The Innocent (A 'Finder' Fanfiction)

Gemini - Chapter 7

Shaking and trembling, the boy was cuddled in his embrace. Cold as ice and barely conscious. His hands clung to the arms of the very man who was orchestrating all this torment for him.

The irony had Aaron fight not to laugh out loud.

Like a snake, the end of the hose still lay in the corner of the cell. They had fixed one tube to the next, spanning all the way down through the long corridors of the basement, and they had made sure that the pump, which forced the chilling water down here, was a powerful one. It made all the tedious carrying of buckets unnecessary.

Three times they had nearly drowned their prisoner in the torrent gusting out onto him, while they had laughed at him and called him a traitor.

"Please", he whispered now, his voice so weak, like the faint light of a dying firefly. "No more." It trembled as much as the boy it. He was so light, so frail, so unsubstantial. Maybe if Aaron breathed out too strongly or sighed too deeply, he would just dispel and vanish. Like dead leaves scattered by the wind.

"I will get you out of here, I promise", Aaron answered, quietly, warmly, caringly. He rocked softly from side to side, swaying the other in his arms.

"When?", the question was drowned in a sob of pain and fear.

It was wet all around still. Water had gathered in small puddles on the uneven concrete floor and was dripping and running off the walls, just like it drained out of the hair of the prisoner and out of his ragged, torn clothes. Nonetheless, Aaron could feel the tears streaming down the young man's cheeks. They wet his sleeves.

Aaron bit his lips. "I ... don't know", he breathed in desperation. "It is dangerous, Arata. I don't know ... if-", he broke off. He looked to the ceiling. He pulled the other tighter into his arms without hurting him.

"I ... need to know that you will not endanger us both. I can't take you out of here, as long as you might try and get back to the enemy. He would kill us both."

He even managed to let his lips tremble. Alex had been good at that as a child. Whenever he had done something wrong, he stepped in front of their parents like he was the very epitome of shame and unhappiness and sorrow – and they had just let it slip. Even if he had never apologized. Even if whatever he had done, he had done before and would do again.

Aaron, on the other hand, had not played with tricks. He had simply apologized and felt sorry. But that had never been enough.

"I ...", the prisoner whispered, his voice a bit higher now, his fingers tugging harder on Aaron's arms. "...that is my name, right? Arata?"

With a gasp, the Russian looked down upon him, his eyes wide like those of a father in rapture about finding his child save and unhurt after a catastrophe. Oh, the bliss!

"Yes! Yes!", he chimed. "Are you remembering now? Arata, do you remember?"

"...Mayb ... yes ... I think I ..."

The boy fell silent, and his head rested against Aaron's chest.

"Please ... don't leave me here. Don't leave me alone", he whined after a long while, in which he was just held tight in warmth and comfort.

"I won't. I promise, I will get you out of here, Arata. Just trust me. You can always trust me. I will never let you down. I will protect you from now on."