Realistic or Modern Gone But Not Forgotten

[DrTrollinski]

"I mean, without being racist, he's just like... A pretty average Asian guy." She said, "Y'know, short dark hair, skinny. He looks..." She sighed. "I guess he looks like a lot of young Chinese or Japanse guys, right? I can't really describe him more than that. He didn't have anything about him that really stood out, but... He definitely grew up in America, because he didn't have an accent. His mom... I think it was his mom... She didn't speak a word of English, though. She was the one who made the food." She said. "And I didn't feel sick or sleepy, either, no... It was just, well, food. Chicken and noodle soup. It was... One of the last proper meals that I had for a while." She explained.

"I drove with the Asian man the next day, though. They let me have a bed in that place, but, all the windows were... Barred up. There was this strong smell of spices in one part of the kitchen. Really strong." She said, "Anyway, I couldn't go anywhere. He told me the only time I was allowed out of the room was to use the bathroom or to get a glass of water. I wasn't allowed to do anything else, but that was okay. I slept all through the night." She said, "So... Maybe they did put sleeping pills in the food, or something. I don't know." She shrugged, "And the next day was when we left. I had to have the bag over my head again, but, that was all. I laid in the back of his car until we got to some place. It was dark." She said. "We'd been on the road for... Hours. Longer than the first journey, I'm pretty sure, because it was more or less dark by the time we got there. He stopped for fuel once, I think, but there were no other people around. There was no noise at all, and he didn't go in and pay for it anywhere. I guess he had some in the trunk."

"I ended up at..." She hesitated. "A warehouse. It was abandoned. Dark. It was there that I met the... The man behind all of it, and-" She gulped, "He had a mask. A clown mask. But a home-made one, I think." She nodded a few times. "I was trapped there for... The rest of my time away from home."

 

[Jupiter]

Jones continued to write down what he deemed important. She used a lot of words and didn’t need prompting for some of the things he wanted to ask and find out about. It seemed that the first night was one that slightly cared about comfort, or about compliance, one of the two. He wasn’t sure where he would even start looking if he were to find the place that she was held that night, but he knew he would. Even if it killed him.

Maybe these were the people who - no. That was over ten years ago, now.

“In the apartment you stayed in the first night, was it just you and the man there?” He asked. He didn’t mean to imply anything about sexual abuse but he supposed that the question was still there and hung in the air like an axe waiting to fall. “Or did you have other company. After the woman who made your dinner, I mean.” He asked, and wrote a question mark in his book. He supposed his notes would only really be understandable by himself, if in the case he did go missing perhaps the case would still be fucked.

“Do you remember anything about the area that you were in, in the first night. Was it a loud and city like environment outside or was it quiet like it is here?” He asked.

“When you were on the road a second time, was it a smooth or bumpy journey?” He asked. “And... when you got out of the car, were you blindfolded? What sort of area were you in? If you were blindfolded, what could you feel under your feet? What could you smell, and hear?”

 

[DrTrollinski]

"I don't know. I was in the room on my own but I..." She frowned. "I guess the Chinese guy was there somewhere in the apartment. He might have been in the room next to the door." She explained. "I didn't have any company and I guess the woman went somewhere else. Or maybe it was her watching the door. I don't know. I didn't see anyone because I only got up once during the night to use the bathroom, and that was it." She explained. "So if anyone was there, I didn't see them." She said.

Next question.

"It was really quiet there." She nodded, "I heard one or two cars go by. It took me like... Well, not that long to fall asleep, but there were only a couple of cars. It was quiet. Like more of a town, but then again, even big cities have quieter parts. Like where we are right now." She said. "So I guess that's... Not really helpful. Sorry."

Partially. It was a quieter area, which was better than nothing at all, right?

And the next set of questions.

"It was a bumpy ride towards the end." She said. "I think I fell asleep at one point, for about an hour. It was only when it got bumpy that I woke up again, so..." She said. "I just know it was a long drive because it was dark out when we got there, so." She said. "He took the bag off my head. He had a gun. A... Revolver, I think." She said. "And he drove a pretty fancy car. A Range Rover. I can't... Remember the license plate. I didn't look at it." She said. "He told me to go on my own. It was all... Just trees and that was it. Trees and dirt. It was the middle of nowhere, it must have been." She said. "I couldn't hear anything. It just smelt... Clear, you know? No city smells. Just like a plot of land that's empty other than all the wildlife." She said. "It felt... I guess colder than Maryland. Once again, not too sure." She said.

 

[Jupiter]

"You're being really helpful, please don't worry. Every detail, no matter how small and how unimportant you might think it is, is actually really incredibly helpful, and might be the key piece of information that helps us to catch who did this to you." He nodded, though she couldn't see, keeping her eyes shut was potentially going to make her remember some details better because she was being less stimulated by the room around her.

If it was bumpy that meant she was in a more isolated area, far away from neighbours and noise, which was backed up by what she said moments later. She sort of told him that the Chinese man had money, he wasn't poor and it wasn't going to be some kind of pauper restaurant. He jotted down money - revolver, range rover, fancy.

"That's great. You're doing great." He decided that soon he would let her have a break while he had some time to think. But not yet. "Can you tell me anything about the building, you called it a warehouse, can you tell me about that? And the man that you saw in there, you said he was the man in charge, can you tell me how you know this, if there's anything you remember about him... I know he was wearing a mask, but can you remember anything else, like what he was wearing, how big he was, little things like that?"

 

[DrTrollinski]

"We didn't see him much." She took a deep breath. "Now and again we did. He'd come in. He has a... Rough voice. Like he's smoked a lot, but at the same time, not so much. He looks... Healthy. At least weight-wise." She said. "I don't know if there's much more to say about him. He carries around knives, machetes, axes... Sometimes a gun, if he feels like it. But that only ever happened once or twice." She said. "He plays games. He doesn't come in there with us." She nodded, "The warehouse, though... I think that's what it was. It was all empty. Abandoned. Old." She said. "It smelt... Rusty upstairs. Damp. It was quiet, but, I went in there and it was pitch black - and when the lights came on he was just stood there. He pointed at a door." She said, "It was just like an old factory, really... Some of the rooms ran underground. Most of them did." She said. "I never saw what the upstairs looked like, but the main room... There was nothing in there."

She thought for a moment more.

"Now that I think about it, it sort of sounds like a warehouse. Like a storage warehouse. No machinery or anything. It was just empty." She said. "And I suppose this guy was tall. Sort of. Maybe he was like... Six foot, I think. I don't know really." She paused, "He wore dark clothes. Black suite, white shirt. That's all, really." She said. "We didn't see him in much else."

 

[Jupiter]

Jones kept nodding to her, not that she could see, but occasionally would make noises of confirmation and scratch things down onto his small notepad. He knew that they were nearing the end of her tether, because the next few questions he asked her were going to be... They were going to be hard, both to remember and both to forget. He didn't want to bring up memories of things that may or may not have happened to her, but it was necessary to finding Eddie. And he was going to recommend a therapist after, most likely.

Things like that don't just go away on their own. He knew.

What he picked up on in that moment of speech went as follows. We. Games. Rooms. Black suit, white shirt.

He only needed to ask about three of them.

"That's great. Really great." He nodded again. "Madison... You keep saying we. How many people are in there with you? Can you remember any names, any at all? Or anything about them? Really try and think. Imagine you're in there with them again, but remember nothing can hurt you, I'm here. I won't let anything hurt you. Please, try and tell me about them."

 

[DrTrollinski]

"Uhm... There were... Eight. Including me." She said. "And, well..." She frowned. "Names, yeah, there was... Fran. She was nice. Trevor. Annie. Peter. Victor. Josh. Jake... And..." She sighed. "There was someone called Donovan, too." She said. "Donovan was the only one I didn't really like. He was the worst one of all of them." She said. "I don't think they ever mentioned their last names. I suppose they didn't need to, I just..." She went quiet and just laid there in silence for a little while. She didn't really know what else to say. She didn't know if she wanted to even say what she had in mind, but... Believe it or not, she did. She did indeed say what she had on her mind.

This was where things took a little bit of a turn. Or at least they started to.

"Donovan was one of the people that got out." She said. "The man who ran the... The game, I guess." She shrugged, "He made him do something. If he did it, he was allowed out. As soon as he did it, yeah, he let him go." She explained. "So, yeah." she said, shakily.

She'd skimmed over a detail there, definitely. It was obvious. Talking of Donovan made her upset. It could be heard in her voice.

 

[Jupiter]

He wrote down the names to cross reference from some kind of database. He knew that it was a long shot, but looking for people who had been reported missing with those names might lead them somewhere. And if he could prove it, then it would mean that they may be able to get a full team in on this case. Because if the victims came from somewhere out of here, then surely... Surely it would prove that people were crossing state lines for this fucked up shit.

"That's great." He smiled. "Can you tell me how old some of them were? It doesn't have to be exact, but if you can tell me a little bit about them, I may be able to see if they're officially missing, and it might help me find them, or Eddie. And if he's been taken by the person you were taken by for sure, then... Then it might help to save eight people." He gulped. It was a lot bigger than he expected, there were eight lives, maybe more, on the line, he believed. This was going to be... This was going to be the biggest thing he'd ever taken on.

"What did Donovan have to do to get out? Remember, it's all in the past, nothing can hurt you while I'm here and you don't have to be specific, I just need to know the kinds of things that the man makes people do." He had a bad feeling about where this was going. "I'm sorry to have to ask, Madison, I really am, but you're being so helpful. And remember, if you want to take a break after then we can. I might be able to call some people and have them fetch something nice for you, like ice cream, if you want. Any flavour."

God, he didn't know how to appeal to children. His own childhood had been destroyed, he had no idea.

 

[DrTrollinski]

"I..." She paused. "Don't try and find Donovan. He won't help. He doesn't care."

And that was that.

"Donovan was... Maybe thirty. Young. Fran was around twenty. Trevor, he was older. I think he was forty, maybe a little younger than that, though. Annie, she was only... Eighteen, I think she said."

He had a specific now.

"Peter and Victor, they were early twenties, but they never really said their age. I think Peter was the younger one. Victor had a bit of a beard but... Peter didn't. Peter got upset easily. He said his background was in Russia, actually. Like, his family moved here from there."

Another specific.

"Josh was around twenty-five, I think. He didn't look that old but he was strong, he was tall. He said he worked at a college in... Michigan, I think. He didn't say which one. If he did I can't remember." She said. "They're probably all dead, other than me and Donovan, y'know." He said. "They told us it was unlikely we'd all survive, and... Well, yeah, that was it, really." She said. "To get out, Donovan had to do something."

Her voice trembled.

"The man who made the games told... Told all the men there, I think, that if-" She paused. "If they got any of- any of the girls, and..." She paused. "You know what he had to do. It's obvious." He gulped. "He picked me. He held me down. And- and the man told everyone else that if they tried to stop him, they'd be killed there and then. And everyone was too scared to do anything. I can't blame them, but... Donovan did it." He nodded. "I told them not to try and help, too. I told them I'd brave it so we could all get out, and I think- I think that might be what gave the guy the final push to let me go, too."

She shut her eyes. "I don't want to talk about Donovan anymore." She said.

He had one potential - Donovan may be on the Sex Offenders Register.

 

[Jupiter]

Jones noted down these people. There were some who he reckoned that wouldn’t be able to be found, there was nothing specific enough about them to be found. But there were some... some who were at least a little better and more specific that they might be able to do something about. So he wrote them down. Good. Fine.

But then...

God, he wished he could stop it from happening but he knew that it wasn’t possible. The only way he could help was to by preventing that from happening again. He would never let them do it again.

“It’s going to be okay. You’re safe and home now, and those people are never going to be able to hurt you again. I was talking with your mom, and my team, and we think getting you into a protection program would help to make you feel safe again. It would mean that you would be able to live a normal life without the worry that they’d find you, we’d be able to keep you very safe.” He gulped.

“If you want to take a break, we can, but there’s a few more questions I want to ask... it’s up to you, remember.”

 

[DrTrollinski]

"Just go ahead and ask." She sniffled. "There's no point trying to feel safe or being happy that we're going to be... Shipped off to the middle of Montana to be safe." She said, "Because it still happened. And all the people in there that I cared about are probably dead. I don't know what their tests would have been, but, I know they wouldn't have been nice. One girl hated blood, one of the guys couldn't stand the idea of a broken bone, another didn't like water - There's so many things that they've probably been through that we can't stop. Because it's too late." She said. "It's too late and they're dead. If they're not dead, they're probably wishing they are. Because I wish I was."

Okay, maybe she blew up a little bit there.

As for the WPP? That's exactly what happened. For Witness Protection you basically got picked up and dumped in the middle of Montana where no one would find you. The nearest store was 25 miles away and... You lived a pretty lonely life.

The girl didn't know the ins and outs or how important it was.

But she wasn't far off the truth. They couldn't expect city life after this was dealt with.

".. What questions do you have?" She sniffled, "Sorry."

 

[Jupiter]

"You're right." Jones nodded. He was used to people exploding at some point in a cognitive. It was a lot of emotions that came back to you at once, a lot of things that you'd want to forget or pretend didn't happen come back and you can't avoid them in that moment. It becomes intense, like you're still there. The worst part was it had to be done freshly. That made everything worse. And Jones didn't like it, god, no, he hated doing it but he could vouch for how important it could be.

"Don't be sorry, because you're right. It's not going to change things that happened, to you or any of the others. It isn't going to change anything in the past, but... It might prevent them from happening again in the future, to other people. You'll be able to know that you helped to stop those people, to bring them to justice, to save the lives of future people who might suffer, just like you did." He gulped. How real could he even get with an eleven year old girl?

He supposed she'd already seen some pretty real things. "We can stop it for someone else. I wish we could have stopped it for you. If I had the power to, then I would have. Unfortunately, this is only the first time I even heard of these things, which is why I need to learn so much from you. And I'm sorry. Really. You're probably going to get this a lot in life from the people you choose to tell about these things, even the bare minimum will get you the response that they're sorry." He sighed. "But at the very least I can hope to offer something that means that you'll be able to help me save other people, and, potentially, make things better for you."

"I know you don't want to hear advice from someone probably, what, twelve years older than you?" He laughed. "Different timescales and all that." The smile fell from his face. "But I recommend seeing someone. It'll be hard at first, but it's good to talk. It makes you feel... It makes you feel a lot better. It did for me, at least." He gulped.

"Anyway." He cleared his throat and jotted down some more information about fears onto his notepad. "You seem to be hinting that they make you deal with fears? How so? And... tests... What do you mean? Can you give me an example... If you can."

 

[DrTrollinski]

"Well, it doesn't matter." She said. "We can wish all we want but nothing stopped it for me. That's long gone." She said. "It's already too late, you know." She sniffled. "He would have already started playing games. At first he starts with little things, tries to start fights, picks favorites, discriminates people for trivial things like hair color, height, gender, whatever." She shook her head. "Age, too. Youngest eat more. Eldest eat less. That was one game he played with us." He said. "But it's not good to be his favorite. Everyone thought it was a good thing at first, but... You know what Stockholm Syndrome is, right?" She sniffled. "That's basically what he does. You start to think that you're friends with him rather than a captive. You start to think that he's not that bad of a guy and he just has... Problems."

"It eventually got worse. But he'd mix in all the little things, too." He said. "He'd make an uneasy noise play in the background. Like a whistle, or something. Then he'd do other things like... Give other people things that others didn't have. It created jealousy. There were times I thought they were going to kill each other in there." She said. "He took whatever you were scared of and just... Used it against you. He knew, somehow. If he wasn't listening to us then he found out about it before, but, I don't know how or why." She said. "Someone in there, the guy that hated blood?" She said. "He was made to draw up a whole vial of blood with a syringe. His own blood. If he didn't do it... Well, everyone lost their food for a few days. We got shared water, and not enough to go around."

"If someone's scared of... God, I don't know, drowning. He'll take a bucket of water in there and hold their head under it." She said. "It never stops." She said. "It just gets worse and worse until you either die, kill, or get out. And to get out you have to just... Give up everything you are." She sniffled, weakly.

 

[Jupiter]

Did a child really just ask if an FBI agent knew what stockholm syndrome was? Not Jones' thought, my own. Ah, well.

"Did the tests and games escalate the longer that you were there?" He asked, and looked at her before writing some things down. Not only her responses to the questions, but the way that she acted too. Jones had to write down everything. The issue was he went through a notebook every case. But he supposed that that made everything easier for the follow up reports. He wasn't sure that this case would have a follow up report if they couldn't prove that it went beyond state line.

"And... What did he do to you? You said that he would drown someone, or hold their head under the water even, do you mean he gets involved with the torture or does he make others do it, or both?"

He waited a moment for her to answer, inevitably, before moving on to his next question. "And you said kill. Did people in there have to kill others?"

 

[DrTrollinski]

"I think it depended on how we reacted to them." She said. "The less it hurt, the worse he made it." He said. "Like the food thing. When he took food away we got over it pretty easily. It didn't stay as something that stuck around for very long." She said. "Because of that, he made things a little worse. Anything we moved past, he found a different way to get through to us." She explained. "It went from little games to real 'would you rather?' situations. One of them had one question - hold me down and pull out three of my teeth, or cut off one of their fingers. Luckily, they chose to cut off the finger." She wiped her face, weakly.

"It wasn't just like that, though... It wasn't just 'would you rather' or anything like that. Sometimes he'd reveal secrets about someone. One person had committed a crime, another person had really hurt someone in the past. But he didn't say their name. He left us to figure it out and fight among ourselves." She said. "That's just the way he liked to do things. He just..." She shook her head. "Anything and everything he could do to break us, he'd do it."

She paused for a moment. Next question.

"He did take part in some of them, yeah, and he got us to do a lot of them, too." She said. "Killing... It was something he talked about a lot. But it wasn't something I saw. I just know that it was going to be a test for one of them - pick someone to kill for whatever reason. I never saw it happen but you could tell that's the direction it was going in. He spoke about death a lot." She said.

 

[Jupiter]

He made a lot of notes at that part and nodded his head. He had one final question. The last one. Unless, of course, her answer was something that made him want to ask more questions. He thought for sure though that she'd answered everything the best she could, and he was grateful. He had some ideas regarding the type of person that the man behind this was. Of course, he couldn't know for sure that he was the one at the top of things. There seemed to be many in this chain, not forgetting the kidnappers, then the Chinese man, and then the kidnapper.

Everything ended up pointing to the fact that perhaps the man in the mask wasn't actually the last guy in the chain, and if he was then Jones would be surprised. But he couldn't rule anything out at this precise moment.

So, he listened and nodded before finally asking his question.

"Last question, I think..." He mulled it over. "Can you give me some examples of the types of things he himself participated in, and the ones he didn't. I need to clarify things like what he can and cant do, what he's too detached to do himself, what he's too afraid to do himself and such." He prompted.

 

[DrTrollinski]

"I mean..." She frowned, "I don't know." She shrugged, "The only stuff he never got involved in was the things he made us do ourselves. I mean, drawing up a vial of blood was pointless for him to get involved in, so, it's kind of hard to tell if he's scared of it or not. Anything we had to do with each other, I'm guessing he just sat and watched. There were definitely hidden cameras in there." She said. "I don't think he fears anything. This is someone who's been taking half a dozen people every time, all from strong, smart, and skilled backgrounds. If he was scared I don't think he'd be doing this in the first place." She explained.

"So the stuff we did do... I mean, yeah, breaking bones with hammers, drawing up blood with a syringe... There's the sexual stuff, then there's the drowning - he did that, though." He said. "I think what he's more interested in is playing mind games. He controls all the music, who gets the food, who gets out, who gets the blame for certain things and who lives and who dies. That was more his role. Other than that, he didn't really... Always come in the room. I mean, why would he? That just gives us the chance to overthrow him and escape."

She paused.

"I think."

 

[Jupiter]

Jones wrote some things down before nodding again. "Everybody fears something, Madison. Even people like that are afraid of something, maybe it's that something that makes them hurt people in the first place, maybe that is what drives them. I've never met a killer who isn't afraid of something." He sighed. "And figuring out what he's afraid of just might help us get to him faster."

Perhaps the fact that he liked to control the variables meant that for him this was some kind of experiment? He noted that down. Maybe he wanted to make something. A comparison to Hitler crossed Jones' mind, and again he noted it down. Nothing was too small.

"Okay. I haven't got any more questions, Madison. But... If you think that there's something that might be important, anything at all, then please tell me. Nothing is too big or too small, anything you remember will help us." He bit his lip.

 

[DrTrollinski]

"Thanks. I'll let you know if I think of anything else." She rolled over in bed again and faced the wall, shutting her eyes. She didn't want much more to do with this today. She just wanted to sleep and forget about everything. The FBI agent was definitely going down the rabbit hole, and she just tried to think of something to say to him, some sort of closing message. Could she even think of anything that would mean much at all? She didn't know. But she was going to try. Before Jones could leave the room, she spoke again.

"Be careful." She said. "Because if you give him the chance, he'll kill you too."

And that was all she was able to say before he left. She didn't say anything else - it was just a stern warning. She didn't believe that this man really feared anything. If he feared things, why would he subject them to such horrors? No man capable of fearing anything would ever do something like that. It almost felt... A little bit pointless trying to fight back.

What if she died tonight for speaking to an FBI agent? What if she got caught again and dragged back to that room?

She didn't want to think about it. She just wanted to sleep.

--

It was later in the night that our friends in the bathroom heard movement from upstairs. They heard the easily-distinguished sound of the giant metal doors opening, and it looked as though Eddie was right. There was one more person coming. Unless this was someone who was coming down to ruthlessly butcher all of them and then walk out of there again. It could be either. But after some time, they definitely heard crying. Lots of crying. It must have been another girl, judging by the pitch of the sobs. If not, they were going to have a guy with one FUCKING annoying voice, Riley thought.

"I think you were right, Ed." Riley rose to his feet and backed into one of the corners to the right of the door, picking up a piece of broken tile, sharp enough to do some damage. "But I'm not willing to trust it yet. If this is some sort of nasty surprise, we're going to get the drop on the fucker." He said. He was stood in the darkness, and how well-hidden he was? It was actually pretty scary. He was in the sort of spot where you wouldn't see him immediately if you walked into the room. It would give him long enough to get the drop on you.

Something to think about, really. It wasn't likely that he'd done such a thing before - it's not like it was uncommon to hide in shadows. Common knowledge, really. Either way, he was there ready and waiting.

More crying. Definitely a girl. Had to be. No doubt about it.

The door opened up; Riley was ready. He was ready to strike. Any second now and he'd do it, no hesitation at all. He raised the shard of tile up above his head, and-

A smaller figure was pushed into the room and hit the hard floor with a splat and a yelp.

It wasn't a woman. It wasn't a man. It was a boy. A kid. One much younger than Eddie, too. It was hard to see with the dim light, but, based purely on size, he couldn't have been older than ten - and even that was pushing it. With tears flooding his face he looked up and saw everyone in the room, and then he eventually spotted Riley in the dark corner, too.

Quite simply. He screamed in terror and immediately shuffled backward towards the furthest corner in the room, distancing himself from all of them as far as he could.

"No! Get- get back!" He sobbed. He kept going until his head hit the wall. It hurt, but he didn't care. He buried his face in his knees. The sobbing resumed. Suffice to say, he was nearly paralyzed with fear. But who could blame him? He'd been through a lot of shit for a young kid. They all had. For someone that young and defenseless, it was probably even worse considering kids his age didn't often spend much time away from their parents.

And he could have easily been from across the country, for all they knew.

 

[Jupiter]

Jones was going to make sure that tonight they were being watched, protected, that they weren't going to face any trouble or have any consequences for the actions of telling someone what had happened. Jones knew that being in witness protection was going to suck, of course it was, you lost everything that you were, but... It was better than being dead. He wouldn't be able to sit by and let them not have protection, even if they had to change everything.

So, that was what Jones was going to be making sure of.

Meanwhile, elsewhere...

God, Eddie wished he knew where. But the knowledge of that was never going to help him, if he didn't get out of where he was. And if he did, wouldn't they just choose somewhere else to take people next time? If they risked being found, surely they'd move? He wondered if this was the same place that that little girl was. And how hard, he wondered, would it be to find a new place to house eight people? He was still convinced there'd be eight.

And he was right, or at least he presumed so, when the familiar sound of someone unwillingly going down the hallway sounded in their ears. He shared a look with Bill, who though he didn't like he could appreciate was also under stressful circumstances like the rest of them, and then Elizabeth. Sarah stayed shuffled in the corner, eyes wide. She hadn't moved around much throughout the day. There wasn't anywhere to go.

A lot went down in those moments when he entered the room, with Riley hidden in the shadows. First Eddie surveyed him, realising the youth of the boy, taking in appearance, mannerisms. The last one. Maybe. Unless there were to be ten, but an even number showed a good chance of being the last one. And he took in Riley, and once he realised this boy was not a threat, that he was one of them, he held up his hand for Riley to wait and shot up. "Wait! Wait."

"It's a fucking kid." Bill breathed out under his breath, his eyes wide, and Elizabeth let out a small breath of relief, but once she realised that was an emotion she shouldn't be feeling, her eyes saddened.

Someone so young?

Eddie wasn't surprised. Not at all.

After all, a kid had been part of the way he himself got kidnapped.

"Hey, kid, it's okay! It's okay, we aren't going to hurt you!" Eddie gulped, holding up his empty hands to show he wasn't a threat. "It's okay." He turned to Riley. "Put the tile down. It's just a kid." He wasn't being forceful, he wasn't saying something as though he expected Riley not to know it, but he just... He wanted the kid to know what action to expect, if Eddie said put it down, and he put it down, it wouldn't come as a shock to the kid when it moved, right?

"A kid." Bill tutted.

"It's gonna be okay." Elizabeth cooed.

Eddie shot a nervous glance at the door and gulped.

The last one.

 

[DrTrollinski]

Riley immediately put the tile down on the floor, of course he did.

It was a fucking kid. A boy. A young boy.

Poor thing. He put his hands on his head and turned around on the spot, "Oh fuck." He said.

He was just starting to realize how fucked up this was getting. And it was already fucked up enough as it was. This just amplified it. What good would a boy no older than ten be to a madman like this? How did this help anyone? How did this... Progress anything.

"Jesus Christ." Riley whispered again, and he looked over to Eddie. It was probably best that it was him that dealt with this, because if it wasn't? Well, he wasn't going to be any comfort to him after basically threatening to hit him with a tile.

He looked up at Eddie. He was freaking out big-time. He had a soft face, dark hair, blue eyes. An innocent-looking kid who had been thrown into a world most horrible. He coughed and sobbed, his whole body trembling. He stared at him.

"Who- who- who are you?" He spluttered, "Where am- am I? I want to go ho-home." He sobbed, and then he buried his face in his knees again. "Please don't hurt me." He whimpered.

 

[Jupiter]

Bill, Elizabeth, Sarah... They didn't move. Shock was clear on their faces. The only thing Elizabeth could do was pull the jacket she had on now tighter around her, Sarah could only stare at the floor as her eyes glazed over with tears.

Eddie thought he knew. What could they do with a kid other than see how he reacts to the situations, other than to see what the adults did now someone who was so young was in the mix. It was one thing adding Eddie, but someone who is ten, maybe even less, means that the variables change completely. How would they act, treat him, whatever... God... Was this some kind of test on the human moral limit?

He'd have time to think about that later.

In those horrible hours of silence where no one could muster up the courage or energy to speak, when they didn't know what time it was or when they'd be able to eat or sleep, when their backs ached from laying on a stone floor, or being sat for so many hours. Occasionally they'd all get up and wander, shuffling aimlessly, stomachs hungry. But every time was silent, there wasn't much to say, not always.

Tedious things, trivial rather, draw a blank in your mind when it's so deprived of stimulation, or even purpose, other than waiting.

If the boy was here, it meant it was evening, because everyone else had arrived here during the evening.

Before, that meant something, a pattern, to Eddie, but now... Now it was just another evening he'd been here, it was simply a fact that he couldn't, or didn't really need to, appreciate. It was something for outside. Here, it was always daytime under artificial light.

"Don't worry." Eddie didn't approach him any further than he already had, and he instead crouched, before falling into a kneeling position nearby to the child. "None of us here are going to hurt you, we're here just like you got here." He gulped. "The man who brought you here brought all of us here too, so we won't hurt you. We want to stick together, okay?"

He supposed in senses that was extremely true. Though they may dislike each other, a few of them, there were the facts that they were brought here under the same circumstance, and therefore... Well, therefore they were going to have to look out for each other.

Sadly, soon enough they'd be forced to hurt each other. But they only probably had inklings of that thought in their mind thus far. Eddie couldn't shake the feeling, though, that the reason this boy was here was so that they could do horrible things to him. He shuddered inwardly, hiding it with a forced, sad smile.

"We... We don't know where we are. All we know is we were all brought here, and we've all been here for a few days now. This is Riley, and I promise he wouldn't hurt you, we thought that the person coming down here was the guy who brought you here..." He looked around. "This is Melissa, and Sarah. That's James." He was gesturing to the people as he spoke. "That's Elizabeth, and that's Bill." He gulped. "And I'm Eddie."

 

[DrTrollinski]

He looked around at them cautiously. He looked at all of them as Eddie pointed them out. He was shaking. He was unsure of what to do or what to say, but, Eddie seemed nice enough. He didn't mean any harm, as far as he could see. But it was still hard to tell. He was anxious. He was... He felt faint and just... Sick. But he didn't say a word to them for another few moments.

They were the same as him. Brought here by some sick fuck.

Those weren't his words, by the way, but that's just the way it was.

He looked at them all again.

But who was he?

"I'm- I'm L-Lucas." He coughed. "But- but everyone calls me Luke." He whimpered. "How- how can we get out of here?" He asked. "Please, I just want to go home to my mom and dad. Can you tell me- me how to get out?" He asked, sniffling.

Sadly, kid, there is no way.

Soon enough, though, they heard something coming from the speakers. Chirpy music. Guitar. Various instruments. And finally, vocals.

And just fair warning - it was loud.

So loud they couldn't hear themselves talk.

'YOUR LOVE, LIFTIN' ME HIGHER
THAN I'VE EVER, BEEN LIFTED BEFORE'

"What the fuck!" Riley screamed out.

But his was outpowered by the music.

Lucas covered his ears, and the sobbing continued.

'SO KEEP IT UP,
QUENCH MY DESIRE,
AND I'LL BE AT YOUR SIDE, FOREVER MORE'
'YOU KNOW YOUR LOVE...'

And the whole song played.

All of it.

 

[Jupiter]

Eddie opened and closed his mouth, gawping like some fish in water while he tried to think of something to say. "We don't know yet. We haven't found it yet, but we're trying." Only half truths and half lies, he supposed, but when did it boil down to being his job to comfort a ten year old child. No siblings at home, no real experience with people younger than him other than protecting the freshman from bullies.

This kid was years off being a freshman. Eddie glanced over him sadly before sighing. "I-"

And then the music started.

Eddie practically jumped out of his skin. I think they all did.

Sarah started to cry, fear clear in her eyes. Her heart was pounding so loud and hard that she thought she'd be able to hear it, but couldn't over the sounds of the music. Elizabeth clasped her hands to her ears, looking around frantically to see the others reactions, but she pressed her hands against her head so hard she'd leave bruises, desperate to not be able to hear.

Bill started yelling out words that Eddie couldn't even make out, curse words for definite though, and Eddie rose to his feet, looking to the door that the boy had just come through. He gulped.

This meant something. This meant something.

God, he couldn't think. It was just... Playing. How long was this song?

Please, stop...

His eyes were squeezed shut before he knew it, the only thing filling his senses the song. Bombard one sense, not the others. His breathing sped up and he clicked.

Lucas was the last. The party could start, this meant something, it signalled the start of something, or the end of waiting, it signalled that there was everyone here, that things were going to change, that something bad was going to happen. And... And that the torture would begin. The sick games would begin, playing with every sense and every emotion, trivial things to drive them insane.

It didn't always have to be brutal, physical pain that would drive someone over the edge.

 

[DrTrollinski]

By the end of the song Lucas was crying more. Almost everyone was. By the time it stopped, everyone's ears were no doubt ringing. There was no way around that. The main question was, just how messed up could all of this get? The music in itself was horrendous. It wasn't hard to tell that whoever this was had spent literally thousands on the speakers alone.

Eddie would know, considering he and Mark had similar ones in their cinema room at home. The more you know. Whatever these were? They weren't cheap shit you'd find on Amazon. They were the real deal. The bee's knees.

Lucas looked up, slowly.

"Is it over?" He sniffled.

"For now. Crikey." Riley twisted a finger in either of his ears. "Everyone hear okay? Kid?" He looked over to Lucas, who simply let out a sob and nodded.

He wiped his eyes and then his nose. He hugged his knees close to his chest. Now what?

Footsteps were heard in the hallway. Lucas shuffled more into the corner but... He made sure he stayed somewhat behind Eddie. He needed to be safe after all. How safe was he going to be, though, in all reality? Not very. At least that's how he felt.

It was time to just wait and see maybe.

Only time would tell.

And now finally they had a moral conflict.

The door opened for only a few seconds. A bag was tossed in.

In it? There were three pillows. Three pillows only.

No names.

No labels.

No indication of who they were for. Just three of them.

Rough, right?

Good luck, guys.