Happy Holidays everyone! And, a special shout out to SexyCatWhiskers, my twitter buddy for getting me going on this one! ;)
Also, thanks for the reviews winterchild11, Evix, and guests! Is it just me or are people reading but not reviewing? I'm a little worried about what you guys are thinking. Please let me know if you want more! :D
Dan stumbled to his feet, fearing what he would see when Phil came through the door. After what seemed like an eternity it finally opened, and there was Phil being held up by the same two men who had deposited him back in the room earlier.
Dan found himself scanning Phil's body, searching for signs of abuse. It wasn't an easy task since his vision was growing blurrier by the moment, and his legs were beginning to quake.
"Phil! What have they done to you!" he cried, reaching out to him.
Phil sniffled and let the men guide him over. They tossed him toward his cot and waited for him to sit. Obediently he did, and Dan realized that there were no visible marks as far as he could tell. His arms fell to his sides as he reluctantly backed away, yet his stomach was still churning and his head still swimming with speculation as to why Phil was crying.
"Phil, tell me what's happened," he pleaded. He couldn't bear to look at his friend's tear-stained face a moment longer without some sort of explanation.
Phil opened his mouth to speak, but his eyes darted to the men who still stood silently by. He closed his mouth, another stifled sob escaping his throat.
"Enough of the theatrics, you two! You will recite what you have both learned from the sacred teachings of our good book," the man said. It was clear that he had no regard for their touching reunion.
"Now?" Dan asked incredulously. He just wanted the men to leave so that he could learn what on earth had happened to Phil.
"Yes, now!" the man roared. "Were you under the assumption that you made your own rules here?"
Dan retreated back to his bed while Phil cowered on his. "O-Okay..." Dan said defensively, "geez, I just thought we could have a moment here."
The glares shot his way had him grabbing his bible and flipping through the pages, hoping to appease them. A hand immediately snatched the book away. Frightened, Dan looked up with surprise in his brown eyes.
"You expect to use the book as a crutch?" the other man demanded to know.
Dan shook his head. "No?" he said uncertainly.
"NO!" he snapped. "You are to know the good word forward and backward. It is to be a part of your being, and all that you are. We explained this to you earlier. Now, tell me what you have learned."
"I-I-" Dan stammered, growing increasingly uneasy. His head was beginning to hammer with a steady ache from the herbal brew they had been given. He wanted to shout out that if they hadn't drugged him maybe he could recall what he had just read, but he knew better.
He looked helplessly from Phil to the men. All the pages he had read earlier were one big blur of meaningless nonsense as far as could gather. He tried his best to bring the proverbs to the forefront of his mind, but the wooziness that was coming along with the migraine wasn't helping matters. Why was he feeling as if he had a head full of cobwebs?
"We-we should purify ourselves further before we can move on-" he tried, hoping to convince them that they needed more time. Please just go away...
"Stop right there!" The man demanded.
Dan cringed and Phil started a new round of sniffles. "Can you do better?" he asked of Phil.
Phil looked up with wide red-rimmed, eyes. He shook his head. He was barely able to control his trembling, never mind recite for them.
There was a long silence as the men exchanged a meaningful look. "We will give you your honeymoon this one time, but it will never come again. Tomorrow when we ask you to recite for us, you will. Next, it will be for our leader and you will be punished if you fail. Do we make ourselves clear?"
"W-what do you mean by punished?" Dan dared to ask. He gripped the edge of the cot to keep from face-planting to the floor.
"Ask him," the man said, nodding in Phil's direction. "Now, I will let our leader know that you have not complied this time, and that you will be postponing your first lesson until tomorrow. It will become a part of your permanent record here at Crossed Hearts."
It was Dan and Phil's turn to exchange a long look. What did permanent record even mean?
"It will be lights out in one hour, brothers." The men left, locking the door behind them.
"Phil, please tell me," Dan said. He held his head in his hands while he waited.
Phil released a long shaky sigh. "I was so scared."
""Phil, tell me damn it."
"I was was taken into this strange room-"
"Define strange," Dan interjected.
"There were weird statues all over the place...sheer, white flowing curtains...lit candles..."
"Okaaaay, that's strange."
Phil nodded, his eyes glazing over as he visualized it anew. "That guy was there waiting for me. You know the 'leader'. He made me kneel at his feet."
Dan shuddered. "Pissers!" he muttered.
"He said that I wasn't to ever, ever take the holy meal for granted...or any meal for that matter, or it would be my last. He said...that I was destined for Purgatory if I couldn't accept the rules."
"Purgatory? Bloody hell! What is this-"
"Shhhh!" Phil warned, looking about frantically.
"Go on."
"Then he approached me with something in his hand...I couldn't make it out, but it was gold and he swung it at my b-back-" Phil put his face in his hands.
Dan rose and wrapped his arms round Phil's slender shoulders as he sat beside him. "Okay, Phil. You're saying that he hit you with something. Go on." Phil nodded, his eyes glassy with more unshed tears.
He slowly lifted up his tunic and turned his back to Dan. Dan gasped when he saw the single blood-red welt running diagonally down the ivory flesh.
"Son-of-a-"
"Dan!" Phil cautioned again, hissing as he dragged the black gauze back over his skin abruptly. "I heard them talking about you too. You have to watch what you say now."
"What-What did they say?"
"I heard them behind the curtain. They were saying that you were going to be a difficult one to tame. That you were in need of even more purification than me, whatever that means. They-they said that they expected you to be banished to the pit before long. Dan-"
Dan wanted to make Phil believe that it was all completely ludicrous. He wished that he could make a snappy comeback to set his mind at ease, but he couldn't. All that came out was a squeaky "Pit?" He found himself looking up at those slits of glass set behind bars that were to pass for windows. There had to be a way out.
Phil was silent now. His sniffles had subsided and he seemed to be fighting sleep as much as Dan was. "I think they drugged us," he whispered.
"Of course they did, the wankers, and I think the one beast wants his way with me but he'll have to kill me first," Dan promised.
"Oh my God."
"I need to lie down," Dan said, teetering.
"Shouldn't we memorize the proverbs, first?" Phil asked worriedly, also trying desperately to focus his sight.
Dan scooted even closer to Phil, afraid he may not wake where he fell asleep. Phil welcomed the closeness and leaned toward him. He rubbed a circle on Dan's shoulder gently as he pondered their fate.
"We are in a real pickle here," he whispered.
There was no response. Phil bent his head lower to see Dan's face, finding him sound asleep. "Dan?"
He gently laid him down on the bed and began to pace haphazardly about the room. The vertigo he was experiencing made him feel as if he had no control over his limbs.
He was decidedly exhausted, but too keyed up to pass out as Dan had. All he could think about was how he'd been treated in that dreadfully creepy room. The man had screamed at him, but he had heard very little of it.
There had to be some way to get out of this hell hole, but he just couldn't think of how. Their friends and fans must be so worried about them by now. If only they would come find them...Suddenly, the room went black and Phil flew back to his bed, leaping on top of Dan.
Dan woke in confusion. "W-What is it, Phil?" he asked, flailing in a panic when he couldn't see.
"Sorry...sorry," Phil apologized. "I was startled when the lights went out."
"Where are we..." he murmured, rubbing his eyes. Phil could just make out his friend's silhouette by the light of the moon.
"Hell," Phil whispered. He felt for Dan's face, accidentally poking him in the eye.
"Ow!" Dan squeaked, "my eye!"
"Sorry," Phil apologized again, "but you are in my bed."
Dan was silent for a moment. "So I am. I don't want to leave it either," he admitted.
He was grateful for the darkness because he was certain that he was blushing. The dream he'd been woken from was terrifying, and his skin felt clammy to the touch. He wanted to tell Phil about it, but he didn't want to go there after what he'd just been put through.
"Okay, Dan. I don't know if there's enough room for both of us on a single, but...maybe we could move both beds together."
"Good idea," Dan said.
Both boys stood and tugged at the heavy iron frames creating a hideous screech that echoed throughout the room.
"Shit!" Dan cursed. "It's like moving a bloody ship anchor-"
"Shhhh! I thought I heard something."
They stood perfectly still, the hair on the nape of their necks standing on end as they waited. Even the silence seemed loud as the blood rushed through their ears.
"I don't hear anything but my heart thumping in my chest," Dan whispered.
"Okay, I must have imagined it. Let's try again. One bed at a time," Phil suggested.
"Here goes," Dan said, giving his bed a heave toward Phil's bed. It slid a bit closer and he paused to catch his breath. "I'll just keep dragging mine to yours, leave yours where it is."
"Right," Phil said.
The two of them pulled the heavy bed together, hoping that no one could hear the scraping that sounded like nails down a chalkboard. With the two bed frames finally butted up against one another, they fell to the mattresses utterly exhausted.
"Prison beds," Dan said flatly.
Phil nodded in the darkness, then reached over to gauge the gap between them. Finding only a couple of inches to spare, his pulse began to steady and his eyes began to droop. Lying on his back kept him aware of the stinging welt the leader had left behind, but fatigue was increasingly taking precedence over pain.
Dan blinked in the darkness. His eyes began to feel heavy too, and his breathing began to even out as he felt Phil's arm move closer to his. When Phil's fingers brushed against his, he curled his own around them. Phil gave them a comforting squeeze and with fingers now intertwined, he knew he would sleep again. He refused to allow the terrible visions to return and fill his dreams once more. Without thinking, he wriggled even closer to Phil. The division between the beds was not comfortable for his long body, but he didn't care at the moment.
"I promise I won't let them hurt you again, Phil," he whispered sincerely.
Phil couldn't help but smile to himself. He couldn't imagine what Phil could possibly do to stop them, but the knowledge that he cared enough to try spoke volumes about their friendship. If only he could return the gesture with any sense of truthfulness in his tone. Dan was the youngest of them, and he felt like he should be reassuring him, not the other way around.
"I-I won't let them hurt you either, Dan," he stammered back. He tugged his lower lip between his teeth and bit down hard. He waited for Dan to accept his timid pledge.
"Promise?" Dan asked in a small voice, sounding more like a little boy than a full-grown one. Phil swallowed at the lump that was forming in the back of his throat. He realized how much Dan needed to believe that.
"Cross my heart," he whispered with growing confidence. He would do anything for Dan.
"Ugggg...Never say that again, Phil," Dan said with a small child-like giggle.
Phil covered his mouth in the semi-darkness, realizing he had made an unfortunate play on words a moment too late. "Sorry," he said with a giggle of his own.
"S'okay," Dan said, punching him gently in the arm. They fell silent.
"Ow. Don't thing about anything but home," Phil warned him.
"'Kay. You either."
"Goodnight, Dan," Phil said groggily.
G'night, Phil," Dan murmured, already too weak to form the proper words.
Before long, both boys had drifted off into a deep drug-induced slumber. They'd both inwardly swore that they wouldn't allow any sinister thoughts to creep into their dreams, but they had no way of knowing that someone else would actually be creeping in.
A sliver of moonlight shone brightly from the desert night-sky, reflecting off of the polished brass doorknob of their room. The beam shifted shape as eerie shadows played across the shiny tiled floor. The door creaked open, just wide enough for a figure to slip quickly in and close the heavy wooden door behind.
Thanks for reading! =^.^=
xoxo,
Crumpet
