As Hollow As A Mannequins Grin (Keveridge)

7 - Death smiles at the end of her line, she's got her finger on the time

I don't why it hadn't felt weird in any way, sleeping beside Laurence that is, but I felt somewhat safer? That sounds weird and I can't quite explain it, but it just did. Something wasn't quite right, but I brushed it aside and sat up in bed, making a little groan as I stretched out. It was only then that it properly hit me. Laurence wasn't here.

He's just downstairs making some food for himself, I said in my head. I had a nagging at the back of my mind that I just decided to lock away and ignore. He was downstairs - he had to be.

I pulled on a clean top and trousers, both being my usual black, and headed down - leaving the two Timids who were entwined round each other in their bed. Walking into the living room I half expected Laurence to just be sitting at the table, quietly eating or drinking something, but he wasn't. Gotta be in the kitchen, but I saw he was absent in there too. 

Something really isn't right. I panicked a little and ran round the rest of the remaining rooms looking for any sign that he was still in the house, but I came up empty handed. Muttering curses under my breath, I ran back upstairs shoving the door open.

"TIMIDS WAKE UP!" I yelled causing both of them to jump awake and Cyrus almost falling off the bed - only to be saved by Drew.

"Christ Kemp, talk about a rude unwelcomed wake up call!" Cyrus grumbled, sitting up and swinging his legs onto the floor.

"Well, deal with it," he didn't look happy and Drew just about looked ready to go back to sleep - lazy shit, "Listen, Laurence is gone."

"Good riddance to him then..." Cy mumbled, slamming his face back into the pillow and pulling the covers back around him properly.

Drew rolled his eyes and motioned to his boyfriend lying beside him, "Ignore grumpy pants here. What can we do to help?"

"Whoa, whoa whoa - we're not doing anything to help," Cyrus said, sitting up to look between Drew and me, "Kier, look, you gave him a place to stay when people came looking for him. You gave him food, let him sleep in your bed, cleaned him up when he was beaten to a pulp-"

"Saving you..." Drew said quietly, looking down and playing with the sheets on the bed between his fingers.

Cy shut up at this and the scowl that seemed plastered onto his face slowly disappeared as his face just softened completely. He didn't look at either of us and seemed to be thinking what he should do before he finally looked up and nodded at me, "Right, let's go find this Royal Pain In The Ass then."

                                                                   *                   *                 *

I had finally gotten out of that place, and with no set destination, was wandering aimlessly round the edge of the forest, right beside the trees but still in full view of the path. Just so I knew roughly where I was going. To be honest, I had absolutely no idea where I was going and I just hoped I was roughly heading in the right direction back to the palace and the city. It seemed silly to go against what Kier and the others had told me about the city, but it didn't seem right. And anyways, I had to find Luke.

Walking under cloudless skies was peaceful, I never got out in them enough with everything that I had to do around the palace growing up. Just to have this freedom and do what I wanted for a change made things a little better. 

Suddenly my the ground from beneath my feet disappeared and I tumbled downwards into the undergrowth of the trees, hitting my head on the roots and fallen branches as I rolled. Finally coming to a stop I groaned and sat myself up. I'd been so busy day dreaming I forgot to watch where I was actually going.