Can I Call This Home? (discontinued)

☊⊑⏃⌿⏁⟒⍀ 4

I woke up warm.

My eyes were heavy and I could still feel the burns on my neck, hands and cheeks, but the pain was lessened, as if it was healed.

I wondered how long I had been sleeping. Actually I wondered if I was dead. Maybe I was. Maybe this was the afterlife.

"I think he's awake" Someone muttered, and I realised that I was not in fact dead. But I didn't know that voice, so when unknown hands moved the hair from my face, I pulled away. I had tried to slap their hand away, but my body was tired. I couldn't move at all.

"Don't try and move. Your body is still healing" The unknown voice is calming. I find myself growing even more tired than before, and when I feel the hand of my forehead this time, I can't find the energy to move away.

The person lets out a quiet laugh before pulling away from me. I could feel the soft mattress under me move, and I could assume that the person had stood up from the bed.

But I didn't have the energy to protest. I just let sleep pull me back, away from the world of the awake.

The next time I woke, the only pain I felt was a distant throbbing in my ankle. I was still warm, covered by a fluffy blanket. And this time I had the energy to open my eyes, to sit up and look around.

Unsurprisingly, I was back at the room at Phil's house.

I pulled the blanket farther over me as I finally noticed the jabs of pain going through my head. I wasn't exactly sure what had caused the headache to be this painful, but it hurt almost as much as the burns did.

The burns

I let go of the blanket and looked at my hands. The burns looked almost fully healed, blending with the old burn scars that littered my hands. I wonder how long I had been asleep if my hands were fully healed.

There was a sound outside, and that's when everything came crashing back at me. I was at Phil's house. They knew I escaped. They knew I was vulnerable.

I looked around the room, hoping to find anything to protect myself. My backpack was in the corner, but they had most likely gone through it and had taken anything considered a weapon. I thought about climbing onto the roof and hiding, but I noticed the window locks had been changed. I wouldn't be able to escape with those keeping the window locked.

As there was nothing else I could do, I laid back down quickly and quietly, pulling my blanket back over me exactly how it had been before just in time for the door to open.

I kept my eyes closed as I heard the person enter the room. I heard them walk around, and then there was the noise of them setting something, a plate judging by the strange sound, onto the nightstand, before sitting down on the bed, the mattress sinking under them.

Then I felt their hand touch my forehead, checking my temperature. Their hand was cold, and it felt so nice against my throbbing head that I accidentally leaned into it, and the person laughed, filling the air with their voice.

Then they pulled their hand away and stood, sending the bed back to normal. I heard them open the door and leave, and I opened my eyes just a tiny amount to make sure they were gone. After I was sure that they were gone, I sat up, and pushed my blankets off of me, barely glancing at the plate of muffins before standing up and walking across the room, surprised by how easily I could walk even with the dull pain in my ankle.

I crouched down next to my backpack and went through it. Surprisingly, there were still quite a few things classified as weapons in there, though I did find a little circular device that blinked red. I'm pretty sure that wasn't in there before, so I threw it into the closet, getting rid of it. Then I zipped up the backpack again and stood. There was nowhere I could go except for out of the room, and that's just hoping that they didn't lock me in.

I looked around my room once more and went to the window, testing the locks. Maybe they hadn't installed them right. Maybe I still had a chance to escape.

But just as I expected, the locks were installed correctly, and I wouldn't be getting out of here anytime soon. Meaning as I had realized before, there was only one place I could go.

I walked back towards the door and placed my hand on the cool metal doorknob, taking a deep breath before opening it, entering the empty hallway. Upon a quick glance, it looked like all the other windows had the same locks as the window in the room I was staying in, except these locks looked older and like they had been there longer. Meaning Phil was definitely trying to see if I escaped with the easy locks on my window.

I walked towards the steps, my hands drumming patterns on my legs. Not random patterns though. It was Morse code. She always did this to calm me when I would get scared, and eventually it became one of the only things that could calm me from my panics.

I love you.

With the pattern calming me down slightly, I went down the stairs quietly, listening to the conversation happening in the living room.

"What happened again?" A female voice I didn't know asked.

"He ran, and when we found him he was covered in burns even though it was raining" Phil said, his voice calm

"But how? It's water" another new voice, male this time.

"Maybe if has to do with his power. What is his power?" I somewhat knew this voice. This was the person that had talked to me before, telling me not to move. Has that actually happened? I wasn't sure. Most likely given I don't think I had ever heard this voice before, so where would I have gotten it from?

"I'm not sure. He won't tell me" A single minute of silence "It's strong though. And he can't fully control it"

"Is it stronger than Clay's?" The female voice asked, and there was a minute of silence before Phil responded.

"It is. But again, I don't think he can control it. It keeps going off randomly" More silence and suddenly a hand was placed on my shoulder, making me gasp.

I practically jumped out of my skin as I whirled around, freezing when I saw the ceramic mask looking at me. It reminded me of something. I felt a shiver go down my back as we stared at each other.

There was a sound in the living room next to us and the ceramic faced man grabbed my hand and pulled me into a different room, closing the door as much as he could while still being able to see. There was the sound of someone walking where we had just been. I held my breath as they walked around near the door, before letting out a little huff and leaving.

"you should be more careful. You would have gotten caught eavesdropping if it wasn't for me" I turned to face the ceramic faced man, and jumped when a green-eyed blonde man was there. The man had taken off his mask, and even though he looked the same age as me, I felt as if he was much more experienced with life. On second thought, the majority of the people in this house, even Fundy the toddler, were probably more experienced with life than me as they didn't spend 15 years of their life in a cell.

"I was being careful. You were the only reason I made a noise" I muttered, keeping my voice low as a just in case.

"Sure you were" The man smiled, his face now matching his mask "Clay. But you can call me Dream" He held out his hand, and after a quick hesitation, I shook it.

"Ranboo"