Jessi was fairly certain she passed out for a few seconds. Possibly even minutes. But when she became aware again, she quickly wished she hadn't; pain was everywhere, aching and throbbing and spiking and exploding all over her body. Her legs, side and shoulder hurt especially.
She lay there, face down, unable to move. Her breaths were short and ragged, a tad frantic; she squeezed her eyes shut against the spiking agony, desperately trying to stop the flame-inducing tremors trying to take over her body. Strange, pained noises escaped her throat, as though she were some sort of wounded animal.
She passed out a few more times. It was difficult to say how many. There was nothing except for throbbing pain whenever she was awake; too much to think. Too much to even process what's happened. It was like she was drifting in a river that couldn't make up its mind in what direction it should go in.
An hour must have past. Maybe two or three. Maybe even more. Jessi couldn't really say. All she knew was that, upon finally opening her eyes, it was a lot darker than she remembered.
Slowly, she raised her head- a task that was much more difficult than it should have been. She was surrounded by stone and common ore; she squinted, trying to see if there was anything else, but there was nothing. A bird squawked somewhere high, high above her.
Gritting her teeth, Jessi pushed herself up onto her elbows. Agony flared up her leg and side, a searing fire, and she drew in a sharp breath, collapsing back into the dirt. Lungs contracting and chest blazing in a throbbing hellfire, she gasped breathlessly for a long moment. Finally, she tried again, although she was only able to rise a little.
"Jess?" she called, voice breaking; she swallowed, "Jesse?"
She received no answer. Heart thumping quicker, Jessi took a few steady breaths, before pushing herself up properly. Pain flared a second time, lighting striking through her chest and up her shoulder, but she gritted her teeth harder and grunted through the flames.
"Jesse," she panted; lightning shot up her leg, tearing a scream from her throat, "JESAIAH!"
A groan, somewhere out of sight. Her head snapped towards it.
"Jessi?"
A relieved sob caught in her throat, the prickle of burning tears at the back of her eyes, "Jess? Where- Where are you?"
There was a pause, almost as though he were getting his bearings. Another groan.
"What happened?"
Jessi drew in a shaky breath, blinking scared, pained tears from her eyes, "I- I think we fell."
Her brother was quiet for a long moment. She heard him grunt loudly; he must have shifted.
"What's wrong?" Jessi asked immediately, "Are you hurt?"
"Uh…" she heard him shifting again, and could almost sense his wince, "A- A bit."
"A bit," Jessi echoed, "How- How much is a bit?"
There was a pause, as though he were considering the question, "Let's just say that everything is… just ow. Everything's just ow."
Jessi laughed at that. Tears overflowed in her eyes, trickling down her cheeks like rain on a window. It was strange laughter. No humour. Blundering more on a sob.
"Ye-Yeah," she said, wishing she would stop laughing, stop chuckling, because it hurt more than she could have ever imagined, sparking lightning all over her body, "Same over here."
Her brother was silent. Jessi wiped at her eyes, breathing trembling breaths, forcing the laughter to die. There was a small shift and a grunt.
"I- I think I can get up," Jesse said. There was obvious pain in his voice. "Ju- Just lemme-"
A muffled cry. She could hear him wheezing.
"How bad?" Jessi asked, trying to force her pounding heart to calm down. There was a pause. Nothing but him wheezing.
"B- Bad," Jesse finally stated. He sounded like he'd just ran a hundred laps around town. "But- But I'm- I'm okay. I'm okay."
"Yeah," Jesse swallowed; she could feel something wet against the leg of her dungarees, "Yeah, I'm- I'm okay too."
Silence grew thick. They both knew they were lying.
It was broken, finally, by more grunting. Then her brother's head appeared over a mound of dirt and stone, sweat beading his forehead and face twisted into a grimace; he collapsed against the mound, chest heaving, trembling. He was covered in dirt; skin decorated in black and purple and blue; a nasty gash was above one of his eyes, blood sticking his hair to his forehead; his arm was twisted at a gut-churning, horrible angle. The back of his hand was touching his forearm.
"Hey," he murmured. Jessi forced a smile.
"Hey."
The silence returned. Jessi tried to get up again, but thunder roared and lightning struck, tearing a gasp from her throat and shoving her back into the dirt. Jesse, whose eyes had started to drift shot, jolted back to awareness, heavy eyelids flying open.
"Don't move," he ordered. She chuckled weakly around heaving breaths.
"You moved."
"I don't have an open wound up my leg."
Jessi blinked slowly, her foggy brain taking a moment to register what he was saying. Then she twisted, carefully, trying desperately to look but keep the lightning at bay- it took her a moment to see the blood. To see the massive tear in her dungarees. She swallowed, stomach-churning, and turned back to her brother.
Breathe.
"Your arm's broken," she pointed out, but her voice was a lot weaker, a lot huskier than it had been before. Jesse glanced at his arm, the disgusting, impossible way it bent, and quickly looked away.
"Didn't notice," he muttered, and chuckled, as though trying to lighten the mood. It didn't work.
Jessi took in a deep breath, closing her eyes. She swallowed. "You- You see a way out of here?"
There was a pause; he was probably glancing around. Then a sigh.
"No."
"Okay," Jessi muttered, more to herself than anything else; she opened her eyes, reminding herself to breathe, breathe, breathe, "Okay. Uh… Maybe- Maybe we can… dig our way out? Over at the walls?"
Jesse shook his head, "No tools. And even if there were, you honestly think we'd be able to dig out way out and drag ourselves through like this?"
"I'm just-" Jessi made an irritated noise at the back of her throat, pressing her forehead against the uncomfortable stone beneath her, "I'm just trying to- to throw out suggestions over here, okay?"
"I know," Jesse murmured quietly. A pause. "What're your injuries?"
Jessi paused, trying to think past the throb of her entire body. She released a shaking breath.
"I- I dunno," she admitted, "Leg's cut up. Pretty- Pretty sure a few things are broken."
"Like?"
"Ribs. Maybe- Maybe leg," Jessi glanced up at him, wincing both at her inability to do anything and at the pain that continued to spike, "It's hard to tell."
Her brother nodded, eyelids beginning to droop slightly. Jessi tried to stay as still as possible. The pain didn't even dull.
"What about- What about you?"
To her relief, Jesse opened his eyes properly. He swallowed, but his mouth was dry.
"Broken arm," he murmured, "Probably a few ribs too. I think my ankle's twisted, at least. Pretty- Pretty sure my head's bleeding too."
"It is," Jessi confirmed, "A lot, actually."
"Ah," her brother mumbled. They lapsed into another silence. Jessi almost thought he'd fallen asleep. Or perhaps knocked unconscious was a better way to put it. Well, whatever it was, he hardly budged when she forced herself onto her back.
Which was both impressive and concerning, considering just how much she screamed.
Read the rest of Bluejay on FanFiction.net, Archive of Our Own or Wattpad.
There were only two other times where Cole had faded off.
The first time had been while they were being taken to Ouroborus by the Basilisks. Jay had been screaming- god, he had been screaming, and his eye had been so bad, Cole had been almost certain he wasn’t going to make it- and then one of the Basilisk had started beating him, shouting at him in their foreign language, and they’d all been screaming too, screaming at them to stop. The only reason they did was because Cole had suddenly vanished, chains clattering to the ground. He’d been so startled upon reappearing, he hadn’t even had the chance to comprehend fighting back before their attacks were being turned on him.
But at least they stopped hurting Jay.
Read Crooked Clockwork (sequel to Empty Echoes) on FanFiction.net, Archive of Our Own or Wattpad.
Dripping. Like a faucet that wasn't turned off properly. It slid between the cracks in the rocky ceiling, dropping off and hitting the ground, creating a tiny little puddle before it was quickly soaked into the gravel as though it were sponge.
Of all things, it was the dripping that was slowly driving him crazy. On occasion, he'd catch himself wishing he was still dead, or even trapped in the Cursed Realm. At least there the cells had no constant dripping noise. The place was bone dry, being filled with ghosts and all.
He heard the sound of the cell next to his own's heavy door opening, and then a cry as someone was harshly flung inside. The door closed, quickly followed by a turning of a key and the clicking of a lock. A single sob.
How curious. That cell had been empty for ages.
Desperate for something to distract him from the dripping, he crawled over to the tiny little window, far too weak to even consider standing, it's bars as thick as his hand, and peered through them into the other cell. It was as dark as his own, a near pitch black, but unlike all the other time's he'd peered passed the bars, he could make out someone in the middle of the room, lying curled on the floor. He couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl, but from the ragged breathing, it was safe to assume they were alive.
For now, anyway.
He was silent for a long moment, watching the small figure tremble in the darkness, lying on his stomach with his face right up against the cold bars. At least ten minutes passed. Perhaps twenty. "Who're you, then?"
The person jumped, and he was startled to hear a loud ticking abruptly filling the air, like a broken clock. They twisted around to face him, glowing yellow eyes staring at the wall for a moment, before going down to the tiny window on the floor. He blinked. It was a rather familiar looking nindroid.
"Zane?"
Zane stared at him for a long moment, his entire body trembling, much to his surprise. He wondered what they could have done to him to have achieved such a reaction, from a Ninja, no less. "I-I am Echo. Zane is m-my older brother."
He blinked again, face morphing into a look of surprise. "I never knew he had a brother."
"We only discovered this recently."
"Huh." A beat of silence. "How'd you end up here, Echo?"
"I was playing." the nindroid said, the ticking slowly becoming quieter, "And they threw me into a truck."
"Ah."
They descended into silence again. Echo laid down on his side, curling up, although he never tore his eyes from the window. The dripping continued.
"Who are you?"
He took a moment to answer. "A friend."
"You hesitated."
"I'm not the best person to be friends with." More dripping. He was tempted to bang his head against the bars. Maybe he'd die again if he did it hard enough.
Read the rest of Empty Echoes on FanFiction.net, Archive of Our Own or Wattpad.
