TORN FLESH

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: FROZEN FRAMES

EDDIE watched as Margo's eyes hung on the date of the photo, he knew exactly what she was thinking, and yet, he didn't know how to make her think of something else.

"That old bastard Hurley still around?"

Margo's eyes flicked up to meet his and for a second she seemed confused, bewildered even.

"How do you know about him?" Eddie leaned his head into his hand and stared at her from his spot on the couch, "he'd come by the house now and then to talk to Ronnie before he took him in for training."

She nodded her head at the response and tried to think back to those days, trying her hardest to remember seeing Stan before she really knew him. Nothing came to mind.

"Do you even know what they did to you in there?"

Margo shook her head, "Eric had some reports about my background and current status- current in terms of right before all this shit," she glanced back down at the photo book in her lap, "none of the medical records."

Eddie ran one of his fingers over the corners of his mouth before letting them drop into his hands, "I remember when Ronnie hacked the CIA's system to see your records, I was still in jail at the time from the custody battle-" Margo turned her gaze back to him, a feeling of interest in what he knew about her had drawn her in, and now she was going to get answers.

"And I got the call, and at first I thought I was being screwed with, but then Ron started talking, and he was calm, and steady, focused, and I knew it was him," closing the photo book in her lap, Margo scooted closer, "what did he say?"

Eddie's gaze lingered on his hands- the two were intertwined, resting on his knees- before he met his sister's gaze, "he told me what they were doing to you, the therapy, the new name, how you were going to go to a super-max if you didn't cooperate-"

He chuckled then, an odd, bitter-sounding laugh slipping from his lips, "he said that once they'd done the therapy with you there weren't any cooperation issues. He said that you wouldn't remember either of us, and that in a way you really were dead."

Margo watched him with big eyes, waiting for the next bit, the next set of details he would feed her. "He said that he had hope, that he was gonna get you out of there, and by the time I got out of jail you two were all over the news, sibling terrorists working hand in hand."

He chuckled again, and Margo found this one even more unsettling than the first, "he wanted to kill Stan, you know? And Mitch, god, he wanted him dead from the start, he'd write to me about it under a different name every time, but when he found out about him he became obsessive."

"Why?" Eddie ran his hand over his lips again, seemingly at a loss for words for a few moments, "he wanted him to join his little mission, take down Stan, make him pay, get the guys that caused them so much pain, and if he couldn't have that, he wanted him dead," he raised his hands then, quickly making air quotes as he spoke, "better dead than in my way."

"And me?"

Eddie limply gestured to her, "go ahead and feel the back of your neck," with a frown, Margo brought her hand to her neck and felt around until her fingers brushed over the small bump.

"What is that?"

She watched as her brother cracked his knuckles before answering her, "that's where Irene had your tracker, years ago before the barn was a fully operational training center."

"When did it become fully operational?"

Eddie shook his head, "right before you turned seventeen, then they transferred you over there after removing the chip."

Margo scratched the back of her neck again and frowned, "you didn't answer the question."

He smiled then, not a bitter smile, but more of a sad smile, "Ronnie thought that if the chip was still in there he wouldn't need to kill you, one way or another you'd help him."

Her blood turned to ice with those words and she found herself frozen to the floor beneath her, "is it-"

"No, it shouldn't be."

Her hand remained at her neck and she probed at it for a few moments before meeting her brother's gaze, "I want you to check."

His eyes widened at the statement and he raised a brow, "what?"

"I want you to check, if it's there remove it, if not then at least we can be sure," she brought her hand to her hair and tucked it behind her ears, "if Irene had access then Stan must have had access too."

Nodding his head, Eddie stood and moved to go to the kitchen, a part of her was saying to stop this madness, to not let one of her brothers come at her with a weapon again, but she wanted- needed, to know.

She had to be sure.

When Eddie returned he had a small knife in his hand, a bottle of beer, and a towel, all of which sent a wave of nausea through her. "You sure you wanna do this?"

She nodded her head and watched as he popped the top off the beer bottle, "what's that for?" with a taut smile, he held it out to her, "it's gonna hurt like a bitch."

Frowning, she brought the bottle to her lips and took a small swig before turning back to him, "no rubbing alcohol?" he frowned and gestured to the bottle, "don't drink it all."

She turned again, moving her body to face the kitchen before setting the bottle down and pulling her hair into a ponytail so it was off her neck.

"Last chance to opt-out kid."

Margo almost let the word stop leap from her lips, but instead, she bit down on her tongue and watched as her brother stood from his spot behind her on the couch, "I was kidding about the beer, drink some more while I go grab the rubbing alcohol for this."

Relief flooded through her, although not enough to soothe her nerves, she was about to let an untrained professional cut into her neck to find something that may not even be there. She didn't even want to think about what would happen if he hit an artery.

She prayed he didn't.

When her brother returned- for the second time- he had the clouded white bottle in his hand and plopped down onto the couch behind Margo before popping the top of the alcohol open.

She listened as he grabbed the knife and poured the liquid over it onto the couch, so careless, so messy. But when he slowly poured it onto her neck- and the remnants dripped down beneath her shirt- she closed her eyes and took another swig of beer.

The cold metal of the blade met her skin as she clenched her teeth in anticipation, she'd been through worse, she'd be fine. What was a little incision and stitch up? Nothing, it would be nothing to her.

She was wrong.

When the blade dipped into her skin there was no feeling at first, and then the burning, ripping- tearing even- sensation came rushing at her all at once and hit her like a gunshot to the chest.

Short breaths left her mouth and she forced herself to take another drink, Eddie wouldn't intentionally hurt her, and she knew that he was trying his best not to do so right now.

After a few moments of that burning sensation, she felt the warm presence of Eddie's fingers probing through the layers of her skin, without meaning to, a small groan passed through her lips and her brother watched as her shoulders tensed beneath the fabric of her shirt.

She swallowed another mouthful of beer and listened as her brother groaned himself and dug a second finger into her cut skin, god, that burning sensation returned and by the time he had started to pull at her skin she was too dazed to notice.

With a sigh, he slowly removed his hands from her neck and quickly set whatever he had discovered on the couch before grabbing the towel and pressing it against her open wound.

"Hold that there."

Reaching her hand up, she pressed her free hand against the towel and took another sip of beer as her brother walked off again.

She turned her head and glanced to the couch cushions, her eyes landed on the small device, a small red light blinked every few seconds, she wondered if it was an alert of some kind, an alarm even.

The sound of footsteps drew her back from the small object and she turned just as Eddie approached her with a roll of bandage in his left hand.

"Take the towel off, I'm gonna stitch it and clean it," very slowly, she removed the towel from her neck and dropped it into her lap, as she looked at it she realized just how far Eddie had dug into her neck.

She turned the towel over- blood facing the floor- and leaned her head forward, within moments the sound of soft sizzling filled her ears and she felt the rubbing alcohol drip down her skin.

"Now this, this is probably gonna hurt worse than when we started," for a moment she wanted to believe that, but she didn't, the removal of the object itself had been the worst part, whatever came would leave her like a calm sea.

Unbothered and unwavering.

The stitches started out quick but precise, and she was thankful for as much, too quick for her to feel the pain of the previous stitch and precise enough that she knew she wouldn't have to worry about the faulty of them.

Towards the end, when Eddie was tying the end of the thread she waited for the third round of rubbing alcohol and took another sip of beer, she had maybe two left and she knew that when she woke the next morning the pain would be the worst of it.

"It's looking pretty clean, I'm gonna put the bandage on, and then we should be good."

A small groan of approval slipped from her throat and she looked at the wall across from her as he wrapped the bandage around her neck to cover the stitches.

"It might bother your neck, but I ain't got no other kind of bandages," Margo softly nodded her head as he secured the end of the said bandage and stood up, when he stepped around and in front of her she saw the faded blood on his hands.

"Was that it? The tracker?" Suddenly Eddie faced her then, and instead of heading into the kitchen to clean his hands, he retreated to the couch and quickly retrieved the device.

They watched it for a few moments before the red light suddenly went out, maybe it had died. But that couldn't be the case, otherwise, it would've died long before its discovery.

After a minute or so a green light- in place of the red- flashed and began to blink just as it had before, with wide eyes, the two siblings exchanged a look and Eddie dropped the device.

Without so much as a warning, her brother raised his foot and smashed it down onto the floor where the device had been dropped. A small crack followed and he lifted his foot to check that it was destroyed, which it was.

A shaky breath left Eddie's mouth and Margo watched him with even wider eyes than before, "what the hell did you do that for?"

Her brother shook his head and took a step back, "he knows you're here."

TORN FLESH

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: FROZEN FRAMES