Can I Call This Home? (discontinued)

⌿⍀⍜⌰⍜☌⎍⟒

It was a fine day. The sun was bright and warm, the flowers were blooming, the leaves on the trees were as green as could be and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. 

Nobody would expect anything wrong from a day like this. 

Except him.

Trapped in the empty white room, he wasn't sure what the weather was like today.

The cold shackles around his ankles and wrists trapped him on the ground, his skin red and raw from tugging on the chains. 

His skin burned as tears traced paths from his eyes, the skin around bubbling and steaming.

A quiet tune sounded through the room. His throat was too raw to sing, so all he could do was hum. He liked singing. It was the only reason they hadn't just killed him yet.

She liked singing too. Maybe that's the only reason he still sang. In guilt of what he had done.

A sudden gust of warm air hit him as the heavily locked door to the room opened, a man walking through. 

He sat up taller as the man approached. He liked this man. 

Smiling as he crouched down, Jimmy pushed the tray of food in his hands towards the defeated boy in front of him.

"Here. Maybe when you're done we can go for a walk" He said as he watched the boy reach forward, his thin hand picking up the spoon, eating the grey mixture in the bowl slowly. 

Jimmy wished he could feed the boy something different, maybe sneak him some of the food that they had in the buffet. But he knew that Scott would stop him. 

Scott didn't like that Jimmy would feed and walk around with the boy. Said that he could get sick or infected. They didn't know what kind of diseases the experiment could have created. 

That wouldn't stop Jimmy though, and Scott would never actually interfere with what he did.

Once the food was gone, Jimmy took the key from his pocket, unlocking the shackles, sighing as the familiar click sounded through the room. The boy had stopped humming, and instead watched as Jimmy finished freeing him from the chains. 

Once all the chains were gone, Jimmy stood, holding his hand out for the boy to take. 

The boy hesitates for a minute before taking Jimmy's hand, letting him drag the boy onto his feet. 

Jimmy stayed still as the boy stumbled, his legs not used to holding the weight. 

"Thank you" The boy muttered, his voice scratchy and raw as he let go of Jimmy's hand, holding himself up. 

With a sad smile, Jimmy grabbed the tray from the floor, holding it as he let the boy out of the room first. 

Normally they would just do a lap of the facility, ignoring the others before finally returning to the boy's room where they would prepare him to sleep. But Jimmy had a different plan today. 

As soon as they leave the room, they turn left, heading towards the kitchens where Jimmy drops the tray into the sink, grabbing an orange for the boy to eat while nobody was there.

They then leave the kitchen, Jimmy talking to the boy while the boy stays quiet, nodding and nervously looking around, scared that they would need to do another test. But nobody needed to do a test during their walk, so Jimmy wasn't worried. 

"You know, the guards for those doors over there switch at lights out. There's about a 5 minute break before the new guards come" Jimmy mutters to the boy as they pass an exit, heading back towards the boy's room. "There's no lock on that door, as it just leads to the garden. They underestimate how easy it is to climb the fence"

The boy looks up at Jimmy strangely, his brain slowly processing the information he had been given. 

When they finally returned to the boy's room, Jimmy gave the boy a minute to change before crouching down next to the boy to re-lock his shackles.

"Oh and where did I put that key?" Jimmy asked, patting down his pockets "Huh, I seemed to have lost it. Guess you don't need to get locked up tonight" He smiled at the boy for a minute before standing back up. 

"Sleep tight" He closed the door, but instead of the click of the doors lock, there was silence.

The boy stood from the ground when the door didn't lock, confused. What was Jimmy doing?

Then the lights went out and over the speakers, a man, Scott, announced lights out.

There's about a five minute break before the new guards come 

With sudden confidence, the boy slowly and quietly opened the door, sneaking down the empty hallway quickly. 

Just as mentioned, there were no guards there. And after pushing slightly on the door, it seemed that Jimmy had also been right about the door having no lock. 

As soon as the boy smelt the fresh air, he ran, grass tickling at the bottom of his bare feet, his ragged grey clothes giving him no protection from the piercing wind.

He reached the fence quickly and grabbed onto it as high as he could, pulling himself up. And he continued climbing, higher and higher before finally reaching the top.

Stepping carefully over the barbed wire on top of the fence, the boy grabbed tightly to the other side of the fence, trying his hardest not to let go and fall 12 feet. 

He didn't have much luck though, and he fell as soon as the loud blares of a siren filled the air.

They knew he was gone.

He stood up from the ground, ignoring the pain that racked through his body as he ran, running and running.

He wasn't sure where he was going, but he needed to get away. 

And for the first time in 15 years, Ranboo was free.