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Simon was led through a dark basement that smelled very strongly of mold. There was water on the floor, but mostly collected into low spots where the concrete had been improperly set up.
“Fuck,” Kyle said. “Looks like the water pretty much went this way, too. Sorry ‘bout your shoes. If you want, I can just bang on the kid’s door and see what’s going on.”
Simon was not about to retreat from this… hell hole without HudsonandBen. The boy couldn’t live here. It was impossible. No one should live in these conditions, but Ben was… Simon searched for a word and could only come up with special. Ben was special and Simon wouldn’t let anyone with pneumonia stay here, and especially not Ben. It was unthinkable.
Kyle pounded his fist on a painted door that looked like wood but from the wear at the bottom was probably more like cardboard.
The door was pulled open by Hudson. His face was a dark thundercloud. “If you ask him for money one more time, I’m going to punch you in the throat. Is that clear enough for you?” Hudson was a large man with an intimidating appearance, but Simon didn’t think he’d ever before seen him look frightening. Nevertheless, Kyle splashed away from the door and even Simon blinked a few times. Hudson turned to Simon. “We’re not leaving the kid here and that’s final.”
Simon had already come to the same conclusion. “Agreed,” he said. “I wondered what was taking you so long.”
“I’m trying to get him to pack up his stuff so we can get out of here.”
“I can’t just leave,” Ben protested. “This is where Ilive.”Simon could hear him well enough but couldn’t see him. He pushed past Hudson to see Ben sitting on a bed that would more accurately be called a cot. Something you might take camping, maybe. Back in the seventies. If you were high and just didn’t care.
“This is…” Simon didn’t have the words to describe his feelings about where Ben lived. The house itself was awful, but this room was poorly lit, cramped, had only one small, thankfully barred, window, and was flooded with two inches of murky water. No word seemed correct to encompass how awful it was. Impossible. Inhuman. Unhygienic. Unsafe. He eventually went with “…appalling.”
Ben looked up at him with large, wet eyes. He seemed completely and utterly defeated. “It’s fine. You can go home. I’ve had flooding down here before. I can handle it. Just go home. Please.”
“I’m not leaving without you,” Simon said. Even if he’d felt nothing at all for Ben, he wouldn’t have been able to leave him in this shithole. But Simondidcare, even after such a brief time. He didn’t know why he felt drawn to the young man, but he did, and he wasn’t in the mood to quibble. “I wouldn’t leave someone here I hated, let alone someone like you.”
“Like me?” Ben asked. His voice squeaked in an absolutely charming way.
“Yes. Someone…” Simon was still thinking special but he didn’t want to say that out loud. It would sound too strange. “Someone who deserves better.”
Ben’s face crumpled but he didn’t make a sound other than his audible breathing.
“You deserve better,” Simon went on.
“Damn straight,” Hudson muttered. “Not that better would be hard to find. This is pretty f— damned close to rock bottom. Getting something worse would take work.”
“I don’t have anywhere else to go.” Again, Ben both looked and sounded utterly defeated. “And I’m used to it. You’re all…” he gestured vaguely with his hand. “You could never understand. It’s fine. I’m fine. You did your good deed and that’s it. You’re done now. Okay?” Then instead of silently weeping, Ben burst into ugly sobs and hacking coughs.
“Boss, fuck this,” Hudson said. “I mean—”
“Let’s just get him out of here.”
“He won’t pack his things.”
Simon thought for a few seconds. He looked at Ben. “Is there anything here you absolutely can’t live without?”
“My box,” he said dully. “It’s on top of the dresser.”
“Got it.” Simon took it and handed it to Ben. “Hold onto this. Okay, Benny?”
He didn’t respond other than to hug the box tightly to his chest.
Simon turned back to Hudson. “I’m getting him out of here. Grab anything that looks at all important or like something he would want and bring it.”
“Got it, boss,” Hudson said. He looked around, found a box of trash bags, pulled one out, and started packing up books and what Simon thought were art supplies. “I’ll be right behind you.”
“Ben,” Simon said firmly, “it’s time to go.” He wasn’t going to argue with Ben. Leaving here without him wasn’t an option. To Simon’s surprise, Ben got up and walked over to him.
“Okay. I guess.”
Simon whisked Ben up the basement stairs, through the wet kitchen, and then out the still-open front door. He had no idea where Kyle had gone and he didn’t care. After picking their way carefully to the car, Simon unlocked it and Ben got in obediently. He didn’t look precisely happy, but he wasn’t fighting Simon, either. Good enough. For now.
Which implied a later.
