I Will Follow You Into the Dark

CHAPTER 14

Later that day, one of their captors cracked the door wide enough to push through a tray of food. Mark found himself surprisingly starving and eagerly gobbled up most of it. Not knowing what else to do, he decided to try to see if he could get anything into Derek. He started with the bottle of water they'd left. Raising Derek up and leaning him back against his chest, Mark poured a little of the water down Derek's throat and held his mouth closed to make him swallow it. Convinced that he got some of it down, he tried to get a little of the broth from the soup in him, too. It wasn't pretty, and he wasn't convinced that Derek ingested much of the soup and water, but he felt better having tried.

About an hour later, the door opened again, and a nurse entered the room. She quickly made her way to Derek's side and examined him. Mark began talking rapidly in Spanish. The woman ignored him, remaining focused on her work. Mark finally fell silent and watched as she carefully cleaned Derek's wound and bandaged it with sterile gauze as only a trained nurse could do. She also set up an IV to give him fluids, easing Mark's worries about dehydration. Relaxing just a bit to know that someone with medical training had seen Derek, Mark sighed heavily.

Having finished her task, the nurse turned around. She glanced at him briefly before moving toward the door. "El necesita el doctora," Mark said as he grasped her arm at the elbow. "He won't wake up. He might have a concussion or worse. He doesn't have much time." Mark kept repeating everything he said in every language he thought might work just to be safe.

Mark looked at her so intensely, pleading with her with his eyes. She flinched and looked away when she saw the raw emotion and care for his friend in his expression. Mark was desperate. He decided without even realizing it that he'd start begging and never stop if only it would work. "Please help him," he asked his voice crackling with emotion.

"I can't," she whispered back to him in English.

"He'll die. They won't get any money from his family if he's dead. Please. Do you have a best friend? He's mine. I just can't sit here and watch him die."

"There's nothing I can do," she said sadly again moving toward the door. Mark moved around her and blocked her path in as non-threatening a way as he could muster. "What's your name?" he asked her softly.

She looked up at him knowing that she shouldn't answer. She should just move past him or call the guards for help. But her heart was captivated by this pleading man so intent on helping his friend. Her name slipped out before she realized it. "Sam," she whispered.

"Sam," Mark repeated, emboldened by the fact that she'd stayed to talk to him, "Why do you help these people?"

"Stop talking to me," she said, trying to put more distance between them.

"You're my only hope," he said begging her.

"I can't help you," she hissed, not sounding as angry as she'd meant to.

"Help him. Please. He's in love. He's going to propose to his girlfriend when we get back. Help him get well. He needs to go home."

Against her better judgment, Sam turned to glance at Derek's still body on the cot. By the time she turned back to face Mark, he had moved closer, "What would it take to convince you to help him?"

"I can't, but you'll need money to be able to bribe someone to help you."

"Here's my watch," Mark said, taking it off quickly. He crossed the room and took Derek's off, too. Handing them to her he continued, "They aren't Rolex, but they are worth something."

"I can't take those," she whispered as she pushed them back into his hands. "Besides, it wouldn't be enough."

"But it's all we have. You have to help us. Why won't you?"

This man's emotions were getting to her. She'd done this job countless times and not been moved by the strangers she'd nursed back to health. Why was she letting this one bother her? She always told herself she was being kind and helping people who otherwise would have died instantly. Some of them made it out alive. It had to be good that she helped them a bit. She needed to turn him back into a nameless, faceless friend of a patient. But one glance at that man's face left her paralyzed and not behaving rationally at all.

Perhaps she had been weakened because earlier she'd overheard the team complaining about the lack of money and valuables they'd found. They were already discussing whether it was even worth phoning the states. Maybe they should just cut their losses and kill these two and dump the bodies. She got chills imagining them killing this desperate but utterly alive man in front of her.

"They'd kill me," she whispered.

"They'll kill us if you don't," Mark said, invading her space on purpose. He'd use every trick he'd ever learned if it would get Derek the medical help he needed. So he closed in on Sam in a way that shouldn't have frightened her unless she were a virgin.

"Derek........," he began quietly, "His name is Derek—he'll die if you don't help him soon. Please........"

"There's nothing I can do."

Mark grabbed her upper arms and held her close. He stared into her eyes with a will to look into her soul. She should have been frightened, but she wasn't. Her instincts told her that he wouldn't hurt her.

"This.......," Mark began, "This is a life changing moment. You can help us or you can let him die. If you don't help us and he dies, I'll spend the rest of my life praying that you go straight to hell for it."

"You're asking too much.......my father........"

"Your father? This is your family?" he said in complete shock, "Well I'm nothing like my family. Maybe you're not either. We can't help where we're born, but we can overcome our genetics and our circumstances." Pausing to breathe, Mark continued to look at her closely. She was beautiful. Under other circumstances, he'd just have leaned in and kissed her until she couldn't stand upright or refuse to help and then he would have had his way with her.

"You have kind eyes," he said, cupping her cheek in one hand. "I can tell you want to help us. Please.........Sam.........Please help my friend. Or help us both. You could escape and come to America with us."

She looked at him letting him know that she was now convinced that he was certifiably crazy. "What's your name?" she asked.

"Mark," he responded.

"Listen, Mark. Even if I were to get him out of here, they'd kill you. They mean business. This is serious. I can't help you."

"But we have no money. Derek's mom is a single mother whose inheritance from her dead husband ran out a long time ago. My dad manages a restaurant. They won't get any money from us. We're Peace Corps volunteers. Without any money, won't they kill us anyway?"

"Maybe," she said not looking at him.

"So we have nothing to lose," he said. The silence that followed was deafening.

"But you do," he said voicing her thoughts for her. She nodded in response.

"Apparently it sucks to be Derek and you and me right now. But you can't just let him die. If they kill us, they kill us, but I can't just sit here and watch him die."

Sam turned around and crossed the room, motioning to Mark to follow her. Then she moved a loose block in the wall and showed Mark a place where he could hide their watches so that they wouldn't be found. She then crossed to the door ready to leave. Mark stayed right on her heels. She involuntarily turned to face him before she knocked on the door. He was standing there again, the picture of a man who was drowning and reaching out to her to save his life. "Please, just think about it," he asked as he tilted his head and looked at her with all the emotion he could muster.

"No promises," she whispered.

He leaned down and kissed her cheek. She stared at him in surprise before turning quickly to knock on the door. She bolted outside as soon as it was opened.

Hey, I figured I owed Sam a cameo appearance with Mark because I absolutely love her new fic, I Still Remember! And I know this Mark thing is horrible for her and Alli and others to read. Sorry........... :tears: :tears: