Bright, Shining Light

Chapter 5

"Can I ask you something?" Reid asked Nora, who was sat back in her bed with a copy of The Once and Future King in her lap. She had opened it to a specific page, but hadn't read a word.
"Anything you like." She replied.
"Is that your favorite book?"
She looked up at him quizzically, as that was not a question she had expected.
"Um... well, I could never choose a favorite book. I haven't ever read a book that I didn't love."
He smiled, completely able to relate. She continued.
"If I had to pick a top.... twenty, I suppose... this would make the list."
"What's on that page that is important to you?"
Her eyes immediately began to fill with tears so fast that she was unable to hid them from him. She took a few moments to compose herself. Then she began to read.
"'The best thing for being sad,' replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, 'is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.'"
  Her voice remained steady and strong, yet there were still tears in her eyes as she finished the passage. She wiped them away angrily.
"I'm sorry. Normally I'm able to hold it together better than I am now."
"Don't be sorry. Please. Tell me about the passage?" He pressed, hoping to gently extract any and all information he could get from her, anything that might get them out of this.
  Nora took a deep breath, and he noticed the way her hands trembled as she let the book fall back into her lap.
"They take people... you know?"
"No Nora, I don't know. What people do they take?"
"All kinds. Some are women, some are men. Some are old and some... some of them are young. Really young." Fresh tears emerged and she swiped them away again.
"How do you know this?" He asked, inching slowly toward her bed.
"Because they bring them here."
"Here? In this room?"
"Yes. They spend a few hours, sometimes even a whole day in here before he takes them."
"Do you know where he takes them?"
"No. All I know is that they never come back."
  She didn't wipe these tears away. Instead she let them fall on to the pages of the still open book in her lap.
"I chose this book to read to the last one."
"Why is that?"
"Because he was... he was only a child. It was almost his eighth birthday."
"How do you know that?"
"He told me. He told me that his birthday was in a few days and... he had asked his parents for a Superman themed party with all of his friends from school."
"Okay. Okay." Spencer murmured softly, scooting even closer to her. "You read him this passage for a reason. What was it?"
"I don't know."
"Yes. Yes you do. Out of all these great books in here, what made you choose this one? This specific passage?"
"Because Merlin was right. Knowledge is the one thing that nobody else can take from you. And they take- trust me, they take it all. All the happiness, all the goodness. They take everything that they can."
"Nora has either Brian or Mike ever sexually assaulted you?"
  His question was so direct, she had to look into his eyes to be sure he had even asked it.
"No. No."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. Brian caught Mike getting a little too grabby with me, once. They got into a fight and... and Mike didn't come by for a long time after that."
"Okay. That's good."
  Nora let out an annoyed sound.
"Nothing about this is good, Spencer."
"You're right." He agreed, finally reaching the edge of her bed. "But that doesn't mean that we can't find moments of light in the dark, right?"
"Yeah.. I guess so."
"And my guess is that you did whatever you could to comfort these people that those men took. You were the last shining light of hope that they had. You did your best to give them the gift of a few last moments of peace. Am I wrong?"
"I don't know. I did what I could. I didn't want them to resist Brian. If they did, he hurt them more than he had to. He hurt them before he took them away. And I couldn't bear the thought of them living their last hours in horror. So I... I did what I could to make them comfortable. To reduce as much harm as possible. I only hope that they died quickly. I hope that they didn't suffer much more after they left here."
  She broke down, softly crying into her hands as he watched the tears trailing down her wrists.
"Nora?"
"Hmm?"
"Would it be okay if I hugged you right now?"
  Meeting his eyes just then, there was shock apparent on her face. She remembered the way Spencer had never been much of a hugger.
"I-I'd like that. Very much. It's been a really long time since I've hugged anyone." She breathed.
  A second later, Spencer's arms enveloped her. He felt warm, and safe. He felt like home. Relaxing into him, she let the tears fall freely from her eyes. They soaked his shirt, but he didn't pull away. He only hugged her tighter.
"We are going to get through this, Lenora. I promise you that, okay?"
"Okay." She responded, squeezing him tighter.

***

"Well well. Would you look at that."
  Nora jerked awake suddenly at the sound of Brian's booming voice. Taking a quick inventory of her surroundings she realized that Spencer still lay beside her on her bed. Still asleep, his long arms lay around her waist now that she was sitting up, and he had begun to stir as well.
"I-I-It's not what you think-"
  Brian cut her off by grabbing her arm and dragging her forcefully off the bed.
"Wait. Stop this was my fau-" Reid interjected before Brian cut him off.
"Shut up!"  There was a dull sound as he brought the butt of his gun to the side of Reid's head. Reid fell back into the mattress, groaning.
"I didn't want to do this, Nora. This is your fault. Remember that when you watch the light leave his eyes... you did this."
"N-no. You can trust me, I'll do anything- ah!"
  She felt a sharp sting as he injected something into her leg.
"I knew you were just like her. I'm going to kill him, and you're going to watch. Then you're going to fall asleep and when you wake up... if you wake up... we'll be somewhere else far away from here."
  She heard the click of a gun as her muscles began to go weak.
"No... please. This was my fault, not hers." She heard Spencer tell him, his voice strained.
"Shut the hell up!" Brian screamed, digging the barrel of the gun into her temple.
"Mr. Kelly, please don't shoot her. I was the one who came here looking for her. I noticed through my agency that Lenora had been missing for some time-"
bang
The shot rang out and a hole appeared in the wall beside them. Looking up at Brian, Nora saw that he now had the gun pointed at Spencer.
"No! I called him. That night, you- you fell. Here in my room, you fell. You left without your cellphone and I used it to call him. It's my fault! Just like you said."
He trained his gun back on Nora, letting her go. Her body crashed to the floor, her muscles growing too weak to support her.
  Just then a loud crash from downstairs reached them, followed by voices.
"Police!" They heard, voices muffled.
"Fuck!" Brian swore, starting to panic.
"She's lying to you. She just trying to protect me, I'm the one who called the police." She heard Spencer say, causing Brian to aim the gun back at him. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Spencer sitting upright on her bed with his hands up next to his head. She tried to push herself up off the floor, but her arms felt like jello. They gave out from beneath her, and she smacked her jaw on the hardwood as she hit the floor again.
"You're a coward. You won't shoot me because I look like Samantha." Her words were now slurring together from the drug that was coursing quickly through her veins.
"Don't talk about her!" His gun swung back at Nora.
"Shoot me! I knew you were killing kids, and I brought the police! Shoot me, damn it! Shoot me!" Spencer was shouting, while Nora gave one last effort to launch herself up from the floor.
bang