The Human Experiment (bxbxb)

Turn On The Lights

Scooting his knees close, Rolland carefully wrapped his arms around them and rested his chin between the two. It had been around two or three hours since he was supposed to die, but after Dartanian had kissed him, everyone seemed to just forget about him. Which he guessed was good, but he was pretty sure if they came back down now and tried again, he'd probably pee himself in fear. The whole I accept it thing wasn't really true. That was just him trying to put on a brave mask right over a very terrified face. He really didn't want to die, and especially not in the basement of the family he was supposed to have had loving him right then.

Sighing, he shook his head slightly. Why couldn't I have just drunk the milk?

A faint beam of light had him glancing up toward the stairs a few minutes later. It should be dark outside, and considering they had turned the basement light off when they had gone back upstairs, he had been left with just a tiny hint of moonlight from the small, dirty window on the far wall. If only it had been big enough to actually climb out of.

When Bryce and his mother came down the stairs, he fidgeted, silently wondering where Dartanian was. The two had a few things in their hands, which they set down before Bryce signed to him.

"Come here, Rolland."

Since his hands were now free, Rolland lifted them and replied in sign language.

"I'm pretty sure I've seen this part before. It's a trap, so I think no would be the best answer."

Surprisingly, instead of getting annoyed, Bryce actually smirked, his shoulders rising and falling once to show that he had also chuckled a little.

"I'll drag your butt out of there if you don't come here, kid."

Ah right, I remember that part too.

With a quiet grumble, Rolland leaned forward on his hands and knees and crawled out of his tiny sanctuary. Bryce quickly grabbed his hand and got busy unwrapping the IV line. As he worked on getting the bandages off, Rolland glanced over to see Bryce's mother signing to him.

"Why did you leave that in?"

Since one of his hands wasn't available, he decided to just speak, though he knew his throat was sore and most likely still scratchy.

"I don't want to cause trouble."

Her face fell slightly, but his attention was taken away when he winced, hissing as Bryce slipped the needle from his wrist and set it on a paper towel. He then leaned over and licked at the small bleeding wound a few times and surprisingly, it stopped.

"Wow."

Rolland guessed he shouldn't have been surprised, but that was pretty darn cool. Bryce glanced up at him, brows raised as he grinned. Rolland returned it with a small smile before looking back at his mother.

"Rolland, you are to stay down here until we figure out what we are going to do. There will always be someone home, so please don't try to leave."

When Bryce finished wrapping his wrist, Rolland signed back. "Yes, ma'am."

She frowned but hid it quickly as she reached behind herself and brought a plate around, offering it to him. There was a premade half of a sub sandwich on it with turkey. It looked good, but his stomach churned just at the thought of taking a bite.

"I'm not really hungry."

He glanced down for a moment before returning his gaze to hers. She looked worried, though he wasn't sure why.