And all I can taste is this moment
And all I can breathe is your life
Cause sooner or later it's over
I just don't want to miss you tonight
~GooGoo Dolls~
The phone call came just as Viggo was getting out the shower. He’d been writing most of the day and hadn’t bothered to even dress, just hung around the house in sweats.
"Yeah?"
"This is Melanie, Sean’s wife, uh ex-wife. He’s asking for you. Will you come down to the hospital?"
"I was planning on coming tomorrow. Can-"
"Can you come now, Viggo? I’ll explain everything to you when you get here."
*****
Viggo was on the freeway when he started shaking. He thought about Sean. He knew Sean had gotten mugged and was in the hospital but he really hadn’t thought it was serious, or someone would have called him. Christ! His already pounding heart almost jarred to a stop. Melanie ‘called him’.
He drove into the parking garage and ran all the way to the elevators, cursing how long it was taking to get to the tenth floor, where Melanie had told him to meet her.
His legs felt funny when the elevator stopped. He recognized Melanie from pictures Sean had of her and the girls. A woman in a lab coat was with her. Viggo stuck out his hand, realizing as Melanie took it how bad it was shaking.
"Viggo Mortensen. What is - I thought he was just mugged- I don’t understand what -."
Melanie nodded to the woman. "I’m Dr. Annette Keith. It hasn’t been in the press, but Sean wasn’t mugged. He was taken hostage by a young man, a fan if you will. He kept Sean for a little more than a week. No one knew he was missing for several days because he was supposed to be on a mini vacation."
Viggo felt his blood go cold. Icy cold. He tried to ask the doctor a question, but nothing would come out of his mouth.
"Mr. Mortensen, I’ll be honest with you because Sean’s family has asked me to tell you the truth. The girls don’t know how bad it is."
"How bad?" he stammered.
She took a deep breath. "Come with me. We need to sit."
He and Melanie followed the doctor into a small conference room. She closed the door.
"Mr. Mortensen, Viggo… The young man who kidnapped Sean was deeply disturbed and somehow he believed he was a spurned lover. He abused Sean. Well, to be frank, Mr.….Viggo, he beat, tortured and raped Sean repeatedly over a period of eight days. He was drugged so he couldn’t escape. I’m not sure he even knew what was happening to him. He was found when neighbors heard the gunshots. The young man shot Sean and then himself."
"But Sean’s going to be all right?" But he saw the truth in her eyes, in Mel’s eyes.
"No, the boy did damage that we can’t fix. There were broken bones, bruises, cuts, and we could have fixed those but there were internal injuries and the gunshot wound was the last straw. Sean is dying."
"He asked for you, Viggo. He hasn’t spoken any other words. Just asked for you." Mel said.
"Mr. Mortensen, he looks so bad, you may not recognize him. He’s been through so much, I’m not sure," the doctor stopped and wiped tears from her own eyes. When she continued, her voice was almost a sob. "I’ve never seen anyone so abused, so tortured. I…" she turned away. Her voice failed. "I can’t even begin to tell you what that boy did to him."
"Can I see him?" Viggo asked finally.
"Yes, let’s go." Mel said and led him to the room. "Viggo, the monitors and machines aren’t hooked up anymore. He doesn’t need them. He has only… only…" She grabbed Viggo and began to cry. Viggo held her for what seemed like a long time then she let go of him and opened the door.
Sean was covered in blankets, but no machines hummed in the room any longer. They stood in a row behind him, silent harbingers of death. Sean’s face was a mass of black and blue bruises. His eyes were swollen as well as his mouth. Viggo couldn’t see any more of him except his hands. His hands looked fairly undamaged but he could see how deeply his wrists were cut and burned.
"Sean, it’s Viggo."
The eyes flickered open. There was no drugged haze, no fog there. They were clear.
"Hard to talk, come closer," Sean whispered in a very weak voice. Viggo sat down by the bed and put his hand on Sean’s. Sean squeezed his hand. "Wanted to tell you goodbye."
"But-"
"I know. They think I don’t know what he did. I was conscious. I know. He did it with a knife and used a heated piece of metal to stop the bleeding."
Viggo realized he had no idea what Sean was talking about, wasn’t sure he wanted to know but he had to ask him.
"They didn’t tell me…"
"Castrated me, Viggo, and skinned a lot of me and stuck things into me and burned me. I prayed to die, begged him to kill me. He finally granted my wish. Its just a bit slower than I thought, dying, I mean. All I thought about those last two days was the weekend we spent in your house in New Zealand when it rained so much. Thoughts of you kept me alive so they could find me. I wanted to tell you goodbye."
Viggo was trying to hold back tears. He leaned down and kissed Sean’s hand.
"I love you, Sean. I want to tell you not to leave but… I can’t. I hope you find peace wherever you go."
Tears ran out of the corners of Sean’s eyes. "I loved you since the first day I saw you. I don’t want to leave you. I don’t want to cause you and my family so much pain. But I have to go. I can feel the world slipping away already. Hold me."
Viggo climbed into the bed with the battered broken body and lay beside Sean, putting an arm around him and kissing his face, his swollen lips. Then he just held him. They said nothing else. Viggo felt this body stiffen suddenly and Sean took in one long breath. And he didn’t breathe anymore. Viggo lay there until he felt the warmth leave the body in his arms.
Then he cried.
~end~
