Teenage Baby

Chapter 13

Chapter 13:

Lou knelt in front of Aaron as he buttoned his beige coat up to the neck. He'd put him in a sweater and some sweatpants, but his fragile baby needed more protection against the cold outside, so he threw a coat on top.

Aaron didn't really react when Lou began putting on his shoes for him, because he was busy probing the foyer, scanning every inch of it. The front door was plain black and the handle was metallic, glinting against his eyes as the small chandelier hanging down the ceiling struck it. A mirror occupied the creamy white wall to his left and beneath it stood a small black shoe cabinet.

Lou finished tying the shoelaces then held Aaron's underarms, lifting him to his hip as he straightened. He opened the front door, and it was then that Aaron's last pints of hope demolished, replaced by dread as he eyed the metallic bars that formed another protective door.

Two doors. Just great.

Aaron was carried past the other door, and suddenly what was dread turned to disbelief, and what was hopelessness turned entirely into devastation. He looked around with wide eyes, taking in what surrounded the entire yard: iron fencing, a full wall of metallic grey, tall and obscuring, yet only the very top  turned to short bars far too close to each other for anyone to slip in between.

The ground was strewn with mown grass, and from the doorstep spread a pathway of cracked cobblestone until it met the closed iron gates in the fencing juxtaposing the door. The cobblestone parted the yard in half, to the left a set of brown outdoor chairs and a table.

Aaron craned his neck to take a look at the front of the house, only to receive another blow right in the chest when he realized all the windows had bars protecting them. It dawned on him how the chances of escape dwindled, how the freedom he'd been dreaming of for him and Leo became near to nonexistent.

That house was pretty much designed to keep them from escaping.

  "Baby, are you fine?" Lou asked, carefully raking Aaron's fringe aside. He almost regretted taking him out. "Aaron, love, do you want to go inside?"

"No. I'm fine." Aaron paused to manage his internal mess. The sight of all the bars and the iron fencing came like a series of bricks slamming into his face. "Where's Leo?"

"Mommy's dressing him. He'll come, don't worry."

Lou carried him over to the chair and placed him on it, then turned and walked to the door, peeking inside.

Aaron wanted to look further around the yard, but his eyes kept on clashing with the metallic bars everywhere, and even with distance, it felt like they were so close—inside him even—crushing his bones with terrible devastation. He screwed his eyes shut to rid himself of the horrid sight, but even through the darkness, he could see tinges of suffocating metal.

Leaning his head against the backrest, Aaron pressed his palms to his face, desperately hoping that when he'd remove them, the bars would be gone.

"Aar?" Leo mumbled behind the pacifier as Lou seated him on the same chair, worried blue eyes peering hesitantly at Aaron. Aaron exhaled, his chest lifting and dropping, then turned to look at Leo. "What's wrong?"

"Everything. Everything, Leo."

Leo didn't say anything; he just leant back like Aaron and watched the sky. It was a little dull, but not stormy, almost like it was stuck in between gloomy and bright. The wind had died down completely, and the air was cold in its stillness, but it didn't bother Aaron. He liked it that way.

"The sun looks like a lamp," Leo suddenly pointed out, an apprehensive frown creasing his brows as he stared at the sky. Aaron looked at him, and the serious expression on his face had him snorting a chuckle. "Maybe it is a lamp. For everyone. And at night, someone turns it off."