Misc.

prodigal son 4

"Alright, Jessica and I will probably be back around midnight, so feel free to watch whatever you'd like, or help yourself to anything in the fridge ok?" Martin said, leaning against the doorway, facing the young man who was to watch his kids for the evening. 

Teddy was 18, had tousled brown hair, and was wearing a dark coloured turtleneck tucked into some jeans. He was the son of some close family friends, and been over to watch Malcolm and Ainsley before. 

"Oh! Before I forget," Martin said, reaching into his pocket, pulling out a twenty dollar bill and holding it out. "We were in such a rush we didn't have a chance to make dinner. Get the kids some food okay?" 

"Mhm." Teddy nodded, pocketing the money for later. Martin squeezed his shoulder and smiled.

"Perfect. If anything goes wrong, call the number on the fridge and ask for us." he said, Jessica joining his side. 

"We'll try to be back on time." she smiled nodding. 

"It'll be okay Mrs. Whitly, I'll take care of them. I promise." he assured and Jessica sighed, a little more at ease.

"Alright dear, let's go, we don't want to get stuck in traffic." Martin said, heading to the door, both kids shouting and coming over to hug him one last time before both parents left the house for the evening. 

Ainsley turned and jumped into Teddy's arms who picked the girl up. 

"Alright. Now that the adults are gone, who wants pizza?"

~~~

The night passed as well as it could, the siblings bickering back and forth occasionally, and an entire two hours of Go Fish passed before Ainsley had huffed and sat back in her chair and had said "we should make cookies". 

So they had made cookies and when those were done, Teddy let the kids play a bit before putting Ainsley to bed and reading her a whole three bedtime stories before she felt satisfied enough to go to sleep. He had knocked quietly on Malcolm's door asking if he was okay, and if he needed anything to which the boy had said no and gone to sleep shortly after. 

Teddy went back downstairs and had quietly cleaned up the baking mess, and the dishes, and almost mindlessly tidied up the entire place, making sure nothing was broken or out of order. He was tired from the piggy back rides he'd given out and realized he still had homework to finish up when he got back to his house. 

The hands of the clock climbed their way to 11PM, Teddy flopping onto the couch sleepily, his eyes feeling heavy again. The house was clean, and the kids were sound asleep. 

The grandfather clock tolled softly in the background.

~~~

Martin and Jessica returned somewhere around 12:30, just later than they'd expected. Jessica went to go check on the kids and then get ready for bed herself, with Martin going to find where the boy was. 

He was curled up on the corner of the couch, asleep like the kids upstairs, a small frown on his brow like he was dreaming of something unpleasant. 

Martin felt an itch in his brain, an itch that would finally be scratched that night. 

When Teddy felt a hand on his shoulder his eyes snapped open and he got up hastily.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to fall asleep," he apologized, running a hand through his hair. Whitly was kneeled in front of the couch, his expression one that Teddy, at least, read as concern. "I'm sorry." he repeated. 

"Hey no worried kiddo, sorry we were back late. Is uh, everything ok? You look shaken." Martin asked.

"Yeah just uh..a weird dream." Teddy nodded.

"Well, let me get you a cup of tea, we'll wind down a bit and then I'll drive you home. How does that sound?"

"Sure." 

The cup felt warm in the young man's hands, it only made him more tired. He took a sip.

"How was your evening?" he asked politely.

"Oh, it was wonderful," Martin replied. "We had dinner and caught up with some old friends. Yeah, we had a great time."

It was just the two of them downstairs, Jessica and the kids still out of sight. 

Teddy listened, putting the cup down on the table, rubbing his face, trying to stay grounded in the moment. He started spacing out, and everything began to feel far away and incoherent. He wasn't unfamiliar with the feeling, but it wasn't fun.

"Are you okay?" Martin said, interrupting his own story to check on the boy.  

"Yeah..I'm just tired."

"It's late, we should get you home. We can talk about this later." he smiled, getting up. Teddy followed suite, taking a few steps forward. The entire room started spinning, and his eyes felt...so heavy. 

"Teddy?" Whitly said, except he sounded a million light years away. 

"I just need a minute..." the young man replied, darkness closing in on him as he said it, falling to the ground and hitting his head off the floor.

~~~

It was dark and cold and Teddy's head pounded with pain. 

His sweater was gone, just the tshirt underneath it and his jeans. 

He was freezing.

Somewhere, music played. It was faint and quiet, but he could hear it past the ringing in his ears. A song his parents would play on long road trips. Something from the 60's. An indiscernible noise, though it sounded painfully familiar. 

The boy couldn't figure out from where, but an eerie and frigid blue light glowed somewhere and dimly lit the entire room. 

Teddy was bound in a chair, and someone he couldn't recognize was shuffling around in the dark.

Panicked, he fought against the restraints, whimpering. He wanted to scream, yell out, cry for someone to help him, but the drugs were still making their way through his head and he hadn't the energy to do anything more than writhe against the buckles holding his hands and feet down. 

Bernadette Carrol. Laughing on the Outside, that's what it was. He recognized it now. Teddy forced his voice to work.

"Help-" he called out, like an injured deer. 

Whoever was shuffling around was alerted, and walked over. 

"Well...look who woke up. Good morning sleepyhead." 

The familiarity of the voice sent icy shocks down Teddy's back, betrayal hurting his chest. 

"No." he whined. It couldn't be. That wasn't possible. 

"Aw, aren't you happy to see me?" Martin leaned closer so that Teddy could see that it was in fact, the man who's kids he'd been looking after hours prior. 

"No." he said again, starting to sob. His eyes adjusted to the darkness a little more and he began to make out a small medical table off to the side, various instruments atop it. 

It hurt the boy to realize how quickly south things had gone, as if in the blink of an eye. 

He cried, scared.

"Please don't hurt me." Teddy whimpered, and felt a thumb gently wipe away his tears. 

"Oh kiddo, I'm not going to. Well not yet at least. We have to take a little road trip first. Here, I think you need to go back to sleep, it'll be easier for the both of us that way."

Teddy felt a needle go into his arm and he whined again, instinctively drawing back. A strong arm held him in place and the boy sobbed again, tears streaming down his cheeks.

Sleep began to overtake him once more, and he tumbled into a deep sleep, only hearing Whitly in the background again.

"Sweet dreams kiddo, we're going to have so much fun."