by Gary Sapp
bottom dollar it is coming and soon, my boy. “Don’t be afraid, son, I only want to talk to you. I need a favor from you. Will you help me out?”
Perhaps his tone or his words had won out because he seemed to have piqued the boy’s interest enough for Moses to look at him at least.
“What do you want from me?”
Louis slid across the floor to meet the child on the other side. “I’m sure you’ve heard what happened to Mathew the other day. I’m sure he talked to you about it.”
Moses nodded.
Louis glanced around the room…at his sanctuary. “My work here is far from finished.” He turned his full gaze and his magnificent blue eyes on Moses. “I’m soon to bring more boys here for you and Mathew to play with. I’ll be here as often as I can. Those mean guards will be here in shifts, but they will watch us 24 hours a day.”
Moses nodded some more.
“I need someone to look over our friends that are still to come. I want you to help me keep them safe from harm. I don’t want anything to happen to them…or you. Mathew could have died in that bathtub. And those stupid guards are just imbeciles carrying guns with those same weapons as their only solution for solving problems.”
“I’ve seen them. I’ve seen those guns you’re talking about.”
“They can’t be trusted.” Louis shook his head gravely. “I’m going to appoint you to be in charge of the other boys…the troops when I’m away. I’m looking for a man to be my strong right hand, my general.”
“I don’t know how.”
“You’ll learn, Moses. You’ll learn what to say them and when you should say it. You’ll know how to lead them—“
“Lead them where?”
Louis reached up and ran his fingers across through the boy’s close cropped hair on his head. It was intoxicating.
You are so ours, my boy. I can almost taste you already.
Louis shrugged off Hugh. “Darkness is coming to this sanctuary…to this compound like nothing you or I have ever seen. I’ll need you to lead the troops. Where you go they are most certain to follow.”
“How am I supposed—“
“How are you supposed to know?” Louis asked the question for young Moses. You just will. You are smarter than you know, Moses. You’re stronger than you’ll ever believe.”
Moses slid up the bed and away from Louis and started crying. “I just want to be left alone. I just want to go home to my family.”
So do we. “Like I said, Moses, I’ll be drafting others. They’ll soon be joining us.”
“I don’t want—“
“Listen,” Louis said in an elevated voice. Moses tears had rattled a nerve. “I need your full cooperation, Moses. I cannot accept a refusal. There is no time left for you to say no. Can’t you see…can’t you see that I won’t be able to fight him off much longer?”
“Fight off whom, what are you talking about?”
Louis abruptly got to his feet, smoothed out his jeans, and walked towards the only entrance/exit of the chamber. He turned back to Moses. “These children will cry for their mothers and that’s ok. They’ll be afraid of course, all new recruits are scared at first—“
Moses said, “I’m afraid too. How can I help them if I’m scared also?”
Louis turned to leave him there, but peeked over his left shoulder at him. “It’s ok if they cry sometimes.” He said as if Moses hadn’t spoken his last words. “There are some things we mustn’t allow: There must be no further suicide attempts. You know that suicide is a sin after all. More importantly, Moses is that your brothers in arms must not attempt to escape this place. If you do get outside of this compound nothing but death awaits you, I can promise you that.”
Just as Louis opened to the door to the rest of the compound he heard Moses Stand up.
“Why should they listen to me? I’m just a kid like they are.”
Louis made himself smaller by placing his hands on his knees. “Because you are the chosen one…my chosen one, you are my General and my right hand. They’ll see how much I lean on you. And they’ll begin to trust you as you begin to trust me; just like they trusted Christopher Prince before
“Why should I do this?”
“I’ll give you my word that if you do cooperate…that I will never touch you.” What…what kind of fucking deal is that? You’ll be spared what I have in store for the others.” Louis held up his fingers like a boy scout.
Moses looked doubtful. “I don’t know that you were ever a scout.”
Louis couldn’t help but to laugh. “You don’t actually. That is a fair point.” He wiped spittle from his lip. “You only have my word, Moses, man to man. We can’t fail here. Failure is not an option from this point forward. The cost to so many would be astronomical.”
Moses nodded and Louis knew he had his general at last. “I understand what the word failure means. My nana has apologized to me and my brother and sister more than once. She said that she was a failure for how she raised my mamma. My nana told me that we children were paying a high price everyday of our lives.”
And your nana’s failures and your mother’s drug addiction led you directly into our arms. Her failure may lead you to your death.
Louis tried to tune out Hugh while he listened to this special child that he had chosen so very well. It broke his heart to hear the little man speak like this. He called for the guards to escort him back to the holding area with Mathew. When they were out of site at last he turned around—
And found Serena Tennyson standing not five feet from his position.
He tried to mask the fact that she startled him, but the blotch of urine surely showing on his jeans surely betrayed that fact by now.
She said, “And who will pay the price for my failures I wonder?”
We told you that the Dragon Woman spies on us. She doesn’t trust us for one minute. We say that we should kill her…right now. We should kill the Dragon Woman and be done with it.
“Serena,” He said aloud in a sheepish tone. “You look well and refreshed. I’m glad that you joined us. Say hello to Moses Jackson.”
Serena spoke to the boy without smiling. “He’s your general.” She waved her hand at the guards just the opposite side of the room from her for them to take the boy back to the holding area.
“How are you today?” She asked when Moses was gone.
“I’m fine.” He lied and looked to steer any conversation away from his mental state. “I’ve chosen each of these children specifically. I did this on my own. Shouldn’t I be allowed to speak to speak to them every now and then without disruption?”
Serena smoothed out the pants leg of her suit, sat down, and crossed one leg over the other. “Of course you should communicate with them. I certainly don’t have a problem with that.” And although she oversaw the construction of this compound she seemed to pay close attention to this particular chamber where Moses had vacated. “You called all of your prospects special children, but I sense something more when you speak about this Moses child.”
Louis smiled a little. “He is more than just special, Serena. He is extraordinary.”
Serena’s brown eyes borrowed into his ocean blues. “Is he as extraordinary as Christopher Prince was?”
“He is a lot like Christopher, yes.” He has said neutrally hoping the conversation would end right here.
“He served as your first general?”
“Serena, you know all of this already.” He said. She flashed him a look that said, tell me the story again.
Dr. Angel Hicks-Dupree had been more than a competent Psychologist. She probably came the closest of any of the professionals that he’d seen over the many years, who truly understood his nature. Dr. Dupree-Hicks…that rhymes with licks; But Serena Tennyson was beyond methodical in her approach to everything…and that included him. That’s we won’t truly be safe until the Dragon Woman is a corpse. Do it now, Coward. The guards won’t reach this point in time.
“Chris served my needs well, Serena. He kept t
hose children safe…and quiet for the most part. And after what Mathew pulled yesterday…I need him to grow into this roll expeditiously.”
“Any yet, after Chris escaped you the rest of if ended poorly.” Serena stayed on subject.
Our business usually does, Dragon Woman. You’ll find out soon enough if you don’t let us alone. “It did.” And it comforted him somehow to say it aloud. “Caretaker ordered the other boys killed after Chris escaped. He was frightened that Chris would lead the authorities back to the compound, back to Pandora.”
“He could have simply moved the operation.”
“The operation was near the bottom of list of concerns. His identity was endangered.”
“You’re right, of course, Louis.” Serena got up off of the bed and ran a smooth palm across his cheek. “You’ve grown so much since then…since 411 even. I’m more confident than ever that you will persevere.” She opened the door and took her turn at exiting—
“Then my I ask why you continue to spy on me?”
“I prefer to call them ‘simple observations.” Serena replied. “You shouldn’t overly concern yourself with it or allow it to affect your work here.”
“I call it spying.”
“Call it what you will.” Serena said in a voice that was ice cold. “As long as you understand that these simple observations will continue from time to time. Caretaker was nearly a god in my eyes. But the one mistake he made was allowing you too much time and space in completing your work. He lost his entire operation over it. The match that started the fire between ours and theirs should have
