collage i made at 4 am before frying my brain on 2 hours of sleep
noels old shed sat forgotten in the middle of nowhere, swallowed by dead trees and waist-high weeds that scraped against the warped wooden walls whenever the wind blew. its roof nearly caved with age, rust creeping across the metal in jagged streaks, and the single yellow porch light buzzed weakly against the dark. nobody came out this far. that was exactly why noel chose it.
he had prepared for months. every route liam walked, every person he stopped to talk to, the exact times he lingered after school, the shortcuts he took when he thought nobody was watching. noel studied it all with patient devotion, building the routine in his mind until he knew the boys life better than liam himself did.
so when he finally managed to get him alone, it almost felt destined. best believe liam fought hard enough to leave bruises- he kicked and twisted violently in noels grasp, small hands clawing uselessly at sleeves and skin while frightened little noises tore from his throat. his shoes dragged through dirt and gravel as he struggled, panic making his movements sloppy and desperate. but noel barely faltered beneath it. the difference between them was cruelly obvious- a terrified child could only do so much against the strength of a grown man. at least he tried, right?
when liam finally woke inside the shed, confusion hit him before fear did. his head jerked around wildly as his eyes adjusted to the dim light overhead. the room smelled like mildew, old sweat, and something metallic underneath it all. a stained mattress sagged in the corner, its springs misshapen beneath god knows what use, and a length of chain stretched across the floor from the wall to the cuff secured tightly around his ankle, long enough to move around a little, yet never long enough to reach the door.
the realization settled slowly, then all at once.
liams breathing began to stagger, chest rising too fast as panic overtook him completely. noel could hear the uneven hitching of it before he even made his way downstairs. the old wooden steps creaked beneath his weight & liam immediately shrank backward, chain rattling sharply as he tried to put distance between them- tears already glossed his eyes, his face pale with terror as his lip trembled beyond his control.
noel approached carefully, voice soft enough to sound almost comforting. “youre alright,” he murmured. “nobodys going to hurt you here.” it never worked the way he wanted it to, he hated that it never worked.
liams lip trembled violently before the tears finally spilled over, the sobs that left him sounded small and broken, the kind dragged from someone too scared to think properly, and, well- thats what he was after all. liam apologized over and over without understanding why, pleading to be let go, promising he would be good if noel just let him leave.
to noel, the fear felt frustrating more than anything else. after everything he had seen liam do, every careless word, every little act noel had quietly judged from afar- he had convinced himself this was necessary, that the boy needed to be corrected before the world ruined him completely. in noels mind, kindness and cruelty had become tangled together long ago.
but liam never stopped fighting him. even while exhausted, trembling, barely able to get air in through his crying, he still resisted with whatever strength he had left whether it be kicking, pulling away, refusing to stay still no matter how sharply noel snapped at him to behave.
eventually noel gave up trying to soothe him and ended up caging the boy beneath him, threatening the worst as he violently tugged at the boys tough trousers. there wasnt one moment where liam had halted his attempts to flee throughout it.
by the end of the night, he simply left the boy alone and bare in the cold darkness below the house. the hours dragged slowly, the weak bulb overhead flickered now and then, throwing shadows across the cramped room while liam curled against the filthy mattress, stomach loudly rumbling as a cry for any form of sustenance, shivering violently beneath the freezing air.
his throat burned raw from screaming. every tiny sound, the groan of wood outside, the scratching branches against the walls, the faint drip of water somewhere in the dark made him flinch awake again.
when noel returned later that week, the silence felt wrong immediately. no crying, no rattling chain, no heaving breaths, just stillness. liams thin frame sat slumped near the mattress, pale beneath the dim yellow light, his body rigid from the cold. teartracks still stained his face, and his unfocused eyes stared blankly toward the floor as noel stepped closer. to all of noels hope, liam was gone. stiff from the hours hed been left to marinate in the filth noel spread within and without him.
he could have been the purest of noels corrections had he only abided noels repentance.
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