"...Shit." muttered Victoria, hearing the sound of footsteps. "We need somewhere to hide. Alex, is your wrist okay?" she whispered.
"Yeah, it's fine," he lied, not sounding very believable. He grabbed onto her wrist with his other hand and led her into the darkness. "I'm so sorry, I screwed this all up again! Are you alright?" he asked, even if the fall wasn't that big.
"Fine. I'm- I'm more worried about you, Alex. I heard your wrist break!" she insisted. She was such a mother sometimes. "Oh, God, they're coming downstairs, aren't they?"
He covered her mouth with his hand, putting his other hand's finger to his lips. He took her hand, tapping the Morse code on it.
... - .- -.- / -.-. .- .-.. - / .- -. -.. / -.- ..- .. . - / ... .- . . - ... . .- .-. - /
(Stay calm and quiet, sweetheart)
He heard his dad muttering "How the hell am I gonna explain this to Jim? The bugger couldn't have been a little more quiet..." He ran back up the stairs, having no choice but to tell Jim that they escaped. Victoria stayed perfectly quiet, waiting until the noises had died down before responding to Alex with taps.
- ... . -.- / - ... .. -. -.- / .- . / -. - - / .- .- .- -.-
(They think we got away)
-. - -/ -. - - -.. / ... . / .- .- -. - .../ ..- .../ - -/ - . .- -. .. -. -. / ... - / .- .. .-.. .-.. / -.- . . .-./ ... .. -/ .. -./ -. -/
. ... -.-. .- .-. .
(Not good. He wants us to, meaning he will keep him in. No escape)
He hoped she understood what he was saying. If he actually led Jim outside, then they could run up the stairs and run out the back entrance, but not if Seb is trying to help them, unknowingly damning them. His prediction came true, when he heard two sets of footsteps running down the stairs.
Hearing the footsteps, Victoria tensed up, holding on tightly to Alex's hand as opposed to tapping out another message. She instinctively stepped a little further into the shadows.
Alex didn't move a muscle, hoping they would just walk back upstairs to try and find them. As he heard the creak of the steps, his dad's voice rang out. "Wait! We're not sure if they ran off, they could still be in here." Oh thank you so freaking much, Dad. He appreciated his desire to help, but mentally cursed his stupidity, and the fact that it wasn't stupid at all, just a logical assumption that they would be long gone.
"Fuck." Victoria mouthed silently, tapping a message to Alex urgently.
.- ... .- - / -.. - / .- . / -.. - / -. - .- ..-..
(What do we do now?)
Alex shrugged his shoulders- he was out of ideas. He suddenly felt Victoria being pulled away from his hand. "You breathe really loudly when you're nervous, did you know that?" Jim murmured to Victoria.
Victoria did, as a matter of fact, know that- it was a bit hard not to when she was now hyperventilating. She was sure he wouldn't hesitate to hurt her again if he wanted to, and the situation didn't look very good. She chose not to reply, and she was too scared to say anything anyway.
Alex didn't even charge at him, despite his anger growing. All that would accomplish was having his dad be forced to hold him back.
"Well, I guess since you both can't stay out of trouble, we should just bring you upstairs so we can watch over you. Bring the rope, Seb."
Sebastian gave Alex an apologetic look before fetching the rope from where Alex and Victoria had left it. "Got it."
"Alex, are you joining us, or are you going to stay here and abandon your little girlfriend?" Alex followed them up the stairs, seething.
Victoria exchanged a quick look with Alex as though wanting to see some reassurance from him, but none was there. The only thing to do was hope Sherlock would figure out where she was soon enough and get her out of there.
When they reached the living room, Sebastian held her down as Jim tied her to one of their chairs. "Now, we can't just let what happened go without punishment, can we Seb?" Sebastian begrudgingly muttered a sound of agreement.
Jim's voice suddenly filled with fake concern. "Oh, Vicky, I forgot! That horrible thing on your face, it's going to get infected," he said, running a finger down the cut. "We might just have to cauterize it, for your benefit," he said, taking out a lighter. Alex, of course, sprinted towards them, his emotion overtaking his logic, but of course, he was pulled back by Sebastian, who muttered an apology in his ear.
Victoria closed her eyes tightly, knowing very well what was coming. "Please, don't..." she pleaded, looking away and at the ground.
Time felt like it was slowing down. Every second seemed agonizingly long. Victoria let out a loud scream of pain, trying to turn her head away from the fire (albeit quite unsuccessfully). It wasn't stopping, the sting of the cut combined with the pain of the flame. She was not going to cry. She was not going to cry. Fuck it, she was crying, and she was fairly certain Alex was as well. After a while Alex had stopped struggling, deciding to just look down on the ground and shut his eyes to stop the tears. The burning sensation just hurt her so much, and the fact that it was in front of Alex wasn't helping.
Sebastian took out his phone, feeling it ring in his pocket. Still keeping a grip on Alex, he viewed the text. "Jim! Security warned, they're on the way here." Thankfully, that stopped him. Sebastian usually wouldn't care much for Jim's victims, but to force Alex to watch it... He didn't really give two shits about Jim's obsession with destroying Sherlock Holmes, so he couldn't help feeling a bit bad about the whole thing. Alex hadn't cried in over seven years, poor kid must really care about her.
Victoria let out a soft sigh of relief at that, opening her eyes if only to exchange looks with Alex. Thank God. They would be here soon. That meant, however, that she might not see Alex again- as if her dads would let her be with him after this. She hoped she would anyway.