The next mourning, Danny and Unity left Toby behind to recover from his last night injuries as the duo walked together hand in hand through the busy hallway of this early morning, guiding her where she was supposed to be all the while contemplating what happened yesterday.
He had encountered a terrifying scene that shook his core, and it was the sight of human beings, especially children, being so cruel to one another like they were some savage animals that cared little about their own kind.
Disgusted, furious, hurt, and mostly terrified from learning how people can be so cruel without reason. Although Danny isn't sure what or why Toby is being attacked by those twins, he's still surprised just how they were ready to kill him and his adopted child in a moment's notice.
For him, it doesn't make sense in how they could hate or despise someone they didn't even know, making the whole ordeal much more confusing than terrifying for him to comprehend as he isn't getting answers from just one night.
"What should I do?"
The most reasonable thing to do is report this to Doctor Hansel; the man has proven himself to be a good person in heart, so it wouldn't be too difficult to just tell him right away.
However, just like any ordinary human being, people have different reactions to situations, regardless of how kind or cruel they are.
In his eyes, the only worrying thing about this is having the head doctor give a slap to the wrist to those two or even light punishment without giving proper punishment for nearly killing his son of all places.
Either way, he believes it is best to tell the doctor everything and handle the situation from now on since they live in this facility together and the last thing he needs is creating more trouble that might be difficult for himself and his son to handle.
With hope that things will get better from now onward before putting last night experience behind them, Danny leads Unity to one of the familiar and obvious places they used to hangout with others during their free time or important things to talk about.
Entering a public, spacious room full of patients laying on their beds and people walking past them, the usual busy atmosphere and the smell of disinfectants always greeted those entering this place, despite how messy it is. "Unity?" Suddenly feeling her hand tightening her grip on his, Danny glances over to his side and notices the uncomfortable look displayed on the girl's face.
"What's wrong?" Danny asked with genuine concern, "We can turn back if you don't want to be here." The offer came automatically, his instincts telling him that something is bothering her, as evident in her tensed posture and distant gaze.
Responding back in gibberish answer, she averted her face away from him, pretending to examine something on the wall behind, silently wishing to be elsewhere except for this unpleasant meeting. Noticing how shyly she is behaving while avoiding making eye contact with him, Danny's curiosity to peak, wondering what exactly is bothering this young woman, "Are you nervous when there are a lot of people around?" He guessed that may be the reason why Unity feels uneasy today.
She then cautiously turned her head to face him, "Stump!!" Uttering out that single word in response, Unity quickly averts her gaze again, looking down at the floor as if she finds something incredibly interesting on the tiles. It is a strange reaction, and Danny can't help but feel confused.
What could possibly be so troublesome that she can't even communicate properly with mere words other than being mentally unwell? Scratch that; he's more curious about how she even got it in the first place.
"You weren't nervous when we were in the cafeteria?" Good question that he had almost forgotten about: "Remember how you were so hungry about spaghetti that you ate it uncontrollably with your bare hands?"
Chuckling at the memory, he vividly recalled that delightful scene and wondered why that particular moment never crossed his mind before he had to bring it up.
"Or is it the food that distracts you from your fear of people?" Smiling warmly and reassuring, hoping to coax out more information from the changes in her body language.
Tilting her head, "Oohs?" Unable to understand what he was saying, she mentally tried to process what just happened, but nothing made any sense to her. "Noooo!" Unity shouted angrily at her caretaker, frustrated by how her caretaker wasn't understanding of what she was trying to express.
"D-D-D-." Trying to utter out the proper word, a show of difficulty was apparent in her movements, wanting nothing more than to tell him what she has in her fractured mind but couldn't do it no matter how she tries.
"D....?"
Letting go of her hand, he faced her with a confused look on his face. "Doctor?" Danny asked uncertainly, unable to fully grasp what she was trying to say as Unity suddenly lets out an irritated grunt, folding her arms across her chest, clearly fed up with his misunderstanding.
"No? Hmm, let's see." Eyes narrowed down at the floor; he wished to be some body language analyst so he could get proper results out of this frustrating situation. Scratching his chin in contemplation, he decided to play his cards right.
"Is it—"
Just as he lifted his head to directly look at her with an answer in mind, he was quickly interrupted by the approach of no other than the doctor himself, "hey there!" Hansel said with a beaming smile plastered on his face, thrilled to see his friends during his line of work, "you two had a good night's sleep?"
Question that clearly intended to lighten the mood between them while unconsciously adding more confusion to the already complicated scene. "Uh...guys?" Short silence greeted from his lips, awaiting a response from both parties, but neither of them found anything sensible to say for a moment because of the sudden interruption.
Until out of nowhere, she rushed towards him with a hug, suddenly embracing the doctor tightly with all her strength, happy to see her friend after a long time, not caring about who was watching or the embarrassment that might come afterwards.
This strange turn of events caught Danny off guard, not expecting such a quick display of affection from Unity. And for once in a long time, he forgot about his questions regarding her earlier behavior as he watched the peculiar sight unfold before his eyes.
It seems she is capable of caring for more than one person, he thought. However, seeing her like this kind of makes him feel a little jealous when someone whom he cared for for nearly all his free time is giving more attention and care to someone else rather than her own caretaker.
But he had other important things in mind; one of them is the event that took place last night about him and his adopted son. Although part of him is hesitant in telling him right now, Danny nonetheless wants to just get this problem resolved as soon as possible.
"Hansel."
Removing himself from her embrace, "What is it, my friend?" Hansel said with a smile as he gently patted her head with an open palm, "any new development happening around your life, or is it just the pleasure of seeing me?" Laughter then erupted from him, the tension broken by his cheerful demeanor. "Well, please enlighten me," he continued, tilting curiously as Unity embraced his right arm with anticipation. The both of them looked at him with curious eyes, wanting to know what was troubling Danny.
Taking a deep breath, the young man sighed exhaustively from everything that had transpired through a single night, "Don't freak out, okay?" He begged, slowly recounting the incident that transpired, detailing every brutal detail about how Mikey and Michael behaved as if they wanted to his kid; their twin gazes still linger in his memory, making his skin crawl.
"Because it's about Toby, you know. The kid who is now adopted by me?" Bringing out a 10-year-old's name caused an involuntary shudder to run down his spine from the horrific memories inside of his mind.
The head doctor's smile vanished, replaced with serious concern, his expression turning grave. "What happened to Toby?" His tone brooked no argument, demanding immediate attention. "Tell me everything; start from the beginning now. You are behaving worryingly when you mention him."
Suspicion etched on the doctor's face after sensing something wrong emitting out of him, "did something bad happen?" Eyes widen, fear creeping into his voice as he awaits an answer, oblivious to the horrifying reality that is lurking beneath the surface of what truly occurred to the child last night.
Gulping down his saliva, Danny doesn't know where to begin, starting from how Mikey threatened to kill his son and how he witnessed the twins torturing Toby mercilessly just for their own sick amusement, ending with the unfortunate incident that one of the twins was severely injured by his own actions.
He just doesn't want to imagine the type of reaction Hansel will show if he tells him all of it. "He...he was attacked last night," the young man hesitates, his voice trembling slightly as he looks away in shame.
"What did you say?"
"I said he was attacked."
After repeating what he had said in regards to the situation, the head doctor rushed towards Danny with blinding speed before grabbing him firmly by the shoulder, looking him in the eye with intensity, "By who!? Answer me, NOW!" Demand erupted from his throat, a palpable anger flashing in his blue irises.
"If anything happens to that poor child under YOUR care, I swear to god, Danny, I will make sure this will NEVER happen again!" Horrific sight of what he feared most stare back at him, confirming all of his worst nightmares at the thought of seeing another dead member of his community.
Seeing him react so suddenly, he didn't expect the other young man to act so aggressively, as Hansel's words seemed to ring in his ears like a deadly threat, resulting his entire body to tremble from shock. However, the urgency from the man's words wasn't so much of a promise about bringing those responsible but more so of preventing anymore deaths from occurring in the future.
Causing the head doctor's outburst snapped him out of his paralyzed state, "two kids, brothers or twins, I believe, were torturing Toby in the dead of the night outside of this hospital."
Rather than anger, Hansel cried out in anguish, gripping Danny's shoulders so tightly that pain lanced through him. "Oh my god, tell me if he's alive," the doctor stammered from this. "I have to go there, right now!" Eloquent prose fills his speech, vibrating with desperation.
"How bad were his injuries? Does the infection grow or be bleeding internally? Can he even speak!?" Sudden realization struck him, an icy chill that threatened to engulf his heart entirely: "Just tell me already!" Frightened hues flooded his eyes, a terror so profound that it robbed him of words, leaving only raw, desperate need behind.
"His alive; Toby is alive."
Danny reassured him between gritted teeth, seeing the relief washing over Hansel in sweet waves, "but...his critically injured," truth he had to admit, "I don't know how many times they used that baseball ball to hit on his stomach," exclaiming aloud, remembering the nasty sight of swelling and cuts all over the child's abdomen that was just staring back at him like ugly bloated mirrors reflecting horrors that occurred.
"And one of them..." Could he say what happened after that? The moment where his powers activated, resulting in Mikey's little brother's untimely demise?
Freeing his friend from his own grip, the doctor smiled happily at the wonderful news, "His alive, that's great," nodding his head, the previous frantic demeanor transforming instantly into pure joy from hearing the good news.
"Ahh, good, he'll recover just fine," sighing in relief, "Okay, is he still in your bedroom?" Hansel politely asked, wanting to make sure if the boy was still lying comfortably in bed awaiting medical assistance from him, "Because I wouldn't want to waste any more time looking all over him, do we?"
Danny sighed with a nod of confirmation, "Yes, his currently in the room as usual but just can't properly move at all," adding more details about his condition. "The poor kid is currently in pain from his inflicted wounds, and I don't think he won't be able to walk normally in a couple of weeks or months based on the injuries I had seen," giving Hansel the boy's status of his well-being, "we gotta hurry up though; he has been in constant pain through the whole night that it became nearly impossible for him to sleep properly."
"That won't be a problem."
