Chapter Text
The room was dark, the walls were bare stone, the only way out was through a rusted metal door, the only light source coming from a single, small lantern flickering and hanging above a chair. In that chair, there was a boy, tied up and bloody. The boy had what appeared to be black hair, greasy bunches hanging down in front of his eyes, his face, with a nose that looked twice broken, was covered in bruises and blood, scars and scrapes littered his arms and legs. Before, he had amazing honey brown eyes, now though they were dulled to a mud brown, with a fine glaze over them. The world had hurt this boy, there was no doubt about that.
Hours passed and the boy slowly began to stir and slowly opened his eyes, he looked around, wondering how he got to this small room when the door opened, and a man walked in. The man wore a brown trench-coat covered in little brown spots that looked strangely similar to dried blood, a black turtleneck underneath, and dark brown pants with the same little spots covering them. He had dark brown hair and, strangely enough, yellow slitted eyes.
"Welcome back to the real world little rabbit" He said, voice oddly floaty, as if the man wasn't connected to the ground and yet so very connected at the same time.
The boy stared at him, mud brown eyes showing only calmness. not a hint of fear to be seen. The man did not appear to notice the strange calmness radiating of the boy, instead asking
"What's your name, boy?"
The boy stared for a second, hesitating, before eventually saying in a calm, steady, if not slightly raspy voice.
"My name is Clover. May I know the name of the one which kidnapped me?"
Confusion at why his prisoner was so calm flashed on the man's face for half a second, before it went back to that eerily neutral expression from a moment ago. He smiled, not a comforting smile but a smile that threatened life itself, "You may call me Sam." He said, "I must say, You're calmer than others I've captured before, why? You're a child, you should be scared, begging for your parents, pleading with me to let you go. And yet you sit there, calm as can be, like you have not a worry in the world. Why?"
Clover let out a laugh, filled with nothing more than spite and stubbornness,
"To answer your first question... when you've been on the streets for as long as I have, you get kidnapped, quite a lot, this is my... 11 time...? Second. I do not have parents, I am what you would call, a street rat. Third, What exactly do I have to fear? My life? Ha! I have no life worth fearing for, and if I lose it" Clover now had an almost sinister smile on his face, a crazed gleam in his eyes, "well, the devil owes me a couple favours anyway."
Sam looked shocked. After a moment he closed his eyes, only opening them after taking a few deep breaths.
“The worlds done quite a number on you, hasn't it, Little Rabbit?”
“Yes. I suppose it has.”
The sinister crazed look was gone from Clover’s face, the calmness returned once more.
Sam gave a simple pitying smile before turning around and marching out the door, before closing it all the way he turned back, yellow eyes gleaming.
“I’ll move you in with your new friend tomorrow, for now though, enjoy the chair” Clover didn’t sleep that night, well, he thought it was night, he simply sat, looking at the room, trying to figure out a way to get out. After a while, the door creaked open and Sam stepped back in.
“Hello Rabbit.”
Clover just watched him, for the first time since arriving in this cold little room, he felt a bit afraid, he didn’t show this fear however, nor did he make any move to speak, so Sam continued.
“I’ve prepared you a more… permanent staying area, I doubt that chair is comfortable.” After another moment of silence Sam continued “I'm going to untie you now, but know this… if you attempt to escape, I will make sure you can Never run again. Do you understand, little Rabbit?”
Clover gave a single sharp nod, still staring at the man, still just a tiny bit afraid. The man walked behind Clover. The ropes fell away, the boy didn’t move besides rubbing his sore wrists, red from the rubbing of rope.
“Come now, little Rabbit, we wouldn't want to be late would we?” Sam grabbed Clover’s arm with a smirk and dragged him out of the chair. As Sam opened the cell door, Clover saw a flower-print hallway, the paper torn and falling, blinking fluorescent lights hung from the ceiling. They passed 3 doors, each adoring a different picture, one of a warning sign, one a hazardous sign, another a speed limit sign. He wondered what they were. As they came to the final door, the one Sam was preparing to open, Clover saw the picture was a Do-Not-Enter sign. A staircase greeted them, the stairs dark and dusty, creaking as they stepped. As they descended, it got darker and darker, a particular smell, one that Clover was quite familiar with, rose from the ground, or maybe it was from the hallway now in front of them. This time though, instead of doors, cells lined the walls, each one worse than the last. They stopped at a door, much like the one from Clover’s cell, at the end of the hallway. The door creaked as Sam unlocked it and pushed it open, inside was a dark room, the only light coming from a small light on the ceiling, the walls were a beige smooth stone, two cots were shoved against the wall. The floor was a light grey cement, with a drain in the middle, surrounded by, what looked like, old blood splatter.
“I'm sure you'll find this room quite comfortable won't you Rabbit?” Clover turned to see Sam looking at him with smug satisfaction across his face, “what with you being a street rat and all, this should be quite nice”
Clover kept his face completely devoid of any emotion, his eyes calm and unreadable and his face relaxed, “This will be fine” Sam obviously did not expect a answer, for his eyes widened in surprise before he said
“Now let me go get your friend, I think you two will get along splendidly”
As he turned and shut the creaking, rusting door, Clover sat on one of the cots, it was a bare white mattress with a single cloth that could barely count as a blanket and a pillow hard as a rock. Clover saw that the other wasn’t much better. The door opened and voices erupted
“Let go of me!!” that was a boy, not one that Clover was familiar with though. “I’ll kill you! Don't think I won't!!” a second later the door was opened more and Clover saw a boy, about his age, 16, with dirty blonde hair and copper brown eyes. Said boy was struggling to escape from Sam’s hold of his wrists.
“Calm down! And shut up!” Sam sounded almost upset now, “Your giving me a headache, and i'm sure Clover here doesn’t like the shouting either”
That made the boy pause and look around, Sam took that moment to throw him in the cell and close the door, not before saying in fake sympathy “I'm sorry to stick you with such a loudmouth, Clover, Have fun!” The door creaked as he closed it, and then he was gone. The boy got up and dusted himself off and, finally spotting Clover, took a step closer until he was standing right in front of Clover. “Hi!” he said, rather cheerfully, “The name’s Jack! What’s yours?” Clover looked at him for a second before replying, quite coldly, “Clover”
Jack doesn't seem deterred by Clover acting this way, as he continues to talk. “Well Clover, It's nice to meet you! What did you do to be put here? I had a job to steal from this guy but it didn’t turn out well” The boy seemed sad for a second but immediately perked up again “So now I'm stuck here! We’ll get out soon though! I’ve got a plan! So anyway, how'd you get stuck here?”
“Kidnapped”
“Oh… Do you think your parents are looking for you?”
At that Clover paused, looking at Jack in a strange way.“Ha!” It wasn’t a laugh you wanted to hear, even to Clover’s ears it sounded cold and injured, in fact, it wasn't a laugh at all, more of a shout if anything. “I'm an orphan, I have no parents, I lived on the streets before this, and quite frankly, this is an improvement”
Jack stepped back, “Oh…” He looked embarrassed and apologetic. “I- um… sorry…”
“Relax kid, it's fine, it's not like I didn’t have food or anything”
Jack looked slightly better at these words, though he thankfully remained silent. Clover stood up and walked towards the door, his bare feet unusually cold against the cement floor. As Jack watched him start to feel the wall he asked “What are you doing?”
Clover didn’t spare him a glance as he replied “Looking for a way out”
“There is no way out, this place is a fortress”
“I’ve seen worse”