“It took Quartz, Eartha, and me almost an hour to get him chained up,” Benji went on. “When Paine finally comes through this, he’s going to be sore all over. Eartha ain’t known for her patience, and is for her right hook. Sent the boy flying.”
“You know, you could probably immobilize him—“
Benji held up his hand. “I’m not there yet. I’d slam him against the wall. That could break every bone in his body, and I do not want to deal with that. If we can keep him out of a hospital, the better. But one of us will have to keep him busy, enough to get this hose down his throat.”
The noise, a horrible, sobbing shriek, broken only by equally desperate inhales, only got louder as the two approached the bottom door. Danilo heard the unmistakable clink of chains. He also detected the unmistakable odo—
“Hold your foot against the door.”
“What?”
“If he’s busted loose.” Benji flipped the light switch. The screams reached a nearly inhuman pitch. “Not that I think he did. But I want to know where he is before I open this.”
“Right. Think I might need some extra oomph?” Danilo found himself yelling to be heard. His hand glowed yellow.
“You’d snap the door right off the hinges,” came the reply. “I’m going to crack this. He should be directly opposite this door on the far wall.”
Opening the door slightly, Benji peered into the dim gloom beyond. He smiled grimly. “Still chained. Come on.”
As Benji opened the door wide amid a tempest of shrieks, Danilo reeled back, his hand to his face. “Aw, damn! It reeks!”
Benji stared sadly at the pathetic, screaming, writhing figure across the room. “Sweating, rapid heartbeat and palpitations,” he said, counting off on his fingers. “Tremors, vomiting,” the man paused for drama, “and diarrhea.” He sighed. “All the classic signs of acute physical withdrawal. With violent tendencies thrown in for color. I thought that three solid days of this would tucker him out. No such luck.”
“Mãe do dues,” Danilo said with a grimace. “I’ve never seen him like this. He’s been bad before, but…”
“I don’t think he, or any of us, knew what he was in for when he attacked Matt in that whatever-it-was state,” Benji said. “I think Sanjay came damn close to short-circuiting.” Benji quickly closed the door. He didn’t want the neighbors to hear. Trying to explain this one to the police…
“Why do you have that ball in his mouth?”
“So he wouldn’t chew off his tongue.”
“JESUS.”
“Oh, yeah.”
The figure across from them lurched to its feet. His eyes were peeled back, but far from being glazed over or manic, they were horrifyingly, rivetingly clear and focused with a blunt, meaningful attention on the two men. His black hair was loose, free, matted with vomit and worse. Wracked with fire from within, a seizure danced across his body, first in one leg, then an arm, then the other arm.
He looked nothing like the man he was a week before.
Benji took a step forward. He was too tired to be threatened. “OK, Sanjay. We’re going to try to give you something to eat.”
“Why didn’t you bind his feet?”
“I don’t have shakles, or enough chain.”
“Rope?”
“He’d work out of that. And tear his skin to pieces.”
“Eesh.”
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