Wren

Part 36

It had been three days since they'd intubated Wren, and they'd kept him in a drug induced haze to keep him from thrashing around and hurting himself. He was in the middle of Dace's bed; Matteo slept on the floor and Leo in his own bed.

It was the middle of the afternoon, and the two men were sitting in armchairs on either side of the bed, sipping coffee and talking, keeping an eye on Wren. 

"Reminds you of old times, doesn't it?" Leo said quietly, his eyes fixed on the tube that disappeared into Wren's mouth. 

Matteo didn't say anything, but he had been thinking the same thing. Last time, after the fire, had been his fault too. Was Wren always going to be in danger simply by being with him? 

There was a slight rustling, and the men looked up to see Wren's hand twitching and feebly sliding over the blanket in jerky, sloppy movements. Wren moaned and turned his head slightly to the side, scrunching his nose when he felt a foreign object in his mouth.

"Wren? Can you hear me, puppy?" Matteo gently took the hand as he sat on the edge of the bed beside him, as Leo stood to get another dose of sedative ready. 

"M-Mma--" Wren stuttered, and Matteo's heart slammed in his chest. Was-- was he trying to say his name?

"Puppy? It's me. I'm right here." He waved at Leo to stop him from injecting Wren with another dose.

"M-Matteo--" Wren's voice was a hoarse whisper, but Matteo couldn't have been happier to hear it. He squeezed Wren's hand, mostly to stop his own from shaking, and kissed Wren's forehead. 

"Leo, can he hear me? Does he finally remember a little?"

"It's possible that being around us for the past few days has kind of-- jogged his memory, or gotten him used to us, and I guess it's possible that his hearing has started to heal, but you should be quiet. His ears will be sensitive. But don't get your hopes up, he may not know what he's saying--"

"Sophie," Wren said quietly.

"He does! He remembers!" Matteo stood and ran a hand through his hair, his whole body shaking. 

Leo was also excited, but tried to be reasonable. "I know," he whispered, "But don't get your hopes up yet. Just because he remembers doesn't mean he's not still scared of us. We'll have to wait until the drug wears off more."

Matteo plopped back down in his seat, tears running down his face. He'd been beginning to feel like Wren would never be able to recover, but this gave him hope. He clasped his hands together, squeezing so hard his knuckled turned white. "He's gonna be okay. He'll be fine."

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Sophie had again been sent off to spend the day with Vivian, so after Dace finished some things he'd had to take care of, he decided to go visit Wren.

As he was walking, his phone started to ring in his pocket. He dug it out and saw Leo's contact on the screen. "What's up?"

"You need to come here. Boss is here, and he's finally gotten some information out of that guy . We're waiting on you, so hurry." Leo whispered into the phone, and Dace could hear people talking quietly in the background. "Oh, and Wren said Matteo's name earlier! I think we're making progress!"

"Woah, really? That's amazing! I'm on my way."

He hung up as he picked up his pace, jogging through the long hallways and down two flights of stairs until he reached his room. 

Wren was asleep, like every other time Dace had seen him, and the others sat around him in armchairs they'd pulled up. Dace closed the door quietly, then made his way over and plopped to the floor at Matteo's feet. 

Vincenzo took a deep breath. "Okay," he said quietly. "As you know, I've been 'talking' to Eduardo. He finally cracked and told me everything."

"What the hell did they do to him?" Matteo growled, his impatience growing by the second. 

"They-- they started out with what we saw in the videos they sent us. Burned him with the cattle prod, and whipped him. But we only got those two videos, right?"

The others nodded, anxiously waiting.

"After that, they took him to a room, the one we found him in, and I guess-- I guess they had this system set up on a timer that would turn on lights and music? But high intensity. Like landing lights on the front of a plane kind of bright, and music so loud it would be like you had your ear against the speakers at a rock concert."

"Where did they even find that shit?" Dace muttered, but Vincenzo continued.

"They had it set on a timer, it came on every thirty minutes and lasted thirty minutes. That bastard" - he was referring to Eduardo- "said that Wren would just lay there, his head tucked under him to try to block the light, and his hands over his ears."

Matteo looked out the window, less-than-humane thoughts rampaging through his mind, but his attention quickly got pulled back. 

"That's not all. In the thirty minutes when it was dark, they kept it completely silent. So quiet your ears would ring like crazy. He said if Wren made the slightest sound, they'd go in and beat him. He said they'd only feed him once a day, plain grits, but sometimes he wouldn't even notice the food, and they'd take it away. When he had to go to the bathroom, they'd put a blindfold on him, play loud static in his ears, and tie his hands to a stick to lead him. Motherfuckers wouldn't even touch him because they wanted to completely deprive him of any comfort. Even just simply holding his wrist to guide him to the bathroom--" Vincenzo's voice cracked, unable to hold back his emotion any more.

Tears trickled down Leo's face, and Dace and Matteo's expressions told that they were plotting murder. 

"Another thing, Matteo," Vincenzo added, reaching over and squeezing his shoulder. "He said they'd shout through the speakers along with the music, telling him that you hated him and got rid of him because he was a burden. Or say those things while they were beating him. And lastly. . . Towards the end, they made him say, 'he hates me, I'm worthless' over and over and over. He said Wren passed out while he was supposed to be saying it, and they went in and beat him until he woke up and started again--"

"Stop! Just. . . stop." Matteo said, burying his head in his hands, letting the tears pour out of them. He hadn't imagined-- he thought it wasn't this bad--

"How'd you get all that out of him?" Dace asked quietly, trying to distract everyone and himself from breaking down.

"It wasn't pretty. . . just don't ask him to smile." Vincenzo said grimly.

              Part Thirty-Seven Coming Soon