wilbur~
i watched as techno parted with tommy from their hug. he placed his hand on tommys leg and tommy yelped in pain. squeezing his eyes shut.
'roll up his trouser leg.' i instructed techno. a distinct amount of panic evident in my tone. techno did so. he did it as slowly and gently as he could, even so it still caused wincing from tommy. i clapped my hand over my mouth as i saw what was causing tommy that pain.
'oh my god.' i whispered. his leg was purple and swollen, a huge sliced cut that was quite clearly infected ran down his leg. tommy sat up and looked at his leg. tilting his head almost as if he didn't believe it. his shock soon turned into horror as he screamed loudly. i grabbed him and hugged him close to me. making sure to hide his leg from his view.
phil came rushing in, holding all the bandages and cleaning supplies which he dropped with a gasp as he saw the state tommy's leg was in. he quickly picked it all back up and rushed over to the bed.
phil used to be a doctor so he had a lot of medical knowledge and equipment. he grabbed a medicinal mask from the stuff he had brought and gently put it over tommy's mouth.
'okay that has anaesthesia medicine in it. he probably won't be fully knocked out but he definitely won't feel any pain.' he said looking at me and techno.
we all sat patiently waiting for the medicine to kick in properly.
'how are you feeling toms?' i questioned him.
'i dkdjen dmk knorr.' he slurred his words together and laughed deliriously.
'there's your answer then.' techno laughed, stroking the boys hair tenderly.
phil go to work on tommy's biggest injury whilst me and techno did all the burns and scratches.
...
it took almost 2 hours, by the end tommy had passed out from exhaustion. he had been coming too nearer the end, whimpering when we touched him. but i sang to him, and he quietened down and fell asleep. it felt like such a good big brother moment.
techno, phil and i decided to let him sleep so we left him to go downstairs and make some dinner.
that was a mistake.
we had been making noodles. nothing hard. mostly we had been just chatting about tommy and wondering if he would recover okay both mentally and physically.
then we heard it. the most devastating, heart-wrenching scream. it sounded like a wounded animal. following the scream was a loud sob. i ran upstairs, taking the stairs two at a time. i ran into my bedroom to wear tommy was. he was sat up, shivering and sobbing. i grabbed him by the shoulders and sat directly behind him on the bed so that his head could lean against my chest. i stroked his hair and whispered what i hoped would be words of comfort.
i looked down at the younger, fresh tears still leaking from his eyes. 'did you have a bad dream toms?' i said softly.
'y-yeah.' he hiccuped. 'i was back there wilb. it was scary. they hurt me again.' he said whispering more as if was being shushed.
i stroked his blond curls, gently rocking him side to side. i could see him struggling to keep his eyes open but he seemed to be fighting sleep.
'i'll be here when you wake up, toms. i'll be here always.' i said comfortingly.
'you can go to sleep your safe i promise.'
...
5 months later...
'tommy hurry up.' wilbur shouted from the kitchen. He, techno and Phil were stood waiting for tommy.
he came rushing out from wilbur's room. 'okay okay i have all my stuff!' tommy yelled back. today the 4 of them were moving to a different apartment. a bigger one. one where tommy and wilbur didn't have to share and one were they weren't all squashed and unable to stream as regularly as before. Techno and phil had sold there old places so they could live together as roommates.
scratch that. family.
'say goodbye to the apartment everyone.' phil fake wiped his eyes, grinning.
techno and wilbur laughed, walking out. tommy didn't laugh he instead gave a fond smile, he was going to miss it here. he didn't want to admit it. but sharing wilbur's bedroom gave him the affection he had always craved but never gotten off of his parents. he wished and wished that he could stay here rather than wherever he was moving.
'TOMMY.' wilbur yelled from the hall.
tommy flinched. anyone shouting made him flinch, his parents and the trauma he had experienced in the workhouse were the culprit. he was able to hide it well though, he didn't think anyone had noticed as most of the time he just masked it with another movement.
'coming.' he mumbled. smiling one more time and then shutting the door.
the car ride shouldn't have been a long one, maybe about an hour or so, but the traffic was at a stand still.
tommy~
silence and being trapped were my two biggest fears. both of which had arrised from the warehouse. and both of which were happening right now. phil was driving, techno was sleeping and wilbur was listening to music. my hands were shaking so i put them between my knees hoping to not make it obvious. i was terrible at hiding my emotions and feeling but no one was concentrating on me so no one noticed, well at first anyway.
my anxiety increased when phil started angrily swearing at some guy who had swerved in front of him. i looked out the window desperately, almost as if something was out there which would help me.
there wasn't.
however much i tried to help it, i couldn't stop my breathing from rapidly increasing. my brain went into shutdown mode. all my calming thoughts i was gripping onto cleared and all my anxiety powered ones fronted.
i grabbed the handle of the door and scrambled out the car. we were pretty much at a stopped anyway so it's not like i jumped out of a moving car or anything. i ran to the side of the road.
i could hear cars beeping in confusion and wil, techno and phil shouting me. once i got to the side i stumbled into the forest area tears now streaming down my face. i heard footsteps running behind me and then a pair of arms wrap around me. i flinched and then sank into the persons hug.
it was wilbur.
'tommy.' he said softly. 'what's wrong toms?'
'i- i can't breathe.' i spluttered.
he moved in front of my face and crouched a little, 'deep breaths okay copy my breathing.' he placed my hand on his chest so i could replicate what he was doing.
once my breathing was back to normal, i began to relax a little although i still couldn't stop the tears from streaming down my face. then i heard another pair of foot steps. 'tommy? what's wrong?' techno asked me. i didn't know how to respond so instead i just let out a small sob.
'we need to get back in the car toms.' he said gently. 'we'll be moving soon and phils stressing out. not too far to go though we should only be 10 minutes, me and wilbur can help you.'
i nodded my head, understanding i didn't have much choice but to get in the car. techno and wil guided my back. i tried to cover my face although it was unsuccessful as most people who had seen my run out before were now giving me the dirtiest looks imaginable. we got back to the car and both techno and wil got in the back putting me in the middle. probably so i didn't run again but i actually liked it there, i felt much safer between my two brothers who were now solely focused on me.
the two of them did there absolute best at distracting me for the last 15 or so minutes of the journey. we finally arrived at the apartment. it was big and old looking, but it was dark by then so i couldn't see most of it.
'you just go in toms i'll get your bags don't worry.' techno said grunting at the effort to get both mine and his bags.
i wondered into the apartment block, it was nice looking but there wasn't too much light and it kinda gave me the creeps. i shuddered a little.
soon the others came in we unlocked the door to our apartment and wondered in. i looked around. it was very big and spacious.
'your bedroom is that one tommy.' techno said, pointing to one going to a room far away from any others. the other three walked into theirs. unpacking and getting stuff set up. the each closed their doors and everything was quiet.
i was all alone again.
———
i'm on a role go me 💪🏼
author <3
