Look After You

The Trigger

     Bo blinked as if he was trying to wake himself up from a bad dream. When the walls didn't dissolve and the floor failed to melt, he forced himself to muster up an answer. "W-What?"

     "You heard me. I want to know how he's been. It's been such a long time since I've really seen him." He tried to shove the gun deeper down his captive's throat, but he didn't get far before Ryan's teeth clamped down on the firearm. "Is he still defective?"

     "D-Defective?" A pause as the word melted onto his tongue. The aftertaste made him snarl like a puppy that was desperately trying to fend off a starving coyote. "Take that back—"

     "Quiet."

     Bo shut his mouth. He had never seemed so small before.

     "I see. So you still care about him. Honestly, I thought you would outgrow that." He sighed. "But, since you didn't, I can no longer imagine the possibility of you not putting him in hiding before you left the castle. Am I wrong?"

     As focused as he was on his father, Bo still found the heart to spare Ryan a second of his attention. His eyes alleviated the pressure that his gag reflex was under and brought ice to his burning shoulder. With one look, he was sent into a pocket of space that made him almost as empty and untouchable as Ralph was. His invincibility was stripped away once his captor cackled at Bo's failure to respond.

     "Of course I'm not. I don't even know why I asked. I can't believe you thought you could get away with something that. Don't you know that I'm smarter than you?"

     "No, actually, I don't because only a dumbass would let a child take their title."

     The gun was yanked out of Ryan's mouth with enough force to jerk his neck forward. He coughed, the hot metallic taste coming up his throat and dangling from the bottom of his chin. His spit clung to the weapon as Ralph spun on his heel and pointed it at his son. The gap between them was quickly closed until he was towering over him like a skyscraper. Bo tried to look away from him, tried to offer the wall his rapid blinks instead of letting the rest of the room see his weakness, but the tip of a blade on his turned cheek fixed his gaze on the villain before him.

     "Kyle." Ralph crouched down to his level, and in the process, the blade popped a small hole in his cheek. A stream of blood ran down his face like a teardrop. "Where is he?"

     "It doesn't matter. You have the crown and everything else you could ever want. You don't need him."

     "Yes, I do."

     "Why? Did you miss beating the shit out of him that much?" He sucked in a breath. "He means nothing to you, we both know that. So do whatever the fuck you want to me, I'm not telling you anything."

     "Do whatever I want to you, huh?" From Ryan's seat, he could just barely see a smile start to grow on Ralph's face. "Alright, if you insist."

     If there was any color left in Bo's face, it drained out of him at those words. His bleached body quivered while he struggled to get anything more than whispered nonsense out his mouth. His mumbles sounded more like pleas the longer Ryan overheard them. The cotton fluff in his head turned to smoke once he noticed that Bo's once striking eyes were now glossy with moisture. The sight caused a pile-up in the back of his head, one that sparked something in him that he thought had been extinguished inside of his car hours ago.

     He had to get the attention back on him.

     No matter what it cost him, no matter what happened to him, he couldn't just sit by and let his monster of a father do whatever he wanted to his son. He tried like hell to break free from his restraints. He wiggled his hands until his wrists stung, kicked his feet until they began to burn underneath the coarse rope. He even slammed the back of his head into the back of the chair with the hopes that it would somehow free him, or at the bare minimum get Ralph annoyed with him. However, all his squirming and rocking ended up pushing his body weight towards the back of his chair. He shrieked as his seat was sent backward.