Hey everyone!

Sorry I haven't updated in a while, I've just recently realised what little time I have on my hands haha! I've loved reading all of your comments and I'm grateful everyone is still reading! Hope this chapter is ok.

Time stops. Everywhere freezes. And I'm suspended, lost in time and space, trying to hold onto pieces of what I thought I knew.

Adrien killed his mother.

Just like that.

But when I look at him, I know he didn't mean it. He couldn't have, he couldn't mean it. Could he?

"How?" I whisper, instantly blushing for being so rude and outright, but he doesn't seem to mind the question. If anything, he seems glad to get it off his chest.

"My parents were away on a business trip, and when they came back, well, I ran to greet them. I was so stupid... I should've thought, I should've seen. But I didn't. I hugged my mother, Emilie. And it all happened so fast. I heard my father scream, and my mother, she just... froze. Her whole body turned to black ash and she crumbled to the ground. I tried to find some other explanation, but it was me. It was my fault. My mother is dead, and it was me," he said, tears welling in his eyes.

I don't know what to do. Do I comfort him? Leave him? It's now that I wish I had more time speaking to other people. One of the many downsides of being locked in a cell for years. But he doesn't seem to be finished.

"I've learned to get over that. My father pushed me away, brought me out of school. I was so alone. The loneliness... it was so overpowering. This is going to sound crazy but," he hesitates. Looks at me. I smile and nod, letting him know it's ok to talk to me.

"Sometimes, loneliness is the only other thing that's living with me. It-"

"It's always there, the only thing you see, hear, talk to," I finish, staring at the wall. Unfortunately, know exactly what he means. Being locked away, there's a part of you that's imprisoned too.

My thoughts drift back to my old cell, and the feeling of the first few nights there. I sat in the corner, trying so hard, too hard, to stay together when all I wanted to do was fall apart. I'd been handcuffed and shackled and thrown in a cell, imprisoned there, stuck with my shameful thoughts, murderous thoughts, a prisoner inside my own head. I clung to the bars of my life as I begged to be set free, but my mind wouldn't let me. Instead it played the same moment on repeat, like I was spinning on a roundabout, stuck to the seat so I had no choice to sit and endure the sickness.

Eventually, the loneliness took on an ache in the pit of my stomach, groaning and jolting, a painful reminder of hunger and memories and desperation.

So I know how Adrien feels.

A glimpse of understanding passes between us.

"I-I'm sorry about your mother," I say, "for what it's worth, I'm glad I was able to heal you. And I don't think you're a murderer."

Adrien gives a short laugh.

"Well, I sort of am, but thanks. And... I'm sorry I didn't talk to you. You know, I've no idea why they told me you were crazy," he says.

I'm not crazy.

"I'm not crazy," I confirm, trying to tell myself as well as him.

But I realise he makes a good point. Why were they so determined to pit us against each other from the beginning? Were we supposed to be scared of each other? It was all probably part of our punishment, to be so terrified to the point of us going insane.

Because sometimes, just sometimes, company can be so much lonelier than solitude. If I'd been asked this morning, I would've said that was true. But now? Every new friend we make, each one represents a world inside us we never knew we had. And being locked in here, my whole world was crumbling slowly at the seams. But now, meeting Adrien? I finally feel like a new world inside of me has been born. And it can only grow.

"It was probably to scare us," I think out loud, "I hate this place already."

I survey the room with my eyes, picking up every crack and flake in the walls, every inch of dust littering the floor. Suddenly, I'm reminded of what woke me up in the first place, and I want to know if Adrien heard it too. Just to know if I'm really going insane. Which I'm not. I'm not crazy.

"The screams... th-they-"

"Never stop. Just keep on going. Until you'd rather be the one screaming than hear them a second longer," Adrien affirms, eyes full of sorrow.

They look like they're going to overflow, tears of sadness are going to burst from them at any moment and we're both going to drown and I can't swim, I can't float, I can't swim, I can't swim. And I'm drowning in his eyes, their endless green glinting in the light of the moon. A shiver races down my spine as more screams pierce my ears, igniting my memory. They echo off the walls, gliding into the room. Unfortunately for me, Adrien notices.

"Are you scared?" he asks.

Yes.

"No," I reply, "I'm just cold."

I can't tell him how terrified I am, how I'm scared to death. Because my fear scares my too. It's like being caged up with a monster, waiting for me to show weakness so it can pin me against a wall and kill me.

"You don't feel it after a while."

"What? The cold?"

Adrien meets my eye. Emotions flash through them, but they finally rest on a knowing gleam to his eyes.

"I know fear when I see it."

I sigh. Of course he understands. He's been locked up in this place longer than me for the murder of his own mother. He understands fear. I say nothing to him. Instead, I think. There is still something that doesn't add up.

"Adrien?"

He too is deep in thought, but he vaguely puts his head in my direction.

"Mmh?"

"How did I touch you?"

His head snaps up, eyes alarmingly wide.

"Think about it- the last person who did, they..." I pause, not sure how to phrase it. The silence is enough for him to know what I mean, "so h-how did I?"

I watch him bring his hand up to the back of his neck and look at the floor. My mind whirrs, trying to think of any explanations, but that's all it seems to be doing.

We need to test it.

"Let's try it," I say.

I'll let myself touch his skin, knowing that if it goes wrong, I could die.

But I'm ready to try.