9.

'We have to head back inside, there is too many ...' Amber tells her brother as he joins her outside and close to the church which has been a base of operations for a few weeks now.

'What then? ...'

'Don't know. Safety first ... we'll deal with it the best we can. How is the priest?'

'The worst I've seen him yet. He doesn't seem to remember any of his time here. If we were to make a run for it then I believe we'd most likely lose him so I'm with you. We'll get inside and take it from there.'

***

Do you know what mockingbirds are best known for? Well, that would be for mimicking others, whether that be the songs of other birds, or it be the sounds of many an insect. Some mockingbirds even lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, the hatchlings then kick out the other nest inhabitants, taking all the food that comes their way, leaving the returning parental birds to rear and fledge them.

He doesn't know where it came from or why it calms him but calm him it does. For how could he know? Early childhood memories, the ones which last often seem ... incomplete. Leon remembers the song and associates it with comfort, he associates it with feeling safe and this got him through his captivity. It gave him the strength to keep going. It gave him the strength to escape, and it gives him strength in a place he is not familiar with. The history with the song, his own history is not known to him.

Leon is safe in this place he has come to, this place he has been brought to, or at least he feels safe ... as safe as one like him can be in the moment he shares with Amber, a young lady he will get to know over time, along with that song that has always been with him breaks him into that 'you are safe here' zone.

Karen Orwell first sang that song to her son less than an hour after he was born. She held him gently; she held him close and sang softly. This mother and son moment continued regularly to the point that if infant Leon was having a restless night, then a little singing could often settle him.

As infant became toddler, the mother son moments became less frequent. At twelve years of age the song remains even if Leon could not tell you who his parents are if they stood before him in a line up. The song remains even with the fact he does know not why he has it or who may have once sung it to him. The song has a new role now and creates a new connection. Leon may have himself adopted as a new sibling by Amber and her twin Shawn, and this is his new contentedness.

***

The room three-year-old Leon had been taken to, his home for those following nine years, smelled, and not at all in a pleasant way. The smell was damp, wooden, stale, and rotten. The smell was strong at first and almost made it difficult to breathe. It was a smell Leon would become accustomed to.

He cried until he could cry no more on that first night. He cried himself to sleep though sleep would not come as any kind of luxury, nor would it ever come easily, not on this night and possibly not ever again, not even his song could now aid a restless night.

The man who holds him here scared him, the room scared him and the journey to this place was never anything more than a blur. Stolen away from his father, there would be no recue. This would be the room where he would spend most of his time, it would be where he would sleep and would be where he would urinate and leave his excrement.

There would be no window in this room but in another where he would be brought to eat when he was allowed eat, there would be a window, though this window was always heavily covered with steel mesh. His room, his horrifying chamber of terror, is not a room with a view and there will be little or no contact with the outside world other than what he could see through that window when he was near it.

Within the room with which was his prison, a large old mattress lay. It had one thin blanket and no pillows upon it. There indeed would be a large potty like container with which Leon was initially as afraid to use. Like a lot of things, he got used to it and perhaps, when he was lucky, it would be emptied once a day, or once every few days. It was never as if there were options available to the boy.

Prior to using that container in his room for the first time, Leon held it in for as long as he could. A little three-year-old was sure his dad, his real dad would come for him any moment now. Dad would come for him, he thought over and over, any moment now and he will take him home. Of course, that was not to happen, so with tears flooding his eyes, Leon moved to that container. Along with memories of his mother, the origin of the song that calms him, in time these memories along with those of his father would also be forgotten. Indeed, the song itself hung around.

More often than not, it got cold in this room. Leon learned to use that blanket as best as he could despite the fact that it too smelled rotten. How he survived these conditions for as long as he did is astounding. Adults, a number of adults came and went over time and only one of them was a constant, that being his abductor, the man who demanded to be called 'daddy'.

Tasks were required of him and as Leon did get older, those tasks changed. He would learn the hard way not to disobey. There were a number of occasions he wanted to disobey commands. A couple of times he had to be told twice before he'd perform the task required of him and after being asked that second time he would respond accordingly. On one occasion, at just six years old, he flat out refused a task that was put to him. The command given once, twice, three times yet Leon refused, standing up to his aggressor.

Most adults appear large to six-year-old children. Leon's captor always appeared to be a large man and when Leon flat out refused his captor on this particular day, he would first be met with a strong hard slap to the face, this being the only occasion he would be hit in the face. Punishment continued and Leon would be tossed around like a rag doll as well as being hit with bamboo sticks. Safe to say he never refused a task asked of him again.

Leon would have his moment; he was always sure his moment would come. What Leon never knew or ever saw coming was of what allowed his opportunity to come. Dead entities came to this place, growling, hungry and many. The door to Leon's dark stinking room opened and no one came through, his captor being detained elsewhere, his own survival in doubt. Leon saw an opportunity and nothing more; he took it and was gone.

There was growling and other noises and, on this occasion, he would not see what created these sounds. He only ever had that song, he escaped with it, still he has it only now there is so much more with those he has come into contact with, so hush little baby, don't say a word ....

Holding onto to this boy, if it weren't already obvious to Amber and to those she is with, the boy in her arms had been tortured both mentally and physically. There was physical evidence though not on his face and deprivation had been all he knew. He had taken the smell of that dark room with him, and this would be one of the first things to change.

Feeling calm and safe in the place he has come to be in, Leon accepts a hand that has been offered out to him. Shawn, his new adoptive brother to be will get him cleaned up and will find him something suitable to wear.

There are no mockingbirds here, now are there?