Reaper's Touch

Lucas: The Truth About Gus

"An infant or young child who is abused, violated or seriously neglected by a caretaking adult is overwhelmed by intolerable affects that are impossible for it to metabolize, much less understand or even think about."
- Donald Kalsched

As the summer waned, Nora kept working part time at a nearby cafe. That was where Lucas was now, waiting for her shift to end in twenty minutes so he could walk her home. No matter how late she worked, he was always there waiting. There was no way he was going to let her walk home alone in the dark. Not in this city with its constant soundtrack of sirens and gunshots.

The sun was just starting to set when Hex walked into the cafe without Gus. She saw Lucas, waved at him and weaved her way through the tables to where he sat. Hex and Gus were closer than ever and couldn't keep their hands off each other, but neither Nora nor Lucas minded. Hex was cool. She was all girl but had a street smart edginess to her that was magnetic. Everyone just wanted to be near her, like she was a star. She exuded some kind of magic. And somehow everyone knew, just knew not to cross her.

"I'm surprised to see you here without Gus," Lucas said, pulling out a chair for her.

Hex shrugged as she sat down, tucking one red curl behind her ear. "I just got off. Gus is closing with Ethan tonight. Thought I'd just hang out here since Nora's getting off soon. We used to come here a lot back in the day to get warm... if we had the cash. Otherwise they kicked us out."

"Well no one's going to kick you out now... unless the competition pisses them off," Lucas said.

Hex smirked. She was still wearing her vest from the coffee shop where she worked. "Right. Hey I wanted to ask you something... It's about Gus... I don't know what to do."

"Is he okay?" Lucas asked nervously, fearing that Hex would say he had relapsed and was back on meth.

"Yeah he's fine. He just..." She paused. "I don't know if he'd want me to tell you, actually."

"Well now you have to because I'm worried," Lucas said.

"I've known Gus a long time, but he's changed so much since I knew him before, and you're his best friend now so I'm thinking you know the 'new Gus' better than me."

"I'll do my best to try and figure it out, but you actually have to tell me first," he said.

Hex looked up. "Okay. He keeps having this recurring nightmare about a white cage. He'll go crazy in his sleep. Like, he'll act out physically. I'm scared that one of these nights he'll accidentally hurt himself... or me. He doesn't even respond to me when he's like that. It's like he can't hear me. It used to happen back when we lived here before, but I just let Adam handle it. I know Gus's childhood was shit, but he doesn't act like it bothers him."

"Yeah well therapy makes a lot of things bother you that you thought you were cool with," Lucas mumbled. "Have you told Jeff?"

"Gus did because I made him. And Jeff, like, did nothing. Shut down the conversation and got super weird about it."

"He did nothing? Really? That doesn't sound like Jeff."

"I know! I just feel like he knows something about all this... Jeff has the day off today. Can you come with me to talk to him without Gus around? You and Nora?"

"We'll come with you," Lucas said.

——————

Jeff frowned as Lucas and Hex told him about their concerns for Gus. They were all sitting around his kitchen table.

"My biggest fear is he's using," Lucas said.

To his relief, Jeff shook his head. "Part of his agreement about staying here is that he has to take drug tests every week or get evicted. They've all been negative. The latest was two days ago. I can assure you he's clean. I can tell. I've been doing this for a long time."