Brother's Keeper

Chapter 8

Peter had passed out from the pain when Jeff bit off a piece of his right earlobe, but he was rudely pulled back into consciousness when something hard entered his already torn and abused rectum. Not having the strength to scream, all he could manage was something between a moan and a gurgle. A hand slapped him in the face and Jeff teasingly tugged on the collar.

"C'mon, little bitch! I can't have ya sleepin' when I'm about to fuck ya!"

Peter realized that the object inside him was not the man's member but merely his finger. Jeff withdrew it and wiped the mix of clotted blood and fecal matter on the boy's face.

"Nathan..." Peter whispered but immediately regretted speaking his brother's name when he realized that his tormentor had heard him.

"Nathan's not coming for you now," Jeff said. Ya know why? 'Cause he's dead. We'll be having him for dinner tonight."

"Please..." Peter mouthed, hearing the metallic clasp of a belt being unbuckled. "Please... kill me..."

"Why so eager to meet yer maker?" Jeff taunted. He lowered his pants and leaned in between his victim's splayed legs. Peter lost consciousness again when the feared penetration finally came.

*

Sneaking into the house proved easier than initially conceived. Nathan figured someone would at least come and greet him, expecting him to be either Mick or Amos. If Jeff was not in sight, he was probably still indulging himself with Peter. Nathan prayed to heaven that it meant his little brother was still alive, although what state he would be in remained to be seen. The mere notion was terrifying.

Eventually as he slowly made his way down the hall, knife at the ready, he heard laughter.
Recognizing it as Jeff's, Nathan glared, gripping his new weapon tightly. Part of him wanted to rush right in, but the soldier in him advised caution, even when it came to rescuing his brother.
Creeping as silently as he could, he peered into the open doorway and saw a sight that by now he was becoming sickeningly used to. Back turned to the door, Jeff was practically stabbing into Peter. The boy's seemingly lifeless body was collared by a rusted chain.

Watching his helpless baby brother pinned under a man almost twice his size made Nathan lose what little rational sense he had left. He made a mad dash at the rapist, grabbing a filthy vase from a table to use as a weapon. Jeff slowly spun his head in the direction of the approaching footsteps, obviously expecting Amos or his brother to return. His visage displayed an almost comical transformation from anticipation to shock.

Nathan directed a kick into the deranged local's abdomen while simultaneously crushing the vase against his skull. The porcelain shattered into thousands of small pieces and Jeff's surprised expression stayed even as he collapsed onto Peter's now feebly writhing body.

A whimper came from the younger Petrelli brother as he felt the weight against him. Nathan was quick to react and pulled the dazed creature of a man away from his little brother. Tossing him into the wall, Nathan then kicked Jeff in the stomach, throwing out any obscenities that came to mind. Finally kicking the man onto his back, he pulled out Mick's knife. He did not want to give Jeff the satisfaction of not seeing his own death coming. He wanted the last thing for the monster to see to be his own brother's knife entering his heart. Kneeling down, Nathan readied the blade, but clearly Jeff took the presence of Mick's weapon to heart. A boot was suddenly colliding with Nathan's shoulder, knocking him aside.

Jeff tried to rise, but the disadvantage of having his pants around his knees made the simple act of standing up a difficult one. Nathan noticed with disgust that the local's now flaccid penis was covered in Peter's blood, and this made him even more determined to end the wretched man's life once and for all. He had hurt Peter, or any other innocent human being, for the last time.

Approaching the still struggling Jeff, Nathan directed a vicious kick to his face, taking pleasure in hearing the bigger man's nose break.

"That's for the 'strawberry shortcake', you sack of shit!" he growled, once again readying the knife in his hand. However, this time he chose to target a different place of his adversary's body. With a cry of pure, animalistic rage, Nathan buried the blade in Jeff's groin.

The scream which followed brought Nathan no satisfaction like he thought it would. He was not sure of whether to be comforted or frightened by this. Gritting his teeth, he twisted the blade and dragged it downwards, decimating anything in its path. Jeff writhed about in shock and agony, knuckles so tense that he was scraping splinters of the wood floor under his fingernails.

The screams sunk into long, low moans, and Nathan wondered if the noise would be recognized as cause for alarm for the last two family members. Amongst the complaining bad by his adversary, Nathan heard another noise, soft and weak. Turning around, he saw Peter lying on the floor, naked and chained, with hardly any strength left to move. From the angle in which he lay, he displayed several bright red stains, including a considerable one on his neck.

//Oh God no. They've slashed his throat!//

The initial fear of this being the cause of the blood, Nathan left his howling target and instead lunged for his baby brother, the instinct to protect his kin from further harm overwhelming everything else.

Peter's eyes were closed and remained so by the time Nathan knelt by his side, and he did not open them even when the lawyer lifted his head. However, no matter how dire his condition was, one particular discovery drew a sigh of relief from Nathan. The entire right side of Peter's neck was stained with blood, but the blood did not originate from a slashed throat but something that appeared to be a torn earlobe. In fact, a closer inspection revealed that most of Peter's right earlobe was missing.

Instinctively Nathan moved to touch the ruined ear, but stopped himself in time. Looking over the bruised and bloody body, he peered between the skinny legs and held back a sob. The nature of his brother's anus was so revoltingly swollen and damaged that something enflamed was slightly protruding from it.

"Baby, look what they did to you..." he said in a low, gentle voice. Gingerly placing his hands under a body that suddenly felt so small and light, he lifted up Peter and stood. They had to leave, get away. Peter needed help, he needed a doctor...

Rushing for the door, Nathan cautiously peered out into the hall. The commotion could have caused attention after all... of the most displeased kind. But the space was empty and no sounds of people approaching could be heard.

"Hold on, buddy," he whispered to his unconscious brother. "We're getting out of here."

One last thing though: Jeff.

Realizing he had left the man alive, Nathan turned around, only to be knocked into the far wall. The impact of the blow almost made him drop Peter, although he managed to catch his brother just in time before the frail and abused little body hit the floor.

Jeff was staring at the two brothers with a murderous glint in his deranged eyes, blood practically spurting from his mangled groin. Nathan realized that he would soon die of blood loss unless given medical assistance, but at the moment the thought was a small consolation. He was still very capable of harming them.

"You... you...!" the man sputtered, saliva sprinkling from his bloody lips. "You... fuckin'... bastard...!" He looked down at his own privates, or what used to be his privates, and his face turned into a mask of hatred and shock.

Knowing immediately what would happen next, Nathan quickly placed Peter down on the floor. Stumbling, Jeff hurled himself at Nathan and they fell to the ground. Though he was dying, the abominable man was still vicious in his attack, clearly not about to go down without a fight. Straddling the younger man, he put his arms around Nathan's throat and began to squeeze, splinter ridden nails digging into skin.

Defiant and determined, Nathan fought against the chokehold until something caught his eye. An iron doorstop sat against the wall holding open the door to that hellish room Peter had been carried from. Letting go of the clawing hands, he grabbed the heavy ornament and swung it against Jeff's temple.

At first nothing happened; Jeff's eyes simply twitched and his chokehold tightened even further. Nathan desperately repeated the action, and this time he managed to knock the bigger man off him, although a piece of skin from his neck followed with Jeff's ragged fingernails. The heat of the moment did not allow him to feel any pain. If he wanted to survive - if he wanted Peter to even have a chance of surviving - he had to be quick.

Gripping the copper ornament in a spasmodic hold, he smashed it against Jeff's head again. And again. After a total of six times, the bleeding maniac's left temple was caved in like a hole in the ground, and the only outward sign of life was restricted to small twitches in his fingers. Nathan completed the lethal assault with one more blow, this one splitting Jeff's forehead.

Finally the body attached to the pulpy mass of brains and bone stopped twitching. Nathan was glad Peter did not have to witness such a horrible sight. Picking his brother back up, he hurried down the hallway, hoping Peter would still have a chance of opening his eyes again.

A noise sounded from the steps and Nathan recognized the sound of someone climbing the stairs.

"Jeff, what's goin' on," a toothless mouth called out.

The woman.

Nathan glared at the thought of how she drugged the brothers' tea and hardly even batted an eyelash at the idea of him and Peter getting tortured, raped, and chopped into bits. And so when she finally opened the cellar door, Nathan was ready to hit her in the face with the doorstop and send her crashing back down the steps.

"Jeff?!" the obese woman bellowed, and her substantial frame trudged closer and closer to the door.

Nathan already knew that he used the basement to sleep in and was most likely displeased with having been awakened by the ruckus. Placing Peter on the floor again as gently as he could, the older brother once again grabbed the copper ornament - which now had blood, skull fragments and hair attached to it - and kept it ready for the waddling chunk of dough that had given birth to these abominations and thus started the whole thing.

"Jeff...?" Her final call had a slightly more insecure tone to it, as though she was expecting some form of trouble as she heaved the cellar door open with her bulky mass.

The door easily swung open and once her face came into view, Nathan aimed for it. She grabbed for the door frame for a split second, but gravity reigned supreme and sent her down the stairs like a boulder off a cliff. The resulting sound was deafening.

Mumbling came from down below and Nathan chanced to take a look. Several of the aged wooden steps had broken badly from the impact of the woman's fall and there she lay at the bottom. If the landing had not killed her, laying there with her own weight crushing her would.

The source of the mumbling was Kitty. She stood there staring, with chocolate smeared on her hands and face, causing dirt and dust to stick. Licking dirty melted chocolate from her fingers, she wandered off once more.

Days ago Nathan would have felt sorry for her, but now he picked up Peter again and walked down the hall, away from her, and away from this hell.

Peter gave a weak moan in his brother's arms and his closed eyelids fluttered for second. It was obvious even in his mostly unconscious state that he experienced great pain, physical as well as emotional. Despite the injuries Nathan had sustained himself, it was knowing how much Peter suffered that caused the strongest pain of all.

//Please, baby, just stay alive... Please... don't leave me, Petey//

The silent plea played over and over again in his head while he exited the house of terror and stepped out into the warm and welcoming sunlight. Judging from where the sun stood, it was early afternoon. Peter shivered in his arms despite the sun and his own fever, and Nathan realized that he really needed something to wrap his poor brother's body in. Besides he had to try to remove the rusty old collar somehow.

Currently the rusty thing was pulled at its tightest without choking the boy, but the age on the metal made the loop incredibly difficult to pull loose. Decisions batted back and forth in Nathan's mind as to what was the more important option: remove the chain, find a blanket...

Wandering back to the makeshift body shop Jeff had built for stripping cars, Nathan came across a pile of effects that had belonged to the Petrelli brothers. Amongst the object that served no purpose now, including a broken mobile phone, he found a towel, large enough to have dried him off after one of their swims. He thought back on the fun the two of them had days ago at the lake. Peter had been so excited about the trip, and now here he was. Wrapping the boy in the towel, Nathan laid him down and slowly worked at the rusty chain until it very slowly became exponentially looser.

Ugly abrasions now covered Peter's throat and neck, but the blood-loss from those was minimal, posing no threat to his life. That was not to say they weren't painful, and even if Peter survived this, some scarring would probably remain. As for the ear...

Nathan could hardly even look at the bloody malformed shell that had once been Peter's right ear. He could recall all the times he had teased his brother by tugging on his ears and telling him how much they stuck out. The memories brought tears to his eyes.

While Nathan was still working on the collar, Peter suddenly opened his eyes. The boy blinked a few times, and it took a long moment before recognition reached his watery gaze.

"Baby..." Nathan murmured, lifting Peter's upper body against his chest. "Baby... I'm here... Don't be afraid. I'm never leaving you again. Just stay with me..."

Another few seconds passed, and Peter finally made an attempt to speak. His words were unintelligible, and Nathan had to ask for a repeat.

"Nathan..." the boy whispered, his voice barely audible. The collar had done a good job on silencing him. "Please... kill me..."

Blinking away any tears which had threatened to escape his eyes, Nathan gently kissed his brother's forehead.

"You'll be alright," he reassured him. "Everything's gonna be alright now. We're together again, you and me."

Even if Peter listened to him now, Nathan hardly knew if he would believe the words spoken. Standing up, Nathan began to walk down the dirt path which led to the roads. If they could get to a place where car activity was common, perhaps they could flag down someone who could help them. Nathan hoped silently that none of those cars would belong to the men at the nearby bar.

*

He was not sure how long he had walked until he realized the sun was setting. Nathan did not trust his and his brother's safety if it got dark before they found a passing motorist. In addition, he had no idea how long Peter would last.

The boy's small body was so warm against his. Nathan figured it was mostly due to the fever, but being exposed to the blazing sun hardly helped lowering his body temperature. The lawyer could remember from high school biology classes that the human body could withstand a maximum temperature of 42 degrees Celsius, and only for a short time. Temperatures above that critical limit quickly shut down the vital functions and caused death within minutes. Nathan could only hope that Peter was not near his critical limit yet.

After only a couple of hours of walking, Nathan felt ready to keel over. Peter, despite his small size, began to weigh down in his arms like a sack of concrete, and his throat was so dry that it put sandpaper to shame. He needed water. They both did.

Even so, he felt they could never stop. They had to keep going, no matter what. Nathan had already given up when he was sent out to be executed hours before, and now here they were. Perhaps Peter would have been in a slightly better condition now if he had not waited around for some mentally disabled man to miss his swing and give him a second chance at life.

Nathan saw a stop sign faintly in the distance, only a red spot down at the end of the road. If only he could make it that far, then he could rest. Peter needed the water more, he convinced himself.

On he walked, forcing legs that felt as though they were ripping apart to move forward. His lungs were on fire and fanning flames into his throat. But eventually he could see the white letters on the sign, blurry though the image was.

Hopefully the stop sign indicated that he'd reached the highway. Either way, Nathan knew that he had to rest soon, or he would eventually collapse and doom them both. He also needed fluid into his system very badly. The hot, humid temperature together with the physical strain of having to carry Peter made him sweat excessively, and the fluid loss had to be replaced somehow, or he would dehydrate. And Peter... God, Peter needed a hospital.

The final two hundred feet to the stop sign seemed as though they would never end. Nathan hobbled on, forcing the dizzy spells away with pure will power. He blinked the sweat from his eyes and kept a firm eye on his goal.

The end result was such a cruel disappointment that he felt like crying. This was not the highway, but yet another forest road, though this one had at least been paved. Nathan realized with grim recollection that this was the road where their car had stopped.

Sinking to his knees with his bundle, he nuzzled Peter's face and started crying softly. Then the boy suddenly opened his eyes. Nathan only stared for a few seconds, unsure of what Peter would do or say in this state.

Whimpering, the young boy’s whole body shook, though not out of fear or possibly even his fever, but from how weak he was. Even his lips trembled, and he spoke in the smallest whisper.

“Don' let... them hurt me..."

“They're gone, sweetheart," Nathan said, swallowing back his sobs and trying his best to look strong. "We're gonna find you some water. How are ya, buddy?"

Eye shut once more, Peter against mumbled his fears of the men who had hurt him. Kissing his little brother's forehead, the older man stroked Peter's hair and gently laid him down on the ground. Fearful of the sight which awaited him, he unwrapped the towel from the abused body and peered between two bruised legs.

Red and yellow. Those were the two colors he recognized first. Nathan did not know if Peter was aware of the inspection on a conscious level, even though it was clear as day that he was at least aware of the pain. Nathan dared not even speculate how severe his baby brother's agonies must be. His torn rectum, which was now protruding through his anus in a partial prolapse, was not currently bleeding, but suppurating. Yellow pus was leaking out of him, and had already formed a large stain on the towel. A whimper escaped Peter's trembling lips, and Nathan decided to close his legs, fearful that the examination might remind his brother of the sexual abuse he had suffered.

"You'll be alright, baby..." Nathan whispered, trying to shield Peter from the basking sun with his own body. "I just need you to be strong for a little while longer. Can you do that for me? Petey? Don't leave me here alone, sweetheart. I... I can't live without you."

Peter looked up at his older brother with reddened, fever-bright, tearful eyes. Nathan could not tell whether he had understood the plea, but a small ray of light pierced the dark abyss in his heart when Peter lifted a hand to touch his face.

"Love you..."

"I love you too, buddy. With all my heart."

As though satisfied with the answer, Peter let his hand fall and he closed his eyes. Nathan was surprised his brother had even been able to speak. He had to find the kid some water soon, or else there would be no hope for him.

Looking ahead, the former officer remembered a reservoir they had passed by during their drive. Hopefully that meant a stream fed it and it was not the safest of water sources, but it would have to do. If only they could get there in time.

Arms under his brother's form, he lifted as he stood and became dizzy. Eyes shut, he took several deep breaths and continued. He only made it a few more yards before sinking to his knees. Things went black after that.

TBC...