Fandom [CLOSED] Tokyo Ghoul: Dead Enmity

[Yoki]

"Yeah." Dane looked over to the bag, making sure not to drop Jackson as he did so, once he'd taken the torch he took a step forwards and flicked it on. "Well, this is gonna be a whole lot of fun." The sarcasm in his voice was evident as he started down the staircase, he didn't really want to be there, but he had chosen to go and so now he'd go through with what he said he would. 


The flashlight was helpful when descending the stairs, and it gave him a good look of the hallway when they got down to the bottom... It was a shock, that was for sure. A basement under a warehouse with some many room? Nothing but rooms. The whole corridor was literally just door, after door, after door of the same large, shining, metal. "Well holy shit." He breathed, taking a second to look around. 


Most of them were closed tight shut, but there was the odd one or two that were open. Still, he didn't go inside. "Jackson. You really think there's people in here?" He asked, moving over to the nearest locked door. There was no handle, nothing to grab onto, you'd have to have a key to shut the door again, which was something they didn't have. Opening these doors could let anything out! They might be locked in there, but they might not be so friendly once let out, after all they didn't know Jackson nor Dane's face. Either they'd be terrified or combative. 


He laid a hand on the cold metal, pushing at it to see if it would move, but as expected it stood its ground and kept its original place. "You've got the shit for this, right?" The man asked, turning his head slightly so that he could look at Jackson, "Let's just get one person out at a time, make sure they're not super...hostile or anything... Could be dangerous." 

 

[yaint]

Jackson squinted through the darkness, picking out what he could in the torchlight that shuddered and flitted around as Dane moved. It all looked the same as usual: no guardsmen, no traps, no second way out. They were in the basement and there was no turning back until their mission was either finished or failed.


In a way, Dane was right. There was no telling what kind of people would be locked up behind these walls, whether they would be frightened sheep or deranged wolves. Or a wolf in sheep's clothing, said a rather unhelpful voice in his head, which he then silenced by taking a very pointed look at the next door he spotted.


"Let me try that one," he suggested sharply, dropping the case full of pins from his mouth to his hands so that he could speak. His arms were still wrapped tightly around Dane's shoulders, which made it hard to point, but it didn't really matter which door they stopped at. He simply tightened the grip of his left arm and then brushed a hand against the door. "B-besides... If something goes wrong, just - you can just get us out of here, right? I mean, you... Ghouls are su-supposed to be strong."


His weak attempt to reassure a man twenty times as strong as himself was quickly dropped and left to gather dust as he was lowered down towards the lock. It turned out that Jackson was tall enough to reach the lock comfortably from the ground, so instead of forcing Dane to hold him in place he sat on the ground propped up by one hand as he used his other arm to feed a pin through the lock.


I've never done this before, Jackson reminded himself as he wiggled his index finger and thumb up and down blindly, trying to feel about for what was happening inside the lock. He could be wasting everyone's time here, taking charge for the sake of a tactic he had learned from something as unreliable as television. He could be wrong, he could just have taken Bella and Dane here again for no reason.


Click.


Those thoughts seemed to drop immediately. One of the tiny columns felt like it had disappeared, and Jackson's heart skipped a beat. It must have risen above the cut-off point... Which meant... He was right?


There was no time to waste in thought. He continued to push through the lock with that pin until the next column rose and disappeared, then the next, and the one after that. Eventually it felt like there was no obstruction at all, and the man's chest swelled.


"I think... I - I think it's open," he breathed up at Dane, sliding back on the palm of his hand for a moment. Did he dare open the door? It didn't look like there was much of a choice; the only other option would be to do it, but a little bit later, and postponing the same action was not doing any good for the person inside.


Slowly, using the surface of his thumb, Jackson pressed at the lock and twisted it. The door clicked, and then it swung inwards, leaving the man sitting on the floor exposed to whatever waited inside. He craned his neck to look in, waving a hand at Dane as a cue to shine in the torch.

 

[Yoki]

The entire time Jackson was picking that lock Dane was tapping his foot and trying to keep his light still, he didn't like this idea, if something jumped out at him he was going to blame Jackson for it. Some ghoul, or human, better not attack them for trying to help it, he knew they may be scared or hostile, but he didn't want them scratching someone's eyes out or something. That would be rather inconvenient when they had a plethora of locks to pick. 


He waited and waited, his foot making quiet tapping noises against the hard ground below. It was agonising to stand there and just listen for that lock to click, at one point Dane was sure that it never would, but then finally... That small clink noise signified the opening of the door, of course Jackson was quick to confirm it as well, they were in. 


"Let's see what we got." Dane turned his head to look into the room, it was dark, but his torch was in there in seconds, illuminating the back wall. The room was tiny, damp, empty, there wasn't much there at all. It was a cruel place to keep someone, no food, no water, probably only given things when they were truly needed. At the thought of being holed up in such a small place the man shuddered. Whoever was in there must feel horrendous. 


The light landed directly onto someone sitting on the ground, a female with knee length, messy, brown hair, thin lips, and a dirty face. Her eyes reflected the light as she looked straight back into it, covering her eyes after a moment and stunned silence. 


"Could you get that thing out of my face?" She hissed, standing up and moving backwards, "I'd appreciate it if I wasn't being harassed by hands and lights." 

 

[yaint]

He could not help the way that his entire body seemed to stiffen when Dane moved his hand to bathe that cell in the cold white light of his little torch. Rationally-thinking, it was in every way better than the darkness. Jackson could see without having to move from when he was sat on the floor, and he did not have to squint to make out the features of the room which appeared not to exist. But the image still sent shivers down the back of his neck. It might have been the way it revealed all of the marks on the walls left by previous victims who had scratched and bled in their cells. It might also have been the way the shadows seemed to stretch and twist into evil claws which loomed in the corners and waited for somebody to get close enough to snatch.


Mostly, though, it was the girl in the corner of the room. Jackson did not quite notice the length of her hair until she stood, but once she was up there on her feet, towering over him as she stepped back and shielded herself from the light, it was obvious. She had not had a haircut in quite a long time... How long had she spent in this room? It didn't even have a bathroom, the man realised with a sudden twinge of disgust.


It took a moment to realise that he was not here to be afraid of other people. He was here to let them out, and this was the first victim they had managed to rescue. 


"Sorry," he said quietly, leaning back on his hand and then raising his other palm at Dane again as another signal. Not once did he take his eyes off the girl with the long hair, but there was a long silence as he decided on what he should say next. Don't be too forward, he told himself. Just be careful. "There - there's n-nobody around outside, you know. Err, c-can you walk? The exit - it's there." He pointed in the direction in which they had come, towards the stairs on top of which Bella was waiting.

 

[Yoki]

"You mean... You're not..." The girl seemed very confused with Jackson's mention of just walking out of the place, she blinked, lowering her arm as Dane lowered the torch so that it wasn't in her eyes, her thin face a picture of confusion. She obviously didn't understand why she was being given the option to freely walk away from a cell that she'd been trapped in for what seemed like a rather long time. "What?"


Bare feet dragged along the floor as she walked towards the two males at her door, scanning them as they stared on at her. "You're serious?" Dark eyes flickered back and forth as she decided whether or not this was a trick. "'Cause to me it looks mighty suspicious that you two are just letting me go..." She crossed her arms, "I've never seen you guys do that before, you guys don't do that, don't play with me. I step out, I die. I know the drill." 


"We're not with Zeplin." Dane assured, taking a step back and starting to move Jackson to allow for the girl to step out, "Quite the opposite actually." 


"What?" Her expression changed from suspicious to incertitude after Dane made the claim that the two weren't with the group that had captured and placed her in a cell. "Then how the hell did you get in here?"


"We walked in."


"Walked in?"


"Yeah, there's no one here. Look." Dane motioned with his torch, moving down the hallways and flashing it around. The girl cautiously made her way towards the door, grabbing the metal with spindly fingers and peering out into the hallway beyond. To her relief, Dane was telling the truth. There really was no one there. 


"You're serious..." She sighed, closing her eyes for a second, but opening them moments later after realising she probably shouldn't let her guard down. Though relief turned into suspicion once more when she turned her gaze back to the two men. "Then what were you guys doing here?" 

 

[yaint]

Jackson twirled the little bobby pin around between his fingers. He thought that perhaps it was best to keep his mouth shut for now. It was better to let Dane do all of the talking than it was to risk getting his tongue tied and confusing the prisoner even further, or at least for now. He would talk when he had to. For now it was just a matter of craning his head from side to side so that he could listen to what was happening.


When Dane began to move him again, the man grunted in surprise and ended up dropping the hair pin onto the floor, where it clattered away into the darkness. No matter. He probably had a few hundred more in the case, which he had brought with him and laid down on the floor. Quickly, he snatched it up and put it in his mouth to hold, then shuffled backwards a few inches on his palms. He wanted to get closer to Dane for now... Just in case something happened. This girl seemed fine, but he did not want to be stuck on the ground for too long if something went sour, which could very well happen if he could trust the eerie sense of foreboding he got from this place.


When silence fell upon them, Jackson dropped the case of pins from his jaws. It landed softly atop his lap, but he did not seem to notice, because his mouth had shaped into a small dark circle. What did he say? "Uh, we..." For a moment he glanced upwards to Dane for help, but he figured that he probably would not even know the answer. This was Jackson's idea, not his. But even so, he could hear the skepticism in those words. It made him uneasy, so he shifted a few more inches backwards and subconsciously grabbed at the heel of Dane's shoe. "We were just looking. Zeplin t-took - they took something from us. So, we thought... Uh, while we're here. Finding out what happened. We thought we'd stop by and help you... Or something. We're not with them, I swear! Dane. y-..."


He wanted to hiss out a quick, 'Say something!' to Dane, but decided against it. There was no point in looking desperate, although he did notice himself tugging nervously at the end of the man's trousers and raising an uncertain hand as he waited for an opportunity to get off the ground. Something about this girl made Jackson feel very small and powerless. He didn't like it, and was beginning to think that getting everyone out and making a break for it sounded like a very good idea.

 

[Yoki]

Upon realising Jackson discomfort, Dane grabbed the man and picked him back up, positioning him on his back again. Sure, it was awkward and strange to carry Jackson around, but he didn't mind it, they were here to get people out anyway. Jackson just wasn't good in social situations, or at explaining, making him deal with both had been a bad decision on Dane's part as now he was just muddling up there story. This girl needed something that was solid, that she could trust them with and not feel threatened when moving out of the cell. 


"What he means to say is they took a kid from us." He started, staring this new individual in the eyes as he spoke,  "We got them, but we know there's more people down here and there was no guard of this place so we came to get you guys out as well." That explanation was good enough, it was the honest truth, "But hey, take it or leave it. You could always stop here." With a shrug, Dane backed up completely, moving his light to down the hallway. "We've got a bunch of people to get out, so we have to get moving, who knows when they'll be back." 


"A kid..." For a few moments the woman stood still, but as she started to properly listen and take in Dane's explanation she became a lot calmer. She grabbed her hair, taking a long strand and tying it around the rest, holding the whole thing in a ponytail behind her head. "And you're being sincere?" Again she asked if they were being truthful, but this time she stepped right to the edge of the cell. It was now obvious how much shorter she was than the man in front of her, and she looked around Bella's age, possibly a few years older. 


"Yeah. One hundred percent, if you want to go, go. You're free." Dane nudged Jackson, motioning to a door across from the two that was also locked, "As I said, got to get more people out." 


The woman behind Dane had crouched down, taking the pin that Jackson had dropped off of the floor and examining it as he spoke. For a little while she didn't say anything, instead bending and playing with the item as if trying to change its shape. 


"Then let me help you." 


"What?" The taller individual turned around, brows furrowed. 


"You heard me. I'll help you. I can pick these locks." She stood up, staring Dane in the eyes for a moment, then looking to Jackson, then Dane again. 


"Well..." He had to think about it, but it would be helpful to have another person on their team, and she seemed pretty adamant on it. "Okay, yeah. I'm sure it couldn't hurt. My name's Dane by the way, this is Jackson." 


"Diana." She replied, "My name's Diana." 


"Well, it's good to meet you." 


"You too." 

 

[yaint]

Grateful to be off the ground again, Jackson cradled the case full of pins against his own chest and held tightly on to Dane as though he would fall a hundred metres if he let go. He peered over at the long-haired girl with squinted eyes and listened to the exchange.


"You - you know how?" It was something of a surprise to the man that a girl like Diana, as she had just named herself, would want to stop and help them pick locks. A part of his mind which had been responsible for the triumph of getting the girl out had darkened as he considered sharing responsibility of the break-out, but a second later he had made his decision. "I mean, cool," he said quickly to cover up his surprise, wishing for his somewhat insulting outburst to be forgotten, "That's cool. W-we could use the help, there's others..." He stopped for a moment to count the doors. The torchlight only stretched so far before it fell away into shadow, but even in that little circle of illumination there was easily another dozen cells left to open.


Jackson called out towards Diana, still cautiously gripping onto Dane's shoulders with claw-like fingers, and then tossed a handful of pins towards her from his case. The hair accessories rained down on the floor by the girl's feet, but he didn't stop to watch her pick them up. He simply tapped on Dane's shoulder.


Something had been bugging him for a little while, something about this girl he didn't know. She could be anyone from anywhere, and if they ever did bring her back? Well, he would just hope that Daryl had eaten recently. A dick like him would probably not waste a second in slaughtering a lamb like her if she turned out to be human after all with no visible connections to anyone else relevant. So he stretched his neck forwards and covered the side of his face with one hand so that he could whisper, "Hey, Dane? That girl, Diana. I-is she - y'know..." He twirled one finger in the thick air for a moment as he hesitated to use the rather bland word which was the only suitable choice. "A ghoul?"

 

[Yoki]

"Yes." Diana was quick to answer Jackson, moving for the pins as he threw them to her. She took the handful off of the ground and spent a few seconds placing most of them in her hair, after all she had to keep it up as well as have somewhere to keep the pins, then she moved over to a nearby door and started to work on picking it with one of the pins she'd pried open. 


"Hm?" Moving Jackson over to another door, Dane leaned down to get the man into a position to start picking the locks when he got that strange question. "What? Her?" He looked over at the woman now knelt down, picking at the lock, "No need to worry, she's a ghoul." He remembered what happened the last time they brought a human into the house...that hadn't ended well, Caleb had been destroyed, their secret could have been given out, it was important that he assured Jackson this time around. He didn't want the same thing to happen again with any of these people. "She's not as spooked as I expected her to be." The man whispered, "Nor is she all that hostile... Strange." It was a little weird that Diana was so ready to just get going, she'd stepped out and started working already, he admired her for that for sure, but he didn't quite understand it. 


"Anyway." Dane muttered, shaking his head, "Get on with that door, she's fine." It was best to get out of here as soon as possible, they had Bella keeping watching, but that wouldn't stop them from getting trapped down there if anyone was to come back... It would just give them a warning that they were going to be trapped within seconds. 


Again he positioned the man on the ground to start working on the door, shining his flashlight in his direction. As he was waiting he called over to the girl working on the opposite door, "Hey, Diana." 


"Yeah?" She didn't turn around, continuing with her work as she talked. 


"Do these doors open from the inside?" 


"No, I don't think so. Why?"


"Doesn't matter, I was just wondering something." 


"Okay..." 

 

[yaint]

"Okay. Thanks." It was hard to tell whether or not he was supposed to be relieved, but in the end Jackson figured that he would have been set on edge by either a 'yes' or a 'no'. He tried to convince himself that fearing the girl's strength was perhaps a better outcome than fearing Daryl's reaction. The way this Diana was behaving, moving along quickly to pick the locks without looking back, made him think that she was not to be feared anyway.


This was good. They were fine.


He allowed himself a tiny sigh as he touched down on the cold ground again, the sound of his breath masked by the sound of the pins rattling in his bag. He picked one out, leaned back on one hand and used his teeth to shape it into another make-shift pick. There was pressure now that Diana was on the job; go too slowly and he would look incompetent. But this time he had a feel for the mechanics inside, and after a few moments of twisting the pin and tapping up at the columns inside the lock, he had managed to open his second cell.


Maybe, if he had been allowed the time, Jackson would have waved for Dane to angle the torch into the next room so that they could see who or what waited inside. But the moment that door creaked open, the man was knocked flat on his back.


Something small and quick had lumbered towards that bar of light at the speed of sound - or so it seemed. Jackson heard the crash as the thing fell over him in its frenzy, landing flat on its face with arms and legs sprawled out to the sides. "Dane!" came the call from the male on the ground after getting a foot in the mouth. But Dane did not need to move, because instead of making a break for the exit or trying to tangle its way around the two men, the thing from the cell rose up on two legs. It looked a lot less like an animal in the torch light; in fact, it took on a very humanoid form, with stick-thin limbs and a sunken face filmed by sallow, dirt-smeared skin.


To his shock, the first thing that Jackson saw when he looked at the mystery boy was Adrian. He had shaggy black hair, a pair of stormy-grey eyes and a figure so close to his old friend's wiry frame that it frightened him. But upon closer inspection, the differences became obvious. This prisoner had a wider nose. Longer eyelashes. Several missing teeth which formed a big, black crescent when his cracked lips stretched open in a grimace of terror.


Jackson grabbed on to the prisoner boy's ankle just as he began to run away. "Wait!" the man cried out.


The boy froze in place. "Yeah?" he murmured, twisting his head around at what looked like an impossible angle until the light revealed that he had simply pivoted on the foot in the man's hand. "You're not-"


"Exit's that way," he said, pointing towards the opposite end of the corridor.


Watery grey eyes drifted down to meet Jackson's. He shuddered to see how similar they were to Adrian's, but that gaze quickly left him and turned upwards to settle on Diana. Then the next subject was Dane. "I want to go," he told the man with the torch, although he didn't look sure. He made no attempt to pull his foot out of Jackson's grip, although he could have done so easily.

 

[Yoki]

Upon the opening of the door, Dane did not expect to see a small figure dash out and trample Jackson. He hadn't moved during the show, just as Diana hadn't turned around after having opened her door and walked inside, but he'd watched with a puzzled expression on his face. Kids. Of course they had kids here. Disgusting, despicable... He couldn't believe they'd subject children to this kid of treatment, lock them up like animals, how could they? How dare they?


"Whoa kid." With a chuckle, Dane moved the flashlight and pointed it at the ground, "If you want to go, go." He motioned with his head, never breaking eye contact with those brown eye's of the boy's. They reminded him of the boy in their household, Adrian, but...they didn't have that...look. That spine chilling look that was almost impossible to explain without saying deranged. Instead they were just a child's eyes, a child who probably wanted his family back and wanted to go home...but how long had he been there? Was his family even around anymore? "But do you know where you're going?" The man raised an eyebrow and smiled down at the smaller individual, "Do you know anyone who could help you?" 


Just after Dane had asked that question, Diana emerged from the cell across from them, closing the door as much as possible with her foot. For a moment he broke eye contact with the child in front of him and instead looked towards the woman, who shook her head at him and looked back to the cell. 


"You don't want to go in there." The way she said those words was oddly calm, obviously, they was no one in that cell, or no one still breathing at least, but something had happened... Whoever she was, she was very level headed, Dane could definitely appreciate her cool and calm attitude in this situation, it was needed. "Who's the child?"


"Don't know. Just got him out of a cell." Dane shrugged at Diana's question, turning back to the small male in front of him. Did she have a plan or something?


"I see." Walking forwards, the woman twirled her pin in her hand and started to speak, "Hey kid, do you know if your family is still here or not?" Her expression stayed pretty neutral the entire time, although not emotionless, just level headed and calm. She gave off a sense of ease, like nothing was wrong, in fact, Dane didn't feel like he'd met her merely moments ago... He felt like he'd know her for years. The way she spoke was so casual that it made him feel as if they'd been friends, even with the boy that had just come out of the cell. Whilst talking to him she looked around, deciding the cell she should open next as she waited for a reply.

 

[yaint]

Adrian's look-alike managed a stiff not as he stared back up through the darkness, eyes working to build up a larger image as they flitted from place to place, drawing in every little pinprick of light that bounced back off the damp stone walls.


"I'm not a kid," he insisted quietly. His foot jumped as though he had suddenly realised Jackson's hand had been wrapped around it; he yanked it away, nearly falling over again in the process, and slammed it into the ground. It would have hit the man's face, had he not scrambled to one side as soon as he saw it coming. The boy did not react. He simply frowned towards Diana and said, "I'm fourteen. My brother is here somewhere... I think."


Jackson, who was now motioning for Dane's help again, suddenly felt cold. This wasn't an eighteen year-old who looked like too young for his age. This guy was actually a kid, a real child who had been locked up and half-starved. And he had a brother in here. The thought of it made Jackson's blood boil with new rage; those Zeplin bastards were sick, but he had not realised to what exact degree until now. If he ever dared to come back here after getting all these prisoners out, they could be the first to learn what it felt like to get a hard, fast punch to the jaw.


"Are you letting people out?" the boy asked suddenly, prompting Jackson to look up.


He nodded, "Yeah."


"Tom, too?"


"What?"


"Tommy-Jones," Adrian's look-alike said again. It was difficult to tell in the pink light, but Jackson could have sworn the boy's face had flushed pink. "That's him. I don't know if he's here."


"Oh," Jackson said, although he was having trouble keeping his voice down. This kid hadn't done anything wrong, not as far as he knew, but everything he said felt like it was splitting his skull from inside. He was also becoming fairly frustrated with being on the ground, especially seeing as Tommy-Jones' brother kept nearly stepping on him. "W-well, uh - we'll look, okay? If he's here then we'll get him out. Goddamn it... Dane! Can - can you help me up a sec?"


The child blinked at Jackson like he thought the man was referring to him with that last request, but he seemed to realise what was going on when he turned about and saw Dane stood behind him. His nose twitched as he turned back. Those grey eyes widened, and the kid clutched at his stomach like it hurt. He forced himself to look away from the human on the floor, and then he found Diana twirling that pin around.


"Is that a key!?" he piped suddenly with a clear interest as he skipped over to the girl.

 

[Yoki]

"Fourteen huh? Yeah...you're growing up." Dane nodded his head, moving over to help Jackson off of the floor as he saw how uncomfortable the man was getting yet again. It was awkward for him to put him down every time, maybe he should just kneel or something and wait for the door to open, that would be easier for both of them and there was more of a chance of Dane getting collided with rather than Jackson. Which was definitely the better option, Dane was stronger. 


"Tommy-Jones...hmph." Diana continued to twirl the pin as she listened to the boy talk about his brother, her expression never wavering. "Just him then?" With a shrug she went to turn back around to keep looking, but soon enough the boy's interest was on her rather than any of the two males that he had just been talking to. A second ago he'd wanted to leave, but now he was interested in the 'key' she had in her hand. It might be of some use to him. 


Th woman looked down at the pin and turned her head to the side, "Yeah, kind of." She replied, "But it's a special key." She looked back up to meet those grey eyes with brown, "It's not as easy to use as a normal key, you've got to play around with it a bit more. Here." With that, she motioned with her head to the boy, pivoting on her foot and walking over to one of the doors that hadn't yet been opened. Then she took a pin out of her hair and pried it apart, bending it into the shape of her own, before holding it out to the boy. "Have one of your own. I'll teach you how to use it if you like and then we can get these people out and find your brother. Sound good?"


Before he could reply, she'd already knelt down on the ground and started to wiggle the pin into the lock. Her focus wasn't on the boy next to her anymore, although she did ask him a question. "You said your brother's name was Tom, but what's yours? We might as well get acquainted whilst we're here." 


"Well. Looks like she's more help than I expected the first prisoner to be." Dane mumbled to Jackson, Diana wasn't what he expected, he expected someone scared and trying to get to grip with this situation more than someone who just came out and immediately got on with the job, even trying to get others that were out to help. It was good, he wasn't complaining, just different.

 

[yaint]

The black-haired boy had seemed to almost forget that Dane and Jackson even existed. He had opened up his palm and flicked the pin out of the older woman's hand, letting the tiny 'key' drop down into his clutches. He handled it like some kind of ancient artefact; his touch was careful and his eyes wide as he stared at it, deciphering the shape of the strange object.


"Oh, it's a pick," he realised out loud, and suddenly the object became very uninteresting. He stared up at Diana. His brow furrowed. The hair pin disappeared inside his fingers. "I'm not stupid! I know what it is, it's a lock pick..." 


"Yeah, useful," Jackson agreed quietly into Dane's ear. The more he watched this girl, the less tense he felt - although that might have been because of the kid bouncing around, acting like, well, a kid. For somebody who had been locked up since God knows when, he was awfully awake and alert.


The kid in question kicked at the ground. His hand was clenched tightly, made into a fist, and he seemed adamant about refusing to use the lock pick now. He was probably just contrary, thinking that Diana had underestimated him.


***


Jackson raised an arm to mop his brow, which felt like it was being beaten out from the inside. It wasn't just his own sweat which made his skin clammy now. The thick air had settled and condensed and filmed over his forehead. But he still felt out of breath after getting up and down from Dane over and over.


Diana and the boy, who had finally and reluctantly admitted that his name was Callum, had proven to be more useful than the man could have first imagined. There were more doors in this corridor than he had anticipated, and not all of the prisoners that came out were as willing to help. Naturally they were timid, frightened. Several were still hiding in the shadows of their open cells. Others had scrambled for the exit, probably gone to sit with Bella or disappear into the city.


The brother named Tommy-Jones had been found. He looked a lot like Callum, but he was taller and his eyes were brown instead of grey. Tom had stayed to kneel and watch his younger brother as he lingered in the darkness, teaching himself how to pick locks, but only where Diana could not see him. So far he had only managed to free one prisoner, a little blonde-haired girl who could surely be no older than four. Several more children had gathered in the corridor, bunching up together at the feet of a grey-haired woman who must have once been plump and round, judging by the looseness of her clothing.


"Hey... Uh, Dane?" Jackson wheezed finally, lowering his voice as much as he could. He was getting too tired to keep going the same way, and it didn't help when he kept getting sharp looks from the few grown prisoners who had not fled to ground level. "How many doors can you s-see down there, still? One, ten, what?"

 

[Yoki]

"Great. Then go ahead and use it." Diana replied, finally opening her cell and then moving on to the next. She didn't take a second to look back at the boy, simply too involved in her work to waste time. That didn't mean she wouldn't talk to him though, she was just waiting for his answer to her previous question. 


The woman continued to open door and as she went she got quicker and quicker, managing to pick the locks in mere seconds before moving onto the next door. Maybe different people were let out, at one point she'd stopped to talk to a tall, blond male, but after the two had smiled at each other and nodded he had disappeared upstairs, most likely into the streets.


The metal doors continued to open until she got to a grate, one which didn't seem to require a key to open, in fact it didn't look like you were meant to go through it. There was nothing on the other side apart from a long corridor. No more doors. It looked like their job was done, all they had to do at that point was round everyone up. 


"Hey! Dane. Jackson." Diana ran back down the hallway to where Dane and Jackson stood, she motioned with her head in the direction she'd come from and shrugged, "All doors are done. I think we're good here." She'd got there and answered Jackson's question before Dane even had the chance to open his mouth, an efficient worker for sure. 


"Oh. Great, I'll deal with getting them all somewhere then." Dane smiled, "Thanks for the help Diana, it was really nice of you."


"Yeah, any time. So, if we're all done here..." She gave the man a small salute, walking past him and towards the entrance, pulling her long hair over her shoulder, "I'll be seeing you. Thanks for the freedom." 


"No, problem!" As she walked away, Dane turned to watch her. He thought he'd just stay like that, she wanted to go, so she was leaving...but maybe they could do something for her. "Hey! Diana! Wait!" If he didn't have Jackson around then he probably would have run up to the woman, but instead he just waited for her to turned around again. 


"Yeah?" She raised an eyebrow as he thought of what to say next. What was he even doing? What did he even ask? 


"You hungry?" It just came out of his mouth and he smiled, they needed to do something to repay her for sticking around so long, "And...maybe he might need a bit of help getting all these people somewhere safe...y'know?" Upon hearing the second part of his sentence the woman grinned and Dane looked down. 


"Okay. Just this once." 

 

[yaint]

So that was everybody. Nobody could tell how many other properties Zeplin had infested and loaded full of the unsuspecting and the weak, but this was one setting cleared. Jackson felt a little spark of triumph. Those bastards could come back whenever they next felt like shifting their lazy behinds, and then walk in to find their deeds undone, just as deserved. Secretly the man hoped that whoever got here first would get a good beating, or perhaps the same torture as their prisoners. That would be the best kind of justice.


At first he had been readying himself to speak, but it looked like Dane had all of this under control. Good. This guy was stronger than he was, better at speaking, far less likely to make himself or Jackson look like a fool in front of everybody left behind. He did stiffen somewhat at the mention of food, but the tension quickly cleared. It was fine. It was Dane's supply, wherever that came from.


"She's not, it doesn't matter!"


Jackson's head snapped up, and he flinched after smacking his chin against the side of Dane's head. But once his eyes adjusted, he saw what he had heard.


It was that small boy who looked like Adrian, the one called Callum. He was stood at the foot of the staircase, bent forwards with his hands vigorously shaking the shoulders of his older brother, who had folded up on the floor with his head in his knees.


"Th-then where?" wailed Tommy-Jones through his shredded trousers as Callum continued to pull him back and forth in an attempt to get him to stand.


Callum thought for a moment. "Outside."


The change was so quick that Tom's movement felt like it had sent a wave of cold air back to where Jackson and Dane were. The boy had unfolded at lightning speed and raced up two steps at a time, Callum scrambling up on all fours in quick pursuit.


Jackson hesitated. These children certainly struck him as odd, even for a pair of adolescent ghouls. But then again, there were all kinds of strange people gathered around behind him.


"Food?" rasped an older-looking man with wispy grey hair and cloudy eyes. He trudged lop-sidedly towards Dane. "You've got something to eat?"


Another man joined in. "Hey! Can I come?"


"What's happ'ning?" wailed one of the children. People were gathering now, murmurs of a meal passing back and forth. Somebody grabbed at Dane's elbow and shook it. Another ghoul began tugging at the bottom of Jackson's shirt, and the man could have sworn that he heard people excitedly chanting the word, 'human' like they had just found a winning lottery ticket. 


As though it would help protect him from the noise and all of the tugging and prodding he could not feel, Jackson tapped urgently at Dane's neck. "I-if you're g-going - go - now. I think these - these people are hungry, come on. B-Bella's waiting."

 

[Yoki]

Dane might have been able to focus on the boys heading up the stairs if it wasn't for all of the people around him, he nodded in response to Jackson and then gave Diana a look, the two of them quickly proceeded to round everyone who was coming up. It was quite a few people, but they needed help, and they had enough food to feed them. 


Soon enough they'd all ascended towards Bella, who was absolutely baffled, and got Jackson back into his wheelchair. She'd started conversing with Dane as they walked, making sure that people stayed close together. Diana stayed at the back of the group to make sure no one was lost, but he gaze seemed to be stuck on a certain crate in the warehouse. She didn't take her eyes off of it. As she walked she kept staring, like she expected something to jump out, like there was something there in the first place... It didn't look like she cared if anyone was watching her or not, she was too busy with that one thing, although as they moved out of the building she let her attention be taken by something else. 


It was hard to get so many people back without it looking strange, but that's what Dane and Bella tried to do. They stuck to back alleys and more abandoned parts of the streets as they went, eventually coming to their own. The entire time they were walking it was obvious that Dane was on edge, Bella kept asking him what it was, but he just said that it wasn't important... He just didn't know how Caleb was going to take this when they came in. 


Once at the door he had to turn around to look at everyone and tell them to follow him into the kitchen and not wander off at first since they had other people in the household who didn't know about all of this and they needed to explain it first off. When that was settled he opened the door and got Jackson in first, then had Bella stay at the door whilst he guided everyone through the house and towards the kitchen. What he'd wanted was for everyone to be upstairs, so that he could explain this once everyone was calm, but...that wasn't the case. 


"So what if you..." Adrian was kneeling on a counter to get to the top shelf of one of the cupboards, whilst Caleb was washing up a mug in the sink. Upon hearing people come into the house and walk towards them, Caleb turned around. He had been about to say something to Adrian, but once he saw Dane roll Jackson in and then all the people in the hallway he froze. The mug he was holding dropped into the sink, making a loud clattering noise, which spooked Adrian. Caleb looked to Dane with wide eyes, unable to speak or say anything. He hadn't been told what was going on...and so seeing all of this...he didn't know what to think. It was overwhelming to him.


He took a step backwards, grabbing his wrist with the opposite hand and pulling them into his chest, he didn't like being near people he didn't know in the first place...but this...this was...too much. 


Adrian had also turned around, chewing something as he knelt on the counter blinking. He was so confused. His gaze kept moving between Jackson and the people coming into the house... Where had they been. 


"Jackson..." He mumbled, "Why'd you leave me?" Jackson knew that Adrian didn't like not being told where the other was going before he left, and Caleb had only just got him to not freak out about it by distracting him. Now Jackson was coming back with a bunch of people and Adrian didn't know why...plus the man had been avoiding him for awhile... He really didn't get what he'd done wrong, but now his mind was racing with a lot of new possibilities. 


Someone moved through the side of the hallway and emerged in the doorway, looking inside. Diana. Her eyes were searching for Jackson or Dane, but they caught Adrian's. For a moment the two just looked at each other, Adrian had his head tilted to once side, eyes wide, whilst Diana looked on at him calmly with a raised eyebrow. 


"Oh? You guys own a dog?" Her voice was flat, but she never took her eyes off of Adrian. However, once she said that sentence the boy perked up, snapping his head to the opposite side. 


"Jackson, are you collecting maggots now?" Adrian swung his legs of from underneath himself and jumped soundlessly to the ground, grinning. The two still hadn't broken eye contact. 

 

[yaint]

Jackson could nearly feel the dozens of hungry eyes trained on his back the whole time, and for the majority of the journey he had had a horrible feeling that somebody kept straying far too close. But whenever he turned around to check, it was always the same sight: a long line of stragglers bundled together in little groups of two or three if not alone, stumbling nervously along behind himself and Dane as they followed the promise of a meal.


Several noses turned upwards as they followed everybody inside. Eyes darted around and devoured the image of the hallway, and those still bundled outside at the doorway stood on the balls of their feet to get a look inside until they too could move through.


Among the ghouls who had followed everybody home were Callum and Tommy-Jones, and they were towards the front of the group. The brothers had held each other's hand along the way, but now that they were in a brand new place, the taller of the two had pulled free and had stood to one side awkwardly, long and clumsy limbs hung still by his sides.


Naturally, the first thing Jackson looked for once he was indoors was Adrian - and sure enough, that voice came straight to him from the kitchen. "Adrian," he said quietly, peering into the doorway just as the boy appeared, but there was no time to blag an explanation as to why he had disappeared and then brought about twenty strangers back home with him. Diana had stepped in now, and as soon as she opened her mouth, Jackson could already feel that warning buzz in his fingertips.


His brown eyes glared pointedly up at Diana. His hands balled by his sides. Callum slunk through the room to take Tom's hand and lead him out of Jackson's way as the man approached with a cold silence, his entire demeanour having darkened and become quite sour.


"What was that, Diana?" he asked quietly, eyes narrowing at the woman. It looked like he had not even heard Adrian's comeback. "You better goddamn hope I misheard you just now. I'm not taking shit just 'cause you helped us, so don't even try."

 

[Yoki]

"Hm?" Diana did not look at all threatened by Jackson, she simply crossed her arms and shook her head looking down, "I'll say it again if you really want to hear." She replied, looking over to Adrian. "I don't get why you're defending him. I wouldn't think someone like that would be friends with someone like you. No offence or anything, but I'd expect him to eat you before befriending you." 


"I wouldn't eat Jackson." Adrian replied, bounding over towards Jackson and looking around at all of the other people coming into the room, "Why're there so many?" He chewed on his lip, looking down at the man and then up again. He knew where Jackson had gone, but he just didn't want to say or think about it. All of the people there were Zeplin prisoners, Jackson had gone and gotten them out...but Adrian didn't understand why. 


"You know how dangerous he is right?" Again, Diana started to speak, "You don't know what he's done. You haven't see the kinds of things the psycho is into... You have to be crazy to do that." She gritted her teeth for a moment, "You wouldn't have even had to let me go if it wasn't for him."


"What do you mean?" Dane chimed in, walking over to the scene, mostly to get closer to Caleb, who was on the other side of the room. The minute the boy felt confident enough to, he'd moved to hide behind Dane, maybe he should have thought about where Caleb was before hand. 


"She's just angry at me because she's weak." Adrian stuck his tongue out at Diana and giggled, earning a sigh from the woman. 


"If you think I'm weak then let's fight right now. I guarantee I could beat you." 


"Okay, let's all just calm down for a second." Dane interrupted, "We're not here to argue about what happened. It's over, everyone's out." 


"Right." Diana finally seemed to move her gaze from Adrian, "I'm just warning you. I'd be careful."

 

[yaint]

"I don't like it, Callum," came what was supposed to be a whisper but was actually a rather loud, hissed statement from the boy named Tommy-Jones. Callum, his older brother's hand still held tightly in his own, nodded in agreement, but it didn't look like the gesture went noticed. The boy repeated again, "I don't like it."


"Yeah, you said," Callum confirmed between gritted teeth. He squeezed Tommy-Jones' hand tighter until the taller escapee whined and tried to pull his arm back to his side. For that little noise he received a pinch on the elbow, but it didn't shut him up.


Tommy-Jones complained again, "They're fighting, Callum! I don't like it."


"Shut up, I know already!" His brother had been about to call out again, but Callum slapped a hand over the boy's mouth to keep him quiet. If there was whinging and wailing coming straight into his ears, there was no way he could listen to the conversation properly, and it sounded like stuff was just getting heated.


For one thing, Jackson's face had turned bright red. It didn't suit him - Callum thought that it was less intimidating and more ugly, but the hear radiating from the man's skin did not melt the ice in his words. "Don't come into this house and talk to me like you know the kid," he warned, edging forwards with every sound until he was practically on Diana's feet. "I don't give a flying fuck about what you think. I would trust him with my life. Adrian!"


The sudden sharp, shouted word made Tommy-Jones whimper again. Callum punched his brother in the side and murmured, "It's fine."


"He looks like you," said Tommy-Jones. Callum sighed.


Jackson had thrust a hand out at Diana, but his eyes were on Adrian now. "Keep away from her, okay? Go - go and find Kedin or something, or watch TV with Daryl."

 

[Yoki]

"Mmn..." Adrian whined the minute Jackson basically told him to leave the room, why did he want him gone again? He could just stay and they could send her out right? Why did it have to be him? He didn't voice he displeasure, instead just heading towards the doorway to leave the room like he'd been told. 


As he was moving out of the room he caught eyes with another individual, he had grey eyes too, which immediately caused Adrian to be drawn to him. The boy stopped and stared for a few moments, not moving from his position by the doorway. His face was a picture of curiosity, who were they? He'd heard them talking before...he didn't know what about, but he heard it. 


Suddenly, a wide grin crossed his face again and he'd propelled himself towards the two males, coming to a halt just in front of the shorter of the two. He squinted his eyes, turning them from round and wide to mere slits, as he stared at the individual with black hair. His hands went behind his back and he leaned forwards, tilting his head to the left a little. 


For a few moments he stayed like that, rocking backwards and forwards on his heels as he watched the other two. At one point his gaze moved up to the taller, but soon enough he looked at the shorter again, and when he spoke he was addressing both of them.


"Who're you?" He asked, moving his hands from behind his back to pull down on the shorts he was wearing, "Did you come from there too?" Even when he spoke of Zeplin he didn't use their name, he just expected the boys to know what he meant, whether they would or not was a different matter, he expected them to. 


Why did Jackson need so many people? He didn't need to bring them all...so why were they all there? Couldn't he have just brought two or three? Not a whole crowd... Adrian didn't like it. 

 

[yaint]

Jackson seemed to calm down as soon as Adrian stepped out of the strange woman's reach. There was still that buzzing in his fingertips, those little bubbles of rage which popped and fizzled in his bloodstream, and he could not say that his opinion of Diana had gone in any direction but down. But the moment Adrian disappeared, the entire room felt so much less static.


When the other boy approached, Tommy-Jones reached out. Callum smacked his brother's hand away and stepped in front of him to confront Adrian. "What's it to you?" he taunted stiffly, his own pair of large grey eyes turning away from the other's intimidating stare.


Tommy-Jones shifted nervously and kept touching the points of his index fingers together. "We walked here," he said quietly, and then closed his mouth quickly like he had done something he wasn't supposed to. Clearly he was correct about that, because Callum stepped back and ground his heel into Tommy-Jones' toes. 


"I said don't talk!"


"Sorry, Callum."


Callum whipped back around, still shielding his brother with his small, scrawny form. He pouted at Adrian and puffed out his chest, and it took him a long time to finally come out and answer the question. "I'm... Callum," he said reluctantly. He jabbed an elbow back into Tommy-Jones' ribs, and the taller boy jumped and opened his mouth to introduce himself when Callum cut in again. "He's Tom. Why'd you need to know?"

 

[Yoki]

"Mn." Adrian's gaze shifted from the smaller male standing in front of the taller, what were their names again? Tom...and Callum? Where had he heard one of them before? He knew it from somewhere, but he was having a hard time figuring out just where he'd heard one of the same. 


"Oh!" The boy had been looking down, eyebrows furrowed, but suddenly his head shot up again and he looked towards the boy called Tom. The taller one. "You!" A scrawny finger pointed at the further away male as a grin returned to Adrian's face once more, "It was you!" He guessed that he should probably give the two context, but he didn't feel like it. Then again...they wouldn't understand if he didn't. 


He let go of the ends of his shorts and hopped back a step, lowering his arm, "A lady told me to find you." He explained, "I dunno why, but she did." He seemed to take a second to think before continuing, "Then she told me to run...but that was silly of her because she'd already cut my legs off so I couldn't do that!" After finishing his sentence he started to giggle like he'd just said something funny, even though the sentence was more morbid that humorous. 


"So..." Adrian stood up straight instead of leaning forwards, "D'ya know why, because I sure don't...but I wanna...cause she wasn't so bad..." His smile faded slightly and his eyes dulled, it wasn't exactly something he wanted to think about. Sure, she'd caused him a lot of pain, but she wasn't so bad... She really wasn't so bad. 

 

[yaint]

"A lady?" Callum's breath caught in his throat, but the boy stood his ground. He rose to the balls of his feet. His eyebrows bumped together in a dark scowl and those mean grey eyes glittered warningly up at Adrian as they observed every move from this freak of a boy who had, for some reason, decided to go and steal his appearance. "Yeah, well... I don't care."


Tommy-Jones, still pressed up against the wall behind where his brother was stood, glanced down nervously. He saw Adrian over Callum's shoulder, heard the words, and his face contorted and screwed up as he attempted to piece the puzzle together. "Callum?" he said finally, his lips tightening when the other boy craned his neck to look back.


"What?"


"He couldn't run... 'Cause he had no legs."


For a moment Callum's gaze softened. He reached up and patted Tommy-Jones on the shoulder, a tiny gap-toothed smile appearing briefly on his face. "Yeah, that's right," he agreed. He stepped forwards a couple of inches so that he was no longer standing on the taller boy's feet. "You got it."


The praise clearly thrilled Tommy-Jones, because he kept bouncing on the spot, eyes suddenly crinkled at the edges as he gave a huge, beaming grin. "Callum?" he asked again rather excitedly, as though getting something right was a license to ask more questions. "Callum, who's the lady?"


It was at that point that Callum turned back around and started chewing on his lip. "I dunno," he lied. "Nobody important." He decided not to carry on; despite the fact that Tommy-Jones kept calling his name for more questions, he had nothing left to answer. His eyes were trained back on the boy who looked just like him, the weird kid with the funny look in his eye who had laughed at the thought of being dismembered.


Callum glanced up again when a movement caught his eye. Several of the other ghoul prisoners who had followed Dane to the house had parted to stand at the edges of the hall. Through the gap moved the other man they had seen before; it was the guy with glasses and a beard, the one who sat in a wheelchair and approached slowly with an expression that was cold and dark, like stone. Callum grabbed Tommy-Jones' wrist and edged away from the man with his brother in tow.


"Adrian," Jackson mumbled, reaching up as if to place a palm on the boy's shoulder, but then recoiling like he was poisonous to touch. "Wh-what... What did you say? A moment ago, I mean. Tell me again."

 

[Yoki]

"Wasn't asking you." Adrian replied, sticking his tongue out at the boy who looked similar to him, why did he have to get involved? He wasn't even talking to him, but then he had to be rude. Of course, Adrian wasn't really too bothered by it, he just wanted to provoke the boy further. It was amusing to watch him squirm. 


He heard the taller of the two repeat what he'd said about having no legs and immediately Adrian started to giggle again, it was the other's reaction to the situation that prompted it. He looked so happy at getting something right, which caused him to bounce on the spot, and Adrian copied him slightly. It might have seemed like mockery, or like the other was trying to make fun of his lack of intelligence, but...Adrian didn't think about those things. He couldn't really talk after all. 


Whilst listening to the two talk, he heard another voice, and soon enough a familiar voice had said his name. 


In seconds Adrian had turned around to face Jackson, tilting his head to the side, what had he just said? "Oh." So Jackson wanted to know about it too? It didn't occur to Adrian in that moment that the man might be annoyed at hearing such things done to him, so he didn't hesitate in speaking. "I said there was a lady Jackson." He replied, playing with his shirt, "And she told me to find someone, which was him," Again he pointed to Tom, "And then she told me to run, but I couldn't run because she cut my legs off." He stood there, completely unphased by anything he'd just said. It wasn't that big of a deal, surely Jackson didn't think so either, right? It was in the past. 


"Why?" His hesitation to ask what Jackson had wanted the information for compared to the statements he previously made was obvious, he shifted uncomfortably whilst waiting for Jackson's reply. Why was he so interested in learning about what had happened between him and that lady...was he going to be mad? "But she wasn't bad or anything!" His head shot up as he quickly tried to defend the person in question, "She was real nice to me."