Control Freak ✔️

33 demon time

She was his first sweet memory. Before that, was pain; awakening from a dreamless slumber submerged in black water too deep and too dark to see which way pointed towards the sun. As he became aware of his essential need for air, he began to flail, tossing aimlessly in a rushing fluid, bounding through the black living walls that swallowed the sky and all light from his world. He screamed, and the sound was paralyzed, caught at the larynx and banished back down to the pit of his stomach, collapsing beneath the ponderous weight of an abyss and trapped there like an ant beneath a boot.

But, he wanted freedom. More than he wanted to ever dream again, he wanted to be free from this recurring nightmare, and to wake up with a future different than the one that was written for him. The sound of his heartbeat propelled him upwards, the agitation within his own squirming skin as his lungs burned, and his face came jolting to the surface. With his last bit of strength, he swam until he felt the soft sand between the webs of his fingers. He climbed farther up to escape the tide and turned on his back. The sun was high and shining on the cloudless day. It made him wince. He was cooled by the shadow of an angel perched over him. She looked down on him and smiled the most beautiful smile he'd ever seen, as bright as the brave new day. Before he closed his eyes to rest, he whispered the name that had been engraved somewhere in the deepest recesses of his mind,

"Lily," he muttered softly before drifting off.

"Hey!" a harsh, ugly voice jarred his senses.

"I said, 'What do you want?'"

No response.

"What do you want?" Seguerra growled. "I'm not gonna ask again."

"Gimme a candy bar," Clark finally answered.

"With, or without nuts?"

"Nuts— please."

"Okay, then. Hayakawa, anything?"

"Bottle o' water would be fine for me, thanks."

Seguerra shut the car door behind him, whistling as he sauntered his way to the gas station, preoccupied with his wallet as he sifted through it for the right amount.

"You gon' help your daddy pump the gas," Clark jeered from the backseat.

Sam rolled his eyes as he spat. "Hey, shut up back there, alright?" He pressed his head up against the headrest as he watched Seguerra enter the store. "Just be happy we're getting you anything—"

"Gee, thanks. I'll have to remember such gracious kindness." He was pinned to the headrest. Clark had come over the top and lassoed him with his cuffs. He pulled back as the chain links dug into Sam's Adam's apple and his face turned purple and his eyes began to bulge as he clawed at the air, beating against the window. Seguerra was inside, still whistling happily as he scoured the snack aisle.

"You know why they put up those barriers in the patrol cars, don'tcha?" he laughed. Sam could only manage a strained gurgle as the chains began to break the skin and draw blood. "You can't talk but that's okay. They put those barriers up, so the criminal can't get to ya like I'm doin' now. It's to keep you safe when you can't watch me. That's how I knew you fucked up from the very day I met you, boy. To have a man like me in your backseat and no eyes in the back'a yo head. Don'tchu know I been plottin' on that soft little neck'a yours all this time. Just waitin' on the day yo boss trust you enough to let you alone wit me."

He had lost the oxygen in his limbs. No longer could he hammer against the window. Hayakawa's face was fully purple. Seguerra was in the back where all the beverages were kept cold, pining over whether to get himself a soda or bottled water.

"I'mma tell you this, though," Clark whispered. "Ya boss Seguerra is pretty smart, for the most part. He figured everything out. The only issue I take is when he kept talking about how he was tryna figure out how the Quinn's trained Ivy or how she got how she came to be. But the Quinn's ain't have nothin' to do with it. The Quinn's didn't teach baby girl how to do a proper chokehold. That was me."

Seguerra wouldn't start running until he looked out and saw that the car was gone. He raced out and saw his partner lying between the pumps, crumpled in a heap and motionless.

"Officer down!" he screamed into his phone. "Bring an ambulance!"

"What's the situation, officer?" the operator replied.

"I need an ambulance now!"

"State your location, sir." Everything else was muffled by the deafening throbbing pounding in his head. It was all enveloped in one, wild, disorienting sensation. The last thing Seguerra remembered was his partner in his arms, how heavy he was in his stillness. The next thing he knew, he was alone.