Found

Eleven

Scott's P.O.V
I watched Mitch struggle, everyday, with everything. I couldn't help but notice the wane in his desire to complete daily tasks. I saw how little he ate when I stayed over, if he ate at all. I saw the cuts on his wrist. I don't know why it hit me so hard that he was struggling, but I was going to do my best to help him out of that. I had made him a promise.

But I couldn't today. He had told me explicitly that he didn't want me with him. Yesterday, after I got him calmed down, Mrs. Grassi said something about a visit that he had the next day. He had froze against me, fingers twidling, the tell tale sign of his nervousness, then squirmed away, eyes down as he tried to cover the scars on his body. I wish he would see what I saw in him. Despite what I had written on the mirror, I could see how little he believed me.

Though I didn't want to leave him to whatever it was that he had, he left me no room to argue. So I complied and decided to take today to visit an old colleague.

He was in maximum security, in solitary. I knew exactly why. If he were out with the other inmates, he would have been dead in a week. Yeah, they all committed crimes, but universally, those whose crimes involved women and children ended up dead.

I once though I loved him, but then my eyes opened to the living hell he put the families of his trade through. I saw him in a whole new light. He had no care for the children. He didn't care if the light in their eyes was gone. In fact, he loved when it was snuffed out. He loved nothing more than breaking their spirits, watching them sob and cry as he beat them. I couldn't believe that I had every seen anything else.

I spoke with the guards, one of them a buddy of mine from the Academy. "So, how's he been?" I inquired.

The one I knew spoke up. "Because I know a bit of your story with him, I am assuming you mean how has his behaviour been." He looked at me momentarily, then answered. "He hasn't said much. He seems to be taking the Anything you say can and will be used against you literally because he only comments on how the whether it, though he can't see it." He shook his head. "I don't know. His trial is in two weeks."

I couldn't help but feel a stab of fear for Mitch. Two weeks. Mitch feared few people as much as he feared Alex. I doubted he would be able to do anything, other than psych himself out.

Before I could form a response, I heard the clinking of doors opening and the rattle of chains. I turned around and had to fight back my attraction. Even with a scruffy chin and the Orange jumpsuit, he still was beautiful.

"Well, well, well." Alex said as he was sat down and strapped to the table. "If it isn't my old fuck buddy." He practically purred out the words, earning himself a reprimand from one of the guards. I took my place across from him and took it all in.

His face was gaunter than I remembered, cheeks hollower. His hair was longer, falling into his face. I couldn't help but compare his hair to the hair of the villain from Tarzan, hanging in his face, though there was no crazy in his eye out front. His eyes were heavily locked, emotionless, but I knew better. I knew how to see around them. But I didn't have to look hard before I saw an emotion I had never seen him cast my way. The one I saw was betrayal. Complete and utter betrayal.

"You know we were more than that, Alex." I hissed out at him.

"I thought so. But then you jilted me. Deliberately. You disclosed those kids' locations. It was was you all along. I had that boy, innocent of this crime, shot because of you." He snarled at me. Suddenly his emotions weren't in check anymore. Betrayal, fury, that same darkness that I had always ignored, and, most shocking to me, hurt. Quietly, he whispered. "You betrayed me when I thought I could trust you."

I stared at him before speaking.

"You hurt, no, abused, kid after kid like they were nothing but a stupid creature. You boy only did that, but you laughed all the while. You caused them pain beyond physical, and you thought it funny. I know you've seen the news. Almost every one of those kids that I have saved have died, be it from disease, or from injuries, or suicide. All because you beat them and then sold them like livestock." I didn't mention that beyond the news, I knew of other kids who had died, but had been saved. Mitch had been one of them. He stopped breathing and his heart failed. He was dead, by all definitions of the word, until the managed to get his heart going again, getting it to start pumping what blood remained.

He stood, rage consuming the hazel of his eyes as he rattled the cuff chain against the metal bar he was stuck to. "Yes. I did all of that! But you betrayed me. I loved you, Scott. I loved you and you shoved it right back in my face."

The guards tensed, but thankfully stood back. I stayed seated and looked up at him, forcing myself to look calm, though I felt like I was battling a creature from a nightmare to make it so. "Oh, Alex. I loved you, too. But you fucked up. I have seen how what you have done has effected families. I have seen parents, out looking for their son for months, years, never stopping. Only to find out that, because of what you did to them, they are dead or dying, if they are ever found. I loved you, more than words, but then I was brought to my senses. I can't love you Allie." I stood and turned from him as he fell down into the bench.

As the guards led me out, I whispered one last thing.

"I am so sorry, Allie. But I can't love you. Not anymore."

~°~
So, P.O.V, change. First one in the book, can I get a wha' wha'!? What did y'all think about it? Questions, thoughts, comments?

Thanks to those people that helped critique the first part of this chapter.

Do you guys what me to write a chapter about the Trial? If so, from Who's P.O.V?

Are you ready for the revealing of Mitch's disease? I would grab tissues, just in case. Oh, went back and added a bit to ch. 10, if you guys want to go read it. It would probably make the beginning of chapter 12 more understandable. Maybe.

Oh, and stay sexy
-Scomiche❤🍓❤