Days Without Sun

Flight

As he slipped hurriedly into the thin cotton garments, Misaki couldn't get over how strange it felt to be clothed. He'd been kept naked since the time he'd been taken, excluding the few exceptions when Korovin forced him to dress up in humiliating costumes during a "play date." Once the they were both dressed Jadir took Misaki's hand and led older youth after him, out of the shower room and down the corridor.

Misaki's heart was pounding so hard and so loud, he was surprised that it wasn't shaking the foundation of the structure they were in and alerting everyone within a mile of his presence. Jadir looked back and gave his fingers a light squeeze with his own damaged hand and Misaki suddenly realized the boy was just as nervous.

As they journeyed forward Misaki couldn't help but be amazed by how extensive Korovin's dungeon really was. As Jadir pulled him along on his trembling legs through a maze of hallways, Misaki began to realize during his captivity how little of the madman's lair he'd actually seen.

Misaki's courage almost gave out when they reached the end of a long hallway and encountered a door with a keypad lock. He watched with grateful amazement, when the Brazilian boy punched in a code. Misaki found himself suddenly wondering how long Jadir had been planning his escape.

The instant the door opened, the two youths scurried through, up some stairs, and out into another corridor. The floor was finished here and the walls were painted a warm cream color. Their bare feet made only the softest of whispers on the cool terracotta tiles now beneath them. The smooth surface of the floor felt so different from the harsh concrete the two had become accustomed to.

As they continued to move and Misaki was overwhelmed with sensations.

Though the spaces they passed through were completely empty, every noise, every shadow accelerated his traumatized heart. He understood now how fragile his incarceration had really made him.

Once Jadir buzzed them through another keypad security point and they climbed another set of stairs the change in the light and the air made Misaki realize also how deeply underground they had been. Together the panting boys traveled farther away out of the dungeon. A mad hope began to fill Misaki's heart. He couldn't believe it was this easy, that they really might just make it.

Then a twist in the corridor brought them to a place where it split into two more hallways. Misaki had noted before this that Jadir's steps had begun to slow down. He thought at first that this was because the teen was as weakened as he was, but now Misaki realized it was hesitance: they had come as far as Jadir knew how to go.

The Brazilian youth looked at Misaki helplessly and shrugged. Misaki felt his fragile hope immediately in danger of being crushed by his suffocating terror. Then he thought of Usagi-san, and his heart rallied. He nodded to the hall on the right. Jadir gave him a grim smile and the two of them began moving again.

As they passed down this hallway, Misaki noted the number of closed doors. These were polished wood, however, unlike the heavy steel of the dungeon. Misaki shuddered at how extensive Korovin's space was: the man had enough room he could have easily held a hundred captives at least, if he'd wanted to.

The two boys turned a corner and Misaki gasped to see another flight of stairs and at the top of the landing a windowed door with real light poring through the barred pane. His green eyes welled with tears at the painful joy that filled him, seeing true sunshine after the endless days of darkness he'd endured.

At this sight both Misaki and Jadir felt a renewed burst of strength and quickly clamored up the stairs. Jadir grabbed the knob of the heavy door awkwardly with his mangled hand. Both boys held their breath as he twisted.

It was locked from the outside.

Misaki's eyes dropped as he listened to Jadir rattle the knob. The Brazilian teen choked on a string of Portuguese curses. Misaki wanted to sob at the cruelty of this moment. Through the large barred pane of glass in the door's center he could see a sweeping green lawn flowing into a backdrop of lush jungle.

After the darkness, the white and grey sterility of the dungeon, Misaki's eyes were ravenous for color. His pale skin was equally starved for the feel of the sun that poured through the glass. The youth raised his eyes to the temptation of the world beyond the door.

Then his gaze shifted.

Misaki placed his own damaged hand on Jadir's scarred arm and mutely pointed to a keypad panel on the wall next to the door they'd overlooked.

Jadir gave a strangled cry at the sight of it. After a moment of staring at it dumbly, Misaki watched in horror as Jadir began to tear at the stuccoed wall around the security device with his remaining fingers until they began to bleed. In the humid Brazilian climate the heavy plaster came away rather quickly (though not easily enough).

Misaki reached out to grab Jadir's arm to try and keep the boy from damaging his abused fingers further, but Jadir had suddenly stopped clawing. The dark boy knelt down and picked up a few chunks of the dislodged plaster from the floor and began to work these with the fingers of one hand over the palm of his other until a fine powder, slightly pinked by the blood from his torn fingers filled it.

Misaki watched in wonder as Jadir rose and sprinkled this powder over the key pad. Then he watched the youth's ragged breath blow over the keys. Misaki blinked; he was amazed by Jadir's intelligence.

The powder clung to the natural oils left behind where Korovin's fingertips had touched the keypad. Jadir began to frantically try combinations of numbers using these hoping to find the right sequence. Then the scarred boy suddenly registered that these were the same numbers used in one of the doors below. It wasn't possible was it that the man would use the same key code twice in different doors, was it? Jadir tried that code again and listened for the latch to click.

Nothing.

Then he reversed the order. He barked a harsh laugh when a satisfying "click" suddenly sounded.

Behind Jadir Misaki exhaled a trembling sigh of relief.

Fumbling hands quickly grabbed the knob and twisted it. The door opened and both boys' taxed lungs were suddenly filled with the sweet heavy air of the outside, the humid caress of the breeze tickled their pale skin.

Jadir moved quickly, his foot ready to take its first step over the threshold onto the cobbled walk on its other side, when suddenly a large shape filled the door.

Misaki gave a sobbing gasp, as Jadir emitted a strangled scream.

It was Korovin.