"I'll stay right here, babe, you've got this." Alexander encouraged, looping his left arm with mine and wrapping his other one around my shoulder. He was half-crouched behind me, helping me stand up.
My legs still felt vaguely numb, but the shock from the fall had lessened. I tiredly began to heave myself upwards, grateful for Alex's help.
"Seriously, I don't wanna touch this, so you guys have to come over here." Hercules repeated for the fifth time, inching away from the half-open barrel.
"Alright, Herc, we heard you the first time." I grunted, shakily standing on my feet. Alexander stood with me, making sure I was steady enough to walk.
"Why can't you just tell us, Hercules? John is injured, and you want us to walk eight feet. Not okay." Alex complained, snaking his right arm around my waist and pulling my left arm around his shoulders.
"I… No, I can't say it out loud." Hercules murmured, stepping away from the container and leaning against the nearest wall.
"Alex, go look, I can stand for a moment." I encouraged, my strength steadily coming back to me. My leg still hurt like hell, but the shocks worn off for the most part. I straightened my back a bit, and reassuringly smiled at my boyfriend. "Go."
He stared at me for a second, silently asking for more assent. I nodded my head, and he grinned before gently letting go of me and taking his arm off my shoulders. He took a step forward, keeping an eye on me while he walked backwards towards Hercules.
"I got you, man." Hercules bumped Alex's back with his elbow, and steered him in the direction of the barrel. Alex kept his sights on me, his eyes never leaving mine as he reached his hands behind him. He blindly felt for the top of the barrel, refusing to turn away from me.
"Alexander Hamilton, turn around before you break something." I ordered, internally giggling at his actions. He sighed, and grinned at me before turning to the wooden vat.
Hercules watched as Alex put his hands over the partially moved lid, and grimaced as Alex lifted it off. Alexander gasped, dropping the lid in shock. It clattered to the ground with a deep and resounding thud.
"Alexander? Babe, what is it?" I quickly inquired, slowly limping towards him.
Hercules groaned, covering his eyes and turning his head away from Alexander and the barrel. Alex didn't move an inch, he was completely still as he looked into the drum. I came around his side, my arm shooting out and grabbing his right hand.
"Alex?" I looked at his face, my lips parting at his look.
He was drastically pale, and his pupils insanely dilated. His lips were open in a disgusted way, like he just ate his least favorite food, but couldn't spit it out. His nostrils were slightly flared, like they get when he's scared.
I kept my eyes on him for a breath, debating whether I should look at the barrel or not.
I closed my eyes, and swallowed any fears.
"John, don't." Hercules warned, and I glanced to my left to see him kneeling on the ground. His back was against the wall, and he looked far too pale.
"Why? What is it?" I breathed, staring at him. He opened his mouth to reply, but his eyes slammed shut and he began to gag.
"O… Oh, god, John." He stammered between dry heaves.
I gulped, wanting to heed his warnings, but also wanting to see whatever the hell just made the bravest man I know act like this. Alexander was still frozen, peering into the barrel.
"I'm going to look, Alex." I whispered to him, and saw the slightest shake of his head.
Another gulp, another hard blink, and I moved my head.
First thought? Immediate regret.
Piled at the top of it, were bloody cloths. Underneath that, and visible to anyone that opened the barrel, was what looked to be rotted flesh. I couldn't tell from what, whether it be animal or man, but the smell alone made me not want to get any closer. It was cut into squares, about the size of my hand, and organized in a triangular pattern. It spiraled down into the depths of the tub, I could see the varying degrees of rottenness as it went lower. My stomach leapt into my throat, and I coughed whilst trying to swallow it.
"What… Oh, god, why?" Alex whimpered, grasping my left hand with his clammy fingers.
I barely registered what he said, I was too wrapped up in whatever the hell I was looking at. I swayed forward, trying to understand what was in front of me. Aside from the cuts of flesh, there were other items thrown in with them.
My head tilted, as my mind tried to formulate a response as to what the objects were. One was a vague oval-ish thing, with something coming off the sides. What the hell… Are those maybe… small arms?
Oh, my god. It's a doll.
"That's a child's toy." I mumbled, reaching out to pick it up.
"John, no!" Alex unfroze, using his left arm to stop my right hand from venturing into the bin. "We don't… We don't know what this is, we shouldn't… God, please don't touch it."
I glanced at him, before my eyes shifted back to the object at hand.
"Alex, it's a play toy. Do you think...Oh, god, do you think that this, I don't even… do you think this skin belonged to..."
"A child?" Hercules finished for me, his figure shakily keeled over and dry-heaving.
"No… No, oh my god, no…" Alex tightened his grip on my hand, and stumbled backwards. He caught himself, pushing himself forward and towards me until his head was buried in between my shoulder blades. I focused on his labored breaths, in an effort to not throw up.
My eyes, as well as my thoughts were still attached to the contents of the barrel. Where did the… the skin squares come from?
Why are… why is there… skin anything, for that matter?
"John, listen." Hercules furrowed his brows, his head falling back to exame the ceiling. A light thudding was emanating from somewhere upstairs… the front door, maybe?
"Somebody's knocking." Alex croaked, abandoning his hiding spot in my back.
"Be quiet!" Hercules hissed, waving hand at us. We all focused on the incessant taps, and Hercules steadily stood up from his kneeling position. Standing evenly on his feet, he stayed still as he intently listened. He turned his head, facing his ear upwards to catch more sound from above. The visitor spoke suddenly, in hushed tones, either to himself or to a companion. We all strained to hear what they were saying, but the combined sounds of our pounding hearts and shaky breaths interfered too much.
I snuck towards Herc, and held Alex's hand so we were trailing along together. His hands were even clammier than before, and they had a slight shake to them now. I squeezed his hand, attempting to bring him some sort of comfort. He was close to me, his hand in mine and his chin hovering directly behind my right shoulder. I crept closer to Hercules, wanting to conceive a plan before the visitor had any bright ideas. We have no clue if this is a friend or foe, and considering the fact that we're in Ireland and have already met several foes, I don't want to take any chances. The worst thing I can imagine them doing if nobody answers, is them breaking into the house to find us. Or whatever else they were looking for, if they are foe and they need certain papers or something that Hugh had.
My thoughts raced as we quietly eased towards Hercules, who was less than five feet away now. I took a deep breath to calm my nerves, but they leapt up at the sudden tugging on my hand. I peered over my shoulder to see Alex's face, eyes wide with fear and lower lip trembling. He craned his neck and came closer to me, his warm breath tickling my ear.
"I can't do this, Laurens! What if we all go down in one fell swoop, huh? And I haven't even done a quarter of what I planned to do in this world! I need to write everything down... I need to let the people know what I wanted to do. I need to leave a legacy!" Alex rattled on, hyperventilating, his frantic whisper quickly rising.
"Alexander, pull yourself together." I commanded, my breath barely a whisper. "We'll get out of this, we'll all get out of this together, and it'll be fine!"
"John, leave him, he'll be okay." Hercules ordered, waving me forward. I looked between him and Alex, trying to pick a side. On one hand, Alex gets loud when he's scared or panicking. On the other, Hercules will kick my ass if I don't go up with him. I shook my head at Alex, and left my place next to him to move next to Herc.
"Mulligan, how can you be calm right now?! You're going to die and Eliza won't even know, because if they manage to kill you, John and I have probably been dead for a while!" Alex gasped, his eyes erratically scanning the room and his breaths desperately trying to catch up with him.
"Alexander, shush!" I barked, forgetting to remain quiet. I stilled, scouting the ceiling for any signs of movement. A footstep, a door opening, a voice asking if anybody else heard that, anything. I heard nothing, and that worsened my worries.
"They definitely heard you, now we just have to wait and see if they do anything about it." Hercules grimaced, receding into the darker part of the room.
As he receded into the shadows, Alex tugged my hand and pulled me back into the dark. We all watched the hole in anticipation, hoping for the best. The best meaning them leaving and us living to see another horror-crammed day.
Creak. Slam.
"Shit." Hercules breathed, rubbing his face with his right hand in frustration. My and Alex's jaws had dropped at the sound of the door opening and closing. "Let's hope they fall through the floor and the impact kills them."
I braced, readying myself just in case they came in and tried to attack. There were several ways this could play out: They see us and shoot through the hole, they see us and run away in fear (crossing my fingers for this one), and they fall through the hole and die.
And then there's always the option that it'll play out in their favor. They could fall through the hole, land safely because they probably have training, and kill us all.
Alexander tensed, and I could see him mentally preparing to kick some ass. Hercules was taking deep breaths, and repeatedly clenching and unclenching his fists. We had nothing but a few broken wooden boards and… skin squares, not really the best weapon arsenal in this situation.
"We're so screwed." I mumbled, my face involuntarily screwing up. I hated not having an idea of how a situation was going to go. "I love you guys."
"We love you, too." Alex lowly answered. He squeezed my shoulder, and Hercules nodded at me. I smiled at them, and steadily inhaled.
Let's do this.
A/N: Oh my god, thank you so much, you guys. I've gotten overwhelming support from my readers, and so many extremely kind reviews. I am so grateful for all of my readers and reviewers, you guys are helping to keep me going. I know, I know, this chapter was a bit darker than usual, that's due to my recent feelings. It actually came out a lot lighter than I thought it would, totally thought it was gonna end up a hell of a lot heavier than this *shrug*. I'm just glad I was able to update as soon as I could, I know how much you guys have wanted me to update this story:) Thank you, reviewers, for telling me to take my time, and that I didn't HAVE to update soon. It really helped, I usually try to finish my chapters as quickly as possible, because so many people tell me to update fast or more often. But it was nice taking my time, and making sure the quality of the chapter was pretty darn good before posting it.
Okay, this is super long, I'm gonna sign off! Again, thank you for your support, it means a ton to me, and don't forget to follow/favorite and review!
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