Oh hello. Ummmmm...sorry for leaving you waiting after that cliffhanger in Chapter 34. Not purposeful I swear lol. Thank you so much for all of your reviews to the last chapter and without further aaaaa-do, the general content warning and then the chapter. :D
General Content Warning: Chapters in this story may contain upsetting or triggering content including but possibly not limited to violence, consensual and non-consensual sexual references and descriptions, drug and alcohol use and abuse, references to or descriptions of mental illness, self-harm or self-injurious behaviour, and references to or discussions of suicide.
~Thirty-Five~
"Get away from the door."
Cloud heard the words but he felt stuck in place, not really frozen, his adrenaline and sudden fear had his whole body feeling like his temperature was rising. He was just, stuck, staring at the weapon aimed in his direction.
"Right now," Rand ordered him.
Cloud tore his gaze from the gun to look at the man holding it and despite the shock and fear he felt at finding himself in the situation he was in he was so angry at both himself and Rand it was hard to see straight.
"I actually believed you, you know that?" he told Rand bitterly. His voice was shaking. He almost didn't recognize the sound as coming from himself.
"I didn't want you to find out this way," Rand replied with what seemed like genuine regret but Cloud shook his head, now faced with having to accept he couldn't read the man or know what was real.
"What did you do with him?" Cloud asked, fighting to stay calm.
"I'll answer the questions you have but not right now," Rand replied. "Right now you're going to listen and do what I say," he added.
"Or what?" Cloud challenged sharply. "You'll shoot me?" He managed to say the words how he wanted them to sound, like he wasn't afraid Rand might actually do that.
"I'd prefer not to," Rand said to that.
"You think I care?" he asked, knowing that for days he'd actually been accepting of some event that would end his life. He'd been ready to jump from the man's rooftop when he was last there. Faced with the threat of something happening to him now…he knew that's not what he actually wanted.
Calling his bluff, Rand replied, "I do." Cloud lowered his gaze to the floor then as he tried to think of what he needed to do to get the upper-hand in the situation. "Come away from the door, over to the counter," Rand directed him in a calm and level tone.
"Go to hell," Cloud fired back at him in response, moving himself forward from where he'd felt glued in place, farther from the door and closer to the man and his gun. "Tell me what you did with my kid, Rand!" he demanded.
The man took a step back and straightened his arm, aiming the gun at him more rigidly and pulling the hammer back on the weapon at the same time. The sound of it had Cloud stopping in place again.
"That's not how this is going to go," Rand told him firmly, his voice more authoritative then. "You're not in control here, I am," the man assured him. "Either you do what I say, or you're never going to know what you want to know," he warned. "It isn't a negotiation! Get over to the counter," he ordered once again, pointing toward the kitchen.
For another few seconds Cloud stood where he was before he began to do as he was told, walking his way slowly over to the counter. It was true, Rand had information he needed. Whether he thought Rand was willing to hurt him or not, he had to do what he wanted, at least until he did somehow manage to take control.
"Put your phone on the counter," Rand instructed and reluctantly Cloud complied, taking it from his pocket slowly. "Let's go," Rand hurried him. "Don't touch the buttons," he said.
Cloud had heard there was a way to somehow make a call to police with the buttons on the side of the phone. He'd never tried it though and didn't have much time to think about it. He just set the phone on the countertop as he was told and at the same time he was getting his next order.
"Step away from it, over here," Rand said and Cloud looked to where he was indicating, away from the kitchen and closer to the table and chairs a short distance away but fully out of reach of the phone.
While Cloud made his way over to the spot he'd indicated, he saw Rand reaching for something in his back pocket. He could hear the sound of something he thought seemed familiar before he observed a pair of handcuffs in the man's hand. Rand tossed them toward him and Cloud watched them as they landed on the floor a few feet ahead of him. He was already shaking his head in refusal before the man verbally instructed him to cuff one of his own wrists.
"I'm not doing that," he said.
"Cloud," the man spoke his name in what was clearly meant to be a threatening tone.
"No! Forget it!" he shouted back.
"Keep your goddamn voice down," Rand said quickly, his voice almost at the same volume. He looked over at the door and back to him with a forceful exhale. "It'll only be temporary," he said then. "Let's go. Hurry up," he urged impatiently.
Shaking his head again, but only at himself then, Cloud reached down to pick the set of unlocked cuffs up off the floor ahead of him. He observed then his hands trembling as he was locking the one cuff onto his left wrist.
"Tight enough you aren't slipping out," Rand said. "Show me," he ordered and Cloud complied, showing him that he couldn't pull his hand out of the restraint. "Good, turn around and put your hands on the table," the man directed.
Turning his back to Rand felt like an impossible task. He didn't want to lose sight of him or not be able to see what was coming, even if he had some idea already. It was when he was looking down at the table top under the palms of his sweating hands that he suddenly started feeling sick. The reality of the situation and what was happening was hitting him hard then. Rand was holding him against his will. No one knew where he was, or that Rand was actually alive. He was finally asking himself the question then why Rand was doing what he was doing. Was it only because he'd been caught in that lie about his child? What was the point in restraining him and holding him at gunpoint? Was it just so he wouldn't tell anyone what he knew? Didn't really seem to fully make sense…
He glanced over his shoulder to confirm Rand was approaching him then and the man was promptly telling him to face forward.
"Put your hands together behind your back," was the next instruction he was given.
Cloud slid his hands back over the table slowly as he stood straighter. As he was reaching his hands back behind him it occurred to him that Rand probably had to set down or holster his gun to free up both his hands to cuff his right wrist. If he was going to get control of the situation it was going to be in that moment. He had a renewed surge of adrenaline pumping through him then and his heart was instantly beating harder. He felt both his wrists being held at the same time and knew that was his moment.
Before he could make a move, his phone started vibrating loudly against the countertop nearby and it startled both of them. Rand let go of his one arm and Cloud was quickly pivoting to try and face Rand, to strike him. Despite being taken off-guard by the buzzing phone, he'd seemed ready for Cloud's attempt to fight and escape, grabbing hold of him and trying to restrain him with his hands. Cloud could tell the man didn't have the gun in his hand. He didn't see where he'd put it. He didn't have much time to focus on any one thing in particular as he found himself wrestling against Rand, struggling to get out of his grip.
Rand had one arm around his upper body, trying to immobilize his arms while he gripped a handful of his hair in his other hand. Cloud tried to push back against him as the man was pushing him forward hard, the table top pressing into the front of his thighs. It was jammed tightly against the wall but in the struggle, Cloud found his body hinging forward and as he slammed the table edge with his elbows, the table was tipping toward them.
He had noticed before that Rand was stronger than expected when trying to fight against him, but it still surprised him the force he was able to exert to combat and control him. It didn't seem human, certainly not normal. Unable to tear out of his grip, Cloud lifted his right foot and pressed his boot into the edge of the now overturned tabletop. He shoved both of them backward into the living room area. Rand was quickly running into the corner of the one side table, which had him stumbling and falling back against his armchair.
They were both falling toward the floor then and in an effort to stop his fall, Rand let go of Cloud's hair and loosened his grip on his torso. Cloud found himself landing partially on top of Rand but he rolled himself off him quickly and turned over so he could face him. Immediately he saw that Rand was reaching for something under his own body that he must have fallen back on. Cloud suspected it was the gun that he must have put into the waistband of his pants so he could have his hands free. Instead of reaching for the gun to try and stop Rand from getting hold of it, Cloud used his elbow to strike the man as hard as he could in his gut, driving down deeply into it. Rand cried out from the pain of the hit and instinctively abandoned reaching behind him so he could protect his stomach.
Cloud shoved at the man's upper body, forcing him to turn away from him enough that he was able to actually see the gun where it was tucked into his pants at the arch of his lower back. He clutched the grip and yanked the pistol from the man's pants. Just as swiftly, though, Rand was reaching back and taking hold of his forearm and wrist and pulling his arm forcefully forward. Cloud struggled to get his knees under him so he could try and stand up, or at least get into a position where he was bearing down on Rand and had weight on him. He did manage to get himself on his knees but the force of Rand pulling his arm and upper body forward and down stole away his balance.
The gun in his hand kept him from being able to stop his momentum forward. Refusing to let go of the weapon, it was up to his forearm and elbow to stop his fall instead and he put his free hand on Rand's shoulder to stop himself from collapsing against him. Rand was giving him an elbow strike of his own then which got him in his face, just narrowly missing his right eye directly and landing just under it. He shut his eyes in response to the impact.
He didn't see it coming but he felt his left wrist being jerked hard by the metal restraint attached to it and his body was fully falling forward not onto Rand, but onto the floor instead, the man having moved himself out from under or ahead of him. He didn't seem too concerned with wrestling the gun from Cloud's possession, and instead held fast to the cuffs and forced Cloud's left arm back behind him as he bore down on him, their positions reversed.
"Get off of me!" Cloud yelled up at him, though he couldn't really see him.
The man had him pinned to the floor tightly, crouching close at his one side, his knees pressing into his back. Rand kept his cuffed wrist immobilized behind his back with one hand and was pressing down on the back of his right shoulder blade with the other.
"You need to calm down," Rand said through some hard breaths.
"I'll shoot you in the face, you son of a bitch!" Cloud threatened and was shushed as though he were just some child throwing a temper tantrum, something that had him angry enough to actually try to raise the gun in his hand to where it put the man in the line of fire, despite the fact Rand had that information he needed.
He discovered fast that the physical lifting of his arm in the position he was in was easier to imagine than accomplish. His arm was outstretched ahead of him on the floor and his shoulder felt locked. He could barely get the gun off the floor more than a foot or so. Not high enough to where it was a threat to the man holding him down. Even with his elbow bent he couldn't get the gun high enough past his own body to where it would be useful against Rand.
"Let go of it," Rand ordered him but he knew if he did that it was over. He had to get out from under him and he did try, as hard as he could, but the result was pain.
Rand pushed down on him harder. For a moment the man did take his hand up off of the back of his shoulder but it was only to assist his other one in suddenly and harshly closing the cuff around Cloud's wrist as tightly as he could. For Cloud it felt like metal teeth clamping down on the flesh covered bones of his wrist. It had him clamping his own teeth together and making an audible sound of pain through them.
"Let it go," Rand repeated his command. He planted his hand again on Cloud's shoulder, hard enough the joint was crying out.
For a second he considered giving in but instead he called out loudly in hope that one of the man's neighbours could hear them struggling and would call the police. Rand released the hand he had on the back of his shoulder once again to try and cover his mouth. Cloud heard him warning him to be quiet but he didn't listen, turning his head to avoid his attempt to silence him. He attempted to yell out again, but the sound was stopped when instead of trying to cover his mouth, Rand reached his arm under his neck and got him into a tight chokehold. The man straddled him then to use this own body weight to keep him tight to the floor and his neck pressing hard into the hold.
Some of the technique and holds that Rand had been using against him felt familiar and reminded him of some of what he'd been exposed to at the SOLDIER Academy. He'd known from his time in Midgar sharing an apartment with Rand that he was trained in some types of combat, boxing especially. He supposed he could add wrestling to that. How could he have spent so much time with him and still have no idea all of what he was capable of?
His instructor at the Academy had shown his class how to escape chokeholds. Never had they been shown how to do it with one hand restrained and the other holding a gun and unwilling to let go. The instructor had probably mentioned how effective a hold like that could be and how quickly it could have the desired outcome for the one on the offense. Still, it surprised him when in just seconds he was seeing his vision spotting over.
Oh god, he thought to himself then. You're blacking out. You're definitely gonna…
He'd died before. A few times—well, more than a few. He'd had those moments described by people who were on the brink of death, when he saw his life flashing before his eyes and saw the faces of those he cared about. That didn't happen, but Rand wasn't really trying to kill him either, just shut him up and disarm him. Rendering him unconscious for what had to be less than a minute let him accomplish that. Less than a minute was all he needed to get the gun back, secure both his hands behind his back and rip a piece of duct tape from a roll he had in the kitchen.
The first thing Cloud felt when he was coming fully back around was the tape being put over his mouth. He'd momentarily forgotten what was even happening until he opened his eyes again and saw where he still was, on Rand's floor. Everything around him seemed just a little bit blurry and like it was moving. Actually he was. Rand was trying to get him up from the floor. He felt the pain in his left wrist then. The cuff was pressing so hard into his skin still that it felt like his fingers were going numb. He conveyed what he felt audibly as he groaned past the tape. Rand shushed him again and whispered something to him about hurrying up and getting to his feet.
The man was behind him holding him under his arms and dragging him out of the living area in the direction of the bedrooms. Being forcefully pulled was uncomfortable and instinctively he was digging his heels into the floor to get his feet under him so he could hold his own weight. That's when he suddenly realized there was a pounding sound that wasn't coming from his own pulse in his head. It was the sound of someone knocking on Rand's apartment door and calling in asking if he was okay. It sounded like a woman's voice.
He didn't have a second thought then about trying to yell past the tape over his mouth and trying to struggle out of Rand's hold. Rand readjusted his hands, gripping his left upper arm with one and circling his other arm around Cloud's upper body. The man turned him so he was leading the way to where they were headed, which was the man's bedroom, shoving him ahead quickly. Cloud tried to stop them, digging his feet hard into the floor, and kicking at the bedroom door when they were moving through the doorway. The door swung open and slammed against the wall loudly.
He felt like he was being shoved by some kind of powerful piece of equipment or machinery, being bulldozed in the direction of what he thought was Rand's closet. That was confirmed when Rand reached past him to open the door. It was a closet big enough to walk into. Just inside is where he found himself being forced down to the floor, the man making him sit down amongst his clothing and shoes. Rand crouched in front of him and took hold of his head to make him look at him.
"You better sit here and be more quiet than you've even been in your life," the man ordered him. He spoke the words barely over a whisper but his tone was still sharp and threatening. "Otherwise, whoever is outside that door out there is going to be joining us in here and you'll be helping me bury a body later," he warned.
Cloud didn't give any nod or indication he would stay quiet but he had no intention of defying the order. Something about the man's expression and his eyes had Cloud taking the threat seriously. He was scared of the person in front of him in that moment. He knew Rand was manipulative and had at times been abusive and ruthless but he didn't even recognize the person standing over him. There was a coldness and detachment in his eyes like nothing he'd seen before. He'd seen Rand become like another person before, in Gongaga when the man had discovered he'd secretly sent a message to Zack, and again in Midgar the night of the New Year's Eve party. This was different.
Believing Rand might actually do what he was threatening to do, and not wanting to have an innocent person involved, even if it meant giving up a chance to be helped, Cloud quieted himself and sat back against the shoe rack behind him. The only sounds coming from him then were from his breathing as he tried to suck in air through his nose rapidly. Rand stood himself up and stared down at him.
"Not a sound," he said before shutting the closet door, leaving him in darkness with just a strip of daylight under the door.
He thought he heard what sounded like a vent fan being turned on and thought Rand must have turned on the one in the bathroom attached to his bedroom to try and create some kind of background noise, perhaps not trusting he would stay silent when left alone. He didn't attempt to make enough sound to be noticed but he couldn't be fully quiet.
Once he was alone he was starting to panic. His fear and the struggle to breathe through only his nose had him feeling like he was suffocating and spiraling toward an anxiety attack. Mucous was quickly building in his nose and making it difficult to get air in. It wasn't long before some of it was running from his nose. He tried to get calm and stay ahead of his oncoming panic attack, telling himself the only way he was going to get out of the situation he was in was if he kept himself from freaking out. He needed to get past the shock of what was happening and try to be strategic.
It was a long few minutes until he could see shadowy movement from the gap at the base of the door next to him. The door was opened and though he wished it were anyone other than Rand standing over him, he was relieved to see he was alone. There was no one with him. No hostage. He hoped that meant whoever had been trying to get him to the door had gone away and not ended up tied up or dead on the floor in his living room.
"Come on," Rand said to him as he leaned down to take his arm and pull him to a stand again.
The metal of the cuff on his left wrist dug against his flesh again and he gave a sound of pain. Rand turned him slightly to look at his hands and realizing how tight the one cuff still was, he reached into his pocket and retrieved the cuff keys.
"I didn't mean to leave it like that," the man told him as he loosened the restraint enough to give him back normal circulation. Instantly his fingers were tingling more intensely from the blood flow. "I got distracted," Rand added.
The man pulled him from the closet and turned him around, walking him backwards before making him sit down on the end of the bed. He pulled a tissue from a box on the nearby dresser and approached him, wiping his nose for him. He hated it but he let him because he didn't want the feeling of it running.
"It was the neighbour in the unit below at the door," Rand told him. "She's a single mother. I would have felt bad if I had to do something about her," he went on but he didn't explain what he'd said to her to convince her everything was fine and whatever she'd heard hadn't been cause for concern.
The man reached behind him. Cloud thought he might be reaching for his gun again but instead he recognized his phone in his hand.
"Do you use print unlocking?" Rand asked him even though it was obvious he couldn't answer.
The man checked for himself by lowering the phone to where Cloud's hands were restrained and took hold of his one thumb to press it to the sensor to try unlocking the phone. Cloud knew the result already. He did have his phone set up for print recognition. He didn't know what it was Rand would be looking for on it though.
He watched as Rand stepped back from him and half-sat, half-leant onto the long dresser against the wall across from the bed while he began tapping at the screen.
"You had plans to meet with someone in the city tonight?" Rand said to him after looking through his phone only briefly. It sounded like a statement more than a question though the man did look up at him as though wanting confirmation. He shook his head a little, denying it. "For dinner at Pepper Mill," Rand told him.
He must have been reading a text message from Marco. It must have been Marco's text that had been making his phone vibrate on Rand's counter.
"That's a nice restaurant," Rand remarked with his eyes down on his phone once more. He smirked then and looked at him. "The 'king of pickup lines' huh?" he said and Cloud looked away from him toward the bedroom doorway. He'd never changed the contact name for Marco. "That's cute," the man commented.
Cloud tried to make himself think through how he was going to get himself out of the apartment to safety but it was difficult to focus on anything other than Rand scrolling through his life on his phone.
"Is this him?" Rand asked before turning the phone so he could see it.
Cloud wasn't really one for taking pictures so there wasn't much in his phone gallery. It was mostly things Marlene had taken pictures of when she had hold of his phone. The picture Marco had sent him of the two of them in his hotel room in Midgar sharing a kiss in bed was one of the more recent pictures. He hadn't erased it. He didn't know why he hadn't done it at the same time he had deleted their text conversation and blocked his number. He didn't look at his pictures on his phone very often. He must have just forgotten at the time it was even there. He didn't confirm in any way to Rand that the picture was of who he thought it was.
"You know who he resembles a little bit?" Rand asked but didn't say aloud who. "Couldn't get anywhere with the real thing so you settled for a constant reminder?" he inquired in what seemed like a mocking way to Cloud. "Kind of sad really," he concluded.
Cloud guessed he was implying there were similarities between Marco and Zack and that he'd settled for Marco because he couldn't have Zack. It wasn't true but he couldn't argue it while his ability to speak had been taken away. He glared back at the man instead and shook his head at him.
"He's looking forward to seeing you," Rand told him. It appeared he was reading from another text message from Marco. "He hopes you don't change your mind," he went on. "It's too bad, that's exactly what happened," he said before he began tapping on his screen. "You've thought about it and you've decided seeing him again is a bad idea," he said. "In fact, you'd like him not to try to contact you anymore. You're on your way out of town and you'll reach out if you are ever ready, but he should probably just forget about you."
As Cloud listened and realized that Rand was probably texting all that to Marco he felt tears building in his eyes. That kind of response from him was actually believable. He'd tried at first to turn down the offer to meet Marco for dinner later and he'd even told him he was on his way out of town. The guy was going to think he really wanted nothing to do with him after all.
"We'll deal with anyone else trying to contact you later," Rand told him, but he barely heard him.
He was quickly losing control over his emotions and though he'd managed to stay ahead of it until that moment, he had a panic attack coming on, crashing over him in fact, like a brutal wave of briny bitter water. He was sucking in air through his nose as hard as he could and he began pulling against the cuffs that were restraining him. His whole body broke into a heavy sweat and he felt desperate to be on a solid surface. Everything around him seemed to disappear, even Rand.
Nothing was in focus as he was sliding himself off the end of the bed onto the floor on his knees. Muffled moans and whimpers accompanied his exhales as he dropped his head forward. He actually found himself pressing his forehead to the floor, shutting his eyes tightly as he felt like his heart was beating out of control and like there was sharp pain spreading all through his torso. He felt like he was having a heart attack and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
At some point he suddenly felt the tape that was sealing his mouth closed coming away from his skin and he heaved in a large breath that hurt when it expanded his lungs. More of those heaving breaths followed before he was being forced to sit back against the end of the bed.
"Cloud here," Rand's voice broke through his panicked thoughts.
He ignored him at first but the man's hand gripping his jaw and shaking his head a little had him looking up at him. The man was holding a pill he recognized. It looked like one of his but he couldn't really be certain. He felt like he couldn't see straight. He was starting to see spots again. He was getting too much oxygen too fast now.
"Put your tongue out," Rand ordered him. He shook his head and didn't really know why. "So I can give you this. It's yours," the man told him.
He complied then, getting his tongue out of his mouth just enough that Rand could put the small pill on it. He swallowed it down without a second thought. Rand let his head go, allowing him the freedom to lower it between his knees where he was sitting, like he'd done so many times before when he was having an attack. He felt the man's hand on the back of his head, stroking his hair a little. If he thought he could manage it he would have told him to back off but he didn't feel capable of anything until he was finally feeling his breathing pattern starting to normalize.
Rand left him sitting on the floor after a minute or so while he was recovering and was in and out of the room a few times. Doing what, Cloud wasn't sure. He couldn't even coherently think about it until close to several more minutes had passed and he was as calm as he could be given his circumstances. It was then that he thought he could hear the sound of the man talking to someone just outside the room. It sounded like he was on the phone. When Rand re-entered the bedroom Cloud saw that the man had what must have been his own phone in his hand and was looking down at something on it. Scrolling through something.
"How do you have my medication?" he asked Rand then. He had some on him, inside his coat pocket but he didn't think that's where he'd gotten it from. He was sure he would have noticed, unless it had been taken from his pocket while he'd been unconscious briefly.
"It was with your things," he said without looking up at first. He glanced at Cloud briefly and clarified. "On your bike."
"You do have my keys?" Cloud asked him, though it was pretty evident that was the case. Rand only gave a subtle nod. Cloud shook his head before pressing it back against the edge of the mattress behind him. "I'm so fucking stupid," he muttered aloud.
"No," Rand said. "You believe in people, which after everything is…inspiring," he commented.
"I want to know what happened to him Rand," he said in as firm a tone as he could accomplish. He had to know what had happened to his son. "Did you hurt him?" he asked, afraid of the answer.
"No," Rand said back to that. "I told you I would answer your questions but not now."
"When then?" Cloud fired back.
"Later," was the unsatisfactory response he got in return.
"Can you just tell me if he's alive?" he tried to ask but on top of his question came the sound of more knocking at the apartment door. This time, though, Rand seemed to have been expecting it.
"I have to get that, do I need to get more tape?" he asked, making it clear he expected him to stay quiet. He just shook his head to that. He wasn't going to attempt to get the attention of whoever had stopped by. Besides not wanting any innocent people involved, he didn't want to give the man a reason to cover his mouth again. He could barely breathe through his nose at all at that point.
As he watched Rand leave the room he saw he still had his gun on him. For a moment while he was alone he surveyed the room with his eyes and wondered if he should try to search for some other weapon. It would be heard to do with his hands behind his back. Not impossible, but he didn't know how much time he had to do it.
As it turned out, had didn't have much more than a minute or so to himself. The man was back quickly and he had what looked like a rolled up paper bag in his one hand. Cloud watched him unroll it at the dresser and emptied out of it a few wrapped syringes and what looked like a small bottle of clear liquid, like the bottles used in hospitals or clinics and like those that had been used in Hojo's labs. His stomach sank hard as he immediately assumed whatever was in the bottle was for him.
"What the hell is that?" he asked Rand who was looking at both the bottle and at something on his phone. "Rand?" he said his name when the man didn't answer him. "What's that for?" he questioned apprehensively.
"I have some things to take care of, which means I have to leave you alone for a short time," Rand answered him finally, confirming without saying the words specifically that whatever liquid drug he'd obtained was for him.
Cloud shook his head to that. "So what? You're gonna drug me unconscious?" he questioned.
"You'll just sleep awhile. You may not even fully fall asleep. You'll just be…out of it, maybe even a bit euphoric," the man told him. "It won't last long," he added.
"No," Cloud said to that. "I'll be quiet," he tried to claim. "I'll—"
"I don't trust you, Cloud," Rand cut him off quickly.
"I'm on other medications," he reminded the man. Just minutes earlier he'd taken a dose of one of them. "What if—"
"I know. It's going to be fine," Rand said. "It's safe."
"Safe?" Cloud shot back at him in doubt. Even Rand didn't actually seem fully sure. Cloud couldn't tell for sure but it seemed like the man was consulting something on his phone to try and figure out how much he should administer to him.
"Relatively," Rand agreed with a bit of a shrug. He glanced up at Cloud and was met with his clearly concerned expression. "After you've been so careless with your own self-medication, how much does this really worry you?" he asked as though it were rhetorical. "Trust me, I care about what happens to you more than you do," he added, looking away from him again. The statement had sort of stunned Cloud into silence a moment. "How much do you weigh?" Rand asked him.
"Go screw yourself, that's how much," Cloud spat back at him.
The man exhaled in something of a huff before he picked up one of the wrapped syringes. With the wrapping removed he popped the protective cap off the hypodermic tip and inserted it into the rubber stopper on the top of the bottle. When Rand turned his attention his way, prepped needle in his hand, Cloud drew his legs in closer to himself as if that would make a difference.
"Wait," he found himself pleading then. "You really don't have to do this," he told the man.
"I'm afraid I do," he replied simply.
"Just tell me what you know about my kid and let me go," Cloud urged. "I—it's fine you lied, whatever, I just need to know what happened. I'm not going to out you or whatever it is you're worried is going to happen," he bargained.
For a second Rand just looked down at him. Cloud tried to read his expression to see if what he was saying was getting through but he looked blank.
"This has to go into a muscle," was what the man said back finally. Evidently what Cloud said had no effect.
Rand reached down then and took hold of his lower left leg. He yanked Cloud's leg toward him, straightening it out and exposing his thigh.
"Stop! What are you—" Cloud responded loudly just before Rand abruptly and forcefully brought the needle down into the top of his thigh, penetrating it through the material of his pants. "OW! Fuh—" Cloud exclaimed painfully.
"I'm sorry," Rand told him as he tossed the emptied syringe back onto the dresser.
"What is wrong with you?!" Cloud shouted.
Very quickly then Rand was coming at him, leaning over him and taking hold of his coat in both his hands.
"I'm not telling you again to keep your voice down!" he conveyed in a threatening tone once more. "Get up," he ordered Cloud at the same time he forced him to stand, still holding his coat.
The man pushed him back toward the closet where he was forced back to the floor again. There the man instructed him to lay down.
"Why in here?" Cloud asked.
"So I can lock you in," the man confirmed.
Cloud wondered why he had a lock on his closet at all but didn't bother to ask him about it. He didn't lie down though. He found himself looking around a little, like searching for some kind of hole to escape through. He was aware again of the sick feeling in his stomach. Rand stepped away from the closet a moment and appeared again with one of the pillows from his bed.
"This will be more comfortable," he said as he dropped the pillow to the floor next to Cloud.
"Well can you uncuff me?" Cloud asked as he looked up at him.
"Not right now," Rand said. "You won't even feel the cuffs in a few minutes," he assured him.
Already Cloud was feeling it, a sensation of losing sensation. He felt like a thick blanket was starting to wrap itself around his body, encasing his limbs. His brain was beginning to slow down. His eyes were starting to tear up as he acknowledged how scared he really was in that moment. He was scared to fall asleep. He was scared to be alone in the mess he was in and to not know what was going to happen, what he'd wake up to or if he would wake up at all. He didn't know what he should do or how he should handle what was happening, and he was so upset at himself, at Rand, Hojo and the universe that always seemed to have it out for him, that he wanted to scream at the top of his lungs.
"It's okay," Rand told him in a kind of comforting tone. He reached up to pull a cord hanging from a light fixture on the ceiling, illuminating the space so he wouldn't be in the dark.
Cloud avoided looking at him. He didn't say anything else to him. He was quickly becoming affected then by whatever he'd been injected with. It wasn't an entirely foreign feeling. It was pretty similar to what he felt with some of his own medications, particularly his sleep aid, only the feeling was amplified. His thoughts became slower, thicker almost somehow. Heavier but hard to hold onto. He felt a little like he was leaving his body or like the parts of himself were separating like vapor dispersing in the air.
Rand had been observing him, waiting for the drug he'd administered to take effect and to make sure he wasn't having any adverse reaction right away. Cloud didn't resist when he moved him, urging him onto his side and positioning his one leg with his knee pressing into the floor to keep him from rolling onto his stomach. He decided against covering his mouth again, in the chance he became sick.
Cloud was still in a slightly semi-conscious state when Rand left him. The man paused at the door before closing it to lock him in. He said one last thing before leaving.
"I don't want you to worry. He is alive, Cloud," were the man's words he slowly processed. "Your little boy is alive."
"Wait," he said as he was watching the door close then. At least, he thought he said it aloud.
The door stayed closed though and the last of his recognizably coherent thoughts weren't about what he was going to do to help himself. All he could think of was that little boy. He had so many questions…
