Days passed, since Adam's...and Lawrence's game had taken place.
Days of wondering…..wondering just how long John would let him sit in there, wondering if he actually intended to let Adam just rot away, succumbing to either starvation or blood loss or some infection from his shoulder wound….and days of waking up in a cold sweat over the nightmares it brought her.
Amanda sat upright in her bed, catching her breath from the latest one, and pulled down at the sleeves of her shirt as she felt the late night chill of her apartment against her skin. A chill that could normally be dealt with by simply turning the heat on, or putting a sweatshirt or hoodie on to go back to sleep….but instead, only served to remind her of how cold Adam must be feeling, all alone in that shitty little bathroom.
—
She whimpered to herself as she tried to shake the thoughts from her head, as she normally did whenever these kind of thoughts came back to haunt her…..only this time, she'd had enough.
She'd finally decided that she really didn't care about the rules of this little "game" after all, nor did she care anymore about the possibility of getting caught or what John might say if he found out she'd let her emotions get the best of her.
All she cared about was that she was getting Adam Faulkner-Stanheight out of that bathroom alive, no matter the cost.
—
She, very swiftly, swung her legs down off of the bed, got herself up and put on the first outfit she could throw together, just before heading out to gather some things to aid in her quest to save Adam and leaving for that Godforsaken old warehouse.
—
She swung by her kitchen, intending to grab something that might suffice as a little late night road breakfast for the drive over there, when her fridge's contents reminded her of a thought that had come back to haunt her earlier….Adam had to be starving by now, and she just knew that if she took something for herself, the guilt would absolutely eat her alive…..even more than it already was, if she couldn't even be bothered to bring so much as a bite of something for him when he hadn't eaten in days.
She glanced over its contents once more, after grabbing something for herself, and decided to heat up a sandwich half she' d put in there the other day and packed it away in a separate bag before heading out the door.
When she got out to her car, she tossed most of her stuff in the back and grabbed up a blanket to place in the passenger seat, on the likelihood that Adam would want something warm to wrap himself up in…...and it was that thought that made her pause and think for a second.
She sighed to herself.
A warm lunch, and a blanket in the passenger seat…
She couldn't help but start to feel as if she were about to go pick up some poor stray dog, who had been dumped out in the cold, rather than a human being who had been left for dead in conditions that most people would think better of leaving an animal in.
She shook her head to herself, trying to shake the thought…
But that was just it though.
She was doing this because that was no way for anyone to die, least of all someone as sweet and kindhearted as she'd taken him to be, that day in the stairway.
She sighed again, slamming the passenger door shut and going back around to settle herself into the driver's seat and start the car up.
When she arrived at the warehouse, she brought in with her a small bag, taking a quick yet careful check to make sure she really was as alone as she felt like.
John often spent late nights here, especially when he was setting up future games, and even more so, now that he was also using it to watch over and tend to Lawrence, who had been lucky enough to escape the game with little more than a cut off foot.
She scoffed at the thought, as she brushed it off, trying not to think too hard on, were Lawrence's circumstances reversed, would he still help him over Adam, given that he was a doctor who could easily aide in John's future endeavors.
Cause, as far as she was concerned, Adam had rightfully won his game too.
She just shrugged, deciding that if she mulled any of this over for too much longer, she and her plan very well might be in danger of being discovered.
—
She began to trudge her way down that long, dark, all too familiar corridor.
—
She stopped in front of that big sliding door, which led into the bathroom, and took some tools out of her bag to begin fiddling with its lock…..a feat, which only took just a little more time than cracking Adam's shitty apartment lock had.
She heaved the big sliding door to the side, and took a flashlight out from her bag to shine through the pitch darkness, taking baby steps as she crept in there….secretly terrified at what she might find.
It took her only another moment of moving the flashlights beam around the back wall to find Adam's limp, seemingly lifeless body, as it rested back against said wall.
Oh God….
Was she too late?
No….
...She was, wasn't she?
She brought a hand to her face, covering muffled whimpers as she slowly and carefully approached him, kneeling down on that cold, bathroom floor, to his level.
Whether he was still alive somehow, or not, it pained her to see how weak and frail and subdued he clearly was, compared to the bright, sarcastic, comedically witty nature she'd come to adore from her monitor on that ill-fated day.
"Adam….Adam." She whispered, her voice trembling and desperate.
She gently, and even more carefully, placed a hand just underneath his nostrils, to check if it felt like he was still breathing.
She nearly jumped out of her skin when she was met with, not only the slow exhale that could've told her by itself what she needed to know, but a very weak yet deliberate turn of his head, as his eyes struggled...and failed to open much more than a centimeter.
He somehow mustered up a bit of a half smile, as his even weaker, frailer voice struggled to speak up.
"R-rockstar…" He finally managed.
She bursted out with a nervous, yet also somewhat relieved chuckle at the comment, unable to decide if he actually still had just enough energy to actually recognize who she was, or if his clearly delirious state just mistook her obvious bed head hair for how he'd seen it that day he complimented it in the stairway.
"Yeah...yeah, buddy. It's me." She assured him anyway, reaching to stroke her hand, gently, through that short black hair of his, and down the back of his head til she was just as gently caressing his chin as she continued to whisper to him. "I'm gonna get you out of here, okay?"
He just responded with a soft groan, unable to really make anything of what she was saying or doing, let alone care about what had brought her here in the first place.
All he knew was that the heaviness of his eyelids was getting the best of him, and he just let his eyes close again, as Amanda caught his head, just in time to stop it from hitting the wall behind it too hard.
—
She wiped a tear from her cheek and turned to search her bag again, until she found the next tool she intended to try her hand at using.
She pulled a long wire hanger from it, which was almost perfectly straightened except for a small curve at the bottom of it, which she hoped just might be good enough to fish the tub's drain for that shackle key that Adam had clearly lost down it, in his panicked awakening.
"Come on, come on…." She whispered, desperately, to herself as she lowered the hanger down, further and further into the drain.
She began to whimper softly to herself, as she pulled and maneuvered it from side to side. "Oh, come on!"
She was practically to the point of crying, when suddenly she heard a soft clink, like she had finally caught something.
"Oh, please, please, please!" She pleaded to herself, carefully lifting the long wire back up and out of the scummy drain. "PLEASE…"
She finally lifted it back out and, beneath the hair and grime that it had also picked up, there was the key.
She practically cried out in her relief , as she grabbed it from the hook she'd curved into the wire, and began cleaning it off before she tried it in the keyhole.
She then grabbed for her flashlight again, to better see where Adam's shackled foot was, and gently lifted it up and across her lap, to more easily unlock it, causing him to start stirring again, but only slightly.
"It's okay, Adam." She whispered, gently. "I'm just gonna get this out of the way for you, and then I'm gonna get you home, okay? Home?"
"Home?" He echoed weakly back to her.
She could just about feel her heart sink, as he repeated it.
His voice sounded so weak, and helpless, that if he did actually understand what she meant by that, she doubted if he even believed it at this point.
I mean, why should he?
The sadness it brought with it, and even more so as he seemed to be struggling again to keep his eyes open, distraction from the fact that she had no explanation prepared for how she knew how to get him back home, nor for how the "very rockstar" looking girl he met in the stairway a few days ago even knew he was being held here.
"Yeah, Buddy. Home…." She placed the key in and turned it til the shackle clanked open, finally freeing him. "Theeere we go."
His head perked up at the sound of the metal shackle hitting the floor, and his voice quivered as he looked down at it, and then back up at her, as he pulled his leg back.
He managed to scoot away a couple inches, and the manner in which he did just reminded her of the poor, frightened puppy she'd felt like she was setting out into the night for earlier, skinny and petrified of human contact.
"Adam, shh, shh! It's okay." She cooed, crawling over to his side. "I'm here to help you, give me your arm."
Too weak to keep putting up much of a fight, he just hesitantly allowed her to proceed, with little more than a whimper.
"I know, I- "
But, in the darkness, she was unable to see that she had accidentally grabbed hold of his wounded shoulder, til he let out a pained yet hoarse cry as she tried to help him up.
"Shit! Sorry! I'm sorry!" She panicked, scurrying over to his other side. "Here, it's okay, we'll just try this again. Okay?"
He just whimpered again.
"I know, I know.." She cooed softly to him. "It's okay, I got you." She very carefully took his arm and wrapped it around her shoulders and gently grabbed his hand to hold it in place, placing her other hand around his waist to better support him.
"On second thought, we should probably get you to a hospital first."
Hospital.
For whatever reason, that word triggered something to get the gears in his brain working again, somewhat.
"Hos- " He started to repeat back, in that same whisper. "Lawrence…" He whimpered. "He- "
"...He's okay. He's fine, he got out." She started to gently try and stand him up on his feet, as she continued to coax him. "Come on, you gotta try and help me out here, can you stand?"
He just groaned softly again and quietly obeyed.
"There, that's it. Now can you walk?"
He just glanced around, tired and still in a delirious confusion, as if he too were surprised that he was standing, but eventually allowed Amanda to start guiding him out of the room, and down the long corridor to try and get him to her car.
When they finally reached the car, Amanda glanced around the area again to check their surroundings, as she guided Adam over to the passenger side and helped him in.
Almost as soon as she'd gently released him, he basically collapsed into the seat, as if at least a part of him was becoming aware that he could finally start to relax now.
She smiled slightly at him, draping the blanket over his cold, pale body, which he just about as quickly clung tightly onto, as he shivered, like an exhausted child who was simply getting ready for a car trip home after a long day.
—
Just as the word hospital had triggered something in Adam's mind to concern himself with what had happened to Lawrence, however, the slamming shut of Amanda's passenger door behind her, as she turned to walk around to the driver's side, seemed to trigger an adrenaline induced state of panic for him as he tried to figure out where he was and what was happening.
—
Shortly after, Amanda opened up her door and saw him frantically looking around.
"Oh, good. You're awake." She breathed a sigh of relief.
Even if he was scared out of his mind, it was certainly a more welcome and slightly comforting response, compared to the limp, near lifeless shell of the man she'd met, he was only a few minutes ago. At least this she was sure she could calm him down from.
She started to reach past him for the sandwich bag she'd set on the floor earlier.
"I brought you some- "
"BACK OFF!" He warned, with the same panicked tone he'd reacted to her with, when she had been in his apartment to take him, as he frantically searched his surroundings for something he could use for a weapon.
"Adam, just calm down, okay?" She tried to reassure him, to no avail.
"CALM DOWN?! I'M NOT GONNA CALM DOWN, WHAT'S GOING ON? HOW DO YOU KNOW MY NAME?!"
—
Admittedly, he did have her, on that one.
She was sure he'd recall meeting her on that stairway a few days ago, especially since, even in his state of total delirium and exhaustion, he'd called her by that Rockstar compliment….but he hadn't given her a name…...so, now she had to hope with everything that she had that she could just claim that he had and he'd believe i without much of a second thought.
He HAS to, right? That's way too small of a detail for him to laser in on, especially with everything else on his plate.
Right? RIGHT?
—
She put her hands out in front of her to try and calm him down
"My name is Amanda…." She explained calmly, reaching down into one of her pockets for that flyer he'd given her for his buddy's band. "We met on the staircase a few days ago….." She handed it to him. "...remember?"
He took another look at her, as if he were only just, in that second, recognizing her, as he took the flyer.
"Rockstar…." A little grin began to light up his face. "...how could I forget?"
"Well, you were pretty out of it, to be fair."
"I was- " He took another look around. "How long was I out?"
"A while…" She tried to make it sound like she was guesstimating. "I'd say at least a day, probably two…"
"Probably t- " He had a new twinge of sadness in his tone, as he said that. One that made her decide against coming up with some convoluted explanation of how she could've possibly known to find him and where, and to just tell him that Lawrence sent her after him, after he'd gotten out.
Adam had already been through enough, these past several days, he didn't need to know the depths of why Lawrence hadn't come back, let alone that he'd never intended to.
No...he didn't need that on his mind too.
"Alright, well how'd you know where to find- " He stopped mid sentence, as he caught the sweet and savory whiff of something in the air around him.
"..and what smells so good?"
She smiled, reaching again for the paper bag that contained the roast beef sub sandwich half, that was now probably room temperature, if not cold again, that she'd snagged from her fridge for him.
"...thought you might be hungry." She handed it to him, still trying to downplay what she knew of his situation.
"Ohh, you have no idea." He muttered excitedly, wolfing it down just about faster than he could chew it.
Her smile faded slightly, as she watched him look around a bit more, as if he were trying to feel out if she might have anything else for him, and she felt her own twinge of sadness upon that realization of how desperate he had to be, to have this reaction….and how easily John and Lawrence could've just left him there, without an honest second thought of coming back for him.
"Tell you what…" She finally suggested to him, before he could say anything else.
He looked back up at her with anticipation.
"What do you say, we go get you...and that.." She nodded toward his wounded, bloodied shoulder. "...checked out, and then I'll buy you another one…" She stopped to correct herself. "...as many as you want, actually."
He looked at her curiously, wincing soon after, as his adrenaline starting to wear off was bringing more attention to his wound, then looked wide eyed at it. "Oh, FUCK!"
"Yeah…" She sighed. "Not to mention you could barely even walk to my car, as it is. I don't want you fainting in it."
"Yeah, fair enough." He chuckled nervously, his voice going a little more quiet again, when he spoke. "...alright."
She nodded.
A little smile crept across his face, as he watched her start up the car.
It wouldn't have mattered to him in the slightest if he knew that, today, her rockstar hair was actually I just rolled out of bed to save your ass hair…...he adored it, and her either way.
"...What?" She finally asked, having caught him looking at her again.
"Nothing…" He lied, with that little smirk she couldn't help but adore. "Just…..thanks."
She smiled back at him, sensing there was more behind that smirk, but letting him take the win anyway. "You're welcome, Adam."
He smiled back again, pulling the blanket back over him.