Sophie wasn't the only one that visited me after meeting Hugo for the first time. Also there in the little cabin was her brother Brice. They were quite opposite in personality, but they both seemed to be assigned to stay at my bedside until I fell asleep, keeping me company and getting me what I asked for. Unlike his sister, who was silent and quick in her work, Brice took his time and loved to babble on about things he's read, dreams he's had, and how I would be recovering soon. The first time I saw him I was woken from my sleep by as strange bit of silence, and there he sat, in the left simple chair, starring at the fire.
I didn't notice it at first, but he also had a burn, this time on the left cheek. He saw that I was awake and for the slightest moment the smile dimmed, barely though. Then the smile sped back and spread across his face as thick as butter. He introduced himself without a surname, and started talking wildly about where I was, but the only useful thing I caught was that he and Sophie were twins.
As the days passed, I almost was happy to be in that bed with broken legs and arm and ring finger. Brice's stories were childish, but imaginative and they entrained me so much he could start a story about dogs in the morning and finish at dusk with a pirate tale.
He looked in on me all the time like his sister, both with the same hair and eye color. But Brice was different. He always sat in that chair, his chapped lips speaking without hesitation. The undamaged part of his pale face was full of freckles, each one seeming to hold a story. He was confident in what he said, and knew exactly what to say.
One day, when it was very dark outside and the wind was hollering with the blizzard, I asked, "Why can't your sister speak?" His smile disappeared immediately. "Oh, you don't need to say..." He shook his head and I thought the conversation was done. But he replied, "No, Louis. You should find out before it happens to me." He sat for a long time, with a look that told me he was trying to pick his words carefully; all the while my head was spinning with the possibly that being mute was an acquired trait that they both had and trying to find an explanation or to just go along with it.
"We were driving home with our parents after Thanksgiving. It was as bad out there as it was when you came." He stopped looking at me and at the window instead. "We were so young, Sophie and I. We where singing something..." He thought for a second. "Stuck in the Middle With You. My dad was annoyed but my mother and us kept singing. And then something... leaped in front of us." He looked back to me. Expressionless. "My parents died. We survived. Like you. My sister and I were burned." I looked to the burn, it's scarlet color glowing with the fire's embers. "We woke up in the same room you're in now, our legs broken, Christmas a few days away. And then my sister said something she should've not."
He stood suddenly. I thought he had enough. He hadn't. He told bitterly, his burn shadowed in the fire light, "That monster has kept us here prisoners, and he's doing the same to you! I haven't seen the outside world in 20 years! He won't let us." He stopped and said more quietly, more himself, though not any more calm, "I remember waking up in the car for just a brief moment. My legs weren't broken." Footsteps came from the hallway, loud and rushed. "It..." The door burst open and there was Hugo. Just him standing there frightened me and Brice, but something was more scary about Hugo. He was completely calm. No anger. No frustration. Nothing. Not even his sunglasses.
A blank face.
Brice backed up against the bared windowed wall. "No, no. Please..." Hugo started walking calmly towards him, his face still the same. Brice looked towards me, his face showing the most sickening horror. "He cut her tongue out, Louis! She said last that we would be out soon, but we're still here!" Hugo grabbed him and started pulling him out. He was hysterical once Hugo's old hands clasped his wrist and shoulder. "NO! Don't! Louis, LOUIS! Please don't let him take me. Help. Don't let..." He had been fighting but now had suddenly stopped and looked straight into Hugo's eyes. I turned invisible. His eyes grew wide, the flecked lids disappearing into his skull. "Let me go, monster!! Just let me go!!" Hugo had stopped, but now started walking again. I starred in utter horror as they crossed the room. I attempted to get up, to stop this, but my legs. My arm. They made me useless.
Right before Brice was forced out the door, he started babbling. "My legs, go down, CIOFFI! Stay away from him, don't leave the room... It's here!! Don't let it cut out my tongue! DON'T LET IT!!! It's going to cut out my tongue!! Stay away from it!! We'll get out!! We'll get out!!!"
The door slammed shut.
