It was about 4 am when Soul woke from her sleep with a jolt. She had another stupid nightmare about them. She rubbed her fingers across her eyes to clear the cobwebs from her brain. She sat up with a short groan and looked around. She saw all of her friends sleeping soundly on their dusty mattresses.
All except...for Danny.
She looked around more, he wasn't here. His mattress was empty, Soul looked around for a clue of his whereabouts. That's when she spotted it, in the next room she could see a window open. Through that window and through the bars of a fire escape, she could see the sun just barely starting to peek over the horizon, turning the sky into a pale orange. Soul could also see a few strands of white hair flowing in the gentle morning breeze. A strange warmth spreading through her chest, but also a little tinge of worry invaded her mind.
Danny sat on the fire escape with his legs bent up so his feet were flat on the grate. His arms were resting on his knees and his head was leaned against the brick wall of the building. His eyes were closed and he was bathing in the warm morning sun. He hadn't been able to do this in a long time.
"Couldn't sleep either huh?" Danny jolted grandly with a gasp.
"My god, you scared the hell out of me." Danny whispered with a breathy voice as he placed a hand on his chest. Soul snickered softly as her head was stuck out the window.
"Sorry." Soul said as she climbed through the window and sat on the opposite side of it from Danny. "What are you doing out here?" She spoke softly to try and not wake anyone.
Danny calmed down and returned to his original position then lowered his left leg to lay flat on the fire escape. "I don't know...I just-" Danny clenched his left hand into a tight fist before he released it just as fast. "I don't feel right talking to you about it." He whispered coldly. Soul glanced over at him.
"Can I guess?" Soul said after a few seconds of silence. Danny hung his head forward for a second before he lifted it back up, still not looking at her.
"I guess so." He responded, his tone unwavering.
"Did you have a nightmare about Masamune?" Soul asked him.
"Dammit." Danny whispered to himself as he leaned his head back, where it thumped into a wall softly. "Yes. Okay, yes I did and I feel wrong talking to you about this because he's..."
"My brother?" Soul finished his sentence after he trailed off. For the first time since she startled him, he looked at her. It was only for a moment that Soul caught his pale gray eyes but it was a start.
"Yeah..." Danny replied with a somber tone.
"You don't have to feel wrong about it, the kinship between us is long dead. I saved your life, what more do you need?" Soul sounded frustrated towards the end.
"It would really help if you didn't look just like him." Danny snapped at her in a whisper, causing her to recoil slightly. He saw this and felt ashamed. "I'm sorry...I lost my temper...I just...he almost killed me, twice...and I guess it just got to me. I mean, I've been injured in fights, sure. I've even lost fights, but no one has ever come that close to killing me." Danny brought his arm up to his shoulder and rubbed his scar. "Except for him...he made me realize how weak I am." He held up his other hand and flexed it into a fist a few times.
"Weak?" Soul asked rhetorically as she looked at him.
"Oh, is this the part where you try and convince me that I'm not weak?" Danny cut her off as he looked at her and actually held her gaze this time. His eyes held no color but Soul was still lost in them for a moment.
Soul leaned forward a few inches, "Danny, the fact that you are alive means that you are not weak. Call it stupid or cliche all you want but you stared down Masamune and lived. Not once, but twice! I know him better than he thinks I do. He doesn't leave survivors. You are not weak, Danny." Danny looked away from her and back towards the horizon.
"I certainly don't feel very strong." Danny clenched his fists again, he had definitely noticed his lost muscle mass from his time bedridden. "I gotta work on that. The only reason I lived the first time is because of the guards and the sleeping gas. The only reason I lived the second time is because of you." Danny rolled his head across the wall to look at her again. "My first sign of gratitude was kind of half assed, but...thank you for saving my life. Really." Danny's tone softened and he even smiled at her.
Soul finally actually saw his eyes, more importantly, she saw the dark bags under his eyes and how pale his face looked.
"Danny, how long have you been awake?" Soul whispered.
"Doesn't matter." Danny responded in a whisper as he closed his eyes. Soul looked at him with a slightly somber look before Rhys poked his head through the window and made them both jump and gasp.
"Glad to see you two are getting along, finally." He said with a small smile. "Come on, it's time for our little group meeting."
~~~~~~~~~
"So, what the hell are we going to do?" Rhys said as he trotted back into the room where everyone was sitting on their mattresses, Nyx and Nerissa had just stirred awake and were rubbing their eyes.
"I think...we should focus on first things first. Food. Because I don't know about y'all, but I'm hungry." Nyx said in her sleepy voice as she rubbed her eyes more.
"Right, how are we gunna sustain ourselves?" Nerissa added.
"Steal it, obviously." Danny piped up with his arms crossed.
"Danny, what?" Nerissa said in disbelief.
"Think about it, Nerissa. We're still all in bright orange jumpsuits. We can't exactly walk into a store and buy food, because we also don't have any money." Danny spoke with an even tone. Nerissa looked at him with slight disbelief on her face.
"Nerissa listen, you won't have to do anything, Danny, Jack and I will go and get clothes for all of us so we can actually walk in the daylight." Soul chimed in next.
"Why you guys?" Drake asked as he turned to them.
"We've all been there the longest, the world has basically forgotten we existed. It would be the safest for all of us if you guys stay hidden." Danny looked at Drake with a hard gaze. Nate turned his head over to the group after being quiet for a while.
"It's the safest way, guys. If we want to even stand a chance, we need clothes that don't scream prisoner and we need food." Nate said quietly as he leaned forward with his hands interlocked in his lap. Nerissa and Nyx looked at him.
"Alright fine." Nerissa forced out. "But I'm not gunna be happy about it."
"And that's why you're not going." Danny added back with a flat tone as he pushed up his glasses.
"Alright, Danny, Soul, let's go before the stores start to open." Jack said as he swiped his hand towards the staircase to the first floor.
"Well, while that's happening..." Rhys said as he sat down on the ground in front of Nyx and Nate. "I want to hear the complete, unabridged story of how you guys ended up in that place." Rhys finished as he planted his chin in his hands. Nerissa scooted closer to them and did the same thing. Nyx chuckled slightly while Nate pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Are we parents now?" Nate whispered as he turned his head towards Nyx, who discreetly snickered and tried to cover her mouth to hide it. Nyx led the explanation of everything that had her and Nate had been through. From the moment of fate outside the school, to the horrible turn of events at Zachariah's mansion. All while a few of their friends were making their own decisions of questionable morals.
~~~~~~~~~
Danny peaked his head around the corner of a red bricked building, looking down the street left and right. It was barely dawn outside and he knew that someone would be by soon to open the store. He leaned back to hide himself behind the wall as he watched a car pass by him and drive down the street. Danny leaned back around the wall slightly before he lifted his hand next to his head and flicked his first two fingers forward and moved quickly and silently while Jack and Soul followed closely.
"Soul." Danny whispered out as the two men leaned against the wall by the door, which was closed and had a gate pulled down and locked.
"On it." She whispered back as she leaned down and placed her hands on the sidewalk outside the door. Shadows creeped from her hands and slithered under the door. After a few seconds of silence the cage slid open, Danny and Jack could see a tendril snake up the glass of the door and coil around the lock of the door. It turned the lock open before Jack quickly opened the door.
"30 seconds, Danny." Jack whispered as he nodded towards Danny who wordlessly nodded back before slipping inside the door. His eyes glanced up to the security cameras and smiled slyly when he saw black shadows covering the lenses. He rushed over to the console that controlled the security alarm and placed his hand on it. Soul and Jack witnessed something incredible when he placed his hand on the console. He closed his eyes for a moment before they opened suddenly and his otherwise pale gray eyes were shimmering. It made them look almost silver as they flickered for a second. He blinked a few times before he quickly moved his fingers and typed a series of numbers into the keypad and the screen changed from "ARMED" to "DISARMED".
"Nice. Let's get these clothes and some money and get out of here, my guess is that we have 20 minutes." Jack whispered as he looked between the two. The group split up, Jack went to get money out of the register and Danny and Soul went to go find clothes for them and their friends.
Soul went to the ladies section of this small department store, it didn't have much to offer and frankly, she didn't have much time to shop around. She grabbed a few pairs of cute jeans and shorts and a few cute tops that she thought Nyx and Nerissa would like. Even though she didn't really know what they dressed like before the compound.
Danny was in the male section, thankfully he knew his friends rather well and had them pretty much figured out.
He grabbed a black t-shirt and deep green cargo pants for Nate.
A white dress shirt with casual faded black jeans for Rhys.
A simple tan, long sleeved v-neck with loose fitting denim jeans for Jack.
A gray muscle tank with normal blue denim jeans and a black hoodie for Drake(in case he feels self conscious).
And finally, a gray v-neck with black jeans for him. The group all quickly met up back in front of the door where they entered, Danny re-armed the security system before scooting outside with his arms full of clothes. Soul used her shadows to lock the door again and shut the cage before her shadows snaked back out.
Like they were never even there.
They quickly scooted back around the corner of the building and made a break for their little hideout.
"Damn, you really came face to face with Zachariah, huh?" Rhys said quietly.
"Yeah, I had a great view of it while he was beating the shit out of me." Nate lifted his head with a sarcastic smile. It was at that point that Danny, Soul and Jack came back in the room.
"We got clothes and money." Jack said as he held up his hand which was clutching at least 200 dollars in various bills.
"Oh, gimme!" Nyx said gleefully as she stood up and looked through the clothes that Soul was holding. She picked out a cute graphic T-shirt and faded skinny jeans and scooted off to go change.
Danny tossed the clothes he had picked out for his friends before leaving the room with his own clothes clutched to his chest with one hand.
After the group had changed into their clothes, they started filing back into the room one by one.
"Damn, excellent choice, Danny! I look hot!" Rhys said as he entered the room rolling one of his sleeves up to his elbow. "It had been way too long since I wore actual clothes."
"You're right about that, it feels kind of weird." Danny responded while he pinched his shirt on the stomach and pulled his shirt away from him in a few different spots to help it fit looser.
"Oh, you'll be okay." Rhys said as he shoved Danny's shoulder as they both smiled slyly.
"You don't need to worry about me, Rhys." Danny said as he flexed his arms out in front of him and flexed his fingers.
"I feel good."