[BATIM/BATDR]A Lonely Sepia Melody

Part 11

The three companions threw themselves under a most wood-blocked doorway, gasping and aching from the nasty run-ins with the Keepers that were spread out around the hidden levels of Wilson's mansion. After twisting music boxes and running into closets and barrels and lockers, they'd found a safe point as Audrey insisted they were on the final stretch before reaching the stairwell up to Wilson's mansion. Bonzy was limping from the swipe they'd gotten in the right leg, inky limb twisted and pulsing. Charlie's left shoulder was bent the wrong way(definitely very bad) from when he grabbed onto Bonzy and crammed both of them into a closet shoulder-first inward against the metal shelf. Audrey's Gent pipe was tucked into the loops of Charlie's belt, as the hand she was using to hold it had gotten smashed into a door.

"This is harder than being in the actual Gent building," Bonzy gasped as they slid back-first down the wall next to the blocked doorway, wincing as their leg bumped the ground. They tried to smile a little at just being alive but it always twisted into a grimace from the pain. Audrey's fingers shook, ink-stained hand swollen and her right hand held her left side when she'd gotten most likely bruised up. She narrowed her eyes at Bonzy's leg, going to kneel down next to them with sympathy in her eyes.

"Can nothing kill those Keepers?" She asked Charlie as she inspected Bonzy's leg.

Charlie shook his head lightly as he staggered over to the duo, shifting to put his pipe across his back, "No, trust me I've tried." He got himself onto the ground next to Bonzy, who was having a hard time looking away from the mangled mess of their right leg.

"W-Well," they smiled limply, "this isn't so bad. Just gotta use the ax as a crutch and I hopefully won't slip on any convenient bananas in my path while we run for our lives-."

"It's alright to be afraid, Bonzy," Audrey reassured softly and they tightened their fists, trying to keep their anger in check.

"I'm not afraid . There's nothing to be afraid of besides the fact that I am clearly going to slow us down now and we gotta kill a creepy janitor who wasn't really a janitor and instead, a dictator of a cartoon-sketched hellscape trapping souls turned into ink creatures from Joey Drew Studios because that man was probably insane-." A hand rested on the back of their neck and they stilled.

It was as if their thoughts had been paused for a moment, brain clicking off for enough seconds to let Bonzy take a breath. The hand on their neck was warm and familiarly weighed as the inhale of their breathing calmed the anger shaking in their core. "Sorry," they muttered, "got a little excited there for a moment." The hand on their neck loosened but didn't leave.

"Happens to the best of us," Charlie spoke plainly where he was crouched next to them, repeating what Bonzy themself had told him around the first day they'd met him. They snorted, a loose smile on their lips. Audrey hovered in worry but didn't say anything. "Look, we can-," Charlie cut himself off, head-turning sharply towards the end of the hallway with narrowed eyes.

"What?" Bonzy asked, trying to push themself back up to a more useful position, "Charlie what-?"

"Shh," Charlie hushed them, sharp and weary eyes trained on the end of the hall where nothing had appeared from. A few moments later, his grip went lax and he stood fully, something akin to relief on his face, "thank god," he spoke and strode down the hallway, "stay here."

"Wh-, Charlie," Audrey tried to call back, but the suspenders and satchel had disappeared from sight, gone like a breeze at the next second. The two stood there, a little dumbfounded until two pairs of footsteps echoed down the hall and Charlie's murmur returned to their ears. Which was relieving, except for the fact that light, slowly getting brighter, was coming from the spot the footsteps were. That and there wasn't a second voice replying.