We Could Be Enough - Lams

IIX.

I stand there silently, when suddenly, I hear a ping.

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My hand shoots to my pocket. I fumble around for my phone, and when I pull it out I realise there's billions of messages filling up my lock screen. From what I can see, Hercules, Lafayette, Peggy, and Angelica have all been separately trying to get a hold of us.

"I think we should call them, let them know we're okay." I pause before hitting the 'call' button on Hercules' contact. He picks up almost immediately.

"Hey, are you guys alright? Where are you?" I could hear him say, a hint of worry in his voice. A sudden clamouring of voices behind him.

"Is that them!"

"Are they okay?"

"Give me the fucking phone!"

"Everyone shut up, I'm trying to talk!"

Ah, yes. So charming. Those are my friends. Yep.

"Yeah, we're okay. Uh, I don't know exactly where we are-" I try to say, but I'm cut off by Hercules.

"Hold up, how do you not know where you are?" He says accusingly.

"I honestly don't know. Uh, we were heading to the Nature Center thing and Jefferson, or I think it was Jefferson, I don't know, he attacked us? I think."

"Huh?"

Alex takes the phone from my hand before I can say anymore stupid shit.

"Hey, yeah, we're safe. Yeah, it's me. We're inside the Nature Center because Jefferson ambushed us and kinda kidnapped us. Yeah, you heard me. Fuckin' Jefferson is a piece of shit." He rubbed his eyes. "He-uh huh, yeah. I'm personally going to make sure he's not allowed to do this shit anymore. Hopefully this is enough to get him out of camp. Anyway, so he attacked us, tied our hands, and put clothes over our faces. Yep, everything. We were actually knocked out or something, 'cause we just woke up in that storage closet behind the mammal room. I can smell the rabbits from where we are."

He keeps talking for a few minutes, all the while I'm standing there trying to catch snippets of the conversation.

"Uh huh, we'll be out in a few minutes. Yeah, bye." He hangs up and hands me my phone. "C'mon, I feel like we've been in the dark way too long."

Alex gets his own phone out to find the doorknob. Our flashlights find it in a matter of moments. How long have we been awake in this room?

He peaks his head out into the hallway before telling me it's safe. I walk out slowly behind him as he leads the way through the dark building. I check my phone for the time. How is it 1:13 am? It doesn't feel like it was so long ago we were chasing each other and shooting water guns. Time fly's, I guess.

We pass a window into a room that seems to be for displaying stuffed animals. Not the cute rainbow teddybears from build-a-bear, but things like a stuffed wildcat stuck in a snarling pose, or a bird sitting precariously on a branch for ever.

These types of stuffed animals freak me the fuck out. Their glass eyes are really creepy. It's disturbing.

I try and pass that room as quickly as possible.

The next window gives me a view of live animals. Hey, at least their eyes aren't cold, dead, and staring into my very soul. Live animals are much nicer.

As I stop and peer into the room, Alexander seems to notice I'm not behind him anymore. He chuckles and says, "You seem to like animals. Don't worry, we'll be able to come back to this place when it's light so you can see them better. You might even get to hold one at some point."