@badthingshappenbingo [Original Characters and content for - Dehydration]
Whumptober Day: No. 4 - Running Out of Time - Failed Escape [Art+Drabble]
Ten Trails: Death Trap (9) - Burning Building [@yuckwhump]
CW/TW: Reference to captivity and tortrure. Drugging and Fire. [Let me know if I missed something, I can’t think of anything]
Art under ‘keep reading’ (attempts to) feature a woman stuck in a burning building and guy outside.
The day was just fluorescent lights and the night the pitch darkness of her cell. In between that white and black - Was the dull grey blur of text, test tubes and the torment etched on Jared and copied onto her. At least she had more freedom than Jared.
She was convinced Red wasn’t himself anymore and she feared he was never going to be. No matter how many times she tried to tell herself that she was only doing what she had to… That she was doing her best to keep Jared alive, to buy time, not compromise the mission and navigate Zachariah’s expectations, she couldn’t help but blame herself for… Everything.
A soft cradle for his chin and an apologetic and concerned whisper forced him to stir,
“Jared…? Red? Sweetheart, can you hear me?”
Sunken eyes, stared up at her vacantly, from underneath the thicket of shaggy, dishevelled hair. He held her wrist in a tight grip, which despite his best efforts was much weaker than it had once been. It didn’t hurt, not physically, but she recoiled because it felt like a fearful attack by a cornered animal. He pushed her away and she let him. She repositioned and knelt at arm’s length. Akira couldn’t blame him, on instruction, she had used the affection they had shared to attempt pretentiously disarming him before… He had no reason to trust her and she desperately needed him to. Simply because she selfishly hoped she wouldn’t be forced to use plan B.
She blinked away guilty tears as she scanned the scars, the cuts and bruises she had been forced to leave on him. Not unlike the ones that she bore, except hers were covered by the lab-coat. Worse than the visible evidence, was all the pain and anguish she couldn’t really see, except in his tired eyes. There was a flicker of hope in them, perhaps because she called him Red. She had made sure to never do that through everything they’d endured over the last few months… Maybe more, maybe little less…
“Shira?”
Yes!
Akira cleared her throat to stabilize a quivering voice, so she could assuage the fear she knew had to be bubbling up inside him.
“Yeah… It’s me. I’m not here to ask questions or to hurt you, okay?”
But the spark died and was replaced with the same, dead and wary caution. He hissed,
“No! Stay the fuck away from me...”
He curled into the wall he was already pressed up against. She didn’t have the time to haggle with him. Not if she was to succeed in saving him.
Time for plan B.
It took so much from her to swiftly break the promise she’d just made. Aki stabbed him with the tranquilizer. He wasn’t really in a position to put up a fight. The drugs… the lack of adequate nutrition and the repeated exposure to Akira’s power had left him quite weak and vulnerable.
After he lost consciousness. Akira dragged his form to the fortified underground lab.
A lab within a lab is both genius and hilarious.
This was left off the blue-prints. Very few people knew of its existence and luckily Zach wasn’t among them. The only friendly she’d seen was Mark’s, who had been guiding her. He was the one who provided her with this knowledge. The rest was up to her.
There weren’t as many people monitoring them. Zach had kept this whole thing underwraps… So Akira had exploited the freedom she had to sneak and survey the hidden lab on a midnight excursion. The underground lab was equipped with a single D.P.S.C - Damage-proof-stasis-chamber.
Now, her shaky hands, prepared Jared and put him in it. The hope was that he’d be presumed dead after the explosion she was about to set off. The lab was unlikely to be found unless someone knew where to look. The chamber would keep Jared alive… and in time they’d be able to go back for him. All she needed to do was get out of there after the accidental explosion…
They had to let her out. None of this was her fault. At least not in any verifiable way.
All she had to do was convince Caius.
-
[Credit: A shot from the movie Om Shanti Om, is used as a reference for the art and inspired the fic]
It was Zach who noticed that the surveillance footage from the lab was on a loop. So he made his way there, only to witness an explosion. He had been losing patience with the two of them steadily. While Jared was just a little more than a husk, Akira still had her wits about herself… And he had not gotten anything significantly useful from them. Their deaths would not be a favorable outcome, but it was a fitting consequence for their continued lack of cooperation. Afterall, Zach couldn’t risk anyone else finding them either... He dismissed Caius and waited for Akira at the locked entrance.
The fortified door and the thick laminated glass between them, muffled Zachariah’s question,
“So... You finally gave up on trying to save him? Gave him the death he’s been pleading for?”
Not enough for her to feign deafness. She responded in a cry that sounded foreign to her. Her shrill plea was desperate and panicked. Akira didn’t typically allow herself to get this way. She had not expected Zach to stop her from leaving the damn building,
“No! Zach…”
“Ok, go fetch him then.”
Even with the panic clawing at her, she still had the sense to lie… After all, even if she couldn’t make it out, he’d survive. Mark would wait and he would know where to look.
“I don’t know… I don’t know where he is.”
But even the sheer fear was not enough to cloak that fact that she had to know something. There was no way that there wasn’t some foul play here. An out of commission lab, didn’t simply explode. And security footage didn’t scramble itself. Zach would have to look into that later. Someone had tried helping them. At least the list of suspects was a short one. Not many people knew about this venture,
“I’d say this is overkill, the building didn’t deserve this...”
She lied again,
“I didn’t do this. Please! Please let me out!”
He watched with disinterest as Akira slammed her flattened hand against the glass. He was safe on the outside. But it’d be unkind to let her flirt with death alone… So Zach drew a cigarette and lit it, which was as uncharacteristic for him as screaming for help was for Akira. It felt like a fitting way to honor Jared… Given he had to still be somewhere in the building that was slowly getting consumed by flames. The Knight deserved a better death... A part of Zach wanted to save his friend. But that cat had run out of his nine lives… and all the second-third and several chances that Zach had given him.
Aki left bloodstains on the glass. But she could barely register the sharp slices of pain that ran through the cut on her palm. Another accident… Like the explosions were meant to be.
The flames roared and cackled behind her, she turned with a snap, as an explosion on the first floor forced heat and fire to billow into the grand reception lobby.
With one final question,
“Did you actually think I’d let you live?”
Zach walked away.
She held her breath. Her lips were already chapped and her eyes stung. A sputter, followed a helpless surge of hacking coughs that wrecked through her. She stumbled her way to the back. Her lab-coat caught a lick of flame and soon it’s arm was ablaze. She screeched as she swiftly tried getting rid of it. She succeeded, but not before it seared her elbow. She used the charred coat to bat away the flames in her way with her uninjured arm, as she headed back towards the underground lab. Stuck between death by active fire… or presumably by dehydration… Akira couldn’t help but buy herself a little more time.
She dropped into the lab with barely a minute to spare. Within moments, the exit was buried in rubble. Her breathing was laboured, she was certain soot lined her throat… Aki crawled towards the stasis chamber, as a futile attempt to prevent feeling the stab of loneliness. She sat against it, chuckling at one small silver-lining- that at least she wasn’t claustrophobic. She sat up, till she couldn’t hold up her weight any more. And fading into unconsciousness felt like a gift.
It’s official!! Our new home! Cheers to new memories for many years to come!! ☺️ #jomarresidence #newhome #blackdiamond #tentrails #newbeginnings (at Black Diamond, Washington) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxc14GvBnxaIg7IeizUL0Px197ugALnwbUOrk80/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=pvhmcy83c0ui
