Page 50 of Intrepid

Not even that could numb me to the fear washing over me, when Gideon and Fox dragged Eli back into the room, the bottom half of his face wrapped in white gauze that was saturated in so much red, my stomach lurched with the urge to either shit or puke.

Eli’s head wobbled as if he were passed out.

Every muscle in my body shook, as the two of them quietly secured him back inside his closet.

I sat, listening for any explanation of what they’d done, my heart pounding so hard against my chest, and the air exploding out of my nose over the duct tape still stuck to my face.

The lock rattled on the door to my closet. Jolts of panic shot through my body, and I kicked myself back, as Fox threw back the door, staring down at me like a true predatory fox. Dots of red glistened in the light hitting his face. More red coated his hand, which held the hunting knife he’d used before at his side. “Do I need to cut out your tongue, too?”

An incoherent sound I didn’t even know I’d made bounced back at me from the tape, and I shook my head, drawing my knees tightly into my chest.

“Good. It’s a nasty fucking job that I do not care to do again.”

Fucking Christ. Jesus Christ. They cut out his tongue. They cut out his tongue!

The thought of that failed to sink in. It failed to frighten me as much as I knew it would later when I’d think back on it.

Fox slammed the closet door shut again, the sound of the lock shuddering through me as my stomach eased its grip of my lungs, and I lay down on the bed springs.

“F-F-Fox? What’re we gonna do? Ain’t Jimmy g-g-g-gonna be mad, if you don’t p-p-pay—”

Fox pitched his fist, and the crack against Gideon’s face failed to rattle me that time.

I hoped he’d beat the shit out of the kid. I hoped he’d kill him in front of me.

“You are gonna take care of that one through the night. You’re gonna give him water when he needs it, without drowning the little shithead, and make sure he don’t fuckin’ bleed out.”

“Okay, Fox.”

With deep, easy breaths through my nose, I closed my eyes and sobbed.

* * *

The sound of crying reached through the dark void inside my head, pulling me into the present.

Eli whined some garbled words, but I could make out a compounded sound: “Momma!”

It brought tears to my eyes, and I curled tighter into a ball, as a cold chill swept over my skin. His mewling reminded me of a trapped kitten calling for its mother. His crazy threats of before had whittled down to the desperate cries of a child.

“Sh-sh-shut yer goddamn mouth!” Gideon’s voice sliced through my sadness like a poison-dipped knife, blackening my thoughts with rage.

Still, Eli sobbed, choking and gurgling, in between crying out for his mom. I wished I could take him away from it all. I wished I could shield him from the pain and whatever shit they’d put him through.

Most of all, I wished I could kill Fox and Gideon.

“I s-s-s-said, shut the f-f-f-fuck up!”

Duct tape still covered my mouth, or I’d have told Stuttering Stan to go f-f-f-fuck himself.

“I’ll g-g-g-g-ive you something to cry about!” His shouts had no effect on Eli’s cries, and I could hear the frustration bleeding into Gideon’s voice. Threads of tension that slithered across the room, wrapping itself around my spine. He was about to do something very bad. “I f-f-f-ucking hate you. You got what you d-d-d-deserved, you piece of shit! Who’s laughing now, huh? Who’s laughing n-n-n-now!”

I screamed into the tape, and, though mine was muffled, together, Eli and I rose above Gideon’s shouts.

“Sh-sh-shut up!” Hard thumps sounded like Gideon kicking the door to Eli’s closet, over and over, until I no longer felt like we had the upper hand, and I quieted.

Eli kept on.

A crack echoed inside the room, bouncing off the walls and ringing in my ears. Another pop. And another.