"Gunther," He feels a shake on his shoulder realizing he must have dosed off. Everything feels murky, his throat dry. "Gunther." He opens his eyes to just as much darkness, and for a second he has no idea where he is or why Jane is calling his name.
"Jane?" He blinks, more of the place coming into focus but it is still intensely dark and he doesn't see her.
"Oh, good." Her voice, slightly shaky with relief but disembodied and coming from somewhere above him. "Can you sit up?"
He does what she asks feeling sore and stiff,(even the muscles in his jaw feel weak) parts of him still ache but the dizziness is far less daunting than before, if just slightly disorienting and he manages to sit without too strong of an urge to vomit. An improvement.
"How long was I out?" He Asks. Could be days for all he knows.
"A few hours, hard to be sure exactly how many." He can just sort of know where she is by sensing her movement and her presence in the darkness. "Here." she says placing a cup in his hand its heavy and the water spills and drops on his hand and clothes as he brings it quickly to his mouth.
He drinks all before he takes another breath, "Where did you get this from?" Her silhouette is now visible to him light bouncing off her skin where she is kneeling next to him, a pitcher beside her.
"They came earlier... and ultimately slipped this in through the hatch at the bottom of the door."
"I dose off and I miss everything." He mumbles dishearteningly.
"Not everything, here." She raises something in front of her offering it to him. "They also brought us food." He cannot quite believe it even as he takes it from her hand not missing the fact that she feels rather cold, or perhaps he is the one who is feverish. He begins to eat it as famished as he is, not bothering to ask anything about the food knowing that she would have checked it long before ever handing it to him. It is nothing more than bread and water, but what else could they need. They sit in silence while he eats. As the food goes down his throat and the fussiness clears from his head it begins to fill with questions and unpleasant thoughts. Jane pours him more water and he takes it slow this time drinking just enough to push the bread down and leans his head back against the bed with a sigh, a jolt of pain lancing through him at the contact.
He makes a low hiss of pain through his teeth, chiding himself for making the same mistake once again.
They are both sitting against the corner of the bed, Gunther facing the window and Jane at a perfect angle to him facing toward the door so that only her profile is laminated by the weak moonlight. "It seems that they are indeed letting us live for now." He half whispers it for it feels like saying it too loud might just end up cursing his words.
"It seems so." Jane answers him in the same thoughtful and soft voice as him. They don't say more, the questions eating at them internally but neither voices them; they just share the silence.
After awhile Gunther, feeling better than before, gets up. There is still pain, some dizziness but it's manageable. "You must be exhausted." He says looking down at Jane, what little he can see of her.
"I'm all right." She responds her voice still holding the soft lilt of lost thoughts. She doesn't move from her place against the bed corner.
"Nonsense, I'm up now. Why don't you get some sleep, the bed is bound to be more comfortable than the floor."
"Why do you think the bed is here?" Jane asks, ignoring his suggestion, her voice is small as the first of those many many questions froths to the surface.
"This is clearly a bedroom," He answers her honestly if a bit reluctantly. He has been trying squelch all the churning questions in his mind for fear that they might overwhelm him now that he is nearly over his dizziness, he hates feeling weak. But as he continues with his response he finds that it is actually helpful to focus on only one thing at a time instead of the full turmoil rolling inside his head. "I wager that it was just too bothersome to remove both this big bed and the big dresser and that is why they left them."
"I suppose that makes sense," She still doesn't look at him as she speaks her gaze and thoughts cast over towards the big metal door with the food hatch set in at the bottom. "This door is not a bedroom door," She gestures lightly in front her, Gunther can just make out her movements as he settles against the wall next to the window that is their only light source. "Its a cell door that they installed here and we are on an upper level. We are high up, and dungeons and jails tend to be down low. They planned on keeping someone here."
"Us." He tells her cutting into her outspoken thought process. "Or more specifically, you." She finally turns to look at him, he can make out the shape of her nose and her mouth which is set in a manner of doubt. "They meant to take you, Jane. I was just in the way."
The look on her face grows more pronounced, this time with uncertainty. "Me... that is not true, they simply took us for information." He can't tell if she truly believes this or she suspects the truth and is hoping to find a better answer; he greatly suspects the latter.
"If they wanted information they didn't get any, instead they let us fight and stuck us here." He gestures toward the big bed in front of him, a luxury that they shouldn't be afforded in their current situation. "They feed and watered us, this place isn't even very dirty. They would simply torture us for information."
She looks away from him once again, but he can tell the thought upsets her all the same, he would be bothered by it as well if the roles were reversed. As things are now though, he just finds it makes perfect sense to him. Jane is important, more than she realizes or is likely willing to admit, even to herself. He can see it clearly however, taking Jane is a wining move. She is a crucial part of some military strategy, he just hasn't been able to fully fit himself into the equation.
"He recognized you from somewhere." Jane mutters from where her face is buried in her hands.
"What?" The word comes out of him even if he knows he heard her clearly, because this one thing he did not want to start on. The fact that the man thought he looked familiar, it was something he wanted to believe was a mere coincidence. It didn't fit with Gunther's reasoning behind their abduction.
Jane picks her head back up before uttering more clearly, "He may not have known your name at first, but he knew your face." He flinches in spite of himself at her words, she doesn't notice it as she gets up with renewed vigor. She looks at him expectantly. "Did he look familiar to you?"
"No." His answer is automatic and immediate.
Jane frowns at him disbelievingly, "Are you certain? It might have been only briefly or among other people. Or perhaps when you were younger, that would explain why he couldn't quite place you-"
"No!" He says it loud enough to cut into her tirade, "I am absolutely certain, that I have never met the man before in my life. Alright?" She looks at him with pursed lips, although if it's because she doesn't quite believe him or because he yelled at her, he isn't quite sure. Either way the look makes him uncomfortable and he shrugs away from the wall which he no longer finds comfort leaning on. "Why are we even discussing this? Figuring out why he thought he might have recognized me does nothing to help us out of here."
"Perhaps, perhaps not," Jane answers him. "But it might help us to know why we are here in the first place." She folds her arms across her chest the way she always does when she tries to make a point.
He glares back at her, although if she can see it in the weak lighting he doesn't know, he hates whenever she acts this way. Why cant she just let the subject go? "Not really. If I had anything to do with this then he would have to already know who I am in order for them to take me. Besides we already know why they took us and it has nothing to do with me and everything to do with you and your over-grown lizard." She gives him a hard look and turns toward the window where he can only see a halo of light in her red hair the rest of her in shadow.
He had said it, neither had said out loud what had seemed perfectly obvious, for whatever reason they were taken, it boiled down to dragon. He was sure she had known it all along as well, even if she had not wanted to admit it.
She is still by the boarded window, blocking most of the insubstantial light. She sighs. "Do you think we could break this?"
"What?" For the second time he is taken back by her words, only this time he isn't sure what she is talking about.
"The wood over the window," She starts tugging at one of the pieces, he can hear the straining in her voice. "I tried while you were asleep, but I was only able to loosen it a little."
He walks up next to her and helps her tug at the middle board, it wiggles a tad bit. They both pull, his fingers scraping against the unpolished wood, the muscles in arm whine in protest and the cut on his upper arm burns. "At the count of three we give it one big tug."Jane nods in approval and they both get ready. "One," He is happy to have something to do other than stand around and argue fruitlessly. "Two," At least they actually seem to making some headway here.
"Three!" As they pull, the wood comes out splintering on Gunther's side and sending them both reeling backwards. Gunther smiles despite the pain of the movement, his breathing slightly elevated; the piece of wood put up a good fight.
Jane tosses the wood aside, "One down." She utters before stepping forward and taking a hold of piece right below their newly made hole. He comes up besides her ready to take down the next board.
They both seem to freeze at the same moment. No. He leans his head forward pressing against the intact wood at the top of the window. "Damn it!"
Jane just sighs in frustration pulling away from the window. "What is the point of boarding up a window that already has bars?" He can hear the same frustration in her voice that he feels coursing throughout his body. If he thought they had made any headway he was dead wrong.
Reaching in he grabs two of the bars and pulls on them, nothing. Not on bit of movement. After the third time heeds the same results he just leans his head once again against the wood and closes his eyes feeling utterly defeated. Jane paces back and forth, he can hear her footsteps to and fro across the polished floor.
"Jane why don't you get some sleep before day comes, we don't know what may happen tomorrow." His voice sounds hollow even to himself.
"Alright." Is all she answers. He hears her lay on the bed and then all is quiet.
He doesn't move from his place against the window struggling to find any strength or reason to do so. He feels exactly same leaning against the wall as earlier he had been laying on the floor, just as helpless, just as stuck.
Another week another chapter!
No promises for next week however, I will work on it. That you can count on.
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