In Saving the Imperfect

29. The fate of our friends

Nothing was ever easy enough.

Layne laid on the mattress and stared at the ceiling. He had stopped counting how much time has passed, especially since he had nothing to do through the day. Except for staring at the ceiling. Every time Victor would leave the cabin, he'd latch the door from the outside and although Layne tried to find a way to undo it, all was hopeless.

At the very least, he was still alive. Until that stopped being the case, he had time. They had time. Layne had no doubt that his friends were trying to get back at him just as much as he was at them. If they even knew where he was in the first place, which he had doubts about.

So, one of those days, while Victor was eating his breakfast, Layne decided to figure that out.

"So," he started, not taking his eyes off the ceiling, "what good does keeping me here give you? If no one can see me around the village, no one knows I'm still alive, right?"

Victor looked up from his soup. "They don't have to see you all the time."

"What does that even mean?"

"I'd say strolling around the village from time to time should be enough to show off how alive and healthy you are."

Layne snorted. "Who's saying I'm gonna do anything you want me to again?"

"You did the last time."

"The last time was a fluke."

Victor just laughed and finished his meal before heading out. Left alone, Layne sighed and closed his eyes. The lack of activity or any sort of movement was starting to get to him and his head had been aching for a few days already.

Time to time, he'd get up and start walking around the small room, which only intensified the pain. He needed to go outside. Bad. But not bad enough to ask Victor, of course. His pride wouldn't have allowed that.

Then, he'd lay around for the rest of the day, then for the night, and then for the next day. Nothing better to do. Not in that cabin.

When the latch dropped and the door opened, Layne didn't even look at it. He didn't care when Victor would come and leave – and he'd do that often.

"Layne?" a shy voice called. Layne jolted up to see Iker squeezed in the small gap between the ajar door and its frame. "You're here. Good."

Layne shook his head. "Get inside and close the door."

Iker did just that and stood in place, looking around. His hands were shaking a little, which Layne decided to ignore. It wasn't the time.

"Do you have anything to tell me?" he asked. "It's too risky for you to be here, Victor might see, or someone else."

"Alana's distracting Victor," Iker explained with a slight smile. "My brother and Malia are telling as many people as they can about what you had told us. About the speakers."

Layne's jaw dropped open. "They can't do that, it's not safe. They don't know who might be working for Victor and-"

"Alana says they wouldn't do anything until nighttime," Iker interrupted him. "We heard Victor talking. He is planning to- he's planning to destroy the other community. I've only come to get you so we can go there and warn them."

Layne nodded. He could have figured out lots of flaws in their plan and lots of questions – but there wasn't any time for that. Alana was smart-ish. He had to trust her or else they wouldn't have another chance.

"What are we doing, right now?" he asked.

"We're gonna go to where we had planned to meet up. Alana won't be able to distract Victor for too long, so, we decided that for as long as Malia and Zander can get at least a few people convinced, it'll just have to do."