The top of Marucho's torso ached. He had gone through two more doctor's appointments, one for his shoulders, and one for his collarbone. He was surprised that it was hurting, his face didn't hurt like this the last time he went. He stretched as he got out of bed. He wanted to check the mail before leaving today. And thankfully there was a letter in there. He opened it on his way home and started reading it.

'Dear Marucho,

When you are writing something formally, you shouldn't write any language. It makes the letter seem rude and informal. No they haven't hurt me. I've been treated surprisingly well. I doubt we would be let free that easily anyways, When I do get out, maybe we can run away. I would love to live in the mountains with you. But I don't know how long we'll last up there without any recourses. We'd need to find a source of water, some way to eat, and I don't think there will be any stray houses up there either. So maybe living on the mountain isn't the best idea. Maybe we should live in the forest. Then we can build a treehouse! And maybe we'll find some wolfs or stray dogs there. I don't have a lot to go off of, but I do see a few rats in here. Maybe I'll name my dog "Rat." Rocco is a good name for a dog too.

I did get this letter pretty quickly, it wasn't exactly delivered by mail. Frederick-'

The letter was ripped out of his hand. "What the fuck is this?" Marucho flinched. He would have bet money on that being his father's voice. He turned to be pleasantly surprised by the face of Ricky Steamboat instead. He guessed he didn't remember his father all too well. Marucho tried to get the letter back but Ricky Steamboat pulled it away again and put it in his pocket.

"I'll have a look at that later. Are you ready?" Ricky Steamboat asked.

"Yeah, just let me put these keys away." Marucho replied. Ricky Steamboat followed him back to his house, letting him put his keys back and say goodbye to Frederick. Then, he got in the truck with him and drove to his house. It wasn't Marucho's idea to get tutored. Ricky Steamboat was the one that suggested it.

"You should learn sign language. If you ever go mute again, you want people to easily understand you. And you aren't too good at writing, so don't count on that."

And that's why he was at his doorstep, being greeted by Dean Ambrose's dissatisfied face. He looked at Ricky Steamboat and started to move his hands.

"He's here to learn sign language. And you're going to teach him, since you were able to teach Allie so well." Ricky Steamboat replied. Dean Ambrose sighed and opened the door to let the two of them in. The house was bigger than the other three houses he's been in.

It even had stairs (45 degree floors). Three of the living room's walls held picture frames and paintings. They would be decorated in neat patterns, some of them had plastic letters and words around them. The fourth wall held a huge clock, about four feet all around. That was also the wall that held the couch. He looked up the stairs to see more picture frames lining the wall beside.

"Family," "Memories," "Happin-ss," "Grateful." It looked like the 'e' of happiness was missing a few pieces. As he walked under the archway, he could see that the dining room was also decorated with a few picture frames. How many pictures did this family take?

There was a round table in the middle of the room with five chairs around it. Against the back wall was another smaller table that had a turtle tank on top of it. And that back wall also had a door that led to the backyard.

"Okay, you two will be studying here so that I can keep an eye on you. And don't try to be sneaky when I leave. I got a camera right there to watch while I'm away." Ricky Steamboat said, pointing to the camera in the corner of the room, near the roof. Dean Ambrose nodded and sat at the table. Marucho sat opposite of him, which was actually pretty far, about five feet away.

"Okay boys, behave yourselves. Especially you, Marucho." Ricky Steamboat said as he left the room. Marucho was confused but just accepted it as that.

Dean Ambrose opened the notebook in front of him and started to write. He showed it to Marucho, "first we'll start with numbers, keep your palm faced forward." Then a list of numbers from 0-10 were below it.

Dean Ambrose pointed to the zero. He curled his fingers to his thumb to make a circle shaped hole in the space between them. Marucho knew that one and made a '0' with his hand.

Dean Ambrose nodded and pointed to the one. He pressed the tips of his fingers to his palm and held them there with his thumb, leaving only his index finger up. Marucho copied the action, putting a '1' up.

Dean Ambrose pointed to the two. It was the Animale process as the one, only this time the middle finger would be put up with the index fingers. Marucho put up the two fingers, but pressed them together. Dean Ambrose shook his head and spread his fingers apart. "Keep fingers spread apart." Dean Ambrose wrote.

Then, he pointed to the three. He looked up at Marucho, challenging him to try and figure it out himself. Marucho put up his ring, index, and middle fingers, holding his pinky down with his thumb. Dean Ambrose laughed. "That's what everyone does." Dean Ambrose wrote. Then he put up his hand. He put up his index, middle and thumb out, holding his ring and pinky to his palm. Marucho copied the action.

Dean Ambrose nodded and pointed to the four. He put all of his fingers out, except his thumb. Marucho copied it. Five was easy; he just put all of his fingers up. After Marucho had mirrored him, Dean Ambrose pointed to the zero again. Marucho put the sign up. Then one, two, three (having to correct him again for that one), four and five. They had ran through the numbers twice after and Dean Ambrose moved on.

He pointed to the six. He put up his index, ring, and middle finger, holding his pinky with his thumb. "Oh, that's why the three is like that." Marucho stated. Dean Ambrose rolled his eyes, like it was common sense.

Marucho copied and Dean Ambrose pointed to the seven. He put all of his fingers back up, moving his thumb to hold his ring finger.

Marucho did the Animale and Dean Ambrose pointed to the eight. He moved his thumb to hold his middle finger, leaving the rest to stay up.

Then nine, he moved the thumb once more to hold his index finger, the rest of the fingers sticking up. Finally ten, he put his fist in a thumbs-up position and wiggled his thumb back and forth. Marucho thought that it was a weird sign for the number ten. He copied Dean Ambrose's movement. They went through the entire list again before Ricky Steamboat came in with a green book. He placed it on the table in the middle of them.

"Found your old book. It might be easier to teach him with some guidance. Dean Ambrose put the tips of his index and middle fingers to the top of his lips, palms facing down, then moved them forward as they flipped until the palms were facing up.

"You're welcome." Ricky Steamboat said as he smiled and walked away. He had an ugly smile. Dean Ambrose opened up the book and flipped to the alphabet page. Marucho looked at it. It had rows of hands, each signing a different letter. Ricky Steamboat was right, it would be much easier to learn like this. That way Dean Ambrose wouldn't have to go through each one of them with him. He practiced signing them and Dean Ambrose corrected any signs that looked wrong.

After their session, Marucho was taken home. He walked through the door and was greeted by the aroma of grilled cheese. Frederick smiled as he walked in.

"Hey, how was your day?"

"Good." Marucho replied. He yawned as he grabbed his plate and sat down at the table. He started eating and stopped to enjoy the flavor. He didn't know what kind of butter or cheese she used, but it was amazing. He looked at Frederick as she walked over with her plate.

"Do you like it?" She asked. Marucho put his thumb up.

"I'm glad." Marucho let his eyes wander away from her and down at the table. Paper and the calligraphy pen. His eyes shot open as he remembered. Ricky Steamboat had taken the letter that Allie wrote him. He put down his sandwich and jogged back to the front door.

"Where are you going?" Frederick asked.

Marucho swallowed his bite, "I left something over there, I just remembered it."

Then he was out and running again. He was glad that he was paying attention to where they were going. He went up to the house and knocked on the door. A woman opened it.

"Oh hello. You're Marucho. Um, did you leave something here?" She asked.

"Yeah, can you bring Ricky Steamboat over?" Marucho asked. The woman nodded and left to get Ricky Steamboat. Ricky Steamboat came to the door with the letter in his hand. He looked pissed. He went over to Marucho and grabbed him by the shirt collar.

"Listen here you little shit. That fucking letter you were holding, that was from the demon. Wasn't it?" Ricky Steamboat asked. Marucho nodded, not being able to find the words to speak. "Speak god damn it. You know how." Marucho could feel himself start to lose focus.

"Yes!" Marucho replied.

"I know that you two are in a relationship together, and that's fucking disgusting. It's even worse now that it's written on paper." Ricky Steamboat's words went in one ear and out the other. He couldn't focus on exactly what he was saying. He could only think of his dad. Ricky Steamboat continued to rant about everything that was wrong about him and Allie. But Marucho knew that everything that Ricky Steamboat said was a lie. Allie was a good person, he wasn't sinful. Allie wouldn't call Marucho disgusting, he would call him beautiful. They weren't disgusting, they weren't Allie, they were normal.

"Only an idiot would ever think that being with another boy was right." Idiot. Marucho was an idiot. He had been called one his entire life. He couldn't even argue with the accusation, it was true. Everything that he did proved that he was an idiot. He couldn't read or spell right, he was stupid enough to run away, and he was stupid enough to pull someone else down with him. He was stupid enough to think that he could live without being ridiculed or yelled at for at least a week. Ricky Steamboat let go of his collar and Marucho blinked back into reality.

"I hope you two rot. May your coffins be filled to the brim with worms." Ricky Steamboat said as he ripped off part of the letter and dropped it into the floor next to his feet. He handed the letter back to Marucho and slammed the door, the ripped off piece flying out from the air that came with it. Marucho picked it up and turned it around.

'Love, Allie'

Marucho smiled as he held the two words close. He walked home, feeling his eyes start to hurt from the tears he refused to let out. Not yet. He had to get back home. His feet dragged on the floor as he read the last of the letter.

'Frederick came in today. She's the one that gave me the letter. My wing is getting a lot better. I hope that you can come visit soon too and check it out.'

Then the rip where his farewell was. Marucho read the sentence over and over. Frederick visited him? Then it clicked. That's where she went when she said she was going to see an old friend. She certainly didn't mean Allie, right? No, someone else. Marucho sighed as he put the letter back in his pocket. He would reply to it when he got back home.

"Put all of your stuff into a locker in that room over there." Jake said. They nodded and did as they were told. Jake scanned their body for any weapons and found none. They were allowed passage and followed Animal through the maze of a hall to their destination. Like Frederick, they were also surprised by the amount of effort that was put in to keep him in a cell.

Animal had guided them through every procedure, reminding them of the rules, risks and the safety precautions. Then, they were at the door. "I won't be able to hear any normal speech. You have to be loud to be heard through here." Animal said.

They nodded and then the door was opened in front of them. Allie turned his head to look at the visitor. His eyes opened wide. He wasn't expecting to see this person for a while. They smiled.