Chapter three

He was still lying there when I awoke, slipping silently into the open kitchen. I rumbled through the fridge, then to the cupboards as I looked for something to feed the boy. Son, he was no longer the boy. I considered to run out, knowing bread was only a few minutes away. But if he woke and I wasn’t here, I wouldn’t take that chance. I turned, and he was there, peering over the edge of the couch.

“Morning.”

He mumbled a mimic.

“Well breakfast is whatever you can find, c’mon, you hungry?”

Slowly he rose, not cautiously, just slowly.

“There’s an apple somewhere I think, what about a sausage, I know it’s morning but food is food eh?”

He just shook his head. “I’m not hungry.”

I couldn’t tell if he was lying or not. “Are you sure, we can go down to the cafe round the corner if you want.”

“No.”

I left my hunger, not wanting to eat something he might want later.

“Where do you work?” He asked, curiosity coming into his voice. At least something was coming into his voice.

I shouldn’t have been surprised that he presumed I worked, but still it took me back. “Uh… I don’t work.”

“How do you get money then?”

For a moment, I questioned whether to tell him, my mind already forming suitable alibis. But I knew that if I wanted him to trust me, I had to trust him. “I steal it.”

“Oh.”

He didn’t ask why I didn’t have a job, and I was complacent to keep that reason to myself. Sometimes risks are better than submitting.

“So Son,” I slipped the name through my lips. “What do you want to do today?” And somehow, it sounded simple, right almost, to say it, just like it used to be.

He didn’t reply, I was getting used to only gaining answers when he wanted me to. “What’s something that you always wish you could do, but never could before?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know anything about here, I only know in there.”

I looked down at this boy, having no memories of what life was like out here, not knowing his past before there. I put my hand on his shoulder. “Why were you there son?”

He gazed up at my eyes, two blue orbs with a life of pain. “I don’t know.” He broke into accustomed silence, turning his head away. And then he was running, sprinting for the door, pulling at it as I streamed to catch up in the short space. He was down the stairs when I grabbed him, squirming in my arms.

“No.” He was flailing, kicking. “Let me go.”

I almost did a moment, knowing it would get him out of my life. But was that what I wanted.

He was still speaking. “They’ll hurt you, when they find me with you, they’ll hurt you.” Not if. He had relaxed, flopping in my arms, sobbing. “They’ll do the unthinkable to you.”

“They won’t find us Son, they won’t.”

“But they will!” His voice rose, exasperated. “They have cameras everywhere, they’ll already know where I am. But it’s not just me they’ll want.”

He wanted to go so I wouldn’t get hurt. “We’ll go down together Son.” And that was a promise.