#left for dead
A beam of light shines directly into the Whumpee’s closed eyes. They turn their head to avoid it, burying their face deeper into what they quickly realize is the Caretaker’s chest that they were laying against. They pull back and open their eyes, feeling startled at being so close to someone they barely know after having so recently escaped the Whumper’s grasp. Everything in their body still hurts, including a throbbing wound still plaguing their side. The person that had saved them sits on the ground with their back against a wall and looks at the source of the light. Slowly the Caretaker raises their hands and nods, then says something back to whoever is holding the flashlight in a language the Whumpee doesn’t understand. The Whumpee scrambles backwards as the light lowers and someone approaches the Caretaker - before they reach their target, the Caretaker speaks again but this time gestures at the Whumpee. The other person agrees, and at this the Caretaker looks at the Whumpee sadly. “You’re giving me to them, aren’t you?” the Whumpee accuses them frantically. The Caretaker pulls themselves to their knees and approaches the Whumpee, but the Whumpee just scrambles further back on the pavement, clutching their side and keeping their distance at all costs. The Caretaker hangs their head and seems to give up, then looks at the person holding the light again and nods. They say something resolutely, again in another language, that leads the person to come over and yank the Caretaker’s hands behind them and zip tie them together. The person looks up at the Whumpee as they do so, and the Whumpee recognizes the person as the Whumper’s right hand. “It’s your lucky day,” the right hand says in broken English as they roughly grab the Caretaker by their collar and yank them up to stand. Before the Whumpee or the Caretaker can react, the right hand wields a knife and thrusts it into the Caretaker’s side, effectively disabling them and putting the same injurious time clock on their captivity as the Whumpee received. “Today he gets to eat a new meal instead of having your leftovers.” From there the light abruptly turns off as the right hand pulls the Caretaker away, leaving the Whumpee alone with a worse fate than having been reclaimed by the Whumper: loneliness, lingering pain, no way out, and a rising, crushing sense of guilt.
Whumptober Day 30
“I’m alive?” Ryan asks as he stirs awake.
“You are,” Dr. Howell responds. “You are in the hospital. I am Dr. Howell. Paramedics found you under a tree all banged up. Some good samaritan called it in. They brought you here, and you’re safe now, but I have a decision for you to make. You don’t have to make it now, but–”
Ryan interrupts Dr. Howell with cries of pain. “Please help me,” he begs. “What they did to me. It’s still there. In my leg. It hurts.” He lurches forward.
“Ryan, I am going to help you. That choice I was talking about–it’s no longer a choice. The bullet in your leg must’ve migrated. You’re headed up to emergency surgery.” Dr. Howell walks behind Ryan’s bed and disengages the breaks. She wheels him down the hall toward the OR.
Note: Here it is. The last one. I know I’m a day late. (well 2 days late since it’s almost 4 in the morning). But here it is.
Luigi pushed Amber forward. “Keep running.” They were almost there. Maybe pops wasn’t such a paranoid bastard when he built a panic room. Luigi glanced backwards. They managed to get a decent headstart. It was a massive takeover. The men were too well-armed to be rebels. Who the fuck were these people?
Gunshots resounded behind them. Fuck. “Don’t fucking stop.” They had to get to the panic room and then they would think of what to do next. Only the three of them could open the door. No one had access; not even the head of security. They just had to get in. The both of them had to get in there and then they’d figure something out.
A pit settled in Luigi’s gut knowing it was just the two of them. Where the hell did Pavi run off to? He wasn’t in GeneCo; that much Luigi knew. But he had no idea where his idiot brother went. He didn’t need his brother coming back to this mess. Or worse… What if someone followed him and-
A sharp pain shot through his back. Luigi collapsed forward.
“Brother!”
His back hurt. He had to stand. He had to move.
His sister stared at him in fear. Her eyes darted behind him then back at him. She turned and ran towards the panic room door. She keyed in the code. The door flew open. “Brother.” She turned towards him.
Luigi couldn’t move. No matter how hard he tried to force himself to move. He tried pushing himself upwards but that was all he could do.
Amber looked up behind him once more and her eyes widened. She ran into the panic room. She refused to meet his eyes as the doors slammed shut.
Something clenched in Luigi’s chest. He would have told her to get in there but… To see her leave him so willingly. Fuck. They were all out for themselves. Why should he have expected any different? Damnit. It shouldn’t hurt as much as it did.
Pain shot through his hand.
“Drop the gun.”
Luigi closed his eyes and released the gun.
“Get to your feet.”
Luigi turned his head and just glared. There were a dozen armed men before him.
The man with his foot on his hand reached out and grabbed his hair. He pulled. “I said get up.”
Luigi grunted. He couldn’t move. But fuck if he was telling them that. “Fuck you.”
The man pulled him upwards.
Pain shot through his back. A gun was placed at his chin “Fuck you.”
“I don’t need you. Open the panic room.”
They needed Amber. Why would the rebels need her? A mass slaughter proved their point. No, they were too well-armed for rebels. “I can’t open the door. Once its shut with someone inside, only the person inside can open it.” Luigi sneered.
“You’re lying.” The man dug his finger into the bullet wound in his back.
“Fuck.” Pain shot through his entire spine. A sharp shooting pain shot through his legs. He couldn’t move his legs. “Why the fuck would I lie?”
The man cocked the gun. “Then we don’t need you.”
“Wait.” Another man said and sauntered up to him. “I have an idea.”
***
Amber sat on the ground, hugging her knees to her. She left her brother out there. She left her brother to die. She hugged her knees closer. She left her brother out there to die.
No. He was shot. He wouldn’t have made it. He couldn’t even stand. She couldn’t have dragged him into this room. There wasn’t anything she could do. She would have died as well.
Excuses. All excuses. She was scared. She didn’t want to get caught. So she ran. She ran and left her brother out there. She left her brother out there alone.
Her watch rang. “Incoming call from Luigi Largo.”
He got out. He must have found somewhere to hide. He was alright. She answered the watch. “Brother.”
“Amber Sweet.”
Her heart fell. That wasn’t her brother. They had her brother. They had her brother. She gave them her brother.
“Ms Sweet. I think you understand the significance of me having this watch.”
“Is…is he alive?”
“For now.” There was a pause and she heard her brother curse in pain.
Amber closed her eyes. They had her brother. “What do you want?”
“I just need you to open the door.”
If she opened the door, they would kill her. They needed her because she was CEO. They needed her dead.
“Are you listening to me, Ms Sweet?” The voice was cold, professional.
If she opened the door, they would kill the both of them. They would not leave Luigi alive. They would kill them both.
“If you don’t open the door, I will kill your brother.”
“That slut doesn’t give a fuck about me.”
Amber clenched her eyes shut. Tears pricked at her eyes. Brother, that’s not true. That’s not true.
“Ms Sweet.” The voice warned.
“You won’t let him go. If I open this door, you won’t let him go.”
“I just need you Ms Sweet. I have no use for your brother.”
He was lying. What would killing only her do? The rebels would wipe them all out. He was lying. “I don’t believe you.”
“Have it your way, Ms Sweet.” A gun cocked.
No. No. Let him go. Please let him go. Please.
A scream of pain echoed through the line.
Amber froze. What were they… what were they doing?
Another scream.
Amber’s blood ran cold.
“Are you going to open the door now, Ms Sweet? We have plenty of time.”
Amber’s lip trembled. No. Not this. They were torturing her brother. They were trying to force her to open the door.
“Ms Sweet, are you even there?”
Another scream echoed through the line.
Amber whimpered.
“I heard that.”
Amber clenched her eyes shut. No. They couldn’t know it was affecting her. They would hurt him more. They would hurt him more.
Another scream. This one worse than any of the others.
Amber clamped her hand over her mouth. Tears streamed down her face. Stop this. Please stop this. Stop this.
“I told you.” The voice was trembling. “That fucking slut doesn’t give a fuck about me. End this now.”
Amber slammed her head against her knee. That isn’t true, brother. That isn’t true.
“You want this to end, tell your sister to open the fucking door.”
Luigi screamed again.
Stop. Stop. Stop.
“How…do you expect me…to convince her?”
“Figure it out.”
Luigi screamed again.
Amber clamped her hand tighter as sobs fought to escape her lips.
“Fine. If your sister won’t open the door, then you open it.”
“I…told you. I can’t…open it…from this side…once there’s someone…in there.”
Liar. That son of a bitch was lying. That son of a bitch was- Amber’s shoulder’s shook as the quiet sobs wrecked her body.
“Then pray your sister finds mercy.”
Luigi screamed once more.
“Stop.” She choked out. “Please just stop. I’ll open the door. Please just stop.” Full blown sobs wrecked her as she no longer forced herself to stay silent.
“That’s all you had to-” The man was cut off. “Mother-”
A shot rang out.
A chill ran down Amber’s spine. “Lu?”
“Fuck. Find Pavi Largo. NOW!”
Fear filled Amber’s gut. “Lu?”
“End that fucking call.”
“Brother…”
The call was cut off.
“No.” Amber couldn’t breathe. A choked cry of pain escaped her lips. “No.” She pulled her knees tighter to her. “No.”
***
Pavi watched his sister draped over the couch. She was humming to herself. He approached her and she didn’t react to him. Her pupils were constricted. She was high…again. He sighed and sat in the armchair opposite her. He wanted to talk to her when she was sober but…she was never sober. Not since the attack on GeneCo.
Guilt filled Pavi’s chest and he forced it back. He should have been here. Maybe things would have turned out differently if he was here. He had taken the day off and was at the other side of town when he heard what had happened. He rushed back to GeneCo but the GeneCops didn’t let him go inside. He could only wait outside; not knowing if his siblings were alive or dead.
And then when they took back GeneCo…
The GeneCops found him first. They tried to cover him up; told him not to look. He can still see his brother’s broken body: bones broken, fingers cut off, skin flayed. He was already stiff by the time they got to him. But Pavi still wonders if they had just taken back GeneCo sooner…maybe…
They couldn’t find sorella anywhere. He was so scared. Where could they have put his sister? It was then when Pavi realized where they had found Luigi’s body; in front of the panic room.
He opened the door to find his sister curled on the ground in a foetal position. She didn’t answer his questions. She just laid there sobbing. She was inconsolable. She refused to say anything to him. Pavi couldn’t do anything but hold her as she sobbed in his chest. And then…and then Amber started using again. Pavi should have stopped her. He should have realized…
“Sorella?” His voice was quiet; not wanting to startle her.
Amber stopped humming. But she didn’t reply him. She just stared at the ceiling.
“Sorella, you have to talk to me.”
“What do you want me to say, brother?”
She was lucid enough to hold a conversation. That would have to do he supposed. “You need to talk about what happened.”
“No.”
“Sorella, you can’t keep doing this.”
“Doing what?”
“You’ve been clean for over a year.”
Amber didn’t say anything.
“Please, sorella. I know it’s hard. But you need to stop this.”
“If I’m not high, I keep hearing him scream.”
“I know it’s hard, sorella.”
“Maybe he’s punishing me, brother. He won’t leave me alone because he wants to see me suffer.”
“Sorella, he wouldn’t want this.”
Amber sat up. “How would you know?”
“Because I know fratello. He wouldn’t want to see you like this.”
Amber smiled sardonically. “I left him to die. I closed the door right behind me, leaving him outside.”
Pavi froze. She had to be lying. She wouldn’t have…
“And then the screams started. All I had to do was open that fucking door. But I was so scared. I couldn’t even open that door.”
“They would have killed you both.”
“You don’t know that!” Amber shook. “You can’t know that. We thought rebels. But they weren’t…they weren’t…”
The President’s men. They wanted to force Amber to sign away GeneCo. As soon as the GeneCops found the evidence… That bastard would rot in jail for the rest of his miserable life.
“They didn’t need him. They just needed me. If I had opened the door, he’d still be here.”
“Sorella, please.” He tried to touch her but she pulled away from him. “You don’t know that. They would have most likely killed you both as soon as they got what they wanted.”
“You won’t tell me how he died, Paviche. You won’t tell me what they did to him. You didn’t let me see him until they fixed him up.”
“Sorella…” Pavi sighed. “I told you they shot him in the back and in the head.”
“Where? Where in the head?”
Pavi closed his eyes. Right temple. But his sister didn’t need to know that. The guilt she felt was already crushing her. “Back of the head. Execution style.”
“Liar.” She hissed.
“Sorella.” He grabbed her arm and didn’t let her pull away.
“I may as well have killed him myself.” She looked at him. “So tell me, brother. How am I supposed to deal with that without Z? How am I supposed to deal with what I’ve done?” She fell back into the chair and grabbed her head.
Pavi sat next to his sister and pulled her towards him. “He wouldn’t blame you, sorella.”
“He thought I hated him. He thought I didn’t care…” She buried her face into Pavi’s chest.
“He knows you love, sorella.”
“How do you know? How do you know?”
Pavi closed his eyes. Bullet wound: right temple. Angle consistent with- “Because he knew you would open the door.”
Amber shook harder and sobbed painfully into his chest.
Pavi could do nothing but hold his sister.
some-messed-up-writing-for-you:
Short Prompt #678
CW: character was beaten up & left for dead.
“Well…, what do we have here?” - one of the gang members mumbled, cautiously approaching the silent body resting against the alley wall. Their buddies were right behind them, weapons at the ready. “Hey. You alive?”
A choked groan was their only response. The injured whumpee sucked in a pained breath, managing to open one of their eyes. “…Hrgh…?”
“Oh, good.” - the gang member said, casually crouching down beside them. “Don’t know who you pissed off, but want me to finish the job?”
Whumpee croaked out a sob. “N-No…, plea-se…”
“Hmm… Want some help then?”
The whumpee seemed hesitant but muttered out a quiet, “Y-Yes…”
“Alright then. This is gonna cost you later though just so you know.” - they responded before carefully picking Whumpee up into a bridal carry. “The name’s Caretaker, by the way. Let’s get you cleaned up, eh, pretty?”
