Courage

Chapter 14

Jack was refusing to leave Crutchie's side and, if Jack could help it, he'd probably never leave his sight again, either. Jack had gone into full defensive mode, ignoring any and all injuries of his own, and focusing solely on Crutchie, who was also insisting that he was fine. Davey knew that none of them were fine.

Crutchie slept most of the time, and Jack and Les didn't sleep at all. Davey got a few hours of sleep a night, but it was getting hard to focus on anything but the constant pain coming from various parts of his body. When he did sleep, he had nightmares - something unusual for him - and he'd wake up to find himself living those nightmares.

And he was scared, more scared than he'd ever been in his life. He was scared for himself, which made him feel selfish. He was supposed to be worried about Jack's mental state, and be worried that Les would get beaten even worse than he already had. He was worried about all of that, of course he was. But he was also terrified of every instance that the door opened and Snyder came for him.

The man had come to enjoy taking them in pairs. He was mostly leaving Crutchie alone due to the fact that he was unconscious for most of the time, but that didn't stop him from mocking Davey and Jack about it as they were taken into the ever familiar room that they hated.

"So, Kelly, how often does your crippled friend wake up now? He seems to be getting lazy."

Davey willed Jack not to reply, but that didn't happen. "Shut the hell up, Spider."

Snyder shoved Jack up against the wall, and he let out a grunt of pain, no doubt as one of his other injuries hit the hard brick. Davey didn't know what came over him, but this was the first time he'd really seen Snyder and Jack interact closely with each other, and Davey saw something in his friends eyes that he wasn't used to seeing, and that was pure fear.

So, with a surge of energy, Davey shoved away from Jack, who quickly pushed himself off of the wall and moved away from the older man. Davey instantly regretted this decision, however, when Snyder turned back onto them.

"The two of you have been giving me too much trouble. I don't have the patience to put up with it."

"You could just let us go then, save you the trouble." Davey wished Jack would shut up.

"I'm not stupid boy, you'd just continue on with that pointless strike of yours and I'd just lock you up again." Snyder began to smile, and it wasn't a pleasant smile. "No, instead I think I'm going to give the both of you one of your favorite punishments."

He grabbed them both by the wrists and practically dragged them out into the hallway and down a set of stairs that did not look inviting.

"You remember being in isolation, don't you Kelly? If my memory serves, you particularly enjoyed your stay here." It was dark, but Jack was visibly pale. "Good thing I have more than one cell down here, one for you, and one for your friend. I'll check up on you in a week or so."

Jack suddenly tore himself from Snyder's grasp and started to run back towards the stairs, but the man aimed a swift kick at Jack's ankle and the boy was down on the floor. "You may have escaped from me once, but I'm not letting you get away again, no, not that easily."

Snyder lifted a still-struggling Jack up by the collar of his torn shirt and opened the door to a cell with his other hand, throwing him roughly into the room and slamming the door shut behind him. That was the last that Davey saw of Jack before he was forced into a similar cell, and was suddenly swallowed in darkness.