Silence

Victory

[Pt. 5. 1812 words]

Phillip and Barnum, despite having a show in a couple of days as he'd announced, didn't do anything beneficial that morning after the incident with Hallet. Frankly, it was a lot better time those couple hours sitting and talking with Barnum than Phillip had endured that entire week. Chatting, laughing, just being overall affectionate with each other; the remaining time in their cramped office wasn't that bad.

"Your nose is cold." Phillip huffed as Barnum bumped the tips of their noses together. His token protest. He could barely distinguish the large smile on Barnum's lips, their faces so close together that everything went out of focus. The showman's hands rested on either side of Phillip's face, palms the same cool temperature that his nose was at. "Well at least mine doesn't look like Rudolph's."

Barnum laughed. A genuine, wholesome one, nothing like the frightening sound Phillip had envisioned the night before this. He scoffed. "H-Hey-! Shut up-"

For the first time in awhile, Phil's eyes sparkled with a feeling of happiness he couldn't explain. Even in the situation they were in, Barnum had this effect on him, one that he couldn't pick apart what exactly it was. His smile, his laugh, his eyes, his everything rather.

This was disrupted when a knock rapped against the office door. The two jumped, scooting their chairs apart from each other before calling for whoever requested to enter. The door cracked open, it was Anne.

"You guys know rehearsal ended thirty minutes ago, right?" She asked, peeking her head in. She raised an eyebrow. "Everyone is about to leave and we haven't seen either of you since whatever you want to call what happened earlier." She wasn't wrong, they sort of locked themselves in the small room after that. It wasn't exactly a nice scene after all.

"Right, sorry- we'll be out in a moment." Barnum replied, standing from his chair and tidying up his desktop after Anne had left. "It hasn't already been thirty minutes, has it? It feels like I just got here." Phillip complained, setting his hat atop his head. Barnum just chuckled and flung his jacket over his shoulder. He planted a kiss on Phil's forehead before he exited the office.

--+--

The rest of the day went rather smoothly after that, Phillip had gone home while Barnum stayed late to catch up on the work that they'd slacked on that afternoon. He stayed home by himself quite often so it wasn't much of a problem. It felt like an eternity waiting for Phineas to get home, but when he did Phillip had already gone to bed, since he got there sometime after midnight probably. 

Barnum smiled down at the boy passed out on the bed below him. Exactly what he wanted. How he planned it. Quietly, he crept back outside once he knew Phillip was asleep. The crisp night air felt refreshing against his cheeks as he walked the short distance to his currently vacant house.

Within five minutes he stood at the foot of the staircase, the same one he climbed down after Charity's tragic 'accident.' The entire house's atmosphere was cold and empty. It was quite unpleasant, to say the least. Even when the house was deafeningly silent, it still felt better when Charity was there.

Barnum wasn't there to wallow in his thoughts, though. He trudged his way into their old bedroom. The sheets lied out on the bed were still unmade, like somebody had slept in them the night before, but they were cold. Just like the rest of this place, it was obvious nobody had been here for at least a day or two. Phineas began searching around the room, opening drawers, inside boxes in the closet, under the bed, "Fuck, where did she put the damn thing?" Barnum murmured, eventually turning the entire room upside-down.