"Swim Hen."

"Swim like your life depends on it. I'll meet you by the river banks."

"I promised. I'll be there."

Pez's voice echoed in his ear as he swam through the coldest river in the middle of October. It is close to winter but the weather here at Broadmoor is already sending Henry's joints into million sharp pricks from the cold still water.

He puffed an air softly not wanting to thread the water and making lots of noises as he kept swimming to the banks where Pez is waiting for him.

Each breath he huffed sending hopes inside his broken shattering hearts as he edge to his freedom. Never in his mind he would managed to escape that dreadful place. But truthfully, never in his mind he would be ended up there in the first place and lasted for almost ten years now.

The dark waters stirs as his hand flung in circles and his legs kicking behind him closing his distance towards the dark river banks that was covered with nothing but bushes and trees before him. He knows Pez is there waiting in the dark for him. He trusted his best friend more than his own life. So he kicked his legs faster until he saw a movement from behind the bushes that made him stop.

He stayed in the water letting his head barely appears on the surface covering his mouth with still water lay under his nose enough for him to breath so he could submerged immediately if in case it wasn't Pez.

But then he saw him, appearing in the dark with that bright pink hair of his and his eyes searched in worry for Henry in the water. "Come on, you're close." He whispered holding out his palm for him by the edge. Henry swam towards him until he reached his palm and raised his own to catch his.

Pez's eyes linger over Henry's bruised wrist and his heart broke at the sight of how skinny Henry had become after years of suffering. He helped Henry climbed out of the waters watching him shivers in coldness in his white plain shirt and thin pajamas pants. His eyes travels over Henry's disarray blonde hair and his chattering teeth, hugging his own body in coldness before Pez wrapped a towel around Henry's body.

He ruffled the soft cotton over Henry's hair before his tears broke at the sight of his best friend standing before him in his frail body with dark circles under his eyes, puffy eyelids and chapped cut lips. His skin looks paler than usual but most probably cause by the cold water or the lack of sunlight. There were more bruises on his arms and his face when Pez finally sees him clearly under the moonlight.

He couldn't held his tears away before he pulled Henry towards his chest. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry Hen." His voice broke wrapping his arm tighter over Henry's shivering body. He could feel Henry tense at his gesture considered he hasn't had that kind of warmth and loving act for almost ten years making him stood in awkwardness before he pushed Pez body away from him gently. Henry eyes Pez's chest that now drenched with his soaked body.

"It's okay. I- I'm c-cold." Henry stutter and Pez nods wiping his tears before he turned and grabbed something inside the duffel bag behind him. "I got you fresh clothes. Here, changed. But we have to hurry before they realized you're gone." He ordered and Henry didn't say any word but obeyed.

The car was waiting for them in the dark and Henry was glad after a long walks in the forest they finally got in the car and drove away.

Henry couldn't help turning his head back at the sight of Broadmoor's red bricks walls that seems distant now from him but he could feel his heart still thumping in his chest as if he was edging closer instead of further.

"It's okay. We'll be out of here soon. I promised." Pez noticed the concerned in Henry's eyes as he kept his head turned at the back of the car almost as if he was waiting for anyone to follow behind. He finally face forward hiding his fingers inside the sleeves of his sweatshirts, hugging his knees close to his chest as Pez drove them both into the dark night.

Henry leaned his head against the headrest letting his mind counting the streetlight that passed by him from the window view. He stopped counting when it reach hundred knowing how much further they are from Broadmoor which send relieves in his heart.

"Are you hungry?" Pez asked breaking the silence. Henry shook his head softly not lifting his gaze from the window on his side letting Pez drove them in silence. He didn't even realized how tired he was until he drifted off too sleep.

.

"All I did was to help you Hen! You are unwell and you need to be treated!"

"Don't you see? This is not healthy and you are talking like a mad person right now!"

"Bea is DEAD! She is not wandering around like a ghost in this house and I will not have you talk like this again!"

"This is good for you Hen. You'll thank me one day."

"I'm sorry little brother but you need help and this people is the only one that can help you."

"Goodbye Hen."

Henry jolted from his dream to a black shadow hovering next to him from outside the car window and he gasped before Pez's hand grabbed his. "Shh, it's okay. You're safe. We're almost there Hen." He reassured still had his hand clasped with Henry's on his left while his right gripped steadily on the steering wheel. His eyes focused on the road ahead but once a while he glanced at Henry next to him.

He noticed Henry still catching his breath with his eyes shut tightly creating wrinkled on the side of his face. Pez knew he saw something, he knew about Henry's gift since they were both young. But unlike anyone else, Pez believed him.

"Ignored them Hen. They can't hurt you. You're with me." He said gripping his hand tightly. Henry clenched his teeth tight he could almost tasted blood in his mouth. It took him a while until he finally could summoned the courage to open his eyes again, hands still clutching on to Pez's on his side. 

He turned his eyes slowly to the side to see it was nothing but darkness and the street lights passed by him.

He exhaled a breath of relieve swallowing his throat dryly before he released his tight grip around Pez's palm. He could see the nail marks digging into Pez's brown skin and he immediately apologized. "S-Sorry Percy. I didn't-" he stuttered.

"Don't bother Hazza. It's nothing." He dismissed his worry with a flick of his wrist and held back the steering wheel with his both hand on ten and two.

Silence again filled between them before Henry broke it, "How much further?" He asks and Pez inhaled sharply glancing over the clock by his dashboard, "Twenty minutes. Get some rest. I have some food in this bag if you're hungry." Pez continued to grab a smaller bag behind Henry's seat without even lift his sight from the road and handed it to him.

Henry opened the bag to find few chocolate bars, a ham and egg sandwich and a water bottle inside. He uncapped the bottle and sipped the water almost half before he unwrapped the sandwich paper carefully on his lap. Pez eyed the gesture how Henry unfold the crinkled paper and grabbed the sandwich in between his hands inhaling the scent before he took a bite.

Slowly, softly, Henry chewed into his food before Pez realized a tear fell on his cheek and few bites later, he was already done before he went into the second piece.

"Did they feed you in there?" He asks letting Henry swallowed the food before he replied. "Barely." Henry's voice short staring at the triangle piece in his hand with it's edge already half bitten. "They starved us so we won't have energy to fight them. When they do feed us, it was nothing but plain stale bread and cheese." He continued.

"This." He held out the sandwich in his hand before turning his gaze at Pez, "This is my five star meal in years. Thank you aunty Pezza." He says and Pez broke into more tears. It has been years since he heard Henry called him that.

"I wish I helped you escaped sooner Hen. I'm sorry. But my resources are late and I only found out where he kept you not until last month." Pez apologized when his mind wanders after he came back to London less than two months ago. After graduating school, he moved in with his father in Australia and pursued his further studies there and work for his father at his company.

He wonders why Henry didn't reply to any of his letters all this years and now he knew why. He never got them. He tried to call and the only answer he got was Henry is no longer living there and when he pushes for more, Phillip threatened to harm him.

That was until Pez returned back to London and went to Henry's home only to find out he wasn't living there for almost ten years now. He was angry, beyond frustrated but there is nothing he can do to fight Phillip in this knowing if he pushes, he would sense him plotting something. He worried that Phillip might not just hurt him but also Henry just because of his persistence in finding his brother. 

They are both now in their late twenties but Henry still look the same as he was since he last saw him. His soft manners and his delicate fingers are still the same. The only things changes is the trauma he had faced all the years taken all the joy that sparkled in his eyes. He no longer smile, Pez wished he could see him smile like he used too.

The truth was, Henry was born with a gift. A gift he never wanted his whole life but he did. He told Pez once that he wished he was never born with this gift so Philip could accept him as his brother instead of a freak that he tried to hide in a closet. But after he lost his parents in a plane crash, everything changed after.

He remembered how upset Henry were when they both graduated from Eton together knowing how much he hated going back home. He didn't want to face Phillip but he has no where else to live and at the time, Pez had no choice but to go to Australia since his dad wanted him there and he couldn't bring Henry along with him. How he wished he did or fought harder for him or none of this would ever happened to his best friend.

Which is why he thought Henry was angry with him is the reason why he never replies all the letters he wrote him or all the text message he sent him. Phillip had confiscated his phone and kept him hidden away from the world almost as it seems that Henry never existed in the Fox family.

After Bea's death a year after the graduation, Henry has gotten worst. His nightmares, his so called gift had made him turned into a manic person. He was unable to go anywhere having to live his each minute in fear. Fear of the dark shadows that lurked around him, the shadow that existed ever since his sister's died from murder. Phillip denies him and kept telling him how the drugs and the alcohol is the reason for her death but Henry knew it wasn't. It was the shadows that lurked around her.

He remembers warning her to look out for herself when the last time he saw her, the shadow grew higher and he could sense the shadow presence grew stronger the night she died. Henry felt her death that night in his bed. He remembers the choking feeling he felt and the screamed he made when he was finally released before he rushed to her.

The moment they found her lifeless body in her bedroom hanging from the ceiling, the shadow disappeared right before his eyes and Henry never saw it again until he was dragged into Broadmoor.

For almost ten years he lived in that dreadful place waiting for the shadow to finally kill him so he could move on but somehow, it just stays in the corner and watched him in the dark which drove Henry more into insanity.

He couldn't convince anyone what he saw, he couldn't prove anyone what he saw but ever since then, he knew the shadow follows him everywhere.

It wasn't just the shadows that bothers him. It was the fact that he could see unsettling spirit in their dying form walking around him like a normal person that droves him crazy. He can't choose what he sees or when he saw it. They just appeared out of nowhere and scared the life of him. With each passing soul he sees, a tightening grasps of pain will pulled him right in the center of his chest towards his back.

Some souls that interact with him had made him couldn't even wake up or straightened his back when the pain hits. Death pain is worst than the physical one he felt. It caught his neck down to his spine and tugged his heart like the death itself is trying to pull his own soul out.

The more horrifying death they'd experienced, the more painful it is for Henry to feel and it was the first thing they bonded in their friendship. Pez had just lost his mother to postpartum depression when they were ten and his father had just started out their business in London. Henry saw the woman always stood by Pez's side watching over him, smiling at him in tears before Henry spoke to him. Pez didn't even know how to react at the time but Henry had asks him if he knew some woman is following him around. 

The way Henry had described her vividly made him believed him on the spot. They never met before in life and there is no way Henry would have known how his mother looked like. But the one thing that Pez remembers till today that made him believed Henry, was his mother's lullaby that she used to sing to him. But as soon as Henry relayed the message his mother had told him, she disappeared and never came back. Pez never asks about his mother ever since then. 

Pez loves him since they met and he knew although Henry is gay and he is bisexual, they never had any feelings towards one another except for care for each other.

Through each nightmare, each glances and each time Henry shaken in fear, Pez was there to hold his hands, giving him comfort and hold him while he cried until either he fell asleep or passed out from fear and sometimes pain.

.

They arrived at the Heathrow airport later that night and Pez returned the rented car before pulling Henry inside. He had purchased a ticket for both of them, his for Australia and Henry for New York. He needed to get Henry as far away from London as possible.

He handed Henry the ticket and the new passport he had renewed for him, thanks to his father and his connection, he was able to help Henry out of the country with a valid visa.

"This would lasted you for ten years, I even used your maiden name as your new identity so Phillip won't be able to track you . Find a job, lay low yourself and DO NOT create any attention to yourself that would exposed yourself to Phillip. You hear me?" He handed Henry his documents and his duffle bag that has new clothes for him. He had few toiletries inside the pocket for Henry to start his new life. They both didn't check in any bags not wanting to waste anymore time here.

"Pez" Henry whispered watching as he shoved more chocolate bars and more sandwich he purchased from the deli inside the airport into the bag before he lifted his gaze at Henry again. "Yeah?"

"Thank you." Henry whispered before broke into tears.

"Oh Hazza, you have no reason to thank me. It's inhuman for what they did to you and I am here always when you need me. Remember that, always." He promised handing the bag into Henry's hand.

Henry dropped the bag by his feet before wrapping his arm around Pez waist and gave him one final hug.

"You're only one I had left, Pez." Henry whispered in their hug and Pez held him tighter. "Hazza listened." He pulled Henry away and cupped his wet cheeks in his palm.

"From now on, you are on your own love. I can't help you there. If Philip knew I helped you, he will kill me. He will send people to kill me and my father Hen." Pez claimed.

"As for today, you never heard of me. You never knew me. Don't ever spoke to anyone about what happened, no matter what Henry. Protect your gift at all cost! Do not let other people know about your gift or words will spread and Phillip can trace you. You remember this. Never ever tell anyone about your gift." Henry nods in tears.

"Changed your name, used your mother's maiden name from now instead of your father's. From now onwards, you are no longer a Fox Hen. I'm so sorry it has to be this way but I prayed for you my friend. I prayed you make it. Maybe one day, we'll meet in different circumstances. Or a different life Hen. Where it was better for you, happier, and I get to see you smile again Hen."

Tears broke between them as they stood in the middle of the international departure. But airport held more farewell for anyone to actually thinks it's odd to see both men stood in tears.

"I owe you my life Percy. I wish one day I could returned the favor. I hope I could see you once more all of this is over." Henry says in tears before Pez pulling him into another tightening hug.

"Go on. Your flight will leave in half an hour. You're gonna missed it if you don't hurry." Pez pushed Henry away and grabbed the bag from the ground practically shoving it into Henry's arm and pushed his shoulders away.

Henry glanced back at him wiping his tears away before he held his palm and waved him a soft goodbye. Pez smiled waving him back before he witnessed Henry disappear from his view in the crowd.