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“So…I trust-“
“I will be here.”
“-next time I come back here, you will stay down here.”
A moment of silence ticked between them as Sherbert stared down from behind the dark glass, gaze angered and mistrusting, but Centross stares back unafraid, almost challenging but he never means harm through it. Sherbert is another friend he lost after all.
“Probably.” Centross responds. “And maybe one day you won’t need it.”
Because really, he’s not here to be trusted. Sherbert doesn’t need to trust him, he’d be a fool to expect as such. This prison, no matter how enclosed and uncomfortable, is probably the best between it and a blade to the chest.
Sherbert looks away for a moment before looking back down at Centross’s helpless form, not amused. They scoff. “Goodbye, David.”
Oh, Centross hates when he’s called that but really, he couldn’t care at the moment. Sherbert’s words could only do so much as compared to the words he said the reset before, he spat worse down at them. All he could do was stare up at the one he turned a blind eye to in pained acceptance.
Sherbert turns to head out-
“Bye Sherb,” Centross’s voice sounds so far away. Almost distant despite there only being a floor of glass between them.
Yet, Sherbert doesn’t look back down at him. Their eyes stare into the haunted ones of a friend lost to a desperate, blood-stained hand. Haley, standing at the end of the short hall, before the ladders out of this prison of pure wool. And she’s only there for a second, a split second, eyes staring directly at Sherbert, and unmoving.
Sherbert’s eyes go wide as they freeze where they stand, fear coursing through their veins and a distant memory of an arrow firing-
They take a step back, shaking, as Haley disappears as quick as she came. Now they stand unmoving as the ghost they just saw.
Centross frowns as he watches Sherbert stand and stare…and seemingly scared? “Uhh, hello?”
“Um…” Sherbert manages, still staring at the place Haley stood on. Their body shakes and their legs feel so heavy- did their chest always feel so tight? Was it their chest plate?
“What?” Centross questions, trying to look in the same direction as Sherbert, but with his situation, he barely spares the glance and just looks back up at the frozen Sherbert, confused and slightly worried now.
A heavy breath escapes Sherbert but their chest still feels tight, constricted. They can’t feel their hands-
“You good, homie?” Centross asks again, worry increasing at Sherbert’s pale face.
Sherbert’s vision blurs as they look down at Centross, for a second snapping out of it- until they see the same eyes that mocked their imprisonment, the same eyes that didn’t look their way before Haley’s life was taken, the same damn eyes that watched it all happen and did nothing.
And all Sherbert can see is the arrow pointing down- the prison of unseen barriers, the pleads, the book, the will-
They need to get away from here.
“Goodbye.” They try to walk away. Ignoring Contross’s questioning gaze. But as they try to step up the small step- the singular damn step of purpur stairs, Sherbert losses their footing, a weak sound escaping them as they fall to the ground, hands desperately stopping their face from hitting it, clutching at the wool strands tangling in their fingers.
“Wh- Sherb?” Centross calls out, Sherbert escaping his vision when they fell.
Sherbert tries to breathe, their lungs feel empty, void of any air, hands weakly grasping at anything- all they find is the strands of wool and the hard rock of purpur.
Their vision blurs. Raising a shaking hand, Sherbert drags their hand on their chest plate, desperately trying to open it- get it off- get it off, they can’t breathe-
“Sherb!” Centross’s voice echoes, Sherbert almost thinks they’re imagining that too. They almost wish they did- they want out.
They gasp, eyes wide in panic as they look around them, in search of an escape. Black walls, just black walls and purple- End- enclosed- the ladder leading-
“Please break this block!”
“Sherb!”
“Please! Please! I- I’ve- I- you guys didn’t know I was down here and I thought I was gonna have to stay down here and-“
“Sherb- damn it-“
“Please, just open the door…! Please!”
Sherbert sobs, hand unable to take off their chest plate, chest feeling so tight, they can’t breathe- their throat burns and tears fill their eyes.
They sit up, hands desperately reaching for their helmet- it’s not a helmet, it’s that damn block over their head, the one he never broke-
“But once a failure, always a failure.”
“Sherb- hey!”
They feel hands on theirs, rough, scarred…gentle. They sob and try to pull away, not realizing they shut their eyes at all.
“N-no, N-n-mmm-“
“Sherbert-“ Hands help them take off their helmet, they hear it thunk against the wool floors, quietly.
They try to open their eyes, vision blurry- they can’t tell if it’s from the lack of air or their tears- God, they can’t breathe, please-
The walls weren’t this close before- why is the room so small? Why are they down there-
Unknowingly, their hands try and grasp at their chest, but the chest plate stops them from trying to regain any sense of- damn it anything! Anything- they need to breathe, please-
The chest plate comes undone, hands dragging slightly down their arms, gently and quickly removing the offending piece of armour.
“Hey, hey Sherb-“
Their chest feels less tight, freed, helped…not alone. Sherbert sobs, gasping and trying to compose their breathing, trying to make sense of what’s happening.
“…Sherb…”
They pull away harshly at the first graze against their shoulder, terrified. Pushing themself back to the nearest wall, far from the hand coming to-
He never helped them out- he held the pick axe, he never broke the block, he flicked the lever, he didn’t raise a hand to help-
Sherbert shuts their eyes, desperately trying to escape- mind or body. They want out-
Tears descend down their face as they struggle to take in air-
“Charles will be worried.”
Breath halting for a moment, Sherbert’s eyes open, blurry vision staring in offense at the figure sitting before them. “What…?” They breathe out- though their breath hitches again.
“Charles? Evil chicken, the menace. He’ll start clucking in worry- you don’t want him to see you like this- arch enemy and all, right?”
Body trembling, vision slowly clearing, Sherbert looks at Centross, confused and scared- but they try not to show it.
Centross sighs and throws the block of wool that blocked the imprisoned embrace he was in to Sherbert. “You really want Charles to see this? He’ll be even more annoying.”
“W-…what are you-“ Sherbert’s mind is a fog. They want Centross away, back in the cell, locked in obsidian –not wool- and far from them. They’ll deny they want Centross to keep talking, their chest feeling less tight.
All they get is a sympathetic expression.
“What happened Sherb?”
“W-you…n-no, you-“ Their chest feels tight again- no, no-
“You saw something.” It’s said as a fact- but he doesn’t know- he could never! He did this- he doomed it-
“N-no! You- you-y…” Sherbert struggles. “Haley isn’t-…”
Recognition comes to Centross’s face and he looks down, not meeting Sherbert’s eyes, hand rubbing the back of his neck. A quiet sigh of defeat escapes him.
And it’s so annoying. Sherbert doesn’t want him to look like that- he doesn’t deserve to mourn this- to mourn her.
“Don’t- No. You don’t…Haley could have- Y-you, you!”
“Sherb-…”
“No! No- no, no! Haley-“ Sherbert gasps, trying to breathe in and out. They curl up, knees brought up to their chest, hands pressed to their eyes.
For a moment- it’s just the loud heart beat- when did it get so loud? For a moment, it was just static and their loud attempts at breathing properly- why can’t they hear him anymore- he could- no, no- Sherbert’s alone. It’s too quiet, everyone’s gone- they weren’t good, they were too much of a-
A hand gently, hesitantly, is placed on their shoulder for a moment- just a moment, before an arm wraps around their shoulder, another arm wrapping around their front side- encasing Sherbert carefully. An embrace of scarred arms- no obsidian walls.
They’re hesitantly, slowly, pulled to a chest, a heartbeat. Louder than their own, kind of fast- it’s worried-
Sherbert breathes in and out, matching each inhale and exhale to the heartbeats, even if they’re slightly fast- it’s a pace, a pattern- something familiar, nothing new, nothing dangerous.
Slowly- minutes, maybe hours- Sherbert opens their eyes, breathing more composed. Their vision is full of black…not obsidian, not the wool that it changed into. Arms of jagged purple scars…
This isn’t…They’re not supposed to…
“You can lock me up again later. Just…shut up and breathe, you loser. You need to breathe more insults at me later.”
“Your sentences don’t make sense.” Sherbert somehow manages to say.
“Aaa- I don’t care. Shut- you need to breathe.”
Sherbert will deny ever shedding a tear, it didn’t matter that Centross said screw the prison, I’m breaking this wool block and going to comfort my captor- it didn’t matter that he did help…albeit he used Charles- Sherb wants to punch him for that.
They’ll deny it. They’ll deny they ever felt like a part of them was glad Centross didn’t leave them again…
But as Haley’s haunted eyes plague their mind, Sherbert is plagued with the dangers they imagine Centross could cause…and yet they’re held in gentle arms, away from the dangers they were always so worried about.