𝐁𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐠𝐞

viii

•••••••••

Finney was wrong, he didn't walk down those stairs unscathed. He dreamt it. Because that was what he hoped for, what he wanted to happen in that situation.

In actuality, Lucas had been punched across the face, being knocked out immediately as Finney had gasped. The Grabber heald Lucas over his shoulder like he was nothing, his unconscious body slowly breathing. Finney had followed their kidnapper down to the basement, watching as he threw Lucas onto the mattress and turn back to him.

Finney just looked up, watching the kidnapper's fist make contact with the bridge of his nose. Just as he fell, he heard a voice upstairs and The Grabber speaking, the dog barking a bit as well.

The two boys slept three hours, out of actual lack of sleep and the fact they had been forcefully put to sleep.

Finney awoke on the mattress, granted by Lucas who was wide awake, looking like he had been stuck in a mental institute this whole time. He tucked his knees to his chest, backed into a corner as far as he could go, breath shaking, nose and upper lip smeared and stained with dried blood.

"Son of a bitch" Finney mutters, lightly touching his nose.

The phone rings.

Finney slowly turns back to it, "Fuck you"

It continues ringing, "God damnit" he stands up, taking the phone in hand as he sits back down on the mattress.

Static drones over the phone.

"What? You gonna say something? Do you even know who you are?"

"What the shit kinda question is that? Do you even know who you are?"

"I'm Finney Blake."

"Well nice to fucking meet you, Finney Blake. Right here. This is it."

"This is what?"

"The horrifying nightmare end of your pathetic little life."

"Holy shit. You're Vance Hopper. I remember you. You used to scare me."

"Trust me, Finney Blake, if you knew what you had coming, you'd be fucking terrified. Today's the day motherfucker."

Finney looks over at Lucas as Vance becomes quiet. Lucas doesn't look at him, staring down at the floor as he repeats the small poem over and over and over again.

"Have you tried stacking the carpets to reach the window?"

"We've tried everything."

"No. Not everything. When The Grabber had saw what I had done, that was it. And he took his time with me, too."

"What did you do?"

"Oh, that fucker had to spend a fortune to repair all the damages"

"What did you do?"

"I'm getting to that, cunt wad! Or do you have some other important shit you have to do right now? Make out with your boyfriend?"

Finney scoffs, standing back up, "No... no, I-I'm listening"

"There's an outlet in the shitter, across from the john."

"Yeah, I've seen it."

"On the other side of that wall, there's a storage room. You can't get into that room, because there's a big-ass upright freezer in the way."

"Okay"

"Break into the wall about two feet above the outlet till you get to a panel with screws in it. Get the panel off, you're in the freezer."

"And then out into the storage room. Thank you"

"For what?"

On the opposite end of the room, Lucas couldn't hear the boy speaking over the phone, but when the room started shaking and the empty, glass soda bottles flung themselves towards Finney, he heard.

He heard the boy yell, scream even at Finney through the phone. Something along the lines of "This isn't about you. Fuck him!"

Finney whimpers and pants as he covers his ears, knees tucked into his chest as he sat along the wall, breathing heavy. He looks over at Lucas, still repeating that stupid poem over and over again.

In Lucas' view he couldn't even hear himself mumbling the words, his ears were ringing and static dots filled his vision. He felt unexplainable, he couldn't explain what he was feeling but he didn't feel alive. His whole body was cold under his skin, numb almost. His face, when he touched it felt like he had a stinging sunburn, but how would he be sunburnt being trapped inside a (probably) pedophile's basement for multiple days.

Finney slowly stands up, fingers tapping the wall as he made sure he wouldn't collapse the second he stood up straight. He looks over at the phone, scared to even look at it as he focuses on Lucas. He slowly walks towards the curly haired boy, kneeling down in front of him.

He saw the boy's bloodshot eyes, his hair more messy than it was earlier that night, his lip was cut and dried blood was smeared around his nose and upper lip. Finney lets a small gasp escape his mouth as he sees Lucas' condition, not knowing how to respond to it.

The ringing in the curly haired boy's ears had stopped, his brain letting him hear Finn speak. He was trying to ask what was wrong, how to help, etcetera, but he couldn't form the words in his mouth. It was like his tongue was cut out with kitchen scissors so he couldn't form any words.

"Burn the page. He said to burn the page. What page? Of my book? In some journal or newspaper? What?" Lucas speaks, his stutter seemingly... gone.

Finney, not knowing how to answer to any of this raises another question, "Who? Who said it? Vance? Griffin?"

"Paperboy." Lucas whispers

Confused, Finney continues, "Paperboy?"

"I-I don't know. It was his voice, in-in my head. He repeated oh-over and over again 'Burn the page.' I feel like I'm going crazy, Finn." Lucas cries

"Hey, hey it's okay, you're okay" Finney whispers, wrapping his arms around Lucas

"I'm not" Lucas sobs, "I'm going fucking insane"

Finney shushes the boy, moving and squirming around to get behind him, pulling the lighter brunette onto his lap so he could completely wrap his arms around his torso. Lucas heald his hands to his eyes, crying and muffling his small sobs as Finn continued to shush and comfort him, laying his head on the boy's left shoulder blade.

"You're okay, I promise, Luke. I promise"

AN- hey.... how yall doin..? uhm sorry for the short chapter I didn't wanna start the freezer plan just yet bc I'm lazy and I wanted to do filler and include the title like I was planning on doing haha. anyways it's midnight as I'm writing this so uhm I'm gonna.. go to bed. Anyways I hope yall have a great day/night, love u :)

also tysm for 1k reads like- wow. uhm- thank you!!! <3