Chapter 24:

  "Hi, baby." Mommy smiled at Aaron, then her eyes flicked back to Lou. "Come, Lou. Leave the boys to play a little. We'll be right back, loves, okay?"

Lou followed Mommy out, but Daddy remained there standing, strong arms crossed as he stared at his babies absently. His gaze burnt holes like a drill into Aaron's eyes, yet Aaron felt that they were somehow going past him; Daddy looked more like in a daze than directing a threatening glare at him. Eventually, Daddy escaped his trance and turned to the door, disappearing into the corridor.

Aaron wanted to feel relieved, but for some reason that only added to his anxiety. What if they'd found the key and wanted to tell Lou about it? Discuss what they'd do to him for it?

"Aar?"

Leo's voice managed to land Aaron's feet back onto reality. He turned to look at Leo, and just as he saw his face, he remembered that he could have possibly messed with the key. "Um, Leo?" Aaron said. "You didn't tell me. Did you play with the dolphin?"

"Yeah." Leo looked around, then pointed at it. "It's there. Found a key inside, Aar. It was old and ugly."

Relief. Leo, not the captors.

Aaron relaxed a little, but then the tension caught up with him again. He felt a torrid of questions plead to spill past his lips, because all his hopes depended on that single piece of bronze, yet he restrained himself from pouring them all over Leo. Aaron didn't want to make it too obvious that the key was important to him, because he could imagine Leo telling the captors that he'd been asking about it so urgently.

"Oh. So where did you put it?"

"I threw it, Aar."

  "You what?" Incredulity dripped from Aaron's voice, clear and obvious. Leo tilted his head unsurely. "I mean, yeah," Aaron quickly said, pretending he didn't give a shit. "You should. It doesn't matter. Never mind."

Leo nodded and returned to drawing, while Aaron surveyed the room for a trashcan or something. In the corner, he found a small blue container, and from where he sat he could see that it was flooded with crumpled papers and broken crayons. Slowly, he scooted across the colorful rug until he was closer to it, from the corner of his eye making sure that Leo was still focused on drawing.

  Aaron peeked inside the bin, and on first glance he didn't see the key. His hand reached out and shuffled through as quietly as possible, but the crinkling sound of papers rubbing against each other emitted regardlessly of how careful he'd been, and it caught Leo's attention enough for him to turn and frown.

"Aar... What are you doing?"

  "Um, I dropped a... a crayon inside? Yeah. I dropped a crayon. And I want it back," Aaron rambled on with a nervous undertone that went smoothly unnoticed by Leo. Shrugging, Leo focused again on drawing.

  Aaron dipped his fingers inside the bin, silently thanking God that this bin only contained dry trash: torn papers, broken crayons. His fingertips clashed with the bottom of the bin, and they patted the flat surface frantically, pushing aside anything that came in their way. He felt something hard and solid after almost giving up, and he grasped it fast.

  There were a few seconds of heart-wrenching anticipation that stood there pulling onto Aaron's nerves as he raised whatever was in his hand from the bottom of the bin to meet his eyes, and he partly waited for the disappointment to kill him like it would always do. But it didn't happen.

The key was in his hand.

  Aaron felt the icy tension melt from where it had been frozen and tucked between his joints, hindering and painful. The key wasn't lost. Relief. So much of it

  Aaron's hand flew to his chest as he turned and leant back against the wall, sighing. "Finally. Finally something good," he whispered, and he earned himself another confused look from Leo. But he was far too relieved to even care at that moment what Leo was thinking, choosing instead to shove the key in the pocket of his sweatpants again before any the captors would walk in and take that moment of joy away.

He went to the toy bin and reached for a large plush dice that also had a small zipper, then opened it and hid the key inside. This time, Aaron shoved the dice back to the very bottom of the bin, and he decided he'd keep it there until he'd figure out a safer place. He just needed to keep an eye on Leo and make sure he wouldn't take it again until then.

This key better belong to that door, Aaron thought. He didn't even want to think about the possibility of it turning out to be incompatible.

  "Aar, look. I drew you." Leo held the paper he'd been drawing on towards Aaron, showing off the terribly drawn stick man that supposedly represented him. Aaron stared for a little while with a piteous frown, then he decided he didn't want to discourage Leo and smiled instead.

"Maybe you should write my name under it. Just to make it clear."

Leo's eyes skipped between Aaron and the crayon in his hand unsurely, then his shoulders slumped, and he glanced at him with shame in his eyes. "How do you write your name, Aar?"

Aaron gaped at Leo for a second. "You don't know how to spell my... never mind. Do you know how to write your name?"

  Leo's saddened expression lifted, hair flopping as he nodded vigorously. He gripped a crayon.

Aaron scooted closer to watch him write closely. Leo hunched over the table, one hand holding the paper stable against the surface and the other tracing down each letter of his name, what were supposed to be straight lines wavering slightly as he wrote. Leo looked confident writing his own name, but Aaron didn't miss how his hand wasn't really stable, almost like he wasn't too used to it the way he should be as a fifteen-year-old.

"Look, Aar! I know how to write my name. Wrote it many times." He stared down at the paper proudly, then glanced back at Aaron with sparkling eyes.

Aaron reached out for a crayon and a new paper, then scribbled down his name with large and clear letters. "Here's how you write my name. Write it under the stickman."

   Leo didn't look as confident as he'd been before, but he accepted to do as told nonetheless. He held his crayon again, this time a little tighter than before, and lowered the tip against the blank space, glancing at what Aaron had written for a moment. Then, he began dragging it across, creating shaky lines that he strained for to resemble the letters of Aaron's name, yet they came out not as neat.

Leo looked painfully concentrated: brows furrowed, lips pursed. His eyes cradled a certain determination to succeed yet a growing hopelessness as he watched the name turn out vastly different than he'd expected—wiggly and unstable, not as good as how he'd written his own name.

Aaron watched as Leo dropped the crayon, completely defeated and helpless. "Mine isn't nice like yours, Aar."

At that point, Aaron had realized that Leo barely knew how to write. Or more specifically, had forgotten how to write properly. Had been brainwashed enough to lose his initial skills. Or maybe... Aaron didn't want to think about it anymore.

  Aaron stared at the door with burning eyes. What have you done to him? he thought.

  He looked back at Leo, the fire extinguishing down to dying embers as he watched how disappointed he looked. Tears shone through a glistening sheen that concealed his blue eyes, and it was enough for Aaron to forget all the anger at once. "No no no, Leo," Aaron said. "Don't cry. I'll teach you how to write."

  Leo looked at Aaron immediately, frowning even through the sadness. "I know how to write, Aar!" There was a sharp, defensive edge in his voice as he spoke, but as soon as he was done, the power demolished and weakness became prominent again. Leo's gaze fell onto his lap, his fingers fiddling together nervously. "Know how to write all the letters, Aar. Mommy taught me. But your name's big and hard."

  "Good," Aaron said. "You know how to write, and that's really good, Leo. Just let me help you write them better." Aaron scooted closer to him, and Leo watched wordlessly as he adjusted the crayon in his hold, then placed his hand around his own, like two people using one pencil. There was a smile on Aaron's lips, one that beamed with encouragement on the outside yet screamed with overwhelming sadness inside. Sadness that a fifteen-year-old could barely write, that he'd get confused just writing a five-letter name. That his letters would turn out as wiggly and unstable as those of an actual little child.

  The heavy feeling in Aaron's chest didn't leave, but he shook the thought from his mind, redirecting his focus to teach Leo.

"You know how to write the letter A, right?" There was no audible response. Leo nodded, so Aaron continued: "Great. My name starts with an A. Two, actually. Look, you just need to press on the crayon hard enough so they come out straight."

Aaron guided Leo's hand around the paper, the crayon tracing down the first letter of his name in neat, stable green strokes. Then he helped him with the other A, and Leo smiled slightly as he watched the name slowly begin to form. "Now, R, O, and N."

Aaron patiently continued helping him, making sure that each letter turned out neat and that Leo had some control over the crayon. From the corner of his eye, Aaron could see the way Leo's expression was slowly transforming from sad to hopeful, the edges of his mouth curling up as he wrote with him and his eyes probing the letters with fascination.

  Soon, it was done. Leo's eyes skipped between his version of Aaron's name and the newer one. They were both the same, but Leo's letters weren't neat, each curve accidentally drawing out to the side and each line prolonging in unstable waves. "This one is nicer, Aar." He pointed at the new one, then looked back at Aaron with a large smile and eyes that no longer shone with sad tears.

"Yours is nice too, Leo. You just need to practice more."

"Thanks," Leo said, leaning forwards to hug Aaron.

  "Anytime," Aaron mumbled as he hugged Leo back. "See, Leo. I'll always help you. This is why you need to really trust me and always do what I tell you."

Leo nodded quickly without a single moment of hesitation.

And Leo didn't stop practicing after that. Instead, he started writing Aaron's name over and over again, and he showed Aaron each time he finished. Aaron offered an encouraging grin even when it didn't turn out stable enough. They stayed like that for a while, until Mommy came in with two cups of yogurt in her hands.

"Look what Mommy got for you!"

  Aaron didn't look as impressed as Leo, but that was until he realized the yogurt was a creamy pink, small chunks of solid red mixed in between. Strawberry yogurt. He tried not to let the fact that he loved yogurt (his personal favorite flavor) affect him too much, and instead stuck to a small smile that he was certain Mommy would like.

Mommy gave Leo one yogurt, then held Aaron's hand and gestured him to follow her to the beanbag. Aaron briefly wondered when they'd begin trusting him enough to give him the freedom they gave Leo. Still, he did as told and sat by her side when she settled on the beanbag, then nestled beneath her arm that she'd stretched open for him.

Smiling, Mommy realized that Aaron didn't protest and snuggled up against her. "Here, baby," she said, forcing a spoonful into his mouth. Aaron accepted it. The taste of the cool yogurt exploded along the tip of his tongue first, then the small chunks of strawberry came in.

  Mommy continued feeding him, and everything was quiet until a small whine echoed in the room. Aaron and her turned to Leo, both chuckling at the sight of him scraping the cup with his spoon effortfully and straining to somehow gather more of the yogurt he'd finished.

After a short battle, Leo surrendered and turned to Mommy with an imploring pout on his lips. "More, Mommy?"

Mommy tutted, shaking her head. "No, baby. You can't. Too much isn't good."

  Leo didn't negotiate further, but his shoulders slumped and he turned away again, settling down with a sad look on his face as he fiddled with the spoon.

Aaron asked Mommy if he could hold the spoon on his own. She let him. And the moment she did, Aaron extended his arm over to Leo, swaying the spoonful close to him to grab his attention. Leo turned to Aaron, and the pout smoothened back to a grin when he realized what he was offering. He leant forward, his eyes sparkling as he closed his lips around the neck of Aaron's spoon, taking in the yogurt.

  "Aaron," Mommy called, one hand gently swatting the top of Aaron's head. Aaron quickly turned to her, but he'd already fed Leo the spoonful and he didn't regret it. "It's nice of you to share with your little brother, baby. But he's already had one, that's enough."

  Aaron didn't answer, and instead went with a submissive nod. And it continued: Aaron eating slowly and Leo playing silently aside, but that was until they caught a glimpse of Lou passing by the room.

It wasn't anything significant, but Mommy gasped, her brows knotting together. "Hold on. Lou! Come here!"

  A few wordless seconds passed before Lou reversed and walked into the room, revealing along the cup of yogurt clutched in his hand and the spoon his lips were bound tightly around. His eyes were as clueless as those of a lost puppy, and he only hummed, unaware of his mistake.

"Lou, you idiot." Mommy chuckled as she shook her head. "The yogurt's only for the boys, not you."

  Lou stayed still for a second, but then his eyes rolled lower and stared at the spoon in his mouth. He pulled it out, still uncertain as he stared back at Mommy. "Wait, I can't eat some?" Mommy shook her head. Again. A small oh slipped from Lou's lips. Then he frowned, suddenly taking offense. "Why?"

"Still no, Lou."

  Aaron smiled a little in the background, quite amused by Lou's displeasure, but then he was caught redhanded.

Lou narrowed his eyes at Aaron as he set his yogurt down, then moved forwards with slow steps. He stood by the couch, bending until he perfectly leveled his eyes with Aaron, one eyebrow raised.

But Aaron didn't feel scared, because he knew that Lou always played the harmless challenger; he'd grown quite familiar with how Lou behaved.

"Someone's laughing at me, huh? Are you making fun of me because I'm not allowed to eat yogurt, and you are?" Lou asked. Aaron wanted to answer, but he bit the words back when he thought of Mommy's presence. Lou liked interaction, but she didn't and Aaron wasn't about to risk it. Instead, he remained silent as he looked at him. Aaron realized that it was harder to be around more than one captor at once, because what kept one happy could piss the other off. "Alright. I'm sorry, baby."

  Aaron frowned at the apology, but he didn't have time to question, startled by Lou's fast-paced planning and execution. Before he knew it, almost like in an odd blur, Lou snatched the spoonful of yogurt from Aaron's hand, then turned it and shoved it against his nose.

The coldness of the yogurt against Aaron's skin was the first thing to bring the realization forwards, and Aaron's frown sharpened as he stared down at the spoon hanging down his nose. His eyes darted back to Lou.

"Lou!" Mommy glared at Lou then quickly took the spoon off Aaron's nose and cleaned the yogurt with a napkin she'd reached for. "What was that for?"

  Lou shrugged. "Because I like messing with my little baby." He tapped his baby's nose, and although Aaron was not amused, he forced a smile.

Mommy watched the way the edges of Aaron's lips curled. Why couldn't she make him smile like that?

"Do you want to come with me, baby?" Lou asked as he extended his hand down to Aaron, but he was startled with a grip on his wrist, one that gently shoved him back.

Mommy was not allowing him to take her baby away from her.

  "Lou, where do you wanna take him? He's with you all the time. I want him around me too." There was accusation in each word Mommy spoke, sharp enough to slice through the air. Today her eyes were a venomous green. Lou feared he'd seen jealously tangled somewhere in the dark shade that concealed her eyes. He'd never meant to take Aaron from anyone; he just wanted to have a good relation with his little baby. So Lou stepped back, his movements slow and cautious.

Mommy realized she'd been too harsh, and her eyes softened. "Play with Leo a little. Can you? He needs you too."

Aaron didn't like where the conversation was going, and he really wished it'd stop there. He saw a strike of pain flash in Lou's eyes, something that had him feeling vaguely sympathetic.

  Lou decided not to fight her. Firstly, his babies were in the room, and he all but wanted to traumatize them. Secondly, he understood Mommy's pain—he could only imagine how awful it'd be if he couldn't carry Aaron and be close to him. So he turned to Leo, then leant down and picked him up, avoiding any unnecessary scene. "Hi, baby," he said, pressing the tip of his nose against his. "Do you wanna play with Uncle Lou?"

  Mommy watched Lou from afar, her hand instinctively reaching up to Aaron's hair. She curled small strands around her fingers, carefully combing through and tugging very gently at the roots—something that almost made Aaron panic. He remembered too well how his father used to pull his hair before. But now that he thought about it, it was kinda funny. Ironic. He went from living with an abusive father who enjoyed dragging him by the hair, to sitting beside a psychopath who was creepily obsessed with playing with his hair.

And they stayed like that for quite a while: Mommy enjoying her time with Aaron, and Aaron trying desperately not to throw up.

*_*_*_*_*

Impossibly, the day passed by. Each second stretched until it felt like an hour, and by the end of it Aaron felt like he'd somehow lived through a year in just twenty four hours. But that didn't make sense, right? He didn't even know anymore.

  The captors had put both boys in bed early, and now Aaron felt like it had been at least a couple of hours from then. The night shade had settled down completely. Darkness engulfed the room save for a faint light that the captors always kept on because they didn't want their babies to feel scared.

  Carefully, Aaron pulled himself into a sitting position and peeked at Leo's crib. He was soundly asleep, his hair over the pillow like a puddle of chocolate. His face seemed relaxed, and Aaron was glad he didn't look tense and scared like he had last time. But then he remembered there was something more important. His eyes fell upon the door, and it now hit him that if that door were always locked, it would be another hurdle.

Aaron really hoped it wasn't locked. He decided he needed to check.

  He stayed still, listening intently to figure out if the captors were still awake or roaming around. But nothing. It had been that way for a while. There was no noise, no footsteps. When he made sure, he gathered the pillow and quilt together until they formed a hump, then he stepped onto them for a boost up the long bars of the crib. He clutched two of them tightly and raised himself as much as possible, one arm curling around the top of the railing to keep himself stable. Then he raised his leg onto the railing too, and the other, until he was now entirely sitting on top of it.

  Aaron slowly lowered his legs down the other side of the crib, stretching his foot down as much as possible before allowing himself to land just so the sound would be as minimal as possible. Soon, he was safe down on the floor, and he listened a little longer to make sure there were still no approaching footsteps or noises. He felt his heart tremble slightly as he walked closer to the door on his tip-toes, praying with all his passion that it wouldn't be locked. But even if it were unlocked, he wouldn't escape right then. He still had things to do before: prepare Leo, gain the captors trust more, and just generally be sure of what the hell he was doing.

  He reached his hand towards the knob then pulled it down, for a second expecting to hear nothing. But instead, there was a click, and Aaron pulled it open just a crack, just to make sure that it wasn't imagination, that it really could open up.

It wasn't locked.

  A warm breeze swept around Aaron's heart, and he felt so indescribably relieved that he almost didn't catch the sound of footsteps coming closer, or the silhouette of one of the captors climbing up the stairs, the shadowy image stretched across the wall adjacent to the staircase that he could see through the small gap of the open door.

Aaron knew that he, again, had only a few seconds to save himself.

*_*_*_*_*

who do you think is coming up?

tysm for reading/voting/commenting! The comments dropped so hard recently :(