G'luck in your finals Jou. And ta to reviewers. You know how much it means to me. :D
Sorry about the wait, I'm working now, so it's harder to get this out to you. Promise to update when I can.
The Soft Voice and the Woman left again and she felt the emotions of the two angry ones lift slightly. She tensed, wondering if this was when they would start. The Fist always seemed in a better mood when he appeared in her room. She waited for the first blow... But nothing happened. Hands moved from her shoulders and gentle voices spoke, though she didn't know if it was to her or to each other. Knowing that they were still nearby she lay very still, wary of them and trying to concern the environment she had been moved to. She was on a raised bed, that much she knew. It was uncomfortable, made to stretch her out and expose her body. She felt she wanted to curl up in the centre of it to try and protect herself, but she didn't think it was wide enough to take her whole body in that position without tipping her back out onto the floor. And to get into that position took so much effort, more than she could muster after her last fall. The air smelt dry and clean in her nose. She could still hear the two beside her, and if she was careful and stretched her hearing beyond them, the sounds of water running and electronics buzzing. The knife had shown her electricity once, when he was going through a phase of testing things out on her. Soft leather straps around her knees, and then again a few weeks later when she had recovered from the first set of burns. He had seemed pleased with her then, when it had made her scream but not burned her skin, and she was left alone for a while, given good food and water instead of the leftovers she had usually had to perform for. The Knife had said something, and it had meant something to her then. But it was so easy to forget these things. She pulled her mind back to the present and listened as the two sat and talked. One voice seemed softer than the other, more tempered. She listened closer to this voice as he talked to her. She listened, not knowing what he said, only knowing that he was talking to her, for her. A nagging at the back of her mind told her that she knew that voice, but it was so quiet and there were so many other worries in her mind. The other voice snapped something roughly and the two laughed, making her jump and cringe. The Sharp Voice scared her more than the other, she decided. She trusted the Other. She wondered why she found it so hard to name him though. Names meant so little to her, why was he different? For the first time in a long time she wanted to open her eyes. Just to see what he looked like, the Other. Whether his eyes matched his voice, whether she would know his face.
Jesse saw Shalimar cringe at his and Brennan's outburst of laughter and frowned, hushing Brennan.
"Hey Shal, I'm sorry. We didn't mean to make you jump like that. I didn't think you were listening with you so quiet and your eyes shut." He looked over at Brennan, still sat on that chair the other side of the medilab's bed. "I guess we'll have to keep it down a bit."
"It proves she was listening though, right? She's not completely gone to the world."
"Yeah, I guess. I'll take anything as a good sign at this point."
The Sharp Voice's breathing deepened as she listened to the Other continue talking, she heard it and knew that he was sleeping. The Knife had slept with her in the room once, when he had been hiding from someone. Explaining his troubles in words she couldn't understand and curling up in the corner, gaunt face seeming paler than usual, eyes darting and wide. The Dick had come later and taken him out. The Knife had been very studious in his work the next day, cuts a little deeper than usual, touching bone in her hands and apologising. He had cried then, as he cleaned the blood from the floor, her blood from the floor. Cried so pitifully that she would have taken him in her arms and rocked him until he was soothed. But she was bound and incapacitated so she had merely listened and hoped he understood. She had been left alone for several days after that, though she was never sure whether to be happy or sad when she was alone because alone meant no food.
Sharp voice's breathing was softer as he slept, more regular than Knife's had been. The Other paused a moment and she waited for his voice to continue. When he didn't she wondered how far she might get in her current state. She felt stronger than she had before, did she risk bringing down their anger? They hadn't done anything to hurt her so far, would they hurt her if she angered them? Would they leave her the opportunity to escape on purpose, so that they could feel vindicated in punishing her?
She found she couldn't leave the chance un-taken. She was unrestrained and one of her guards slept, the other distracted.
She rolled onto one side, more wary now of the drop. Gritting her teeth as she prepared herself for the jarring landing she pushed her self that little further, felt the edge of the bed and then she landed in a prepared pair of arms.