Paint it Another Colour

Chapter 28

Francis sat with his back against the bars, blue illuminating the area as the bars flashed, alerting him of their presence. Matthew was coughing. One throat scraping noise after another, disrupted only by the splatter of the blood. His arm was still stretched through the bars, clutching Matthew's hand, which gripped his back harder as he coughed.

"What happened to you?" Francis whispered in a short break between the coughs.

"I don't know" Matthew muttered.

"You said they kicked you. Is that it?" Francis shifted his weight a little, twisting so he could hear better.

"Honestly, I've no idea. I'd assume that it's that, but as I said..." Matthew trailed off into another coughing fit, gasping for breath in between. "I don't know" he finally rasped.

"It's fine" Francis said quickly. "Don't talk. It makes it worse."

"Yeah?" Matthew let out a small chuckle. "You think?"

Francis smiled and clutched at Matthew hand tighter. "They're not going to get to you again okay, I promise."

"Okay" Matthew said. There was a moment of silence before he started coughing again, letting go of Francis' hand to cover his mouth. The splattering noise Francis heard that time was louder. The amount of blood was definitely getting larger. "M tired."

Francis froze. It would be normal for either of them to be tired. They hadn't slept properly for days, but the way Matthew said it was off putting. He knew he should tell him not to, or something like that, but surely there couldn't be a need. Surely Matthew wasn't dying. He smiled sadly to himself. "You sleep then Matthew. It'll be alright. No one's going to come in."

"M kay" He heard Matthew shuffle around a little, cough another couple of times and after a moment, go quiet.

For a while, Francis stayed sitting against the bars that were flashing blue before feeling his own weariness drag him down. And when he woke, the thin rays of light, barely showing him anything of the room apart from what he needed to see, showed him Matthew wasn't there any more.

***

Matthew woke up in the room that haunted him. The one with shackles along the walls, blood dripping from every direction, and more often than not, James was stood in the middle of it. This time was no exception.

"I see you finally figured out who your companion was" James rolled his eyes. "I'd have thought it wouldn't take you long at all, but there you go, surprising me again. Or do you just not focus much."

"I..." Matthew started, but ending up curling over into a ball, coughing.

"Good bit of lung you've got stuck in your throat there I see" James said, crouching down next to him and frowning. "It doesn't sound good." For a moment, he almost looked concerned, before shrugging, turning and taking a couple of steps away. He waited for Matthew to straighten up again before slamming his head backwards into the wall. "Now, you see, I still have a problem. We know Francis. He's never going to give anything away. Ever. So that's why we're still here with you. If you'd just open up a little, we could all go home."

"Except you wouldn't let me would you?" Matthew glared, fighting down the cough that was building in his throat.

"You're awake for a change" James held him up by his hair and peered at him. "That's not what we want. Gonna have to do something about that aren't we?" He dropped him, kicking him in the chest before he could even hit the ground.

Matthew coughed, blood dribbling out of his mouth, and dragged himself up a little, waiting for the next one. This time, for a change, he was ready, and when it came, he caught it. James let a look of shock and confusion cross his face for a split second before Matthew swung him round into the wall he'd previously had his head slammed into on many occasions. He grabbed the set of keys James always left on the table, ran out of the room and locked it behind him.

Various pieces of plaster, dislodged by the impact, pattered to the ground as James slowly got up, groaning. He glanced around the now empty room and sat back, staring, trying to work out what the hell had happened. When he finally did, he laughed, standing and trying the door. Locked.

"Well played 1p" he smiled at the door and dragged himself up onto the table, swinging his legs like a kid might do, waiting for someone to walk by... if anyone did. He was willing to lose this one.

***

Matthew stumbled down the corridors, ignoring the obvious similarity to their own meeting rooms. From the looks of things, this was where they always were. If they could just get out, they could note where the building was, and then finally have an upper hand on this game. Keyword being 'they'. First he had to find Francis. As he ran,holding back coughs all the while, he became aware of a draft and glanced to the side. The door. The main door, wide open, the outside world beckoning. He could be gone, vanished in second if he wanted to. Away, free. Everyone could know where it was, he could note that. He could tell them. They could win this.

But then, he'd be abandoning Francis. If he went now, he could bring back more people to help. They could try and flush out a few of them. Kill some of them if they could, and rescue Francis properly, without the possibility of being caught, and simply being thrown back. If that happened, this chance would never happen again. This was literally a once-in-a-lifetime chance. But what if he never got the chance to come back? That would mean leaving Francis. He'd already been going insane before, now he'd be worse he was sure of it.

He glanced at the still open door, and listened. He couldn't hear anything, so he could go if he wanted to. He was fairly sure he knew where they'd been kept before, so he could find his way back to it easily. Then, they could get out of here.

Matthew took a step towards the direction he knew the cells were and doubled over in coughs, leaving a small puddle of blood at his feet. He drew in his breath as quickly and painless as he could. Voices appeared from just down the hall, coming closer by the second. They knew he was here. There was no hiding now.

"Francis" Matthew whispered. "I'm so, so, so sorry" and with that, he turned and ran out of the open door.