Chapter6

#Chapter6

Silence. If not for the kid talking in the car, it would have been worrisome. He knew that he could talk, at very least. Shifting over to the pile, the young boy- Stryker would have guessed his age at around fifteen- timidly touched the packaging of a three-pack of pacifiers. They were held up to Stryker with a nervous reluctance, as though he were unsure that was supposed to do.

Stryker tore the packaging open, handing the freed contents to Jamie. Pink, blue and green, the pacifiers varied in colour. Jamie took the pink one, hands shaking and he raised it halfway to his mouth, pausing to check that it was okay.

/"Pink Kay?/" Jamie asked in the tiniest voice. Soft and gentle, breathed out in the smallest whisper.

/"If that's the one that you want./" Stryker shrugged. He really didn't care what the kid wanted. Pink, orange, lilac; it was all the same to him.

A shield of hair, a barrier that made judging his emotions impossible. Stryker wanted to see his eyes again. He wanted to see the raw clash of emotion that lingered in them. But he couldn't. Not with the dark strands in the way. Part of him wanted to brush it away; the other part of him knew that it was the kid's armour. He hid behind it.

/"There's nothing for you to sleep in here,/" he told Jamie after scanning the pile once more. /"Just... you just stay here, okay and I'll go and see if I have a shirt you can sleep in./"

Jamie made a soft sound. It could have been of protest. It could have been conformation. Stryker didn't stop to ask. He doubted he would have gotten an answer. His room, as far as he could see, had been left untouched by Maddy. The bed covers, black, silken sheets, were still in a tangle on the floor from where he had left them that morning and a half-full bottle of brandy sat on his nightstand, his mobile phone next to it. He made an effort to avoid social interactions and letting the battery die was a great way to get out of a lot of them.

The curtains were open, along with the window, and his clothes still spilt out of the doors of his wardrobe from where he had thrown them in there rather than hanging them up. He knew that if Maddy had been in there then he wouldn't have been able to resist the urge to tidy up.

He searched through his clothes for one of his smaller shirts. Kernal was huge and while Stryker's form couldn't compare to his muscle density, it still held a decent physique. Jamie's tiny form would be dwarfed by most of his clothes; he liked clothes that were baggy and loose fitting.

He found one that was on the smaller side. It still looked as though it would dwarf him but it was an improvement from the others. Ready to head back, he paused. His eyes flickered to the compartment above the wardrobe doors.

He didn't have very many sentimental items; the few he did lived inside that little cubbyhole. He opened the door to it slowly. Bits and bobs lived inside. Pictures and keepsakes. There was only one photograph in there that was kept in a frame. Stryker did everything he could to avoid looking at it. He failed; Pain stabbed through his chest like shards of ice, his heart faltering, shrinking away as his eyes landed on the smiling face of a man that had once made him so happy. Now, he only felt pain.

There was a stuffed bear at the back. Stryker grabbed it and slammed the cupboard shut. One glassy eye stared up at him. The other had been ripped away years ago. Age had bleached the tatty fur of the soft toy, the panda having seen much better days. Patchwork repairs dotted the bear and one of the ears had been chewed half to death.

It should have been thrown out years ago; he couldn't bear the thought. It was one of the few things his father had ever given him. He had left when Stryker had been a child. His mother claimed it was because he was a no-good swine who had run off with the help. Stryker suspected that he had just seen the chance to escape his evil wife and had taken it.

The decision to keep the bear was deemed a good one. Jamie's reaction was priceless. He gasped when Stryker handed it to him, the pink binky dropping from his mouth, hitting the hardwood he was sat upon.

/"He's not the best but maybe he'll make you feel less afraid. He made me feel braver when I was little. His name is Mr. Tiddles./"

/"Tiddles,/" Jamie echoed in awe, rubbing his cheek along the panda's.

Changing the boy was harder than he thought. Jamie whimpered through the whole thing, flinching every time their skin made contact with the others. He managed to get the Pull-up on and stripped him down of the ill-fitting clothes Blossom had dressed him in.

Horrors lived on the little boy's skin. Bruises and scars, wounds and sores. Stryker knew what a cigarette burn looked like. He knew what the faded, silvery scars looked like. Dozens of them combed Jamie's back. With a feathery touch, Stryker ran the pads of his fingers over the boy's past, swallowing his outrage.

Something as harmless as Jamie, something as innocent as a little, he found it appalling. Cowards sought out those who couldn't protect themselves. It made him sick to think of how many other lives had been ruined by cowards and tyrants.

/"Do they hurt?/" he asked Jamie. He didn't have anything for them. He had once owned a first aid box. He had used the gauze to go fishing in his fish tank while drunk and he had no idea what had happened to the rest of the stuff. Tomorrow, he would get what he needed to clean them properly but he doubted they would get infected. The bath Kernal had given the boy had left most of them looking pretty clean.

Jamie shook his head no. Stryker took the hint and dropped the subject, gently pulling the shirt over the kid's head. His hand purposely brushed against the veil of hair, parting it enough that he was able to see the intense grey stare. Jamie watched him, unblinking, eyes wide and consumed by so many emotions.

When he was done, Stryker lay him down on the bed. The pink binky and the tatty panda were given to him, the toy crushed in a death grip in his arms.

/"I... my name's Stryker, by the way,/" he introduced himself. It had dawned on him that due to the lack of conversation between him and the kid, personal information hadn't been shared. /"You can call me that or.../" He trailed off, not sure how the whole situation was supposed to work.

/"Daddy?/" Jamie breathed, finally blinking. Stryker reached over, very carefully brushing a few more strands to the side of the boy's face so he gained a clearer view of it. A flinch was all the reaction he gained. Hollowed cheeks and a button nose. He was cute. Cute enough that despite himself, Stryker smiled before nodding.

/"If... if that's what you want to call me then I'm okay with that./" He wasn't sure if he imagined the tiny smile that touched the corner of his lips. /"Just... do you need anything? Like I said, I'm a bit slow so I don't really think ahead. If you're hungry or thirsty or scared, you'll have to tell me because I'm not a mind reader, okay?/"

Another nod.

Stryker sighed but nodded. /"He'll keep you safe. Get some sleep. I'll be just down the hall, okay?/"

Another nod.

Stryker stood. Jamie's eyes rounded, but he couldn't figure out what emotion caused it. /"Do you want the light leaving on?/"

Nod.

/"Goodnight, kid./"

A tiny little wiggly-fingered wave was Jamie's reply.

Stryker headed to his room. His bed squeaked slightly beneath the impact of his body hitting it and he kicked off his boots with a grunt, eyeing the bottle of brandy that sat on the bedside.

He had promised Kernal that he wouldn't. Not with the kid around. The argument that his friend would never know was a valid one, but he pulled the pillow over his head, groaning in exasperation before he stood, snatching it and heading towards the bathroom that adjoined his room.

He watched the liquid swirl down the plughole, dark brown and gurgling as the hole swallowed his only remaining joy in life.

/"I can do this,/" he told himself as he set the empty bottle next to the sink.

He could do it. Even if he couldn't, he had to.