neon roses ~ l.mh • h.js

capitolo ventiquattro posizione appuntata

It's been a week. Jisung tried to snag any chance he could to be near Soyeon but she was only around when his cell door was locked shut. Oh how he wanted to just reach his arm through the iron bars and grab a fistful of her hair and then—

Okay. Maybe Jisung shouldn't continue.

But either way, being here wasn't any better than what he had remembered. In fact, it was worse, because he has to relive everything again, plus the new addition of shock collars, which were worse than the bats they used to beat them all with. And to be honest? The only things keeping him together are:

1. Knowing Minho will get him out of here if Jisung finds his stupid phone.

2. Coming back to Jeongin in the cell to chat with or cuddle with after a long day of testing, or a long day of nothing. It was like coming back from work at the end of the day and greeting your child who was just as excited to see you too.

Jisung probably would have not survived if not for those two things.

But.. It wasn't all terrible. Couple days ago, they gave Jisung different types of food that macaws can't eat to see if they'd make Jisung sick too. He enjoyed that part, because none of it affected him. Especially the part where they had given him chocolate and he had lied saying he didn't know whether it was affecting him or not so they gave him more and more until they caught on and shocked him on high for a whole minute. Well, it was fun while it lasted..

Currently, Jisung was sitting with Jeongin, noticing that the boy's leg was broken after the first day at the lab when he struggled to stand, and it wasn't getting much better. Jisung needed to find a way to get that damn phone already so that the people trapped here can get the medical assistance they need and weren't getting.  But upon being left with nothing to do, he took the time to observe the place.

There was an old air conditioning vent at the top corner of the cell. They didn't use  air conditioning here, hence it was boarded up. 

But it has to lead to something if they took the time to close it off. He thought of ways to reach it, deciding that he'll take action at nighttime when the scientists and workers wouldn't be near.

And nighttime came. Jeongin was curled up in a ball at Jisung's side, sound asleep, ears and nose twitching occasionally. Jisung softly pushed Jeongin off of him, careful not to wake him up. Once he did, he stood up, scanning the vent and his surroundings. Then, he shifted into his bird form, the collar contracting and fitting around his neck like a glove. Damn. Why do my clothes get lost in the transformation but not this stupid thing? He grumbled mentally to himself. He flew up to the vent and latched onto one of the boards, moving to the end of the board to start biting and chipping at the wood. After five minutes, his jaw was sore and only a small portion of the wood was gone. He sighed. This is going to take a while.

After 20 minutes, he got the end of the board off, grabbing onto it and flying down to the floor to gently rest it there, the loud and unstable flapping of his wings doing him no justice. There was only one board, whoever did this probably assumed anyone would be both too weak and too short to reach it. Luckily, height wasn't a problem for Jisung.

Sometimes.

In his bird form, at least.

He bit the sides of the screws on the vent panel, turning his head to unscrew it, letting go, and reattaching his beak to it, repeating the process until the screw dropped to the floor, followed by another, and then another, and another, and the vent was loose, weighing down on Jisung's light body and almost making him topple over. Luckily, he grabbed the metal in time and flew it to the ground, flying back up to the vent and crawling through it. The dust and spiderwebs in it made him sneeze every so often. He stopped at every vent he crossed, looking through the slits in the metal as best as he could and flying up to the ascending vent that connected to the main level. The pit-patting noise of his feet against the metal probably resonated throughout the whole air conditioning system but he was too tired and desperate to worry about that right now.