Hear No Evil

Chapter 8

Authorities found a malnourished boy deep in a forest, ten miles away from a rare fishing spot after a call-in. Covered in blood and feces. His own ear in his hand. Exhausted and unconscious.

They never found the building he had escaped from and never found the bodies the bones in his pockets completed, the liquidated eyes in his pockets completed.

His surgery lasted for hours. The hospital put so many tubes in him you could barely see the signs that something was wrong.

His fingerprints didn't lead to any records. His blood was closely related to a serial killer and a woman that had both gone missing over a decade before.

Then he woke up.

Two nurses were knocked unconscious. A doctor's nose was broken. He was moved to the psych floor and then to the psych hospital, right into the padded room, eventually into Dr. Solace's care.

And there was something about Dr. Solace that Case 142 liked. And there was something about Nico that Dr. Solace liked.

And his ears were reattached and healing, and the tube down his nose and throat gave him nutrients, and his pale skin was gaining some color, but his mind didn't heal.

Never healed.

He killed doctors before Solace and hurt nurses. He tore flesh with his teeth and broke necks with his thighs.

But there was something about him that Dr. Solace liked.

Their first meeting:

"My name is Will Solace. Nico, can you hear me alright?"

A jerk of a head. A small showing of the blood-stained teeth.

"Good. Now, can you tell me about your childhood?"

Their second:

"You don't have to run anymore, They're never gonna get you. You're safe here."

Their third:

"The shadows, you said they were the dead?"

A nod. "That's what Shadow Man said."

"And there are some here?"

That nod.

"And the forest they found you in?"

Another.

"And Shadow Man was in the house you grew up in, so he died there?"

A soft whisper, "I think."

"And they help you?"

He shook his head.

"Do they scare you?"

A nod again.