The Hyenas {Dreamnotfound AU}

18. Glue on our palms

"Leave now and we'll spare you," I hiss at him, and his hesitant eyes switch from me to Clay, and he whispers a silent 'mierda', before pulling his sword back and disappearing into an alleyway to the side. I can't see Clay's facial expression, but judging by his silence and his stance, he must be surprised. We quickly put our weapons away and start running once again, my stamina being put to the test as my legs carry me through the tight spaces. I spot the fence with the loose plank that I've grown familiar to, and we dive through it, soon meeting the second fence and the trap door. As we get to the wood, we listen around for footsteps nearby, to make sure we weren't followed still. It stays eerily silent, before I feel the first drop of rain hit my nose. Within no-time, the rain starts pouring down, and we basically jump into the the hole in the ground, putting all the locks possible on the door. A feeling of threat still haunts my stomach, so I make my way down the ladder as quickly as I can, and only when standing in the familiar, dimly lit room, I sink to the ground and sit against the wall, panting heavily. Clay follows soon after and makes his way to sit next to me, also trying to catch his breath as he takes off his mask and I take off my sunglasses. The rumble of thunder erupts in the far distance and suddenly we come to an understanding of why they left position to get weapons. It was time to find prey. To find us. In the back of my mind I feel guilt stinging towards Bad, they probably will want to try to get into his house if they think we're still there. But the boy we saw on the way here must have been a Hyena as well, judging by the way he looked, so maybe he was in time to tell them we fled. We can now only hope that they didn't actually follow us any further. 

"George?" I hear Clay pant next to me. I turn my head to look at him, his hair soaking wet, sticking to his forehead and almost into his eyes. "You protected me," he says, a confound look on his face. 

"I-.. I guess I did," I stutter back at him, surprised at myself for it. I was brave. Our hands find each other again, and I rest my head against the wall, scanning the room. Nothing has changed since we left. The cursed chair is still just standing there, and if it was alive it would be staring right back at me with knowing eyes of how much I hate the thing. Another round of thunder makes itself known, and I think back on my childhood memories of thunder, which were a lot more positive. I remember my parents letting me stay up past my bedtime because there was a heavy thunder storm going on, and we could see the most incredible lightning from their bedroom window. We watched for what felt like hours and I was in awe as my dad tried to explain to me how the thunder worked. 

I'm dreading to bring up the topic that we were confronted with at Bad's place. I know the state of affairs, they are trying to surround us and give us no choice but to give up, except knowing it is not the same as accepting it. But Clay seemed so defeated back there, we do need to talk about it, even though I'd rather just let it pass. 

"What happened to you at Bad's place?" I decide to start the conversation, still looking straight ahead of me. Clay doesn't answer right away, but I feel the energy around us become more tense at the mention of the event. 

"I got really fed up with the situation," he responds after a few silent moments, "and I said some things that I think hurt you." He looks at our hands, possibly wondering if I'll pull mine away as I recall his words. 

"Did you mean it? Do you think we're done for?" I say back to him, still focusing on a random cabinet in the kitchen.

"No, I was wrong to say that. I think we can still find a way, and I'm sorry I said we couldn't," he mumbles softly, but genuinely. I nod slowly, closing my eyes as I lean my head against the wall again. 

"What do we do?" I whisper, more to myself than to Clay, whose eyes I can feel burning on the side of my head. A loud crashing sound makes my eyes open wide as I shoot up from my relaxed position, seeing the little light we have go off, which shows me Clay's startled face in its last breath. So power is out as well now. Great. The room is enveloped in darkness, and before my eyes can get used to it, I feel Clay's hand tugging mine up as he stands up.

"I can't see shit," I note as I follow, standing up to be completely swallowed by the Cimmerian shade. I can't even make out where Clay is standing in the pitch black room. 

"Oh really? I thought you had super night vision," Clay jokes, but I can't get myself to laugh at it.

"If your life is dear to you, you let my hand go and pray to God I can't find you," I sneer out, which only makes him chuckle, pulling on my arm to make me stumble towards him. He locates me in the dark and proceeds to wrap his arms around me, holding me tight to him. I don't protest, suddenly feeling my body getting heavy with tiredness as I lean against him in his embrace. He seems to notice as he sighs deeply, his breath moving through my hair.

"I'm really sorry," he says softly, as if he'll disturb anyone if he speaks too loudly. 

"Let's just move on and figure out a way to bring back some light, because if it stays dark like this, I might just lose it," I mumble, earning another little chuckle from the taller man. 

"I should have some candles around here somewhere, so let's just scour the floor and we'll find them eventually," he answers as he lets go of me. I lose complete sense of where he is as he moves away, and there I am, standing alone in the lightless room. When I wanted the ground to swallow me whole, this is what I imagined. Silence, darkness, and me right in the middle of it. I enjoy the few seconds it lasts before Clay's careful footsteps start making their way around the room, and I become aware of my company again. The ground didn't take me just yet. I start shuffling around as well, no sense of direction whatsoever. I bump into different walls repeatedly before deciding to just crawl down over the floor carefully, being afraid I'll stumble over something if I continue walking. I pat the floor before me in order to find any cylindrical object at all that resembles a candle, but to no avail. As I make my way forward, my head suddenly crashes into something hard. Except the hard something yells a loud 'ow!' as my head meets it, which leaves me to the conclusion that Clay has also started crawling and we have just found each other back again. 

"Sorry! I really can't see a thing," I yelp out, rubbing my head as a dull pain spreads around it. 

"It's fine, it's fine, I found a candle, I just need to find the lighter still," he answers, and I hear he's already moved away from me again. He is clearly more familiar with the space and where he keeps his things, so I decide to just sit down and wait for him to fix it. It takes another minute or two, but then I hear the click of the lighter, and I spot the tiny light source in the corner of my eye, coming from the kitchen area. I see Clay's face lit up behind it, a look of accomplishment on him as he brings the lighter to the candle, producing a slightly larger flame. It illuminates the space ever so slightly, and not everything is fully visible again, but it's something. He uses the one lit candle to find the others as I try to get rid of my disorientation. Soon another two candles are lit, and Clay positions them tactically around the bunker so every area is slightly illuminated. I carefully make my way to the couch, and Clay follows suit, flopping down on the other side of the couch. I take a look at my watch to see hours have passed since we left to visit Eret's grave, making it 3 PM already. I'm tired as ever and relax in the orangey light that the candles produce. A comfortable silence settles between us, and I'm even getting a false sense of coziness as I hear the thunder in the distance still. 

"What do we do when the thunder stops?" I decide to ask when we're both settled down completely.

"We have to check up on Bad and Karl whenever we get the chance," Clay answers shortly, and I hum in response. He is right. We don't know what position they're in right now, The Hyenas could be trying to get into the house as we speak if they still think we're there. 

For now, we'll just have to wait it out, and hope for the best.