The kid. The mother. The father, newly deceased. No skin off my nose. No sirree. No skin at all.
He didn’t have skin anymore. No, no, no, not at all. Had torn it all off, didn’t he? Yes, he did. Not my fault.
Supposed to bring the kid and the mother to Koichi—excuse me, Mr. Sato. Glorious Lord Sato. Bring them to me, he decreed, and we all have to jump. Just because he’s sicker than all of us combined.
Better than us. He thinks he’s better than us because he doesn’t mutter and his clothes are clean. Stupid, good for nothing intern. Shouldn’t have hired him. Look where he brought us? Goddammed, good for nothing intern Mr. Koichi Sato.
Wants to hog the cure for himself. That’s why he sent me to find and bring the kid and mother to him right away. Yes, right away, before anyone knew what he was doing.
Well, I beat him to it. There they are in my kitchen. In my living room, yes. Getting a sandwich. Damn if I don’t like the mother.
What’s so special about the kid? He doesn’t mutter and scream? He just sits quietly on the couch, shooting those damn looks at me? No, nevermind. I don’t give a fuck. What’s so special about the mom? She doesn’t mutter or scream either? How did that happen? How is she not affected?
No. Nevermind. I don’t give a fuck. Fuck you Koichi. You bastard.
I don’t know what Koichi’s so upset about. I don’t mutter all that much. And everyone gets angry and breaks things. Sure I like breaking things, I like taking life. It makes me feel full. Pain is exciting. That’s not wrong. There’s nothing wrong with that at all.
I’m going to touch her. Take some of that succulent life and merge it with my own. I’m full to bursting, but I don’t fucking care.
Kid, go to your room. Kid obeys. It’s just me and her. She looks down. She doesn’t flinch anymore.
The shock, the electric pain, up my fingers, up my arm, up my neck, into my brain. I’m burning, but I feel more alive. My brain is straining from the weight. I inhale more. She gasps.
Now it’s coming faster than I can handle. My hand is stuck, joint locked onto an electric wire. I can’t pull away. It hurts, but I like it. I can’t pull away. I don’t want to.
It stops.
She slumps out of my grip.
She falls forward. Her head hits the coffee table. Spills my iced tea.
The bliss fades. There’s a small pain I don’t like. Bitter like mold.
What have I done?
Oh God.
I touch her again. No energy, no life, no response.
Oh God.
“Kid, where’d you go?”
I stand up, stagger, lurch forward.
The lamp falls off the table and crashes to the floor.
She still hasn’t moved. Oh God.
Koichi really is going to kill me now.
“Kid! Come here!”
Window screeching behind a closed door.
I rush to their bedroom, his bedroom. The door’s locked.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
“Open up!” I kick the door. “Open the fuck up or I’ll kill you!”
Running start. Yes, that’ll do it. I throw myself at it. There’s a crack. The door or my shoulder? I don’t fucking know.
“Open up!” I throw myself again. And again. And again.
Finally, the door breaks in. My shoulder is bloody and swollen, bleeding through my blouse.
I stumble into the room, towards the open window. The bars are still in tact.
But the kid is gone. Long gone.
A/N: How can Koichi be better than you and sicker than you at the same time? Granted, Ashby’s angry and her brain is cooked. I wouldn’t look into it too far.
This is a different point of view on Luis’ escape from Ashby, which started his exile and what eventually led him to Paul. Not good times.
Want to read Luis’ escape from his point of view? Here’s the prologue. Want to read something other than Countersink? Here’s a post about my first few days in Japan.
Protagonized. 
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