Number Four

The Labyrinth of Mind

The world shifted around them. All at once, the familiarity of the house was replaced with the white walls and coloured stripes of the Rainbow room. They were crouched together on the floor, younger and dressed in their old laboratory clothes.

"Wh... What..." Bonnie's hands flew to her newly shaved head. "What the hell did you do to my hair?"

He fixed her with those intense blue eyes. "What are we going to do, Four? How are we going to get out of this one?"

"Wait, what?" Bonnie looked around wildly. "What's going on?"

"The plan, Four! What happens now?" He glanced warily over her shoulder. Footsteps. Someone was coming. Bonnie had an impending sense of doom.

Without really thinking, Bonnie leapt to her feet; hand wrapped around his arm, she took off, towing Henry behind her. Dragging him out through the doors, she pulled him into a recluse corner, ignoring the shouts and sounds of followers in the distance. "What plan?" She growled, cornering him against the wall.

"The escape plan. They discovered the plan, Four!"

Bonnie's brain fritzed as multiple thoughts collided all at once. Two of them escaped in rapidly succession. "Hasn't this happened already? Where's Eleven?"

"No, Four. The plan failed. We never escaped. They have Eleven."

Unbidden panic knotted in Bonnie's throat. "Wait, what? Where? Where do they have her?" Did... they not escape the lab after all? Were they truly still stuck in here this whole time?

Footsteps behind them, and Bonnie took off again. She could not seem to think straight; everything was blurred, a rush of adrenaline and the pounding of her heart in her ears making it all distorted.

"Can't you do something?" She blurted at Henry as she pulled him along.

He gestured to his throat. "Not much I can do with this thing in my neck."

"Figure something out!"

She steered them around another corner, into a room— one of their favourite haunts— hiding them behind the door.

"Come on Four, think!" He urged. "You're smart. What do we do now?"

"Shh, I'm... working on it!" Bonnie screwed up her face and rubbed her head with her hands. It was not right, none of this was right... she could not think!

"Come on Four, come on!"

Spurred into action, Bonnie grabbed his arm again and wrenched open the door. That way— that way, to the doors. Or wait, no— that way, to solitary, to get Eleven. Or no, that way— to the main control room. Or was it that way? Or that way? All the halls had begun to look the same, long and white, wrapping around her in a neverending labyrinth.

"Come on, Four! Make a choice! Come on! What are we going to do, Four? What are you going to do? What's the plan, Four? What's the plan? How are we getting out? Come on Four, we have to do something! What happens next, Four? How do we escape? What are we going to do, Four? What are you going to do?"

On and on, the diatribe, his voice ringing in her head. Footsteps, footsteps behind them, coming closer and closer.

"I DON'T KNOW!" Bonnie crumbled. "I DON'T KNOW!"

Hands grabbed them from behind. Bonnie heard a taser buzz and then electricity shot through her body, setting every nerve ending on fire.

—And then she found herself standing in attic. The room was dark around her, as it had been before, and yet somehow it seemed so... empty. None of the creeping shadows or silhouetted tendrils lurking in its depths. How had she wound up here?

A thunderous look coming over her face, Bonnie crossed to Henry and made as if to swing at him; he caught her arm just in time, stopping its path, so she forcefully shoved him in the chest, beating her fists against his shoulders, pounding on him until she collapsed against him with a high-pitched, whining sob.

"It's alright." He soothed, stroking the length of her hair as she sobbed into his chest. "It's alright."

A/N: Disclaimer— I never did, and never will say they are a healthy couple. An interesting couple, yes. A fun-to-watch couple, yes. Healthy, heck no.

Anyway, not quite sure with how this chapter worked out— I really struggled trying to capture the fast-paced nature of it I had in my head, and I'm not sure I actually achieved it. But I think it's passable?

Anyway, please leave a like and a comment! Even if it's just to let me know how you're liking things so far!