15. Long Dark Teatime of the Soul

Mateo sat on his cot and shook, head in his hands. So much for G-rated. Getting hit once was one thing, but that dude was just getting warmed up! Geez, how many people here wanted to beat him up? And why? What the hell was going on? He didn’t even know the century! Everybody he knew in this world was long dead and nobody was coming for him. Nobody was even out there to ask if he was alive. Even if it was possible to escape, what could he do? He’d get scooped up again before he made it over the fence.

And if ... what was his name, Richard, or anyone else came after him, they could do some real bad stuff to him and he couldn’t even fight back. And they could just keep doing it. And doing it. He couldn’t do anything. He’d told them everything he could, he hadn’t pushed back against any of this bullshit, and...and...

It was a long night. The bug picked up the sound of puking twice, but none of the small sounds that went with sleep.

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