Rogue Sloth

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

At the moment, Cas couldn’t think clearly enough to try to remember the rebel Iris was talking about, but that didn’t matter. He was just relieved that someone had been willing to help them get out of the prison. If they had been left to their own devices, he was sure he would still be locked up, waiting for his death, and she would have been off wherever Ethan’s henchman had taken her after they’d parted. It was almost hard to believe that they were about to escape for a second time. It was lucky that Iris had friends in high places, even if she’d forgotten all of their names and faces due to her amnesia.

Balancing precariously against her side, he limped with her out of the cell and into the hallway, unable to pay attention to where they were headed as he focused on holding himself upright. Trying to walk was even more excruciating than laying down had been, and he felt dizzy as they hurried to get out of the building. He just hoped she knew where she was going, since his sense of direction was in shambles in the labyrinth of hallways they traveled through. All he could do was follow her lead and pray they wouldn’t be spotted by rebels or soldiers. They were painfully vulnerable at the moment, so all it would take was one quick-drawing gunman to kill them both where they stood.

Doing his best to keep watch for movement in the adjacent corridors that they passed, he listened as Iris explained that she didn’t know where she was taking him. It wasn’t that surprising, since they had been wandering rather aimlessly before the rebels had caught them, but he agreed with the sentiment of wanting to get as far away as possible. He’d had more close encounters with death in one week than he wanted to face again until he reached old age. However, when she added that she thought he should go back to the capital, he stiffened. Being tortured by Ethan hadn’t increased his desire to return to the city he’d come from at all. If anything, he resented the people who had left him behind even more now.

He’d been to hell and back, and not a single person cared except for the woman underneath his arm. Returning to them was the last thing he wanted to do. He didn’t know how he would even face his father now that he’d built up so much resentment towards the man, let alone agree to go back to being his heir. However, he was in too much pain to voice his opinion. Putting all of his strength into escaping with her, he decided privately that it would just be best for them to worry about getting away before he confessed that he didn’t want to go back to the capital. Even if the high borns had the best medicine in the country, it wasn’t worth letting them turn him into their puppet again, to be used and thrown away.

Unable to reply, he said nothing as they worked their way through the halls, dodging the fights that had broken out in other parts of the building. Absently, he found it impressive that Iris managed to get them so far without running into trouble. He couldn’t tell if she was doing it on purpose or if they had just gotten lucky, but when they eventually reached a door that led to the courtyard, he felt relief wash over him. It looked like they were going to make it.

Hurrying as quickly as his battered body was capable of moving, he walked with her outside and then jumped at the sound of a booming voice. Someone was close by, but when he turned his head to look, he saw that the soldier that had spoken was fixated on the upper part of the prison. Seeing members of the Aspirian military stirred mixed feelings inside of him. Half of him wanted to run away before they spotted him, like a dog that had been abused and no longer trusted its master, but another half of him was tempted to run toward them in the hope that they would offer him and Iris their protection.

Ultimately, the former emotion won out, and he tugged weakly on her shoulders to urge her to keep moving. However, before they could put any more distance between themselves and the fighting, he faltered at the next roar that came out of the soldier’s mouth. Prince’s body? He echoed to himself, dumbfounded by the two words. Do they think I’m dead? Why? As far as he knew, the military hadn’t kept tabs on his location since he’d been abducted, and even if they had, he couldn’t think of a reason why they would think that the rebels had already killed him. But he’d heard the other man loud and clear.

Abruptly, he felt lightheaded as the realization that the military thought he was dead crashed into him like a freight train. If they thought he was dead, that meant his father thought the same thing. Everything suddenly made much more sense. The king hadn’t been looking for him because he was under the impression that he’d been killed, not because he’d abandoned him. Oh my god, I had it all wrong, he thought with wide eyes. That was probably why there had been more attacks on the other districts too. His father was coming down on the rebellion with an iron fist because he thought they had murdered his son. This was revenge.

“Iris, they think I’m dead,” he breathed, turning to her urgently. Talking pained him, but he couldn’t leave without addressing the new information. It changed everything. “I-I think I need to show them that I’m still alive. They don’t—my father doesn’t know. That’s why he wasn’t looking for me. If I go to them, they can help us.”

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Yeah, I missed it. We also don’t see these friends a lot because they live 5 hours away from us and have a baby on the way, so they’re busy busy.

Okay! They’re leaving in about 4 hours, so I’ll be free then

We went to our favorite breakfast restaurant in town :)

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

They spent the whole day with us yesterday, so today they're going to be visiting some of their other friends in the city and then going to a wedding tomorrow evening.

We all just got back from getting breakfast together :)

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

My friends stayed up late playing video games with my husband, so I had time to write while they all slept in this morning xD

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Shortly after the rumbling began, Caspian began to hear the sounds of voices shouting beyond his cell. He turned his head toward the open slats between the bars, increasingly bemused by the eruption of noise beyond his line of sight. As far as he could tell, it didn’t seem like the rebels had expected it either, which led him to guess that the source must have been something to do with the Aspirian military. His heart fluttered at the thought. On one hand, he was excited by the prospect that he would be found and rescued from the grisly fate that awaited him as a prisoner of the Scourge. However, he was equally as worried that something would go wrong in the supposed ambush.

If the soldiers weren’t expecting him to be there, they would think to look closely at his face before they fired their weapons. He could still be shot accidentally by a gunman with an itchy trigger finger, landing him in the same situation he would have been in with Ethan. And even if they did recognize him and help him escape from the rebels, he might be separated from Iris. He hadn’t seen her since he had been dragged off for his interrogation, and he didn’t know where to look to find her again. He doubted the soldiers would be patient enough to let him wander the prison in an aimless search for her during the middle of a raid. It was more likely that they would force him to go with them and leave her behind. It was just as likely that they would mistake her for a member of the rebellion and kill her too.

With a shudder, he shifted his good arm and rolled his ankles, testing his range of mobility. Even small motions pained him, and he bit his lip to stifle a whimper. Frustration coursed through him with the realization that he could barely move and was in no condition to look for Iris, even if the soldiers allowed him to do so. He was going to have no choice but to go with them, and that was only if they didn’t kill him on sight. Knowing that he couldn’t do anything to save himself or her made him feel helpless.

Wallowing in his dispiritedness, he didn’t notice that someone had approached his cell until he heard the grating of metal on metal, signaling the opening of the door. The sound surprised him, since he’d thought the rebels would have forgotten about him in the midst of an attack. Maybe they want to move me to another location, so they won’t lose the ‘information’ they think they can get out of me, he theorized as he turned his head back toward the entrance of the concrete room. However, as soon as he laid eyes on the person who’d stepped inside, he raised his brows in shock.

“Iris?” he rasped, baffled by her sudden appearance. Dozens of questions began to flit through his mind as she rushed toward him. Where had she gone when the guard had taken her away from him? How was she walking around the prison without anyone keeping an eye on her? Why was she wearing a dress? The onslaught of confusion tied his tongue, and he couldn’t ask any of the inquiries except for the most prominent of all: “How did you get the key to my cell?”

As she helped him get up from the bed, an agonized expression contorted his face. Everything hurt, and his vision swam as stabbing pain flooded his body. “Slow,” he gasped, unable to string together a more coherent request. The urgency of the situation hadn’t slipped by him, but he wasn’t in any condition to hurry. If he was going to get out of the prison with her and dodge the military, he was going to have to do so at a limited speed.

Carefully, he managed to get his feet underneath him, leaning heavily on his right leg since the left couldn’t support his weight. He was precariously unbalanced, but it was going to have to do for now. “Where are we going?” he asked, glancing at Iris as he held onto her with his left arm. The stab wound in his bicep burned, but ironically, it was one of the least of his concerns compared to his broken bones and bullet wound.

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Me too. I have friends coming in from out of town today, and they could be here any minute, so I might not get my next post up until later. Just a heads up!

Word association Game!

2020

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

I threw in an allusion to it :) You can add more details in your next post if you want, since Cas has no idea what's actually causing the building to tremble.

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

The rest of the day went by in a blur. Caspian drifted in and out of consciousness, aware that he had been moved to a different room but unable to focus well enough to determine where he was. He spent most of the time asleep, reluctant to fully wake up because wakefulness brought him nothing but pain. Every once in a while, he stirred at the sound of a voice or the grating of a cell door as other people entered and exited his metal cage to check on his condition, but each time, he was greeted with a fresh surge of agony that dragged him back down into the realm of unconsciousness yet again.

Between bouts of rest, he found it odd that the rebels were keeping him alive. Sometimes they inspected his wounded leg, while other times they tried to force him to drink small cups of water when they visited. He’d been convinced that they were going to kill him, especially after Ethan had threatened to do so on multiple occasions. However, it seemed like they still had something to gain from him. Probably information, he guessed. Even though he’d made it as clear as he could that he wasn’t going to tell them anything, they must have decided that he would be easier to break now that he’d been through one round of torture already. Perhaps that would have been true if he believed they would allow him to leave if he gave up what he knew, but since he was one hundred percent sure he was going to die in this prison, he was going to take whatever else they put him through until they eventually gave up and killed him.

So, prepared to go through the same torment all over again, he slept almost constantly in a feeble attempt to recover from his existing injuries before Ethan came back for him. He managed not to fully wake until the next day, though he had no idea what time it was because of the lack of windows in his cell. As always, consciousness brought with it the same excruciating pain that he felt whenever he was aware of his surroundings. Every breath he took burned like fire, and his entire body ached in its own form of torture. He couldn’t move his right hand, the one Ethan had broken at the wrist, and his leg still throbbed deeply as if the wound there was reverberating from the initial blast he’d felt when the bullet had pierced his flesh.

More uncomfortable than he’d ever been in his life, Cas moaned as he forced himself to open his eyes at least partially, so he could try to catch up on what he’d missed when he’d been out. Upon looking around with an unfocused gaze, he realized the rebels had brought him back to his cell. The cold gray walls and steel bed were familiar. Weakly, he turned his head slightly so he could look down at himself. The guards had placed him on his back, and he could see that his the jeans he’d been wearing had been replaced with old, ragged shorts. His left leg was streaked with blood—apparently they hadn’t thought it was important enough for him to be cleaned off—and a set of stained bandages were wrapped tightly around the entrance point of the bullet that had struck him.

While he looked at the wound, he grimaced as another wave of pain coursed through him from the shot limb. Belatedly, he realized that it seemed like he only had one open wound in his leg. That meant the bullet was still lodged somewhere inside of him. The thought made him feel nauseated, but it explained why he was still so sore. He assumed the rebels hadn’t thought it was important to thoroughly treat his injury either, since they were just going to kill him when they were done using him. They had only bothered to make sure he was in a stable enough condition that he wouldn’t die before they could end him on their terms.

How thoughtful, he mused dryly, letting his head fall back down on the bed and fixing his dark eyes on the ceiling. Laying still, he began to contemplate whether or not he should go back to sleep when he felt the bed beneath him suddenly rumble. The motion was faint, but it was just present enough to draw his attention. He glanced at the hallway on the other side of his cell and saw that the nearest guards had begun looking around and muttering amongst themselves.

It’s like that bottle of water that was shaking just before the bombers showed up in Bel Bicis, he thought, wincing with another wave of pain. Something was going on, and judging by the looks on the rebels’ faces, it wasn’t something they were expecting. He just wished he wasn’t immobilized, so he could figure out what was happening.

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Yeah, she might be stuck there for a bit, since Cas will have to recover a little before he can do anything.