#fading-crystal-void

Dan was tired. Insanely so. He couldn’t sleep. He didn’t know why; it was two hours after dinner and he was still wide awake. Eric and Kate had started putting him to bed earlier, saying he needed the extra sleep. He knew not to argue or Phil would give him a punishment. Not that he’d seen Phil recently.

Either way, it was an hour after his bedtime, and he was still wide awake. When he closed his eyes, he remembered the pictures of disfigured faces, young boys who, like Dan, had made the mistake of following his heart instead of his brain.

Even though he was meant to be sleeping, he pulled out his paper and crayons. Twenty minutes later, he’d finished three drawings, each of a different boy, the same mangled faces and limbs. He clutched pooh into his arms as he climbed out of bed, the slightly crumpled papers in his other hand. He wanted Lela. She’d know what to do; she always helped when he wasn’t feeling the best.

He wandered through the empty quiet corridors, occasionally a nurse running past or some other patients walking towards their rooms. A hand wrapped around his upper arm and he squealed, trying to wiggle away.

“Hey, hey it’s okay,” the voice said calmly, grip loosening on his arm.

“Want mummy,” he mumbled in reply, tears already beginning to slip down his cheeks. He didn’t know this person. She was dressed in a blue button-down shirt and blue pants, making her seem like a nurse, but Dan knew appearances could be deceiving. Sir had seemed nice when he offered Dan the puppy.

“I can take you to her,” the woman said but Dan shook his head.

“No,” he mumbled, pulling his arm from her now-loose grip. “Leave me alone!”

Dan took off and ran through the hallway, turning different corners that seemed vaguely familiar but he knew weren’t really.

“Whoa, Dan, slow down,” a voice said. Eric.

“Where mummy!?” Dan demanded.

“Danny, calm down, okay? I’ll take you to Lela,” he said carefully.

Dan linked his hand with Eric and swung them as they walked towards the offices.

Eric knocked on the door for them and waited. And waited. It became clear Lela wasn’t in her office and Eric hoped she hadn’t left to go home yet. She didn’t usually leave until after Dan had gone to sleep, just to make sure there were no complications. Of course, Dan was supposed to be asleep by this point. Eric hoped he didn’t have to turn to the night staff. There was nothing wrong with them directly, they just didn’t really have much experience with Dan and tended to treat him like the adult he appeared to be.

An army of nurses rushed past them at that point and Dan insisted they followed. Eric didn’t argue, knowing it was the quickest way to a tantrum. And besides, what harm could come from following the nurses?

Two Hours Earlier…

Phil blinked his tired eyes open. The room was dark, only a small lamp on in the corner. His eyes focussed and he saw two guards in the room, one guarding the door and the other by the window. He instinctively tried to pull his hands up to rub the sleep from his eyes but was met with the cold resistance of metal handcuffs. He groaned, dropping his head back onto the pillow. He couldn’t even remember how he ended up here; his head throbbed with every thought he had.

Surely this wasn’t solitary. It was much too comfortable, with the bed and lamp. Besides, why would there be a window and what appeared to be a regular door in a solitary cell? It’d been a long time since Phil had seen something so simple, something with no locks. Without his control, tears came to his eyes. He didn’t understand why something so simple as a door could bring tears to his eyes. And his head hated it too if the knives stabbing his brain were anything to go by.

There was a knock at the door and it swung open, causing a large wave of light to swim into the room. He hissed before coughing, his throat burning all the while.

“Ah, Mr Lester, you’re awake,” a much-too-kind voice said. He nodded his head a little, informing the mysterious voice that he could hear them.

“I’m Dr Mander. How are you feeling?” the woman stepped closer and Phil watched with sore eyes as she adjusted some of the wires and machinery.

He made a rumbling sound low in his throat, hoping to warm it up enough that he could speak with slightly less pain. It didn’t work. “Bad,” he choked out, puffing as he did so. Breathing was getting steadily harder to do and it was scaring him.

“You’re breathing is rather staggered. Does it hurt?” the doctor observed, looking at the diagram that was measuring his pulse and breathing.

“Yeah,” he breathed out, hoping she could hear him.

“I’ll call a nurse to bring in some stronger pain medication for you,” she responded. She pressed a few buttons on the machines and pulled her walkie-talkie to her mouth, asking for a morphine bag to be to room 372.

He’d gathered that he was in a hospital as soon as she’d introduced herself but that didn’t mean he understood why he was here. It must have been bad; Phil had witnessed people being beaten to a pulp before while guards stood there pretending not to notice. To take him to the hospital - and not even the prison infirmary - whatever happened must have been severe.

“So, do you remember anything?” the doctor asked, taking a seat after scribbling onto the clipboard in her hand.

He shook his head, not wanting to have to verbalise anything. The nurse had come in and changed out his fluid bag but according to Dr Mander, that wasn’t the morphine bag.

“Officer White, would you mind explaining what happened so Mr Lester can remember?”

The man by the door - who Phil now knew was Officer White - ran his fingers through his light hair, sighing loudly.

“He got beat up. Don’t know what else there is to say,” he explained. It wasn’t much help really.

“White, don’t be like that,” the other guard who was no longer by the window said. “Phil, you got ganged. During pre-dinner free time Kide and his gang found you while you - we think - were on your way to the showers. We don’t really know what happened since no guards were there but they definitely did some damage,” he explained.

“Thanks, Officer Jewel,” the doctor said.

“Yeah, thanks,” Officer White added. He didn’t sound as sincere though; his tone told Phil it was most likely sarcastic.

“Mummy!” Dan shouted, letting go of Eric’s hand and running up to Lela.

“Hi, Danny. What are you doing still awake?” she asked.

“Couldn’t sleep,” he mumbled, face still pressed into her shoulder.

“What have you got here?”

“Drawings!” he suddenly said, excited. “For you!” He held out the pictures and Lela couldn’t help but feel a little sick.

“And who are these, Dan?”

“Can’t say.”

Lela shooed Eric away with a smile and began leading Dan to her office.

“And why is that?”

“Hurt like them if say,” Dan explained. That was what he’d said the past two times he’d given her drawing of people and she’d asked the same questions.

Lela unlocked her office door, annoyed that she couldn’t go home and sleep but knew she had to get to the bottom of this first.

“I’d like to do another session with you, Dan,” she said carefully. He’d mostly gotten used to the hypnosis again but that didn’t mean he never argued.

“Okay, Mummy!” Dan agreed happily, lying down on the couch and cuddling Pooh to his chest.

“Ready?”

“Yes Mummy,” Dan responded, already closing his eyes.

And so she began the steps to take him into his subconscious. Speaking light and airy, allowing him to travel deeper and deeper into his mind. When she had her papers ready and she was sure Dan was deep in his subconscious, she began the questioning.

“I want you to go back to the cabin, Dan,” she whispered, forming a dot on her page. “Are you there?”

“Uh huh,” Dan mumbled.

“Do you remember seeing anyone else when you were there? Any boys and girls like you?”

“In pictures,” he said. “Was alone most the time. Unless Sir-” he cut off.

“Unless Sir what?” she prodded.

“Sir hurt,” he whimpered.

“Okay. We don’t have to talk about that, okay? Do you know who the people in the pictures were?”

“No,” he whispered, clutching Pooh impossibly closer to his chest.

“Can you describe them for me?”

“Uh huh,” Dan agreed. Lela quickly set up her phone to record this. “One boy with curly hair. Green eyes. Like Pj. Dark skin,” Dan said. “Two boy, twin. Me twin.” Lela sighed. Dan really wasn’t making much sense and his descriptions would do no good to the artists at the police station. “Three. Three girl.” Dan shivered. “She gone. Like one ‘n’ two.”

“What do you mean by gone?”

“No air. Air no go in body,” Dan said. Lela watched to make sure Dan was breathing and it’s clear he was.

“Do you mean they were dead?”

“Mhmm,” Dan hummed. “Sir do same to me if no find.”

“If we didn’t find you Sir would have killed you?”

“Say. Say kill me,” Dan whimpered.

“Are you sure you don’t remember any of the kids’ names?”

Dan shivered again.