Use Me, Royal Stranger (mxm)

Chapter 29 - Push-Pull

Two days. For two agonising days, Carlen stayed in his room, bound to the bed half the time, and the other half of the time drugged out with pain potions and sleeping draughts. The time he was awake and conscious of his surroundings, he spent thinking about Lance, panicking about Lance, but not being able to do anything because he was bounded to the bed.

His baths and latrine usage were monitored, always having an attendant and two guards with him. There was not one moment that he was allowed to be unsupervised or unguarded somehow. He tried throwing tantrums, but he was simply ignored. The attendant still cleaned and dressed him efficiently and carefully. Nana would simply put him into another drug induced sleep, and the guards honestly, didn't react at all.

Alaric would come by, try to talk to him, but Carlen disregarded him completely. He refused to give Alaric the satisfaction of getting a reaction out of him. He was going to pretend Alaric didn't exist. He was going to keep doing it until Alaric gave up and send him away, kill him, or just forget he existed too. One could hope anyway.

But it wasn't easy. He felt selfish and ungrateful. He wanted so badly to talk, to open his mouth and just demand for Lance. Ask Alaric to explain his actions, to see Lance, to talk to him, to know how he was doing. But he couldn't. All he had to go on was the information that Nana would share with him. But even that wasn't enough. He constantly thought of Lance and imagined how he must be suffering in the dungeons. Was he well fed? Was he getting beaten up?

Every time Alaric came by, Carlen would bite on his lips to physically force himself not to speak. He simply couldn't. He couldn't talk to Alaric because it wasn't so simple. He knew that even before he could get to talking about Lance, Alaric would want to talk about what happened. About their dead child. And Carlen couldn't do it. He wasn't ready.

Sighing, Carlen stared up at the ceiling. He could sense himself gaining more awareness, and his limbs were starting to respond when he tried to move them. The potions were wearing off faster since he was slowly building a resistance to them from using them so often.

Maybe he could try to move around before Nana was due back with his next dose. Looking down at his bandages, Carlen could feel that he was healing pretty well. He wasn't in pain and there was no fresh or dried blood on his bandages since yesterday. If he kept this up and didn't make huge movements, he could be back to normal within the week. Afterall, his wolf abilities allowed for him to heal faster than mere humans.

Maybe then he could try to escape. Maybe.

Laying in bed for almost half an hour longer, Carlen felt well enough to try to move. Since he was in a potion induced sleep, Nana had not put the binds on him. He could try to get to the door at least, see what the situation was like outside, plan his escape.

His heart raced at the thought of being able to get out of the godforsaken room and stumbling around until he could find Lance. He knew where the dungeons were. Perhaps he could find someone who remembered him from the time he served as Lance's attendant to help him out.

Finally getting to a sitting position, Carlen panted from trying to fight the leftover numbness in his body. Standing on his feet uneasily, Carlen took deep breaths to steady himself. He didn't even know when the last time he was properly on his feet was.

As quietly as he could, he staggered towards the window near his bed. Looking down as discreetly as possible, he noted that there were two guards right under the window he was in. Not good. Even if he risked it all and jumped, they were there to catch him alright.

There was only two other exits: the door to his room, and the window in the bathroom attached to his room. The bathroom was a little ways away and Carlen knew he was not strong enough to make it there and back. He could only try to see if he could check out the condition outside his door. From what he could hear and sense from his bed the past few days, there was a rotation each half of the day. Sometimes there were four guards, sometimes just one. He couldn't figure out their patterns, but he suspected that there was only one of them outside right now.