Mime Spent Apart

Part 29

The mime awoke. In his vision he could only see black with a bright light behind it. This light resolved the black in front of him to brown. A scratchy brown. He realised it was hessian... he was still in a sack. He experimentally moved a leg to discover that he couldn't there was a hard pressure at his ankle that made him think that he had been strapped to something, probably a chair. He realised that he was sitting down. He couldn't feel anything on his mouth so he tried to say something.

"Hello?" It came out quieter than he expected it to. He realised his throat was completely parched. His lips also felt dry and cracked, like his words were going to split them apart.

"Hello?" A female voice answered. With that voice he remembered everything that had happened over the past... how long had it been? "Two?" He called out, "Is that you?"

"Four." The voice returned, "Yes it's me. I'm so glad to hear your voice. Though, you shouldn't be yelling. What if they hear you?"

The mime opened his mouth to respond then was interrupted by a voice above him, a cruel voice that seemed to be coming out of a mouth permanently twisted with a sarcastic snarl. "Yes, what if they do?" The hessian sack was pulled roughly off his head, scratching his face and causing him to try and spit out the stray bits of fabric that had gotten themselves caught on his cracking lips.

"You never did know when to keep quiet, Four. I remember Two repeatedly trying to tell you that was your problem when you first came here. Isn't that right, Two?"

The mime looked over to see the girl also strapped to a girl, her sundress covering her legs, her head up to her stomach covered by a hessian sack, probably the same type as the one that up until a few minutes ago was covering him. She didn't speak. The man with the twisted voice and, it turned out, twisted mouth walked over to her and kicked her hard in the shins. He was wearing pointy black boots and Two couldn't help but let out a stifled cry. The mime cried out, "Hey!" but the man ignored him.

"Well?" he said, "You always warned him, yes?"

"Yes" came the quiet voice under the sack. The man turned towards the mime again. The mime remembered the man's name then. 'Hereditus' he thought to himself. 'That bastard.'

"See, she remembers. Going right back to your first dinner I believe. Let's see your lovely face, dear." He grabbed the top of the hessian sack on her head and ripped it off unceremoniously. Underneath Two glowered at Hereditus. She still had her makeup on from the mixer where she was pretending to be Calliope, but her eyeliner was running where she had obviously been crying.

"No need for that look, Two." Hereditus threw the hessian sack on the ground, aside the wall. He walked back over to the mime. "This is who we were after anyway. He's the one who decided to come back and blow up everything, aren't you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about. I've just been doing my own work."

"Yes, you say that. And yes, we know that you've been taking a lot of personality assignments, like your friend Two here. But we also know that you're the most likely one to have set fire to some explosives in our beach base. The base where you were first taken. Didn't we treat you well? Like a son?"

"I guess if you were abusive parents then yes, you fit the mould."

"You see?? The twisted mouth twisted further into a twisted smile that appeared almost paternal, "Like parents."

"What about my real parents?" the Mime said, "what happened to them? It was forbidden to ask when I was a child but these are different circumstances..."

"I'm sorry but right now I can't tell you. Maybe when you grow up. I'm going to leave you now, I hope you enjoy this." The man left the room with a final smirk, limping slightly. The mime looked over at the girl, who was looking at him curiously.