciousness. He was there, wasn't he? The only thing that relieved her when she opened her eyes was the fact that she didn't feel pain where she would have expected. He hadn't raped her. Not yet.
"Welcome back, Sweetheart." Lewis was definitely still there.
She was still lying on the same mattress, away from Emily.
"We've gotta wake you up a bit." He tugged her up to sit and tipped her head back.
The liquid from the bottle of liquor splashed on her face and around her. Then it was going down her throat again. Her eyes closed, refusing to let her look over at Emily, who was covering her ears, still cuffed to the pole. The choking happened again, as much as she tried to keep it down.
Lewis tipped the bottle up and watched again as Olivia threw up, landing between her legs, the bile liquid settling into the fibers of the mattress.
"Oh look what you did now." Lewis felt that even the smallest of provocations brought his temper to a raging high. He needed alcohol. He needed drugs. He was crashing.
Olivia breathed heavily, leaning against the pole as Lewis got to his feet and walked to the corner of the room. She watched him through squinted eyes. They wouldn't remain completely open with the aching of her entire body. The thought crossed her mind vaguely. How had it come to this? She thought the pain had been over almost a year before - the physical pain anyway. But the way her body felt at that very moment, Olivia couldn't possibly imagine she'd been in any greater suffering. Every breath of stale air she took in sent nails shooting through every limb of her being, tearing every nerve within her apart.
Both Emily and Olivia shared a quick glance. In silence, Olivia did her best to give Emily reassurance. She knew any little bit was going to help the child.
Lewis washed down a few pills with a separate bottle of alcohol. Olivia jumped when the phone he'd kept in his pocket began to ring. As the screen illuminated his face, he cursed.
"I've got to take this, Hun. Don't go anywhere." He flashed a sickening grin in Olivia's direction, making her stomach heave he disappeared.
She didn't have to hold it in anymore. After Lewis' footsteps disappeared down the stairs, Olivia let a strangled exhale come heavily from her lungs. The room spun as her body burned. She backed up against the metal she was cuffed to, and leaned back against it with her eyes closed.
Emily's small voice brought her eyes open again. "Olivia." It was filled with panic. She was afraid of being left alone again – alone with that man.
"Emily. Do you have a pin? A hair pin?" Olivia knew she'd have hardly another guaranteed chance to try and get the little girl free.
Emily felt around, and to Olivia's great relief she nodded.
"My mom –" her voice caught. "- She put them in before I went to school."
Olivia closed her eyes for a moment longer. Emily would get out of there. She had to.
"Well she was smart to do that today. Do you think you can throw one of them to me?"
Emily was bent awkwardly, trying to get her hands on the pins in her hair.
Olivia spoke hurriedly. "Throw it as hard as you can right at the wall behind me. I'll duck, ok?"
The girl nodded. It was going to be nearly impossible to see the pin in the dim light, but it would be even more difficult for Olivia to get her hands on it while she was cuffed. She had to try.
Emily moved forward so that her arms could bend farther. Olivia ducked down and heard the object clink to the floor behind her. Now she had to find it. Her hands probed the ground beneath her, chilled and moist from the storm's leftover mist. It was taking so long.
She could still hear the vibrations of Lewis' voice from somewhere, maybe on the staircase. They didn't have long. Olivia made a small sound of frustration when her search behind her came up empty.
"Try another one. I'll get it this time." She encouraged Emily, who already had another pin in her hand.
The same thing happened. The pin ricocheted off the wall behind Olivia, landing in the darkness that she had access to with her hands cuffed behind her. With her head against the metal pole, Olivia searched again. She picked up the small pin after only a few moments. Her right arm screamed in protest of her movements as she felt around behind her to find the keyhole in the cuffs. When she found it, the shaking of her body made the task of inserting it into the lock and bending it all the more difficult.
Lewis' voice was increasing in volume. They didn't have time to wait. She frantically removed the bent pin again, inserting it and bending it again, and then a third time. Her entire brow broke out in a sweat when she moved the new key around in the hole. Olivia silently hoped that all the times she'd practiced to free herself in case it happened again would pay off.
"Come on." The frustration was showing.
And then the click popped the restraints from her wrist. With a heart-stopping clink, Olivia removed them, setting them on the mattress and getting to her feet. She closed the distance between her and Emily quickly, inserting the key into the lock of the other pair of cuffs. Her heart pumped so loudly she thought Lewis might hear it.
"Emily. Emily you have to listen carefully. I need you to pretend like you're still cuffed – like nothing happened, ok? But when I tell you to run, I want you to go."
The cuffs clicked open, and Olivia left them on Emily's wrists as she touched her arm.
Emily's eyes were wide as she nodded. "I'm too scared." She sobbed quietly.
Olivia lowered her voice. "It's going to be alright. You're going to be fine. You just have to run. Run as fast as you can. Don't stop. Don't look back. I'll be ok."
Olivia didn't have time to wonder if Emily believed her. She reached down to where she could see the outline of her badge beneath the girl's shirt.
"When the police find you, show them the badge. They'll know." She finished, her voice cracking.
Footsteps alerted them both to Lewis' impending return.
"Pretend everything is the same until I tell you to run. Here." Olivia placed the small flashlight from her glove compartment into Emily's waistband.
As his footsteps came closer and closer, she reached to the ground and picked up a ragged piece of metal he'd dragged in before. It wasn't much of a weapon, but it was the only one she could take without it being noticed. She then sat back down on the mattress after tucking the pin-turned-key in her own back pocket. She slid the cuffs back behind her and around the pole so that Lewis would never be able to tell she wasn't actually restrained. The cuffs remained unlocked around her wrists as Lewis' frame reentered the room.
"I guess they asked for a favor." He said, tossing the lit phone to Olivia. She quickly read the time. 2:45. She wouldn't survive. Not at the rate Lewis beat her down.
"Just a sec."
Emily's panicky gaze settled on Olivia as Lewis reached into the bag of tools to pull out a knife. Olivia had to wait. She told herself that she had to pretend she was still restrained, even as he approached her with the sharp object. There was no way she'd overpower him while he had a weapon.
"Hold still." He gripped her face again, pointing the knife at her.
Olivia closed her eyes. She had to hold still or he would know. She had to save Emily. The first blood drop Lewis saw as he pressed into the skin below Olivia's right eye pleased him. Other deep red crimson liquid dropped as he pressed down harder. Olivia bit her lip hard to keep her complaints in. It stung as the knife dragged, slicing every nerve and muscle in its way. Then he removed the knife, only to cross the first line he'd already made.
A cross - a BX9 cross. She'd seen Carlos' and the other members' tattoos. Now she was getting one of her own, a scar.
She had to wait. She had to wait until he leaned down to kiss her again, the knife out of his hands. Then she would make her move. She would tell Emily to run while she held Lewis to the best of her ability.
She couldn't hardly breathe. The end was coming.