Night 6
Have been in here for a few hours
Am done swearing and kicking the walls
Must get out
Outside the iron door, one of the guards paused. "Do you think he's still in there? He's been awfully quiet." they said. Another guard snorted.
"What, you think he's teleported or something? Relax, man." The guard resumed their pacing of the hall outside, and Kurt sighed, writing a few more sentences.
Wish I could teleport
I can't
I wonder why
Kurt put the book and quill in his inventory, then curled up into a ball, sitting against the cold wall, forcing himself to think his way through the situation. "You're a human, Kurt." he whispered, thinking out loud. "You can think."
Think. The word echoed in his mind, a dull, glowing pink that felt just as unnatural as the words 'thank you'. Kurt didn't know whether tasting words -and being able to describe them in colours- was a normal human thing, but he knew that unfamiliar words were the ones with the sharpest tastes.
Endermen didn't think much, since everything was a biological reaction. Kurt had the instincts to be an Enderman, but other humans could think, and he was at a disadvantage if he didn't.
There were new voices in the corridor, and Kurt froze. On the other hand, sometimes instincts were useful. The door handle started to turn, and Kurt leapt up, sliding into the corner near the door -the place that the door would be when it was open- right as the door was opened.
Someone walked in, and Kurt saw the dirty-blond hair in the light from the hallway. He crouched, but a second before he jumped, he froze. He thought before he attacked, if only for a split second, and when he did, he noticed that 'Kave' was wearing the fur jacket Kimon had been when Kurt had first seen him.
Kimon closed the door behind him. "Thanks for not attacking me." he hissed. "They all think I'm Kave and I'm here to take you to be…" Kimon swallowed. "They're going to hang you, cousin. I overheard it and they think I'm going to take you there."
Kurt's eyes narrowed. "I have to pretend to come quietly?"
Kimon shook his head. "Just pretend to be unconscious, alright?" Kurt hesitated, then reluctantly agreed. He was fighting with the animal inside him, which was telling him to fight. But for once, Kurt didn't listen.
"One second." he said, pulling out his book.
I'm changing
He put it away in his inventory, then let Kimon half-drag, half-carry him out the door. Kurt kept his eyes closed, because their glow would have given him away, and concentrated on staying as motionless as possible. It went against everything he believed in, but he managed. Right up until…
"What the Nether? Kimon!" Kave yelled. Kurt's eyes flew open and he regained his footing just as Kimon dropped him. They were in the front entrance to the place where Kurt was being held, mere feet away from freedom. Kave stood in the doorway, and the police officer at the desk was looking between him and Kimon, mouth open.
"Oh, damn." Kimon said in a small voice. He and Kurt were unarmed, but as they watched, a sword appeared in Kave's hand, pulled from his inventory.
"What the Nether? Which one of you is Kave?" the officer at the desk asked, standing up.
"Him! He's trying to help the bastard escape!" Kave and Kimon said at exactly the same time. In a flash, Kurt saw what his cousin was doing; if they could convince everyone that Kimon was Kave…
Kurt punched Kimon, right in the side of his head, holding back just enough that Kimon stayed conscious. He fell, and Kurt jumped on top of him. "You killed my sister!" Kurt shouted. "Die!" Then he looked up at Kave. "Come on, you dick; help me do him in!"
Kave must have thought that Kurt had finally snapped -although Kurt would argue that he'd snapped four years ago- because he took several steps forwards, aiming his sword at Kimon. The desk officer ran up, holding a baton. Soon, Kave was lying on the floor with a nasty bump on his head, out cold.
The desk officer pulled Kurt off of his cousin, and Kimon stood up, rubbing the side of his head and doing his best to keep a Kave-like expression on his face.
"Thanks. I'll take him from here- the bastard caught me by surprise." Kimon said, doing a fair imitation of Kave. He punched Kurt in the face, really hard.
Kurt fell to the ground, and Kimon picked him up, walking out the door. The desk officer followed, and Kimon saw several policepeople take Kave to the cell block.
Kimon waited until they were some distance away, in a dark street, before shaking Kurt slightly. Kurt opened one eye, then shut it again. Kimon was filled with relief that Kurt was only playing unconscious, although he wouldn't have felt guilty in the slightest if Kurt hadn't been. That punch had been revenge for a whole lot of injuries Kurt had inflicted on him.
Suddenly, the desk officer stopped walking. "I should get back to the station." he said apologetically.
"Yeah." Kimon said, unable to keep the smile off his face. "You should rescue Kave, too." Then he let go of Kurt and they both ran.
Kimon was laughing, almost hysterical, as they fled. "I can't believe we pulled that off!" he said. Anyone who'd been paying attention could have noticed that he wasn't acting like Kave, but none of the officers had been observant enough.
"Quiet down!" Kurt hissed. "Where are we going?" Instead of heading towards the forest, they were running deeper into Bending River.
"Nina's house!" Kimon hissed back. "She's in on this, too, although her parents took some convincing."
"What?" Kurt demanded. "But I want to go back to the forest!"
Kimon shook his head as they turned a corner. "It's almost daytime; we've got literally minutes. Come on!"
They turned down another side street, and Kimon skidded to a stop in front of a house with the lights on. He banged on the door, and seconds later it was opened by a woman who looked a lot like Nina. She motioned for them to come in, and when they did, Kurt asked-
"Where's Nina?"
The woman, Mrs. Dare, shrugged. "She went to see what would happen when Kurt didn't show up." she said. "At the place where he was supposed to… you know…"
Kurt nodded, standing in the entrance way. He had an uncomfortable feeling around his neck, right where the rope would have gone.
He realized that he was having another feeling, one best described as 'something should go here but I'm not sure what'. He frowned, and a pair of unfamiliar words came into focus. Manners. Thanks. Both a shocking, intrusive red.
"Thanks for letting us stay here." he said, almost to see how it felt. It felt strange, but even Endermen had manners, so not as strange as apologizing. Nina's parents and Kimon stared at him, stunned into silence.
"Wow." Kimon said, then he started to grin. "Think you could say sorry for nearly killing me?"
Kurt frowned at him. "Don't push your luck." he growled. Kimon sighed. Just then, the front door banged open.
"-And the charges weren't even murder or anything; they said he was being hanged for being a criminal against humanity-" Nina stomped in, her rant abruptly cutting off. "Hey. Glad to see you two made it here okay."
"Yeah. Um." Kimon said. Kurt said nothing, feeling rather uncomfortable. Not only was he in the house of someone he didn't know, but there was sunlight coming through the windows and he didn't especially like light-
"Wait a second." Kurt said. "Where's Mom?"
"She's upstairs, sleeping." Mrs. Dare said. "You two can go up there and sleep." Kurt wordlessly walked towards the stairs, but Kimon stayed behind.
"Thanks a lot, Nina. Most people wouldn't have helped us, especially since we're wanted for a whole lot of things, now…"
Nina shrugged and followed the pair of them upstairs. "Your mom's in the only spare bed." she whispered to Kurt. "You two are going to sleep on the floor." She didn't sound too unhappy about that.
The attic was dark, and there was a thump as Kimon tripped over the trapdoor at the top of the stairs. All three of them froze, but Fanny's gentle snoring didn't stop. Kurt could see the smile on her face, and he felt himself smiling too, although he didn't know why.
He knew that it hurt, though; just like the muscles in his hand, his smiling muscles hurt from lack of use.
Kurt and Kimon sat down on the floor as Nina crawled into her bed. There was silence for a long time, then Kurt asked in a whisper- "Nina, why did you help us?" Help. The word echoed, bright and yellow.
There was some rustling sounds from Nina's bed, then she whispered back. "Someone convinced me you weren't that bad a person." she said. "Or at least that you were worth saving."
Kimon had the grace to look embarrassed. Kurt found himself smiling again, although the curtains were drawn and only he could see. Kurt frowned, then pulled out his book and quill.
Nina thinks I'm worth saving
Is this true?
Do I want to be saved?
Maybe I do
Maybe I'm willing to love people
Love is a green word
Artificial green
Bright green
Intrusive and unnatural
Kurt paused for a second, then wrote something else.
But to everyone else
Love is the most natural thing in the world
He closed his eyes, then opened them to find that he'd written one more thing.
Why should I be any different?