Page 9 of Intangible
“Honey nut or regular?” Knox asked.
“Honey nut. I’m not two years old anymore.” When Knox just stared at him, he finally rolled his eyes. “Fine, I have both.”
With a grin, Knox said, “I’m good with either.” Pulling two bowls off the shelf, Memphis added the milk to their cereal. Handing Knox his bowl, they both sat in the living room, eating in silence.
“Does it take a lot of energy to do what you do?” Knox asked, finally breaking the silence. When Memphis nodded, Knox stood taking the bowls to the sink. He sat back down on the couch as Murphy trotted in from the bedroom. Hopping on the couch, he curled up, resting his head on Knox’s leg.
“Really?” Memphis asked, looking at the dog. “Do you not have any loyalty?” With a roll of his eyes directed at Knox, he sat down in one of the armchairs as he reached for the bunny. “Try not to let him eat your face while I’m gone.”
This time, the first thing that hit Memphis was not the smell, but voices. From his dark corner, he could see Thayer slowly come into focus, flanked by two men in ski masks. She’d been pulled out of her cell for some reason.
Looking at the corner, she shook her head so lightly that Memphis would have missed it had he blinked. He stayed silent in the dark, waiting as the men taunted her.
“Damn, she stinks like shit!” a third man said, looking at her. Memphis could see Thayer shaking slightly. She had to be terrified, but somehow, she was holding it together. “Give me that,” the man said again, grabbing a bucket of water out of the other man’s hands.
Dumping the first bucket over her head, he reached out for a second one, laughing when Thayer flinched. Pouring the other bucket over her head, the man leered cruelly at her.
“Shit, look at those tits! When do we get a piece of that?” the man asked, reaching out and pinching one of Thayer’s nipples that had grown hard in the cold air.
Memphis took a step out of the shadows toward them. He wasn’t sure what to do. He couldn’t throw anything at them, there was nothing in the room to use. Knocking them out with his fist was definitely out. He guessed he could try to fuck with their minds, but from what he saw, he wasn’t sure there was much there to fuck with.
He stopped when Thayer’s eyes cut up to his over their shoulders. With a slight raise of only one of her fingers at her side, she motioned for him to wait.
“As soon as he has what he wants, he said we could do whatever we want with her.”
Memphis took a deep breath, focusing on what information he could gather from the men. He decided quickly that they were very young, as Thayer had said. They all had the same accent, similar to the one Knox had, only slightly different. It wasn’t as lilting as his Tennessee one either.
“Come on, man. We’ve got practice in an hour.” Throwing Thayer onto the floor of her cell, the men stalked out, laughing.
Memphis slid over to the door of the room, listening until he heard a heavy door close. Crossing quickly to Thayer, he walked through the bars. Thayer was shaking so violently, he was certain her body temperature was dangerously low.
“Get up, Thayer, you’ll freeze.” When she ignored him, staying curled up on the floor, he kneeled down, getting as close to her face without touching her as he could. “Thayer! Get up!” With a startled gasp, she sat up, swinging at him.
“That’s it, come on.” He watched as a second swing sliced through his body, but she was scrambling to her feet. “Thayer, look at me.” His voice came out gruffer than he wanted it to, but he had to get her attention. He could hear her teeth chattering hard enough to break.
“I-I’m so tired,” she slurred, looking at him. A stream of cold mist circled out of her mouth as she exhaled. “It’s s-so cold.”
“Hold your arms up,” Memphis barked out at her. She did it without thinking as she watched Memphis study her waist. He took hold of the hem of her tank top, careful not to touch her body. Her clothes he could make solid to his touch, but her skin he couldn’t.
In one quick movement, he pulled it over her head, letting it fall to the floor. Thayer quickly pulled her arms down in front of her bare chest.
“W-what are you doing?” she asked as he dropped back to his knees. Gently taking her pants in both hands at her thighs, he started working them down, holding the material away from her skin.
“No!” She tried to pull away from him, but he had a tight hold on her pants. With one hand, Thayer tried to push him away, her hand passing into his shoulder. With a gasp, she jerked her hand back to her chest.
“Hold still, I’m trying to get the wet clothes off of you before you freeze to death. It’s not easy.” Thayer snorted out a laugh. He worried that she was beginning to lose her grip on reality.
When Memphis had her pants around her ankles, she stepped out of them, holding on to the bars. He crossed to the cot, picking up the blanket on it.
“Get in.”
She laid down on the cot, facing away from him. When the blanket landed on her, she spun to face him, tucking it around her as best she could. Her teeth were chattering and she looked so sleepy, but she kept an eye on him anyway.
Memphis picked up her clothes, wringing the water out of them before hanging them on the bars to dry. Crossing through the bars, he sat down in the door of the tunnel, leaning so he could see both her and the entrance.
“Thank you,” Thayer whispered as her eyes started to close. Memphis watched her in confusion as her eyes slowly closed. He could not understand why she would thank him for standing by when she was assaulted, then forcibly removing her clothes. Nothing about what had just happened was okay.
They needed to figure out where she was quickly before whoever the mysterious leader of this brain trust realized he would never get what he wanted.
