My Split Conference

Chapter Eight - Take a Peek Behind the Curtain

The headache woke him first, and the awful taste in his mouth made him grimace. Perry rubbed his head, hands bumping into a cool chest in front of him. He jumped a little, even though he knew it was JD he’d fallen asleep against.

Spirit breaking in half and hope falling away every second, Perry made the decision to stay put. He was tired of being the strong one, tired of acting like everything was going to be fine. Acceptance was hard when it meant that your life was over.

Perry sighed, thinking of all the things he probably wouldn’t get to do now. Never seeing Jack again was on top of his list. Never telling Bob Kelso off the proper way he’d been meaning to do for years was next. Giving Ted that extra push to jump off the roof…not so high on the list. Ted was sort of like a puppy; you wanted him to do something stupid, but when he did, you felt bad.

As he listened to the steady beating of JD’s heart, Perry swallowed hard. That had jumped on the list significantly, and things were changing faster then he could keep up with. He had only wanted to find something more. The hands on his neck were cold, and the heartbeat calmed him down.

He lifted his hands gently to pillow his head slightly. When he found that it took the sound of the heartbeat away, he let them fall again. He sighed hard, wondering when he’d come to care about JD so much.

And now he’d really screwed everything up. Would the burning have been that bad? The cutting, after all, had stopped hurting once he got used to it. The burning had just seemed so horrible…

Perry squeezed his eyes shut, swallowing again with a hoarse throat. If he kept thinking in that direction, he’d break off from reality again and he couldn’t afford to lose it once more.

His mind snorted at him. Who the hell was he kidding; there was no way he could pretend to be okay after this. He wasn’t going to be fine. And neither was JD.

A small groan made Perry jump again as he backed away. JD’s eyes were still closed, but he frowned in his sleep as Perry slid JD’s arms away from his shoulders.

JD’s eyes slid open, his head pounding as he stared at Perry’s defeated face. Something clawed at his heart again, realizing just how much the look on the older man’s face ached. Guilt was there, shame…and something that hadn’t been there before just beneath it.

Sedation gave way to sickness and desperation as he realized that Perry was throwing in the towel. He was giving up.

A primal fear shot through JD’s heart unexpectedly and he shook his head hard. He grabbed Perry’s hands hard.

"You can’t," JD mouthed to him. He pushed an okay sign into Perry’s cold hand.

Perry looked at him with a sigh, feeling the okay sign in his palm. The kid looked horrible, his face begging him to keep hoping. Anger was there too in JD’s face, sitting just past the fearful hurt.

With a reluctant sigh, Perry gave him a thumbs-up to his other hand and gave a weak smile in the darkness.

They were going to have to get out of here on their own.

JD sighed and looked around the room again, realizing that there wasn’t much that could help them out.

But Perry’s eyes narrowed in thought; he didn’t study the room at all. A slow idea began to form; after all, Thomas didn’t seem interested in killing them at all.

And what more did they have to lose besides each other?

JD slowly rested his head against the tub. He was tired again, and feeling everything like he was on the edge of insanity drew all of his energy sometimes. But Perry was thinking in his spot across the tub, and JD sighed, hoping he’d motivated the man into coming up with a plan.

God knows JD couldn’t think of one. With hands still grasped in his own, JD closed his eyes for a minute of sleep.

He wasn’t sure how much time had passed when the scream woke him. JD jerked awake, horror flying through him when he realized he wasn’t touching anyone in the tub anymore. The lights were still out, but JD could smell fire in the air.

The candle was re-lit then, and JD turned. He choked on his own air.

Perry was tied against the wall again, face red and streaked with tears. His jeans were hanging at his knees, and he faced the wall.

Thomas stood there and seemed to notice JD then. "How lovely for you to wake up. I was beginning to wonder how long it’d take for him to scream." Thomas jerked at Perry’s wrists and turned him around to face JD.

Before JD could muster anything to say, Thomas was jerking him to his knees in front of Perry’s waist.

New burns were scattered over Perry’s stomach and chest, and JD had little doubt that there were more over his back. But there were new cuts over Perry’s clean arm, where it now clearly said Tom Thumb.

"I love writing on people," Thomas mentioned casually, turning the water on to clean the knife. "So much more permanent then a piece of paper or a book, you know?"

JD swallowed hard and turned his head up. Thomas was already kneeled behind him though and shoving him face-first into the floor. A foot landed on JD’s back to keep him still.

Perry yanked against the bonds on his wrists, something desperate and hard making his chest ache.

"For God’s sake, leave him alone!" Perry finally snapped.

Thomas gave him a look and dug his foot into JD’s back harder, eliciting a whimper from the dark-haired man in the floor.

"God damn it, shut up, Perry!" JD suddenly yelled when the pressure grew in his chest.

But then Thomas viciously kicked JD’s side, and JD cried out at the resulting snap he heard in his ribs.

Perry’s eyes widened slightly, and anger surged through him like a monster as he jerked at his bonds. He pushed his feet flat to the ground so he could squat and get better leverage. Shutting his eyes tightly against what promised to be rather painful, Perry shoved his body forward, using a foot to kick off hard from the wall.

His shoulders screamed at him, threatening to pop from their joints as JD rolled over to his back, coughing and gagging as he tried to catch his breath.

Violence tinged Thomas’s face at the struggling man. He backhanded Perry hard, drawing blood from the mouth again.

Perry spit the coppery substance back into Thomas’s face.

Thomas wiped it from his cheek, sticking his finger into his mouth as he did so. "You, my friend, are an idiot."

"I’m not your friend."

"You’re still an idiot." Thomas swept to his face then, nose-to-nose with Perry. "How much more do you want me to break him before you realize you won’t be able to fix him?"

"Him, I can fix." Perry glared at him hard. "There’s no fixing you. You know why?"

"Hmm?"

"You can’t fix crazy." Perry spit at him again.

JD managed to pull himself to a sitting position as Thomas shoved a fist across Perry’s face and another into his stomach.

That was when Thomas didn’t stop hitting him. JD watched with fearful eyes, struggling to get to his feet as Thomas’s closed hands ran punches along Perry’s body.

Perry struggled to kick at him, watching in horror as JD suddenly threw his shoulders into Thomas’s back.

Thomas reared back and knocked JD to the floor with an elbow to the chest. JD gagged again on his own breath, falling with a thud to the floor.

The shattering of glass filled the air suddenly as Thomas threw the hammer he’d used on the nail. Mirror fragments fell to the floor as Thomas dropped to his knees, hands pressed flat against his head.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up…you can’t do that!" Thomas shouted. A hand flew out and jerked the knife from the counter top as he ran it against his own arms. Blood came to the surface, dripping over his hands. "You’re not supposed to; you can’t make me do that! Leave him alone; he’s not worth it; I’m not worth it!"

JD struggled back to his feet. This was a small window. Perry was still tied to the wall, struggling against his bonds and sending JD a pleading look.

But Thomas whirled around, knife pointed in JD’s direction. "In the tub, now."

JD stopped where he was at, gulping hard. Thomas pushed the knife closer, forcing JD to back up until the backs of his knees hit the tub and he fell in.

Thomas turned violently gleeful eyes back to Perry, who swallowed hard frantically.

Perry flicked his gaze over to JD, who stared back in horror.

Thomas shoved down his slacks then.

JD realized then why Perry had been screaming, and shut his eyes, wishing it would all just go away, but knowing it wouldn’t. He clapped his hands over his ears as Perry’s cries rang through the air.

JD bit hard on his lip, growing concerned when Perry did stop screaming.

Thomas pushed away from Perry’s body. The stupid fuck had passed out on him. No matter; it’s why two toys were better then one.

JD looked up, eyes hard and face white with terror. "No, please don’t. Tom, you don’t have to do this!"

Thomas didn’t listen and yanked JD from the bathtub. "You can take it from him, you’ll take it from me, you lousy fuck."

JD stared over helplessly at Perry, who was hanging limply from his wrists and struggled to turn his mind off when Thomas yanked viciously at his jeans.

Perry woke slowly to the whimpers and cries of the younger man and tried harder with sudden urgency to yank his arms from the nail. His wrists burned and yelled as he shouted out against it.

Thomas glared at him, throwing JD to the floor as he pulled his jeans up.

JD shoved fear and pain away to realize that Thomas had left mirror fragments all over the floor, not to mention the hammer that had fallen there when he’d thrown it.

JD looked up at Perry as Thomas raised his fist again to punch him. Crawling slowly and hoping he didn’t make any noises, JD felt his desperate fingers wrap around the metal head of the hammer.

Perry took a blow to the face as JD struggled to his feet and raised the hammer high.

Thomas seemed to sense that something was happening behind him, and turned at the last second to see a hammer racing toward his face.

Too late that he saw it, that the hammer’s handle crashed against his head and knocked him clean out into the floor.

JD gave a cry of relief as he dropped to his knees, struggling to pull his pants back over his aching body.

"Jill," Perry ground out hoarsely. "Get me down from here, now."

JD snapped back into reality and got to his feet as best he could. He used the hammer to yank the nail from the wall.

Perry collapsed forward into JD’s arm, not realizing he was sobbing until JD’s own tears were hitting his face.

"Get out of here, come on," Perry said roughly, getting to his own feet. "Worry about the cords later; we need to lock the door."

Thomas groaned on the floor suddenly.

Perry shoved JD out the door of the bathroom, and pushed himself out next to slam the door shut and lock the thick padlock that had been there. He shoved a nearby chair under the knob next.

JD was standing stock still in the small room, mouth open in even more fear.

Electric cords and cables were strewn about everywhere, the green screen indicating that Thomas had, indeed, been watching them. A small duffel bag held mostly JD’s clothing, and a couple of items from Perry’s room as well. Both their wallets had been turned out over the floor, small pictures and ID cards hanging on the carpet. A laptop was open to a file list.

Three knives lay on the dresser beside of the TV. Perry grabbed a hold of one as a thud sounded on the door of the bathroom.

"Hold your wrists out, Holly."

JD held his hands forward and let the man slice through the cording. He took the knife and went to work on Perry’s wrists next.

JD grabbed the cell phone on the floor, finding it to be dead. Horror and fear rose up in him again, but he realized with a jolt of self-deprecation that there was, in fact, a phone in the room.

It all seemed so simple, now that they were out. JD looked back towards the bathroom, and a sudden whip of emotion flashed through him.

Perry pulled the remainder of cording from his ankles and set to work on JD’s. "Newbie, you still with me?"

"What’d he do to you?"

The knife stopped moving then, and Perry didn’t look up from the floor. He raked a hand through his matted hair, and he began slicing through the cords again.

"What do you think he did?"

The look on Perry’s face sent another lashing of emotion through him. "He raped you."

"He raped you too, JD." Perry did look up at him then, still not cocky enough to do anything more then read the look over the kid’s face. "Worry later, cops now."

JD nodded quietly, though he already knew Perry was trying to forget the entire situation ever happened. JD didn’t blame him; he wanted to forget it too.

Most of it, don't forget about Perry, the small voice muttered in his mind, and JD started rifling through the duffel in the floor.

The thudding in the bathroom continued.

JD threw Perry a spare shirt. It was short-sleeved, and so he threw him a hooded sweatshirt as well.

Perry pulled both on, struggling to get away from those awful cuts over his skin as soon as possible.

JD pulled on a long-sleeved shirt as Perry picked up the phone. He was zipping up a black hoodie when Perry gave him a look that JD could remember from the darkness of the tub. Fear was back, and anxiety made him look sick.

"The phone’s dead."

JD ran to the door then and whipped it open. He and Perry ran down the small hallway, realizing it wasn’t a motel. When they finally found a door, JD shoved it open as well, and gasped.

They’d never been in a hotel room at all. They had, in fact, been in a house. In the middle of nowhere.

With snow as far as they could both see.

Perry swallowed hard and shut the door as a horrible thought occurred to him. "Hey, Brenda."

"Yeah?"

"Where’s the hammer?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Jordan scrubbed at her red eyes, wondering how she’d been convinced to go out with Gilligan and company again last night. She did have to admit that it felt good to get out and away from missing people and deranged psychos.

It felt good to laugh a little, even if she knew that the chances of finding Per or DJ were getting smaller by the day.

Elliot lay on the bed behind her, snoring lightly into a pillow.

Jordan grew annoyed when she wanted to push a piece of stray blonde hair from the girl’s face. Instead, she shoved hard on the mattress just beside of Elliot’s body.

Elliot jumped. "M’wake," she mumbled. "I already told you…Keith…no means never again."

Jordan raised an eyebrow. "And just who would Keith be?"

The lightly dangerous tone had Elliot opening her eyes. "Booty call. Last year."

"I would be offended if I didn't already know that anyone you’ve slept with besides me doesn’t know what to do in the bedroom in the first place."

"You’ve only slept with JD; how would you know?"

"Just going on what you’ve been able to demonstrate in here so far, princess. Make a pot of coffee."

Jordan belted a robe around her waist and headed for Jack’s room. He was kneeled on his bed with a coloring book.

"Morning, Jacky," Jordan said pleasantly, and sat on the edge with him. "Ready for breakfast?"

"I want pancakes."

Jordan frowned; the last time she’d attempted pancakes, they’d ended up on the ceiling when she couldn’t manage to unstick them from the frying pan.

"I don’t know, Jack. How about cereal?"

Jack frowned at her. It was a simple request, really. "Pancakes."

"Jack, you know that Mommy doesn’t like…"

"Pancakes!" He pursed his lip, and mentally dug his heels in preparation. "I want pancakes."

Elliot pulled her hair into a ponytail. "I can make pancakes."

Jordan rolled her eyes. "Fine."

Jack grinned. Stubbornness; it worked every time. He bounced off the bed and took Elliot’s hand, chirping along the way about pre-school.

Jordan sighed and went to check the mail. The day was quite nice, actually. The sun was bright, with puffy white clouds in an almost painfully blue sky. Jordan smelled the air, taking chilly oxygen into her lungs as she shivered. Though the morning was still a bit cool, the afternoon promised to warm up a bit.

Trying to remember if Elliot had to work that afternoon or not, Jordan opened the mailbox to absently pull the mail out. If Elliot were off, maybe she’d want to go to the park with her and Jack.

Her heart stopped then when she saw a plain white, square envelope. There was no return address, and her name and address were scrawled on the front in choppy handwriting.

Jordan raised a hand to her mouth slowly, her breathing going shallow as she entered the apartment.

Elliot was singing a child’s song with Jack, who made more random sounds of different pitches then anything. She flipped pancakes easily.

Not wanting to break their moment, Jordan quietly picked up the phone to call the police as she opened the envelope (even though she knew she shouldn’t).

The pictures that dumped out held the same greenish cast, and some were taken in the lighted room. The lines were a bit blurry, and it made Jordan wonder if they had been chopped from a film strip.

But then the shots came of JD and Perry in the bathtub. Were they…no, they couldn’t be. No.

Jordan bit her lip hard and collapsed on the couch with a soft thump. Cold sickness washed over her body.

Elliot turned with a frown on her face as she dished out a few flapjacks for the boy.

"Here ya go, Flap-Jack," she said and tweaked his nose. She drizzled syrup on the food for him. Keeping an eye out for him, she walked into the small living room where Jordan sat, flipping through the new photos. "Are those new?"

Jordan nodded quietly and shoved them back in the envelope. "No one needs to see this," she finally muttered stiffly.

But Elliot snatched them away and her eyes grew wide with horror as she stared at them. The smell of the cooked pancakes drifted into the room and Elliot turned a bit green around the cheeks. She bolted out of the room for the bathroom.

"Sherman Oaks PD."

"This is Jordan Sullivan. I need to speak with Lieutenant Jacobs."

XXXXXXXX

Realizing coldly that they didn’t know where the hammer was, JD shoved the chair harder under the door in what had to have been a master bedroom.

Perry grabbed his hand blindly and took off running through the unfamiliar house. The phones were dead; they’d left the knives in the bedroom. He looked around.

The house wasn’t big by any means, and was definitely a cardboard-cut-out cabin. That indicated mountainous terrain maybe. Not certain.

Perry threw open another door, seeing stairs that led down. They heard a door open upstairs from where they’d come.

"You can’t hide from me, boys. I’m going to find you."

Perry looked at JD’s terrified face and pushed him through the doorway. He followed after him, fingers trying to numbly feel for a lock against the door. Something finally clicked, and he hurried JD down the stairs.

JD whirled under the rickety, squeaky stairs to crouch under them. His breathing made harsh sounds in the darkness.

Perry wrapped a hand over JD’s mouth to quiet it, and buried his own nose and mouth into JD’s neck, teeth nearly digging into the skin. JD’s body was warm against his own, and trembling like mad. He struggled to concentrate on that instead of his own shaking.

JD held Perry’s hand tightly as they heard footsteps trail above them.

"Very bad boys, you are," Thomas’s voice rang out. "Hiding from Dad like this; you know that you shouldn’t hide from me. I’m not going to hurt you; I’m only making you stronger."

The footsteps came closer to the basement door, and JD stiffened when he heard the knob jiggling. He felt Perry’s breathing stop all together.

The door suddenly crashed open, and JD felt sick all over again. He could hear the clicking of the knife against the broken door.

"Did you really think you’d be able to get out of here, boys?"

Perry buried his face harder, illness washing over him as he bit back a cry of desolation into JD’s skin. He could feel JD mouthing something against his hand, but no voice escaped.

"You really want to see what’s down here then, do you?" Thomas called out, taking deliberately slow steps.

The lights suddenly lit the basement up, and Perry’s eyes widened in sickened horror.

Before he could stop himself, JD was now the one who couldn’t control his stomach. He ripped Perry’s hand from his mouth and threw up into the floor, gagging hard against his throat. Perry wordlessly rubbed a hand over JD’s back.

Sitting the corner of the basement were five bodies. There was decomposed skin hanging over the bones that had dried into a twisted version of a mummy.

As Perry adjusted to the air, he realized then just how cold and dry it was.

Three of the bodies were obviously adults, though it was impossible to tell their gender. The two smaller skeletons indicated a young adult and a young teenager. Again, due to the state of the bodies, it was impossible to tell gender.

Death was on the air as Thomas continued to walk down the stairs. He didn’t speak now as he stared at the bodies. He seemed to stare at one for a moment in particular, but then Thomas turned and looked at them with a hard grin on his face.

"I know where you’re hiding," he sang out into the dim lighting. "And now you’ve met the whole jolly family."

"It must be Thomas," JD hissed. "He wouldn’t accept us as Tom and Peter with them lying right there."

"He’s crazy, JD. We don’t know what he would accept."

Thomas came around, knife held in a steady hand as he jerked his head. "Out. Now."

Slowly, Perry walked out, holding JD behind him.

"Now, I didn’t know you hated that bathroom so very much," Thomas said with a glittering smile, insanity wearing thin on his face. "I would’ve gladly let you stay down here instead."

Perry considered a moment; it sure as hell was drier for one.

However, there were five decomposed bodies lying in the room with them, and neither man wanted that nearby while they tried to sleep.

"But letting you stay down here could, in fact, be dangerous. I don’t want to kill you; why can’t you two stupid fucks get that? Is there a fag gene or something that makes you stupid?"

Thomas fiddled in his pocket then, and produced a small handgun that had JD stiffening behind Perry’s back.

"Up the stairs. Now."

In the next ten minutes, Perry found himself back in that godforsaken bathtub, hands bound behind him this time, and his ankles tied together as well.

JD sat across from him, wrists and ankles bound in a similar fashion. When Thomas left the room, he didn't bother locking the door behind him and returned in such a short amount of time that JD and Perry hadn't thought about getting out.

He carried two needles and wore a pair of latex gloves. "I really didn't want to start drugging you two; you're not animals after all."

"Then don't," Perry replied dully.

Still, Thomas leaned over and neatly injected both. "You know, Perry…you've really got a mouth on you."

JD and Perry both looked up at him now. A fuzzy haze took over their brains slightly, but they still had the presence of mind to know that Thomas hadn't used their names in days, and it gave the indication that Eric was finally hidden within the man's mind.

"Thomas, why can't you just let us go?" JD asked quietly then.

Thomas didn't have a smart remark then, and held the doorjamb tightly before he turned and stared down at them with an almost apologetic look on his face.

"Because as long as you two are alive, so are Tom and Peter."

Before JD could ask anymore about that, Thomas had left the room and turned the light out again.

They heard hammering outside of the door as Thomas repaired it quietly.

JD looked over in Perry's direction. "We've got clothes now."

"But our hands are behind our backs again."

"We're not wet."

"But there's still a hole in the ceiling."

JD sighed and stretched his limbs out in the now familiar tub. When he felt Perry's legs slide over his knees, he resisted the urge to jump.

After all, Perry hadn't brutally raped him.

Perry had a mental sigh of relief when the kid didn't pull away from him. Maybe it hadn't torn them completely apart. When he thought vaguely of anyone else touching him though, his skin crawled and his stomach churned. He wondered if JD felt the same, but couldn't bring himself to ask.

He curled over slightly, drawing both nearer to JD and into himself. He tilted his nose into the shoulder of the navy blue hooded sweatshirt that JD had leant him. It smelled vaguely like a slightly girly product that had probably been labeled unisexual, but might as well have been for females.

"I know you don't like these hoodie things…" JD started.

"It's great."

JD tilted a weak smile in his direction. "They really are pretty warm."

"Don't push it."

Still, JD gave a shrug in the darkness, preferring the wordless gestures to actual speech. If they talked, he knew that they'd eventually end up talking about what had happened earlier.

Somehow, JD didn't think it'd fly too well for either of them. Even now, he didn't want to think about it, and all he really wanted to do was roll around in the white snow he'd seen outside. Something about the glittering whiteness had seemed so clean.

The snow explained the absence of the dripping water from the ceiling.

JD sighed and rolled his already sore shoulders. His ribs hurt like hell, and he suddenly remembered (now that the adrenaline wasn't rushing) that he'd heard something snap when Thomas had last kicked him.

Deciding to go with gestures, he caught Perry's attention by kneeing him softly.

Perry looked at him with a raised eyebrow, and began to open his mouth when he understood the desperately quiet look on JD's face. He nodded his head to the kid.

JD gestured with his chin and pulled a hand around as far as he could to point to his ribs. He clicked his teeth together hard.

Perry frowned for a minute, but then understood. He sighed. Broken rib, threat of pneumonia and other infections, not to mention the dead bodies lying in the basement…

Things weren't looking good.

Perry looked over at JD again. The contact of JD's legs weren't enough anymore. He jerked his head back, hoping that JD got the indication for him to come over.

JD sighed at him, but slowly turned in the tub to lean against Perry's aching chest. Perry's heartbeat filled his ears warmly and he let out a soft breath against it.

Perry leaned his chin over JD's dirty hair, wishing his hands were free. The selfish thought made him feel guilty again, but the kid didn't seem to have a problem with him.

That only confused him more.

Still, when it was all said and done, he felt the drug make him sleepy, and JD seemed to have fallen away against his chest. He sighed, and after he was sure that JD was asleep, brushed a quick kiss over his forehead.

Even so, he felt JD smile against his chest. Perry frowned and shoved him slightly in what could have been construed as playful had the situation been different.

Feeling JD shift slightly, his heart skipped when he felt a hand shove the okay sign against his hip. Perry chuckled brokenly against the kid, and pushed a hand as far up as possible to press a thumb into JD's back.

JD did fall asleep then to the sound of Perry's slow heartbeat.

Perry yawned, wondering when he had started to need JD as much as he needed to breathe.

Continues with Chapter 9