The Returnee

Chapter 11

Joey loomed in the tight space. Lee could flee backwards but that would only lead to the bathroom and the door didn't seem to be opening despite him leaning on it with Joey's hand pressing on his chest to pin him in place. Joey's eyes glowed, the shifting of a len dancing as they pulsed with the compulsion to behave and follow orders. Joey could use it. A social experiment, Lee's ass, Joey had been implanted. Unless it had been granted once they learnt of his role within the family.

"Sir, I can't resign with no notice."

"Tomorrow, you pack your bags and move in here. You start the process of whatever you need to do to fix this." Joseph said, his voice sticking inside of Lee. A knife traced them into his skin and pressed into his heart. Lee didn't know if he could fix any of this.

"I have things to do."

"Only as long as you are on Earth," Joseph pushed forwards into Lee's space, his hand curling upward to hook around his throat. A large thumb pressed onto his Adam's apple and Lee's heart wanted to escape from his chest. If Joseph had an implant, it stood to reason that he could summon the aliens to take someone away again.

"You fear that as much as any of us."

"Doesn't change the fact that I can contact them if I need to," Joseph smiled, the lens effect morphing it into a horror movie-eqsue thing. Lee needed to getaway. He couldn't. Not now, not if he could summon them. Didn't matter where someone was, the aliens would find them.

"Please. I'll leave and never come back. Colin will hate me for abandoning him and return to them of his own accord. Don't do this," Lee begged, voice trembling.

All the soft, coaxing and seducing words were long gone now, Joseph fully into his essence of being an enforcer. Pure brute force rang from him with a healthy amount of blackmail slapped on top. Do this, or I'll make the thing from your nightmare come true.

"Not an option," Joseph let go of his neck.

Lee fell to the ground in a heap as his strings were cut. His knee cried out again. The hiss of pain escaped through clenched teeth. He hunched over, waiting for the next move, the next dagger as Joseph stood above him. The radio continued to play in the kitchen but the clatter of plates had stopped. Silence echoed in the corridor. He trembled as the weight rattled on his shoulders. This wasn't fair. It wouldn't be One. One would never want him back, it would be a new group with new rules and new exceptions to follow.

Joseph crouched down, sitting next to Lee and taking his hand. More objectively, Lee's forearm, peeling the layers back to trace over the scars. Lee shuddered but didn't pull away. No longer looming, some fear shifted but there was no way to fight now.

"You are one of us and it's time you acted like it. You need to understand this is more than a nightmare."

"Not everyone taken ends up going to the farm."

"You did."

Joseph's thumb rubbed over one of the ridges. Dim memories, repressed hidden away memories snarled at Lee as the echoes of pain firm the first time the machine whirled to life assaulted at his edges. After that, it didn't hurt as much unless an experiment had left him hurting first.

"So if I hadn't, I'd be free to continue my life-long ambition?"

"There is no way that you wanted to do this as a child. Stop worrying about what-ifs that won't help you now. Also, can you honestly say that you'd have managed without the support of the farm?" Joseph nudged him in the ribs.

Another stab pierced through his stomach. The state Andrew had found him had been bad enough that the man sent him to a 'wellness retreat.' If it hadn't of worked, if it hadn't been one designed for people in situations like him, would he be here? His mind had been in tatters, no good for work or anything and his body had been on the way to collapsing in on itself too. A mix of his state from before they stole him and the science they used to snitch people back into time and space. The farm pieced him back together from the ground up.