William looked at the lock with me and said he was going to go get some bolt cutters. I crouched close to B’s head so he could see me. His eyes were wild with fright, and he kept closing his eyes.
“Hey, buddy,” I said, hoping he’d remember that I’d never hurt him. “I’m Special Agent Garrett Losche.”
As the tears ran down his face, I told him he was safe now and we’d get him out. He seemed to understand that he was on the verge of being rescued from this hell, but he still panicked. The cage wasn’t even three feet tall, and he couldn’t sit up all the way, though he tried. He gripped the bars and pointed to his mouth, frantically trying to communicate. I couldn’t believe what they had done to him. It looked like they had pierced his mouth shut.
“It’s okay. Try to relax.” I comforted him as best as I could through the bars.
He kept squinting and looking down as if in pain. The lights were too much for him.How long have you been in the dark, buddy?I asked Terrence to set his jacket on top of the cage so the harsh light wouldn’t cause B more stress. I stayed close by him and tried to keep his attention on me when William and an officer came back into the room. While Terrence, William, and the officer worked to bust the lock, I tried to look B over to assess how badly he was injured. He was nothing but bruised skin and bones.
Every few seconds, his eyes shifted from the men trying to break the lock and the door. I detected that he was scared Sebastian or his men would come in at any moment. I promised him he was safe and everyone who had been in the house had been arrested.
It was gut-wrenching to watch this young man’s arms and legs shake as he tried to stand. I caught him when his knees buckled so he didn’t fall. I could have easily lifted him out of the cage on my own, but he was so fucking frail that I was afraid I’d hurt him. It took William, Terrence, and me to carefully lift him out of the cage as gently as possible. Seconds after we’d set him on his feet, his legs buckled again, but I caught him before he’d hit the floor. A fall against the hard floor would probably cause him to break a bone. I let him lean against me while Terrence handed me his jacket to drape around B’s shoulders. Roz wrapped the blanket around him and tried to offer words of comfort.
The medics arrived, and we helped him onto the gurney. He was wrapped up in the blanket, feverishly watching everything that everyone did. As soon as the medics tried to put the straps across his body over the blanket, he freaked out. We tried to explain it was for his safety, but the boy was terrified. He shook badly and looked like he was on the brink of a nervous breakdown. I told the medics we’d walk to the ambulance with them, but that they couldn’t strap this boy down.
B’s boney hand clutched mine over the blanket as we made our way out of the house. I could feel him shaking. While I understood that each of these victims had experienced something very different from one another, I knew without a doubt that this boy was nowhere near as stable as the others had appeared. The paramedics were taking all of the victims to the same hospital, which happened to be the one where my friend, Sam, worked as an emergency room doctor. While I’d hoped he’d be the one attending to Salem, this boy needed his care and bedside manner more.
Every few feet, I tried to reassure B that he was safe, and I told him about my friend at the hospital. I even called Sam while the medics were situating him, so he could hear me securing a safe place for him.
As soon as the ambulance left with B, I went back to see if William and Terrence had any luck getting into the other room.
The last room next to the one with the freezers instantly chilled me to the bone. Before Roz and I even stepped over the threshold, I could smell a musty mildew scent wafting into the hallway now that the door was open. William looked up at me when I walked in. The moment I saw what William and Terrence were looking at, I froze on the spot. I narrowed my eyes at a wooden contraption that would have been used for waterboarding. Taking in a deep breath, I looked at William and then at Roz and Terrence.
“Jesus. Those kids are probably so fucked up,” Terrence commented.
Waterboarding was one of the most atrocious forms of torture. It was horrendous what a body went through physically and mentally. The body thought it was drowning, sending the victim into physical and emotional panic. It caused heart attacks, brain damage, lung trauma, and even death. The idea behind it was to make the victim tell the torturers whatever information they’d sought. This was worse than pointing a gun at someone’s head. The fear and feeling of dying by asphyxiation and suffocation usually did the trick.
Why Sebastian used this form of punishment was beyond me. These kids didn’t seem to have any information that he’d want. Though I’d tried thinking of why Sebastian went to such extremes, I couldn’t come up with anything other than to be cruel.
As the discussion about the waterboarding technique broke out around me, all I could think of was Salem.Had she suffered on this fucking thing?I hadn’t pounded Sebastian anywhere near hard enough.
“Make sure you get pictures of this,” I instructed as I walked out of the room.
I leaned against the wall in the dim hallway and allowed all the shit from tonight to take over in my mind. I thought about B. With B’s negative reaction to Roz’s offer of water earlier, and his near breakdown about the rain, I had a sick, sinking feeling that he had some firsthand experience with the waterboarding. B had panicked the entire way from the house to the back of the ambulance. He was afraid to get sprinkled with water. I had to call Sam and give him the heads-up.
“What’s up?” he asked when he answered.
“The boy who is on his way, I’m pretty sure he’d been waterboarded.”
“Fuck.” There was a moment or two of silence between us before Sam spoke again. “I’ll keep that in mind and will alert any staff who will be in contact with him.”
“Okay, thank you. He’s scared and very panicked,” I kept mumbling. “I want you to make sure you take care of him.”
“I will. I promise. Are you doing okay? You’ve been mixed up in that case for a while.”
I pushed myself off the wall and walked down the hall out of earshot of my team.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I’ll be there soon. How is the girl with the purple streak? Salem?”
“She’s doing alright and has been talking. We’ve had her sipping on water and eating some saltines. We’re waiting for her blood work results to come back.”
“Okay, good. I’m going to forward you pictures of the boy and how we found him in a cage. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“Take care, and I’ll see you when I see you.”
I felt better hearing that Salem was doing okay. I wanted to hurry the fuck up and wrap this shit up so I could go see her.
Hours later, I made it to the emergency room. Sam met me outside the sliding doors to the ER and led me to Salem. As we walked past beds, I saw James sitting beside the bed with B in it. I’d forgotten that James was a hospital administrator here. I remembered he had experience with people re-entering society after being held captive. Seeing him sitting with B made me feel like B would be okay. He was in the best, most capable hands.
