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The sturdy dock suddenly collapsed beneath our feet, plunging the three of us into the gritty water below.
Thank goodness.
Elset 154 had been approximately two seconds away from plunging Grandpa's G's Nazi dagger into my dad's back.
He had been taunting me the whole time, of course. I had been screaming.
<Please, no! Don't do this! I'll do anything. I'll stop fighting you, I promise I'll behave, just don't kill him!>
<You quit resisting months ago, slave> His harsh tone rang through my mind. <Should I remind you why?>
I'd have thrown up right then if I could.
<No, I'll make you watch> he decided. I felt my lips curl up into a subtle sneer. <Better yet, I won't stop with your worthless father. Killing your entire stupid family will make my job much easier. Wouldn't have to keep up this ridiculous cover.>
<No!> I wailed. But the familiar dread had settled in my gut. Elset was the most sadistic being I'd ever met. I knew he would force me to murder everyone I'd ever cared about just to climb up the yeerk hearcheny. Hell, the main reason he was about to kill my dad was because he was pissed the Visser had decided to leave him behind to die.
He withdrew the dagger from its hiding place in the back pocket of my jeans.
If only I could force it up to my own throat.
Elset 154 scrambled to hold onto the deck as it collapsed in on itself, curling up unto the shore. My dad was doing the same, and he shot a worried glance at me before we hit the water.
Something pulled him under, and he surfaced, spitting out the dirty lake water, yelling, “Hey!” before being dragged under again.
Elset 154 surfaced, spitting out more water, before circling back around, trying to keep his intended victim in sight. My hand reached for the dagger, but it was gone.
<Dammit> Elset cursed. I could sense his annoyance, echoing through my head.
There was a time I would have gloated. Now I just shrank back and tried not to annoy him further. He tortured me insistently when he got frustrated.
I couldn't do this anymore.
The yeerk swung my body around, searching for his latest victim. But my father had been dragged to the other side of the lake, and Elest had lost his weapon.
He laughed cruelly. <You think that matters, slave? I could kill him with my bare hands.>
I let out an internal sob. The scary part was, he was true to his word. I'd watched him do it before, helpless to stop as I felt my own hands tighten around the throat of an intern Visser Three wanted Elset to punish.
Elset laughed cruelly. <What's this? You're bringing up the memories on your own now? I won't even have to punish you if you keep this up.>
I suddenly felt nauseous. <No, I didn't mean to…>;
WHAM!
Something slammed with considerable force into my back. Pain rippled up through my body in huge waves. Then I felt something brace itself behind my right leg, and twist it suddenly in the opposite direction it was supposed to bend. I involuntarily shrieked.
Sharp bursts of excruciating pain shot through my leg. Elset gasped, and I swallowed a mouthful of lake water, so I started choking. My eyes widened as Elset tried to swim, but he couldn’t kick my injured leg effectively, so we plowed facedown in the water and started to sink. Even the total control the yeerks have over their hosts can’t override human injuries.
Waves hit harshly against my face, and I felt whatever had broken my leg slip out from under me and swim away. I couldn’t stop the dirty water from flowing into my mouth, my nose, pouring down my throat and into my lungs. Black spots appeared at the edges of my vision- not that I could see much anyway, and I could not breathe.
Distantly, at the edge of my awareness, I registered my father’s voice calling my name. He sounded frantic, terrified. He also sounded like he was probably several yards away.
There was no way in hell he would get to me in time.
I felt my awareness slipping away rapidly. Elset was shouting something that was probably vile in my head, but for once I allowed myself to ignore it. What did it matter?
I was dying.
Tom Berenson, the kid who was once a star basketball player and an advocate for the lonely kids at Wilson High School, was going to drown in a filthy pond that was five feet deep. It was a pathetic way to go out, and definitely not my preferred method of suicide.
But I would take anything at this point.
With grim satisfaction, I directed a final message at my tormentor. <I win. And I’m taking you down with me. No way in hell am I letting you infest some other poor bastard.>
I’ll never know how Elset would have reacted to that, because I suddenly felt my body skimming rapidly across the waves toward the muddy bank at the edges of the pond.
Well, damn it.
Some kind of animal was pushing my drowning, broken body towards safety. Could it be one of the Andalite Bandits? They seemed to show up randomly to annoy Visser Three, but they did happen to attack around Elset quite a bit.
I wasn’t sure, but it seemed a hell of a lot more likely than some random fish consciously deciding to incapactine me.
Elset was furious, but he laughed. His voice rang through my mind so harshly it hurt. <You think…some Andalite…cares enough about your pathetic family to go out of their way to save your father?>
That shut me up fast. Elset knows how to beat me where it hurts.
But I could tell he was struggling, too. I’d never been this wounded while he puppetted my body.
Someone’s strong hands gripped my arms and dragged me out of the pond. Jake flipped me over onto my back, his expression a mask of pained panic. Grimy pond water dripped down my face and into my hair.
My little brother jumped up and screamed, “Help!” His voice failed him and he shouted out again.
I started expelling the water from my lungs, gasping, coughing, and groaning. My head started to clear up, and the pain hit me like a train. I groaned and puked up barrels of water, slime, and my dinner.
Elset thrashed rapidly, and I felt my hands reaching weakly towards Jake.
Horrified fear gripped me. Elset apparently wasn’t finished with his murder spree of my loved ones.
“Don’t move,” Jake ordered me fiercely, expression unreadable. He reached out and tried to hold me down. “I think your leg is broken.”
I whimpered weakly and tried to open my mouth, but the yeerk crushed my attempt effortlessly.
“Jake!” my dad’s comforting, but currently scared voice startled me slightly. “Is Tom alright?” I couldn’t turn my head to look at him, but Jake glanced up and met our father’s eyes.
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “ Someone better call an ambulance. Dad, hurry!” he shouted, his voice breaking ever so slightly on the last word.
I heard my dad's footballs hitting the ground, sprinting towards the cabin.
Jake squatted down next to me, an odd expression on his face. It was something in between concern and determination.
<Should I kill him now, slave? Or should I wait until your father comes back. I'd savor the look on his face> Elset tormented me.
I didn't even give him the satisfaction of an answer. I just pushed against the yeerk with all my might, so terrified for Jake, his concern for me, the fact that he was sitting right next to a muderer…
“Get out of here, Midget,” I gasped, my voice weak and grating. “Get out of here and leave me alone!” Gosh, no one could have missed the desperation in my voice. Still, I felt tears flowing down my face. I hadn't even realized I was crying, but this was the first time I had spoken to my brother in almost two years.
I knew if I had had full control of my body, right then, I would have been sobbing.
I could feel Elset's rage, and dark agony clouded through my thoughts. The yeerks would torture me physically for resistance like this. They were ruthlessly cruel, and they knew how to hurt the hosts without leaving wounds in visible places.
I let out a sob. Still, for my brother, it would be worth it.
Jake reached down and grabbed my hand, forcing Elset to turn and look him in the eyes.
“No,” he said firmly. “I..” he took a deep breath, controlling the muscles in his face, “don't think so.”
“Jake,” I said shakily, pushing past Elset's control again. I knew the yeerk was weakened from the pain.
Tears suddenly bubbled up in Jake's eyes. He turned his head away, and wiped at his face for a few seconds. I heard him gasping for breath, before he focused back on me, his face a mask of careful control.
He gripped my hand so hard it turned white, probably to distract me from the pain in my leg. He rubbed his thumb into my knuckles, the way our mom sometimes did as a comforting gesture.
“Listen, Tom…” he breathed in slowly. “You're…you're going to be okay. I promise you everything is going to be alright.” He sounded like he was trying to convince himself as much as me. My nearly dying must have really freaked him out, poor kid. Still, I appreciated the gesture. Heaven knows I could've used a little comfort after nearly being forced to stab my dad.
Elset had taken back control by this point, but tears were still flowing freely down my face, and there was nothing any yeerk could do to stop them.
“You…you know I love you, right?” my little brother asked shakily.
Dammit, I was never going to stop crying if he kept this up. I wanted so badly to tell him that I loved him more than anything, that I was trying to protect him, that he needed to leave now before Elest stabbed him to death, and freaking hell, why was he still here?
Elset responded instead with a passive aggressive platitude.
“Yeah,” he scoffed. “Hell, Midget, you really think now's the time to get all mushy on me? I'm still broken here.” He gestured to our body.
Jake's expression hardened slightly. When he spoke, his voice sounded much steadier, and he pulled his hand away, letting mine fall limply to the ground.
“I swear I’m going to get you out of this, Tom.” he pledged. “One way or another,” he added darkly, his gaze intense, staring straight through the yeerk to me.
I had lost track of what the hell we were talking about, but Jake’s overly intense, vaguely threatening expression was scaring me. It intimidated Elset too, and despite everything I had been through, I couldn't help smiling slightly, inwardly, of course. My awkward little brother had put the fear of God into a yeerk.
If he could do that, without even realizing it, then maybe I could hold for another excruciating moment.
After a minute or so, Jake grabbed my hand again and rubbed my palm.
We both stayed silent, and he didn't leave me until I heard the medvac helicopter sweep in from above.