U.C.O.D: Scorn of the Lost, Chapter 5
#6 of U.C.O.D: Scorn of The Lost
"Swade! You got a visitor!" a low booming voice called through the metal door into Dameon's cell. Dameon looked up from where he was drawing a picture of an anime-style ladybug. He walked up over to the door and looked through the slide after pocketing the drawing. A large, black, human guard looked at him with stone eyes. "Hands through."
Dameon's own pupils whirred for a second, and then his claws came through the slot in the middle of the door. Dameon raised an eyebrow.
"Don't you think this is a little unnecessary? I could still break these cuffs and bitch slap you all up and down this asylum..." Dameon said coldly.
"Yea not before I hit your ass with so many volts ya look like burnt toast," the man responded, opening the door and letting Dameon walk into the hallway.
"Boy does THAT bring back bad memories..." Dameon thought and winced. The guard laughed.
"You pussy," he chuckled.
"Takes one to know one," Dameon muttered and looked over at the guard. They met glares and locked for a few seconds. Then they both burst out laughing!
"Ah man, Dameon what will I do without you?" the guard laughed.
"Oh don't you worry about that Briggsy my good buddy! I've got enough life sentences to keep you satisfied till you retire," Dameon said and chuckled as they walked down the hallway to the visiting rooms. Dameon reached into his pocket and took out the drawing of the ladybug. He looked it over and ran his claw over it gently. Briggs looked down at the drawing.
"That for your little girl?" he asked. Dameon looked over at him and nodded.
"You think she'll like it?" he asked the seasoned security guard. Briggs laughed. The two passed a couple of imposing-looking guards, new to the asylum. They were mercenaries from an outfit called Reaver, brought in by that new director for "a safer environment". Mercenaries! Dameon hated the lot of them...but he didn't want to cause problems for Dr. Allen. So he tolerated their presence in the asylum...for the time being...
"One thing I learned about kids, my brother, if you can draw better than they can, they see the goddamn Mona Lisa," he said and turned the corner with Dameon. Dameon laughed as they entered the visiting rooms. There were multiple people lined up and down the rows, each one of them looking through the glass at their captive relatives. Dameon was brought to the maximum security visitation cell, a large Plexiglas box with only one entrance/exit. It resembled the holding cell magneto was kept in during X-Men 2. There was a person sitting in the room. She was a young brown lizard.
"Holi! It's been a while! I thought you'd forgotten about me? How are the kids?" Dameon said as he sat down. She looked up at him, eyes wet and still slightly swollen from serious crying...all was not right...she looked as though someone had torn out her heart. "Holi?"
"The kids...Dameon, the kids..." she whispered. Dameon's pupils widened. Holi started crying again.
"Holi...what happened to the kids?" Dameon asked quietly. Holi continued crying, seeming not to even notice him..."HOLI!"
She stopped crying when Dameon slammed his fists down onto the steel table, making tow huge dents in the metal. Holi stopped crying and the whole area went silent. Holi looked up at him.
"Dameon...the kids are gone...they...someone...took them...they took them..." Holi muttered. Dameon stood up. A Reaver guard called from the crow's nest overlooking the cell.
"Inmate! Return to your seat!" he called and aimed his weapon at Dameon. Dameon looked up at him and snarled, pupils turning red. The guard looked around and then put his gun back down. Dameon walked next to Holi and wrapped his arms around her shoulders.
"Holi...who took them? Could you see who it was? Did they speak?" Dameon asked. Holi shrugged him off and stood up as well. She faced him offensively.
"And where were you?..." she whispered angrily. "Sitting here...in this miserable place...wishing you can just wait all your sins away..."
"Holi...I," Dameon began. Holi looked down as a teardrop rolled from her cheek...
"If you had been at home...with your family...none of this would have ever happened...if you had been there for us...if you had protected us...WHERE WERE YOU?!" Holi screamed at him, turning to let more tears roll down her cheeks. Dameon tried to edge closer to her, only to have her back up a few steps.
"I've done horrible things in my life Holi...I have to apologize for that...I need to feel that I can repent! I need to torture myself! I need to waste away my life in here so I can sleep at night knowing that I'm not...knowing that I'm not a monster anymore..." Dameon said and bowed his head. Holi looked up at him, her sorrow vanished. In its place was complete and utter monotony...all of her emotion had disintegrated like dust in the wind...
"You aren't a monster...you never were...at least not to me. But fine...if torturing yourself is what you need then do so. Stay here. Knowing that your children could be dead or dying while you selfishly incarcerate yourself to try and wait out all the horror you committed ages ago should be torture enough for anyone..." Dameon stood speechless, jaw clenched shut. Holi reached into her purse and pulled out a small, plush bunny and tossed it to him. "My son wanted this to be a present for you when he finally met you..."
"You told them about me?" Dameon asked quietly.
"He HAD to know he had a father sometime Dameon! He and her sister are getting older and I wanted them to know I wasn't just some whore who got knocked up and had to keep the two of them for lack of abortion money!" she said loudly, emotion returning.
"Now who's being selfish?" Dameon said quietly.
"Don't you dare...coming from the man who wasn't even there to see them born! How DARE you! I work day and night to keep my babies alive...and you sit here and wait for penance to come and relieve you..." Holi said angrily, large tears forming in her eyes. She turned and began to walk out.
"Holi..." Dameon called after her. She stopped midstride and turned her head. Dameon stood there and looked at her helplessly.
"Sins don't just go away Dameon; you need to scrub them off yourself...remember that...sitting around here won't get you your peace with the universe or yourself...it'll just waste your time and the precious time of our children. They need you Dameon...I need you...it's time to make a stand, Dameon, time to make a choice. Yourself...or your children..."
And with that she pressed the buzzer on the door and a guard opened it. Holi walked out without another word. Dameon stood there, motionless save for his usual body jolts from the gears inside him. He blinked a few times and looked around, then held his hands behind his back as the guards locked the manacles around his wrists and led him through the door back to his cell. Briggs watched him walk by and gave him an understanding look. Dameon looked down to the ground and continued on. Then Briggs waved his arms to get everyone back to work.
"Alright alright people! Nothin' to see! Move! Now!" he shouted. The doctors and nurses went back to doing what they were doing and it was as though nothing happened.
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There was a knock on Dameon's cell door.
"Dameon?" Briggs called. "Yo Robocop, you still alive in there?"
"Have to be alive in first place to be still alive," Dameon said from inside, his gravelly voice grinding against his throat like a buzzsaw. Briggs unlocked the door and opened it, walking inside. He found Dameon sitting on the ceiling, flicking a piece of chipped paint he probably chipped himself.
"Dameon, man...you're gonna kill yourself if you keep this up! It's been three days since your girl was here...ever since then you've been acting like life don't mean shit to you!" Briggs said to Dameon.
Dameon looked down at him and stood up, falling back down to the ground. Briggs and Dameon squared off, staring eachother right in the eyes. Dameon seemed to stare right through him though...
"Crying about it ain't gonna help anyone. Take your chance man...you gotta scrub your sins away on your own, not wait for them to evaporate," Briggs said finally and turned his back and walked out. Before he walked through the doorway, Dameon called out to him.
"Briggs," he said.
"Yea?" Briggs turned around and looked at him.
"Everyone shoots, no one gets killed, understand?" he said. Briggs gave a lighthearted chuckle and then turned around.
"You ain't getting out without a fight Robocop..."
Dameon smirked.
"Good luck, Briggsy ol' boy..."
"Same to you metalhead..."