TORN FLESH

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: FLAWED PLANS

MARGO hadn't quite realized how much her plans were going to change later that day when night fell, more so what came to her while she slept.

The day had crept on quietly, Violet silent as the nurses did their checkups and took a few vials of blood from her, she'd simply stared at the ceiling and clenched her teeth to avoid having to look at the red substance, the sight of it alone would make her stomach turn.

And when night fell, Margo couldn't even begin to describe her nightmares. For once, there was a new one, a blonde man, his hair somewhat curly and blonde, the wind blew through it for a few moments and she'd reached out to touch it watching as the man disintegrated beneath her touch.

Confused, she turned around to see him, standing a bit off arguing with a man, and while he was taller, it was obvious that the blonde was younger than the man he was arguing with. Margo took a step forward watching as the two continued to argue before the blonde pointed at something behind him.

As she turned to find what he was pointing at, she found that the once black landscape that had surrounded them was a small house, and they were in the living room. A small blonde girl sat on the sofa her eyes drawn on the small pocket knife she was fiddling with as the two men argued.

"That's not normal Dad! She should be with other kids her age!"

The man raised a finger towards the blonde's face, "what? So she can grow up to be like you? Someone with no purpose?"

"I don't think so."

"If you won't listen to me then at least listen to Ron!" he spoke watching as the smaller man walked towards the little girl extending his hand out to her with his back to the blonde, "Ronnie signed up to get himself killed for a shitty paycheck, I ain't got nothing to say to him."

The blonde scoffed, "you ever think that was because of you? Dad, mom killed herself because she couldn't stand you!"

The man spun around jabbing a finger out towards the blonde once again, "don't you dare blame that on me! Your mother was ill, if anything..." he paused and gestured to the small girl sitting behind him, "you can blame her, should've known better than to let your mother have another child, but she begged, and she begged, just to try and get the girl she'd always wanted."

It seemed that suddenly the little girl was gone, and both men were focused on Margo now, "this is your fault." the smaller man spoke his voice tight as he took a step forward, the blonde reached his arm out in front of him to block him, "no, it's not."

The two continued to go back and forth like that until things escalated and the two began to brawl, the blonde on top of the smaller man with his hands pushing down on the man's neck.

And then she woke up.

She was lying in the chair beside Violet's bed panting, the only thing keeping her from crying was the fact that a nurse had just passed the room, the last thing she wanted was for someone to catch her in the act.

Reaching both hands up to rest on her forehead, she tucked a few hairs that had been stuck to her face with sweat behind her ear. There was only one person she could talk to, one person she knew that could tell her who they were.

And that was Eric.

Unsure of if he had successfully made it to the compound- alive and well- Margo slipped out of the room and roamed around for about half an hour before she found a receptionist desk that had someone seated behind it.

She silently approached the desk her hands laced together as she thought through her words.

"Can I help-"

"Do you happen to know where I could find someone by the name Eric Bander?"

Frowning, the woman turned to a computer at her desk, the thing miraculously flicking to life, that was the last thing she'd expected, to see enough power to run a computer, did they have generators?

It was a possibility, one she could think about later.

"Yes..." the woman stated turning to face Margo again, "we do have an Eric Bander, what is it you want with him?" she questioned resting her head into her palm, Margo softly shook her head, "I just need to talk to him."

Narrowing her eyes, the woman turned back to the computer and scrolled for a moment or so before the sound of a printer whirred to life and a paper shot out of it beside her computer, licking her finger, she snatched the paper up and looked it over for a few seconds before she held it out to Margo.

"There's his room number, you can probably find him at his regular station though, he always seems to be there."

Giving the woman an appreciative nod, Margo took off with the sheet of paper aimlessly searching through each building she came across hoping to find the mans station, it seemed he worked in Sector 828- not that they actually had that many sectors- but she had no clue where that was, and she had hoped to find it on her own without having to ask anyone for help.

Checking one of the many clocks in the compound, Margo found that it was only four in the morning, four o'eight to be exact, she had thought it to be a bit later than that, but apparently not.

It wasn't until she found the way to the basement of the hospital that she realized just how many people it protected, there were dozens of people either working on machines or reading through a manual of sorts, a few others were welding and maybe a dozen were talking to each other as they gestured to a machine.

And glancing towards the back, she caught sight of Eric downing a bottle of concealed liquor, she frowned, she hadn't ever realized he drank, much less hard liquor.

Slipping and sliding past people, Margo managed to make her way to the back in a matter of minutes, although it felt like much longer to her. Glancing down at the paper, she looked back to Eric's face to try and compare them, it was close enough, except he'd let his hair get a bit longer since the last time they'd interacted.

It suited him well.

Letting her hands drift to rest at her sides- the paper stuck between her thumb and index- she stopped in front of him as he flipped the page of a manual, she stood in front of him, the sound of welding and overlapping conversation filling the space around them.

When he continued to flip through the manual, somewhat oblivious to her presence, she softly cleared her throat and watched as his head slowly lifted from the content on the page in front of him, he stared at her for a few seconds before it registered and he took a step back.

"God, it's too early for nightmares, go away or something."

She frowned, "nightmares? I came to ask you something."

Eric narrowed his eyes before reaching a hand out to poke her shoulder, "christ you're actually real for once, that's weird."

"Well, yeah, most people are real."

The man reached his hand to his face and viciously rubbed at his eyes for a few moments before opening them and letting a sigh fall from his lips, "yeah, I guess they usually are."

"What are you even doing here? They told us you died or whatever back at the hospital."

Margo shook her head, "thanks for that vote of confidence, really. Greatly appreciated."

Eric scoffed as she continued, "I came to ask you for something."

Furrowing his brows, he shook his head, "does this something have a name?"

She rolled her eyes, she hadn't gotten to that part yet, "my old files, I know you have them on paper, so they couldn't be hacked after Ronnie."

The name sent chills down his spine, he knew exactly what she was talking about.

That one night, almost seven and a half years ago.

"Why do you want them?" he questioned crossing his arms across his chest, "because, you know what you did, I know what Stan made you do, or I at least have a gist of it, think of this as a step in the right direction."

Letting out a huff of air, Eric glanced past her raising his hand into the air, "Andrew! I need you to fix the compressor while I'm gone."

Glancing over her shoulder she watched as a man with sandy brown hair frowned and shook his head, "and what's in it for me?" he yelled back from across the room, Eric let his lips draw into a smirk, "candles for you and Macy if you don't fuck up the compressor."

Biting his lip, the man raised his hand in Eric's direction and gave him a nod, "you have an hour dude."

Smiling to himself, Eric slipped out of his chair and began to walk back the way Margo had come checking every few seconds to make sure she was still following him, which she was.

It only took a few minutes of walking across the shiny linoleum floor for Margo to realize they were going to his room, which the nurse had alleged Eric hardly ever spent any time in.

And when they entered, she understood why.

It was dark- at the moment- and books and papers alike were strewn across every empty surface the room provided, the two had to practically tiptoe through the mess to avoid stepping on anything.

This was not the Eric Margo remembered, he'd always been extremely organized and tidy, this, this made him out to be a sad drunk or sorts, or a conspiracy theorist.

She could almost guarantee it wasn't the latter.

"So, what's with the sudden interest in your files? In my seven years of knowing you, you haven't once asked to see them, much less read through them."

Margo shook her head, she could tell him her nightmare, she knew she could, but there was just something so suffocating about it that made her want to keep her mouth shut.

"I was hoping to maybe find out where I grew up, I never really got any closure on that."

"Oh." Eric mumbled carefully lowering himself to his knees to search for something beneath his bed, straining his arm a bit and glancing under a few different times, it seemed that when he stood and plopped down on his messy bed that he had exactly what she wanted.

Her files.

"Here, although, you probably won't read anything too interesting."

Pursing her lips, Margo plopped down beside him, "thanks Eric, I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell Stan about this." she spoke her eyes flicking to the folder as she spoke, Eric frowned before gesturing to the space around them, "in case you haven't noticed, I don't work for the old man anymore."

She stifled a laugh before cracking open the folder in her lap, she was somewhat worried- and excited- about what she was going to read, maybe she could get some answers, something worth reading about, some closure to all the questions she had.

Eric watched from over her shoulder, having never had the chance to look through her file himself, only Irene and Stan had ever read it, and they had intended for it to remain that way.

Except they weren't exactly around to order them about at the moment.

Brushing his finger against the page, Eric pointed at the photo of Ronnie at the bottom left corner, "there's Ronnie, your parents should be on the next page if I'm not mistaken."

Casting him a short glance, Margo skimmed over the rest of the information on the page before flipping to the next one, Eric wasn't wrong, a pale woman with blue eyes and dirty blonde hair sat smiling with a little boy in her lap. Beside that photo, was a mugshot of a man, the same short man she'd seen in her nightmare, and then she saw it.

The photo of the blonde man that had been arguing with the man- her supposed father- her eyes glided to the script beside the younger man's photo, she read over it multiple times trying to get it to sink in.

Eddie Lee, delinquents second brother.

TORN FLESH

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: FLAWED PLANS