The Pariah

"Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future." ---Oscar Wilde

He took an awkward step away from Sam. Touch he understood, but feelings were hard for him. Especially feelings for people who weren't Mia. Analysis was Mia's department, not his, so he was trying not to analyze every second of that kiss. He was the brawn, not the brain, no one needed him for his brain. They needed him for his strength and him collapsing into a pile of mushy-gushy shit was not going to help anyone. Neither was his confusion. Nick was Mia's leader, she looked to him for guidance. He had to push all this shit away so he could be a good older brother to Mia. He decided then, no matter how good that kiss felt, it couldn't happen again.

With that defenative thought, he looked away from Sam and walked to the bathroom door. He wordlessly opened it and stepped through it as he pushed all feelings of security that were associated with Sam away. Sam was a nice thing, but Nick couldn't have nice things. Not when there were bigger things at stake here. There were lives that could be lost and he had to make sure everyone was alive. As soon as he got Mia out of here, and maybe everyone else (he was thinking about leaving Blake, or at least tying him to a tree in the middle of nowhere), then he could focus on those feelings.

Nick glanced into the room expecting to see his sister, but instead he saw Carter, Kai, and Blake sitting at the table. He mentally groaned, of course he was going to be beaten for getting out of the cuffs, even though Nick was pretty sure Carter gave Sam the keys. Carter never sat down with them all in a group, it was usually just Carter and Nick during meal times when Carter force fed him all sorts of unpleasurable foods. Lately, Carter had been putting salt in his water and forcing him to drink hot sauce just straight up. Sometimes, his only breakfast item was hot sauce. Nick decided if he ever got out of here, he would never eat hot sauce again.

At the table, Blake was sitting across from Carter and was picking at the table. He knew Blake was afraid of Carter, terrified even, the kid peed his pants whenever he saw him. Carter was the equivalent of Blake's 'Boogie Man', and Nick knew Carter revealed in the fact. Nick knew he loved the fact that he could do whatever the hell he wanted to them, and they couldn't do anything to retaliate. For example, the other day Carter drugged his water which caused his body to move slow making it easier for Carter to kick his ass. Carter claimed it was an ordered test, but Nick called bullshit.

Kai was sitting next to Blake and his eyes were shut tight. He had been quiet lately, Sam said he was on some new medication, some experimental drug that would apparently make Kai act normal. Nick just thought it zombified him. His movements were slower, and yes he was quiet, but his speech didn't make anymore sense than it usually did. He still had all of his little quirky behaviors they were all just quieter and slower. Nick wasn't sure who issued those types of pills to Kai, but whoever they were, they were playing with fire. Nick knew nothing about anything, but he could observe, and it was obvious that they were not working like they were supposed to.

That led him to his next thought: where the hell was Mia? He and Sam were not in the bathroom that long, at least, Nick didn't think so. It was hard to tell when there was not a sun and there was not a clock to keep track of time with. He hoped Mia was okay, he swallowed, Mia was allowed to be in here. She brought him food, and it was good food. He didn't know how she got it, and he didn't really get a chance to grill her because Sam came in coughing up blood and bleeding. Nick hoped she didn't do anything stupid, she was supposed to be better than he was.

Sam came out of the bathroom behind him, he coughed and wiped his hand on his pants. Nick glanced down, and saw blood. What the hell happened to Sam? This was not the first time he had coughed blood, and he had a feeling it would not be the last time. Wasn't coughing blood a sign of internal bleeding? Nick didn't know, he thought he heard Mia mutter it at some point today. He had just promised himself to push Sam away, but he couldn't help but be curious about the boy who kissed him. He wanted to know why he was coughing blood, just like he wanted to know why Sam kissed him. It couldn't happen again, but that didn't mean it couldn't be talked about.