“We brought them here because Masin said his mother works here,” the Sergeant offered. “We’re waiting for her to come down. Is there any way that you can verify any of what you’ve said about him?”
“I have to get Fischer or Wren here.”
“Fair enough,” he said. “I appreciate you standing back. I can see you’re not going to hurt him. We’ll wait for the nurse—”
“Masin?” A woman in scrubs with hair up came running down the hallway to the front lobby. “Masin Anthony, what the hell are you doing here? God, child, you’re supposed to be at St. Chris!”
“I wanted to see you, Mommy.” His voice was quiet as he stepped out from behind the officer. “I miss you.”
She dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around him. “Oh, baby, I miss you too, but you can’t leave the hospital! You’re too young to be out in the city at night. God, shit. How did he get here?”
“Officer Franks found them about half a mile from St. Chris,” the Sergeant said. “Since Masin here said he was trying to find you and this is where you worked, we brought them here.”
“Thank you,” she whispered into his air. “I’m so glad he’s all right. But how did he get out?”
“The second shift nurse took a nap,” I said. “They exploited the opportunity.”
The sergeant tipped his head. “Ogilvy. You think you can handle three kids and a mom for hot cocoa?”
“Not a problem, Sarge.” Ogilvy motioned Masin and his mother, and the twins, to head down the hall. “Come on. I know they have a small café that’s open for tea and coffee and cocoa.”
“Can I have coffee?” Masin asked.
“Good Christ, child, no.” His mother let out a breath.
The sergeant looked back at me as they disappeared down the hall. “So, how long will it take for one or both of Ben’s parents to show up?”
Lincoln: You guys on your way?
Wren: The instant Ellie told us you had him. We’ll be there in about twenty minutes.
“Twenty minutes sound good?” I asked.
“Any way we can calm this kid down?” The sergeant looked down at Ben who was bleating and crying and yanking against him. “I feel like he’s going to have a pulmonary incident.”
I ran a hand down my face, and walked toward Ben, who started thrashing and screaming even more. I knelt down slowly so I could see him easily and didn’t tower over him. “Ben, please stop. You’re going to hurt yourself like this. You’re going to pass out.”
“I’m not going back! I’m not going back! You can’t make me!”
“I’m not going to lie to you, Benjamin. I can make you go back. You’re seven, and you’re not allow to make decisions like that. But, I don’t want to send you back.” Taking a deep breath, I really hoped Wren would forgive me leaping ahead on the plans. “None of us want you in there, Ben. We’ve been waiting for you to show us that you’re ready to come home. You keep acting out, though, bud. You keep showing that you’re not ready to come home with us and live in a house—and we want you to. Ellie misses you. Tabi and Tim want a brother. Fischer and Wren want their son.”
He had calmed considerably from the moment I started talking. He stared at me, sniffling.
“Can you tell me why you keep acting out?”
He sniffled and wiped his nose on his sleeve, then looked utterly terrified that he had done something every seven year old boy did. The tears that followed were the most genuine I’d seen from him, and full of complete despair. “You locked me up.”
“We didn’t lock you up—”
“You locked me up!” It was a scream this time. “You took me out of the room I’d been locked in at Master’s, and locked me in another room! It doesn’t matter if they let me out during the day. It doesn’t matter! Master fed me, too. Master let me out, let me have free time. But everyone locks me in after dinner!”
We screwed the pooch with this kid.
“Oh, Ben.” I sighed. “I’m so sorry. I don’t think that any of us realized how much you wanted out. Why didn’t you tell the therapist.”
“He smells like eggs.”
Now, my hackles went up. “Eggs?”
“Bad eggs. Rotten eggs. I don’t want to tell him anything. Not what I’m scared of and not what I like.”
“Brimstone…” I whispered.
Was there anywhere the After wasn’t intruding? Ellie, the twins…and now Ben? If Lily was right and we all had these memories locked, we were going to need them. I wanted to know what the hell was going on.
“Ben, you’re going to come home with us. With the twins, Wren, Fischer, and Ellie. There’s no door on your room there—your sister insisted we take it off. You’ll never be locked in a room again. But you have to talk to us if you feel scared or uncomfortable. If anyone makes you feel that way, you need to tell us.”
A few tears fell from his eyes, and I brushed them away.
“I don’t know who is safe.” His voice was a torn, sad whisper.
I pulled him in close and hugged him carefully. “That’s easy, Ben. Ellie. Me, Fischer, Wren, Bastian. Tabi, Tim.”
He pushed me back a bit and studied me. “All them?”
“All of them.” I nodded, confirming my answer. “We all want the very best for you, we all want you safe. Why on Earth do you think we rushed here when we had even the slightest hint that you were here?”
“To lock me away. Doctor Devlin says there’s something wrong with me and that’s why you keep me locked up.”
Devlin? Really? Couldn’t even be more original than that? “Something we’re trying to help you fix, kiddo. We want you out of there. If we bring you home, you have to promise that you’re going to talk to us. Not bottle this up. You’ll talk to Wren or Sebastian, or your new therapist.”
“I don’t have to see Deviled Egg again?”
The cops around us all snorted and tried to cover it up. I smirked. “No way, man. Maybe we’ll even send him a bar of soap and tell him to stop smelling like bad eggs.” As long as the bar had lye and holy water in it.
“You promise you won’t lock me in.”
“Not like that. If there is a locked door in our house, it is for your own safety. If you’re home with Ellie and the twins, outside doors are locked. If our bedroom doors are locked, you have to stay out. You can learn safety as we go along. And you may be sent to your room for being bad, but no locks. But you will not be locked in again.” I held up my pinky. “Pinky swear.”
A moment went by and he held up his hand, then his pinky, and I wrapped mine around his and tugged on it.
“Pinky swear,” Ben repeated.
“Now, we might have to go back to the hospital to get all this sorted—” He was about wail, but I put my finger over his lips and stopped him. “Please let me finish. We might have to go back, but at no point will you be locked up or without one of the adults. Good deal?”
His eyes cast down. “Sorry.”
Tipping his chin, I caught his eyes. “No sorry needed. You’re worried right now, and it’s okay to be that way.”