Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own imagination
Dizzy: 2 Down The Stairs.
At the ladder Vince had been excited, if in pain. He had never seen the downstairs of the house, when he was brought here he woke up in that room. Bainbridge had quickly explained the rules, and he had accepted without question with all those shiny clothes hovering around him.
Getting down the ladder however, was not a thrilling prospect. He looked sideways at that strange man that was his new friend Howard, Vince had always decided people were friends quickly, probably before they even thought of it themselves.
Other then having appalling fashion sense, he was quite nice, and he was giving Vince attention he hadn't received from anyone other then the Plan Pony. And the Plan Pony stepped on him a lot.
"Do you think you can, hope down?" Howard asked in a voice that showed he already knew the answer.
"I don't think so." Vince answered in a semi sarcastic, final sort of way.
"Yeah." Howard replied, looking from the ladder to the steadily bleeding ankle that Vince had lifted off the ground.
"Well, don't worry little man, Howard Moon, man of action is here! I'll carry you down!" Howard nodded in a satisfied sort of way.
"Are you sure Howard, I mean, you don't look that strong..." Vince trailed off with a grin at Howard's angered look.
"I'll have you know I do jazzercise once every three days! Now stop winging and grab on." Vince shrugged and wrapped his arms around Howard's neck from behind.
"If I fall and ruin this suit!" Vince warned.
Howard rolled his eyes and lowered himself down the ladder. Vince was surprised to find Howard stronger then he looked, and neither fell off the ladder. Vince hopped off Howard and leant against the wall as the other man got off.
The two made their way slowly along the corridor. Howard grabbed Vince tighter as he stumbled in his heeled boot, noticing the quick breathing and pained expression the fashion junkie wore he quickly looked behind them down the long corridor. Sure enough there was a stark trail of blood like a breadcrumb trail
"Just a bit longer Vince, hang on."
"It hurts Howard." Vince winced out, Howard took in his paling complexion, which had already seemed too pale to begin with, and his heart beat a bit faster.
"Just hang in there." He urged the slumping figure, as they started moving again he noticed how Vince was practically letting the limb trail along the floor.
"Manage down the stairs, then I can carry you and call the taxi." For Howard Moon did not believe in ambulances, and was a fan of the good honest taxi driver, having been one once. They reached the top of the staircase and Vince stopped.
"Call the taxi now." He breathed out, leaning heavily against Howard as he looked down the long flight of stairs. Howard obeyed, seeing the wisdom in the idea. Once the job was done he returned his attention to Vince.
"Come on then." He said, holding onto Vince's arm tightly.
"Howard wait!" Vince began. "I'm not sure this is a good idea! I mean, I never really listened to Bainbridge, but he always said to never go downstairs."
"Vince, we're getting you out of here, Bainbridge doesn't matter!" Howard said exasperatedly. He could see this was a large psychological barrier for Vince, whether from fear or Stockholm's syndrome, but right now they didn't have the time.
At Vince's shaky nod Howard begun the slow process of aiding Vince down the stairs. Vince leant heavily against Howard the whole time, not having the strength to hold himself up very well.
Howard was concerned at just how weak Vince was, he hadn't lost too much blood, and the exercise shouldn't have been that taxing. But then Howard considered the fact that Vince was very thin, had been kept in a corridor basically without being let outside, and without any natural light for who knew how long.
By the time they were down the stairs and out the door into the frosty night Vince was shaking badly, and huddled into Howard for warmth. The silver jumpsuit he was wearing hardly looked substantial.
Luckily the taxi pulled up just as they had left the few steps leading into the mansion. The taxi driver's eyes lingered on Vince as the pair slowly reached the cab, but like a true cab driver he made it seem like the most mundane situation possible.
"Where to?" Vince almost snorted at the question.
"The hospital, quick as you can sir." Howard replied genially, helping Vince into the cab.
Vince slumped tiredly until Howard begun to poke him into movement. Soon Vince had been coerced into lying on his back with his feet in the air, held up by Howard so they didn't hit the window.
Trembling as he looked out at the night sky, Vince stared into the cool glow of the full moon. He had almost forgotten what it looked like, all big and shiny, he found himself relaxing slightly at the sight of it, drifting off into a daze-like sleep.
Howard saw Vince gazing at the moon before his eyes shut. They were similar in a way, both Vince and the moon stood out from everything around them, seeming to emit a certain glow. Howard carefully watched over the amazingly haired person, taking note of his eyelids flickering between reality and sleep as they zoomed towards the hospital.
Upon their arrival Howard managed to find the correct fair in pennies, earning him a deathly glare from the cab driver. Howard put the glare behind him in favor of carrying the practically comatose Vince from the cab to the hospital.
Luckily a man running into a hospital with a bloody and pale silver androgynous form in his arms had the effect of getting them a stretcher in seconds and said silver figure wheeled off to surgery.
Howard plonked himself down in the plain plastic chair and waited for news on his new friend. 'Friend'? Did he really just think that? The nearest thing he had to a friend was Jack Cooper the fox, and even he didn't seem to want to be near Howard. There was just something about the sparkly man that drew Howard to him, he couldn't quite explain it, but he knew that this was the most alive he had felt in years. And he wasn't going to let the source of that go easily.
An hour or two passed the fretting Howard by before a large mustached doctor came towards him, Howard leapt to attention.
"Are you the friend of the young man just brought in?" He spoke with a rich voice.
"Vince Noir, that's his name. And yes sir, I'm Howard Moon."
"Right, good. Well there are a few problems here Mr. Moon."
"There are?" Howard asked worriedly, they hadn't needed to amputate surely?"
"Vince's ankle was badly broken and bruised, but it should heal with time. He has suffered severe blood loss however, which we are dealing with. The most worrying situation however is that Vince is very underweight, and is suffering from malnutrition. We were wondering what you knew of this?" By the stern look of the doctor, Howard knew he was suspected of foul play, but it was as much of a shock for him to actually hear from a professional that the bouncy and happy Vince was in such bad shape.
"To be honest doctor, I only met Vince this evening, I saw him get trodden on by a horse and brought him in." It was the truth really, he was just excluding some points.
"Well where did you find him?" The doctor was being patient, but Howard was getting agitated, he wanted to see the sparkly Vince and see for himself that he was okay. The poor kid was probably frightened, having not been into a hospital for who knew how long, and not even having anyone familiar around.
"He was, in the high street, by Top shop." Howard lied, trying to spy the room where Vince might be, he had a bad sense of unease within him, and something was telling him that this wasn't over yet.
"Alright then." The doctor said warily, evidently not buying the lie.
"Look can I just see him? He hasn't been in a hospital for a long time, if ever." Howard asked urgently.
"How do you know that?" Suspicion was written all over his face.
"He told me in the cab. Look, please, he's probably scared." Howard pleaded, for once looking into the man's eyes. The doctor looked like he was about to say something, but was interrupted.
"Dr. Brown, we have a situation with the patient 127." She said urgently, nerves belaying the calm demeanor she was trying to put up.
"That's your friend." The doctor said to Howard, a strange look on his face.
"Take me there, maybe I can calm him down!" Howard requested, Dr Brown nodded shortly and they ran off down the hospital wing.
As they flung open the door Howard saw the mess of Vince's room. The IV stand had fallen over, blood from the life-giving bag was spilled over the floor, and the small bedside table had been knocked over, causing the jug of water on it to fall over the floor. Two nurses were standing back looking hesitant, one was holding a needle in the hand. Vince sat in the corner of the bed by the wall, he was holding the pillow and blanket to him, curled up and looking petrified.
The doctor moved slowly over to him, hands held up in a placating manner.
"Get away from me!" Vince yelled in his high-pitched way, curling further into the corner.
Howard pushed past the doctor in an action-like manner.
"Vince, Vince it's me, Howard! Calm down Vince, you're in the hospital." Howard said, catching Vince's eyes with his own. The familiar sight of Howard seemed to calm Vince slightly, but he still trembled as he spoke, clutching the blanket tighter.
"I woke up and she was trying to put that thing in my arm! There were all these weird tubes everywhere, I didn't know what was going on Howard!" Vince sounded partly accusative towards the nurses, and partly like he was defending himself.
"I'm scared, where are my clothes?" Vince sounded so upset and frightened that Howard felt his heartstrings being tugged. This wasn't helped when Vince let out a small sob-like noise and buried his head in the blanket, hair looking strangely disheveled.
"Oh Vince." Howard muttered as the usually sparkly person cried softly. He moved to sit on the bed and wrapped an arm around Vince, effectively forming a barrier between him and the nurses, who took the opportunity to clear up the mess. The shaking body leaned into his embrace, Vince was exceedingly trusting for someone in his position. Howard loved the feeling of being needed, clung to it even, he hadn't been needed in a long time.
"Can you get the clothes he came in with?" Howard questioned a nurse, who nodded and left. Howard didn't quite see why Vince needed material items so badly, but he saw that they were important to him, for whatever reason.
"Vince, the tubes and needles will make you feel better, you're malnourished, and you need the IV to get better, alright?" Vince looked confused but nodded anyway, sniffling and letting the cautious nurse take his arm, correcting the IV lines.
After the process was done the nurses' scampered from the room, leaving Howard and Vince with the doctor.
"Try to get some rest now Mr. Noir. We will have to talk about the circumstances that brought you here, and your diet when you wake up." With that the doctor left.
Howard pulled a very slightly padded chair to the bed and sat down tiredly.
"Howard, are we gonna tell them about Bainbridge?" Vince sounded worried about the prospect.
"I don't know, but you don't want to go back there do you?" Vince looked unsure as he shook his head, he bit his lip slightly.
"The clothes were nice..." He attempted lamely.
"Vince you can get clothes anywhere, he looked you up in his house, you're in a bad way because of him, and did he even feed you?" Howard asked angrily.
Vince shrank back at Howard's tirade, fiddling with the blanket nervously.
"He put food by the trap door sometimes, and there was a vending machine in my room." He defended.
"A vending machine full of what?" Howard asked, appalled by what he was hearing.
"Saturn zingers, flying saucers, strawberry laces, aero bars, haribo. It had a great selection." Vince said, dizzy grin back on his face.
"That's not real food! No wonder you're so thin, you're a bag of bones Vince!"
"But I like sweets!" He protested weakly, seeing the truth in Howard's statement.
"He gave you all the things you liked to keep you happy, but he didn't give you anything you need. Its like he wanted you to die up there, quietly, out of the way." Howard carried on until he saw the fresh tears of realization in Vince's eyes.
Vince had never thought Bainbridge was that bad, he had given him clothes and sweets, even a pony. But maybe Bainbridge really had hated him, just like all the others.
"Hey, Vince, its alright, you're out of there now, but you have to tell the doctors what he kept you like if you want to see him put away." Howard squeezed Vince's shoulder, managing to get out a sad sort of smile.
"Thanks Howard, you're a good friend." Vince said quietly before closing his eyes and falling into a dazed sleep.
Howard smiled softly and closed his own eyes, preparing himself for an uncomftorble sleep.
Neither of them therefore saw the shadow move away from the door, and the subtle clicking of a cell phone.
"Yeah Bainbridge, the shrimp eyed man found him, yeah, their in the hospital, I am, yeah, see you soon then." The one sided conversation ended, and an eerie chuckling echoed down the halls.
::Yay! Thanks for all the brilliant reviews, they really made my day and made me write fast, you're all wonderful! Hope you enjoyed!
::Thanks for reading, shadowtheo
