The Vacuum

Part 32

Alex crossed her arms over her chest as she watched one of the doctors and therapists talk to Reggie in the room at the psychiatric institution that Damien had brought Reggie to after the two of them had shown up on his doorstep. She bit at her lips and tightened her hold on herself as she looked at the frail girl. She looked better after coming out of detox, her wounds from prolonged rope hold and bed soar had been treated and allowed some of the colour to come back to her skin. Her eyes seemed haunted but at least more aware.

It was odd. That dessert was Reggie's hell. She had gone through horrid things there, things that Alex could identify with on a level: mental torture, captivity, helplessness. But that same desert that had tortured her was kind of like heaven for her counterpart watching her through the window. Being out there in that little house on top of the rocks, sitting out by the fire pit with her canyon spirit, laying in the heat of the house just absorbing the dry air.

She scratched at her collarbones, trying not to think about how the visions and memories ad started to dissipate when she spent time with the same man that had wormed into Reggie's soul like a demon. No, a different man. He'd been a different man when he'd laid off the drugs. The man that raped Reggie and killed her friends in a drug-fueled fury was not the same man that had let her fall asleep against his chest.

He was probably dead now by his father or Walters hands. She shut her eyes as the thought entered her before she could stop it.

Jumping she dropped her hand as she felt someone grip her shoulder, turning her head to see Damien standing behind her, looking down at her with a little soft smile before looking through the window at Reggie.

"You did a good, good thing Alexandra." He murmured, squeezing.

"Yeah...I guess." Alex muttered, still thinking about Mac's rough, strong hands on her face.

Damien frowned. "You saved her life...she doesn't remember much but at least she's out."

Alex nodded. "At least she has that." She half laughed. "Just like the others...barely remembering."

Damien nodded slowly. "I'm going to take her on myself, come here a few times a week; see if we'll make progress." He shook his head. "She should have gotten it years ago but...we'll see what we can do. Just like we did with you. You're better than you were."

Alex furrowed her eyebrows. She was...and part of it had to do with him. The other part belonged to that desert and the demon that was lost in it. "Yeah."

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Mac ducked down in the dead of night, using the little bit of illumination from the cigarette pressed in between his lips to guide the liquid he was pouring from the bright red canister around the motel with his brother and father sleeping inside.

He hadn't spoken or been around them for three days, knowing that he was fucked if Devon said the word. He'd betrayed them for a piece of ass and they knew it. Tossing one of the cans to the side he picked up another and started his trek over the porch and walls, coating them with the foul smelling liquid.

His hands shook as he splashed a generous amount over the door, but it wasn't in fear....no he didn't ever EVER get afraid. It was rage. Rage because Walter had been the one to leave him behind, treat him like a 'satanic little pit bull'. He'd wanted one thing....one girl. He'd practically begged! And they wouldn't let him have her! Fucking Devon, sleeping in that stupid room, leg all bandaged up, got everything that his little messed up heart wanted but Mac? He couldn't have the one person that he wanted. Pushing against the door quietly, he tested the lock and the beam that he'd placed to prevent the door from opening. His eyes darted into the little window where Walter and Devon lay in the beds, silently having nightmare of the disappeared brother that they couldn't even find in the maze of the cave. No doubt their unconsciousness was littered with thoughts of what he would do.

He stepped back into the darkness of the night, drawing a line behind him as he walked while exhaling through his nose hard. Tossing the empty can into the back of his truck, he leaned against the tailgate and draw and last long breath from his cigarette. Pulling it from in between his chapped and dirty lips he flicked it into the stream that he'd left, watching the gasoline ignite and sizzle and it raced recklessly towards the motel where Walter and Devon slept.

Clearing his throat he pulled his cell phone out as the flames licked up the sides of the old building and tore at the banisters and beams. Screams and bellows erupted from the confines. Even if Walters old body could get up through the window he wouldn't make it far. There was no way Devon's injured ass would be able to even walk to the glass pane. Clearing his throat Mac held his phone up to the burning, beautiful mess.

Alex lay on her back across the thick stone ledge of her balcony, breathing in the Boulder air deeply. She looked up at the dark sky taking in the stars that were embedded into the dark purple and black sky. They looked different than they had across the world...in another life. They looked the same as they had in Utah, in the desert as she sat half-naked in the bed of Mac's truck. Bringing the joint to her lips she took a drag and let her arm fall over the side, dangling down above the six-story drop limply.

She missed Mac. He hadn't tried to call her and his words 'Go... fucking go' were starting to add up to a final dismissal in her mind. She should have known the moment he said them. She'd been his fuck buddy and that was it. She turned her face to the side out into the night around her and closed her eyes, begging her mind to forget. It didn't. It never did. Mac's face was at least clear and distinctive. It wasn't blank of covered in just its skin, anonymous. It was angry. It was amused. It was heated.

She didn't forget....

She didn't know how long she kept her eyes closed as her body drifted into some semblance of sleep, hair blowing over her face. She had fallen asleep out here before...most nights since she had come back.

Almost jumping she felt her cell phone vibrate in her pants pocket. Sighing she blinked and pulled it up, bringing it over her head as she pushed a drop of moisture from the corner of her eye. She clicking open the picture message frowning at the poor quality picture of a building being eaten away by flames. She furrowed her eyebrows while looking at it before a texted message popped up with a single word.

Safe.