Chapter Text
It wasn't as if the nightmare about drowning he had was the catalyst. It moreover was his own interpretation of it. His internal clock ticked off as soon as he fluttered from the bare mattress.
He gasped.
“I'm still me, I'm still me.. Still alive." he only whispered, clutching his frail chest to keep his heart from beating straight out of it.
He hushed himself. Nameless and insignificant, that's what the boy remembers. Be a silent little mouse.
'People still place mouse traps.. because we're pests.' his thoughts murmured softly. He liked to keep his thoughts like a calm wave, pushing softly against the hull of the Maw. Pull and push, pull and push whenever they grew too wild.
That was always a comfort. It's always a comfort. But like the sea, his thoughts drifted. No, he didn't like that. Sometimes drifting was nice but he needed to keep his thoughts on track. No playing around.
Turning to the broken clip on his ankle, he fumbled it. Trying to pry it open like he did everyday. He hoped that once he would be strong enough to finally snap it.
"Then that'll be a true act of defiance.. I don't want them to ever keep me again." He breathed.
He sighed, it didn't seem as poetic out loud. But it was just a little poetic, he would admit that. He wished for a book again, maybe he could reference their irony.. Just a little?
But what would be a true act of defiance? His thoughts pushed for an answer to the lingering questions.
'Bravery? Freedom?' his mind swirled for the truth. Pushing himself to the edge of his bed, reaching over for the baby doll at the end of another’s mattress. He tucked it in the middle so it would look as if he hadn’t left.
He clambered down from his bed. Toes pushing into the wood floor with nervous squeaks and groans. The boy winced and pulled his shoulders tightly. Hoping that nobody stirred. And no child ever did.
'They indulge in their beloved fantasies.. but I don't want to daydream anymore..' his mind told the audience of nobody. Getting up to a strong walk, like he had errands and chores to do which suddenly halted.
'Wait, I don't know where to start.. That's going to be a problem.. Where do I start?' He pressed his thumb into his lips, immediately stopping in thought. It was a good question and.. Well, that was a sort of “If you think hard enough” answer.
He opened the door, its rusty hinges wanting to squeal in alert. But the Boy made sure to open it slowly and wriggle his body from there.
But something quite particularly piqued his morbid curiosity when he escaped the room. A set of growls. Growls he knew by heart..
Growls that belonged to the Janitor.
As he crept underfoot, peering from the third floor of the room. The rustle of loud shackles with cuffs trailed across the floor, or was it the jangling of keys from a cage? The Boy had no answer and was not willing to find out.
But the kicker? The scrambles of a kid protesting at their capture by the Janitor. He peered down and spied. Feeling equally deviously rebellious and frightened out of his mind. He had to stamp down the screams of “STOP, GO BACK, DO AS YOUR TOLD!” with fervent stomps until they hushed.
He inched himself back as the Janitor caught the rowdy child. His fingers wrapped the little runaway. The Boy heard the squirming hushed yowls of the child and decided mentally to definitely not be next on the capture list.
As the Boy slithered from the side he came from, he inched his way to an open and lit room. Immediately seeing a messily flipped bed, hole and papers on the floor. His eyes diverted to the ship on the wall. He complimented it with a nod as he peeked his face into the hole.
It led to the second floor. Which might be useful per se but he needed to plan thoroughly because well, it was already escape attempt number twenty-one and he was only 18!
‘It's not like I’ll get any older anyway..’ He thought to himself with an amused eye roll. But back to what he could see in the room..
‘Mattress for easy landing, check. Unlocked door? Aha, check. Inky spills under the bed? Worryingly.. Check.’ The Boy’s thoughts chittered on. His little artist brain wanted to dip his hands into the leech ink and draw or- WRITE.. By the Eye did he want to write.
All the ideas were practically pouring out his brain and mouth. Willing to tell his stories to anybody who was bored enough to listen to his long and monotonous rants. But he didn’t exactly want anybody to copy HIS art on the walls and..
Err.. that was enough daydreaming for him. Back to planning was the main objective.. The most worrying part was that stupid glubbersome leech under the bed.. How did he know? The little and horrifying chitters it made.
The chitters just reminded him of the ugly experiences with them.. Their horrid little mouths.. Terrifying sizes and the gloopy mucus that made the Boy’s hair all bad and stick up. That wasn’t the worst of it.. It was the BITE on his back he had to prove his fear with.
His thoughts went frantic as he hopped onto the bed, making it moan squeaks and the leech chitter more.. Which, he adamantly hated with all his guts. If it were up to him, every leech would be pulverized and sent back where they came from!
The Boy dashed from the bed, turning around to see the stupid thing wiggle its way out the goop and near him. It made bile throw into his mouth as he twisted to hide on the wall, heart pounding with terror.
‘Getawaygetawaygetaway!’ The Boy’s thoughts snarled at the leech as it turned its head, as if it was looking for HIM as LUNCH and returned back to its room.
He could feel his knees wobble at the sheer closeness of that. Nope, no more leeches ever, he swore it off now. No MORE LEECHES.. EVER..
The boy gagged and pointed into his gullet with a dramatic tongue flop. Showing just how much he loathed those things. But off to his plan..
Which to his dismay, got harder to go through with when an Eye Spy as he declared it, decided to open its blinker and spy a new stone statue to its ever growing rowdy child collection. Two of his friends already got stone’d by the stupid Eye Spy, so he made sure to avoid that light.
The Boy heard yet another child, this time their feet pitter pattering off from him and elsewhere. He peeked over the ledge and saw her. White dress flowing as she let her hair billow behind her.
The Boy wasn’t all too much into girls or boys when he was younger, more of “How many times can I bug her into snapping at me”? Which he later apologized to a girl he did it often to in the years after.
But girls did seem a lot more interesting nowadays, just by a smidge.. They’d never fully peak his interest but he could be one to admire beauty when it was there. But never a whole lot could make his heart ring with sparks.
The Boy glanced over the room for a proper way to get down. His eyes glossed over as he found a rack of cages on a wall.. Coincidentally they had perfect square shaped bars.
With a fleeing leap, he ran over and began to descend. His anxiety leaped at his movements as the light swung over, didn’t see any runaway and looked over. He could always relax his shoulders when the light looked away.
As soon as his feet met the floor, the Boy got to sneakily sneaking. His movements loud with his toes always making footsteps on the cold floor. Luckily the girl twisted to glance at him, huffed and pulled forward.
He wished he could scream “LOOK BACK! TAKE ME WITH YOU! LET'S DITCH THIS DUMP!” at her and merrily trot along. But he didn’t particularly like using his voice or speaking at all sometimes.
The Boy waited, scrambling when the Eye looked away just enough for him to sneakily mouse his way to the blindspot of the Eye. He knelt behind a cage, worming his way through. He hopelessly worried about the light catching him..
‘Pull and push.. Pull and push through it.. Silent mouse, be a silent mouse.’ He echoed through his head. Each thought made his eyes go from wide to half lidded as he soothed his own fear.
He was blissed at the moment he had to dart into the hallway, scampering with an upbeat pace to meet the supposed girl. The boy hopped over blocks and strewn toys, meeting her wiggling through the bars.
She popped free and glanced back at him with a curious yet tensely irritated look. Wondering why he was following her so suddenly and what he wanted. She obviously didn’t want any business with him.
She pulled her lips forward and tilted her head, twisting away when the Boy just got his words out,
“Let me come.” He whispered with a voice that had rasp to it, as if his throat always demanded water and was thirsty, but only lightly.
“Fine.” She mumbled, letting him wriggle his lean body through with much protest. They soon got to running to the far door. He asked what she was doing.
“Escaping.” Her smooth, milky voice whispered, “And you?”
“Escaping.. Too, "he breathed, chasing her to the bars as he wormed his way through first. Her following second.
The scent of a public bathroom hit his nose with a grunt of disdain. The Boy wrinkled his nose and puckered his lips in a grimace from the nausea of human waste. She only shrugged and growled for him to keep moving.
The scent slowly passed as she entered the sink room, light billowing through the bars as it casted a moonlit look on the both of them. The Girl and Boy had no names and kept it that way.
She pointed to the sheet ropes at the side of the two crates stacked on the other. Now he understood where his sheets went when they demanded them on laundry day.
With a pump in her step, the Girl clawed her way up the cages. Gesturing with a hand to the ropes. She wanted him to throw them up to her. But, he wanted to do something first..
“Wait..” He rasped, jumping and hooking his fingers onto the sink as he pulled himself up, “I need to get this first..”
“Don’t take too long.” She scolded the Boy. Crossing her arms in a firm huff. He was busy popping the lid to a bottle.
He twisted the cork cap, letting sparkles of wishes flow and make the long, tangled mop of hair in his face fly up halfway until the wishes ran out. The Boy twisted his arm into the bottle, retrieving his special wish..
The folded paper stayed in his pocket. A little wish he would have and fulfill for the lost Ones. He believed he had to let the wishes come true. It would be his wish now..
After he jumped from the sink, he gripped the sheet rope. Tossing it up to her in a firm throw. The Girl’s fingers grasped it as she began to knot the thing around the pole. Leaving limply hanging from the window.
The Boy soon clambered his way up the bars, meeting her descend from the sheet rope. He gripped the rope and began to climb down himself after she took her run from him, climbing up boxes to a vent in the wall.
He inched his way down and ran to the wooden planks on the floor. Looking at her ready to climb the gap, her darkened eyes staring back at him with curiosity.
“Where.. Where are we really going?” He asked her, unsure where she plotted to go from here. “Where are you leading me?”
She only grunted, “I’m following what feels right. Anywhere to an exit.”
“Without a map?”
“A skilled cartographer would lose their mind in this ship.” She slyly chuckled, her teeth glinting as she pulled her lips back in a smirk, “We all might lose our minds.”
The Boy could agree. He was so frantic in his endeavor to find hope in an exit to this carousel of madness, he.. Left some scars in his episodes. There was still a glass shard in his pocket..
The past twenty tries were insanity in its purest definition. The Boy wanted hope and freedom from the churning teeth of the Maw. Hoping any mouse hole would lead him to freedom. But it only led him to traps.
She led him through the hole. Seemingly disappearing through thin air as she let the clangs of pipework announce her flee. The Boy only stared down and sighed.
‘Let the void consume me.’ His thoughts whispered while he dropped into the pipe. Letting the thrill of adventure enrapture his heart and thoughts. Which were met with a watery fall.. Submerging him.
The Boy burst through the water and gasped, spitting out the filthy sea water.. His arms instinctively paddled and thrusted him forward. Letting him see the new environment that held him.
He seemed to be in a pool that flooded water via the pipe holes on the wall. The Boy assumed that quickly. As his swims turned to him wading through thigh deep water. He looked up.
A ledge jutted out the water sharply with more pipework in the back wall. He marked the pipe hole on the ledge and turned to drag a sunny-orange traveling case to the ledge.
The Boy pressed it to the wall of the miniature cliff face. Dragging his waterlogged body onto it. With a huff he dragged himself up onto the ledge. He began to wring his clothes of the water.
“Girl? Are you there? Girl?” He glanced around until he saw the illumination of her flashlight beyond some boards. He sprinted to them and hopped over the wood looking at her flashlight lay on the floor. Alone.
He picked up the torch, holding it while his light scanned, walking slowly and cautiously towards.. His eyes dropped and peered at..
Leech ink.
‘She.. no.. no- nonon- she-’ His mind blared, eyes following the trail of mucus as it had hand prints pressed on the boards.. The worst of it.. Was the gurgling of a hungry leech.
His eyes widened as its sluggish and black body inching its way towards him. The razor blades of teeth churning up an arm.. Her arm. The Boy could only stare in his terrified and glossy look.
His eyes were marbles, fixed on the worm as it chewed its delicious meal. Heart pumping and racing in his chest. Air escaped him everytime he gulped down breaths. He couldn’t breathe.
The Boy stepped back and back. Eyes flooding with flashbacks. Flashbacks of the reason why he hated leeches so much..
Seven years ago..
He was giggling, and being troublesome. Yipping and urging his friends to pass the ball. He was the one to convince them to stay up.. To play with him in the dark. His friends urged him to shush but..
Something groaned behind him, churning its teeth. His friend’s faces dropped to scared expressions. The Boy only slowly turned around.. Watching The Janitor look down at him.. Arms wide open..
He cried with a snatch, feeling the weightlessness of fingers squeezing him, making his ribcage try to withstand it. He protested, begging him to be let go. He’d do anything..
”Llleeech.. Rrroom.” The Janitor slurred, teeth churning. He had figured out a way to punish unruly children. And he was lucky enough to find a test subject at his disposal.
”Please- PLEASE DON’T PLEASE!” The Boy begged, tears filling his eyes with harsh stinging. He sobbed more as the Janitor waddled to a solitary confinement room.
With a push and throw, he tumbled hitting the floor just as the Janitor shut the door on him. Leaving him in total darkness. Cold and wet from the mucus covering the floor.
The Boy could only remember his own screams and the feeling of slimy cocoons open under his fingers. The way the baby leeches wormed under his clothes. The way the adult ones bit into his skin.
He was only eleven years old.
And he would be able to constantly remember the scars it caused everytime he looked at his chest in a mirror.
The Boy never spoke of what happened. He only played hide and seek.. Hiding from the terror if the leeches ever came for him again.. Only experiencing a taste of firsthand torture.
The Boy gasped out of the flashback, seeing the fat slug inch for his feet. He had grown distracted. He flung his hand down and began to bludgeon the thing to death with his hands and flashlight.
Sobbing all whilst he did it. Screaming in anger all whilst he did it.
GRRUURRGLLE..
YOooOOWWww..
Thud.. Squish.. Thud.. squish.
The Boy panted, seeing the remains of a leech’s brain smeared all over his hands.. And he was proud. No more leeches.. Ever.
He got up, stomping on its brains as he walked out. A look of fear and anger rubbed onto his face. He walked down with a flashlight in hand, crawling into the hole in the boarded up wall..
He crept through the water at his feet, teeth locked together as he was ready to snarl.. Anything that triggered him too close was a reason to murder. The Boy held his flashlight and kept his pace.
’Pull and push.. Waves and flow.. Calm down.. We need to keep going..’ He repeated in his head. Eyes steel on any movement in the water.
He heard the soft gurgling of a leech.. No.. leeches.
So the Boy began to run..
TO BE CONTINUED.
