And in the dark.... [Belameane + Open]

ooc: Whooaaa! Two pages!

Naoki felt lost. So lost. He'd never been in a situation like this before. He'd had hardships in his life--hell, his life was one giant hardship--and he'd certainly come close to being captured by Peacekeeprs........but he'd never reached this point.

Quite some time had passed since he and Belameane had been dragged into their respective cells, and after a good twenty minutes or so recuperating from the latest taser attack, he'd managed to hoist himself into a sitting position.

A quick look around the cell revealed a dingy sink, a dirty bed, and a crappy looking toilet. Nothing of importance to him. None of the things, he got the impression, would help him out of the damned cell. He'd even checked the bed to see if there were any springs to the mattress. He didn't expect to the locks on the cells to be the kind that could be picked open so easily, but even the sight of a spring would have been hopeful. One look under the bed had revealed that the entire thing was held up on the frame by thin wooden boards, and the mattress wasn't actually a mattress at all, but a few ratty blankets piled on top of each other. He didn't think Belameane had had any luck in her cell either, and he hadn't had the strength to ask.

Now he'd resorted to sitting against the wall at the foot of the bed and contemplating everything. He was having a hard time gathering his thoughts. He still felt in shock of everything. And more than that, he was trying to give Belameane and himself hope that they had a chance. Though, he'd gathered some hope for Belameane. Assuming the jerks came back in time before she died of hypothermia, they would find out she was a regular District 2 citizen. As long as she didn't say that she'd been helping a Runaway or something like that....well, she'd probably get away without punishment. He just hated what they'd done to her already...whipping her? What the hell had she done to deserve that? He didn't agree with their attacking him, but there was more reason for them to pester him over her.

At the thought of Belameane, Naoki turned to look at her in her cell. With the poor lighting, it was hard to make her out clearly, but it seemed like she was just lying there, unmoving. He didn't like that one bit. He knew she was prone to passing out randomly, but it was freezing in this place and she'd been pretty manhandled. He was cold, and he still had his jacket.

Naoki sighed. It was obvious he wouldn't be able to fit through the bars of the cell, but he knew the blankets on his new bed could. Maybe he could pass them off to Belameane so she could use them to wrap herself in, to regain some warmth.

Yeah, what the heck? He had nothing better to do, so why not...

Naoki winced at the pain in his body and pressed a hand to the wall to help himself to his feet. Even in the event that some chance for escape arrived, he had no idea how he would manage it. He could barely move. The last taser blow had added an additional 100 years to the 90 he'd already felt like he'd aged....

At the bedside, Naoki bent down to hoist up all the bed sheets on the crappy structure, including the ones making up the mattress. Knowing Belameane, she would need every single one of them. He started scuffling forwards for the door, the blankets in his arms.

And then, as it fell, clattering unnaturally loudly, to the floor, it made itself known.

Naoki froze in the process of trying to press the blankets through the bars.

A......hairpin?

Why was that here? Who would have carelessly left something like that behind? The pick pocket's perfect tool....
Naoki got the impression that some other poor soul must have been in the cell not too long before him, because it was obvious someone had left the tool inside, probably purposely hidden in between the sheets used to make up the mattress and the wooden boards that held the bed in place. The Peacekeepers had been foolish not to check for it, hadn't they?

Naoki quickly dropped the blankets at his feet and picked up the pin. It wouldn't be much longer before the Peacekeepers returned. In fact, they'd mentioned interrogating them, figuring out who to talk to first, back when they'd thrown Belameane and him into their cells. They would probably return at any minute. Naoki knew he had to move fast.

He knelt down so that he was level with the lock in the door and stuck the hair pin in to start fiddling around. Thank goodness he'd be working as a thief for so long. Maybe he didn't break into houses as much as he pick-pocketed people, persay, but he had enough skill doing so to break common locks. This one probably wouldn't be easy, but he was telling himself that there was a first time for everything, and that this was the first time for this.

Naoki could hardly sense any movement inside the lock itself and was beginning to think it wasn't going to work, that maybe the hair pin would snap and get stuck inside, when suddenly....

Click!

It had worked....It had actually worked!

"Belameane!" Naoki swung the door open carefully so that it wouldn't make any creaking noises, then crept forward to Belameane's cell. It was still hard to make her out in the darkness, but it didn't matter. He didn't waste a second. "I'm gonna get you out."

A few moments later, the door was open and Naoki rushed forward to Belameane's side. He didn't give her a second to protest, or even to check if she was okay. In fact, his mind seemed to have started to focus on just one thing: Escape. He wasn't even feeling the pain as strongly as he had been just minutes before.

Naoki realized that taking Belameane out of her cell could mean trouble for her as well--she lived in this District, the Peacekeepers could always go to her home and take her away again, if they wanted. But he knew he couldn't leave her here. He couldn't leave her here to be subjected to whatever other torture they had in mind, or worse, to die. He prayed they didn't get caught, but if they did, he would tell them he'd been the one to take her from her cell. That she had been unwilling, and that he'd only done it because he was worried about her health.

But for now, they needed to move.

Naoki closed Belameane's cell door, then his own. If the Peacekeepers thought they were still in their cells, they would think nothing was wrong, and that would buy them some time.

"Okay..." Naoki took a deep breath. He realized both his arms and legs were shaking. He didn't think he'd ever been this nervous in his life. "We're gonna get out of here, Bela....just hold on."

With the small girl in his arms, he headed in the direction opposite the way the Peacekeepers had entered and left from. It looked like a long line of cells was ahead of them, but Naoki prayed there would be some kind of exit up ahead.

ooc: LOL, this one is gonna read like an acid trip. Anyway, if it means they have to do the interrogation anyway, that's okay--I can play the NPCs still! (And Naoki is definitely not dying, for the record. )

Naoki didn't realize Belameane had been saying anything until some time into running from their cells. The sound of his footsteps and his own ragged-sounding breathing seemed to have blocked out Belameane's barely breathless words. He almost stopped when he finally heard her.

What she said....he understood that immediately. "Do you hear something, 'Now-key'?...

Naoki actually stopped running. Was it possible the Peacekeepers had already come downstairs? Trying to calm his own breathing enough so that he could listen to what was going on around him, he found that he did hear something. For the moment, it sounded sort of far off. Though the strange rhythm it was following seemed to suggest that the sounds were growing in intensity. Was it possible they'd already been discovered?

Naoki broke into a run again. If that was the case, he didn't want to wait to find out. And more than that, it meant they had barely any time. If there was no exit ahead, they were doomed.

Instead of answering Belameane's words directly, Naoki just nodded. He was hesitant to say anything, one, because he didn't want to be overheard by anyone who might possibly be around, two, because he could barely say anything anyway, he was so out of breath, and three, because he didn't trust the sound of his own voice. How could he reassure poor Belameane when he couldn't even reassure himself?

Thinking about everything all over again, Naoki felt the pain in his side return, and he knew it wasn't from running. He was actually used to running--such was the life of a runaway, wasn't it? But he was in pretty bad shape after the fight with the Peacekeepers. He knew he wouldn't be able to put up a much better one if they did catch up with him and Belameane. And in such a location, in a place of Peacekeeper authority, fighting would be useless anyway.

It didn't mean he wouldn't try, though, if he had to.

As Naoki ran, he realized the booming sounds around him and Belameane were intensifying. And drastically so. It was as though with every step he took, the power of the noise grew.

And the scenery around them hadn't changed. Just cells and cells and cells. Naoki hadn't looked in any to see if they were empty or not. He'd just been very aware they were there. But they seemed so pointless.....did the Peacekeepers expect to capture so many people at a time?

After running what seemed a minute or two more, and noticing nothing change, except perhaps the loud booming sounds, Naoki got the feeling there was much more than met the eye to this place. And that was possibly scarier than anything else that could happen. He'd never been in a Peacekeeper's prison, and he never expected that he would. He had no idea about this place.

"Don't know about this..." Naoki hadn't expected the girl's words. It was the first time he'd had ever heard Belameane sounding so worried. That had to be the first sign that whatever was happening around them, it wasn't good. Obviously she was well aware of the growing loudness of the sounds around them too.

Naoki didn't want to stop running, in the event someone was pursuing them, but he caught sight of a large archway ahead, dividing the section of cells that they were currently passing through with another, longer-looking section. The walls on either side of the archway were thick enough that they should be able to hide behind them without a problem.
Naoki dove for cover there, Belameane still in his arms, and tried to settle his breathing as he waited. The loud booming had stopped. What was going on?

Leaning forward, almost hesitantly, Naoki peered around the thick wall of the archway. It was hard to make out anything in the distance, the way they'd come from, but he knew something must have been there. What else would explain the sounds they'd heard?

Damn lighting.......His eyesight wasn't the best either....

Naoki wanted to curse the world. What kind of sick game was this? He'd heard all kinds of things about Peacekeepers....He'd always taken the name for something of a misnomer. For as long as he could remember, Peacekeepers had never meant anything good for him, certainly not "peace". Now more than ever. They were as much his enemies as the D9 assassins, as.....as the Capitol people, the Hunger Games.....the person that had killed Naoki's dad, and consequently, his mother. Was it even legal to have some kind of trap set up in a place like this?

Of course it is, Naoki thought to himself, shifting Belameane in his arms. Of course it's legal.

If it was legal to gather together random kids to kill each other for money, then destroying scum like him was perfectly acceptable.

No....it's probably more like a...good deed. Naoki tried to push those bitter thoughts aside as he moved. He knew he needed to try to keep positive and focus on his goal: getting out of here. If he allowed all these mind games and traps to phase him, then he and Belameane would be stuck here for good. He'd probably be killed, possibly tossed into the Hunger Games challenge, once his age became known, and Belameane would likely be watched and hunted for good too.

But God...there was no way out of this mess, was there? Belameane would always be hunted, especially if she was able to escape. Naoki knew he too would be hunted for this, and considering his lifestyle took him all over the known world, he couldn't assume that it would be safe for him to venture anywhere at all. More than that, he lived in District 1 with his family, just one district away from the one he was currently in. He definitely wasn't safe......for himself or his family. What if the Peacekeepers from D2 asked for some kind of search for him in D1?

Naoki tried to tell himself he was exaggerating, that no one would go through so much trouble for someone or something so "mendoukusai", but he knew it was possible. In this day and age, when all sense of right and wrong had been abandoned for the sake of entertainment, of course anything was possible. He would have to just assume this and lay low, if he escaped. That was all there was to it.

Naoki actually slid down to the floor, Belameane still in his arms. He was exhausted. Belameane wasn't even remotely heavy, and he was normally used to lifting things far heavier...but given his condition, the fact that he hadn't eaten in a while, and that both he and the young girl had already had what seemed to be such a long day....well, he couldn't blame himself for feeling so tired. He wanted to just sit there for a while and get up and move when he knew there was a definite escape route ahead.

But he also knew that he couldn't feel so pitiful, or he was going to end up sitting here, feeling sorry for himself, and basically turning himself and the innocent girl in his arms into Peacekeeper bait.

He didn't want to worry Belameane either, so he slowly got back to his feet, shifting her in his arms again so that she was easier to carry, then checked around the archway once more to make sure the coast was clear.

No one. He didn't see anyone at all.

"Sorry, I just needed a quick break," he told the girl. He sighed, decided there was nothing for it, then began to move again.

But he wouldn't get very far.

He'd carried Belameane just a matter of so many steps before the booming noises returned, louder than ever and even more numerous in number.

If he hadn't been so aware that he was carrying someone, Naoki knew he would have dropped the girl in his arms. Instinctively, his hands wanted to go to his ears, protect them from the horrible noises, but instead, he stopped short while running and dropped down to the ground, wrapping his arms around Belameane in a way as if to protect her.

He let go of her for just a moment to reach down and rip off a part of his jacket to use to stuff his ears from that horrible sound, then he started shuffling forward slowly, still holding onto Belameane. But he didn't get very far. He'd gone only a few more steps before the sound intensified so dramatically that he felt as though his eardrums would burst if he went any farther.

And it was obvious by what happened next that it might actually have been the case.

As if over some kind of invisible loud speaker, a voice suddenly rang out throughout the corridor. It was almost as bruising to the ears as the loud noises a moment before.

"I love it when they run..." The voice was high-pitched and cynical-sounding. Nothing more. Naoki couldn't even recall having heard a voice like that before, so he knew it didn't belong to any of the Peacekeepers he and Belameane had been captured by. "I love watching them, their faces all hopeful that they'll escape, that there's a chance for their pitiful selves. I love it when they think they've been touched by good fortune to find that lock pick, when they use it, when they reveal those skills that only a common, petty thug would have. Should have. I love it when they...fail."

There was a pause. A silence that was made only more uneasy by the sound of Naoki's rapid pulse. He almost felt like the voice, wherever it was coming from and whoever it belonged to, could hear his rabid heartbeats. Belameane too. Like all his inner thoughts were readable to the world.

"There's never been one who tried to free another prisoner, though."

Another pause.

"But that can't change the fact that a running prisoner.....is a guilty prisoner, and a guilty prisoner....is dead."

At that moment, Naoki felt a hand on his shoulder, a hand he knew did not belong to Belameane, who his arms were still wrapped around, and he retaliated. It hadn't even been intentional.

Somehow managing to lower Belameane to the ground at the same time as he moved to attack, Naoki hopped to his feet and swung an arm around, catching the person behind him in the side of the face with the most powerful blow he could manage. Fully spun around, Naoki took a step forward to get the rest of them, like before, there were suddenly two, when--

"AGH!" Naoki cringed. He couldn't move--he just couldn't move. Every time he made any movement at all, the buzzing sound in his head intensified. How was this happening? He could see the outlines of the Peacekeepers clearly in front of him, and they were moving just fine. Was something wrong with him? Was he the only one affected?

But Belameane had heard the noises too.

Naoki spun around on the spot, to see if Belameane felt the same thing. Another shocking blow of sound went to his head, rendering him momentarily blinded. But when he opened his eyes, he saw an empty floor. Up ahead, Belameane was in the arms of yet another figure Naoki recognized as a Peacekeeper, and she was being carried off into the distance.

"No no no!" Naoki started forward to get her back, but the loud noises knocked him to the floor. He pressed his hands over his ears and tried to scuffle forwards across the floor towards her, but it was useless. He'd only gotten a matter of a few steps before he collapsed onto the ground.

How many times was he going to fail like this? How many times in one day could he?

"Let's go." Naoki barely heard the voice's order. His head was still ringing from the other noise pollution, and more than that, his mind was elsewhere. He couldn't quite believe his situation any longer. All he knew was that, as they pulled him away in a direction he didn't know for sure was the same as the one Belameane had been taken to, was that a running prisoner was a guilty prisoner, a guilty prisoner a dead prisoner, and a dead prisoner was him.

He just prayed Belameane wasn't considered the same.

ooc: I'm hopping in as Katsuo so that Naoki and Belameane can eventually be rescued! I hope this is okay! I'll definitely post for Naoki again in a little bit, but I figured to move things along, I'd do this!

Outfit here

3:30 AM. That was far too late, in Katsuo's opinion.

Sometime after 1 AM he'd conked out on the couch for a while (unintentionally, because he had personally made it his job, whether the other boys wanted him to or not, to stay awake until they got home from the mock-whoring business), and when he'd re-awoken to some random nightly noise around 3:30 AM, he'd been pretty shocked.

The makeshift home had been exactly the same as it had when he'd fallen asleep earlier. Typically, even if the guys came home and he'd accidentally passed out, they would wake him up just to let him know they had gotten back all right. And considering that hadn't happened, Katsuo was guessing Naoki had not returned home yet.

He shifted his position on the family's old couch so that he was sitting upright, then ground the heels of his hands into his eyes to massage normal vision back into them. He was groggy as hell, and the blurred vision could attest to that. He'd spent the whole day out in the heart of D1 getting some thieving work done. Though he'd made quite the profit, it had come at the price of a lot of work ducking, running, and hiding. It had definitely been a long day, so he couldn't fault himself for passing out.

But it hadn't been as long as Naoki was taking with his shift of mock-whoring tonight. Katsuo had a gut feeling that something was very very wrong.

In fact, even as he walked to the room Naoki and Ki shared, hoping that he would find the big eighteen-year-old sleeping peacefully in his bed, he knew he wouldn't. There was some kind of heavy feeling in the air, one, he knew, had to be of his own making, considering the others were all asleep and he was the only one awake worrying like this....but he knew the feeling meant something foreboding. And opening the door to the youngest boys' room and peeking his head in, he was unsurprised to find that only half of the bed the two shared was in use. Ki was on his side, sleeping like a baby. But the empty spread of bed beside him made Katsuo's stomach flip.

Closing the door behind him, Katsuo tried to rationalize the situation. Was it possible that he was overreacting? Everyone else in the house was asleep, so obviously they weren't as worried as he was. And Naoki was big for his age...he'd be able to handle himself, right?

But somehow, Katsuo couldn't believe any of that. He returned to the living room area and glanced out the window--it was pretty chilly out, despite the season--then returned his gaze to the clock. It was going to be 4 AM soon, and Naoki wasn't home. He decided he'd better go out and try to find the boy. He wouldn't forgive himself if something had happened and he didn't at least try to resolve things. After all, mock-whoring had been something of his invention, something he'd trained the other guys to do for the sake of making extra, much-needed money. No, he would never forgive himself if Naoki got hurt because of something of his making.

Katsuo went quickly to his own room to pull a sweater over his T-shirt, making a mental note of which location the mock-whoring had been set to happen at this particular night.

District 2, the gay section. A pretty popular section too, if Katsuo wasn't mistaken. He was suddenly wondering why he hadn't though to go with Naoki when he'd first set up this plan. If the place had been busy enough and Naoki had been on his own, it would definitely have been more difficult for him to deal with a group of potential "customers" rather than just one.

Katsuo pondered scrawling out a note to leave for the others, letting them know where he'd gone off to, but then opted to just tell Yuki straight out what he was going to do. It would be faster, and all things considered, if it woke the second oldest male up, maybe Yuki would stay awake to keep in touch in the event Naoki came home while Katsuo was gone. With that thought, Katsuo grabbed a set of walkie-talkies from the living room cupboard on his way to his friend and brother's room, then tossed one onto the other's bed once he was inside.

"Yuki!" Katsuo was almost breathless, he was in such a rush. "If it's not too much trouble, can you take my shift to watch the door for if Naoki returns? He hasn't come back yet, and I'm heading out to make sure he's all right. To our emergency meeting spot. Okay?" He waited to make sure Yuki had gotten the message.