Smoke And Steel

• Twenty Five - Missing Friend Pt.2 •

Avery

The cold air leached through the hard floor and seeped into my aching boding, turning my calcified bones into icicles.

"Help," I pleaded, but my voice was so cracked and faded that it was barely there. 

Just like me.

Even if someone could hear me, I knew that they didn't care, and that was one of the worst feelings ever.

I was in agony before, but now I was numb, unable to feel more than the cracked bathroom tile beneath me. I had cried, and cried like a baby but now I had nothing left in me to feel anything. Time was non-existant in this cold, dark prison. I knew my father didn't have enough mercy to grant me death, and that was the only thing that kept me from thinking of this room as a tomb.

***

I faded back into consciousness for the fiftieth time since I was locked in here. Agonizing pain ripped through my middle when I tried to move, a reminder that the present is worse than any nightmare that my mind can conjure up. My head was throbbing in time with my weak heartbeat, the only thing that let me know I was still alive.

My crisp white school shirt was now torn and dripping wet with my blood. I could feel the beads of sweat rolling off my chilled forehead, but I couldn't wipe it away because of the pain in my torso. Any movement felt like a fiery inferno being unleashed on my poor soul, and the shivery from my cold sweats was enough to make me black out every now and then.

Through my haze of clouded thoughts I registered that someone had put food, water, and a towel just inside the door, but there was no way I could reach it without crawling. My throat was parched and through the pain I could also feel hunger. My body was waging a war with itself, going from ice to fire to ice, and back to fire again.

I couldn't handle it, and my world faded to black once again.

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Ebony

Gosh, it was kind of chilly out here in the garden. We had scouted the perimeter (that's what Daryl called creeping around the outside) and there was still no sign of Avery. There was no sign of anyone, actually. The curtains were all drawn and every window was latched shut. In the quickly falling darkness it was getting harder and harder to see what was what.

When I heard the special whistle I started to creep towards the back of the house to where I heard it come from. And yes,  Daryl 'father by day, hunting extraordinaire by night' Roux had made us come up with a whistle to use if we found something. It's truly a shame that I can't actually whistle, so I have to settle for the old fashioned 'hoot hoot'. I could totally be Katniss Everdeen if a) I could whistle, and b) I wasn't me.

I saw Tate standing there with his sister (who'd been awfully quiet the entire time). He gestured upwards, pointing to an open window on the second floor. As silent as a mouse, Daryl crept back to meet us. I don't know how he tread so lightly. Once again Tate pointed up to the second-story window.

Daryl pointed at me and then to the rose trellis that clung to the side of the house. I shook my head, no freaking way.

"Can you climb it?" he whispered. "You're the smallest."

"Yeah," I whispered back. "But I also have a cast on."

I could freely move my arm now, because on Tuesday I got a forearm cast for my wrist instead of the full arm one I had. I was still awkward with it though.

"You have a better chance than any of us giants, though. Just remember that we're doing it for Avery," he added softly so only I could hear.

Okay. I nodded. This is for Avery and if I had to scale the Eiffel Tower just to help him I would. The three of them all boosted me up as high as they could to give me a head start, and before long I was nimbly making my way to the top. Never mind that I had a fear of falling, I think that was what was keeping me stuck to the trellis like glue.

When I was just below the window I went up onto my tippy-toes so I could take a look.

I saw a large bedroom, stark white and perfectly in order. The TV on the wall was giant, a good 80 inches or more. The walls were bare of any photos or things that linked to a person, but there was a bookcase against a wall that was big enough to make my heart sing. The bed was the star of the room, though. The huge California king bed could probably fit like ten of me in there. Maybe it was a spare room, but then why would the window be open?

I looked down to the Roux's who were looking dodgy down at the bottom, looking this way and that. I guess I was on my own.

I clambered up onto the ledge and pushed myself into the room so I landed on the floor with a thud. Shit. Even the smallest noise was noise I couldn't afford to be making. Suddenly I heard footsteps, and I threw myself underneath the ridiculously large bed.

Please, I silently prayed. If there is a god, then please, please, please let Avery be alright. I've not known him for a very long time, but I can't imagine my days without him anymore. Also,  please let us not be caught. I also want to survive tonight too.

I waited under there until well after the footsteps faded.
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Avery

"Fuck!" I cried out as I was jolted from my restless sleep and vomited onto the tile beside me. The acidic bile burnt its way up through my chest, leaving smoldering paths in its wake. It was as if my body was no longer bone and sinew, but instead a throbbing pile of mush.

There was a gun fight going on around me, and I seemed to be getting hit by each and every bullet. I was trapped in a wave, being thrown against the current and scraped along the sharp sand. I was tied to a cart and I was being dragged for miles over unsealed road. I felt as if all of these things and more were happening all at once.

For the hundredth time since I was taken from class I wished to be dead. For the hundredth time I hoped to be granted relief. For the hundredth time I knew that wouldn't happen.

I couldn't even attempt to move anymore. I was starving and dehydrated and weak. I kept vomiting and obviously someone has been cleaning up everytime I was out but they'd left me filthy and smelling putrid. I was seeing everything through a red haze, and I was pretty sure that the fact my wounds were still throbbing days later meant that they were infected. If I had the energy to care then I might've, but I was spent.

I don't know how long I layed there, unable to sleep unless I blacked out and in total pain. When the door finally opened I didn't care to look until they were right in front of me. My eyes were blurry, but I thought I must've been hallucinating. I saw a dark angel with hair as black as midnight. I noticed that she had something on her arm as she fell to the ground with her head in her hands.

"You're alright now, Ave," she whispered to me, her tears looking like streams of diamond in the meager light. "Please just hold on."

I remember thinking after an eternity of solitude and pain, she was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. If I went blind hers is the face that would be imprinted in my mind for the rest of my days.

I remembered thinking that if there were people as beautiful as her here on earth then I didn't ever want to die.

She was the light, but then my world went black.
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A/N

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Song of The Chapter - Only Time by Enya.

- C ♥