Chapter Text
Mitchell had lost count of the number of times he’d longed for just this sight – his friends, standing here in front of him, ready to rescue him from the endless hell his existence had become. In all his desperate, feverish fantasies of salvation, however, there was one thing he hadn’t expected to feel, an emotion that overwhelmed him at the raw shock and horror on their faces.
Shame.
“Mitchell?” Annie’s voice trembled as if she might be on the verge of tears, as she slowly crouched down beside him, reaching out a shaky, uncertain hand.
Mitchell cringed away from them, feeling sick. He hated what he’d been reduced to, and he hated that George and Annie had to see it. He wrapped his arms around his bruised, bleeding torso, shaking his head slowly in denial. Somehow, for his friends to be here at all, in his dark, cold prison, made it all so much more real.
“It’s all right, Mitchell,” George assured him in a hushed, shaky voice, resting a gentle hand on his arm. “It’s all right. We’re going to get you out of here, all right? We’re going to take you home.”
Mitchell didn’t respond, just kept his eyes closed, his face turned away, as George tried the chains that bound his wrists. He flinched at the pain to the abraded, sensitive skin that had been rubbed raw by the heavy iron shackles, but he neither resisted nor aided his friends’ efforts to free him.
“It needs a key,” George observed with dismay. “How are we going to get him out?”
“I don’t know.” Annie leaned in closer to inspect the chains, looking up into Mitchell’s blank, shell-shocked face before running a hand through his hair, her eyes damp with sorrowful compassion. “But we need to hurry. He needs to be out of here, now.”
“We all do,” George pointed out, his tone darkening as he glanced toward the door. “I can’t imagine it’ll be long before the others come after us.”
“Right.” Annie’s eyes widened with alarm at that realization, and she stood up straight, squaring her shoulders as she took a deep – if completely unnecessary – breath. “Okay then. Let me try something, all right?”
“Try what?”
George frowned, glancing up at her before returning his attentions to the chains, looking for a weak spot where perhaps they could be broken. A couple of moments later, however, they simply fell away in his hands, the lock opening seemingly of its own accord. George stared down at them in bewilderment.
“I didn’t… how did I…?”
“You didn’t.” Annie rolled her eyes impatiently as she crouched beside him and helped to take the shackles from Mitchell’s wrists.
George blinked at her in confusion for a moment before understanding slowly dawned on him. “Oh. Right. You…”
“Yeah.”
George sounded a little awed as he stared at her with wide eyes. “I didn’t know you could…”
“Yeah. We haven’t time. Hurry.” Annie was already focused on Mitchell, unwilling to waste time discussing her ever-developing powers while they were all still in danger. “Come on, Mitchell. We need to get out of here.”
George put his shoulder under Mitchell’s arm and struggled to lift him to his feet. The vampire’s legs were weak from disuse, and he could barely support any of his own weight; even so, the task was far easier than it should have been, as Mitchell was disturbingly light. Annie hovered anxiously around him, wishing she could do more to help. She rushed ahead to the door, peering out to see if anyone was coming yet.
As soon as she opened the door, the sound of distant, echoing footsteps filled the room.
“Quick, they’re coming!” she hissed, beckoning George and Mitchell forward as she slipped out into the hallway. From the hall, it was clear that the footsteps were coming from the direction of the way they had come. “We need to find another way out!”
As they hurried down the corridor, Annie rushed ahead and tried every door they reached, looking for one that would open and allow them to exit the building. She tried not to think about the very real possibility that there was no other exit, and they were just running deeper and deeper into the building and leaving themselves further than ever from freedom.
The footsteps drew nearer as they rounded corner after corner, until finally she glanced over her shoulder just as they rounded a corner, to see several vampires turning into the hall they’d just left. She stopped, allowing Mitchell and George to get past her before focusing all her energy and releasing a powerful gust of wind that made their pursuers struggle just to keep their footing, let alone keep up with the escaping prisoner and his friends.
Annie rushed to catch up with George and Mitchell, passing them and trying another door at the end of the hall. Relief surged through her as she opened the door, and bright sunlight flooded in. Fortunately for Mitchell, unlike in the legends, sunlight was not fatal for vampires – but given their current take-over mission, it was enough of a deterrent to keep their pursuers at the door, unwilling to make a scene by chasing the three of them out into the busy street.
Herrick had advised them all to subtlety in public - for the moment.
As it was, the vampire, the ghost, and the werewolf got quite a few odd looks from passersby as they hurried on their way toward their flat – but none of that mattered. All that mattered was that they get Mitchell to safety and assess the damage.
As they finally stumbled through the front door, Annie locked it behind them with trembling hands. George helped Mitchell to lie down on the sofa, gently running a soothing hand through his damp, disheveled hair. The trip home had taken a lot out of the weary, broken vampire, and he didn’t seem to know where he was at all. He drifted in and out of awareness, struggling weakly and fitfully against the gentle hands that helped to steady him.
“It’s all right now,” George assured him, though he wasn’t sure if Mitchell was even hearing him at this point. His eyes brimmed with tears as he whispered, trying to convince himself as much as Mitchell. “Everything’s going to be all right.”