Chapter Text
Gavin couldn’t remember how long it had been since he’d tried to escape, all he knew was that he couldn’t bring himself to try again. It wasn’t because he feared his captors –because he feared them as much as he feared those crying, dirty, and pitiful people locked away only one floor below him- it was because he was safe here, with Geoff and Jack and, on occasion, Ryan.
Geoff was the one who protected him from Ryan when the half-mad elder became too obsessed with spilling blood. Jack was the one who stopped the pain when Gavin made a bold or stupid move. And Ryan, the blood-spoiled mad man with a pension for pulling the loudest screams from anyone he touched –Ryan was the one who protected him from those crazed few the gents brought in who thought the best thing to do was to fight for their lives.
“Hand me that retractor, Gav.” Geoff said above the high-pitched keening of the woman under his care. Her lips were stapled shut so as not to disturb the sleeping bodies chained to various hooks bolted in the floor. Gavin, perched on the large metal table on the other side of the room from Geoff, looked to his right to look through the medical instruments. Scalpels, multiple forceps used for everything from arteries to simply holding flesh for sutures, saws –anything you could think of, they had thrice over, polished to perfection.
“Which one?” Gavin asked quietly, looking through the rows of different retractors.
“Uh, shit.” Geoff mumbled, looking up from the squirming woman’s open stomach. He let out a sigh before turning to Jack –who had been sitting by the door to keep an eye on Gavin so he wouldn’t get hurt by the tools he sat so lazily beside. “What do you-“
“Use the seven pronged Cerebellar retractor.” Ryan chuckled as he checked on the unconscious people around them. Gavin was already sliding off the table with the retractor in hand, bare feet tapping through small puddles of blood as he stepped over sleeping soon-to-be-patients.
“Gavin,” Jack started with a hint of annoyance, “Where are your shoes?” Geoff looked up again from the woman to stare behind him at his charge, chuckling at the rolled up jeans and shoeless state of the boy.
“Just let him go, Jack, you know how he is with shoes.” He stated before turning to shush the hysterical woman. “Don’t worry, my dear, that drip right there will keep you alive.” Geoff whispered lovingly, leading to another bout of thrashing and muffled screaming behind stapled and bleeding lips.
“She’s annoying, Geoff, shut her up or I will.” Ryan grumbled from the corner, earning a grunt of approval from Jack. Gavin placed the retractor in Geoff’s hand before making his way back to sit on the cold metal table again, tucking his legs under his chin and curling his toes around the edge.
“Yeah, yeah, c’mon sweetie, you-“ Three loud beeps rang through the room, and all three elder men looked to their watches.
“Looks like it’s dinner time, gents.” Ryan spoke up first. Geoff sighed again, shoving the retractor into the woman’s mouth, ignoring her shrieks as he tore through the staples connecting her lips, and down into her throat –opening it wide until she choked on the combination of the blood pouring out of her torn lips and the blood cascading down her throat.
Gavin let out a short whine as Jack and Ryan left the room with Geoff trailing after them. Geoff stopped, looking back with a chuckle before holding out his hand as an invitation. Gavin perked up, running to Geoff and practically wrapping himself around the elder man.
“What’s for dinner, Geoff?” He asked excitedly as Geoff lead him down the same hallway that had once caused so much fright and pain for Gavin during the first few months. Geoff laughed, tugging his arm out of Gavin’s hold to wrap it around the younger’s waist.
“I dunno, buddy, whatever Jack feels like force-feeding us.” He said, planting a kiss on Gavin’s cheek, getting a squawk and a mock punch to the shoulder in response.
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Gavin woke up to brown eyes behind slightly cracked glasses and buzzed black hair. He groaned, feeling the on-coming headache side effect of the chloroform. His leg was numb, but he already knew why. He had to act, though, that was part of the job –lead the unsuspecting to most certain doom.
“Hey, man, c’mon, gotta get up.” Brown eyes said –Gavin couldn’t, for the life of him, remember the man’s name. Gavin took a moment to look around in faux confusion –just like he’d practiced- turning it into fear a moment later. He jumped, sending a pain through his back as it hit the sharp edge of the busted pipe behind him. “Woah, woah, calm down,” Brown eyes said, putting a hand on Gavin’s shoulder to calm him.
“Wh-where-“ He started, mouth dry.
“Take it slow, Brit-boy. Just start with your name, we’ll move on from there.”
“Gav…I’m Gavin.”
“Okay, Gavin,” Brown eyes said in a calming voice. “My name’s Ray. Don’t panic, okay? There’s a chain on your ankle and on mine. We’re in what looks like a bathroom right out of the fucking Saw movies.” Well, at least he got to the point. “I don’t know how we got here or when. You remember anything?”
Gavin closed his eyes with a groan, headache still getting to him as well as that fuzzy tingling in the back of his mind. He had to stick to the script. Tell this guy a sentence or two and the rest is lost –just like Geoff told him. “I remember….a door. A door and outside snow and ice, and running, and…and that’s it.” He said in a slow, panicked voice, the memories of the first time he woke up starting to burn in the back of his mind.
“Snow? But it’s-“
“And I remember the tune –someone whistling Pop! Goes the weasel. That horrible song, it was stuck in my head for so long-“ The panic in his voice was becoming real, he couldn’t focus –mind going into a rush of memories and emotions.
“The blood –so much blood, it was everywhere. I can still see them, Ray, I..” He didn’t know why he was suddenly unable to stop talking; only that everything pouring out of his mouth was scaring him more and more. He could suddenly remember that first escape and the rest of the memories were starting to clear. He looked up to Ray, heart beat growing quicker and harder.
“Gavin, calm down, breathe!” Ray shouted, grabbing the Brit’s shoulders and shaking him lightly.
Suddenly, the lights popped off, a shout of panic from Ray and a shrill scream from Gavin following not a second later. Gavin could feel Ray being pulled off him, the dark haired man’s fingers grasping at his shirt while he screamed and cursed the unknown attacker behind him.
“Let me go, you fuck!” Ray screamed at the top of his lungs, barely heard over Gavin’s own screams of terror. “Gavin! Gavin, don’t worry; I’ll get you out of here! Don’t let them break you, I’ll come for-“ Ray was suddenly quiet, Gavin knew from the chloroform.
There were hands on his shoulders, his face, and his ankle –taking off the heavy chain. His screams broke, becoming loud sobs that sent tremors through him, his own hands grasping at whatever he could find.
“I told you he wasn’t ready!” Jack called from somewhere at Gavin’s feet. “He didn’t even last ten minutes in here alone.”
“It’s his first time; we can play it off before we’re finished with our new friend.” Ryan butts in from somewhere across the room. Geoff doesn’t say anything, taking to running his hands through Gavin’s hair, trying his best to calm the boy down. “Give that boy something before I knock him out myself, Geoff.”
“Fuck you, I’m not giving him anything. Just get everything set up again, I’ll deal with Gavin.” Geoff all but screams at his partner, holding Gavin close. He’s being lifted gently and he can feel the hurried, jogging steps of Geoff taking him to the safety of the housing part of their concrete and steel home.
He can hear the calming words of Geoff above him as he’s slowly and carefully lowered onto his and Geoff’s shared bed, feels when Geoff crawls up behind him, wrapping his arms around the still-sobbing boy.
“It’s okay, Gavin. Those memories aren’t real anymore. That’s not who you are. Just take a deep breath and relax.” Gavin tried to follow the soft words, and soon was breathing normally again.
“You have to give it to him again, Geoff. You know you do –otherwise we’ll lose all progress we’ve made.” The words should’ve meant something to Gavin, but with Geoff’s lazy hand sliding up and down his back and shoulders kept that constant blur on his mind going as the elder two talked.
“I can’t do it, Jack, not again. First time I saw this kid on the street I just wanted to fucking protect him from everything. That first time was hell on me –especially when he tried to run. And you know Ryan, man, he’ll do everything in his power including hiding him as long as it means he gets to torture someone else. I can’t-“
“You’re getting soft, Geoff. Before you saw this kid, you would wear your blood proudly. You used to bring in five to six people a week, now you’re too busy to even lift your hand to two a month. He’s not a kid, Geoff –not yours at least- and you either need to end him or let us reprogram him again.” Ryan calmly said from the doorway.
“He’s right, Geoff. We know you love him, but if he has to be reprogrammed, then he has to be reprogrammed. What if I do it instead of Ryan? You know I’ll take care of him, you know you’ll still be the one to come in and save him. It’s not like-“
“You don’t fucking get it!” Geoff screamed, startling Jack and Ryan as well as knocking Gavin awake again. He turned back to Gavin, running a soothing hand through his hair with soothing words until the young Brit fell back into a fitful sleep. “You don’t get it.” He said again in a whisper, curling his arm back around Gavin protectively.
Jack and Ryan shared a look.
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“You mother fuckers!” Geoff shouted through the locked door separating him from Jack, Ryan and –most importantly- Gavin. They’d taken Gavin after Geoff had –stupidly- fallen asleep, they locked themselves in the spare holding room, and Geoff could hear everything. From Gavin’s screams for help, his cries for Geoff, his pleas and whimpers and squawks and everything in between. And it was killing Geoff.
“Geoff! Please, I’m sorry! Whatever I did –“ here Gavin paused with a scream that broke Geoff’s heart “I pro-promise, Geoff, I won’t do it again, I swear!” Geoff clenched his teeth and started banging on the door.
“You fuckers are dead when get to you! Let me in right now and I’ll spare your fucking livers for the pigs!” It was a lie. Geoff could never bring himself to kill his only partners and he knew it. But the threat made him feel useful –like he wasn’t just waiting on the other side of the door for Gavin’s unknown release date.
Another high-pitched keen before a scream of terror made Geoff’s gut twist. He heard Ryan laugh –his usual dark, foreboding laugh that meant death for anyone under his care- followed by Jack’s angry shouts and a clatter of metal and glass. Geoff stood pressed against the door, eyes shut tight as he tried to stop himself from panicking. Panic wouldn’t help Gavin –it would only hurt him.