The More I Suffer, I Suffocate (Trevor, Frank, Solkat)

[Erika Conner (Bellefonte)]

Unable to open her eyes, she felt the drunken haze slowly lose its grip over her mind. Her body felt drowsy and she didn't have full control of her movements. It was almost like moving in slow motion while being sucked towards the wall, always smacked against it whenever trying to make a single movement. Lifting her hand to her head, the brunette rubbed her cheeks, pinching them to get some blood flowing back to her head.

The telekinetic finally managed to press her eyes open. Glancing around, she felt the panic rise in her chest and toss her heartbeat into a hyperventilating frenzy. Where the hell was she? The room was dark as her eyes had yet to adjust to the darkness. She fumbled around, her fingers running along the flooring. Rock? It was cool and rough and the substances seemed very similar to that of a basement. Lifting her hand to the wall she felt the same surface covering the walls as well. What the hell had happened?

The last thing she could remember was getting a flat tire while being out, and then she and Trevor had gotten out of the car to change it, and from there things started getting cloudy. ''Urrr... Guys?'' she mumbled, rubbing her temples as she sat up on her knees, trying her best to regain her balance. Her head was spinning, her mind was cloudy and she felt like throwing up.

''...Please tell me this is someone's idiotic idea of a joke,'' she whispered. She had no idea where she was or what had happened. But she had a troublesome feeling keeping her alert and telling her this might not exactly be the best situation to be in.

[Trevor Paige]

It felt like that one time Trevor had hit the bottle way too hard and found himself drunkenly paralyzed on the floor of his dorm room. The room spun and wobbled around him causing a sickening feeling in his guts to threaten the concept of getting reacquainted with the coffee and muffin he'd put down earlier. What the fuck?  Was the first coherent thought his mind was able to make.  With a groan he forced himself into a sitting position, coming to rest his back upon what felt like cold bricks.  For a moment he thought he was going to throw up, but, thankfully, the nausea passed.

The shuffling in the darkness caught his attention.  He hadn't had the chance to check around and see if he was alone.  He hadn't dared speak, not that he felt like spending the energy to do so anyway.  In most cases Trevor would've found hearing Erika's voice in a darkened room curious, if not grating. This time, though, it brought a touch of warmth and familiarity to his heart.  He wasn't alone and at least one of his travelling companions was still with him.

"Erika?"  Trevor croaked out into the darkness.  Even with his eyes having adjusted to the lack of light there was little more than faded shapes that could be made out.  "If it's a joke I'm getting into the hitman business as soon as we get out."  Even if it wasn't a joke, he just might consider delving into such ventures anyway.

[Erika Conner (Bellefonte)]

The relief streamed through her body at the sound of Trevor's voice. Maybe she should have felt bad, because this meant he too was locked inside... Whatever this was, but right there she couldn't help but to feel grateful that she wasn't alone. It was selfish, she knew that, but right now she could care less. Turning her head into the direction of the voice, Erika let a faint yelp escape her lips, ''Do you know if the others are in here too?'' she asked, though she couldn't hear more moving than what seemed to only be one 'body'. Maybe the others had yet to wake up?

Rubbing her face again in an attempt to rid herself of the remaining grogginess, Erika took another glance around the room. Her eyes was slowly adjusting to the darkness, though that didn't offer a whole lot of help. ''Where are we?'' she whispered, placing her palms against the brick wall. Unleashing her power, she used it to feel her way through the darkness. Closing her eyes, she put her entire focus onto it, ''If you feel something touching you, don't scream. It's not a rat,'' she said, and as if someone had shouted the name of the devil, she could feel her power bump into something that felt oddly similar to a crouched up body.

Her ability started tugging at clothes before growing bored and moving on, feeling it's way over the uneven flooring. ''I can't find anything...'' she said, mostly to herself.

[Trevor Paige]

"I don't know." Trevor's voice was still hoarse. His throat was dry and scratched every time he tried to swallow. "I think I've only been awake for a few minutes." But time was one of those things he didn't have a proper handle on at the moment. Maybe the others just hadn't woken up yet. Maybe Frank and Solkat were around too. At least he hoped.

"That's alright." Trevor coughed, wincing sharply at the pain in his throat. "Someone could dump a bucket of spiders on my and I'm not moving." Although he didn't, exactly, like the idea. He remained still as he felt the unnatural tugging of his clothing. "Ow! Watch my hair." He rasped before his heart sank. "Are you sure?" They couldn't be alone here. Where were Frank and Solkat? "Then where are they?"

[Erika Conner (Bellefonte)]

Under normal circumstances Trevor's comment might have made her smile, but this was obviously not normal circumstances. ''Sorry,'' was all the brunette managed to mutter before sighing. She was too tired and exhausted to have her power travel too far away from her and she could already feel it weakening. ''I'm not one hundred percent sure, no. The room is too big for me to cover everything in... My condition,'' she said, pulling her ability back with a solemn expression.

''Hopefully they're still here. Maybe they are still asleep, yeah?'' she offered. She wasn't sure if she was trying to reassure him, or her. What was this place? Why were they here? What had happened? There was so many questions and no answers. Her head was pounding and all she really wanted to do was close her eyes, fall asleep and awake back at her dorm room. It had been easy to keep herself from hyperventilating when she had put her focus on her ability, but now than it had been worn raw and she had used the last amount of energy she had woken up with, she was starting to feel the hopelessness fill her being.

[Trevor Paige]

Sensing the panic residing just beneath Erika's voice caused Trevor to sluggishly push away from the wall. He couldn't see a damn thing and he still felt like hell but he still carefully crawled along the floor. "We've got to find a way out of here." He said, his hands reaching out to grasp at whatever he could find as he slowly moved toward the sound of Erika's voice.

"What we're going to do is trace along the walls." He explained, continuing to reach out into empty space. "If there's a door or window, we'll find it and go from there." He wished he had his phone, but naturally it, along with his wallet, had been removed while he was unconscious. "There you are." He said quietly as he finally felt his fingers wrap around something that may have been an elbow... or a knee... Hell, Trevor didn't have the slightest clue what he had grabbed, nor did he care. All that mattered was that it was Erika.

[Erika Conner (Bellefonte)]

Taking a deep breath, Erika attempted at calming her unsteady heartbeat. He was right. They couldn't sit here and wallow in self-pity. They had to get out, and they'd never get anywhere by simply sitting around. She could hear the boy growing closer by the sound of something being dragged across the floor. Had she not known it was him, she might just have freaked out because of the freaky sound. Flinching a little at the sudden grip around her elbow, Erika held her breath before closing her eyes. ''Okay.''

With that, the girl pushed herself up in a standing position. Her knees threatened to cave in and she could feel every muscle in her body scream and tremble. Whatever she had been drugged with, it had messed up her system and she clearly needed a lot more time to get it on the right track again. But she could worry about that later. ''Watch your step though, I don't think Frank or Solkat would appreciate it if we stepped on them.''

[Trevor Paige]

Trevor sighed audibly when the object his fingers had wrapped around was identified as Erika's elbow. Their closeness was comforting. He was almost convinced her voice was in his head. Feeling her move as she struggled to her feet assured him he wasn't hallucinating. Or alone. Carefully he followed suit, keeping a hold of her arm in the process. It almost felt that if he let her go she'd fade into the darkness as just a figment of his imagination.

"Alright." Trevor nodded at the warning as he slowly started making his way in a random direction. There was no light, he had no idea how far he'd crawled from the wall where he had sat or even really what direction it had been in. One way was as good as another. Cautiously he led Erika forward, being mindful of where his feet were landing. "Do you think you could check to see where the nearest wall is" He didn't want to over exert Erika's power in her weakened state, but something would be better than wandering around in the dark.

[Erika Conner (Bellefonte)]

There was indeed something overly comforting by something as simple as Trevor holding onto her arm, and she found herself clutching her fingers around the fabric of what she assumed was his jacket, or shirt. The details didn't really matter, because it gave her something real to hold onto. Something real to focus on and something real to keep her from freaking out. She was confused, she was scared and she was feeling the panic tug at the back of her mind.

Following willingly, Erika let Trevor guide her in the direction he had decided. Keeping her lips pressed together and her teeth clenched, she simply nodded at his request. Closing her eyes again she guided her power towards the floor and let it feel its way once more across the floor. It was almost like feeling the environment through someone else's touch. That was the best way she could describe the usage of her ability. Instead of watching life through someone else's eyes, she felt it through the hands of her ability.

''Two-three feet,'' she said as she opened her eyes when her ability finally reached the end of the room, ''Straight forward.''

[Trevor Paige]

"Okay, good." Trevor nodded a little, reaching out with a hand as they drew closer to the wall. "When we get to the wall we should split up." As much as he hated the idea. "We'll cover more ground that way." Pressing a hand against the cold bricks in front of them, Trevor looked around, trying in vain to make anything out in the darkness.

Trevor paused though to get his bearings and also because of his reluctance to release his hold on Erika. There was plenty of hesitation and uncertainty in the boy's voice as he spoke. "How're you holding up?" They hadn't traveled far by any stretch of the imagination but the residual effects from the drugs used to knock them out coupled with the slow, tedious progress that had to be made by carefully making their way through the darkness Trevor was already beginning to feel fatigued.

[Erika Conner (Bellefonte)]

Grimacing at his request, Erika reluctantly nodded, then realized he probably couldn't even see it. ''All right,'' she said hesitantly as she reached her hand forward and let a small sigh of relief escape her cracked lips as she felt the cool surface of the brick wall form under the palm of her hand. Leaning against it, she took a second to give her heart a chance to catch up.

''I'm doing better,'' she said, attempting a smile. Again, she realized he wouldn't be able to see it in the dark, ''My head's pounding and I don't think I've ever felt this exhausted, but...'' she trailed off, letting her voice die down before sighing, ''And you? You're not close to dying or anything, right?'' That would be bad. Not only because she had to share a room with a corpse, but also because she might have been a tiny bit afraid of the dark and being alone didn't exactly tempt her.

''So uh, still wanna split up?''

[Trevor Paige]

"I'm alright." Trevor said. The words were hardly true, he felt much the same as Erika, like he'd just been hit by a Mack truck, but he wasn't going to be dying any soon. "I'm going to be alive for a while, at least." He said, chuckling lightly. He had no clue what was in store for them. He couldn't imagine they were in some sort of secret lab, after all, what the hell would they want with two kids that exhibited perfectly normal... everything. Only Frank and Solkat would be easily identified as non-human. Solkat for her physical mutations and Frank because of her being Frank.

Trevor's resolve cracked when presented with the question of his own suggestion. "No." He admitted. "Alright, let's stick together." It didn't take much to get him to change his mind. And with that Trevor carefully started shuffling alongside the wall, being careful not step on or trip anything all the while reaching out for anything against the wall that would signify a door, window, or, heaven help them, a light switch.

[Erika Conner (Bellefonte)]

''Yeah, if you die I'm gonna bring you back to life just to kick your ass.'' She really, really did not want to be alone right now, and if Trevor Paige was the comfort karma had chosen to offer her, well she'd suck it up and accept it. She still wished she could at least have a clue as to why they were here, and she was half expecting the lights to turn on by themselves and then hear a cracked voice over the radio saying 'Let's play a game...'

Relived, Erika tightened her grasp around the younger boy's jacket, ''Okay, good. Because I'm terrified of the dark,'' she admitted, a trembling chuckle falling from her lips, ''And you know, the screamers are always the first to die in horror movies. I really don't want to be the first to go. And if horror movies have told us anything, splitting up is a bad idea.'' A very bad idea. She followed suit, keeping herself as close to the boy as she possibly could without merging with him.

''So... Any ideas as to how we ended up here?''

[Trevor Paige]

"Hey, it's okay." Trevor said soothingly, reaching out to touch the hand she had clenched around his jacket sleeve. "I'm not dying anytime soon. We're gonna be alright." It wasn't just that Erika had admitted to being afraid of the dark that made Trevor attempt to keep her calm. If someone should happen to walk in on them trying to... do whatever it is hey hoped to accomplish, Erika would be their best bet in fending them off. In order to do that effectively she needed to be as clear headed as possible.

"Yeah, and remember the pretty, bitch girl always dies second." Trevor would chuckle though. No idea what the hell he was doing trying to insert humor into the situation but it kept his mind of the other terrible directions it tended to drift toward. "I don't have the slightest clue how we got here." He confessed, turning a bit and pulling his hand away from Erika's as he started inching his way along the wall. "I just remember getting into your trunk for the spare tire. It felt like something bit me, but I'm pretty sure it was a dart or something." Carefully he dared to pull a hand from the wall to touch the small wound in his neck. "You?"

[Erika Conner (Bellefonte)]

Taking a deep breath, the girl nodded again, this time she didn't really care if he couldn't see it. It was more a gesture towards herself than him. They were fine, the drugs were wearing off and they were alive. Just because they didn't know anything else, didn't mean they were going to die, or get raped or... Well, yeah. Everything was going to work out somehow. Yes. Calm. Deep breaths. Exactly.

''Well, at least that means someone has to die before me,'' she mused silently, assuming the comment was directed towards her since she did indeed have tendency at being bitchy. It was like her middle name or something. Erika stopped at his words. A dart? The memories seemed to clear up a little and she could faintly remember the sensation of something, or someone covering her mouth with a cloth. It was already obvious that someone else had done this, but exactly who could those other people be? ''I remember someone pulling a cloth over my mouth. After that thing got pretty hazy,'' she said, scrunching her eyebrows.

''Trevor...'' she began, the seriousness of the situation starting to dawn upon her. ''Who in their right mind would kidnap four high schoolers? Four...mutants.''