Chapter 54
At all outward appearances, Jake lay there almost lifeless. You had to look closely to see that he was breathing at all. But appearances can be deceiving. His mind raced as if on a runaway train. Grotesque images appeared and just as quickly faded. Mutilated bodies, both human and animal, flashed in his sub conscience. He moaned softly, too softly for anyone to hear.
From somewhere he seemed to hear a familiar voice. For a moment, he couldn’t quite make out who it was or what the person was trying to say. In his dream he turned round and round to see who it was, but with no luck. Then he spotted what looked like a young woman.
She approached him, seemingly floating instead of walking. She glided towards him ever so slowly. As the apparition got closer, Jake tried to let out a scream, but could say nothing. The head was nothing but a rotting mass of decaying flesh. It opened its mouth to speak, but instead of teeth, there were maggots lined up along its gums, wriggling as they fed upon what remained of the creature’s mouth.
Jake tried to shriek, but to no avail. He was trapped inside this nightmare with apparently no avenue of escape. Almost as quickly as this horror appeared, it seemed to vanish, and in its place, his mother stood there with welcoming arms held wide to embrace him in a loving hug.
For a moment, his tension remained but then it faded and he became completely relaxed, knowing that his mother had come again to protect her little Jakie. He approached her and let her enfold her loving arms about him. He sighed contentedly, audibly enough to be heard by anyone in the room and then he fell quiet again and lay there, his mind at peace once again.
It was officer Cooke who thought that he had heard something from Caulder and turned to look at the body. However, by the time that he had turned to see if Jake had moved, he was just laying there like he had ever since they started to keep an eye on him. He didn’t mention it to Hawkins, because he just assumed that his mind was playing tricks on him. If he had, maybe they would be more alert to possible dangers from their prisoner, but he didn’t.
While Jake lay there, it seemed that he could hear nothing or sense things going on around him. The fact of the matter was, that he heard everything that went on in the room. He heard the confrontation that O’Reilly had with Cooke. In fact, he heard everything that had been going on around him.
His mother spoke to Jake in almost a cooing voice. “Jakie, you don’t deserve to be in this bed with an armed guard. You’ve done nothing wrong. These officers have no right to treat you like some kind of an animal.” She continued in her soft angelic voice. “Jakie, you must do something about these officers that are in this room. They want to hurt you.”
"Yes mama, I’m listening.”
"You’ve got to punish them for the way they look at you. They are bad men, Jakie and need to be learn to respect you. You did nothing to deserve such treatment from the likes of them.”
"Yes mama, you’re right.”
At that moment, Cooke spoke to his partner. “Hey Hawk, you want anything from the cafeteria. I’ve gotta take a leak and after I’ll get us a couple donuts and some coffee.”
"Yeah okay, sounds good to me. Black with two sugar.”
"I remember, Hawk.” Cooke spoke and then went to do his business and after that get them something to eat. He had completely forgotten that he thought that he had heard Caulder stirring only a few minutes ago.
"Jakie, one of the men has left. Now is the time to do something. After you deal with them, you can go speak to the officer who is responsible for your being in here.”
Jake had also heard the two officers talk about Chief Inspector O’Reilly. They mentioned him by name more than once. If Cooke had not been roughed up by Sean, perhaps they wouldn’t have talked about him.
However, the officer named Hawkins had told his partner two or three times that it was a stupid thing bad mouthing Chief Inspector O’Reilly the way he had. The inspector’s reputation was well known.
Cooke had agreed with his partner and for the next while, they talked about Sean and mentioned his name a couple of times. The name was firmly planted in Caulder’s brain, even though it seemed to Jake that his mother’s ghost was informing him of this fact for the first time.
In Jake’s mind, his mother’s visage seemed to dissolve into thin air. Jake let out a piteous whimper, because he didn’t want his mother to go. She was gone however. Jake became more and more agitated until he started thrashing about in bed. His eyes opened but Hawkins didn’t notice. All that he saw was Jake writhing about.
He approached the bed, not really sure what to do next. If he had called a nurse instead of going over to check on Jake, everything would have been fine. It caught him off guard though, because one moment, Jake seemed almost dead, and then in the next instant, he was moving about violently in the bed.
All of a sudden, Jake stopped moving and lay very still. Hawkins went closer to see what was going on. What he didn’t notice was that Jake had grabbed a pen from the bedside table and was grasping it tightly in his one hand. The other hand was handcuffed to the bed.
As Hawk approached, Jake lay very still, appearing to once again be comatose, but in reality, was very much the opposite. Every muscle in his body was tensed ready to spring at his unsuspecting prey. As Hawkins leaned over Jake, he struck with lightning speed, amazing for someone who had been as wounded as Jake was. Adrenalin was coursing through his veins, allowing him to react so quickly.
He struck Hawkins savagely in his throat with the pen. A gurgling sound could be heard, and for a second, Officer Hawkins just stood there, a dazed look on his face. Jake withdrew the pen, and struck again, this time hitting Hawkins in the left eye. The eye ball exploded with a popping sound.
Blood gushed from the wound in his throat, He tried to grab at it, but his body was going into a state of shock from the loss of blood and the fact that a pen was jutting from his eye as well. He staggered and slumped to his knees and then fell forward, his head resting upon the bed beside Jake. This was lucky for Jake because he managed to get the handcuff keys from Hawkins’ key chain and free himself from his shackles.
"Jakie” he thought he heard his mother speaking to him. “Get out of here as fast as you can. You can make O’Reilly pay soon enough.”
"Yes mama” Jake said to his imaginary vision, but she had faded away again. He tried to get out of bed, but staggered and his head seemed to be spinning. Grabbing the bed for support, Jake reeled there for a second before he managed to steady himself. He was still weak from his injuries, but after a moment or two, he seemed better. The only thought going through his deranged mind was to get out of there and then have a talk with Sean O'Reilly. Oh yes, that would be just fine. A smile came across his face. Things were going to get better soon. Once he "talked" with O'Reilly he could continue toward his new life.
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