Inside this Twisted Labyrinth

Chapter Six

AN: See Chapter One for warnings

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Day 9

Vic had been bullied a lot in high school for being weird, for being short and weak, for liking music more than he liked sports, for 'looking gay' whatever the Hell that meant. The bullying had gotten so severe he'd been afraid to go to school, afraid to walk down the hallways out of sight of any of the teachers, afraid to go to the bathroom alone, afraid to breath too loudly and draw attention to himself. Just walking through the doors in the morning made the ball of anxiety flare to life in his stomach, like a pit of lava lying dormant under a volcano. Every time he saw his tormentors - a bunch of nobodies even then, just another handful of troubled kids in a school full of them - Vic felt that ball of anxiety erupt, spreading through veins from his fingers to this toes. His hands would go numb, his knees would feel weak, and his legs would shake against his will. His heart would beat so fast sometimes it felt like he couldn't breathe at all.

He kind of felt like that now.

"We're fucked," Jaime said, tearing at his hair. "Unless anyone happens to know how to pick a lock? Yes? No?"

Vic clenched his hands around the strap of his messenger bag to hide how bad they were shaking. He took a deep breath like the therapist his mother took him to after she caught him cutting taught him. He was overreacting, that's all. The exhaustion, lack of food, and worry for their friends were weighing on all of them, making them panic when there was no reason to yet.

"Calm down," Vic said, evenly controlling his breathing. "We're not fucked. We're just really tired and overreacting. We need to keep cool and think logically about this."

"Vic's right," Tony said, placing a hand on Jaime's tense shoulder and squeezing. "Most of these keys are too big or too small for that lock. We just need to narrow it down."

"That's still a lot of keys," Jaime pointed out.

Tony ran the flashlight slowly over the keys again, chewing his lip absentmindedly. The flashlight glinted off Jaime's face, illuminating his worry. Even narrowing it down, it could take hours to go through all the possibilities. Vic felt the pit of anxiety roar to life, threatening to spill over the precipice again.

But he squashed it down. They'd figure it out. They had to.

"Maybe Kellin marked the right key with his magic sharpie?" Jaime said with a hint of hope in his voice.

"Even if he did, it wouldn't matter," Tony said. "Any mark he may have made is probably long gone."

"Why do you say that?" Jaime asked

"Look around the room," Tony said, shining the flashlight across the floor to the locked door. "There's not a single key on the ground. Someone put all these keys back on the wall, and I seriously doubt it was the guys. They wouldn't take the time to put each key back after trying it. Plus, someone had to put the lock back on the door. I don't think our captor is going to leave a key with an X on it for us to find."

No one stated the obvious: that maybe Kellin and the rest of SWS never even made it to this room let alone through it. They each kept their horrific thoughts to themselves, or couldn't fathom it at all.

"Let's worry about it when we wake up," Mike mumbled. He had already lied down on the floor opposite of the keys, eyes closed, and head pillowed on his arm. "We'll be able to figure it out better after we refresh our brains."

"You don't need to tell me twice," Jaime said, gracelessly plopping to the floor. "Snuggle buddy?" he asked, looking up pleadingly at Tony. Tony rolled his eyes, but lied down close enough that his side was pressed to Jaime's. Immediately, Jaime rolled over and snuggled into Tony's side. "For warmth," he insisted.