Scribbles and Drabbles

Notebook Drabble 39 - 3

Not now, no. He shook his head and raised his hands in an automatic gesture of a lock on his throat but lowered them again. They wouldn't understand. The rain got heavier and started to creep into the shelter they'd found. It was a stone archway to a church with an alcove inside. It offered some protection from the elements but not much. 

"Let's go find somewhere to discuss this out of the rain," Einar said, standing and bringing Danny with him. Danny took his bag from Hisaki, glad the man brought it. 

They kidnapped him again. Little got said, but they pulled him along to a car, a fancy black SUV that had a driver up front and was warm as he slid inside. Danny shivered regardless. Einar took his hand again, studying it and the scar patterns, blunt fingertips tracing over the swirling marks. They didn't look like normal burn scars. The doctors claimed it was because of his growing, but Danny didn't like thinking about it. 

A spark of pain twinged. Danny tried not to curl into a ball, back pressed into Hisaki. Hisaki hooked an arm over his shoulder and held him in a half hug. The gentle warmth washed over his shoulders again. 

"You can't talk," Einar checked. "You were talking, then you remembered, and it stopped."

Danny nodded, free hand resting on Hisaki's arm.

"He did say he had trauma," Hisaki said, not quite teasing. Or rather, he wasn't teasing Danny. 

"Master isn't going to like this," Einar released his hand and leaned back. His fingers tapped on his thigh. 

The Mad One had bigger reasons to be angry with Danny than his inability to talk when faced with the other world. Danny pressed close to Hisaki before pulling one of his notebooks out of his bag. Finding a pen took an extra second, but neither stopped him. The car smelt of expensive leather and damp from them. The driver said nothing and sat quietly in the front, waiting for orders. 

I don't have the amulet - someone stole it.

Einar cursed, the passion behind the word but no force or anger. 

"Not surprising. I was worried this might happen," Hisaki said, his grimace in his tone. Einar gave the man a look. Danny trembled. Hisaki kissed Danny's hair and held him a little tighter before hooking his chin on Danny's shoulder. "Magic items liked to be used, not hidden away. They'll find a way out if you give them a chance. We'll need to find it, of course. How might be a little complicated, they don't like being found by people they left. Though science doesn't like magic dancing around it."

"Master gave us a week," Einar said, hand slapping Danny's arm as he tried to pack the paper away. "This isn't over, Danny. We have our orders, and they include you."

"We do. Danny, do you know who could have taken the amulet?"

Flatmates, a girl or boy he'd brought back to his room. Not many, really. Adam, but Danny wasn't going to tell them that. Something in his core told him not to. Adam had visited his room, but they'd always gone back to Adams for fun and exploring. 

"Do the girl or boy have names?"

Danny flushed and shrugged. The boy's name was Mark; he majored in sports education and played on the uni rugby team. He had fantastic legs and thighs Danny enjoyed being between. The girl was an art major with a different hair colour whenever he bumped into her. She kissed his cheek each time but made no moves to suggest she wanted anything more from him. He should learn her name, but it didn't seem right to ask after a failed sex experience. 

"Didn't figure you'd be the type not to know a lass's name before bedding her," Einar patted his knee and squeezed. Danny's cheeks heated. Einar grinned at him. "We'll start with your flatmates and work from there."

The driver drove off. Danny stayed pressed against Hisaki with Einar's heavy hand on his thigh. He wore big, heavy rings that no doubt made good makeshift knuckledusters. Not that Einar needed a weapon as big as he was. Hisaki played with his hair, and Danny tried to relax. Hisaki was his friend. He couldn't trust him, but maybe a touch more than he trusted Einar. 

Danny's flatmates were a bust. Kasey lay passed out on the communal sofa, and everyone else was out in class. No magic emanated from their rooms. Danny didn't remember anyone complaining about their phones being on the fritz. Hisaki walked slowly through the apartment, trying to find a trace, a clue of something. Einar glanced at the sleeping girl and the state of the room before grimacing and ducked out to make a call. Danny assumed to the Mad One to report their findings.

He didn't know what to do. He missed his class. Someone sent him the next reading chapter. Danny sat on his bed and did the reading with no better options for his next move. Possibly pointless, but doing nothing would send him spiralling. He wanted to scream instead; his voice refused to speak, and his hands trembled. 

The Mad One loomed in the future. Too many eyes landed on his skin and set him in a blaze. Teeth beamed at him before biting into his flesh. The words and promises cradled his head as talons tore out his throat, coaxing his blood and guts out of his flesh and over the pages detailing the basics of separation anxiety between parents and children. He choked, hands gripping his throat to feel the unbroken skin. 

"Danny?" Hisaki sat on the bed next to him.

He didn't like that look. People acted strange around him when he looked like that. He smiled, not able to force his eyes to be happy but enough to convey he was fine. Scared out of his mind and hoping this was some extended hallucination brought on by stress and losing the amulet - but fine. He put aside the book he failed to pay attention to and curled on the bed, studying Hisaki without his keeper. 

"I suppose you have questions?" Hisaki said, looking away with a slight flush over his cheeks. "I can guess a few, even if you can't talk. 

Hisaki had been 15 to Danny's 12 when everything happened. Older, smarter than the world but not an adult and not good enough to defeat the Mad One. There were too many questions to count. Hisaki came from Earth, but his talisman broke. Yet here he was. Einar was part of that realm through and through. 

Danny offered his hand to let Hisaki talk.